Where in the House?

Many of my homeschool friends have a "school room."  Now I do, too.
When we first moved into this house, I was excited that we had this extra living room/den that I could turn into a school room.  It ended up being more of a play and storage room.  Hmm.
So, back around Mother's Day, I decided to work on changing that.  I realized over the course of the past 6 months, that E and I did most of our lessons in the living room, on or around the couch.  I thought if we could have a couch in the school room, we might spend more time in there.  Plus, there'd be fewer books and materials floating around my living room.  Right?
So, off to the mattress store for a futon mattress to fit the frame that has been sitting in our garage for the past 2 & 1/2 years.  
(Well, first, C spent days and days trying to put it back together.  One of the cons of moving is having to put things back together and not being able to find directions.) 
Then move some book and storage shelves around, hang up a few posters here and there, and voila!  Just in time for summer. 

The view from the opening to the room.  The room has no door, and this room is right next to the front door!

The shelf in the middle is filled with games, puzzles, paper, paper, art supplies, and more paper.  After sorting and trashing, I ended up with a whole drawer full of partially used notebooks and sketch pads, and yet another drawer of clean (because I tore out the 4 used pages) or unused ones.  The shelf on the right is full of kid books. 

On the left is a shelf of actual school books mostly.  There is a bin for the dry erase boards and crayons which we use a lot for math, a basket of reading materials for the current year, and one of teacher's guides.  That space under the clock on the left - I'd like to hang a bulletin board for show-off stuff. 

That's it.  I'm excited about our new room and hope it will help us stay focused this year. 

Summer Numbers

It's the first day of Summer here in the Northern Hemisphere (first of Winter in the Southern).  
Here are some numbers of summer. 
1.  June 20th or 21st marks the first day of summer every year.
2.  There are 93 days of summer until the first day of Autumn on September 22nd. 
3.  Phineas and Ferb somehow get 104 days of summer vacation.  They must not get a spring break, winter break, or any holidays in their school district.  

4.  Today, Anchorage, Alaska will have over 19 hours of daylight!  Montgomery, Alabama will have about 14. 
5.  Our dog turns 3 tomorrow, my son is 8, and my daughter is 10.
6.  There are 187 days until Christmas! (Click for the Christmas Countdown Page).
7.  Sunscreens have up to an SPF (Sun Protection Factor) of 70, though most dermatologists say you only need an SPF of 30 to prevent sun damage.  Wear sunscreen, people!

8.  Montgomery, Alabama has an average of 78 days a year above 90 degrees.  Big deal?  With about 80 percent humidity, you feel like you're melting.  
9.  The U.S. won 110 medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics, though China won more Gold medals (51 to our 36).  This year the London Olympics are from July 27 - August 12. 
10.  The American Pyrotechnics Association (APA) estimates that more than 14,000 fireworks displays light up U.S. skies each 4th of July. (nationalgeographic.com)

Summer Math (Yes, I did)

This summer the kids are trying this math program from Simply Charlotte Mason.  Each one will "run" his own store.  E has a pet store and Z has a sports store.  
This first week they are setting up their businesses.  Then each week after that they will track one month of sales which are provided in the workbook.  They will pay bills for their store and learn to write checks.  We will do this for 14 weeks which will take us a little past our summer.  It has only been a couple of days, but I can tell the kids are going to enjoy this math program.  
I thought it would be fun to have them write about their progress once in a while.  Today it was E's turn.  Enjoy! 

Today I started setting up my pet store. I had to pick how much of each item I wanted to have in my pet store.  Then I had to add up the prices by multiplying.
I have to spend a week starting my pet store. Every month I have to stock up on items.

This is my inventory list.  At the top I ordered 5 dogs and 5 cats for $50 each. 

So far my mom has told me that when we are done setting it up we will get word problems like asking to buy two puppies and a mouse, and I will have to multiply to figure out how much it will cost. 
Math is not my favorite subject or my best, but I  did not do bad today, probably because it was fun.  Not saying that regular math is  not fun, but I think I got better at multiplication by doing the problems over again because some of the prices are the same and so is my quantity.  It was fun, and I am looking forward to tomorrow!

This is my store logo.  Happy Pets.  Happy stands for Hugs And Pugs Pets Yay! 

Elizabeth

A Hole (or two) in the Head?

McKenna, Felicity, and Farm (who is not AG, but E's first big girl doll)

 American Girls.  As much as I wanted to resist them (for a variety of reasons), they sure do light up my daughter.
I believe she has three of them now:  Felicity and her best friend Elizabeth, and McKenna.  
Elizabeth , the fancy English loyalist that she is (the doll not the daughter), has pierced ears.  E thought it only fair that Felicity have hers pierced, too, but she doesn't come with pierced ears.  However, American Girl stores will pierce her ears for us for $18.  I've given that company enough money for the doll already, so I searched for self-help ideas.  
Oh yes.  I found plenty of support out there on the internet for piercing your own doll's ears.  They ranged from sticking a tack in her ear to drilling the hole.  Drilling a hole! 
I opted for heating a sewing needle and trying to burn the hole in her ear.  Let me tell you two things.  One, those dolls are solid!  The bent needle will testify.  Two, those AG earrings are BIG.  Ain't no sewing needle going to do this trick.  
So I got a standard nail, set some fire to it, and proceeded to burn that hole.  Oh yeah!  

My tools: needle nose pliers, a nail, and matches. 

I'm glad I stuck with it.  I was having second thoughts about that $18 for a while.  

Voila! 

  

A "Real" Last Day of School

May 31, 2012 

marked the end of our one year trial of "real" school for Zachary, who thought he was missing something by not going to a school.  
After a school year of joys and STRUGGLES, I still wasn't surprised that on the way to school he said he wanted to go back again next year.  What?!  
In the emotion of saying good-byes, he forgot the mornings when he'd cry and yell that he hated school and wanted to be home-schooled again.  The kid missed 17 days of school in just one semester!  And we were late 30 days.  We are not good morning folks.
So, I asked Z what he learned he was missing when he didn't go to school that he found at school.  His answers were friends at school and getting up early which he did NOT like.  
He did enjoy what they called Farm Class about once a week, though he was reluctant to admit it.  However, we may have the opportunity to have a home-school farm class at the same farm with the same farmer in the coming school year.  Maybe that will fill part of his need to be in school.  
I am happy to have the chance to teach my boy again.  I'll admit, he doesn't always make it easy.  That just means that I have some learning to do, too!  
Welcome  home, Zachary.