More pictures from our hike!!

The Hike of February 28, 2008-What was I thinking?

My mom proposed taking the kids on a hike together. She said it wasn't long, up a hill, we'd easily be able to take turns carrying Olivia, and we would get to see real petroglyphs (sp?) on the rocks at the end. I was game--I should have also remembered I am 6 months pregnant. Fortunately, a couple things made the hike turn out better than it could have. First, my dad came too, and he and my mom were able to carry Olivia or help her walk when she became determined to do so. Had we been relying on me to help with this we may not have made it to the end. Second, I thought to bring snacks and water in a lightweight bag, which I carried, and since the hike went into dinner time this saved Austin and Nyah.

So we arrive, park, troop out of the car, and begin. It's a little rocky and uphill at first, but overall easy walking. At one point my mom realizes she's killing us with her pace so we slow things down. We go up one hill and then the paths levels off. Then walking starts to get more challenging, a little more rocky and a little more uphill, and then we hit the second hill.

Yep, it was kind of scary and daunting, but my mom assured us the rocks with the neat pictures are at the top, so one step at a time I trudge up and make it. Only to hear my mom say "Oh crap," which means she's wrong.

Sure enough, down the path a distance there a third, bigger hill in front of us. Did I mention I'm six months pregnant? So, despite the contracting and cramping of all my uterus muscles, I think "Okay lets just keep moving" for three reason, (1) if I stop its likely I won't get moving again, (2) the sun is headed behind a mountain and we want to get back to the car before dark, and (3) the contracting and cramping can pretty much happen when I'm being completely lazy too, so I know I'm not in danger of having the baby.

Here we pass a neat point--a place where colleges come for archaeological digs, complete with "don't touch anything, etc." signs and orange construction fencing to keep people away. I don't stop to look, because, as mentioned, its best if I don't stop. So after much trudging, Olivia swapping, handing out apples and crackers and water and encouragement for the kids to keep moving, we make to the top of our second hill, complete with another "don't touch anything, etc." sign. After some false attempts at the right trail through the giant boulders and drop-offs we find the petroglyphs (sp?). And they are fabulous and amazing and worth the hike. Austin and Nyah are amazed and trying to identify what the pictures can be--aside from a couple people, snakes, and livestock pictures, there are lots of swirls and shapes that we don't know what they could be. We get some pictures and then head down.

Going down should be faster, but I think it actually took longer. Austin wanted me to take pictures of this and that--mountain views, cactus, fungi growing on boulders, etc. Nyah pouted and fussed that she was tired and wanted someone to carry her (me too!!) and her shoes were hurting, which is when I remembered she had a blister and we forgot to put a band-aid on it--oops. But still not enough to persuade anyone to carry her (or me, though my dad carried my bag for me). All snacks and much water had been consumed, and the sun had disappeared and we were in shade. Thankfully it wasn't cold because we didn't bring jackets (I know its February, but I'm a mom and am allowed to be forgetful). And by this time Olivia was adamantly insisting she be allowed to walk--no more riding!! So we baby-stepped down the mountain. Yep I said it--no "hills" or "three hills" but one mountain. I climbed a mountain.

And I'm glad I did!!

More about curriculum

Another thing we do daily is reading poetry, usually at lunch time. We've read through Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" and are reading A.A. Milne's "When We Were Young" right now. We only read one or two poems each day. The last thing that we do each day is what we call our "projects." The kids each pick a subject that they want to learn more about and we find out all we can about it. After a few weeks, or even a couple months depending on the kids' interest, they do a presentation of what they have learned. This can be an oral report to the family, a poster, writing a book, etc. They decide how they want to do it. Our last projects, Austin wrote about Ninjas and Nyah wrote about Pirates. Right now Austin is learning about Samurai and Nyah picked Dragons. These projects are a challenge for my patience, as I gather all the resources and am the primary reader, but it helps them see how to pick and plan a project. As they get older my involvement will be nonexistent (Ideally right?).

We also do a number of subjects on a weekly basis, spending only one or two days per week on them.
History:
Church history-- Doctrine and Covenant Stories published by the LDS church
American history--A First Book in American History by Edward Eggleston (Which I won't continue using next year) and biographies. We read Pocahontas and the Strangers and John Billington-Friend of Squanto, both by Clyde Robert Bulla, which haven't been my favorite biographies. Next year we will be taking a completely different approach to history.
Historical Stories--Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
Literature: Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit, Parables from Nature by Margarat Gatty, Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, and Aesop's Fables. We also almost always have a book on CD we are listening to in the car, we read tons of picture books, and occasionally we read a chapter book together depending on what else we are covering. I also try to have at least one day a week for creative writing, where the kids will dictate while I type on the computer.
Geography: We have been reading a chapter of Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling and maping to route taken by Paddle on blank maps of the Great Lakes area. The kids have really enjoyed this and we will continue this next year with a couple more of Holling's books.
Natural History/Science: We alternate reading from James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot, The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess, and library books about an assigned subject for each term, which is currently Birds (Mammals last term, Wildflowers next). We've read a number of Thornton Burgess books in the past, such as Old Mother Wind, so Austin and Nyah are familiar with the animal characters that are throughout all his books.
Note: Ambleside Online divides the school year into three terms and some subjects are assigned for the length of a term. These are Nature Study, Artist Study, and Composer Study.
Artist: Last term we studied Da Vinci, this term is Rembrandt, and next term will be Jan Van Eyck and Grunwalde. We spend a little bit of time learning the history of these artists, but mostly focus on recognizing their work.
Composer: Last term we listened to Russian Nationalists (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussourgsky, Borodin), this term we are listening to Handel, and next term will be Camille Saint-Saens and Hector Berlioz. Again, we learn a little about the composers, but mostly focus on listening to their work.

So this is the schoolwork we try like to complete each week, but as with most things we have to adjust for everyday life happenings, temperments, and interest (the kids and mine), so some weeks are definitely more productive than others. We don't take "official" holidays, spring breaks, or summer vacation, but school throughout the year, taking days off as we need them for doctor visits, grocery shopping, or traveling. This flexibility is one of my favorite things. As mentioned, we've been staying with my parents for almost five weeks (who's counting? ME!) to oversee our house for sale and we've been able to continue our schoolwork. Thankfully we are headed home this weekend--YEAH!

Curriculum

Hello again! Olivia's down for a nap and the kids are watching a cartoon so I have a few minutes. For our homeschool curriculum we use a wide variety of resources. I am very interested in the Charlotte Mason approach--Charlotte Mason was an English Christian educator from the 19th century. We somewhat follow the free curriculum of Ambleside Online at http://www.amblesideonline.org/ , but there are also several areas where we do different things than suggested. I teach Austin and Nyah the same things (Ambleside's Year 1), and even though they are at different places in their learning what we do is flexible enough that they are both learning.
Subjects recommended daily are:
Penmanship/Copywork: I don't use a penmanship program, as I figure that when they are willing to write, they can do it how it feels most comfortable for now. Writing seems to still be a physical struggle for both of them so I keep it light--if we are writing for phonics or math I won't do writing in other areas. Nyah almost always starts letters and numbers at the bottom or where most of us probably end ours--its just how her brain works. I haven't started copywork as suggested by Ambleside for this reason as well.
Phonics: We aren't using a specific phonics program. We stared Englemann's 100 Easy Lessons, but found it to be too stressful for all concerned. Austin had far more success with a Reader Rabbit computer game and can now read--He's still pretty intimidated by reading books no matter how easy, and Nyah isn't quite ready yet. I don't feel there's a need to be in a hurry. We are currently using Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families for our phonics and word building.
Math: This year I didn't use one of the complete math programs Ambleside suggests, but used a lot of different things--library books (http://www.livingmath.net/ and Math Through Children's Literature), workbooks (simple ones from Wal-Mart or Barnes & Noble), and created my own word problems, activities, etc., to supplement when they needed extra practice in an area (like subtraction). I think for this next year we may use Math-U-See, as I wonder if a program might give us more structure and consistency, but I'll look over a friend's before I decide.
Foreign Language: We are currently not doing this. I started using sign language at the beginning of the year as this is something I've had a little previous experience with, but it ultimately just died off. I've talked with Kurt about him teaching the kids portuguese, as that is the language he knows, and though he's done a few lessons with them, it isn't close to daily or even regularly. Sometimes Papa will speak French with them, but again not a regular happening. Something for us to aspire to I suppose :)
That's enough school talk for today. Austin and Nyah are doing well, as Olivia is going to be running circles around us any day now. Love you all!

Homeschooling

We'll see how much info I get in before duty calls! We first started planning on homeschooling when Austin was 3 and Nyah was 2. There are lots of reasons why--political, social, etc., but mostly I enjoy their company and being with them. I'm not a slave to them throughout the day (they are independently involved in play and other activities most of the day), and after realizing I could do preschool learning with them at home I also realized we could continue to do the other grade levels as well. So I began researching the many options and tons of information available about homeschooling and feel we have made a decision that is the best for us at this time. We are constantly evaluating how things are going and what the future holds for us.

I don't feel like my kids are super geniuses or that what we are learning surpasses what kids in public school are learning. We do have a different way of learning from public schools and spend our time focusing on subjects that are different from many first grade and kindergarten classes. My kids may know more about pirates and ninjas than other kid their age, but these are subjects we have spent more time learning about. On the other hand we don't spend time drilling on the days of the week or months of the year or math facts, so my kids may know less about these areas than public school kids their ages.

I plan on giving more info on what our "curriculum" includes and what resources we use, but Olivia's awake from her nap and her typing just doesn't make as much sense as mine!

Happy Anniversary!

Sooo, I forgot that today is our 8 year anniversary. Happy Anniversary Kurt! The kids and I have been at my parents' house for a few weeks overseeing our house that is for sale and Kurt joined us for the weekend. We were able to get away for a couple days while Austin and Nyah stayed with my parents. Olivia tagged along with us. But Kurt is headed back up north today, and the kids and I will be here for a couple more weeks. So we stopped by the Temple while we were in town. It was fun to walk around with the kids and see where we were married again. Happy Anniversary again Kurt! We'll miss you!

Introduction to Blog

Family and Friends,

Why start a blog? Well, I spend most of my time with my kids--being a mom and a homeschooler. I'm going through a weird phase where I don't have much time to spend on personal hobbies, unless changing diapers and being in the kitchen too much count. I don't think they do, so this is my attempt at doing one of my interests (writing) that will hopefully be low-key and doesn't involve any outside work. (Its all coming from my head, right?)

This blog will mostly focus on our family and how we spend our time. I will be posting monthly and weekly information on what the kids and I are doing for school, as well as what else is going on in our lives--Kurt's work, Olivia's doctor visits, the new baby, etc.

So, killing two birds with one stone, I get a new hobby and hopefully this will be a way for many of you to keep in touch with us and what we are up to.