Bird Logic

G: Sweet, sweet, I'm so sweet. That's the call of Yellow Warblers.

Reezle: Yellow Warblers don't use contractions.

G: Like Androids?

Reezle: Yep.

G: So they're Androids!? Woah. Cats eat Androids!?

Time Out

Me: So, G, why are you in time-out?

G: Because I was harassinating the cat.

Our First Day of Homeschool 2012-13

Today was our first official day of school! In continuing tradition, we celebrated in our pajamas.

Little G writing 575 in expanded form

I was a little concerned about how Little G would handle a full load of courses this year, affording him less time to do the things he enjoys independently. I expected boredom and frustration on his first day, but there was none! He handled his first day as a 1st/2nd grader like a pro.

Miss Reezle worked on math, language arts, history, and health. She also spent roughly 45 minutes playing Poptropica, which is surprisingly educational. She did great on her first day as a 3rd grader! Her spelling list for this unit is:

objects, insects, facts, products, plants, trucks, napkins, hundreds, numbers, gashes, boxes, foxes, riches, sandwiches, inches, bosses, dresses, *systems, *pencils, *presidents

The red one we need to work on. Mostly, she does fabulous with the root words; she just has a bit of difficulty with some of the suffixes. This morning, there were a lot more red words in that list. Once she reviewed them, she did great. I shared some tips I hope will be helpful for knowing and remembering which suffixes fit. She seems to have caught on very quickly, so we'll go through the spelling words list tomorrow and find out if it sticks.

Mr. G's spelling words list for Unit 4 was:

spot, stop, sled, brush, speck, swim, crib, drum, crab, splash, trot, grin, prop, slip, fled, brick, crush, grab, frog, crash, won, and busy, with bonus words travel, dragon, and crunch.

He got them all correct, easily, so we moved on to the unit review and wrapped things up.

As a little surprise for the kiddos, I downloaded several children's books to my iPad. Today we read Pete The Cat: I Love My White Shoes. This story was awesome. Both kids are well beyond the book in terms of reading level, but the message was fun and useful. Basically, no matter what happens, keep a positive attitude.

That's a message even I could learn something from. And Sticky, too, apparently, because she joined right in the reading break with us! What other school offers a furry friend to snuggle and pet while you're going through the day? We love our (home) school!

Perfect Little Spellers

This morning and afternoon, Little G worked on some more spelling. He seems to really be enjoying it this year, which I attribute to the difference in presentation with the curriculum change. Well, that and the fact that he earns warm and fuzzies for getting them correct! We have some pretty sweet trades in the trade bucket right now, so he has some good incentive.

On his first try, he spelled all of the words correctly, including the challenge words, without even a moment of hesitation. I went ahead and had him take the Checkpoints for Units 2 and 3, and he got 100% on both.

Unit 2 spelling words:

then, mush, when, rush, such, much, them, dash, shut, check, neck, tuck, luck, chap, peck, sham, duck, puck, chum, hush, what, said

Challenge words:

sandwich, checkers, sharpen

Unit 3 spelling words:

hand, gift, bump, pond, soft, bent, milk, belt, tent, fond, pond, land, pump, lift, silk, jump, hunt, find, felt, loft, send, says, front

Challenge words:

defend, adrift, shrimp

Little man is feeling pretty stoked, having finished three units of spelling before school even started officially. I'm very proud of him. Since we are working with consonant blends, I first asked him if he remembered what a vowel is. "Yes, it's A, E, I, O, and U." I was impressed, and asked if he knew, then, what a consonant was. "Yes, anything that's not a vowel." Daddy asked if he knew which consonant was sometimes a vowel, and Little G immediately answered, "Yes, Y."

Miss Reezle also completed a unit of spelling! I was surprised how quickly she mastered her spelling list, since she didn't seem very into it today.

Spelling words:

next, until, happen, sudden, rabbit, magnet, ticket, pocket, finish, publish, public, contest, himself, problem, establish, fantastic, may, have, say, hard, *difficult, *exact, *children

She also scored 100% on her spelling test! I can only assume that their avid reading is the reason they do so well in language arts. Grade 3, Unit 1 of spelling is complete! Warm & fuzzies for all!

The Happy Third Grade Blanket

A couple of years ago, my daughter asked me if I would make her a blanket. "Not just a little one, I mean like a big blanket," she said. I agreed, finding it sweet that she wanted something I'd made. We went to the craft store and she chose some pink and white yarns; I bought two huge bags full of them, and I got busy working on her blanket that very night.

Then, life happened. I started her blanket before she even started Kindergarten, things came up, I got distracted, and my crochet projects sat lonely for a long time. My now third-grader has been asking quite a bit over the summer about her blanket, and I'd really been wanting to work on a project anyhow. I decided to buckle down and just get it done. After all, I have another two bags full of yarn for my son's blanket, and I haven't even begun working on that one!

Well, I'm really happy to say that I've finally finished Reezle's blanket. She's absolutely delighted. I'm pretty stoked, too, since this is the biggest project I've ever completed. I'm more of a scarves kind of gal, which has nothing to do with preference and everything to with patience!

A wonderful and unintended benefit of this blanket it is that it is quite heavy, and actually an adequate therapeutic weight to work like a weighted blanket - without the fillers and hefty price tag. I'm loving this, because both of my children really benefit from the calming effect of light pressure. For that matter, it is quite beneficial even for me. Typically, they bury themselves in a pile of beloved stuffed animals when seeking out that sort of sensory input. I think this is a better alternative - stuffed animals still welcome, of course.

Gearing Up for the 2012-13 School Year

School starts for us on Monday, officially. We're very excited, all ready to go, and doing a little work in the online school now to get back into the groove of learning. My Reezle girl is a bit grumpy today, so we will probably work with her either later on or tomorrow. Little G did some spelling. His words were:

lock, dish, back, than, chin, shop, that, this, whip, wish, with, which, dock, chop, cash, ship, mash, mock, math, bath, from, does

His challenge words were:

thermal, within, relish

Since he is exceptionally good at spelling and was helping Reezle master the trickier words last year (which are his words this year, being that he's taking 2nd grade math and language arts), I'm just going ahead and asking him to spell them before we do anything with the lessons to find out what he knows. He spelled all of them correctly except thermal (he substituted an "o" for the "a"), so we wrapped up the unit and went right on to the Unit Checkpoint. He scored 100% with ease. I asked him after the Checkpoint if he could spell thermal again for me, and this time he got it correct.

The little guy also completed word set 1 of 3 in his first unit of vocabulary. He did great with the concept of prefixes; it required virtually no explanation on my part at all. I think he likes the idea of root words, prefixes, and suffixes because it is, in a sense, somewhat like addition and subtraction.

The language arts portion of the curriculum is different this year, and so far I think I like it more. The kids both like it more because it includes more workbooks, and they love their workbooks. We do have fewer books for reading this year, and we were all a bit disappointed about that. However, we have plenty of our own books and my Kindle, so we'll more than make up for that with leisure reading. The material is excellent, and will be less overwhelming for kids who are not avid readers.

And, of course, a school day for Little G would not be complete without some math. He completed the first four lessons, putting him about 1/4 of the way through Unit 1. I strongly suspect he will be moving into 3rd grade math with his sister before very long. While I had some reservations about my 6 year-old possibly getting a bit ahead of himself, I now feel this would probably benefit both of my children. Little G is a very adept and patient tutor, and he masters new concepts quickly; the kiddos will probably do very well learning the same material together.

We are so ready for this school year! The weather is still gorgeous, so we're looking forward to some enjoyable study days outdoors this beautiful season. Hooray for fall!

Summer Wrap Up

I have no idea where the summer went, but the beginning of the new school year is less than a week away now. I feel at peace about that, and I'm looking forward to a year of new opportunities, experiences, and challenges. Little G can't stop talking about his Math Orange workbook, and it's been very difficult to keep him from starting (and finishing) it before school even starts. I suspect he will be joining his sister in Math Purple (3rd grade) before long. Reezle is certainly capable of working at grade level, and Little G is helping her understand things she gets stuck on.

Little G's K12 teacher called yesterday, and we had a chance to discuss the upcoming school year and G's various diagnoses. She seems very nice, and I think G is finally accepting the fact that his teacher from last year cannot be his teacher this year. He doesn't like change. Mama understands.

I have not spoken to Reezle's new teacher yet, but that should be happening soon. I don't think my little girl is quite as excited as her brother is to start the new school year, but she much prefers K12 to her former school experiences. Once we start planning trips to the museums and other various places, I know she will be more enthusiastic.

Autumn is fast approaching, and it's so nice to have cool evenings instead of 80-degree temperatures through the nights. Mornings come later, the sun sets earlier, and there is a distinct chill in the air after the sun sets each night. I love this time of year, remembering the fun we had over the summer, looking forward to costumes and trick-or-treating, watching leaves turn, and celebrating the kids' birthdays. Before long, we'll be planning our holiday dinners and cooking and baking more. Reezle talks endlessly about the things she wants to bake when the weather is cool enough to use the oven more frequently. She has a real interest in cooking, so I hope she inherited her Daddy's talents and not my, er, lack thereof. Ha!

For now, I am off to enjoy this lovely quiet morning with a cup of coffee and a determination to finish the blanket I'm crocheting for my daughter's birthday. I have all the yarn I need and plenty of free time in the mornings; no excuses!

Clamshell Packaging

I am not a fan.

The irony here is that I got cut on the knife as a direct result of having to struggle with the clamshell packaging that was designed to, yes, prevent me from cutting myself on the knife. On the bright side, it appears to be just as sharp as advertised.

With the holiday season approaching, I will undoubtedly be facing this nemesis again, so I have to ask: is there any safe way to open this menacing stuff?

Hooray For August

August is here! For the first two years of my daughter's elementary education, I dreaded this month because it meant there were mere days remaining before I had to put her on a bus five mornings a week and not see her again until evening. I hated that. It didn't feel right. But now August brings excitement and anticipation of all the cool things we'll be learning and doing this school year! The kiddos are literally counting the days until their lessons appear in the OLS (online school) and are looking through their materials eagerly awaiting the day they can start using them.

I love this. I'm so grateful that we have this option, and that our first year of homeschooling was such a success that they look forward with such enthusiasm to this new year and all that it will bring. If homeschooling is in your heart, but you're worried about whether you can do it, I really urge you to look into K12. No, I'm not encouraged to say nice things or compensated for my opinion in any way - I just genuinely love this program and how much flexibility and support there is. Most of all, I love how happy my kiddos are and how they genuinely want to learn.