what’s up doc

So yeah I think I remember saying something about posting more regularly, being inspired by the time I spent on here with the Toy Cure. Well, more than a month later I am back on here feeling kind of sheepish for having publicly spewed such obviously false optimism and chutzpah.

To be honest, blogging is something I really have to work at. I have never kept a journal and I am likely to abandon any writing projects I start (like the other blog before this, which I deleted, and the notebook of poems I threw in the trash). Plus, it is not something I want to spend my free time doing. I’d much rather sew or read. But more than likely I have other, more pressing things to attend to, like planning out curriculum for Bug or like lately getting shiz together for grad school applications (writing a statement of career goals was exhausting, especially since I felt more compelled to follow grammar rules and have a formal-sounding writing style). Or like most recently, making a report card.

I have decided that I want a break from planning and have a chance to better enjoy just learning with Bug so next school year we are joining our state’s public virtual academy. After reading reviews on the woes and joys of on-line public school, I decided it may be a good match for us. We will see. One of the requirements to enroll is a report card, which is something I never thought to do for her. Luckily though I have kept all of her physical work and a record of what we did everyday in a calendar. For the report I am doing a course of study, a checklist (indicating what mastery she has of state learning standards), and a portfolio assessment (including samples of her work and a candid evaluation of this school year). I am probably doing too much work but I would rather have it all covered so I don’t have to fool with it again later.

Even with all the other things going on and not having an inclination for blogging I still want to keep up with this but in a proclaimed-lackadaisical manner, with the occasional update and words on things I am excited about.

Here’s a bit of an update of what we’ve been up to lately.

We finished geography, finally. I plan to update my Pinterest board, Our HS–Geography, with the sources we used that I might want to use again and recommend to others. I think she understands that everyone has the same basic needs but there are diverse ways to meet them and she might be able to point out where she is on the globe, which is good enough for me. We are moving onto learning history, using personal and family hsitory and primary sources.

We are merrily chugging along with RightStart Math and Building Foundations for Scientific Learning. We will finish RS next month so I will do a proper review then–we will move to the next level and keep working at it until the fall when we switch to the public school. BFSU is something that she will be able to grow with for years to come. I recently joined the Yahoo group made as additional support by the author. I would def recommend it to you if you are looking for a comprehensive science study.

We’ve had lots of fun art adventures lately. We are still working through Art for the Very Young, but I decided, since art is her favorite, to do more with it. We went on a docent-led tour at an art center in the big city and she just started a class for home schoolers at a gallery down the road.

Reading is going pretty well these days. I don’t think that the writing lessons included in Teach Your Child To Read are enough so I have been supplementing with writing prompts. I also want to start a grammar program next month. I was dead set on getting First Language Lessons until I noticed this month’s giveaway at Secular Homeschool, March Giveaway from JacKris Publishing. Growing with Grammar has caught my eye. And I am shameless mentioning it on here because I want one for me-self. I want writing to come easy to her so hopefully this will help set her on the path and maybe she will be a better blogger and statement of career goals writer than her dear old mama : )

day 7 + some happy news

 

Day 7 is a day to reflect. 

I like the style of decluttering this Toy Cure presented, though it was a challenge to try to break out of the habit of sorting things into categories of store, donate, trash, etc. The idea, instead, is to start the process of separation from possessions, which for me is def needed for the mess that is my house. Overall, I think it went pretty well and hope to continue to hone my organization and decluttering skills.

We moved some things out and now I am ready to get organized. As I complete the projects we do to organize her toys, I’ll try to post them.

All the posting I did this past week has inspired me to make an effort to blog more consistently. I don’t want to post everyday like I almost did this week, but I do want to make an effort to get on here more. I think it will help me to keep records of what we do, help me to reflect more on what we do, and to maybe even be a better writer (I think maybe I should include a warning in the title of the blog for grammarians, etc. to keep out if they don’t want their heads to explode).

On that note, I am going to make a crappy transition to the happy news.

Bug has reached the halfway point in her reading curriculum! Out of “100 easy lessons” she has completed 50 and become a rather fine little reader.

I love when she’s sounding out a word and then when she gets it, she proclaims to all in the house (well, me, the cats, and dog), “I read a new word,” especially when they are words like kiss and hug and kitten. I love it when she reads the day’s story and she comprehends enough to realize it’s a ridiculous little story like when the cow ate the fish.

I am extremely, tremendously glad to experience this with her, and to celebrate we ate cake.

She looks pretty triumphant doesn’t she.

day 6

Today’s challenge for the Toy Cure was to empty the outbox. I managed to collect a trashbag full of things to donate, I set back some things in storage(all the wooden puzzles she’s outgrown, a few favorite books and toys), and the toys I repaired yesterday, I put back in with the rest of the population.

Tomorrow, the challenge is to reflect on the experience. I am also going to start making definite plans for how the room wil be organized–get the plans and materials together for what I want to build and get to building.

days 4 + 5

I managed to go a few days without not blogging. But yesterday’s break from blogging is much better than the year long breaks I normally take ; )

Suprisingly, I am still keeping up with this toy cure thing, though. I just hope she doesn’t trash her room again before I finish this project or worse, find the outbox or donation pile before they are taken care of.

Yesterday was all about evaluating the books and media in her collection. Both were overflowing out of their shelves, but I managed to free up some space.

Many of the books that I pulled are too young or are ones we never read. There’s a couple inches on each shelf now. Room for more books : )

With the movies…I am always battling movies from my sister’s collection sneaking into Bug’s. I don’t mind her watching movies but I really don’t want her to watch movies with singing dinosaurs and mermaids and sponges over and over again. I love that she loves movies; I do, too. Ideally, she’d only watch movies that center on the stories of kids and friendship (not teen girls from yore that are eager to marry their prince) and where the characters don’t sing every three minutes. This is how I sorted them. Maybe eventually we will move from tapes to dvdv’s (as she calls them) and put them all in one binder case, but until then there’ll be a shelf in her closet for them.

I checked out the outbox for today’s challenge, clean and repair. I am going to make an ear for the puppet, add the crayon nibs to my craft stuff, see if I can find a bulb for the lantern… off I go.

See you back on here tomorrow. The challenge for then is to empty the outbox.

days 2 + 3 of the toy cure. whew, nearlly half-way there.

(No pictures because my camera is acting a fool—it keeps automatically zooming in as soon as I turn it on and I didn’t want the extra headache.)

Well, days 2 and 3 of the toy cure were somewhat productive. Day 2 was a continuation of Day 1 and for the third day, the challenge is to focus on arts and crafts materials.

I managed to move more toys to the outbox, mostly stuffies, puzzles, and dolls and their accessories. One doll is in need of a spa day—she got a make-up job which involved nail polish as eye shadow and a sticker tattoo. Also, I am wondering how many babies one five-year old needs so yeah, into the outbox they go. The puzzles I may put into a rotation system. The stuffies I still need to decide on—old favorites will be memorialized (still thinking on this—either as a display or in photograph) or stored—others I will decide on later because that’s the beauty of this challenge. The outbox doesn’t necessarily mean out of the house into the trash, to be donated, etc. but taken out to start the process of separation if need be. I’ve noticed that the issue of separating from some possessions is a large part of the challenge.

Oh, and the first and second days also are to be used to address tub and outside toys. I got rid of most her tub toys a while ago. She just has her rubber ducky, frog, and a shark—a rather motley crew. I didn’t mess with the outside toys because I ran out of steam and they are pretty well contained in a bucket by our backdoor (I usually address these when they start to spill over and did so a few months back). I will probably look at these toys again when we renovate our mudroom this summer.

The arts and crafts junk was a bit overwhelming. Like I said she amassed quite a few supplies over the holiday, which I am glad of because she tears through it pretty quickly, especially since art is a big part of school these days. I found a few things for the trash and a few things for the outbox that will eventually be magically transformed (dried out markers will be used for watercolors and crayon nibs will be turned into gift favors for her birthday that’s a month away). There is still not enough room for everything though, but I hope to address this with a new art table and better organization. This is my favorite idea for a desk and play space—more work space and better use of space than what we have now. The end table that we use is low enough that it gives her no leg room to sit at the table and wastes the space, unless I do like I am doing now and just pile things under it. Anywho.

Tomorrow I will move on to the books and media.

winter nature study

No Toy Cure post because we’ve had a busy school day. I’ll catch up with that tomorrow while she’s with her dad. I do want to post about what we’ve been up to with our nature study, though.

She hasn’t journaled in a while because I almost always manage to forget to bring her book and pencils along and by the time we are back at the house she’s moved on to other things. Mostly we just go on walks at home and at the park.

If she sees something that interests her we stop to enjoy it and if she has questions we try to remember to look it up at home (I suppose the journal would be helpful here).

Recently we’ve picked back up our study of birds. I found a coloring book from Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology, and every day I have her fill out one sheet using our field guide.

I try to stick to birds she’s recognized on our walks or that I know live in our area. I hope it will help for when we participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count, our first Citizen Scientist project. The GBBC takes place nation-wide, February 17-20–next weekend! We are also going to start going to a local bird club (which just so happens to be meeting next week during the GBBC, fancy that).

For fun, yesterday we made little bird feeders that she put out on our walk today. The birds not only have a tasty treat but also some green yarn to add to their pretty little nests : )

day 1: create an outbox and touch every toy

Well, this business of the outbox is harder than I thought. The questions to ask when evaluating the toys are–is it played with often, is it age appropriate, is it broken, dirty, or missing piece?

I found a few things that I recognized automatically as outbox toys, a puppet that is missing an ear, a lantern that doesn’t work, a dress-up shoe without a mate, puzzles that are too young for her, doll clothes that don’t fit any of her dolls. For the outbox(es) I am using her old toy boxes–there are three. After I finish the cure I plan to use the same boxes to store toys in a rotation system.

I also found some things for the trash and to donate, which I had done a few weeks ago, too (I try to do so routinely, about 3 or 4 times a year).

Somehow though what I’ve pulled hasn’t made a difference. There are things that I would easily move out of the house but that she would fuss about (mainly the fashion dolls—there was a big jump in the population of fashion dolls with this past holiday season—I could have a whole nuther post about my beef with these dolls). On the other hand, there are things that I can’t seem to send out the door because it is something I want her to play with, it’s a gift from a beloved relative or friend, it’s an heirloom, or it used to be a favorite.

I have to contend with the likes of the sock monkey here. I suppose it is good that this part of the toy cure is stretched over two days because I am going to need it.

I am pretty bad at this blogging business so I am going to use my project to fix up Bug’s room to get me back on here on a regular basis and hopefully, get me into the habit of blogging consistently.

When I initially posted about the 7-day Toy Cure, I mentioned that before I set out I wanted to study on how to best organize her space. Well, I’ve done that and procrastinated plenty so finally, here’s the game plan.

I noticed the biggest problem areas in her room are, well, everywhere. I am taking that to mean that my current organization system just ain’t cutting it and that we def need the Toy Cure to edit her collection.

Her room is roughly 11’x10’ and has a double door closet the length of her room (one side of the closet is being used for household storage, though). Her side of closet has her clothes, stuffed animals, movies, and games and puzzles in it. For storage outside of her closet, I have one layer of Itso boxes for toys, a table/cabinet thing she uses for art supplies, an antique school desk that is full of coloring books, a narrow bookshelf, a shelf/table that she uses as a nightstand and for books, and a trunk the width of a queen bed. The furniture is hugging every wall but doesn’t keep anything contained—there are stacks of stuff everywhere.

My vision: I want to try to have the toys, games, and puzzles all in one place (her closet, perhaps). I want to take advantage of the space under her bed (mostly to discourage her style of cleaning, which involves shoving things under the bed) and vertical space. I want to build a better art space and perhaps combine it with desk space, right now she has no space to work at her art table b/c its contents exploded with the addition of Christmas booty, out of the cabinet, onto the table. I want to cut down on the amount of furniture.

I’ve found some ideas through Pinterest that would work great for what I want to do, I just have to muster up and do it. Meanwhile, I am going to attempt the first day of the Toy Cure: Create an outbox and touch every toy. I’ll report back her with the result tomorrow.

a look at south america

I have to admit our lesson on South America was lacking, but I think this will likely be the case for all of our travels. As I said before my goal is not to do a comprehensive study of geography but to simply give her a taste of the wider world. Our look at South America involved Pele, chocolate, Angel Falls, the rainforest, the Pampas…topics that I thought my soccer-loving, sweet-loving, Up-loving, nature-loving girl would like to learn about.

Some of the resources we used included the books The Rainforest Grew All Around by Susan Mitchell and Connie McLellan, The Magic Bean Tree: A Legend from Argentina by Nancy Van Laan and Beatriz Vidal, and On the Pampas by Maria Cristina Brusca. With On the Pampas, she made a gaucho belt (idea from Homeschool Share). She made a paper Angel Falls and watched the extra features of Up to see the real thing. She watched Youtube clips of Pele in action after I read a brief biography. We looked at several landmarks that are Unesco world heritage sites, such as the Churches of Chiloe. We also read the book and explored the website based on the Field Museum exhibit, Chocolate. She really liked playing the interactive, Manufacturing Chocolate From Seed to Sweet. We tried to make hot chocolate with a recipe included on the website but it was a culinary disaster : (

Overall, I think she had fun and maybe learned a few things along the way, too. Our next trip will be to Europe.

review: Planet Explorers New York City

Planet Explorers New York City is full of fun facts about famous landmarks and the history of NYC. While it is written for tween tourists of the Big Apple, it can also be enjoyed by an armchair traveler to learn trivia about the city. I used it as part her geography lesson of NYC.

When asked what she thought of the book she said it was “older-ish,” which makes sense considering its intended audience—it is makes reference to popular culture and historical background that she did not get but a 10-year old probably would—and she still prefers picture books.

Still, I think the book is helpful in providing kid-friendly information, and I especially appreciated the links within the text of the guide and the list of NYC-related websites that help to explore the city further. As far as evaluating the writing style, you can get a good feel for by viewing the sample provided on Smashwords (the link above); I don’t feel that I can fairly judge this because I am not familiar with this genre of books—this is the first travel guide that I have read. I think that more pictures/images especially of maps would be helpful to get a proper view of the city—we used it along with interactive maps—but otherwise Planet Explorers New York City provides a fun look at NYC.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free to review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”