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| I sold $70 worth of books and curriculum I had lying around so, woohoo! Not too bad for clearing out a box in my office. There are still a few things left - see previous post. I used some of the money to buy a lovely felted wall hanging from the equally lovely juliepersons - it's the one with the red-dress and the blue robin's eggs in the nest posted here.
I bought it for Lilli for her new room and she loves the colors, the eggs, the dress, all of it :)
As I posted on my other blog, we lost our beloved 16-year-old cat yesterday. Obviously (since they are only 5 and 9), the kids had known him all of their lives. They cried when he was not looking so good a few days back and I had to take him to the vet - before we knew he wouldn't come back. But I guess since they had a few days after that to get used to the idea of him being gone, they took it very well yesterday when I brought home the remains and we had our little funeral here on the property. Lilli even told me, "I'm very brave. Sometimes." She was a little upset last night at bedtime because she didn't have her Moses to sleep with - he loved sleeping on an extra pillow, right up at her head.
Otherwise, they have had a busy busy week, as usual. Miles has still been doing the state testing, although they're done now. He didn't seem too concerned one way or the other about it - he said it went fine. He's really proud of himself lately for participating more in P.E. and learning how to play baseball and kick ball. He even asked if we could buy a bat and ball to practice at home! I saw his teacher and she said his attitude has improved 100% and he's really trying at sports now, whereas previously he was against trying anything new and would freak out if he couldn't do it right away. I think he finally realized that everybody is on a learning curve, and that it's o.k. to just have fun and not have to master the sport.
He has no more homework for the rest of the school year (3 more weeks) - except to create a big California history project/report. I am trying to help him with that - he is doing his report on California's military role during WWII, which pleases me immensely because he was able to choose a topic of real interest to him. Some of you may remember his WWII obsession as I blogged about it last year - including his birthday trip to the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier. So when he got this California assignment the first thing he thought was doing a report on the Hornet and WWII - and that's kind of been expanded to California's general role in the war with the other naval bases, etc. He's doing a model of an aircraft carrier for his presentation, and then he has to write up a 1-3 page essay. He already has several books and did some internet research at school, so I think he has plenty of material. Personally, I have to admit I was looking forward to maybe doing a model of a Spanish mission this year! But it is pricelss to see him self-motivated on this one and excited to apply his knowledge and interest in WWII to an official school assignment. And he has promised me that we can do a mission model together at home if I really really want to 
This reminds me - sometimes he thinks I'm doing all of this for myself - and maybe I am! For example, on Thursday I set up my board games tables during the 4th-6th grade recess as usual. I've been doing this every week and still have 10-12 kids gather around and two boys in particular who come *running* to play Stratego. Anyway, every week I've been there Miles sits and plays games with the other kids and I was happy that he wanted to do this, although of course I never said he HAD to hang out there with me. Well, yesterday, he comes over and says, "Tiff, is it o.k. if I don't play games today? I promise I will play a game with you later at home." Of course, I said, and he ran off with some other kids to the playground. I thought it was cute and funny that he thought I would be disappointed if he wasn't playing games and that he had to make it up to me later 
Lilli's class had a field trip to a farm on Tuesday and I was a chaperone/driver. She saw bunnies, pet horses, fed goats and chickens, had a wagon ride, and learned how to plant corn. It was a bit of a rushed trip because the farm was quite a drive away, and because Kindergarten is only a 3-hour day. But she had fun, as usual :)
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| NEW ITEMS ADDED: Social Studies / Art / WritingThis is kind of fun - you can make personalized handwriting worksheets for your child. Go here http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/index.htm. Choose a handwriting style. And then type in a sentence or phrase or words that your child can practice writing. I made sheets that say: "Lillian loves cats and rainbows." and "Moses the cat sleeps in the sun all day." :)
I am selling the following general homeschool books - all prices include postage:
David Albert, Homeschooling & the Voyage of Self-Discovery (2003) - Signed by author! And signed to me, so unfortunately it has my name in it, too :) - $7 ppd.
E.D. Hirsch, What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know - In
case you're not familiar with the Hirsch series, this is a read-aloud
collection of literature, history, culture, geography, science, and
math concepts for each grade. Hirsch promotes the idea of cultural
literacy and these books are great starting points for building or
supplementing your child's curriculum. I still regularly refer to
these books for my kids' current grade-levels as a source for fables,
stories, and poems. This is a hardcover edition in excellent condition. $7 ppd.
Evan-Moor Unit Study on "CANADA" - NEW - never used. 50-page reproducible activity book on Canadian history, culture, and geography. Learn through maps, native crafts projects, and biographies of famous Canadians. Grades 3-6. $6 ppd.
Evan-Moor Unit Study on "MY STATE" - NEW - never used. 50-page reproductible "open-ended" activity book that can be used for the study of any state. Learn about state history, famous citizens, physical and cultural geography. Grades 3-6. $6 ppd.
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| I dropped the ball on Women's History Month this year. In the past I have made unit studies out of it for Miles - two years in a row I even did a Women's History workshop for K-5 homeschoolers. So, even though I'm no longer systematic about it, I compiled quite a list of children's books related to American women's history that I can return to and add to...whenever.
I read the above book to Lillian today. Well, to both kids, actually, but I had read it to Miles a few years ago, so this time around was meant for Lilli's edification. It is one of my favorites for kids, because I am biased and my special area of research in my own work is 19th century women's rights. Hey, if they're going to learn some random stuff, they might as
well learn the stuff I know.
Lilli liked the book, although I fear she may have missed the message. She determined that she "wouldn't mind if girls had to wear fancy dresses every day." haha. Although, when we came upon the illustration of the boy climbing the tree and the "fancy" girls just sitting on the bench, she decided that girls should be "allowed to wear jeans, too." Of course.
And one of the touchpoints that will help her remember this story is that Amelia Bloomer's women's rights newspaper (in which she printed patterns and drawings of her "bloomers" (also called the "American costume"), was called The Lily 
The illustrations are great, but I followed up by showing the kids some "real" bloomer photos. Here's the real Amelia Bloomer, circa 1850s:
SHOCKING display of the female form, eh?! ;)
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| Busy Week...Well, today is the kids' last day before Spring Break - they get a week plus an extra Friday (tomorrow). I haven't thought about what to do for Easter AT ALL. I can't even find our easter baskets and goodies which are packed away somewhere. I have a Halloween box and a couple of Christmas boxes... but where or where is that Easter box??  We don't even have a garage, so it's not like there are that many possibilities for things to go missing. It has to be in a closet somewhere...
Regardless, we've been having some springtime fun. On Tuesday we stopped in to visit our neighbor who runs an apiary. She sent out a flyer saying they are giving tours of their honey processing and bee hives all through April. We've been into her shop several times to buy honey and treats and candles and gifts, but had never seen behind the scenes.
Lilli had a freakout over the bees, even though there are signs everywhere saying "don't wave your arms," "don't shout," "don't run from the bees." She pretty much did all of those things. Understandable, since the instinct when one sees a bee coming at you is to do all of those things. Surprisingly, Miles trusted the beekeeper AND the bees. I say, suprisingly, because I would have guessed the opposite - that Lilli would be fearless and that Miles would not like the situation. But kids are full of surprises, aren't they?!
Miles was very interested and got right up close and personal with the "viewing hive" - a plexiglass covered box that allows you to see the bees at work. We searched for the queen, but couldn't find her. We did see the busy bees all at work - some with heavy yellow pollen-laden back legs, others filling the cells, others capping them. If you are patient, you can really see what they are working on. Miles was just *fascinated* at the geometry of the bees and how they create such symmetrical hexagonal cells, so as not to waste any space.
I was really proud of Miles for asking lots of questions, too - not only about the bees, but about the honey making process. Later that evening, he re-explained the ENTIRE process to dh - how they collect the leftover pollen (the majority of the pollen goes to feed the bee larvae, so humans only take the leftovers), separate out the honey from wax in a shaking machine, siphon the honey into big tanks, and then hand-fill and label each jar. Honey is amazing because it actually requires NO processing - I mean, you have to get it from the bees, but that's it. No cooking, no preserving, no flavoring. Thank you, Bees 
To follow up... I dug out our old "Kids Discover" subscription and found we did indeed have an issue on "Bees" - these are fabulous science unit magazines, by the way - pictures, activities, recipes, suggested readings. The publishers says for 6 and up, but for actually reading the text, I would say 8 or 9 and up. We also had the Magic School Bus one above. I wish our library had more of the MSB videos to go along with the books. Lilli likes looking at the books much more than the actual bees, which is fine ;)
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On Wednesday (yesterday) I went to Lilli's class and got an early gig as easter bunny - I was in charge of hiding all the eggs on the playground for the kindergarteners. They had a blast. Then I worked with them in small groups to record their weekly tadpole observations - each group (of 6 kids) examined the tadpoles and then had to write some sentence about them in their science journals. Something along the lines of "One tadpole has legs now" and the date. Bees and eggs and tadpoles, oh my. Must be spring.
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| mom2sands asked how Miles acts when I'm there for a field trip, etc. The short answer is... even though he's developing more of an independent streak, age 9 is still sweet and close to mom ;) Miles, at least, stuck pretty close to me when we were walking about and sometimes even held my hand. I noticed some of the other boys whose moms were chaperones did this as well. It warmed my heart - they are not too self-conscious yet when it comes to parents. I'm just enjoying it while it lasts...
That said, when I mentioned coming to visit his Science class sometime, he said, "No, please don't." I was a little taken aback, but he finally told me that it's just that I should ask the teacher first since no other parents usually come to that class. He doesn't want me breaking the rules, I guess, or doing anything "different" than the other parents. He did tell me I could come to Math class anytime because there are "some other moms" usually there. 
Both kids attended a fun assembly at school this past Thursday - some kind of rain forest education program visited the school and brought wild animals for the kids to see! There was a sloth, a monkey, some wild birds. They were both really excited about it and couldn't stop talking about the sloth, especially :) Not every day you see a sloth in these here parts...
On a different note... I was browsing through our school district's website and came across some info on a "parent education" program they are implementing at some of the schools. In addition to "training" parents to read to their children, visit the library, and find ways to be involved in the school community, it included this program goal: One of the cornerstones of the program is that parents spend 15 minutes
of uninterrupted one-to-one time with their child each
week.
Each week?! I must be really out of touch with what's going on in some households... Sad. Well, guess what? I'm one step ahead - I played chess today with Miles so that oughta do me as far as "kid time" for the next TWO weeks! Now let me check my schedule and figure out when I can squeeze Lilli in next week...
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