Category Archives: Homeschooling goodness

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What’s been going around here

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Things have been busy! Earlier this week was the culmination of lots of work- I finished a first draft of a 50,000 word novel for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, wherein crazy people attempt to write 50,000 word novels in a month), and held a craft fair (with some of my friends) that I had been crafting like crazy for in the preceding weeks.  Then there’s school and there was Halloween, so much goodness! Would you like to see?

Halloween goodness. Rapunzel and Belle (or, more accurately, Cinderella in a yellow dress)

Z pretending to fly a real Boeing 747 at the Hiller Aviation Museum.

A dirigible (squee!!!!) at the Hiller Aviation Museum. I LOVE dirigibles!

We “mummified” an apple with salt and baking soda. That was fun.

Things I made for the craft sale (or for friends, or for my kids or nephews. Pretty much just stuff I made):

For my darling Ana and her miracle baby boy.

Felt wreath. I love how this turned out!

Little foxes. I have about 6 more of these to make now- 3 for a friend’s kids, 2 for my own kids, and 1 for me!

Mini peeps! Love them! (That was both a command and an expression of my feeling toward them.)

Have I posted this before? I feel like I may have. It’s a quilt I made for Tiny, with my virtual quilting bee friends. I sent out the fabric, they sent back sewn squares, and I sewed it all together.

More dollies for the craft sale.

Throwing stars for the craft sale. Filled with rice, you throw them and the ribbons trail behind.

Harry Potter pillows for my nephews’ Harry Potter room. My sister redid their room for their birthday, and these were on their beds. (The room is insanely awesome.)

Also for their room- their own Gryffindor scarves.

What the trees look like around here. So pretty!

New bird ornaments for my Christmas tree.

The girls met Santa!

And last but not least,

Tiny is tough. In case you were wondering. :)

There are also a number of projects that I can’t post yet because they’re for Christmas presents, but I’ll post them after Christmas, because I’m happy with how they turned out.  I’ve been keeping track of everything I’ve made this year, and I’m currently at 121 things made. That’s kind of crazy. :)

Anyway, I should maybe possibly be posting more, now that the craziness of last month is over. We’ll see.  But I’ve missed you!

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The aquarium, or, how to feel like a genius photographer

We went to the Monterey Bay aquarium today. It was incredibly fun, and incredibly long. Goodness sakes, we were gone all day. Lots of driving, lots of looking, lots of walking, just lots.

Luckily I took B’s schnazzy camera with us, and the fish cooperated. (For the most part.)

But seriously. Do you want to feel like a genius photographer? Just go take pictures of jellyfish. As long as you can focus, you’re golden. (Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.)

(It’s Nemo!)

Can you find the seahorse?

A leafy sea dragon!

It was a wonderful day, filled with some of my most loved people, and the beauty of the ocean. It doesn’t get much better than that.

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What a day!

Most days I’m pleased with our decision to home school. Then there are days like today, when I can see why there wasn’t really another option for us. Every single thing today just lined up with what we’re working on, what we’re going to be working on- it was magic.

First we went to open gym at the place that the girls take dance and gymnastics.

Tiny wasn’t really grumpy the whole time, but this picture cracked me up.

She got to try out the equipment (since she takes dance and Z takes gym, she hasn’t had a chance to try it out yet.)

 

Z got to practice being upside down.

And she tried out the beam for the first time. She even hopped on it! (Well, on the lower one. But still!)

Tiny stuck with the lower beam.

Then we had the amazing opportunity to meet Kerri Strug, 1996 gold medal olympian. Her story is so inspiring, it totally made me cry as I was trying to explain to Zo what she had done during her vault. (If you don’t know, watch this.) Z’s been struggling recently with feeling that if she makes a mistake that she’s not good at that thing- and to see Kerri fall and then get back up and win the gold was a big eye opener to her. More immediately, Z’s been frustrated that she’s not instantly good at cartwheels, and she got the chance to ask Kerri how long it took her to learn how to do them. I think Kerri’s answer of a year was a bit of a surprise to Miss Z, and she’s feeling better now about it taking her more than one try.

Tiny thought she was nice too.

Then we went to the Children’s Discovery Museum, where everything was about mammoths and paleontology and cave drawings- everything we’ll be talking about in history over the next couple of weeks. Serious jackpot.

I love Tiny’s weird spider straddle a she tries to get to some bones.

Zoe’s cave drawing, using charcoal and clay.

It’s a squirrel.

And here’s one more feisty face, just to round out the post.

Overall it was just such a lovely day, so full of fun and honest to goodness educational experiences. Made me feel like I’m doing something right.

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At this moment

It’s 7:09 am.

There is a bird twittering outside my window. 3 notes, middle, up, middle, down, over and over. I can see blue sky behind clouds out the window, and I’m guessing he’s happy about that.

I’m the only one awake, though I’m predicting that Z will be up any minute. I was up late last night, (I LOVE getting together with amazing groups of women, don’t you?) but I still tumbled myself out of bed at 6:42 so I could shower and be dressed when Z gets up. I’d like to get back in the pattern of getting up at 6 so that I can workout and shower before she’s up, but my body hasn’t been waking me up at 6, and that’s my alarm clock.  But regardless of the workout, I’ve noticed that there is a marked difference in our day if I’m up and moving before the girls. It gives me time to get some things done, but more than that, it seems to give Z … something. Not sure what, but her whole attitude is better if she finds me up and doing things when she gets up.

We’re heading to Santa Cruz today. There should be no babies to make us turn around this time, and we’re off to meet with our Educational Specialist from the charter school we’re working with. There’s the added perk that she’s one of my most beloved college roommates, so that will be quite fun. And we’re going to see Papa Joe and hit the Natural History Museum, so all in all it should be a great day.

I have a pile of fabric triangles waiting to be sewn up into a banner on my craft table, and a littering of books spread around that want to be read. I must prevail and start on my book club book, (The Scarlet Pimpernel, it should be good!), but I keep getting waylaid by Shakespeare. He’s just like candy to me. Over the last couple of days I’ve read The Tempest (which I’ve never read before and was completely surprised by, I’ve always been under the assumption that it was a tragedy, and it’s not) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (which I’ve read before and highly enjoy, even if one of the characters makes me stabby, but that’s kind of his job). I’ve wanted to see the new Helen Mirren version of The Tempest, so now I can. But first I must read The Scarlet Pimpernel.

I think I’m going to go get some sewing done before the day starts, and hopefully I’ll have an Eiffel Tower of Paris banner to show for it soon.

But,  just because I feel like this post should have a picture in it, Tiny would like you to know that the thing that you are looking for, your very heart’s desire, is over there.


What are you doing at this moment?

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Some more pictures

It’s been kind of a busy week.

Tiny started dance class with two of her besties. I had no idea that three three year olds with tap shoes and sticks could make the noise equivalent of 75 kids. It was amazing.

Z started gymnastics with two of her besties. (Only one is in the picture, I don’t know that other little girl. But I’m sure she’s very nice.) She had a great time until she fell and bit her lip, but we got her cleaned up and back out again and then she liked it again.

The girls are collecting acorns. This was Z’s science journal page where she drew the acorns she found. And she just did it by herself today (Saturday), so it wasn’t even for school. But we’ll go ahead and use it for school.

I’m starting a new project to fancy up the girls’ room. They’ve become passionate about “The Eiffel Tower of Paris” . (in our house it’s always referred to that way, as though there were more than one in other places around the world. I think we have Little Einsteins to thank for that.) So I’m making them a banner out of the top two fabrics, then beanbag poof kinds of things out of the 4 bottom fabrics- the pink for Tiny and the blue for Z.

I also picked up all this awesome fabric at a sale and now have to decide what to do with it.

I found all of these satin strips in rainbow colors, and knew that they were destined to be used in our preschool. But how? Any ideas?

That’s all the pictures I have. I’d put a picture of Macbeth, since I read it, but that would be boring, and I don’t have one. But it was good- I somehow got through taking 3 (4?) Shakespeare classes in college and never being assigned to read it, so I figured it was high time. I’d like to see it performed, it’s definitely a meaty one for the actors. Very sad though. I love those stories that make you think about destiny and agency- would Macbeth have done what he did if he hadn’t been nudged along by the witches? Maybe?

Anyway, Tiny wants a glass of milk and it’s time to think about dinner. I think we’re going to have turkey, bacon, avocado wraps. That sounds good to me.

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It’s still me

Do you like the change? I got a bee in my bonnet this morning and decided that I couldn’t stand the old look of the blog anymore and it was time for something new. I usually change my blog design in January with the new year, but the start of the new school year counts for that, I think. Anyway, out with the old, in with the new.

It seems like all I ever post about anymore is homeschool, but honestly, it’s what I’m thinking about 85% of the time. What do I think about the rest of the time? (Not what 100-85 is, that’s for sure.) I’m constantly going over our schedule, tweaking it, trying to sort out what would work better.

Today we added in a cooking class for the first time- it’s going to be an every other week kind of thing, and the girls had a really good time. They made cupcakes.

The teaching space is adorable, the teacher was nice, and the kids were all well behaved.

Then we went to sign the girls up for their dance/gymnastics classes (Z =gymnastics, Tiny=dance) and discovered that the class starts tomorrow instead of next week, like I thought. So that makes tomorrow a bit busier than I had planned. It’s a constant flux around here.

And now my biggest question is what to read. I’m in the middle of The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais, the story of an Indian boy who moves with his restauranteur family from India to England to France. It’s filled with great descriptions of places and food, and I feel like I should be more invested in it than I am. Should I move on to something else? Like The Scarlet Pimpernel, the book I should be reading for book club? Probably. Will I? Who knows?

That’s all I’ve got for now, other than some quick personal messages to people I’m not sure check in on comments after they’ve made them :) :

Gina, it delights me to no end that you read my blog. Yours cracks me up on a regular basis, and I kind of feel like I know you, so it makes me happy to think that you kind of know me too.

Ana, oh, I miss you so much. I will send you an e-mail one of these days, it’s just that every time I go to start it I know it will become epic, and, well, I’m lazy. But I love you and think about you all the time.

Everyone else, I love you too, and thanks for reading. :) Leave me a comment and I’ll post something to you too! :)

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Would you like to see what we’ve been up to?

Otherwise known as, I found my camera cable!

Zoe made this picture for art, and came up with the idea all on her own. Well, the cutting and gluing was my idea, but the whole pirate awesomeness was all her.

The girls decided that they wanted to be Pippi Longstockings. So they each got pigtails (Tiny is holding hers out to the sides so they look like Pippi) and Z is riding Pippi’s horse. B asked her what the horse’s name was, and she said she didn’t know. He asked why, and she said it was because the horse never told Pippi what his name was. Touche! (A side note, Z looks very much like her cousin once (twice? I don’t know how this all works. My cousin’s daughter. Whatever that makes her) removed, Maggie, in this picture. )

We’ve been having a lot of tea party lunches around here lately. Why?  I don’t know.

The birthday party for the new baby. So much fun. :)

Z and her Papa at the history museum, learning all about how people used to wash clothes.

A quilt at the museum from 1886. All hand sewn and embroidered. SO pretty! It almost made me change my opinion on crazy quilts. Almost.

Z with the kind of sewing machine her Grandma learned to sew on at her Grandma’s house. This was a great museum to visit for gaining a sense of connection to the past.

This spider is living in our backyard. I’ve gotten a little obsessed trying to take a clear picture of it.  It’s apparently an orb-weaver spider or Araneus diadematus. ( I just figured that out. Yay Google.) Not dangerous to humans, which is good, seeing as kids have been playing under it for 3 days and I keep getting close to it to take pictures.  The kids also found a gorgeous green beetle (dead), which I have yet to take a picture of, but we kept it because it’s just so cool.  I think it’s a figeater beetle. (Don’t you LOVE the internet? So helpful!)

Anyway, just thought I’d share some pictures, mostly for my Auntie. (Love you, Auntie!)  More to come, I’m sure, since I’ve found my cable. But I’ll try to limit the spider pictures. :)

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Well, then!

If you look at the last post, the post from this morning, you’ll see that I had planned to go to Santa Cruz with the girls today. We had just started on our way when I got a text from one of my best friends telling me that she was pretty sure that she was going into labor. I texted back that we were on our way to Santa Cruz, and did she need me to stay around instead? At that point I just pulled into a parking lot and waited for her reply, and pretty soon her husband called to see if we could take their boys when we got back from Santa Cruz. I told them that I was turning around and heading back to my house, and that they should just bring the boys over.  An hour later, they still weren’t here, and I checked my phone to find a message that the contractions had gotten stronger and that they were just heading to the hospital. I called to find out where they were so that I could come get the boys, and discovered that they weren’t at the hospital- the baby was apparently in a hurry, and my friend gave birth at home, as they were heading out the door for the hospital! So her husband brought the boys over, and they spent the day with us. We made a cake to celebrate their new little baby sister’s birthday, and the kids played and played.

And while they played, I read a book. An entire, lovely book. It was The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley- the 2nd in the Flavia de Luce books. (I wrote about the first a couple days ago.) These books are really very good. Solid mysteries, great complex characters, interesting diversions and misdirections. I just got the 3rd on my haunted Kindle, and will be starting it tonight. And finishing the book today puts me at 35 books finished so far this year, which is ahead of where I need to be for my goal of 50 by the end of the year.

Also, I had a realization today about homeschool. I think I’m overthinking it. (Ha! Imagine that!) But really, we homeschooled all last year, it just wasn’t official.  And Z learned a ton, and it worked just fine. The way we live, the things that we do, on the whole, are educational. We were going to go to the Natural History museum today, and when my mom commented that we’d be doing two field trips in one day I kind of laughed- I wasn’t thinking of it as a field trip, just as a fun thing to do. So I just need to take a breath and remember that I know what I’m doing. It will all work.

And just so I have them in an accessible place, some quotes that have struck me recently:

“Inspiration from outside one’s self is like the heat in an oven. It makes passable Bath buns. But inspiration from within is like a volcano: it changes the face of the world.” Flavia de Luce’s Aunt Felicity

“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.” Khalil Gibran

“No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven!   No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!    The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see – and to see we have only to look. ” -Fra Giovanni

“We have a choice. We can seek for the bad in others. Or we can make peace and work to extend to others the understanding, fairness, and forgiveness we so desperately desire for ourselves. It is our choice; for whatever we seek, that we will certainly find.” Dieter Uchtdorf

“The secret: Do good work and then put it where people can see it.”

“The day you realize that you’ve always had, like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the power to get where you want to be is sobering. It’s the day you grow up. You finally understand that the quality of your life, good and bad, has been in your hands all along. Now you have to make the choice to perceive that reality as a burden, or a gift.” – Lisa Duggan

And now I’m going to go read. Bye!