A Peak at Our Week: The One that Begun

Welcome Year 10!

In Our Homeschool This Week

On Wednesday, Jake woke up early (for him), nibbled a quick breakfast, grabbed his backpack and bagged lunch, and for the FIRST TIME EVER set off for public school with a friend. Not your TRADITIONAL public school, but a hands-on STEM charter high school without grades. And then Cati, Sam and I started our new year, right at the diningroom table.

So, How Did the Day Go?

6:15-7:30am Getting a Move On, Sort of

Jake and I got up and got moving at a snail's pace. I'd never consider us MORNING PEOPLE. Staying up late doesn't make the early hours appealing, but we'll adjust...eventually. I woke Cati and Sam before driving Jake 7 miles to meet up with a friend driving him to the school (which isn't nearby). 

7:30-9:00am Language Arts Block

I'm trying out a BLOCK SCHEDULE this year. Something new. Yeah, always tweaking. The kids started their new reading books, Bridge to Terabithia (Paterson) and Dinosaurs Before Dark (Pope Osborne), filled out a Who Am I worksheet (for their portfolios), started Grammar, and took their :groan: Spelling Power placement tests.

9:10-10:00am Math Block

I snagged a couple of Mind Bender books for FREE earlier this summer. Have you seen them? They're wonderful critical thinking puzzles. Anyway, we started Math with a "Bender Warm-up" and then plunged right into our text books, Saxon and Math-U-See.

10:00-10:25am Science Block...and a Shower

We're focusing on Life Science with notebooking and experiments this year. Cati is working out of a middle school Prentice Hall textbook and on-line website, and Sam will be doing Mr. Q's Life Science on-line free here. Cati took a shower and got dressed then did a few minutes of independent Science reading while Sam and I worked together on-line.

10:25-12:00n Band and Nibbles
We hopped into the van and headed off to the public middle school for Cati's first band practice. But while there, Sam and I got hungry so we drove to Subway, then back to the school for a picnic lunch on the grass. Cati ate her sandwich on the ride home, while reading her Language Arts book.

12:00-12:30pm Science Block Continued
We finished up our Science, notebooking information on the scientific method, and biotic and abiotic things.

12:30-1:15pm History Block, but Running out of Learning "Steam"

Looking for something video-based for U.S. History this year, I decided on the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC). Definitely for older students, we'll focus on just the videos and record people and events on our wall map from here, adding in Netflix documentaries and "America: Story of Us" videos (History Channel). It's a perfect, less focused way to end our school mornings.

1:15-4:30pm Free Time, Mostly
After chores, tidying up the livingroom - Ugh! Legos! - and catching up dishes, the kids biked and played with a friend that was in the neighborhood. And MAMA had some Facebook and Words with Friends time before vacuuming and sweeping and folding laundry and pondering what to make for dinner.

4:30-7:00pm Everyone's Day Wraps Up
I picked Jake up at his friend's house at 4:30pm. He was tired, but happy with his first day at B____. Today, the entire school went to a state park (with a BEAUTIFUL light house) and did team-building exercises. Not your typical public school!

I Rewarded By Kids This Week By

Having Chinese take-away to celebrate our first day back to school and going to Zeb's General Store for "penny" (i.e. QUARTER) candy!

7:00-10:00pm TV/Video Game Time and Off to Bed
After a productive, busy day, the kids and I settled down for SCREEN TIME before showers and climbing into bed. 6:15am will come much too soon again!

What about Fine Arts?
Did you notice that our schedule is "stream-lined" this year? and it didn't include fine arts? Oftentimes I over-schedule and over-complicate our day-to-day schooling. I have come to realize the VALUE in SIMPLICITY and allowing the kids more unscheduled learning and exploring time. I'm not ready to go UNSCHOOL though. :wink: Fine Arts will be accomplished on Fridays through a homeschool co-op starting in October. This Mama is concentrating on Core.

Our Favorite Thing This Week

Our FIRST Wellsummer hen egg! The "baby girls" are FINALLY laying! (Just in time too as 3 of our "old girls" are molting and have shut down egg production.) Just for comparison: L. to R. Pekin duck white egg, Ameraucana-Barred Rock hen pink egg and a Welsummer hen tan egg (which will get bigger as she lays more).

People and Places

On Tuesday we hopped into my friend's van with her and her kids and we headed to New Hampshire for some WATERFALL FUN. Diana's Baths is SUCH a cool spot to "hang out" and get wet! But the water is downright CHILLY!

And you know I would take my own photos too, right? LOL

As ALWAYS, linking up to these WONDERFUL blogs:

Take a Hike: Holt Pond Preserve

Over 400 wetland, field and forest acres make up Holt Pond Preserve in Naples, Maine, including a 41 acre shallow lake (with a maximum depth of 10 feet). There's a Red Maple swamp area to meander through as well as hummocks, "nutrient rich glacial deposits where hemlocks take root". Grey Herons nest in the area, but beavers, a variety of fish, moose, minx, and numerous species of birds also make this area their home. Moss, pitcher plants, swamp rose, water lillies, and a variety of broadleaf and evergreen trees grow abundant. It's a quiet, meandering 5.3 mile walk through wooded paths and on bouncy boardwalks that rest on floating sphagnum moss.

In no hurry, we strolled along the trail, stopping often and looking for signs of spring.  The swamp grass and broadleafs remain brown and yellowed from winter. We heard Canada Geese as soon as we reached the pond and soon they flew overhead, honking loudly. We searched for frogs along the pond's edges and swaying plant life beneath the water's surface, but only found Water Skiers flitting about the surface. Blue Jays squawked from the trees overhead.

We found different kinds of fungus and moss growing on both live and dead trees.

Cati searched and found some "baby" Fiddlehead Ferns just a few inches tall along the wetland areas. Fiddleheads can be harvested, cooked and eaten. (The taste reminds me of asparagus. Bleck! :wink:) Wintergreen was everywhere. The kids plucked some leaves to crush and smell.

We also located both male and female catkins. Can you tell which is which? (Hint: We call the male catkins 'bananas'.) Catkins are flower clusters on certain species of trees such as birch, willow, chestnut, and hickory and are either wind or insect pollinated. These males, old and brown from another season, are usually a yellow-green, but the females tend to be brownish cones.

Sam was quite fascinated with this grouping of plants in the middle of a ring of trees. The leaves felt "velvety" and were a vibrant green. (We're still working on identifying them.)

Along the way, we stopped for a snack break among some Fairy Houses that previous visitors had constructed. Inspired, Cati created her own house to go with the the others who were in "disrepair" from the winter months. Using only natural plants from around the area, she made a tipi-style house with an awning over the door, a garden of pine cones and a stick fence.

We decided to turn back after we reached about half-way and followed a narrow, deeply rutted dirt road back to the parking lot. It was getting warm and SOMEONE didn't pack enough food to satisfy the hikers. :wink: And trust me - hungry hikers make for grumpy explorers!