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Back into the swing…..

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Sort of. Mostly. We started back to school yesterday. And for the most part it was a good day. If you calculate how “good” of a day it was based upon the number of times that your child melts off the couch or makes his grumble face. Or how much you have to redirect the younger child back to the task at hand. Yep it was a “good” day.

First up yesterday I pulled up my schedule. You know the master schedule that some of the crazy structured homeschoolers make at the beginning of the year. The one that takes a good long while to complete. The one that was completely missing and not in the folder it should have been in.

… ??? !!!

For a moment I almost went into a panic. Okay for a moment I probably did but internally because the boys don’t like it when mommy freaks out about computer stuff. Though my oldest did sympathize with a “Bummer.” Then I tossed my panic aside and set about doing the work of recreating at least a weeks worth of information. I thank our school boxes for making it easier than I feared it was going to be. Turns out we aren’t to badly behind though we aren’t quite where I wanted to be but I think perhaps more where the kids need to be at the moment.

I found a new option to track school assignments. And it’s for Mac! I’ll use it for a month before I really review it.

I think we were all somewhat happy to return to routine. The holiday rush and celebration was wonderful but also tiring. But I think the real test to that thought will be if the boys are willing students when they get up this morning!

Atoms Never Looked So Good

Monday, September 21st, 2009

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Science last week was not only fun but gave us visions of hot chocolate. The marshmallow atom experiments were a perfect way to introduce protons, neutrons and electrons. Today just for fun Jr. put together a water molecule using marshmallows. He also pointed out how he’d put the electrons in their proper energy levels. My geeky heart just expanded. On construction day Jr. made the first 10 elements on the periodic table. It took two bags of big marshmallows to get it done! Lil’B got in on some of the action too. But preferred to consume the hydrogen marshmallow atom and the helium marshmallow atoms then scamper off to play.

None of us felt brave enough to take on eating the Neon atom (that would be that last mountain of protons and neutrons).

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I see visions of neutron crispy bars and proton snacks in our future as well as electron hot chocolate. Don’t you?

Our current typical day

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Let’s be realistic about every 6 to 8 weeks we have a schedule revamping in a somewhat vain attempt to make things work more smoothly. This is the current version of our “schedule” for being more schooly than some we’re not very rigid in our schedule.

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But here goes our version of a Monday:

7am to 8:30am Wake up and roll out of bed. On a good day I am up first and have chores done before the boys are up. Typically my oldest is up before my younger son but not always. Today was a good day for them and both woke up around 8:00am.

9:30 (ish) Piano practice for the older boy while I tidy up the kitchen quick and send younger boy to play toys. I try to keep an ear on his playing to listen for troubling spots and wrong rhythms.
10:00 (ish) Older boy begins his round of independent (or mostly independent) work. Today I am working as well knitting a hat for a christmas present. So I’m hanging out at the table answering questions and discussing what he’s working on.

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At some point my younger son wanders in and is curious about what his brother is working on. It’s writing and his assignment is to write a paragraph about an imaginary crazy pet. Younger son loves this idea and decided to draw a crazy pet of his own.

We finish up with the crazy pets and move to math.

11:30 (ish) My oldest is having an easy time because it is still mostly review. Actually it is still review for my younger son too. Thankfully they like numbers so the repetition doesn’t cause to much of a problem. Gramps drops in on today’s lesson. Gramps and the boys have a discussion on multiplying 9 and the “trick” that you can see in the pattern. Without even thinking about it my older son practices his 9 times tables with his Gramps. I silently amuse myself with the fact we’ve not gotten to the 9′s tables yet in our math curriculum.

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Lunch Break! (And the lunch break “huff”)

During lunch we chat about our butterfly project and consider whether the ones that emerged today are ready for release. The boys skedaddle to play for a bit while I tidy up the kitchen and handle some of the other interruptions of the day: supper plans, grocery store run etc.

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We come back a bit later for my younger sons piano practice time. My older boy is reading his chapter book for the week: Man in the Iron Mask (abridged/junior version) which is set where we are at currently in history. This morning I checked to see how he was coming along and asked a few questions about the story. In amongst that he said he’d not picked his reading book. I said that IS your reading book this week! The look on his face was priceless as was the squawked “You mean it counts for both reading AND history!?”

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I did pretty well at somewhat live blogging our day. Of course I left out the dogs coming in and going out about five times. And the phone call from my brother that woke me at 7AM. And the four requests for snack, drink or other item of sustenance. From where I left off our day ran away with us starting with a small trip out to the garden which turned into a lot longer since we gathered some squash. By that time it was almost supper so I was in the kitchen. Then this and that and the other thing. Monday was a light day especially since we’re not back to science yet.

In truth our days lack a steady rhythm until mid-fall. Once we declare the garden done our days settle into a more static pattern. And one that I welcome wholeheartedly after the chaos of summer and early fall.