Staycation in Louisville, KY

One of the blogs I follow, Smockity Frocks is hosting a Staycation in all 50 states today. She doesn't have Kentucky, so I decided to write a blog post and see if she'll link to it. It just so happens we are planning a staycation and I had already been doing some research. This list is by no means exhaustive of all the great things to do in Louisville, but these are the things that interest my family.




The Louisville Zoo

Every year my husband's father gives us a family membership for Christmas, but even if it weren't already free for us, it's still a good bargain. Adults are $12.95, Children 3 - 11 are $9.95 and 2 and under are FREE!

They just opened the new Glacier Run exhibit housing a polar bear and a grizzly family, including two of the most playful cubs you'd ever want to see. Calistoga Springs is included in zoo admission and is a fun water park when you need to cool off.

Waterfront Park

Eighty-five acres of green space right next to the river in downtown Louisville. There are water fountains, playgrounds, and picnic tables too. Unfortunately, there was a lot of flooding this spring, so we may not have as many fun free events this year.

Slugger Museum

Giant Bat - need I say more? Adults $10, Kids 6 - 12 $5, Kids 5 and younger FREE! Watch bats being made in the factory and tour the museum for fascinating baseball history. This is on "museum row" downtown, right across the street are the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville Science Center, and Frazier History Museum, which are all great, but now we're talking $$ if you do all of them. I would recommend hanging out downtown for the day, and if the Bats are in town, catching a game later that evening.

Louisville Nature Center - totally free

We've never been to this center, so it's definitely on our list. From the website, they offer widflower gardens, hiking and a bird blind, along with events on occasion.

Blackacre Nature Preserve

Another favorite outdoor place is hidden away in Eastern Louisville. Plan your visit to coincide with one of the many weekend events they offer during the summer, most of which are free. A favorite is the weekly Saturday morning farm feedings.

Of course, for our staycation, we have the local pool which is paid for under our condo maintenance fees, and if it rains, we can always have a movie day using Red Box movies for $1 each, or through Netflix for free (under our subscription).

Other fun (free) things include: the library's summer reading program and bi-weekly events to go along with it; the Speed Art Museum; picnics at one of the many parks designed by the famous Frederick Ohlmsted; movie nights at the zoo (free with admission...or membership); the list goes on.

If you live here and have some other ideas, please leave them in the comments for me.

Funny Story

Today, there was an aritcle in the paper about local protestors of the Egyptian situation. An accompanying picture showed someone holding a sign that said "END U.S. SUPPORT FOR DICTATORSHIPS".

So I had just picked up that section and Samuel hops over to me and reads the sign out loud. Always on the look-out for a teaching moment, I asked him if he knew what "dictatorship" means.

Very seriously, he tells me that no he doesn't know that word, but that that he knows what dictation is, so his teacher at school must be a dictator! Actually in a way, I guess she is. LOL

Making Butter

Samuel is reading Little House in the Big Woods and loving it. In one of the chapters, Laura details the butter churning chore. We made a simplified version:

1. Fill a clean baby food jar half-way with heavy whipping cream.
2. Shake, shake, shake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Obviously this step is better as a shared task. The cream goes to a whipped cream stage where you think shaking it isn't doing anything, and then all of a sudden the buttermilk starts to separate and the butter granules form. Just keep shaking.
3. I then dumped the contents of the jar into a strainer over a glass. Buttermilk was considered a treat for Laura's family and Samuel really liked it, too.
4. Here was my mistake...I used a spoon to try to get all the liquid out and some of the soft butter also went through the strainer. Next time, I'll be gentler.
5. You can salt it, but we didn't. We spread it on saltine crackers so that's where our salt came from. Delicious.
6. It only makes a couple tablespoons, but it was more than we wanted at the moment, so we put it in a small container covered in the fridge.

Honestly, I was a little intimidated by the idea of making butter. In fact, I bought the cream and waited until the best buy date before doing it. But Samuel kept pushing for it...he's such a crafty-minded boy. Too bad he got me for a mother :-)

The Spy Game?

My son has a play date today with a girl from his class. They created a "Spy Club" which seems to consist, in part, of hiding "spy gear" around the house. I'm not sure what this spy gear is though.

Then they sneak (very loudly) around hiding behind the sofa watching me type on the computer until they burst out laughing and run away. This has already happened a handful of times.

I wish I could remember how the seven-year-old mind thinks, because I'm sure this is a great game, but my adult brain just can't seem to figure it out.

Afterschooling in the Second Grade

School started on the day after Labor Day. With only three school days, there is approximately 4 hours of homework a week, with the majority of it being done on Mondays and Fridays. That curriculum/work-at-home has little to no flexibility.

So how do I afterschool? I supplement what they are already doing, and add in a few other things that I think might be interesting and fun.

They are reading The Courage of Sarah Noble. We read a different pioneer story with a boy as the main character. It also dealt with the issue of slavery, as the family in question was moving to Kansas Territory before it became a state so that when it did become a state, they could help make it a free state.

Now we are reading A Cricket in Times Square, which is on several "lists".

They are studying cave art as the first unit in art. I have ordered some additional books from the library, but the book on Jackson Pollock came in first. We skimmed it and then Samuel made his own art inspired by Pollock, using crayons instead of paints.

They are not working on multiplying or dividing in math, but we have had a half dozen or so times over the last month where we need to divide by 2 or 3, and I have had him "help" me figure it out.

As Cub Scouts gets in full swing, it seems that there are many opportunities for him to learn something and get rewarded (with a patch, belt loop, or pin) at the same time.

And there are ALWAYS animals. This is his main passion, if an average 7-year old has a passion. Be the Creature with the Kratt brothers is a new series being recorded on our DVR. We also have a binder where he received animal cards in the mail every 2 months, as well as many zoo trips. He knows things about animals I never dreamed existed.

So, even though I don't teach him everything at home, I am still "in charge" of his education. Thank goodness for his wonderful school, with curriculum I would choose if I were homeschooling, and teachers who really care.

Second Grade!

Samuel has finished his first week of second grade. I thought it would all be review. Oh no. They started reading The Courage of Sarah Noble, learned five Latin words, and began the learning the 2,9,11 triplet. In first grade they learned the +/- facts by "fact houses"; this year they'll learn all the fact triplets up through 18, as well as multi-digits with carrying and borrowing. He's loving it all and very proud of himself for being a second grader.

I'm still dedicated to afterschooling to his interests (like animals), providing good literature as bed-time reading, and encouraging creative play during non-school hours.

Samuel's extra-curricular activities this year include Awana and Cub Scouts, and in mid-October he wants to pick up swimming again.

I never wanted an only child and I always wanted to homeschool, but I love my life the way it turned out.

"Math" Book Recommendation

This book is hilarious! I would link to amazon here so you can see it, but I can't get it to work right now.

The book is called "Math Curse" by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. The narrator is a student whose teacher puts a "math curse" on him/her with this statement, "You know, you can think of almost everything as a math problem." So, of course, the narrator proceeds to have a full day of being driven crazy by thinking of everything as a math problem.

The part that cracked us up so much we had to take a break is from the the page where the narrator is describing how each non-math subject is turned into a math problem:
"English is a word problem: if mail + box = mailbox:
1. Does lipstick - stick + lip?
2. Does tunafish + tunafish + fournafish?"

Fournafish...I'm even chuckling as I type this. There are a few real problems in the first few pages, but more importantly to me, this book shows that math can be fun (or funny...whichever way you want to look at it). We've been struggling with this a little because school sent home a bridge/review math workbook that needs to be turned in to his second grade teacher when school starts.

And on a totally unrelated note, Samuel and I have been team playing Family Feud on Facebook (my account). A few days ago, one of the Fast Money questions was "What do people call the smartest kid in school?" Samuel blurted out "awesome". I love that his school has a culture where the smartest kids are admired and not called names, like nerd, which happened to be the #1 answer.

Busy Summer

Summer is getting to be a little busier than I planned, but I seem helpless to slow it down.

The second week of June, we spent in Edisto Beach, SC, which is not a real touristy beach and I felt that we were just enjoying each other and the down time. Samuel and Chris loved playing in the waves together and finding shells to bring home. It was great that they got to spend so much time together every day. I did not bring Samuel's workbooks with us. We read together as a family each night and Samuel had a book he had brought to read for fun and finished a few chapters.

When we got back, it was to an e-mail from school that we were to pick up a Math workbook for the students to finish during the summer and turn in to their teachers. So, now we have Math every day, cursive 3 times a week, and a summer reading list to work on (complete with "book reports" - one page that is half filled with a drawing). All this to turn into the teacher at the beginning of the school year.

I am actually fine with this in theory, but I had planned on doing my own math and writing reviews with him in a more fun/less workbook-y way.

Then he has friends wanting play dates, swim lesson once a week, our family volunteer commitment once a week. VBS one week, zoo camp one week, fun day camp one week. I am working about 5 hours a day Monday through Thursday, and I am starting to feel like that old commercial "Calgon take me away!"

I really didn't realize I was "overprogramming" but that is exactly what happened. I have to find a way to slow things down, at least for Samuel, so that summer can be a more relaxed, fun time for him.

Last Day of "Away" School

...equals first day of summer home school! We do some after-schooling during the school year, but summer is so much more fun. Samuel loves school and learning, and is actually excited that he has some summer assignments.

In addition to the summer reading list where he has to turn in simple book reports (consisting of the title, author, sentence about the book, and a drawing) at the beginning of the school year, this year, he also has a summer cursive practice book with 3 assignments per week scheduled. Each page has 2 exercises, out of

1. practicing a particular letter,
2. copying a verse, quote, or grammar rule, and
3. listing certain things (like nouns that have a "b" in them, for example, or names of 4 of your friends).

His teacher also sent home a "bored bag" filled with little strips of paper with something to do written on each one. They can simply reach in, pull out a strip of paper, and follow the instruction. I'm planning to get him a special notebook to record the ones he chooses. Here are some of them:

1. Begin at 34. Count as far as you can by 10's.
2. Write words belonging to the _ig family. Read your list to someone. Write a story with those words.
3. Write the vowels on a sheet of paper. Think of three words for each vowel sound.
4. Go outside. Find out which direction is North, South, East, and West. Write what you see when you face each direction. Illustrate.
5. Cut pictures of foods. Make 5 categories: Dairy Products, Meats, Furits & Vegetables, Breads & Cereals, and JUNK. Arrange the picutres in the right category.
6. Plant something outside or help take care of a garden.
7. Write all the number facts you can think of that have 12 as the answer. (they did not do these facts in the first grade)
8. Use only the letters in your name to make as many new words as you can.
9. Find an object in your house that begins with each letter of the alphabet.
10. Fill the sink with water. Put a towel down on the floor. Gather objects that can get wet. Predict which ones will sink and which will float. Test your predictions.

And there are many many more. If I get any comments asking for more of these, I'll write them in another post.

For my part, I plan to

1. Have him read for 20 minutes every day and write his book report on finishing a book.
2. Do his cursive book 3 times per week.
3. Choose from the bored bag 3 - 5 things per week.
4. He will have swimming class once per week and 1-2 hours 2-3 times per week in the neighborhood pool.
5. Read alouds according to interest. Right now we are reading from the Burgess Animal Book. We recently tried Twenty-one Balloons, but he wasn't ready for it, which disappointed me since I was really enjoying it. I have a list I work from, but only continue to read a particular book if he's interested. If he's not interested, that book gets moved to the bottom of the list. Usually by the time it comes around again, he's ready for it.
6. We're going to learn to sing "In the Garden" for my father for his birthday in September, since that's his favorite hymn (he calls it "Andy Walks With Me").
7. We'll continue to work on the States Song (Turkey in the Straw tune) and the Bible Book Bop (a Go Fish song), both of which we currently get lost in the middle :-)
8. Playing Yahtzee is a great way for practicing addition, including regrouping and carrying (when we add up the final points), with some minor introduction to multiplication. We just started a new game tonight and it went so well, I told him we could play every night.
9. We will continue our weekly service committment helping in a local collection ministry (they collect and sort donated items to send to area ministries, sometimes having a "drive" to meet a specific need).
10. Other learning opportunities as they come up. We are always on the look-out for these opportunities.

Crayon Logic

One of my favorite things about the internet is that you can find such great ideas from ordinary people just like you. Not like me, though. I am a great collector and user of other people's ideas :-)

One of these great ideas is using ordinary crayons in logic puzzles. I have seen wonderful logic books, mainly from Critical Thinking, but they are very expensive, and well, it's still a workbook. My child looks at all things workbook with suspicion. But I have great luck in using games to teach. And this looks suspiciously like a game to me, and for a very reasonable price.

I just purchased the Level 1 logic set. I plan to use it on summer days that are too hot or too rainy to be outside. I'll let you know in a future post how much I like it.

Check it out at Ginger snap shots.

Need a Laugh?

Oh my, I haven't laughed this hard in a long time...

Book Review

A friend of mine recently recommended this book to me - The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. She was using this book in her decision to keep her daughter (who turns 5 in June) in preschool for the Fall and wait until the next year to start her in Kindergarten.

Now since my son turned 5 in July 2008 and started Kindergarten that same year, I guess I was feeling a little defensive. Also, I was a "young" first grader (they didn't have mandatory Kindergarten when I started the school system).

I don't really know where her child is in the "readiness", but it seemed in her e-mail that she was using this book to make her decision for her. She didn't mention her daughter at all in why she made her decision. Also, I don't normally "read" non-fiction. I don't know why I decided to read it.

I loved it! It's actually more about why certain people are successful and why others aren't. Only one example is given about age in starting Kindergarten being an unfair advantage to the older ones. All the stories though, were riveting, at least to me.

Actually, I kind of came away feeling that a home where the emphasis is on learning would be an advantage to any child, regardless of age. And it also gave me some things to be on the look-out for in helping Samuel be as "successful" as he wants to be, in whatever that might be.

So, I'm going to recommend it too, but for a totally different reason than my friend. And isn't that the mark of a really good book, anyway, that it can be different things to different people?

Spelling Bee!

Samuel's school is out for "Spring Break". The reason for the quotation marks should be obvious as, not only is it not even officially Spring yet, it's extremely cold outside. Really, it should be called "Trimester" break, since the second trimester just ended. He's doing great in every area except timed math fact drills. He is fairly motion-oriented and that doesn't make for quick work.

Normally they have a spelling test every Tuesday, but since they would be gone for a whole week, his teacher decided to have a class spelling bee yesterday on their words for the week. Whenever we do "bee" type studying, he makes lots of mistakes while he dances around to the tune of "The Spelling Song" or whatever he hears in his head.

So, I'm trying to get him to act like a real bee, spelling the words while standing still...no mistakes. I point this out to him and it's like a light bulb in his head. He actually won the class bee yesterday, and if you ask him, he is very surprised because he thought either Meg or Tristan were the best spellers in the class.

So, now I'm going to work on translating that to the timed math drills - 21 problems in 1 minute. And he thought he wasn't going to have any school next week!

The Sweetness in Classic Literature

Samuel received a Hardy Boys mystery in his classroom's Christmas book exchange. However, it was #3 in the series and he is one of those people who has to read the books "in order" even if they don't really build on each other. So we checked out #1 "The Tower Treasure" from our church's children's library and began reading it.

Now I don't want you to think I am confusing this with "The Classics", but since this book was originally published in 1927 and people still want to read it today, it has shown the undurance of "good literature".

We still have 6 chapters to go, but I want to say that even though the main characters, Joe and Frank Hardy, are teenagers, I think this is a great book to read to a six-year old. You can't say that about some of the teen literature out today.

Here is a really cute example of what I mean by "sweetness":
"...Frank's face lighted up, for he had recognized Callie Shaw, who was in his class at Bayport High. Frank often dated Callie and liked her better than any girl he knew."

Now isn't this much better sounding than today's world where boys and girls are acting like they are in adult relationships at age 13 and up? Just something I'm thinking about after watching Lifetime's "Pregnancy Pact" last night.

What We're Up To

Life is a little more hectic in the first grade than in previous years. I find myself with not as much to say or time to say it in. Here are some of the learning activities we've been doing:

Budgeting - using the Kid's Wealth Program.

Crafts - including painted and decorated wall letters and Christmas ornaments.

Math - for some reason he likes flash cards right now, so in addition to "living math" he is up to the 8's in addition and 7's in subtraction.

Art and Music Appreciation - saw The Nutcracker for the first time, as well as attended the lower and upper school Christmas Cantata which is a Lessons and Carols format

Compassion - shopped for two Christmas children and worked at the "toy store" for one charity's gift distribution.

Chores - cleaning, folding and putting away clothes, setting the table, helping in the kitchen.

Reading - began team-reading (I read one page, he reads the next, etc.) his first real chapter book, even if it is "twaddle".

Literature - read a wide variety of Christmas tales and poetry (Christian and secular) every day from Thanksgiving until December 26. I didn't keep an exact list of these, but I worked from another blog's list that I had cut and pasted a couple of years ago to my own Word Document, so I can probably re-create a list and may do that in a subsequent post.

Samuel's First Story

Totally out of the blue. A big secret. Samuel found a small empty notebook and decided on his own to write a story. Occasionally he asked me how to spell a word. Usually I would encourage him to use his phonics and see if he could figure it out first. Here is the finished product (I left in his spelling and grammar):

The place

ther was a 6 year old. he was A nice boy. Who Loved books! (a note at the bottom of the page to "Go on")

one of his books The Gengerbread man. another of his Books Was the place. The place It was his faveret book ever!

Onece he jumped into the Book. there Was candy. there was dinosaurs. even rainbows every day. But he got tired of eating candy he got a bellyache. he desidced he wanted to go back home. so he jumped Out of the book And went to bed

The End

Spelling and grammar aside, I was impressed with the fact that his story had a clear beginning, middle and end. Now that I know he is interested in writing stories, I think I will encourage it just a bit :-)

Swine Flu, Anniversaries, Afterschool, Vacations, and Birthdays

I just realized it had been a few weeks since I had posted, but since I don't have a post idea in mind, I'm just going to ramble about some stuff:

Swine Flu
There have been a lot of absences in Samuel's school, making me slightly paranoid. Not that the swine flu is much worse than regular flu, unless you have something else wrong with you. I'm paranoid just the same.

Anniversaries
My mother-in-law passed away almost a year ago. My husband doesn't talk about her at all. He didn't want to go visit her grave on Memorial Day or Mother's Day or her birthday. I'm worried he's bottling in his feelings.

Afterschool Efforts
Not going as well this year as last year. We still read at bedtime and look for educational opportunities at other times. Our two "spines", so to speak, "The Burgess Animal Book" and "The Story of the World". We don't read from these every night, but usually at least once a week. We have one novel from my "list" going at all times. I throw in poetry, living math books, living science books, artist and composer study periodically, but not regularly. There's a lot more homework this year, and less time with Dad (due to work and school schedules overlapping), so the time we have for this is significantly less. I also want to give him lots of free creative play time. I just think that's what he needs right now. So I'm happy with what we're doing, it's not what I planned.

Family Vacations
Four years ago this Christmas, my dad had a great year business-wise and gave all of us an extended family cruise. We all had such a great time together and we kept saying we're going to do it again soon. Well, it looks like "soon" might be next year (although it's not a gift this time, just all of us going to the same place). We've talked about another cruise or maybe renting a beach house. I'm hoping for someplace we can drive to.

Birthdays
I turned 41 on Sunday. Although other birthdays have had special significance for me, this one was just a number. I had a great day though. Samuel and Chris let me sleep in and fixed me cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Samuel gave me my fourth pair of annual Halloween birthday socks (after the first pair, I told Chris I didn't want any more Halloween socks or jewelry, which I have also gotten; he thinks it's funny to let Samuel get me a pair every year...now I love it)! Then he made me a sweet little bracelet of orange yarn and rainbow-colored shiny beads. We went for "Sunday Supper" at my parents house with my sibs. I just love spending time with my family!

There once was a...

Limerick!

Recently while surfing through our channel guide on PBS, I discovered something wonderful...The Electric Company is back on TV! It's actually an updated version and after watching the first episode we could DVR, I think it may even be better. It has some of the old favorite bits like the shadow people sounding out words. That doesn't really describe this, but if you are a fan, you should know what I'm saying, and if you aren't a fan, then just trust me :-)

But it's got some real characters with a short story running through it and phonics rules set to rap music. One of the favorites we've seen a few times now is the "Bossy R".

Anyway, back to my post title. The very first episode we watched had one of the characters accepting a dare to enter a limerick battle, but she didn't know what one was. Samuel loved the sing song rhythm so of course, I had to check out a couple books of limericks from the library. The first one is "There Once Was a Very Odd School" by Stephen Krensky with poems all about being in school. We are now ready for the second book titled "The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks" by John Ciardi. We've also tried our hand at composing a couple of limericks together. We're not that great at it. I'm not ready to post one of our joint efforts yet.

Another Fun Living Math Book

This fun living math book was too advanced for Samuel, but this one does offer a lot that he can do without my help and some that he can understand with my help.

Zookeeper for a Day plays into Samuel's love of animals as well as his love of math. The premise is that the child gets to walk in the steps of a zookeeper for a day and see how they use math in their jobs. Some is mental math and some needs a pencil, paper, and sometimes ruler. It's part of a Math Adventures series so I will have to see if we can find additional books.

So that's my share of the day! Hope you find it useful.

Homeschooling Dreams

There's a lot less time for homeschooling in first grade. I love Samuel's school, but I still hold on to that illusion that I am a homeschooler. He's in class 3 days a week, plus chess club and Awana. On Thursdays, he gets enough homework for Friday and Monday, but it's the school's homework, not mine.

I love his school. If I were a full time homeschooler, my curriculum would be very similar to their's. I still view myself as a homeschooler. I can't help it. I still faithfully read homeschool blogs and Yahoo groups. When will I give up my delusion?

I still have a booklist I put together for bedtime reading. This is fluid and other "fun" books get slipped in there. For instance, right now, we are reading the Burgess Animal Book, Story of the World, The Jungle Book (Kipling, not Disney), one of the A to Z Mystery series (Ron Roy), The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Cleary), and The Van Gogh Cafe (Cynthia Rylant - we love this). We don't read from each book every night. I let him choose which books, but not the same one two nights in a row, except for the A to Z Mystery which has very short chapters.

Also, periodically we will bring home another cool non-chapter book from the library (like a living math book or biography from Mike Venezia) or we read an old favorite in our home library. He also reads to me probably 4 nights a week.

So, I'm homeschooling, right? I'm homeschooling, but I'm not.