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.