Growing Avocado

I have an overripe avocado.  Since we are busy with Spring planting I thought Beauty might enjoy getting this set up.  Here's a video on how to do it.

 I really like the information from Hand Grown in California.

I had one avocado tree before but I managed to kill it.  Or rather, the weather killed it.  Mr. Father and I have plans in the works for a greenhouse next Spring.  If this seed sprouts it should live pretty happily in a greenhouse during the winter.

All the supplies needed.

Beauty cuts the avocado, removes and washes the seed off.

 

 Mrs. Mother helped insert toothpicks.  Beauty set the seed in the glass, filled with enough water and placed it next to the kitchen window.  Now we wait.

Garden Web

Homesteading Unit

I've decided we are going to work on a homesteading unit.  I'm not sure of all the details yet.  We've been doing a few things that I will now organize and officially call a Homesteading Unit.  Two things we have been working on:

• Gardening

• We read Little House In the Big Woods

I recently ordered a movie off Amazon.  This is Volume 1.  There are 4 volumes so far.  Click on the pic to order off Amazon.

I've watched about half of this and it will work for watching in short segments.  The kids are doing almost all the work.  I was really surprised with how capable the children are at cutting vegetables.

Continuing with this unit we have:

• Started reading Little House on the Prairie
• Made Beauty take more responsibility with jobs in the garden

Things I want to do:

• Research about plants Beauty is growing
• Research about bugs we find
• Drawing plants/bugs for art
• Harvesting vegetables/fruit
• Cooking and preserving the harvest

Is anyone else working on a unit like this?

Week 18

Beauty has been spending most of her extra time outside learning to ride her bike better.  She has pretty much covered every way you could fall off a bike.  She has definitely earned this patch.  I bought her a new helmet, too.  She may need some bubble wrap soon.

Something we really enjoy working on is gardening.  This is one of Beauty's pumpkin plants.  It now has a couple of blooms.  Pumpkins won't be far behind.

I ordered two more books.  They are both Kumon books.  One is for telling time and the other is for counting coins.  I didn't feel these were covered enough in her other books.

I've been pondering a lot over her curriculum.  I'm not satisfied there is enough work in areas I think are important.  Mostly math and handwriting.  Beauty has been working out of her curriculum's math books but also a book from Lifepac.  The handwriting book's lessons are too short and Beauty can easily do a full page of work.  She is going to finish her book in a few weeks.  I've ordered her a second grade handwriting book.  I think she'll start cursive writing when she officially starts second grade in the fall.

Beauty is also working on writing letters and addressing envelopes.  I'm not sure how relevant learning how to address envelopes is these days with the shrinking service of the post office.  I think it's important to know how to decipher where the mail came from, though.  

We still have yet to embrace any formal science unit, unless spending time in the garden counts.  Maybe when she completes another of her books I will use that time slot for her science.  It's one of those classes that will require planning on my part.  Bleh.

It's a Bike!

Sorry for that little lapse in time.  Other adventures were happening and I couldn't get to writing.  

So we left off with Beauty doing something charitable.  Something that was her own idea.  Beauty learned how to ride her bicycle without training wheels.  She is constantly wanting to go outside and ride her bike now.  

The "problem" is her best friend doesn't have a bike.  Her friend is in a foster family and I won't get into any of that except to say there's no bike.  Beauty asked me a very simple question:  "Can't we just buy her a bike?"  I don't know if you've seen the price of kids' bikes lately but it could easily be around $50-80.  That's simply an amount we don't have to spend on a bike for a friend.  

The next day we headed into Goodwill to browse around and look for something I could paint and upcycle.  Lo and behold there was a bike!  The price was $10.  This was an amount that not only could we afford but Beauty wanted to use her allowance money.  She bought the bicycle with her allowance money for her best friend so they could ride bikes together.  Now they are the 2 happiest little girls riding around on their pink, slightly old and rusty bikes.  An amazing act of charity and friendship in my book.

Mr. Father decided Beauty needed a killing tool bow and arrow set.  Boy does she love this.  Boy does she have a lot to learn.  Mostly not loading it backwards and shooting herself.  Ahem.

Charity Begins At Home

I've been in awe of some posts I've seen of families and their charitable work.  It's. so. much.  I would pretty much need a clone to get half of the things done they are accomplishing. 

I pat them on their back.  Their bar is too high for me to reach.  Sometimes *something* steps in and opens your eyes to a charitable contribution so perfect. 

Today we arrived at the perfectly formed contribution.  It was a statement said but not thought about it.  Then we talked about it out loud, "Well, what if we did what Beauty suggested?  How much is this costing us?   What are we teaching Beauty?  What is the end result?"  Tomorrow it will be finished...

To Be Continued...

Girl's Engineering Day at University of Texas

We finally did something uber educational.  I registered Beauty for Girl's Engineering Day at UT last fall and the day arrived to see what this was all about.  

The day was beautiful!  This made the wait time tolerable.  This is my only complaint about the event.  It didn't start till 2 p.m.  I wrote it down on my little post event questionnaire, too.  Before the event started Beauty did a lot of this:  

One kind group had set up a trebuchet and was lobbing water balloons.  This was fun and I may have been a little more enthusiastic than Beauty.

Once the event started we were given a list of activities to try and could come and go as we pleased.  Beauty was happy to see what a real college classroom looks like and cut her finger trying to put up the desk top.  Injury!  Hopefully she will not retain that as "College will kill you!"  A quick band-aid and we were back in the game.  

Beauty chose to do a bubble wand making class.  She had to make a bubble wand using a choice of various materials.  After she was happy with her wand she took it outside to test it.

Know why everyone is looking at her?  Because her heart-shaped bubble wand worked.  She blew giant bubbles.  Check.  Next activity.

Her other favorite activity was making a dome out of toothpicks and gumdrops.  This was especially delicious educational.  Beauty received a bag with toothpicks, gumdrops, and instructions for putting it together.  Afterwards, there was a test site to see how it would hold up under earthquake conditions (everyone pound your hands on the table).  

There were some other interesting activities like making a helicopter bunny and making a kazoo that she enjoyed.  After a few hours we were ready to leave to go shopping since we were in the big city.  My most memorable and exciting thing was running into the woman who I had originally talked to about starting homeschooling.  We were both on the fence about it and I had started researching  into it.  I had wanted to give her a book and then hadn't seen her since.  What a nice surprise to see her!

Overall, I liked this event and I hope we will be able to attend next year.  I hope it's earlier in the day, too.  It was well organized and well staffed.  If you have the chance to go to one of these you should.


*This week we've seen huge strides in learning.  Beauty taught herself how to ride her bike!  That's a real win in my book.  She learned how to tell time.  She's 2 weeks into learning subtraction and yesterday she started adding double digit numbers. 

It's Not A Violin!

A package came in the mail the other day.  I was very nervous.  Mr. Father had said he ordered Beauty a "surprise."  I guess the surprise was on me because instead of getting Beauty a violin, Mr. Father got her a ukulele.  Mr. Father thinks this will be easier to teach her and he did have a terrible time trying to find a violin teacher.  Apparently they are all booked up teaching hundreds of great violin players.  

I don't think I'm out of the woods yet on escaping a violin.  I do appreciate Mr. Father not enrolling Beauty in something I don't think she's ready for.  We'll be taking a field trip later this year and then I think it will be unavoidable.  Why can't she like playing the triangle? 

Beauty wanted to grow Venus Flytraps like some she saw in a movie.  We are trying to grow them from seed but I'm not sure it will work out.  We may have to go buy some actual plants.  So far all I see is just dirt.  It was kind of funny when I opened the seed packet and pretended it was trying to eat me.  Beauty screamed and ran for Mr. Father, "the seeds are eating Momma!"  Ha ha ha, this stuff never gets old.

Our latest livestock.  Two mice.  Yuck!  One is named Mr. Cutie and the other I named Oh-My-God-It's-Climbing-The-Cage-That's-Disgusting.  Beauty really likes them and is proving to be very responsible.  She keeps the cage away from all windows and doors in case the cats look inside the house.  The first thing she does every morning is feed them.  Mr. Father helps her do the rest since I refuse to take part in this rodentfest.  

 
This is a picture I took at one of the Playscapes we go to.  Wonderful day with lots of kids.

 This weekend we'll be going on an actual homeschool fieldtrip/adventure.  I'm looking forward to stepping into that arena. 

• This week Beauty learned how to read a clock.  
• She's moving along quickly in math. 
• I'm wondering about ordering another handwriting, and writing book because she'll finish them with 12 weeks left to go in her school year.  I don't think I want her to take a 12 week break on this.
• I estimate that she will finish her school year in July this year.  It is taking a little longer since we started her over in first grade.  
• I'm already pondering over her curriculum for next year.  Is this normal?  I suspect it is.

Week 11 and New Eyes

This week we had a lot of fun.  We had a sleepover in our living room on Wednesday.  We watched movies related to our History lessons and another movie about Earth science. 

Beauty had her first eye exam.  She hasn't shown any signs of vision deficits but we figured she was cursed since Mr. Father and I both need glasses.  She did well on her test and we are patiently waiting for 2 pairs of glasses to be shipped.  I ordered both pairs for $30 from Zenni Optical.  We've ordered from them before and have been happy with their product. 

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We went bowling again this week.  Here's our scores.  Beauty's is the top one.  She prefers to be called Cat Girl when bowling.  She enjoys the game and will take simple hints, like "roll the ball down the middle" really well.  

The violin thing has taken hold, much to my chagrin.  Mr. Father and Beauty are conspiring against me to get her enrolled in lessons.  I'm going to go buy earplugs now.

One Week Break and Ancestry

The other week we had some family visiting and decided to take the week off from school.  The weather was beautiful and we spent time outside playing and enjoying life.  Spring is almost here and we have garden preparations in full swing.  A few more weeks and we'll get to start planting seeds and working all of that into homeschooling.

I foolishly went to the Ancestry.com website.  I will never be able to get out.  I thought I would just add a little information from a small book my mother wrote.  It turns out to be full of pics and little bits of info.  So now I am slowly adding each picture and bit of info to the right person.  Eventually we hope it will lead us to some present day relatives.  Mr. Father swears we were related to some Lord Baltimore down the line.  Of course I say we are connected to Jane Seymour the wife of King Henry VIII.  It's sort of like playing ancestry poker.

Now we are back to school.  The break was worth it.  Beauty was able to jump right in and start subtraction.  I can almost see the lightbulbs going on over her head.  

We're planning to attend a book fair warehouse sale.  I don't know how good the prices will be.  I'm interested in finding another handwriting book, some more phonics drill work, and math drill work.  

I'm feeling more confident with tweaking her curriculum and using things like Netflix for educational videos.  I could stand to bend more in the artistic department.  

Overall I think we're doing good.

Ended the Week Both Up and Down

We've come to the end of week 9.  I've seen some recent attitude changes in Beauty.  They aren't good changes.  It's nothing terrible.  I think we are going through some boundary testing.  I believe it came from the break the public school had and a brief 2 week change in my work schedule.  

I still like our schooling.  I feel I have lots of choices about how the day goes and where it will take us.  The amount of time Beauty is spending is 2-3 hours per day on her work.  She typically is most comfortable starting at exactly noon.  I like this, too.  I'm not an early riser with an intent to start working.  I like to get up around 8:00 and have my coffee, work on some housework and then feel like I can relax and work with her on schoolwork.  After schoolwork we're heading towards dinner plans and some play time outside.  After dinner we are usually taking care of the nighttime routine and picking out books to read.  After bedtime Mr. Father and I party like it's 1899.  Or at least that is what Beauty is sure we are up to.

My only down moment this week was during the homeschool playgroup.  Pretty much all the moms in this group are in the same program.  They are using Classical Conversations.  The way I understand it is they meet every Monday and pretty much all the homeschoolers in this little town are in it.  I know this isn't true because we aren't in it and I know one other mom who isn't.  Anyway, they meet on Mondays and work on the Classical Conversations curriculum all day.  The parents are also required to be a teacher at some point.  The rest of the week the kids work on things at home that relate to the curriculum.  It seems like the bridge program between homeschool and a regular school.  They also work along a timeline.  So whatever period of the timeline they are on they are studying the various history, composers, artists, etc. of that time.  I like that part about it.  However, it is one the one day Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother both work.  Plus, I'm not too keen on teaching other kids.  

Somethings else they all have their kids in is violin lessons.  With the same teacher.  It's starting to feel a little Stepford here.  I thought homeschooling was more about doing your own thing, not the same thing everyone else is doing.  I honestly don't think I could stay in the house if I had to listen to Beauty learning the violin.  I know what it sounds like when someone is trying to learn and practicing a lot.  It sounds awful.  Pretty much like you're killing a cat.  I wouldn't last 10 minutes listening to it.  I guess we will have to relegate ourselves to feeling a little left out of this group.  

The good thing that happened this week was bowling.  I took Beauty bowling again to see if she still likes it.  She actually got better.  Friday morning is the little old lady league day.  Beauty enjoyed being the center of attention while lobbing her ball and hearing all the little old ladies giggle and say how cute she is.  I guess we will stick with bowling for now.

One other good thing for this week.  The lady at work who was thinking about homeschooling her two kids decided to go for it.  The kids are enjoying it and dad is loving being the primary teacher.  

Next week:  We are starting subtraction.  I should probably buy beer.

Bowling for Exercise

During the cold winter months we're having a hard time finding physical activities that we like and don't cost an arm and a leg.  It doesn't snow here otherwise we would happily be outside every day.  Nope, it rains here.  It is dreary.  It is cold.  It is damp.  Exercise usually consists of one of us walking across the room and looking out the window then walking back to our couch/bed/chair.  On tolerable or short chore days we will work in the garden for an hour.  I don't like to ride bikes in the winter.  

As for classes we have to pay for such as dance, gymnastics, horse riding, we will have to wait.  We've been hit with the new taxes and healthcare bug and so far estimate losing around $300 per month.  So paying for classes is out of the question for now.

We stumbled on an alternative.  Bowling.  I love bowling.  I've bowled for years, though not seriously.  I played on a league once because I got a free ball at the end.  I also took a semester of bowling in college because it seemed more fun than running around a track.  

Anyway.  Once a year Mr. Father will take me bowling as he says, "to give me an ego boost."  This is because Mr. Father sucks at bowling.  In fact, this is the only game I can beat him at.  This time we found out that Beauty likes bowling, too.  A lot.  And it's cheap.  Like $2 a game cheap.

It also takes a long time.  Child bowlers are notorious for rolling the ball very slowly, almost painfully, to the pins.  The pins aren't so much knocked down as laid down, like they're taking a nap.  Kids tend to look funny bowling.  They have trouble walking and trying to wield their 5 pound cannon ball. 

Here are our scores at the end.  Beauty is asking when we can go bowling again.  I think we'll be able to do this once a week.  Part of our exercise problem solved!

Week 8 With A Sleepover

Coming into week 8 and things are a little off.  This is completely due to my work schedule being altered by one day.  I need to remember this in the future.  Although I say homeschool really frees up my schedule and I have no time constraints, that is not completely true.  Beauty needs order.  She needs a schedule.  She needs to know that Mr. Father will teach her on Mondays and I will teach her on Tuesdays.  Not the reverse.  

Beauty is also old enough to piece together that public school kids are out of school right now.  This has made her more resistant to doing school work.  I'm not letting it slide.  Especially with her reading.  This is definitely an area of practice-makes-perfect for her.  No practice makes her illiterate.  

A fun thing happened yesterday.  Beauty got invited to a sleepover.  In the middle of the week!  Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother went to a grownup restaurant and celebrated.  In fact, Beauty gets invited to a lot of places.  I think people are thinking, "well, it's not like you're doing anything else."  

But we are.  In fact we did our rocket experiment.  It didn't shoot way up into the sky like we had planned.  It had more of a horizontal trajectory.  This led to Mr. Father running wildly across the yard to chase after it.  There's also a funny video that I've carefully hidden for all eternity of me being scared out of my mind when the rocket takes off and the camera going all wiggly.  That's why we bought the box with 3 rockets...