History is Alive :: Crowns of Theodora

I was excited to get to the Byzantine Empire. To me it's the start of the kingdoms, the knights, the ladies in waiting, Robin Hood, castles, monks...all that fun stuff.

So we started with Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora. It would have been lovely to make a mosaic like were so popular in the churches and castles that Justinian built but I knew that just wouldn't work for our days...grout, tile pieces, glue, oh no, just wouldn't do. We did look at a lot of pictures though. So I chose the Crown of Theodora as our craft project from the activity book. My kids really love wearing the projects we make and we had a bunch of beans, beads, and pasta left over from last years seed mosaics that I thought could pass well enough for jewels. Plus we still have bottle caps from a project last year (thanks Uncle K), I pulled them out thinking they'd be good jewels and the kids really enjoyed those.

There's a definite difference with the way a 10 year old, 7 year old, 5 year old and 3 year old go about decorating with glue and beans.

Our finished products after a few days of drying. Everyone was happy with the way they turned out. I couldn't talk anyone into stringing necklaces to wear off the sides like Empress Theodora did...maybe next time.

:: see his filled bottle caps to make green jewels - love ::

Love history!

:: Yarn Along ::

Joining Ginny, over at small things, again with yarn along. A single photo of a current knitting or crocheting project with a current read. I am really loving these posts, taking a moment to think about what and why I'm knitting or reading. I read...a lot. And I knit...not as much as I'd like but I do have 2-4 projects going either on the needles or in my brain.

I do love seeing what others are knitting and can always use some reading suggestions! Leave a comment so I can see what you're up to. And go over to Ginny's to see what others are up to.

On the needles :: Mr. Wiedz's sweater will be on the needles for a long time. I know it won't be done any time soon and now Mr. Wiedz knows it too, so that has given me a little freedom to move on to some other projects. Projects I can finish. First up, a hat for Mr. Wiedz. Since his sweater won't be done for this fishing season he asked for a hat that could be for this fishing season. In the spring when Mr. Wiedz picked out his sweater yarn he choose two colors we intended to hold together. Since the pattern wouldn't allow that he settled on just the green for the sweater so I have a skein of the brown wool to use for his hat. He was thinking it would be done in a day or two, but small yarn and small needles make this a little longer of a project. But not as long as the sweater.

I've also made huge progress on #2's sweater, the fishing sweater that will get done. Last Saturday during the Duck game and while at Cousin's weekend at the beach I got the second sleeve finished and both sleeves attached to the body! My first ever attempt. I think all went well. I'm trying to work as fast as I can as I really want this sweater to get finished up. I love it and he loves it and we can't wait for him to put it on!

On the nightstand :: I finished "Giants in the Earth" last night. I was determined because I could tell I only had pages left. But I was disappointed with the way it ended. I was telling #1 about it this morning. In what I told her she blamed "him" for the way it ended but I blame "her", the "her" that was so intriguing in the rest of the book. "She" disappointed me in the end. 

I don't have another book waiting to be started. We don't live inside city limits here so we have to pay a large fee for library cards which we haven't done yet. I've got some canning, knitting, schooling, sleeping, sewing, birthday planning to do anyway.

Rowing :: Oh, not rowing this week

I planned a short week this week as we headed out Friday morning for Cousin's Weekend 2011. (Mr. Wiedz's cousins and families have gotten together for a weekend each year for 3 years now...fun times.) Add to that some new lessons and my midwife appointment I knew we just wouldn't get much done. PLUS, I tried to match up the FIAR books with our history lessons and it just worked out to skip some weeks.

But that's not to say the little boys did nothing.

First up were horse lessons on Monday.

There is a wonderful ranch about 25 minutes from us (using the shortcut my good friend knew about) that #1 took lessons at last year. This ranch, Wild Ones Youth Ranch, uses their horses and their time as a ministry and so charges next to nothing for lessons. Next to nothing like #1 goes once a week (again this year) for $5/week for an hour group lesson. The little boys this year took part in the Dollar Days, $1 each for an hour of riding/chores.

The "chore" was brushing saddle blankets before the riding...

And brushing a horse after the riding. Tough stuff!

#1 had to take a minute with the horse since she was there too...

#3 and I also tried to stay up with his normal kindergarten work. Math, handwriting, history, science, etc. But I took this week to work on a couple of areas I was noticing a problem.

First up was place value. I downloaded Jolanthe's wonderful "Days in School" chart and used it last year, #2 was in charge of adding a day back then. #3's in kindergarten this year and so it is time for this chart to be his job, and for him to learn about place value. My mom laminated the chart for me this year and even used fancy magnet lamination. But #3 wasn't getting it. When we got to 9 days he said, "Mom, there's no 10." I told him (in an excited, I've got a secret for you kind of way) that I was going to show him how we "make" 10 the next day. All the next day (and the next and the next) brought was his frustration because he didn't "get" the concept.

So we hit the Dollar Store for some straws and some rubber bands and instead of reading lesson that day we sat down at the table and talked about the poor lonely straws in the ones cup who were just waiting until there were 10 of them so they could have a party. And look at these lucky 10 who got rubber banded together and put in the 10's cup for a party! Now there's 1 group in the 10's and 3 lonely guys in the 1's cup - 13 straws! I'm not sure if it stuck but I know he's not frustrated anymore and that's enough for me as we spend the rest of the year practicing and waiting ourselves for all those groups having little parties in the 10's cup to get together for the big party in the 100's cup - we get to have a party that day too!

The next area that was causing some issue was reading. I'm definately of the mindset that when they are ready, they're ready and until then there's only frustration and a dislike for reading if a child is pushed. I'm not wanting to push #3 but at the same time I think some consistant and gentle work on reading is appropriate. We're working through "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" which I used part of when #2 was learning to read. We went through the letter sounds part last year. So we have been working on part 2, short vowel sounds, 3 letter words. When we got to the end of that section #3 still wasn't even trying to sound out words on his own. He would wait for me to sound them out then he would put the sounds together to say the word. But I wasn't comfortable moving on.

The last day we used the book, I slipped the bookmark back at the beginning of the section before putting it away. The book suggests taking a month or two off but I'm not comfortable with that so I thought we'd just repeat the section. Then #3 saw the place the book mark was marking and got upset that that wasn't where we should be.

Hmmmm. Keep going even when I think he's not ready or make him upset by repeating?

Instead of either of those I pulled out our new alphabet letters and our Read! Build! Write! page and made cards out of the first lesson's words. We started simple. With the alphabet and the sounds they make. Then we went through the words. It was dramatically better. He sounded out many of the words by himself. Starting them and even working it out when he'd miss a sound. (I'm sure the chocolate chip after ever correct word helped.) We repeated the same words (without the writing) the next day and it was even better! So we'll be using this method (chocolate chips and all) to repeat the section and see if we don't see some encouraging progress.

Oh, I made our word cards both upper and lower case. The alphabet letters are uppercase and it was causing a lot of stress for him to first figure out which letters he was looking for. I'm hoping by doing the cards with both he'll start working that out himself.

We'll be back to rowing next week and I'm really looking forward to it - Lentil is up next!

:: this moment ::

A photo from the week. Not too many words. A simple moment, extraordinary, special. Something I want to remember, cherish, to pause over. If you have a "moment" leave a link in the comments for others to find and share.

inspired by soulemama.

I'm new to tomato canning...I'll never go back!

History is Alive :: Quills and Ink

We studied Constantine and the move of Christianity into Britain in our history last week. One aspect the book touched on was the monasteries and lives of monks. We learned how much work went into making a book and writing down history, the Bible, stories, etc.

So we made quills and ink.

Starting with finding feathers. The monks would find goose or swan feathers but we have our own flock of feather loosing animals in the backyard so that is where we went to look.

Next, we soaked the feathers in soapy water. I'm not sure the complete purpose of this step but possibly something about the oils of the feathers.

While the feathers were soaking we worked on our ink. The recipe in the book called for crushed walnut shells but apparently walnuts are a seasonal item and only available ANYWHERE in November-January/February. So I went with tea.

I let it steep for a long time and reduce so we'd have a strong brown color. I added vinegar to it after it was done...don't know why, the recipe called for it and all my internet looking suggested it so I went with it.

The next day we got out our feathers, trimmed them and set to work writing. I also put some vinegar into some straight grape juice concentrate to have another ink option.

I cut a small piece of felt for a blotter. After they dipped their quill they blotted it on the felt to get a clean line in their writing. Fun

The kids had a lot of fun with the writing. They liked trying the two inks and trying to write and seeing the different thicknesses of the writing as they moved the quill. It was a fun exercise.

:: Yarn Along ::

Joining Ginny, over at small things, again with yarn along. A single photo of a current knitting or crocheting project with a current read. I am really loving these posts, taking a moment to think about what and why I'm knitting or reading. I read...a lot. And I knit...not as much as I'd like but I do have 2-4 projects going either on the needles or in my brain.

I do love seeing what others are knitting and can always use some reading suggestions! Leave a comment so I can see what you're up to. And go over to Ginny's to see what others are up to.

On the needles :: I'm still working on Mr. Wiedz's sweater but since it is a known fact now that this sweater will not be done for this fishing season I'm taking the opportunity to knit on some other projects. It's looking like #2 WILL get a sweater in time for fishing season this year. I'm almost finished with the second sleeve and beginning to understand the general feeling I've always heard about second sleeves, they really do seem to take FOREVER! I'm holding out hope that the second sleeve will be finished up in the next evening or so and I can finish this sweater. I've also worked up a whole project that I haven't put up any pictures of...I'll be sharing that as soon as it's done blocking.

On the nightstand :: Giants in the Earth. Still. I'm really enjoying it but have NO time to read other than those before sleep moments and those don't last long either. The book is extremely overdue at the library but I've just got to finish and I have no renewals left!

Peaches

That season is here again. Time to put up peaches.

This year my cousin and I went picking pears. I asked before we left for the orchard if she was going to do peaches too. She said she'd called ahead to the orchard and this years Elberta's were small and hard to find.

Oh.

After all the children were loaded I ran into my sewing/canned food pantry/catch-all-room to check my supply of peaches. Maybe I could get away with doing none this year.

One jar stood looking at me, telling me that I needed to get peaches.

So after picking (my cousin picked while I held her precious baby) 150 pounds of pears to share. She had the "help" of her 2 year old, my 3 year old, 7 year old and our 2 10 year old girls. And did I mention it was 98 degrees? Not the greatest mixture but we made it work. Anyway, after the picking was done and we were wondering around the farm stand I decided to go ahead and pick up a box of peaches. I'm still not sure how it's sitting with me not to have pictures of peach picking this year...

They were small. And not all that ripe.

I sat them out like a good canner.

After a couple of days they made the garage smell good and looked ready...here we go!

#1 asked if she could help this year...really help.

We brought them in.

Canned them up.

And shared our "bounty".

The chickens really LOVE canning season.

We got 7 jars full when the peaches were nearly gone, and whatever was left was not ripe yet. So we loaded up the canner and immediately lost one jar to breaking in the water - dang it!

So after a pleasant day spent with my #1 girl I got 6 jars to add to the shelf in the catch-all-room. We've got one jar for Christmas morning and the others will be special treats reserved for just the right times.

And today we got a peach crisp from the rest of the peaches.

Here's to a better season next year, we'll need it!

Science :: Cells

We are all excited about science in the World of Wiedz this year. Last year was not such a great year in science. My little students wanted more than I was prepared to give them. I like to think that since it was our first year, I was just keeping my head above water with the homeschool stuff so science suffered. This year though is different...real cirrculum different...a plan different. And it is going really well.

This year we are doing two things differently. One, we are using Apologia Anatomy and Physiology as our cirrculum. Wow! This is my first experience with Apologia and they are not messing around. Now we are only one chapter in but I have to say that the information is great, age-appropriate, engaging, and interesting. I went ahead and got the notebooking books for each of my "school-aged" kids, getting the "junior"version for my kinder. They really love them!

The next new thing we are doing is that we have joined forces with our friends, the U's. Each family is working on the same chapter for about 2 weeks. During the second week we are meeting (alternating houses) and doing some of the "funner" experiments and the bigger notebooking activities. All the kids are thrilled with this aspect of our science since they all love the children in the U family.

This past Tuesday was our first get together.

We made our "personal persons".

We did a notebooking activity, the cell wheel. My kids had already done the part of the chapter that talks about each organella of the cell so this was good reinforcement and the U kids hadn't gotten to that part yet so this was a good introduction to the unit...isn't it great how that works out?

And to top it off, Mrs. U had all the supplies for each child to make their own edible cell. Anyone say sugar shock?

I've never seen #4 sit through a school lesson that was a little over his head so well before and he loved the edible cell part - almost as much as the epic lightsaber battle in the yard afterward.

Rowing :: Glorious Flight

We rowed The Glorious Flight this week. When I read it myself before the week started I wasn't too impressed and I didn't really see how the boys would sit through it every day for a week. But I was pleasantly surprised...though it was no How To Make An Apple Pie.

It is the story of Louis Bleroit, his family, his perseverance, and his glorious flight across the English Channel. Of course this book gives the perfect opportunity to talk about airplanes but it was a jumping off place to talk about a lot of things.

Seatwork ::

Homeschool Share provided me with so many great printables to use this week. I had found a couple that I liked at first glance but when I saw Delightful Learnings scrapbook of this row I had to go back and add some more. I'm glad I did.

This book had a lot of math applications. First up and the most fun, ordinal numbers. Ordinal numbers really call for something to be 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I pulled out a favorite toy that hasn't seen a lot of use lately and we held races. We talked about which one was first, second and third. The camera came in handy to call those close ones. We also spent a couple days on the dreaded Roman numerals. I've never been good with Roman numerals. #2 is really getting it with the way Horizons teaches it and I'm learning right along with him! (That's #2 up in the first picture helping #3 write out Roman numerals in a flip book we made.) I'm liking the early introduction to some of these concepts so later when the math books hit it again they aren't looking blankly at it, wondering what to do.

Perspective ::

The FIAR manual has a lesson about perspective in the illustrations of the book. I thought it would be OVER his head but he really took to it and understood what I was trying to tell him and what the lesson was about. I let him use my camera (gasp!) with some supervision and had him take pictures from different perspectives. Since these pictures don't mean anything without the lesson and without the background I wanted to include them in my sharing of the row so I'd remember the activity...it was one of his favorites.

:: looking at something - the grape across the yard ::

:: looking down at something ::

:: looking up at something - the timeline on the school room wall ::

Field Trip ::

What row of an airplane book would be complete without a trip to the local airport? Luckily Mr. Wiedz was at home starting his new lessons with the big kids (more on that to come, I'm sure) and #5 was asleep so I seized that moment and took just #3 and #4 on a field trip. We stood at the fence and watched a couple of planes land and one take off. It was pretty cool. We saw the baggage guy bring a load of bags to the terminal which sparked its own conversation. We walked through the airport, saw the baggage area, the restaurant, the gift shop and the security area. We talked about not being able to go through the rest of the airport unless we had a ticket to go on a plane. We have a small airport in our area so it was a quick but nice field trip.

What field trip doesn't include a special snack...plus I had just two with me, that's a reason for ice cream in my book.


Special Snack ::

I found a link from the homeschool share website about a plane snack and filed it right away! Had to use this awesome idea! Other than my kids had never had a twinkie before and didn't really care for them it was a hit. The look on #3's face when he saw it all put together was awesome.

Flying over the English Channel ::

Of course we had to make paper airplanes with this book. And we still have our kiddie pool out (acting as a landing pool for the slide with the hose attached) so we flew our planes over the "English Channel". We had many successes, but every plane made it into the drink eventually. This was a hit of an activity. There were many squeals and diving around hoping their plane would make it across. Fun stuff!

Daedalus and Icarus Video ::

I couldn't resist this when I saw it was made with legos. I fit in a lesson, which I'm sure was more on with the big kids who love all the Greek mythology and my #1 who loves the Percy Jackson series, which has a nice Daedalus section in one of the books.




Links ::

Creekside Learning - inspiration and a link to the Roman Numerals project
Delightful Learning - as always, TONS of inspiration
Homeschool Share - printables, seatwork, booklets and mini books
Teaching Stars - Daedalus video idea


I'm really bummed that my Amazon linky tool isn't working...I will add the book cover when I can figure out where the Amazon thing went.

:: this moment ::

A photo from the week. Not too many words. A simple moment, extraordinary, special. Something I want to remember, cherish, to pause over. If you have a "moment" leave a link in the comments for others to find and share.

inspired by soulemama.

I haven't been a fan of canning the last few years. With her help the afternoon, heat and all, was enjoyable.

History is Alive :: Roman Pillars

Another fun activity, this time to discuss the architechure style of the Romans. I found some pictures in #1's history books to show how the Romans used pillars a lot in their buildings. Then I followed the recipe in the activity book and let the kids roll out pillars. After they cooked everyone got their pillar and ate the "ruins".