There it is -
whoooooooop the passage of time! Dang! But we've had lots of good in the past few weeks.
Looking back, I'm pretty horrified at how much I haven't blogged. So many things that I thought "I'm SO blogging this" and then didn't, but I had thought about it enough that I was sure I
had blogged it. DANG! Now I need to look back and do highlights. Let me go get my USB cable so I can start getting some photos in here from my phone. Be right back, you guys. Don't go anywhere.
Dang, there's a lot. I'll start with Day 3, because I LOVED Day 3.
We went to Simi's "Duck Park" because I remembered from my childhood that they had ball diamonds there, so it seemed like it would be a fun place to practice throwing & catching with a baseball.
Ah, the march of time.
The city has "upgraded" the ball diamonds to super snooty FENCED & LOCKED areas for league play only. NICE. Provided a couple of fun experiences, though: we lost a ball over a fence (since we decided to practice in the lawn right next to it), which is a pretty classic childhood experience, right? And that led to the next bit of fun - Josh & Joseph making their first attempt at fence-hopping. I did it
all the time when I was a kid, but my feet are too big to get me enough traction on fences anymore (same for Ben). They put in some valiant efforts, but decided not to go all the way since the best places for climbing had cement in the landing zone. Not the best for first-timers.
So we put in some good exercise time, then went and fed the ducks, which got pretty hilarious pretty fast.
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Yay, let's feed the ducks! |
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RETREAT!!! |
As soon as the free food came out, we got swarmed. Josh was in heaven, since it was so very much like a horror movie. He can't wait to go back armed with a loaf and a video camera. My little Alfred Hitchcock.
When we left, the boys asked if we could walk ALL the way around the baseball fence to see if there were any openings so we could get our poor little ball. There were none, but I felt it a good opportunity to point out that they were walking...
by a graveyard MWAHAHAHAHAAAA! Which they could hardly believe, but right across the wall from the ball diamond is Simi Valley Public Cemetery. Oooh, they wanted to see that! And I thought, why not? Isn't that exactly one of the much-looked-forward-to benefits of homeschool? The freedom to pursue educational whimsies? So we went, and we walked through the section with the oldest graves, and it was fascinating and we all loved it. Cool little mini-history lesson. With some Spanish and math thrown in. Plus, the boys had a dentist appointment later that day, and their dentist is over in Chatsworth which is where my dad is buried. So we stopped by there, too. Found his grave, impressed the kids with his military cred and angel Moroni on the marker. :) Got to tell them stories about the grampa they never got to know. It was a pretty sweet experience.
Few individual days since then stand out as clearly, so I'll hit some highlights.
Here's some small indication of the mess from the art lesson on Burnout Monday:
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Twelve tiny cups of paint, yay. |
I love that we have our own color wheel that we made, though. And we learned about warm and cool colors and did a fun project to highlight that. I got the idea
at this website, and the template is very handy to have around. Here's one of the finished projects (mine, sorry):
Math continues to be an interesting challenge. Ben blasted right through his 6th grade workbook, and I have deemed the 7th and 8th grade books from Spectrum useless in his case. SO much emphasis on basic arithmetic, which he already does for funsies in his spare time. Matt found a great self-teaching algrebra textbook; so today I got him going on that.
Josh just plain hates old-fashioned left-brain math, so he continues to struggle. I found some good resources, though, and I'm going to order some special flashcards for him. They incorporate pictures and story to make it easier for Captain Right-Brain to give them room in his head.
Joseph just plain hates grunt-work. Letting him do math on a whiteboard instead of his workbook tends to help quite a bit.
P.E. has been a surprising delight. We're not a sports family. But dang if the boys and I can't each hit a baseball (as long as it's pitched slow, underhand, and from a short distance). The four of us have found a favorite ball diamond on the east end of town (Santa Susana Park), that's league-quality and in a beautiful setting, but also open to the unwashed masses. We rotate the boys through the positions of batter, catcher, and 1st Base while I pitch. Once they've each hit a fair ball and made a run for 1st, they each take turns pitching for me.
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The ball diamond is surrounded by gorgeous rock formations and cliffs. |
Before every pitch, I ask the kids "Listo?" "Are you ready?" Joseph loves to sort of digs his toes into the dirt and give me a fierce look and say "You
know I am" in a dead serious voice that just about kills me.
Well, I have about 10 minutes to get ready for my 2 hours of students and CRAP I just remembered that I never put dinner in the crock pot! CRAP CRAP CRAP!
Dear Matt's Work Bonus,
I'm sorry, but I have to use you for take-out tonight, because I am lame. Please forgive me.
Love,
Amy
Anyway, my point is I can't finish this post right now. Coming soon: park fun, museum fun, science, Spanish, more changes in how we're doing English, church history, more art, life skills learned, U.S. history silliness, and bread baking. Geez, I wonder if I'll finish this
month, much less today.