Kaia and Leif LOVE playing in tents, so when I saw this project, a little A-Frame play tent, I knew we had to do it!
It was so simple, we were able to make both kids their own tent in less than an hour! Kaia made the measurements while Toby drilled the holes.
Then I sewed up a couple of tents and voila!
A place for playing, reading, eating, napping, and even traveling to the Amazon with your dad!
We found a wonderful little riverside spot for playing during the hot summer days! Nice and shallow with lots of spots for getting dirty.
You can’t tell from this picture, but Kaia is soaked up to her neck! She did a good bit of splashing!
One of the games I thought we might play this summer to sharpen Kaia’s math skills is Multiplication Bingo. I found this great site for creating your own Bingo cards, Print Bingo, and simply plugged in the answers to the multiplication facts for 2×2 through 9×9. If two or more equations have the same answer, like 3 x 4 = 12 and 2 x 6 = 12, I only entered the number 12 once on the bingo sheet. I printed the cards out on yellow paper and ran them through my handy-dandy laminator.
Then I wrote down the equations on red paper and laminated them, too. I wasn’t planning to pulling this game out until the next time she said “MOM! I’m bored!”, but Kaia saw me doing this and wanted to play immediately. So, we put the red equations into a paper bag. She would pull them out, one at a time, and say the answer. If either of us found the answer on our card, we’d cover it with a blue cube. I was the first to yell “BINGO!”, so we kept playing until she made 5 in a row and could scream it herself, too. Next time I think I’ll use chocolate covered raisins instead of blue cubes. Then we can eat our playing chips when we are done! Yay for fun learning!
School is out! Kaia is officially a 3rd grader, and we are celebrating with doughnuts and a party! But before I retire the curriculum for the summer, I wanted to tell you about Memorize in Minutes: The Times Tables. I bought this after hearing good reviews from other homeschoolers. Adding in art and stories to Kaia’s math lessons seemed right up her alley.
When I first got it and looked through the book, I was skeptical. Each number is assigned a word, like 2 is “shoe” and 6 is “chicks”. Then a story is developed for each equation using these words as clues to the final answer, in this case “elf”. And when you think of “shoe” and “chicks” you remember “elf”. It sounded good, but I really didn’t think Kaia would know her multiplication facts just from hearing a story.
I’m very happy to tell you that it worked wonderfully. Kaia really enjoyed coloring the picture of the equation while I told the story. She would repeat the equation a few times and that was that. We would do a new multiplication fact 2-3 times a week and review them once a week. The book doesn’t cover multiplying by 0, 1, or 10 because those are pretty easy facts to memorize. It also doesn’t repeat facts. For example, once you learn 4 x 7 you don’t do 7 x 4. You learn as you go along that they are interchangeable .
When we finished, she taped them up on the wall in what she calls her “shrine to math”.
Working on the shrine
(The rainbow circle in the middle of the shrine is Robinsunne’s Multiplication Clock, a beautiful way of looking at the multiplication table)
She may still take a minute to think about the facts before giving the answer, but she knows the answer. I think we’ll play lots of math games over the summer to help solidify the knowledge, but overall, I’m very impressed with the results!
Beautiful words by Alicia Bayer to help me remember why I do what I do.
The Never-Ending Parent
Sometimes it’s hard to be a good parent.
Sometimes you wonder why you’re not like others
Who make themselves the priority, who are stern and unyielding
Or who let everybody else take care of their kids.
Sometimes you envy them their time, their space,
Their full night’s sleep.
Sometimes you start doubting yourself and wondering
If you really are just crazy, being this kind of parent
In this kind of world.
Your house is noisy and full of chaos
And you wonder if it will last forever.
I have a secret. If you keep this up….
It will.
Think of it.
When you get up at 3 a.m. because your baby cries, think of the time
When he’s a teenager and calls at 3 a.m. to say he needs a ride
Instead of getting in the car with his drunk friends
Because he knows he can be honest with you and that he can count on you.
When you take the time to explain “why” for the hundredth time today
Wondering if you will ever get a moment’s peace and quiet,
Think of the days when your daughter is grown and on her own
And will still call because she loves your conversations.
When you discount all the well-meaning people who tell you to let your baby cry
And you go to him, hold him, comfort him anyway
Think ahead to the times when he’ll be a strong, secure, independent kid
And those people say “I don’t know how you were blessed with such an easy child.”
When you nurse your daughter and hold her close
Spoiling her with all that love and care, think of the time
When you’ll overhear her tell a friend
“My mom and I have always been so close.”
When the house is full of noise, mess and chaos
Think of the days when the kids are grown, and it will start all over
With your grandchildren, because your family is so bonded
That everybody still gathers at your loving home.
No, if you keep this up it will never change.
Your children will be in your life forever.
And honey, you’ll love the noise.
~ Alicia Bayer
For the last few months, I’ve been going to Aerial Space to learn Silks. I’m only able to go once a week but I’m having so much fun!! It is a tremendous work out! Right now, I’m trying to master the basic routines for level one. This one is called Legs Basic Movements. You can see, I still have to stop to shake my arms out when they burn, but I’ve gotten so much stronger!
This next video is what is called Arms Basic Movements. I make a lot more faces with this one 
I LOVE the move that I do which is called the Iron Cross (where I look like a T).
Kaia and I are wrapping up her school year this week and next, and we thought we’d learn a little about negative numbers to end the year. We talked about things less than zero, looked at thermometers and time lines. Then she drew a number line from -5 to 5. I gave her a few dollars of monopoly money and set up a little store. If she wanted to buy something but didn’t have enough money, she’d borrow from the mom bank. She started off with $5 and stood on the number 5. She wanted to buy a head band worth $8. So she borrowed $3 and moved back to the -3, because she now owed me $3. Then she would ‘earn’ money somehow (birthday, chores) and move up again. We’ve been over this concept of owing before, but it was nice to put it into action and then write the equation on the board so that she could see how 5-8 could equal -3. She enjoyed it so much that she ended up playing store for over an hour and a half!
This is the only way I can ever get Kaia to put paper to pencil!
I told her I would make Ice Cream Pie if she could write me the recipe. Yum!
Ice Cream Pie by Kaia
1. Fill crust with ice cream.
2. Top with whipped cream.
3. Drizzle on chocolate syrup.
4. Sprinkle on marshmallows and sprinkles.
5. Add 8 cherries.
6. Eat it!
We started our week by getting more new chicks … four Easter eggers, to be exact. I stuck the camera in with them and each one had to have its turn checking the camera out.
This one reminds me of a Skeksis, only cuter
The rock wall began!
And Leif put on his most fashionable rock building clothes.
Kaia and I played Product War. (I’m getting better at using games and play in our school, instead of workbooks!) You each turn over two cards and multiply. Who ever has the largest product wins all of the cards in play.
Then she arranged her tiara, sat on her throne and worked in Comic Strip Math and Funny & Fabulous Fraction Stories. We both LOVE these books. Me, because she does her lesson and enjoys it. Her, because she thinks it’s more like playing.
Leif, Kaia and I did a little pH painting. We used Goldenrod paper and painted on it with vinegar or a baking soda solution. Kaia painted pictures with the baking soda solution, which changed the color of the paper to bright red. Then she decorated the picture with the vinegar. It changed the color back to yellow and fizzled a bit, too).
We ended our week with some Fork Weaving and perfume crafting (This is basically what we did except we didn’t use an oil base. We just added the essential oils to the alcohol and topped it off with water). Kaia was so excited about this. She loves being crafty and said “Mom, thanks so much for teaching me how to make flowers and perfume. Is there anything else you can teach me?”
Have a beautiful weekend! Mine begins with a date night tomorrow night! Woohoo!
Kaia is now the proud mama of 5 baby chicks. Two are white silkies, one is a sizzle (of these three we don’t know if they are boys or girls), one is a Buff Orpington, and one is a Speckled Sussex (these last two are girls). We will be getting a few more in the coming weeks. (All of our chickens are between 3 and 5 years old. They are all laying, but at a lower rate. So it is time to add to the flock.) Such cute babies!
Kaia decorated their house with a welcome sign. They are staying in her room right now.
My grandmother, uncle, cousins, and my family. Kaia and Leif are my grandmothers only great-grandchildren. This was a wonderful mother’s day gift for me!
I love this video… whether you home school or not…. whether you have kids or not… you should take a few minutes to watch it. I LOVE how it is animated! What a talent.
Toby had 2 conferences to attend in Boston this past week. Since I have family in the area, we thought it would make a nice trip for the whole family. We didn’t study anything about the area or it’s history. We just went to play, relax, visit, and enjoy.
(lots of pictures … click on ‘more’)
I have to admit, I love planning for school. Searching through all the options that are available to the kids is very exciting.
This past year has worked pretty well for us. Really, the hardest part of it was getting lessons done with a 2 year old crazy man bouncing around us. And sometimes, I can distract him with some fun game but them Kaia wants to play too and ignores the lesson. So, we’ve all learned a good bit about flexibility this year!
This summer, we do plan to do a little schooling. We will play lots of math games and read living math books so that Kaia can keep up her skills. Kaia is still very resistant to writing, so I’m going to encourage writing of any sort over the summer. And, since we’ve not really done much geography, we will learn a bit about the oceans, continents, cultures and such. I’m going to try to keep it laid back, though. I could use a break, too, ya know!
In the fall, Kaia will technically be in the 3rd grade and we are planning the following:
Language Arts – Michael Clay Thompson level 1 (I’ve read such good things about this! I’m excited to give it a try) This will be our basic curriculum and I don’t think we will need to add much more. We will continue with Sequential Spelling (Kaia has been enjoying this a lot and I think it’s important for her to get some spelling practice since she doesn’t like to write often). I think she will probably finish up HWT Cursive early in the year. Other than that, there will be lots of reading. Kaia reads up a storm, so I may put some books around the house for her to find, but I don’t think I’ll have much in the way of required reading.
Math – I’m thinking that we will continue using Right Start Math (levels D and E), just more loosely. I think it moves to slowly for Kaia. So, we’ll use what we need and make it a richer experience with living math books, experiments, Mythmatical Battles, Math Rider, and such. I may add in a little Mind Benders and Math Analogies occasionally. I’m even thinking of getting this Algebra primer. I think she would really dig something like it.
Science – Kaia said she was interested in studying Anatomy and Electronics next year. So, we plan to do lots of kits and experiments. Toby will take on the electronics since he knows lots about it. But we will probably start with something like this kit and expand from there. For Anatomy, we will use kits from Horrible Science like this one, The Magic School Bus kit, as well as lots of books, dissections and stuff. I may get the REAL Science Biology book to pull ideas from too. (We used their Chemistry book this past year and felt it left a lot out. The labs were generally too simple, but I still liked having the book as a starting point.) We’ll see. (I just found this from Winter’s Promise.… Hmmm… might be something worth looking into.)
History – We’ve been using the History Odyssey curriculum for our Ancient History, but we basically only using it to follow the schedule of who to read about next. This next year, I think we will use the Usborne Internet-linked Encyclopedia of World History as our spine. We ended up referencing it more than our curriculum. We are both very excited to study the Middle Ages next year. We are already planning our trip to the Renaissance Faire in the fall!! We’ll also supplement with lots of living history books and crafts.
Art – We started off this past year using Artistic Pursuits. I really liked it how it connected the history we were studying with a the art, but Kaia didn’t like being told how to create her art. So, we ended up using it less and less often. I’d like to find something to introduce her to famous artists and art techniques, but I’m not sure what we’ll use yet.
Music – Continue Piano lessons
Foreign Language – Kaia wants to study Spanish. I am looking for a local class. I feel like that would be more effective for her than a computer course or something. I don’t remember enough of it to feel like I could be a good teacher.
xtra stuff – Homeschool co-op, nature walks, Aerial gymnastics
For Leif, I’ll have to see where he is at in the fall. We will definitely continue with letters and numbers. lots of hands on play. There are lots of curricula out there for pre-schoolers that look great (like this one from Winter’s Promise and this one from Little Acorn Learning) and I love to have things organized and planned out, but I’m thinking my 2-3 year old just really needs to play and experience the world without too much structure. We’ll see.
Let’s hear what your plans are!
For the last few years, I’ve been letting my fruit trees and berry bushes grow as they please, not doing much maintenance other than pruning. But most of them have been in the ground for 3+ years now and are starting to produce, so I wanted to follow a better care plan to ensure a good harvest.
I am doing a modified version of this checklist by Michael Phillips. It looks daunting at first, but is actually pretty simple. So far, I’ve been using a spray of neem, effective microorganisms, and fish/seaweed fertilizer. Once the trees dropped their flower petals, I added Surround to the mixture (I’ll probably only use the surround on the fruit trees and not the berries. The berries don’t seem to have the same bug problems as the trees.)
I’ve so excited to see how this works. We are a fruit loving family, so the more the merrier! (Oh, I’m also using the fertilizer spray on the strawberries and roses.) I’ll keep you updated.
Surround on apple leaves
Addendum: I’ve noticed that the two pear trees have some black spots on them that only appeared after using the neem. I think it may have burnt them a little. I’ve read that you can use neem on pears, but also that new growth can be susceptible to burn from neem. I’ll hold off on neem-ing the pears for now.
Kaia’s been using Right Start Math as her basic curriculum for the past 2 years. It’s a great curriculum, but she’s gotten bored with worksheets. So, I’ve been trying to work in more ‘living math’ done through experiments and hands on activities. When I saw this activity with Peeps, I knew we had to try it out! Kaia isn’t ready to take on algebra fully, but there’s no reason not to introduce her to it.
We laid out 5 peeps and she easily told me how much space they would take up if each peep were 2 inches and there was a 1/2 inch space in between each peep (12 inches). So, I put out 10 peeps and she told me that they would take up 24 1/2 inches. We discovered that the number of spaces between the peeps was always 1 less than the number of peeps. 3 peeps, 2 spaces. 10 peeps, 9 spaces…
We discussed that we could learn how much distance the peeps would cover even if we had 6549 peeps, or any number for that matter. So, then we set up our equation. We called the number of peeps P. If you multiply then number of peeps by 2 inches you will get the distance that just the peeps take up. So that leaves us with the spaces between them. If you take the number of peeps, P, and subtract 1, you get the number of spaces. Then multiply that by 1/2 inch and you get the distance that the spaces would cover. The final equation looked like this:
2p + (p-1)/2 = the distance the peeps would cover.
We decided to plug 8,000 peeps into our equation just to see how long that line of peeps would be. We were happy to discover that if we had 8,000 peeps we could line them up from our front door, down the hill, past our 3 neighbors and to our mailbox 1/3 mile away. (Peeps, you are welcome to send us those 8,000 peeps so we can give this a try!! The chocolate covered ones are just fine, too!)
And of course, the reward for the math…
Though it’s been a bit rainy around here, we all have spring fever and enjoy the warm weather when ever we can! I can get so wrapped up in the things that ‘need’ to get done for the kids schooling that I have a hard time just going with the flow. I’m trying to take lessons from Kaia and Leif as they explore the world around them.
In preparation for warm weather, Kaia has finally decided it is time she learn how to swim. I think she’s been capable of swimming for a few years now, but she’s a very cautious kid. So, she’s never wanted to go under water, or take off her floats. She’s grown in so many ways in the past year, though, and her confidence is really blooming.
She has her float around her belly in this video, but you know she could totally swim without it if she wanted!
I think this is the first year that Kaia has expressed any interest in getting in our small pond. Leif, of course, had no reservations in joining her!
Here’s a little video of the pond area. Sorry for the shaky hands.
And when we can’t get outside, there is always driving around the house with your bear.
or snuggling with your favorite man.
How have you been enjoying spring so far?
When Kaia heard her Girl Scout troop would be allowed to compete in the Boy Scout’s Pine Car Derby Races, she was very excited. But, I’ll tell ya’ the person who was most excited was my former Webalos husband! Kaia and Toby planned, sketched, and carved! I burnt details into the wood and painted on some flames. Kaia added weights to the bottom to make it weigh the maximum amount allowed so it would have more speed on the downhill slope. Then she sealed the holes with wax. Today at the races, there were about 20 girl scouts participating and Kaia’s car, “Fire”, took 4th place. The top four cars were very fast!!! Unfortunately, only the top 3 won trophies. Kaia had a blast, though, and was super excited that her new friend took second place.
This week, we’ve been doing crafts to decorate our Spring Nature Table. Today’s craft was simple and fun with such beautiful results. I picked up a few silk scarves and shirts from Good Will and blew out some duck eggs. Then we followed The Magic Onion’s directions on silk dying eggs. So lovely!
We loved the results! Next time, we will be careful to smooth the silk around the egg as much as possible, with little bunching of the fabric. If the fabric is flat on the egg, the pattern comes out more clearly. If there is bunching, it looks more batiked, which is lovely too.
Blog, sweet blog! I hope you know that I think of you as one of those steady friends who will always be there even if we don’t speak for a while. That we can pick up right where we left off. A long-term friend. And I hope you feel the same about me. ‘Cause I’ve been so busy this past month that I just haven’t had the time to pick up the phone keyboard and say ‘HI’. But, I’m here now, and that’s what counts!!
Since we last spoke, we have:
Built a closet and door way to Leif’s room, built a new wall in the center room and created book shelves to house the home school stuff, painted the screen doors, sewn up many curtains, joined the gym and lost 5+ pounds, weaned Leif 
, gone to my first writer’s conference (can we say ‘Holy Cow, Overwhelming!’), written two early-reader books, planted peas and 50+ strawberry plants, started spring session of the home school co-op, started driving Kaia to girl scouts, piano lessons, and swimming lessons, and helped Kaia build a car for the pine car derby races, read Princess for Hire (fabulous!!), read Growing Wings (loved it!), took that long awaited trip to Mars, saved 14 kittens stuck in high trees, and climbed Mt. Everest … backwards … twice. Yes, you may call me SHE-RA!!
So you see, Blog, it’s not that I was trying to ignore you. I just didn’t get a chance to drop in. Please forgive me. I hope to be around more often … soon.
Two years ago you appeared and brightened our lives!! We are so, so happy you came to us!!! We love you little Leify!!
Mom, Dad, and Kaia
This morning, Leif and I were snuggled up in bed and he woke me up with his giggling and he mumbled something quietly. I asked him, “What did you say?” and he replied “My bootie just said ‘pplllbbbbb’” ! I love that my barely -2-year-old little man can tell fart jokes!
This afternoon, when I was putting him down for his nap, he asked me to sing one of his favorite songs about a rabbit. Then he asked for the one that he likes about a duckie. Then he said “Chocolate?” I said, “You want me to sing you a song about chocolate?” “Yep,” he said! So, here it is:
Chocolate cookies,
Chocolate bars,
I love chocolate covered frogs!
Chocolate’s yummy,
Chocolate’s sweet,
I’d eat chocolate off you’re feet!
Now, go and snuggle attack someone you love!
We just got back from a fabulous week down in Orlando! Toby had a computer conference at Disney, so we planned a vacation around it and everything just fell into place! We were able to visit with friends and family, and play until we collapsed from complete exhaustion! There are A LOT of pictures to follow. I won’t take offense if you stop reading here
Ever since I first saw sandpaper alphabet cards on another mama’s blog, I’ve been wanting a set of these for Leif.
I found small wooden cards at the local crafts store, along with felt capital letters and super sparkly, textured lower case letters. The red felt letters are actually stickers. So, Kaia took charge of sticking them to the wood. The purple letters needed the hot glue gun.
Then this wonderful set of alphabet cards needed it’s own sweet carrying bag.
I hope they will get lots of use!
Actually, I’m finally back from one crazy sick household! Aside from a long, cold winter with lots of snow keeping us indoors, over the past 2 months, both the kids have had whooping cough, and Kaia and I had the flu! GeeZ!!! Talk about going stir crazy. Luckily, we are all feeling better and in good health. Just in time for our trip to Disney next week!!! (woohoo!) But, being in the house SOOOO much gave me some time to reflect on all the stuff we have. Way too much stuff! So much stuff sitting around, going unused. So, Toby and I have decided to down size. Our initial intention was to get rid of 50% of our stuff, but realistically, that will probably be closer to 20%, or so. I’ve made 3 trips to Good Will with the car full! Boxes of books have been donated to the library. And a few of the larger items are being sold. Kaia’s room is what is left (and will probably be the hardest one since I have to get permission from the princess to get rid of stuff). Ooooh, it will feel so nice to have de-cluttered!!
Leif enjoyed helping go through the cabinets with me. (Man! I love those little feet!!)
He also loved snuggling up with Kaia and me when we were sick.
And, of course, he knew exactly which rules could be broken easily when mommy was too tired to say ‘no’.
“Who me? I’m not sitting on the table playing with your phone! You’re hallucinating mommy!”
