Kaia and I have been taking time this week to get her prepared for starting the second grade.  We’ve labeled and decorated folders, picked up some books from the library, filled her art box and refreshed her nature kit.  I think I’m more excited about school starting than she is :-)  I’m also trying to prepare for the fact that we will have a crazy little toddler trying to get into everything that Kaia is doing.  So, I’ve gotten some ABC craft and cookbooks (including this ebook which is full of fun ABC crafts) to work on with Leif, made smelly playdough, and dyed some rice.  I’ve also moved a little table and chairs (just Leif’s size) into the living room where we usually do our work.  I want to have some easy play things to pull out for Leif when Kaia needs to focus on school stuff.  Next week she will be spending some time with her Nana, so we plan to officially start on Aug. 30th.  I’m looking forward to getting into a routine.  Summer does a good job of sending us in all directions with no routine at all.  But that’s what Summer is for, isn’t it?

Drying Rice

Kaia is really enjoying the projects we are doing from Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors!

I have to admit…. I’d kinda like one of these head dresses for myself!

Tomorrow is her last official day of first grade!  Wow!  Calling her a second grader just makes her sound so old!!

I can’t wait to start on our summer study units.  We start mythology next week and I’m still trying to find a little bow and arrow so she can dress up like Athena and practice archery 🙂

One of the things I was worried about when deciding to homeschool Kaia is that she would feel that she missed out on some of the fun things that big schools offer like going to school games, prom, and year books.  Now, I laugh about those things, but back then, they were a huge deal.  I’m lucky to live in an area with a big homeschooling community.  There is a homeschool yearbook, homeschool prom, and homeschool athletic leagues, and if Kaia and Leif chose to participate in those… great.  But in an effort to cover all of my bases, Kaia and I decided to create school t-shirts.  First we had to decide on the school name:  Green Meadow School.  Then we had to create a mascot: a flying unicorn with a shape-shifting mermaid on it’s back.  Once that was done, we knew that the motto had to be “Where flying unicorns and shape-shifting mermaids RULE!”.  The school colors are “blue and rainbow, with a hint of gold” (yes, that is exactly what Kaia said).  We may create a new shirt each year… maybe we’ll change the mascot and colors, too.  We’ll see.  But, now, she can show her school spirit and be proud of her school when people ask her about her shirt!

Here is our family school picture:

No, wait, that’s not it….

Here it is:

OY!  It’s so hard to take a picture of all of us being still at the same time in the same place.  Let’s try this one:

Much better 🙂

Last week, were were able to enjoy a day at the Biltmore House during their Homeschool Festival.  They put this on twice a year and it’s lots of fun.  Their focus this year was Farms, Flowers, and Food.  We made terrariums, listened to a stories about farming, learned to make peanut butter, made leaf prints, and lots more.  But my absolute favorite part was stomping grapes!  We all got in the grape bucket and tried our turn at making wine, even Leif!  Then we made prints of our feet (the prints are actually made with purple ink).

It also happened to be during the time of their Festival of Flowers, so we were able to enjoy that too!

Kaia and I have been working on the concept of symmetry in math for the last few days.  We’ve looked at the symmetry of shapes, objects, foods, etc.  We talked about how our bodies are symmetrical (one arm on each side, one leg…), but thought it would be fun to see what it would look like if our faces were really completely symmetrical.

I took a picture of Kaia (she hammed it up) and then altered it so that we could see what she would actually look like if the right half of her face was exactly like the left (and vice-versa).

Here is the original picture:

Here is her right side.

Here is her left:

Her favorite part was seeing the design that her hair makes.  It would be neat to make something like this with an object from nature… maybe a tree, and look at the symmetry of the branches.

Kaia and I have been busy planning her summer and second grade curriculum.  No, we won’t really be doing much ‘real’ school work during the summer, but she has asked to learn about certain things, so we are planning ‘camps’.  Mythology, Weather, and Mapping camps.  She will also be attending a couple of camps outside of the house.

I’ve also put together her second grade curriculum.  When I started homeschooling, I didn’t think I’d use a lot of pre-written curriculum, but I’m finding it to be nice, especially with a little one crawling around under my feet.  It’s much easier to draw from something that’s already prepared than to have to write my own right now.  Then I can put my energy and focus on the fun stuff!  So, here’s what next year looks like:

Math – Right Start C, Mind Benders, Analogies and other math games

Language Arts – All About Spelling (we’ll probably be at level 3 by then), Language Smarts (grammer), for handwriting I’ll probably create my own copy work and also continue having her write letters and postcards to friends, along with lots of reading time.

Science – R.E.A.L. Chemistry, and continued animal habitat studies, and Nature Walks

History – We are doing an in depth study of Prehistory this semester, so we’ll begin with Ancient History using Story of the World and History Odyssey.  (I’ll pull from both)

Art– Artistic Pursuits book 1, and continue with art group

I’d love to add in some Music and Foreign Language, but don’t have anything planned yet…

Here’s Kaia perfecting her recipe for Home Made Asteroids They were yummy!! (Oh, and we used cheese and didn’t have a problem with them going flat)

We found this craft when we were cruising around on the web looking for info in sea monsters of prehistory. (scroll down to Sediment Fossil Surprise).  As soon as Kaia read the details, she was dying to do it.  So, saturday, we got all our ingredients together and created our layers of history in a cup.  We took out our giant time line and followed along.  Our first layer was from the Cambrian period (red jello) and had trilobite fossils (gummy bears) in it.  The next layer was the Silurian period (chocolate pudding) and contained Pneumodesmus worms (gummy worms).  The third layer was the Carboniferous Period (shredded coconut) with Belantsea fish (pink star cookies) in it (those things are crazy looking)!  Next was the Triassic (more chocolate pudding) and Lepidotes (Cashews).  Then the Cretaceous (whipped cream) and coprolites/dino poop! (chocolate covered peanuts).  Finally, topped with granola to represent the Quaternary period, or where we are today.    Whew!!

We piled these yummies high into our glasses and served them up for dad, with a card that had clues to what he might find in each layer.

As we ate our way through history we looked back at the time line to find our fossils, and when Toby was done he took out our Ancient Creature Cards and read to us about some of the things he found.

It was a sweet way to spend the afternoon.  Literally!  Nauseatingly, horribly sweet!!  I needed a big glass of water and a nap after that project!! 🙂

As part of our dinosaur studies, Kaia and I made some coffee fossils.

(Yes, that was me who shoved Jasmines head into the clay to see what it would look like!)

It was a really simple recipe with very cool results!

I love having things like this to do in our home school days.  I often feel like we don’t get enough hands on and creative learning.  Her math and spelling/language shouldn’t ever take more than about 45 minutes total of our day, but still… sometimes it seems like all day!  I’m getting better at adding in more creative stuff, but it takes creative effort on my part to find or develop these things, and after a full day of teaching/learning/playing often, all I want to do is put my feet up and veg out!  We’ve only been at this for 7 weeks, though and I think we are doing pretty darn good!