We made it! Amazing! I had to curtail a few of the lessons since we missed so much school due to illness/laziness, but all in all I think it was a very fruitful term.
1. Meditation with music from R. Carlos Nakai
2. Journals
3. Current Events - Khy read about how iPods are causing hearing loss while Stormy read about the Iditarod Sled Race.
4. Khy helped me with library preparation. I always love those Saturdays just after term when I can actually go to the library to browse aimlessly, instead of armed with a mile long list full of books I need for class.
5. Nicky read to me the rest of the Dick and Jane collection. He's been reading it on his own at bedtime for the last few nights, and I can REALLY tell he's been practicing. It's so exciting, how far he's come and how proud he is of himself.
6. Spelling Test - review words. Khy and Stormy both got 100%. Nicky practiced typing (he's ahead of the older kids on typing skills, I think that's kind of cool) and then took his phonics test for the letter L.
7. Paper airplane science. Each student made their own paper airplane, and each were given one paperclip to put wherever they chose. Then they took turns flying their airplanes, and we would measure and record the distance. Between each turn (each student got 5 turns) they were allowed to make adjustments to their planes, primarily through the placement of the paperclip. When it was all done we took their measurements and then I showed them how to find their average distance. Nicky and Stormy's averages were in the 8 foot range, and Khy was in the 10 foot range. We talked a long time about what variables were at work, what they could have done to improve their planes, why Khy's seemed to do better than the others. It was a great class.
8. Interviews - Based on the job application for Greek godhood they each filled out yesterday, I brought them in to "interview" for the positions. We had fun.
9. Music - We finally managed to get both Yellow Submarine and Maxwell's Silver Hammer videotaped on my camera and onto the computer, so I should be able to add them to the next Chaos Magazine website. Way cute.

1. Meditation with music from R. Carlos Nakai
2. Journals
3. Livejournal topic - "My favorite food is..." HTML tag of the day - italics. (Stormy) (Khy) (Nicky)
4. When Love Speaks Sonnet #76 "Why is my verse so barren of new pride..." read by Diana Rigg.
5. Ten minutes free reading, Nicky reads Dick and Jane
6. Practiced Yellow Submarine and Maxwell's Silver Hammer. I wanted to get them videotaped, but Khy's cough is still so bad we decided to wait and try on Friday.
7. Math worksheets all around.
8. Free educational time: choice of reading, math flashcards, typing program or spelling homework. Nicky is playing Jumpstart Kindergarten Reading again.

Today we got off to a really slow start. Everyone's hours were so turned around on break that it was to be expected. I was pretty relaxed about getting breakfast and morning chores done, knowing that today's class schedule was fairly flexible. After a quick meditation we did journals. Then we looked up a baby's development at 9 weeks on this website. My friend Jacqui is expecting a baby, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a little education. (But isn't everything? :P) So every week we're going to be tracking the baby's development, which should be fun. We sent Jacqui an email card and I had each of the kids tell he something that we had learned. All together they wrote: "Happy nine weeks (a day late)!!! We learned today your baby still looks like an alien and its dancing. its muscles are growing stronger. We love you!!!"

We started trying to learn to read music today. I awkwardly tried to explain the Treble Clef, and the EGBDF (Every Good Boy Does Fine) notes. Khy and Stormy grasped the concept pretty quickly, but something in the way I was explaining it was just not connecting for Nicky and I had no idea where we were crossing wires. Finally Khy pointed out that the worksheet used halfnotes, and I hadn't explained that they needed to look at what line the circle part of the halfnote was on. Nicky kept trying to look at the staff of the note, which crosses several lines, and by that figure out what line it was on. No wonder we were both so confused. It was awesome that Khy was able to catch that, and it was such an example of how homeschooling really becomes a collaborative effort. While I might be a guide of sorts, we're all learning and teaching each other.

Did I mention that Khy got a Yamaha keyboard, Nicky got an acoustic guitar, and Stormy got a drumset for Yule? So we're taking this music thing to a whole new level. :P

We sang through Return to Sender and Maxwell's Silver Hammer. (By the way, the kids performed Yellow Submarine for family twice over the break and it was a big hit.) Then we played Multiplication Uno (same as regular Uno, but to make a play involving numbered cards you have to tell what the answer would be. So if you were playing a yellow 3 on a yellow 6 you would say "3x6=18." Nicky did addition instead of
multiplication.

Mostly it was a trying day. Even though I knew it would be hard for all of us to get back into things and
I tried to prepare for that, it was still a day filled with scattered energy and that's always frustrating. I spent much more time getting the kids to focus and not to spaz out while transitioning between activities than I did any actual teaching. It made me feel some real sympathy for teachers with 30 students. I don't know how they ever get anything done. Or have any hair left.

Nicky had a little trouble coming to school today, on account of he was throwing a fit about getting out of bed. So we shook up the schedule a little bit, and started with Khy and Stormy's times tables. I'd sort of dropped the last few - the hardest few - numbers on them and run, so this is the first time I've gotten a glimpse of how they're faring with the 4's, 6's, 7's, 8's and 12's. Not too bad, really. Better than I expected. While ideally I want to see them memorized so they don't even have to think too much about the answers, they're doing an excellent job at mentally figuring out the answers that they don't immediately know. When Nicky joined us we did journals and phase one of our raft project. It's an activity that I found when I was looking for supporting materials for Huck Finn. Using popsicle sticks, you glue them together to make model rafts. You always start with two as supports, and then glue the rest across them. For the first raft you only use two popsicle stick "planks," and then four on the next, six on the next, 8 on the next, and 10 on the last. Then you glue a dixie cup on each one, in the center. We got that much done today (Nicky and I built the biggest raft, using the 10 planks, while Stormy and Khy built two rafts each) and then left them to dry. Tomorrow we'll fill the bath tub up with water and float one raft at a time, adding pennies to the dixie cup, to see how many we can add before the raft sinks. I have a chart for them to fill out, and then we'll graph the results as well.

During snack time we finished a story web that we've been doing for Huck Finn, and I walked them through a book report form on it as well. Then we switched gears and practiced our music. I finally tracked down a site that plays a midi-style version of both Yellow Submarine and Maxwell's Silver Hammer, so the kids can perform sans the Beatles' voices. We're stuck with Elvis on Return to Sender for now, though. We spent the most time on Yellow Submarine, first trying to get it down with different music, and then polishing up the choreography a bit. I've decided they'll be performing it for us on Yule, and I think it's going to be awesome, if I do say so myself. We also practiced a little bit on the other two songs, but they won't be ready until after Winter Break. I did ask for volunteers for a solo bit on Return to Sender, and both Stormy and Nicky tried it and were just adorable. It's going to be hard to decide which one to use. But I have something special planned on Maxwell's Silver Hammer for whichever two don't do a solo on the Elvis, so everyone will get a chance to shine. We are SO doing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody next! :P

Today Khy and Stormy made fact family cards (I made Nicky's addition and subtraction cards while he worked in his subtraction workbook), which I'm requiring them to practice with for ten minutes every day. We listened to Aerosmith while we worked. Then when we got to choral practice we worked on Yellow Submarine with instruments. I purchased a "band in a bucket" from Target for the classroom, which I gaurd jealously, and I finally broke it open today. It was SO fun, we made up our own little arrangement of the song, deciding who would play what instruments and when. Khy is quite partial to the kazoo, and Nicky is already begging for his own harmonica. It's going to be SO MUCH fun getting this stuff ready to perform! For who? Shane, I guess. We have a video camera, so maybe it will just be for posterity. Anyway, it will be fun.

Khy and Stormy took times multiplication quizzes again. They both beat their times from last week, but Stormy was still a bit of a sore loser about coming in 8 seconds behind her brother. I was impressed with both of them, they both kept a cool head despite the pressure they aren't used to dealing with.

Today we studied the band Queen, listening to some of their music and watching a video of their Live Aid performance in 1985. We practiced our songs - the two Beatles songs and the one Elvis. The kids are able to sing them without the sheets now, and I have some cute ideas for choreography. Shane is planning on talking to someone at work who might be able to come up with the background music for us, since right now we're having to just sing along with the originals. I'm hoping at some point to video tape some of this stuff, as a record of what we worked on this year.

We drilled multiplication facts, did flashcards, and learned all the secrets of 9's. Nicky worked on subtraction in his workbook, while Khy and Stormy took a timed multiplication quiz. This is the first time I've timed them, and I really thought it would be Khy that the pressure got to from it, but instead it was Stormy in tears over it by the end. Still, she finished. I hate doing it to them, but they do need some experience with this since they'll have to face testing eventually, both to stay homeschooled and someday, hopefully, in college. So I've got to toughen them up a little. She'll do fine next time, I think.

Planned to have the kids write emails to Santa today, but we had all sorts of computer problems, so that will have to wait for tomorrow. The kids got a little practice with the Spongebob Squarepants Typing program, which is really great.

It was pretty hit and miss today. My students bailed on me, first of all - Khy used a coupon to get out of the school day, while Nicky used one to start an hour late. So it was just Stormy and I doing meditation and practicing the 3 times table. We did a worksheet together and then I quizzed her with flash cards. After that Nicky was compelled to join us, and he was pretty resistant. I finally got him to do some subtraction worksheets from his workbook. He enjoyed it a lot when I phrased it as "Look, Nicky has 6 apples. And that MEAN MOM of his STOLE 2 of them! So how many apples does poor little Nicky have left?" Yeah, he liked that.

We had some choir practice, singing Yellow Submarine and Return to Sender. Then Nicky had another meltdown, this one taking about half an hour to diffuse. Afterward, we finished singing Maxwell's Silver Hammer, and then we read a great book called Monster Money. It was a very cute, simple story, introducing the concept of pennies, nickles and dimes. It included a ton of really neat and easy supporting activity suggestions in the back, too, so we did several of those. This was way below Stormy's level, but she pitched in as a great helper and played along. I got out change from my wallet for Nicky to work with, and he caught on really quickly.

The day is nasty so this afternoon we'll have to do an indoor P.E. I'm thinking we might tackle one of those dance activities like the Y.M.C.A. or the Macarena. We'll see. I'm feeling better than I did yesterday, but I'd honestly rather be in bed. Nasty weather, good day for it. Does napping count as Physical Education? :P

Today was a pretty easy one. For Math we did a quick drill and another quiz on the multiplication facts for 0, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 11. Then for music we watched A Hard Day's Night by the Beatles. It was a really fun, cute movie. It made me really happy later on when I was playing a CD by Franz Ferdinand and both Khy and Stormy mistook them for the Beatles. They definitely have a similar sound, and it was neat to see my kids pick up on that.

I pretty much skipped out on P.E. class today. Feeling a little guilty, because it was beautiful weather and I know we don't have much more of that so I shouldn't waste it. But my Mom came to take Stormy shopping as a birthday present and it just seemed like a good time for me to curl up in my room and watch Veronica Mars. Teachers need breaks, right?

Today we visualized the castle, as part of meditation. Stormy didn't want to share what her castle was like, which is something I'll double check on later. Khy's castle was an Atari sort of inspired place. And Nicky for the first time was actually very still during the entire exercise, and I think really played along. He went first in describing his castle, which was filled with x-boxes and panda bears. :P

For math we reviewed the times tables we learned last week. 0, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 11. They have a pretty fair grasp of them, but it will take a while before they no longer have to count it out in their heads for some of them. We played a game called Buzz:

The teacher chooses a number between 2 and 11. The first player says 1, the next player says the 2, and so on. When they reach a multiple of the number chosen, the player says "buzz" instead of the number. If a player forgets to say buzz or says it at the wrong time, he or she is out. Play continues until they group reaches the last multiple of the number times 9.

We didn't make anyone be "out" if they missed, though. Everyone had a pretty good time and some giggles from it, and Nicky was even able to participate with very little help from me. (I generally whisper answers in his ear for things like this, when it's a little over his head but he still wants to be a part of it, like in Spelling Bingo every week.

I also had Khy and Stormy take a quiz. Khy had the most trouble along the way, but in the end he wound up getting every one of them right, while Stormy - who breezed through - missed 4. Nicky worked in a first grade workbook on simple addition.

For music I completely hit the jackpot, because I managed to get my hands on the sheet music for Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Yellow Submarine. Not that I can play anything! But I used it to teach the kids how to follow along on sheet music, and eventually we can start working on reading music. I wanted to wait on that until I had a chance to make sure I still remember how, though. I'm probably going to have to brush up a little...

For P.E. class I managed to look up a few indoor things, which was lucky since the rain started over the weekend. Today we played a game called Eenie Collapsie. I know, but it was actually quite fun. Here it is:

Following is a list of the words, with the requisite action beside. They should be done continously with no breaks between.

Eenie: throw ball up and catch with 2 hands
Callapsie: do the same, but clap your hands before catching
Twirl: About same, twirl hands around each other before catching the ball
To Bapsie: touch your shoulders, then catch the ball
High Siteen: throw the ball up very high, catch with 2 hands
Low Siteen: throw the ball up low, catch with 2 hands
One hand: throw ball up, catch with one hand
The other hand: throw ball up, catch with the other hand
Salute: throw ball up, salute, then catch it
Touch my knee: throw ball up, touch knee, then catch
Touch my toe: throw ball up, touch toe, then catch it
Touch my heel: throw ball up, touch heel, then catch it
And under I go: throw ball under one leg and then catch it

I found it at LessonPlanZ. Which is a great resource and all, but don't you have to wonder about a place that offers teaching assistance and intentionally mispells it's own name?

Today we began work on memorizing the times tables. Khy is a little behind the pack, I think, just starting this now, but I’m confident he’ll pick it up quickly. Shane and I will (hopefully) be sharing math teacher duties, because he has a much better knack for explaining those things to the kids, but I have more time to work with them, obviously. We started with the numbers the kids essentially know, even if they don’t know that they know them: the 0’s, 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and 11’s. I basically did a lecture period today, going over each set of problems on the dry erase board. Nicky participated in this much more than I expected him to. After that I handed out a blank multiplication table and had the big kids fill them out on their own. It was a frustrating task for both of them at times, but they did well. Khy in particular surprised me here, because last year he was easily frustrated and that would almost always mean a long time away from his work, trying to calm down and focus.

We also started Music class today, with an introduction to the Beatles and their music. We talked a little about them as a group, and we listened to a few songs. I used this as an opportunity to talk about the mood of songs, how they can make us feel, how the music and lyrics can compliment each other. For illustration I played "Good Day Sunshine" as an example of a happy song, and "Eleanor Rigby" as an example of something sad. Then we listened to "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer" to really confuse them. :P Not surprisingly, they loved it, and voted it as the song they wanted to learn to sing. So we’re going to be learning that and "Yellow Submarine" in the coming weeks.

An interesting branching moment came when the kids asked me what "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer" was inspired by. So we used the internet to look up the meaning behind the song. We discovered that Paul McCartney wrote it to convey a moment in life when everything seemed to be going well, and suddenly it all goes bad. Like Maxwell’s silver hammer, coming down unexpectedly and changing everything. Khy, recalling what I had told him about each of the Beatles, pointed out that when John Lennon was shot, that was a pretty major example of a Maxwell’s Silver Hammer!

For spelling on Tuesdays Khy and Stormy write sentences with each of their words while Nicky does sentences with me. Then all the kids did a computer lab with a program I picked up at Costco called Elementary School Success. Some of the games are better than others, but I’m not sure I would buy it if I had it to do over again. For now I think we’ll stick with what we can borrow from the library, because they have a pretty good selection of Reader Rabbits and Cluefinders and Jumpstarts, all of which I like.

We also do PE class on Tuesday afternoons. We spent the first half of the class period doing stations – two kids would practice dribbling and catching exercises with the basketball while I worked with one kid on the punching bag. For the second half of class since the day was so nice I set up stations outside with one kid riding a bicycle up and down the street, another riding the scooter up and down the sidewalk, and the third shooting baskets. I’m going to have to do some research, though, to find more inside games as the weather turns nastier. And I turn lazier.