We made it through another birthday week here.

Jack turned 10, Victoria turned 15, and Alex turned 6.

I made a lot of cakes and cupcakes. 

Here’s a quick round-up of ten fun ways we played and learned during birthday week….

1. Victoria chose books for birthday presents, and picked out an awesome assortment at Barnes and Noble (see pic above).  She also bought herself the Les Miserables soundtrack and we’ve been listening to a lot of French Revolutionary songs in the car.
2. We’ve been doing a lot of bird watching. Daryl and the kids have spotted a white-faced ibis, an osprey, blue jays, red-winged blackbirds, lots of song birds, vultures, many kinds of migrating ducks, returning pelicans and a fantastic battle between two hawks in the road this morning, along with a very determined crow dive-bombing a red-tailed hawk on a pole this afternoon.
3. Victoria taught her younger siblings about Nihilism. Of course. 
4. Anna has been writing poems and doing song rewrites. She has one about Corn and Snow (living in Minnesota) based on Carrie Underwood’s tornado song (I can’t remember the name now) and “I Knew You Were Homeschooled” instead of “I Knew You Were Trouble” by Taylor Swift.
5. Jack graduated archery class and did an awesome job. We bought a family membership for the rest of the year so we can use the facility and the gear any time.
6. Alex has been working on sight words. He knows about 30 now.  We have a goal of 50 by the end of the summer and I keep track in my journal.
7. Anna has headed up to Bemidji for the week with family friends. She stays with Guy and Val once or twice a year.  They love getting to play parents and she loves getting to be an only child.  They also teach her about legal stuff (Val is a lawyer), computers and all of the many subjects they are so knowledgeable about.
8. Victoria and Daryl went to a writers/actors/artists workshop. They learned about everything from collage to Taiko drumming to writing to charcoal and paint.  It was at a nearby college and Victoria made some cool new connections and they both had a great time.
9. We have seedlings on all the windowsills and have started many gardens. We got a ton of snow on top of my freshly planted seeds, but they’re cold tolerant so hopefully they’ll fare okay.  Inside, I have heirloom tomatoes everywhere, along with some exotic eggplants and interesting cabbage.  I can’t wait for it to warm up enough to really get serious in the garden.
10. Daryl, Anna and Jack auditioned for the Wilder Pageant. Victoria is sitting out this year (she has been in it every summer since she was 6), but Alex may join in as one of Daryl’s kids.  Daryl will probably be Reverend Alden and Elias Bedal (Walnut Grove’s first mayor) again.  We haven’t received official word about roles yet, but the cast photos are on Saturday so we’ll know this week.

We’ve also talked about… European travel, youth hostels, abortion, the Gosnell trial, townships, voting registration and more.  The kids have also been doing… finger knitting, Big Wheel riding, ball playing, tree climbing, drawing, Lego building, Wii playing, video chatting, hiking, bike riding, sticky ball tossing, solitaire playing, Free Rice earning, dog walking, cooking, chores, talking on the phone with friends, reading, reading, reading and a whole lot of playing.

If you haven’t seen them, here’s my latest homeschooling articles elsewhere….

Students can use free public domain classes to learn over 40 languages

 

Here’s a great free resource to round out your child’s foreign language studies.  FSI Language Courses offer dozens of foreign language programs in mp3 format and in print for languages ranging from Finnish to Swahili…

Kids can take part in virtual Maker Camp this summer

 

Kids are invited to take part in Make Magazine’s six-week Maker’s Camp again this summer, with all sorts of great science, technology and crafting fun.The annual program boasts 30 days of “awesome projects…

Elemons turns the Periodic Table of Elements into a Pokemon-style card game

 

The best educational games are ones that kids would choose to play anyway because they’re enjoyable, well made and easy to play.  Elemons is a great example of this kind of game…

Free geometry book available from Wikijunior

 

Wikijunior has created a free geometry wikibook for the elementary level that’s a great introduction to geometry for all ages.The 72-page book, Geometry for Elementary School, covers basic information such as points, lines, symmetry, congruence, how…

Minecraft homeschool: Incredible educational Minecraft inspiration from all over

Do your kids love Minecraft?  Why not take advantage of that and use Minecraft to help teach history, science, language arts and more? There are dozens of wonderful sites on the internet designed to help parents and teachers… 

50 Simple household items that help your child become a math whiz

 

Want to raise a child who loves math and is great at it?  One of the easiest ways to do that is to fill your house with hands-on materials that encourage kids to play with numbers, puzzles, shapes…

Free 700-page middle school chemistry course available online

 

Looking for a comprehensive chemistry course for the middle school level?  The American Chemical Society provides their entire 691-page curriculum for free as a PDF download or online resource…

And now, I have one final cake to bake (Victoria would like a gluten-free Red Velvet Cake) so I’d better get to it.

My goodness, I’ve been gone a lot lately!  We’ve been so busy for being recluses. 

Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to….

Daryl had his recheck for his hip replacement surgery at the Mayo.  All looks great and he has the go-ahead for physical therapy.

While we were there, I surprised the kids with $10 each to spend at Rochester’s giant thrift store, Saver’s.

My boys pooled their money for light sabers, nerf guns, tech toys and mini figurines.

Anna used her cash for yarn, an awesome high-tech watch, a wizardry book that goes along with Harry Potter crafts, and a 39 Clues card collection case.

Victoria spent it on nothing but books (The Outsiders, Slaughterhouse Five, Farenheit 451…).  And then talked me into buying an enormous stack of extra textbooks for her (organic chemistry, psychology, biology, surgical nursing, algebra one if I got her the others…).  That girl sure makes me smile sometimes.  

Jack and I have been playing this game like crazy to help him learn his multiplication facts (and also because it’s just plain fun).

Here’s a bit of what I posted about it on Facebook:

It’s called Roll n Multiply and you play it similarly to tic tac toe but it’s far more fun. Jack and I love it. You roll two dice and multiply the numbers (they are 10 sided), then put the game piece with that number on it anywhere on the board flipped to your color. The object is to get 4 in a row. BUT, if you roll a number that is already on the board you can take it and use it elsewhere (whether it was yours or your opponent’s, you just flip it to your color and put it where you want it), so you can move things and unblock lines that were blocked before. So if I had 3 in a row and Jack blocked me with his orange 24, and then I rolled 6×4, I could flip over his 24 to purple and win. It’s part luck, part strategy, part math. We play it a ton of and both of us like it. There’s a cheat sheet you can use if you don’t know your facts too, and I think Alex will be able to play it fine even though he’s only 5 and doesn’t know most of his facts yet. You really don’t need to know them but they end up learning them accidentally very quickly. I highly recommend it and I promised Jack I’d buy us a set of our own. You can check it out at the MSU library as soon as I return it and see if you guys like it. It’s nice and sturdy too, which I like. Here’s the link on Amazon (different cover now but the inside looks identical).

We stayed at a hotel for a couple of days while we were there for the recheck and had fun swimming at the pool, putting together fun gourmet (gluten free, vegetarian, etc.) hotel room meals and splurging a bit one time.

We finished off our visit by stopping by a fabulous HS family’s dairy farm to meet up in real life for the first time after us moms had known each other online for years.  It was a really special day and so much fun.  None of us could stop smiling afterwards and we can’t wait to visit again. 

I was too busy having fun to take any pictures but I think Toria and Anna got a few.  I snagged this from my friend’s FB feed of one of their new babies.  I love the fact that every single one of the 90+ cows has a name (Vanessa, Molly, Avery….) and that they are treated so lovingly (Avery steals peanut butter cups).  We learned so much, too!  And we just plain adored their family. 

In other news, someone made these beautiful flint-knapped driftglass arrowheads for our family.  Daryl struck up a conversation with the artist a few years ago as Daryl was looking for sharks’ teeth at a small local lake and this man was looking for arrowheads.  They’ve networked a bit since then (the “primitive tech” community is a small and friendly one!), and my sweetie offered him some big chunks of good flintknapping rock that we had sitting unused in our garage.  In thanks, he made these for all of us.  Aren’t they beautiful?!

We’re also working on our seeds, readying the garden and so much more.  Poor Fiona has been in and out of doctor’s offices and ERs the past week (she’s okay) and so much else is going on, but that’s a good bit for the first catch-up!

Oh yes, and we’re in the middle of some crazy winter storm that’s got people all around us without power and everything is covered with ice.  Trees and power lines are broken left and right, and there’s some pretty dire situations all around.

Hopefully all of that will pass quickly.  Minnesota winters are a bit like movie bad guys.  Every time you think they’re finally dead, they grab your ankle and come after you one more time.    I’m just pretending it’s green out there and going on with my garden planning.

Hopefully it will be less than a month till the next check in!

Curious what level your kids are up to in math? K12 has all of its math placement tests online here.  You can print them out for free without registering or jumping through any hoops.

The tests go from kindergarten through 5th grade in two semesters per year, and then four semesters of pre-algebra, which is roughly middle school age.

Note that it automatically prints the answers too, which doubles the pages printed.  For instance, the kindergarten semester test is 4 pages but it prints 8 pages because it prints the test and then the test with the right answer circled.  If you want to save paper and ink, just print the first half of the pages and check the answers online (if you don’t know them yourself).

You know we don’t follow a structured curriculum, and this was a nice way for me to see what subjects to introduce next to Jack and Anna.  Alex just plain had fun with it, too. 

I love this free printable from Layers of Learning. She writes:

Using a copy of the Constitution go through the “Three Branches by the Constitution” worksheet. Each of the powers granted to the Federal Government are written in the boxes on the worksheet. Color code each box to show which entity of the government has the specific power mentioned. You’ll have to consult the Constitution for the answers.

The Legislative branch should have two colors in the same color family to designate it, like orange and yellow, and the President and vice president should also have two colors in the same color family to represent them, like dark blue and light blue. The Supreme Court justices can all be in the same color, like green. Many of the legislative functions are shared by the House and Senate, these can be colored with both orange and yellow.

If you like, you can obtain and print portraits of each of the people currently in office to paste into the boxes. Images should be about 80×100 pixels and can be re-sized with photo editing software or using Paint.

Head on over to print your B&W copies!

Here’s a nice freebie from Homeschool Helper Online. The 9-page file includes some foldables, mini books and questions to test kids’ knowledge (plus answers on a separate page).  I’m hoping to do this with Jack later in the week and add some fun stuff of our own to it.

See my lapbooking tab on the top of this page for more lapbooking resources.

Here’s a few assorted links I’ve found lately that I thought were worth keeping.

I’m posting these here in case they help others and also so I can find the sites later when I need them!   I’d pin them but in most cases, they don’t have pinnable images.

4th Grade Spelling lists… We don’t usually do anything formal in spelling.  (Here’s a tip from a mom who’s HSed to the teen years– spelling is one of those things that takes care of itself very well through the rest of life if you have a child who likes to read and write.) That said, Jack could use a boost and we’re doing some weekly spelling words now and trying to make it fun.  This site has lots of easy printable lists and you don’t need to sign up or jump through any hoops (and other grades, too).

Acids and Bases (Science Fair Projects and Experiments)… Wow, this site looks awesome.  The projects are categorized and look really interesting.  It’s a no-frills site, but one I want to spend more time investigating.

Reading which family various things are in is quite interesting, too.  Or perhaps I’m just a geek!  That’s pretty much confirmed, too! 

In other news…

Don’t forget that Pi Day is coming up!  Here’s oodles of fun stuff to do to celebrate.

I’ve also written recently about How to prepare your daughter for her first period, a recipe for Easy (I swear!) gluten free and dairy free glazed donuts, a new site that features kids’ science projects with theme challenges, and how kids can sign up for a free 2-year subscription to LEGO Magazine.

And now, I’m back on toddler duty.  I wonder what the odds are that Fiona would like to relax in a bath and look through gluten free cookbooks and garden magazines with me?

Here’s a heads up so you can gather whatever you need to celebrate this fun math holiday on 3-14.  We always have fun with it!

I put together all sorts of Pi Day carols, crafts, activities, links, etc. here:

Celebrate Pi Day on 3-14!

Have fun!

Here’s 99 things I did yesterday.

I realize this is probably interesting to nobody except me, so you will not hurt my feelings in the least by skipping this completely!  I just thought it would be fun to log once.

It should be noted that Victoria is up visiting friends in the Cities for the next week and a half, so I’m a mother of four for the time being instead of five.

This is not everything I did yesterday, just a random 99. I obviously changed Fiona more than once, and some things just don’t need to be logged.  It’s not necessarily in order, either.

1. Made coffee.
2. Fed the pets (even though it’s Jack’s job).
3. Got dressed and used two lint rolling sheets getting all the dog and cat hair off of my sweater.
4. Dressed Fiona.
5. Changed Fiona.
6. Brought breakfast to Daryl (still on bed rest from surgery).
7. Set Fiona up with breakfast in her high chair.  (Jack took care of breakfast for himself and Alex, and Anna takes care of herself.)
8. Checked email.
9. Took pictures of some delightful creations Jack and Alex made with clementines, blueberries and bananas (and ate one). 
10. Gathered compost.
11. Hugged kids.
12. Blogged 10 Ways to Make Today Magical.
13. Taught Jack how to add and subtract fractions.
14. Browsed Pinterest and pinned some of my articles to various boards.
15. Went to the grocery store to pick up four dozen cartons of local farm eggs.
16. Made corned beef hash and eggs for Daryl, myself and the boys.  We are a mostly vegetarian family (Anna is always vegetarian).  Mostly does not include hash in the case of most of us.
17. Did four loads of laundry.
18. Turned off the TV and told the boys to do something educational.
19. Answered questions on email lists about surveys for money, homeschooling high school and various other topics.
20. Posted about a friend’s missing dog on Facebook.  Also shared a meme about having an awesome husband, a missing teen notice, an article about organic gardening and probably at least one cartoon about wine.
21. Answered questions about multiplication, money, spelling, erosion and spiritual beliefs.
22. Set Fiona up with a bunch of boxes and cupboard items she could stack and play with rather than the jars of lentils she was trying to stack.
23. Went to the post office.
24. Played with our new foam clock to work on telling time with Alex.
25. Helped Fiona draw with markers.
26. Cleaned markers off of Fiona’s hands, arms and face.
27. Sent a message to Victoria telling her about homeschool days at an indoor climbing place in the Cities tomorrow.
28. Followed through to be sure that my four winners for my NuNaturals giveaway would be getting their goodies this week.
29. Talked to Daryl while snuggling Fiona.
30. Folded laundry.
31. Called out words for Jack to spell while I folded laundry.
32. Trimmed Daryl’s surgical tape.
33. Nursed Fiona.
34. Caught up with Anna, who was up late helping Daryl out and sleeps late right now to balance out the night shift.
35. Fixed the couch and cushions after Alex made pillow forts.
36. Had Alex fix the couch and cushions after Alex made pillow forts (it should be noted that this could count as ten entries throughout the day).
37. Sent Jack outside with Layla and a ham bone I picked up for her at the grocery store.  Got a very happy dog.
38. Checked my Examiner earnings, pinned and shared articles in columns that were low earners yesterday.
39. Read anti-HSLDA sites, the NYT article about the baby who was allegedly cured of HIV, a blog by a mom with stage IV breast cancer, federal financial aid information and learned various other topics.
40. Sent ice packs, mail, seconds of meals, ice cream and assorted other necessities with various children up to Daryl.
41. Pawned Fiona off on various family members to watch.
42. Looked for colored tissue paper and baggie of tiny pretties (dyed feathers, metallic shapes, etc.) to do a contact paper craft with Alex.  Couldn’t find them, got out oil pastels instead.
43. Did altered book pages with Alex and Fiona.  
44. Changed Fiona into a new outfit that wasn’t covered in marker and banana.
45. Doled out vitamins and supplements.
46. Treated and bandaged a wound on Alex’s foot.
47. Taught Jack the nines finger trick for figuring out multiples of nines.
48. Dropped off folded laundry in Victoria’s room, chased the giant dog off of her bed.
49. Rescued various items from the trash and recycling bins (courtesy of a one year-old girl who likes to toss things).
50. Talked to Anna about country music lyrics, scrapbooking, Westboro Baptist Church, friends, childhood memories and so on.
51. Gave various assignments to Anna (do Khan Academy, gather dirty laundry from her room and bring it to the basement, help with Fiona…).
52. Posted a picture of Jack’s awesome philosophical drawing on Facebook via Instagram.  It’s called “The Spirit of Peace.” He said “It’s fire and water coming together to form life and peace because life is not possible without harmony.” Deep, huh? He even made up a song to go with it. 
53. Responded to an email asking me to review KIND snack products.
54. Showed Jack and Alex how to use my exercise band and helped them do lifts and stretches with it.
55. Gave Anna a fancy new box for her new scrapbooking hobby, letter stickers and some colorful cardstock pieces.
56. Listed the A-C bulk spice list on the Plum Creek Food Co-op’s Facebook page.
57. Read books to Alex and Fiona.
58. Talked about reasons for poverty and world hunger with Alex as Jack was doing Free Rice to earn rice to donate to the hungry.
59. Helped Jack with vocabulary and multiplication on Free Rice.
60. Tidied the living room.
61. Made supper (stir fried veggies with rice, crazy fattening mini sweet pepper poppers).
62. Ate way too many poppers.  And stir fry, but mostly poppers.
63. Settled squabbles.
64. Drank a very nice, very large glass of wine.
65. Watched Bones with the kids.
66. Ate chocolate.
67. Talked to Jack about his moral dilemma of wanting to donate all of his savings in the bank (nearly $100) to feed the hungry, but he also had been saving up for things he really wanted.  He finally decided it was okay to keep his money but he’d set a personal goal of donating 1,000 grains of rice per day to help make a difference.
68. Replied to comments and questions that had come in on Facebook.
69. Snuggled with Alex on the couch.
70. Got Fiona to sleep.
71. Got Fiona to sleep again.  And again.  And so forth.
72. Checked D’s incision.
73. Started cleaning the table, had Jack take over.
74. Set up two experiments on the Electronic Playground with Jack, as promised all day (morse code and blinking LED lights). 
75. Put together the first half of my (way too large) order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
76. Gave kids rock candy swizzle sticks for a special treat for dessert (ingredient: sugar, note: make these for science class).
77. Unpacked new mini donut maker, looked for Gluten Free on a Shoestring Quick and Easy cookbook that had the GF mini donut recipe that spurned the impulse buy.  No luck.
78. Loved on the dog.
79. Helped Alex and Jack pick out their classes for the upcoming science conference.
80. Emailed Victoria.
81. Talked to Anna about her new goal to write a musical about her life.
82. Loved on the cat.
83. Officially applied for a PIN from the federal government for financial aid forms once the kids are ready to start applying to colleges.
84. Fixed my necklace after Fiona broke it.  Twice.
85. Debated about ordering stir fry rice noodles, sorgum flour, organic (non-GMO) corn starch,  organic GF corn flakes,  tapioca flour and potato starch straight up or through Subscribe and Save on Amazon.com.  Dilemma — if you order five or more items that will be delivered at the same time, you get 15% off now (and only 5% off through subscribe and save) and it’s a better deal on gluten free items I use a lot.  On the other hand, it stings to drop that kind of money on bulk flours and such. Hemmed and hawed and left it all to think about tomorrow.
86. Watched MythBusters on Netflix with Jack and Alex.
87. Snuggled with Alex until he fell asleep.
88. Planned my garden out on paper.
89. Planned our menus for the week.
90. Ate more chocolate.
91. Made sure kids did nightly chores (take dog out, put leftovers away, etc.).
92. Got out frozen pumpkin to thaw in the fridge for GF mix and match quick bread tomorrow.
93. Shared chocolate with hubby.
94. Gave Anna the new Discover Magazine and asked her to read it and talk to me tomorrow about some of the stories she found most interesting.
95. Swept cobwebs from the ceilings upstairs.  Note:  Especially cold winters really do seem to mean many more spiders!  Good grief.  Every two weeks we seem ready for haunted house status.
96. Helped Anna find chocolate chips to make trail mix (raw almonds, cranberries, dark chocolate chips) for a midnight snack.  Yes, there is a chocolate theme at our house.
97. Posted a couple of nifties to the Magical Homeschool page on Facebook.
98. Watched CNN.
99. Logged this. 

There were a lot of things that I didn’t do that I usually do.  I didn’t bake anything, didn’t get any of the littles into real baths, didn’t have long talks with Toria, didn’t do much one-on-one with Anna or homeschool with Alex, didn’t write any articles… I didn’t even do the dishes.

I can’t imagine why I don’t get more done…

It was fun to log, though, and I highly recommend it for those days when you’re sure you never get anything accomplished!

PS  This post contains affiliate links.  If you buy anything at Amazon after clicking through here, I’ll make a small fortune.  Okay, a really, really small fortune, but it’s something and you should know that.

Here’s an example of how we play with words to help our kids learn to read.

This is a game Alex and I played yesterday.  I’ve done something similar with all of the kids and it always works well and is fun.

I wrote and illustrated 15 sets of words (drawings on blue, words on yellow) and then I just spread them all out and have him look for pairs.

Our words (short and easy to draw) were hand, sun, moon, egg, ball, flag, fish, owl, boot, door, cup, car, leaf, bug, hat and tree. Owl ended up being a fail. My owl looked like a buddha. 

Later on, the game can be played concentration style (flipped over, try to remember where matches are) but when kids are newly learning to read, just spread them out facing up.

Have the child look for matches.  Try not to help much, other than when asked for help remembering how to sound out letters.

Alex (5) was able to figure them all out with occasional reminders about letter sounds. He can read MUCH easier in this sort of way than just sitting and sounding words out.

As a matter of fact, when I just flipped through the cards afterwards, he got very frustrated trying to read the same words he had just matched up.  The pictures give just the right amount of help to let kids see themselves as successful readers.

He really enjoyed it and was very proud of his stack of accomplished words.

When our kids learned to read:

Victoria sounded her first word out (boo) at three and was reading fluently at four.  Anna was nearly six when it really clicked.  Jack was five.  Alex is five now and I think he will be six before it really clicks.

We did not use a phonics curriculum, How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Bob books or any of that. We read to our kids a lot, we played phonics games, we talked about letter sounds and we let it happen naturally.  (See the articles below for more examples.)

It’s important to note that all of our older kids are voracious readers now (at 9, 13 and 14).

Remember that when a child learns to read has no bearing on how well the child will eventually read.

Children walk, talk, read and learn to use the potty at their own paces.

If you do “walking lessons” with a baby who is not ready to walk, I sure hope you make it fun.  It will not help the baby walk much sooner and is completely unnecessary.

Reading lessons are the same.  If you’re going to use phonics curricula and reading lessons with a young child, do be sure to make it fantastically fun. 

See these articles on more on how to do that.

• Five fun ways to help your child learn to read

• 10 Fun ways to get kids ready to read

• Making Reading Come Naturally

Have you heard this exciting news?

National Geographic reports:

Evidence of a drowned “microcontinent” has been found in sand grains from the beaches of a small Indian Ocean island, scientists say.

A well-known tourist destination, Mauritius (map) is located about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) off the coast of Africa, east of Madagascar. Scientists think the tiny island formed some nine million years ago from cooling lava spewed by undersea volcanoes.

But recently, researchers have found sand grains on Mauritius that contain fragments of the mineral zircon that are far older than the island, between 660 million and about 2 billion years old.

In a new study, detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists concluded that the older minerals once belonged to a now vanished landmass, tiny bits of which were dragged up to the surface during the formation of Mauritius. (Also see “World’s Oldest Rocks Suggest Early Earth Was Habitable.”)

The BBC says:

Researchers have found evidence for a landmass that would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago…

…Until about 750 million years ago, the Earth’s landmass was gathered into a vast single continent called Rodinia.

And although they are now separated by thousands of kilometres of ocean, India was once located next to Madagascar.

Once land started to drift towards their current positions, Mauritia was no more

Now researchers believe they have found evidence of a sliver of continent – known as a microcontinent – that was once tucked between the two.

Fascinating stuff!