HOMESCHOOL, ETC.

Look at that furrowed brow... :)

So homeschool has been going well so far. It has been very time consuming figuring it all out though. I am sometimes surprised by what the state chooses to expect from these little kids, but then I also think that a teacher in a classroom would not likely go into as much detail as some of the lessons give. The lessons all come pre-made and if I follow them exactly, it often takes us at least a half hour to get through each one. However, I am finding that there are a lot of repeating ideas and main ideas to stress, so the lessons have been gradually getting shorter. We are slowly getting ahead. And good thing too, because Shade signed up for the Math Club, the Book Club, and Beginning Spanish. The clubs don't really require any extra work, they mostly give us access to good resources. But we have yet to start Spanish. That one should be fun, though, I am probably more excited about it than Shade.

Also something cool, Shade has been placed in advanced math and advanced reading according to the state tests (LEAP and DIBELS). So he gets to learn about money and time rather than just counting. His books are also refreshingly challenging, but so far he has been able to pick up on the sight words and sounding out the big words pretty well. His most proud accomplishment so far is reading the word "squelching" by himself. Yeah, they actually had that as a vocabulary word.

Some of the things we have been doing for school:
We had to come up with our own science experiment, so we decided to grow mold (since it grows so easily here). We wanted to see if the lighting and location made a difference. One row of food was left in a dark, moist bathroom. The other row was left in a sunny windowsill. The order of food is a tomato, processed cheese, slice of bread, cream cheese, and grapes. Can you guess which row was in which location? The processed cheese gives it away, since it essentially got sun bleached. Gross, but cool.


Another thing we have been trying to do is go on "field trips." His school does one every month, but since the school headquarters is basically in Lansing, the field trips so far have been a bit too far away. But we have done some ourselves and have already made it to Greenfield Village and The Detroit Zoo. I want to try to go to at least one place each month, if anything just to get out of the house for a change of pace.

Greenfild Village - they had the place decked out for Halloween and the new playscape finished


The Detroit Zoo - a lot of the animals were out and about that day, especially the bears. We did get to see some brown grizzly bears play fighting in the water. And the polar bear exhibit is always awesome. The last few pictures, I was trying to get a good one of Shade and I, you can see how much of a goof ball Shade is. Finally I had someone else take a picture because he would not stop goofing around when I tried to do it.





Outside - The weather had been awesome up until a cold front came in the weekend of October 18th. Before then we tried to go outside as much as possible. One day we had gotten home from the store and found a real praying mantis. I have never seen one in real life before. Those suckers are big. Shade got brave and played with it. But eventually crawling on his head was too much.


One thing I absolutely LOVE is getting to spend more time with Shade, and having him get to spend more time with Olive. *Squishy-Face Kisses* And yes, I finally got my hair done. Shorter layers with candy stripes. I am actually getting used to it now and am starting to like it. But at least now my hair doesn't dry as crazily as it used to.


Kellen has been working like crazy lately, lucky to get home before 8pm. So when he gets home Shade is all over him. He always gets so excited to spend time with daddy and to play and wrestle. Love my boys!