Tulun, Mexico

Just got back this afternoon from our "little" vacation.  I will be posting more soon (I bet you can't wait, our story is better than the Lampoon's Vacation!)  Little hugaboo went on a day trip with my parents on a glass bottom boat while we brought Big Hugaboo to the ruins at Tulun.  He had a great time and asked if we could come back :)

Give me a few days and I'll try to get more pics and details of the trip.

Walking into Disney World Magic Kingdom.

In the hot tub on the cruise ship.



santa 2010

Rockstar!

Here's a clip from little hugaboo's dance recital last week. She'll be dancing at the mall on Thursday evening, so I'll try to get a better video then!  In this video she's on the left side on/near the white line, you'll notice she is the only one doing the movements in time with the song ;) For most of the moves she sort of leads the group doing the moves first :)  Hopefully Thursday they'll be more in sync!

Theater Class

Last night Big X had a parents night thing for his building blocks class at theater.  He was, shall we say, a bit goofy- as usual.  He loves his teacher, Miss Amanda.  Here's one of the little things they showed us (how to do their bow!) Also, he performs on New Years Eve and New Years day in the musical revue here in town, please join us!

guar gum and fudge

We actually have been quite busy, despite my lack of posting.  Last week A made some fudge (from a kit) and it turned out quite good.  This week, they kids made "goop" from a goop making kit.  It takes a couple different ingredients, including something called "guar gum".  The kind we made today uses the stuff from disappearing ink so it changes color as it becomes warm/cold.  Fun stuff!

Does everyone look this cute while they cook?

Its been a while!

We have in fact been very busy around here.  If you've only been visiting the blog but want more frequent info on what we're up to add me as a friend on facebook :)

Anyway, here are a couple fall pictures of the kiddos and stuff we've been doing.

A visit to the pumpkin patch (with our homeschool group)

Rollerskating (wth our homeschool group)

A trip to the fire station (with the preschool class)

fall 2010

Yes, I know I'm behind in posting, but I am going to make an attempt at making it up to you!  Here are a few pictures from this weekend.  I am going to work backwards and put up some from the last few weeks as well, but we'll get started with this.

Beautiful fall colors at the lake yesterday.

Greeks & Barbarians

So we're studying early Greece right now (Myceneans & Philistines) so after reading about them and then doing some map work, the kids built a wooden wall (like the Greeks) and then the Sea People (the barbarians) battled using their iron armor.  The woman of the house also cooked them a meal of fish from the Aegean Sea (i.e. goldfish crackers) We pretended with wood deck scraps, a blanket, and some tin foil for the spear tip and shield, but you get the idea :)

brought to you by the letter B

This week the little Hugaboo is working on the letter B.  So, she painted a Big B Blended with Blues using a toothBrush.  We're doing little lapbooks for each week (hopefully!) and the letter of the week will be on the front. 

Early Crete

Learning about early Crete around here!  While there is apparently a debate over whether Minoan ships had sails or not, X decided to make one with a sail.  We set it in the water and watched it go!  He also used some yarn (as indicated in the myth) to follow a maze like Theseus and the minotaur in the labyrinth.  Up for tomorrow is making a volcano that will destroy Crete and learn about Atlantis (which its believed that the story of Atlantis is based on this eruption.)  A is working on a lapbook and we'll show it off later this week :)

2010-11 School Year Planning

Well, I’m busy getting planning done for this school year.  Big Hugaboo will be in 1st/2nd grade combo depending on the subjects & his interest level.  The Little Hugaboo will be in her first official year of preschool!  As a quick rundown, here’s a little bit about what we’re doing and why…

Our family decided to homeschool for a number of reasons, the biggest factors are wanting to have the BEST possible education for our children in the best possible environment.  Both my husband and I felt let down by our own educational experiences in public schools.  And since we are fortunate enough for me to stay home during the day we felt homeschooling would be a great option.  It also allows us to demonstrate our Christian values to our children though out the day and incorporate spiritual learning into their education.

For our teaching method, we are only very loosely following a curriculum at this point.  We are not “unschoolers” but I do give the kids the flexibility (that only homeschooling allows) to pick and choose what they work on, when they work on it, and how long to do it.  Generally speaking, after breakfast we go down to our schoolroom and work for a while in the morning, breaks as needed, and then have the afternoons free to learn through play. 

We also spend a good deal (i.e. MOST) of time outside of the house visiting parks, playgrounds, the art museum, children’s museum, different libraries around town, dance lessons, swim lessons, theater productions, AWANA at church, art classes, physical education classes at the YMCA, visiting friends for playdates, at the drop-in daycare when I have photo sessions, and of course a number of activities & fieldtrips through our local homeschool group REACH.

In other words, very little of our homeschool education is actually done at home!  This is how children learn best, through practical experiences.  This is also the very best way to “socialize” children as they are able to interact in a multitude of situations and learn how to work with children and adults of various ages and ability levels.  These real life experiences are what will prepare our children to be awesome adults!

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And now for the curriculum info!

Big Hugaboo (grade 1/2)

History	Story of the World
Science	Alpha Omega LIFEPAC grade 1
Math	Singapore Math 1A & 1B (equals grade2) AND Alpha Omega Horizons grade 1
Social Studies	Alpha Omega LIFEPAC grade 2
Phonics & Reading	Alpha Omega Horizons grade 1
Grammar & Language	Prima Latina (elementary Latin)
Art	Start with Art @ YMCA
Religion	Alpha Omega LIFEPAC grade 1
Penmanship	Handwriting without Tears

Little Hugaboo (pre-school)

Still working on the details for her curriculum, but will be using the Preparatory level of Letter of the Week as a springboard.  We will also be using lots of ideas from the blog Walking by the Way & http://www.homeschoolshare.com

For both kids, its also an objective of mine to try to get them to compile at least six lapbook projects throughout the year.  Check out my older posts to see some samples!

To organize our workday we use workboxes.  If you do a google search you can find more info about the concept.  Basically it helps keep us on track, gives the kids expectations of what they need to do for the day, and helps me keep everything organized.  Much more gets accomplished in less time with this system!

Busy Beaver Camp

Little Hugaboo had her end of camp performance yesterday. The theme was dinosaurs (as if that wasn't obvious!)

Here she is taking a bow after the first song!

These are her beaver teeth (below)

Working Together

A little clip of the kids working together to learn colors and color words.  Aw, so cute :)  Best viewed with audio, Big X is reading the color words to Little Hugaboo and she is putting them on the game board.

Click Here to See Video

I can’t figure out how to embed the video on the blog page, so you’ll have to click the link instead.

my photo assistant

So, what do you do as a photo assistant when you’re only six years old?  Looks something like this-

And then deface a public park display by taking the pinwheels out of the ground (did not take a picture of that- but there were QUITE A FEW that had “fell down” after get got done looking at them)…

And then look closely in this where’s waldo picture (hint: he was wearing a Red Hawks hat)

second grade, here we come!

The Big Hugaboo took his PIAT-R (achievement test) and did really well.  In our state it’s not required to test them every year, so we drove across the border and did the exam in MN (its a national exam, however).  It covers general information, including science & social studies, reading recognition, reading comprehension, math, spelling, and writing.  I want to have it for my records as well as sanity (and proof that we actually accomplished something!) 

His scores are very impressive.  His actual age is 6 yr 2 mo and his score showed he ranked in the 90th percentile and at the equivalent of 7 yr 4 mo!  The administrator of the exam felt the score should actually be even higher though, because he seemed to get bored as he got to the math section (at the end) and that was his lowest scoring area.  For that (his lowest area) he still got the 63rd percentile (with 50th being average) because he was subtracting instead of adding on the word problems section (DOH!)

For his overall score, it shows that while he’s technically grade k-7 (seventh month of kindergarten) his score is closer to that of 1-9.  Meaning he’s over a year ahead of the average!  So, this closes out his official school year for this term.  I want to give him a bit of a break before his summer programs & activities start up.  But don’t worry, I’ll still continue to post my ramblings here throughout the spring & summer anyway ;)

wurmz

When you're a homeschooled kid you can get out in the pouring rain to collect worms for school work!  Spending time now observing how they move and wondering which end is the face!  He wants to save them and bring them to Grandpa Bill's house to go fishing, but I think we'll be adding them to the garden shortly ;)

printmaking

 

 

The theme for this month’s art class is printmaking.  How fun is that?!  Big X also started theater class last night through our local community theater.  Once I have the dates & times for the performances I will let you know!

 

easter egg hunt

So finally the little Hugaboo got to do something by herself without a stinky brother along!  He’s on spring break right now with his Papa, so he missed out on the Easter egg hunt yesterday.  But she had a lot of fun.  They have to find the eggs IN THE DARK and use a flashlight while digging through shredded paper.  It was a lot of fun, but made it difficult for pictures on my cell phone ;)  There were also lots of little crafts and a couple of bounce houses.  She did NOT want to see the Easter Bunny which was completely ok with me!!