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Today will be another FIAR co-op, where we “row” the book Roxaboxen. What a lovely book! If you have not read it, you should. It will inspire your children to make a magically fun village — right in their backyard, with streets lined with pebbles and shells and whatever else they can find.
I hope you enjoy the wonderland within your school and life today. Pictures later.
My Dear Readers, I’m sorry I have not posted very much this week! Where do the days go? I’ve been busy feeding baby bunnies, trying to keep up with the few garden beds I’ve got started, planning for a FIAR co-op that occurred today, and — be still my heart — I had the opportunity to watch a little 3-year-old girl this afternoon! Did I ever laugh! I had forgotten what ridiculously adorable things little children say! We talked about all sorts of things and she even called me a silly goose once. Made my day.
Once again, this a co-op which I helped to teach, so I don’t have any pictures of me to share, not that you only want to see me — and today of all days I felt pretty scattered and like my teaching didn’t go so well, but my point is that I can’t really share the portion of the co-op that I taught. Our co-op today was based on the story Arabella, using Five In A Row as our curriculum at home, and then sharing lessons together as a group! It’s an amazing group.
My co-teacher went all out with her decorating, right down to a model boat in the window! It was a lovely setting in which to learn about the Great Barrier Reef and the animals that live there.
I loved watching the children looking at the shells. I’ve never seen a child yet that didn’t enjoy seashells.
At one point the children were split into two teams. Questions were asked of the teams, alternating back and forth, and I was quite impressed that (working as a team) each group was able to answer nearly every single review question given them! They had heard about vertebrates versus invertebrates, cephalopods, gastropods, whales, and many other things, so there were quite a few things to remember. Having the children work as teams to find their answers, I think they retained so much more. It’s amazing how one little tidbit of information might appeal to one or two and then another couple wouldn’t have even heard it! Two heads ARE better than one!
The learned about resonance.
Guessing whether a larger bottle would make a higher-pitched sound or a lower-pitched sound than the smaller bottle made.
The food was amazing! My lovely co-teacher put all of this together. One of our themes for the day was ropes, so she had several types of pretzels to look like ropes; there were tropical foods to represent the coral reef.
She had even taken little sausages and cut them before cooking to look like little octopuses!
Finally, the children worked on more tying (carrying on with the rope theme) skills to make a keyring with beads and/or cowrie shells and string. They learned to tie square knots. I’m very excited about being able to make more of these at home with Michaela! Today was so nice. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. I’m off to bed soon, as tomorrow is a work day for me. My garden is literally springing to life, with more growth, more color and more creature activity every hour! I find myself saying, “spring don’t get away from me before I can plant all that I want to plant!” I hope, whatever the weather has been at your house, that you’ve had a lovely day too!
I posted last week about the fabric egg baskets I made for our Albert co-op and I said I’d post directions. Well, here they are. It’s not as easy to explain as it would be to show someone, so I hope it makes sense. It was a fun and cheap project!
This first thing I did was cut 4 strips of fabric, somewhere around 16 inches long and 1-1/2 to 2 inches wide. You can adjust the size as you want to. I ended up liking the wider (2 inches) scraps better. There was always length to cut off after tying, but the longer strips are easier to work with.
The next thing I did after laying out the strips in a star-type pattern was to carry them carefully to the sewing machine and sewing a messy circle of stitches in the center. This may be the most tedious part because you have to keep straightening the strips of fabric as you go around. This makes the bottom of the nest and does NOT have to be perfect. I even had different color threads on my spool and bobbin, but it only added to the color!
Now it gets harder to explain. The next step is to cut three more strips, also about 16 inches long and also about 2 inches thick. You are going to weave one strip at a time, over and under and over and under, and then cinch it and tie it at the end to make the circumference of the nest the size you want it. (The size of that messy circle you sewed will in part determine the circumference of the nest.
As you can see, I keep an old suitcase full of scraps, so my fabric choices were many. I chose bright springy-looking fabrics.
The picture above shows the first strip, woven over and under and then being tied the size I wanted to make the nest. At this point, holding one hand in the bottom of the nest, pull the original strips (blue stripes in this case) up to tighten that bottom “layer” and lay the strips out neatly for the next fabric strip to be woven in.
The second strip is woven exactly opposite as the first, and it will come out exactly right each time, i.e. you won’t end up with two “unders” or two “overs.” Tie the second layer.
Above is the picture after the third and final layer/strip has been woven in, exactly opposite as the second layer, so you end up with a weave just like a basket. Again, put one hand in the bottom of the basket to hold it while you pull and straighten out the original strips. Now. This may be the hardest part to explain yet! You are going to have a lot of long pieces of fabric hanging off, but DON’T cut anything YET. You will have 8 long pieces from the original set of 4 strips, in this case blue and white striped. You will straighten them up and then tie pairs of strips over the top and final layer you’ve just woven around. In the picture above you can see me tying one. It will secure the top layer in place. You don’t want to tie it too tight, but you don’t want it too loose either, because then your egg nest will be flimsy. After tying four sets of ties around the top, you are ready to trim the ends.
Before trimming, I went around and tightened every knot so they would not come loose. I also had to re-tie a couple because once the higher layers were done, the lower ones seemed too big. You’ll know what I mean when you get to this part. After trimming, you’ll have a finished nest for a pretty egg!
Voila! I want to tell you all how much I appreciate each and every comment. I have not had time to answer each one over the last couple of days, but I read each and every one, and they mean so much! Life has been very overwhelming here lately. Thomas and I each missed at least a week’s worth of work (more for him) from his hospitalization, there were new medicines to be bought, both times he went in, I feel we got behind in life and in lessons, and of course we worry about those we love when they’re not doing so well, so we were all worried about carpenter-man. I am so thankful that Thomas is healing. He was even able to put in those couple of hours on the greenhouse last weekend, but John was a huge help, and Thomas really has really made sure to take it slow getting back into work, etc. Just so you know I appreciate all of you!
Today was a delightfully wonderful day! We had a Five In A Row co-op today, and this time our studies centered around the book Albert, by Donna Jo Napoli.
This is absolutely an adorable story, and the illustrations by Jim LaMarche are gorgeous. Albert, the main character, finds his inner strength when he stretches his hand out an upper story window and a pair of cardinals make their nest there. He is forced to stand, holding the nest, and listen to the noises of the city — both the good noises and the bad noises that always frighten him into staying home.
I do not have pictures of some parts of the day, as I was teaching today. Our day started off with a reading of the story and then a talk about “discovering the truth” and “illusion.” We looked at objects that were not what they seemed when you could only see parts of them. We looked at optical illusions on paper and had a lot of good discussion.
Each child received a laminated picture of a bird which was hole punched and hanging on a piece of cord with a couple of beads. Each child’s “mystery” bird was in an envelope. I think all of the children wore their cards and had a lot of fun comparing their new names. “Who are you?” “I’m Purple Martin! Who are you?”
Next it was on to some EGG-speriments! We did the ol’ egg getting sucked into a bottle, how much weight can eggshells hold, egg in vinegar losing its carbon (shell), and how can you tell if an egg is cooked or raw. They were quite successful (thank goodness — you know how something works at home but then in front of a crowd…). Again, I was teaching this part, so no picture of me doing the experiements. Thought you might want to see the EGG-speriments table, however.
Next, my co-teacher pulled out a large poster of different types of nests. Each child was given a picture of a bird. One by one, the children came up and paired their birds with the type of nest that bird creates. The children seem to love activities like this.
The children are just a great bunch of kids. They are all really good students and very easy to teach. Could it be any better?
Next, we moved the children into the edge of some woods — a lovely surrounding, to decorate eggs. Some of the eggs were hard boiled and some were just shells that had had the yolks and whites blown out. The children enjoyed this so much and we saw a lot of individuality (as always)!
We had Mod-Podge and tissue paper available.
Markers and colored pencils.
Paints.
And more paints.
After a plenteous time of painting and a few dashes through the woods by some active children pretending to be birds or some type of important egg bomb dropper (think boys here), the children were ready to sit down and listen again.
My co-teacher had a great display on the ear and drew the children into a very well done talk about how we hear.
Once again, each child was given a piece of paper with a picture on it of something that made noise. One by one, these things were placed on a decibel scale to illustrate how much noise they generated and whether or not it was enough noise to damage the ear. Finally, the children had their snack, which consisted of tomato juice, one of Albert’s favorites and yet a drink which most of the children today decided was definitely NOT their favorite; and, they had little cups of seeds and raisins — things birds like to eat. The moms stood around and drank hot tea and coffee and talked, something we are all really, really good at. I loved at the end of the co-op how the children carried their learning right into their play. They turned a little creek bed into a “nesting area” and set up nests for their eggs.
At the end of the day, each child was given a tiny nest, woven from scraps of fabric, to display their colored egg in. I’m too tired to post it tonight, but will soon post instructions for how I made the little nests. They turned out really cute I think.
Tomorrow is a work day for me, so I’m off now to relax for a few minutes, drink some Tension Tamer and then sleep. Ahh sleep. I’m tired. Did I forget to mention that I came home after the co-op and raked up leaves, cleared two garden beds, planted some rose shoots and a peony? Oh. Yeah. I did that too today. I’m T-I-R-E-D! Happy, but tired.
Over the weekend I found a few minutes to decorate a T-shirt using freezer paper stenciling. Like this. And this. And this. And this. And this. You get the point.
I felt I needed something that would speak my mind for me when I went to a meeting of some of the Five In A Row moms to learn how to make pasta. I think this works. Don’t you? It was so easy.
Yesterday’s co-op (Grass Sandals) turned out to be one of my favorite co-ops so far! Or is it that they just get better and better?
It started out with a reading of the story. The perfect way to begin the co-op.
From there we moved into learning about how Chinese (and the derivative Japanese) characters are written, how they evolved, and how very different the Japanese language is from our own. As I listened to Laura talk about this, I was struck at how much of it explained why my Joseph cannot spell worth a hoot in English, but takes to the Japanese language like a fish in water.
After learning about many of the symbols and how they were simplified over many years, each child and parent was give a card with a symbol. We had to put together what we’d learned and then guess what it meant. Mine is a hand, which looks like it could be holding a utensil (underneath the hand, the rod-like utensil), and of course that looks like a bowl and a mouth, so I guessed “eat.” Wrong. It is a hand, but that is a drum stick and a drum underneath, and the mouth is a smile. Music = joy. Yes, that’s the symbol for joy. If you’ve read Grass Sandals, then you know the hat and walking stick are prominent parts of the story. When Miss Laura asked the children if they’d brought their hats and walking sticks, they looked puzzled. She said, “Oh, it’s okay, we’ll come up with some!”
Our co-op teachers had gone to great lengths to make hats for each child and to come up with Japanese symbols (or a Japanese name) for each child. The children then decorated their hats.
It was fun for the parents too, to go around the table and look at the various symbols and what each one meant.
Wouldn’t you like to have a cool hat like this to wear on your walks? I know I would!
The children compared designs. I heard one say, “Oh, I like yours!” So sweet.
Next, the children took their places around a bamboo mat to learn about bamboo: what can be made from it, how it grows, where it grows, how many species eat it as food.
Once the children were seated, Miss Laura began to pull out some fabulous pictures she’d put togehter of bamboo — two-sided pictures where one side had a clue and the other side had the answer. She had come up with guessing games to help the children learn what animals eat bamboo. And, yes, people eat bamboo!
Here the children go through 22 pictures, placing the pictures of the animals they think do NOT eat bamboo in one stack and the pictures of animals they think do eat bamboo in another stack. I love how they worked as a team! The kids did a great job! One this part was over, each child was given a bamboo walking stick and told to explore the great land (the yard), for they’d find someone serving food. The co-op ended with fried rice and bamboo shoots. It was so much fun! Well, today is a work day for me, so I must transition myself. The sun is shining so brightly and I’m about to take a little ramble through my tiny garden to clear my mind. Enjoy this day.
I’ve been promising a workbox update, and here it is. Though I don’t use Sue Patrick’s Workbox System in the purest sense, I highly recommend her book and her methods. I simply do not have room for the cart, and Michaela LOVES the mystery of her assignments being hidden in the cereal boxes until she pulls them out one by one. So, for now anyway, we are sticking with the cereal boxes and loving the organization this has brought into our homeschool.
Our system consists of 9 cereal boxes, which I first posted about nearly a year ago. I fill them up with assignments each evening or each early morning, so they are all ready to go when Michaela starts school for the day.
Box 1. I think this piece of paper speaks for itself. And one thing I want to say right now about these boxes is that it takes me out of the loop in a way. I know that sounds crazy because I’m the teacher and the one who puts the boxes together and the one Michaela comes to with questions, and yet once the ball starts rolling, it’s like Michaela is answering to the boxes getting done and not to me. I love it!
Box 2. The next day in her Daily Gram book. Upon completion, Michaela immediately checks and grades her own paper and we talk about anything she did not understand.
Box 3. Spelling Power.
Box 4. Need I say more? Well, maybe I’d better. In years past, one of my biggest weaknesses was grading math sheets. Then the next thing you know we’d be a week or two into ungraded papers when, lo and behold, I’d realize a child totally was not getting something and we had moved on and suddenly were behind! With the boxes, I do not allow myself to put in the next lesson until I’ve graded what Michaela has done. Which brings me to a second point here. When Michaela is done with something, she sticks it right back in the box. I pull it out that evening and file it or put it in her end-of-year keepsake book or whatever. Anyway, only when math is graded do I put the next assignment in — either the next lesson or review on what she’s not getting.
Box 5. Oh, yeah, the chores. They go in there too, and once again, she’s answering to the box, not to me. I have been surprised at how little complaining there is when it just comes out of the box and not from my mouth.
Box 6. Her read-aloud. And no, she has not finished this book yet. It has been a slow, wonderful read, along with our other Ambleside books that we are lazily working through. The good thing? She has enjoyed this book tremendously and tells me something about it each time she reads, and it’s sticking.
Box 7. A test I made to review some writer’s tools we’d talked about just the day before. (Thank you, Five In A Row.)
Box 8. Practice your harmonica. Michaela had been wanting a harmonica. She got one in her stocking at Christmas and is learning to play it.
Box 9. Oh yay, the fun box! This week our Five In A Row Co-op will be centered around Grass Sandals. Michaela and I “rowed” this book last year, but it’s been very good to go back and revisit it. It’s a beautiful book.
When we review like this, I like to revisit the art element of the book. For this assignment I filled the basket with bright pieces of felt in primary colors. I put in black acrylic paint, a black pencil and a black marker. I took a couple of sheets of blank sketch paper and folded them to make a “greeting card” shape. Michaela’s asignment was to create a Haiku poem, type it into the card, and then decorate it with inspiration gained after looking through the book. She was only allowed to use materials that I had chosen based on colors and art media used in the book.
This is how her card turned out! I’ve used this specified-materials-only concept several times lately to review a FIAR book and to teach art, and it has turned out great each time! Michaela also gets to use her typewriter, which she loves! Making The Cereal Boxes: Several of the cereal boxes are very large family-size boxes, because they hold large books and a lot of stuff. Some are covered in fabric, some in scrapbook paper. They are embellished with little bits of this and that. I used some glue sticks, but mostly the hot glue gun. Be aware, it takes a few hours to cover 9 cereal boxes. I cut the tops out of the cereal boxes first. I chose either a base paper or fabric for each box and just wrapped the box using a hot glue gun. One sheet of paper was usually not enough. I did one side at a time, wrapping neatly around the bottom and sides. I did fold over and wrap down into the top about two inches for neatness and glued this down as well. It took quite a bit of glue and — AGAIN — time. I, however, LOVE doing things like this. Once a box was covered, I embellished it. While working, I was thinking of how I would fill the boxes each day! Tomorrow is a big day, so I better sign off and get some zzzzzzz’s. A peaceful night to you,
Yesterday our Five In A Row homeschool group had a Winter Art and Music Festival where the children could play an instrument, perform in some way, or display art they’d done through the year.
I was so proud of Michaela for working on this hot air balloon, inspired by The Pumpkin Runner. The idea was totally hers. She took a balloon, blew it up, and then used a recipe for paper mache to make the paste and then put layer after layer of newspaper strips on the balloon. Once it had enough layers to hold its form and was completely dry, she painted it. Then we coated it with a satin glaze to seal it. We found that some science came into play as we looked for a way to suspend the balloon over its basket. We used an empty coffee can (heavy paper, not metal) and bamboo skewers. We cut the bottom of the can for the basket, then another “ring” from the can to slip inside the basket so that we could stand the skewers between the layers and have them supported, and then the top ring of the can was hot-glued onto the skewers to make a “stand” on which to sit the balloon. It looks so delicate, but the 5 skewers are spaced to give equal support.
Michaela also took this very fun abstract piece that we all love! You could look for hours and keep finding things hidden in this picture: sea creatures, faces, birds…
One of Michaela’s favorite parts of our fieldtrips and co-ops and get-togethers is being with the other children. She really loves seeing the little ones. I am just so thankful for this amazing group of moms and their children. It’s really a privilege. Of course today is a work day for me, but I’m armed with my Guayaki Mate Chocolatte, a warm shawl, and soothing music — very low so as not to distract. Then tonight is karate night. Fridays are busy days ’round here! Happy Friday!
Yesterday was another Five In A Row co-op day for us, and it was an excellent day! We studied the book Snowflake Bentley as a group and there were many interesting activities during our morning together.
As usual, the day started with reading the story out loud. If you have not read Snowflake Bentley, it is a really good book! I am amazed at how much the story touches me every time I read it, even though I’ve read it many times.
The next activity was block painting. Leslie, one of our teachers for the day, had taken florist material and cut it into blocks. The children then carved pictures into the blocks, painted over them, and then pressed them onto paper, making some lovely prints!
It took concentration to get their designs just right.
Some of the children came up with really impressive block designs. We talked a little bit about negatives. And we talked about how what you carve into the block comes out “backwards” when you turn it over and press it onto the paper, something some of the children were not expecting, especially those who had written words onto their blocks!
Michaela made a pretty design.
Later we went outside for more art lessons and for a special homemade guessing game, full of snowflake facts. Each child was handed an answer piece, while Leslie held all of the pieces with questions. She asked a question and whoever thought their piece had the right answer would say it. If they were indeed correct, their answer would match Mrs. Leslie’s piece and another part of the bigger picture was done. I am hoping Leslie will post more about this on her wonderful blog!
I loved watching the children interact with each other and with Mrs. Leslie in this game. It was quite fun. Some answers seemed right until the real fact was read and we would all be amazed over another snowflake fact. If you are interested, here is a link to a site about Wilson A. Bentley, the snowflake man. Today’s a work day for me, but I am thankful to be snuggled up in a comfy chair, drinking hot tea and doing something interesting. Seems I learn something new every day. I have actually thought of taking what I learn about prefixes, suffixes, word combos, and grammar and making up a grammar/writing class for homeschooling children to teach out of my home. Hmmm. I hope you have a lovely Friday.
Ahhh, the school bell is ringing this morning. Yes, it is. The past two weeks have been full of fun and relaxation, and plenty of food and family and friends, but it’s time to put our thinking caps on once again. I don’t know about you, but mine feels a little loose this morning. Uh…
As one of my brooches says, I believe that we’ll get back into our school groove. The brooch pins are coming along nicely. We are working, working, and Michaela has found her own little niche, but more about that later. I’ll let her post when she’s ready. In the meantime, I am working on something special for my Etsy shop for Valentine’s Day. When the Etsy shop is ready, I’ll be sure and post a link here. For lessons today, the following is on tap:
I do hope you have a wonderful Monday. Mondays are work days for me, and they are sort of hard for me — a real transition after being off with my family on Sundays. But it is okay. It really is. I try my best every morning to smile out at the world and focus on everything that’s lovely and pure and of good report. I believe God gives us grace when we really want to have a right spirit for His sake.
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I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome. I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop. For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool.    
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
I would
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