Hello friends and family,
I have been really silent and busy lately, so I just wanted to give you a quick recap of our going ons.
This summer we are planning on taking a road trip to see daddy in Seattle while he is there. We will be driving up thru Whisky Town National Recreation area and Lake Shasta (and see the caverns)in California. Then we will go up to Crater Lake in Oregon and end visiting Mt. St. Helens in Washington. On the way back down we will be also make a cannot-miss-for-anything-in-the-world stop in San Francisco and visit the King Tut show. DD studied Egypt's old, middle and new kingdoms along with other ancient cultures this year so we are really looking forward to it. We are following Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World" curriculum for social studies.
We will try and see daddy at least twice some time again before November, when he comes back from his tour. He has been performing Technical Director duties for Disney's promotional tour of their Christmas Carol beginning with the planning stages, back about 8 months or so. Believe me, this is not an easy job!
Here is what DD has been up to lately (well in May).
She performed really well in her end of year test, administered by her school teacher.I present her school teacher (who is a super nice guy) with an academic report every month along with work samples so he knows what we are up to. I like to also point out our state standards met p/subject, since it is a public school. I will try to figure out how to post this document in this blog so you get an idea of what we do.
DD is now seven and will officially start second grade in late August, but we are continuing to work all the same at our own pace during the summer so it's not so horribly hard when we "come back" in the fall. I am trying to keep summer and fall classes to a minimum so we can have the flexibility to travel around to see daddy and go camping! She might just do swimming.
We just finished reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcere's Stone" which she absolutely loved. She loves to listen to "Storynory" podcasts while in the car, which feature a great selection of unique stories. She also enjoys listening to classical, jazz and blue grass music. She currently reads "Magic tree house" books by the handfull and enjoys playing all sorts of games.
Her two favorite books that we read aloud this year were Edward Tulane and "The Adventures of Pinochio".
She just decided to sell a number of her outgrown toys on ebay and purchased her own Nintendo DS,
which she is very proud to say, completely belongs to her.She enjoys playing with and collecting My littlest Pet Shop toys and just finished putting together her first Bionicle, which she loved doing. Her screen time (computer/TV/DS)is still highly controlled by her fanatic mother (who is way too strict about it in her opinion) and does not exceed 3 hours p/ week on average.
DD started taking formal piano lessons last September. She joined The National Fraternity of Student Musicians in January and has been studying under one of their teachers locally since then. Her basic level piano audition will take place at the end of July. She will be judged by a guild teacher on her performance of basic piano skills including sight reading, basic scales and 4 memorized pieces. She will have her recital in late September.
She is ending her second year of Girl Scouts as a Brownie and absolutely loves it. I am her troop leader and I absolutely love it too. She is the only homeschool girl in our troop of 12. All of the girls are wonderfull. She did her first nuts and cookie sales, first encampment, rededication and awards ceremony this year. She also started sewing her own badges on her vest. We had a great year!
She dressed as a headless bride for Hallowwen and looked specially creepy, along with her groom, Timmy. I made their costumes.
This year DD also played the piano at her co-op's talent show, perfomed with her choir and drama class on stage and experienced drumming and percussion clases.
We have enjoyed this, our first full year of homeschooling a great deal. We have been sailing on a ship looking for whales, saw a fish disection and learned about the ocean. We visited san Juan Capistrano Mission and talked about its history. We have been learning track and field sports, gymnastics, learning to play tennis, hiking tall mountains and playing soccer with the AYSO. We learned about transportation at Knott's Berry farm, built a solar powered playcar at Legoland and slep with the manatees at SeaWorld San Diego as part of our school's field trips.
I can tell you that as a very busy mom and almost non-working artist it was amazing to wake up at 5 am to see my daughter's silluette sketching the manatees silently while everyone else slept. She was entranced.
I do count waiting in line at Disneyland as waiting in the cafeteria line ; ) There's no fear there, she's got that one down!
We have been to a number of concerts and school presentations including sounds of Korea, Earthquake county and the Sioux people at CalTech. We have also gotten a chance to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Norton Simon, The Getty Villa and the Natural History museums.
Also, after reading "The Chritsmas Carol" we went to the Dickens fair, which was fantastic fun! We danced, played parlor games, saw characters from Dicken's novels, enjoyed the sounds, sights, smells and people around us and had a ball.
DD has also taken regular hands-on science classes, explored a sheep's heart, learned about the microscope and found many new treasures in it.
Overall, we have been extremely busy!
There have been hard days and great days (I especially enjoy our short winter season homeschooling days), for which we are very gratefull, as they have helped us grow a great deal. I am now more comfortable choosing our curriculum and have a better idea of what works for us; as well as what doesn't. It has been a learning experience alright. So what is the most important thing I learned this year? Don't over schedulle! we can't do it all!
As far as I am concerned, well... you have just read what I have been up to. Just view it from a "planner's" point of view. That's me. I am currently trying to make a dog cart out of a discarted baby jogger (they collapse nicely, are strong and light) for our dog to use in our road trip. We'll be camping most of the way and hey... someone's got to carry the fire wood. Might as well have the big girl earn her kibble right?
As many others, we are struggling thru difficult financial times, but we are well, healthy and trying to take it one day at a time. Hopefully we can continue growing the same way next year as well.
First grade has been great fun! I highly recommend homeschooling in southern California if you can do it!
