Countdown to Halloween

Inspired by almost unschoolers fall tree bucket list, we decided to make our own. The boys helped me pick out some leaf shapes online, we printed them and picked 4 colors of construction paper (ok, so they were coached... it helped that we didnt have purple construction paper!) ... and I cut out a bunch of each shape. The boys eschewed cutting out leaves in favor of just cutting... I was in a bit of perfectionist mode, so it worked. :) I cut out a tree shape and the boys helped me tape it to the wall. Then we brainstormed the fun things we wanted to do this fall... our leaves include:

• go on a hayride
• drink warm apple cider on the deck
• explore a corn maze
• pick apples
• go to a pumpkin patch
• see changing leaves on a nature walk
• explore one new park
• jump in a pile of leaves
• decorate for thansgiving
• make and send flats (flat stanley project)
• go on a fall scavenger hunt
• go to fright fest at great adventure
• go to a car race (for monkey and dad)
• make thankful thanksgiving turkeys
  
• rake leaves
• go on a squeegee hunt
• roast pumpkin seeds
• bob for apples
  
• read a Thanksgiving story

The boys hung up all the leaves using blue tac (their favorite part) and then I decided we needed a Halloween countdown, so we printed out a ghost. I cut 31 ghosts out, and Nic helped me add eyes and a mouth. Then we brainstormed things we wanted to do specifically for Halloween -- most of them are crafts to decorate the house/outside with, and some of them are just blank.

• Make a scarecrow
• Make a wreath for the front door
• Convince daddy to wear a halloween costume when trick or treating
• Make pumpkin luminaries (both painted and tissue paper versions)
• Decorate foam pumpkins and ghosts
• Make tin can luminaries
• Decorate a foam pumpkin garland
• Make yarn spiders and tape webs
• Make coffee filter bats
• Make a Halloween totem pole
• Decorate wooden Halloween houses
  
• Go trick or treating

The boys added the ghosts to our tree. At that point we were done for the day. But, we came back to it the next day because we needed a haunted house for our ghosts to fly to as we ticked off the days towards Halloween. Every day as part of our calendar time - one ghost flies over to the Haunted House and we can see how much closer we are to trick or treating!

Homeschooling Goals

I keep trying to plan out the themes and activities and trips and... I am getting way above myself here. There is so much that I would love to do -- some of it age appropriate, some of it might be a bit above the boys right now but just sounds like so much fun... I need to create some goals for myself and keep my priorities straight.

I know I'll try to do too much. We haven't even started yet, and I think we're overscheduled... in the name of making sure the kids don't miss out on anything, I've been signing up for EVERYTHING (well, not EVERYTHING but a good portion of the stuff I've come across anyway).

So... for the year... here are the BIG THINGS... I'm going to limit myself to 5 and then I'm not going to worry about the rest if it passes us by.

1. Create a good morning routine. Up, breakfast, dressed, morning meeting (go over the calendar, weather, what's going on for the day, do some yoga for grounding, learn some italian, sing a song or do a felt board something) ...I'm adding one piece at a time.. .So far we've just started the calendar. This is where I'm going to sneak in any schooling.

2. Get out to explore something in nature once a week, regardless of weather or motivation. (mental note: get a jogging stroller!) And, give the kids their own patch of garden to grow something!

3. Create some fun family memories and traditions -- especially around the different holidays.

4. Find some good friends -- ones that we can keep for the long haul (both for the kids and myself... and maybe even dh!)

5. Give the kids more ownership. Let them do more, contribute more, be more a part of the decision making process...

Well, it's official. We're homeschoolers. I mailed in our letter to the superintendent of schools yesterday (you don't have to notify the school board for kindergarten, but since we registered him, we had to un-register him).

I'm a little apprehensive about it, but mostly ecstatic. I was reading Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World by Mark Fraunfelder and he had a few passages in there that really hit home to me. It's not even a book about education but about being a diy'er ... but there was a blurb in there about how schools are all about preparing you to be ready to do something but don't actually teach you how to do it... and that totally hit home. And I hope that my boys learn how to do along this journey, and never experience an action freezing fear of failure!

Our weekly rhythms...

There are a bunch of things that will be the same every week. I'll need to run errands and grocery shop. We'll have our weekly school co-op come September. I want to have a weekly park/nature day. I'll need at least one day to bake (Peanut is gluten free which means that we need to make most things from scratch -- especially now that he is eating more). So... I'm thinking that the week will be organized like this:

Monday:
grocery/errand day

Tuesday:
free day for all day field trips (childrens museum, aquarium, etc.)

Wednesday:
baking day

Thursday:
school co-op

Friday:
library day/nature field trip/ park day

Saturday:
free day/family day

Sunday:
church and sunday dinner at my parents house

It's a whole new start...

Way back when, I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog that I could one day publish as a "remember when" type book for the kids - a kind of reminder on how we spent their days when they were little. Something that would be a special keepsake for them. I read a few of my past posts, and noticed that I'm trying to find a voice that sounds real.. a voice that both speaks to them and about them... and then, Peanut started having issues (he's fine -- we just needed to figure out that he has a gluten and dairy allergy) and this blog went by the wayside. It's time to dust it off and try again... and I'm not "ready", but if I wait until I am... I'll lose another year.

Monkey turned 5 this year, and he should be heading to kindergarten. He's not -- we're homeschooling and I want to share some of the reasons why (in case he's ever interested). Part of it stems from his preschool experience. What started as a great experience slowly deteriorated into a leg grabbing, hand squeezing, mom-stay-begging dropoff... and I can't go through that anymore. (Budget cuts means no bussing for us... we live too close to the school, even though there are no sidewalks).

That started me seriously researching homeschooling (although - let's face it. It had been in the back of my mind a lot longer than that. We're part of a homeschooling coop (for preschool -- they let me stay and bring all 3 boys), I had my father make a train table that turns into a chalk board and desk setup for the playroom YEARS ago ... the signs were all there that I was heading in that direction if I had just paid any attention to them. It feels right. I don't hate school, although I do think they push academics way too early these days - and the amount of homework a kindergartner gets is INSANE... (I am a public school success story - was never bullied, got good grades, never did drugs, etc.) I just don't think it's necessarily the best or only option for my family. And, as long as I can convince my husband and we can financially afford it, (and it works, obviously).. I would like to continue to do it.

Anyway, the research out there is all positive... (as long as you don't count the mess your house will become, the time it will take you, etc.) The pros outweigh the cons for me considerably.

This is our journey... and it begins now... or, as soon as I decide summer is over!

(My goal is to start blogging again now. It probably won't be about what we're doing until I figure that out... but I plan to use this blog to throw around ideas so that I can organize our homelife into a recognizable rhythm around independent activities, household chores, naps, etc...)

animal charades

We tried a new game from the book Math Play today and it went over really well with the boys. It's called Number Charades. I printed the numbers 1 through 10 on index cards and put them in one bag. Then, I printed about 20 different cards with different actions. Things like: pat your head, touch your toes, jump like a frog, hiss like a snake, walk backwards, etc. It's a great way to get some of that energy out, even if you can't go outside to play.

The boys LOVED it, although they didnt quite get the concept of only doing the action the number of times that the card said. And, once the "run in a circle" card was pulled the game morphed into do the action requested WHILE running in a circle...until the "join hands and circle around" card was pulled. Then, it became a game of crack the whip...

I think this may become a favorite of ours for some laughter laced fun! ;)

(ps - jury is still out on the rest of the book...the first few activities i thumbed through were not ones we'll ever use...)

lazy days and wagon rides

My boys are whirlwinds, but sometimes they need some downtime and just want to hang out for a ride. Especially if that ride happens to be in their red wagon. It doesn't matter where they go - they can go in the same circles twenty times in a row and thats fine with them.

However, their daddy gets bored with the endless circles around the cul de sac. He thought he could do better than that... and he did...

Only problem is that little remote control car only had enough power to pull one boy around at a time. Guess who's looking to (insert best Tim the Tool Man Taylor impression here) add more power to the lil car? Ahuh. Apparently, he won't rest until its capable of pulling both boys around at the same time.