Sic 'em Bears!

Baylor fans cheering on the Bears against Northwestern.

Friday Update

Well, another week has gone by since I posted last. We had the Cub Scout Campout last weekend and started back up with school activities on Monday. Now, I don't know what happened to our school schedule, but our progress has slowed down considerably! Monday and Tuesday we had school pretty much the entire day. :( First of all, we got started late. My fault as well as the kids not getting ready. That is the major factor. But I've also cut down on some subjects (cutting in half the number of days we cover particular subject). But I'm not seeing any of the benefits of that just yet.


Anyway, we got better by Wednesday. We had to because that was our last day of book work for this week!

Thursday was a big day. We got up at 6am, hit the road by 7am, and got to SeaWorld for Home School Day by 9am. Now keep in mind that it has been raining a lot lately. So the whole day was drizzly with some dry spells punctuating the day. We followed the self-guided tour and walked a LOT! We saw the dolphins, the Coral Reef Aquarium (with lots of wonderful coral reef dwelling creatures like jellies, butterfly fish, eagle rays, eels, lobsters), sharks, sea lions, seals, Asian otters, puffins, murres, a variety of penguins, alligators, red-eared slider turtles, Japanese koi, flamingos, killer whales, and a walrus!

After lunch, we watched two presentations. One was at the Shamu Theater and featured the Shamu Family of three killer whales. As always . . . awesome! The second presentation was at the Sea Star Theater where we saw the walrus, three sea lions, and an Asian otter. The Transformer wanted to sit in the front row at the Sea Star Theater with some friends. He got to see one of the sea lions perched on the railing directly in front of him!


My two favorite parts of this field trip were (1) the per person ticket price of $8 and (2) the rain starting to come down heavily immediately AFTER the final presentation when everyone was clearing the park!



Although we were already tired from this outing, I had decided to go check out the Witte Museum for a brief time while we were in San Antonio. They have an HEB Science Treehouse, and I wanted to get an idea of what the museum was like--if it was worth it to drive down to San Antonio just to go to the museum. We are members of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, so we have free admittance to the Witte Museum under their partnership program.



Well, the Witte Museum is primarily south Texas history. We walked through certain areas, but I had given us a time limit of one hour in order to get home in time for dinner and Cub Scouts. We had to walk through a courtyard to get to the Treehouse and saw some log cabins off to one side there. The rain was coming down pretty steadily so I didn't want to explore them yet.

At the Treehouse, the kids had a great time. There was hardly anyone there (it was about 2pm) so they had free run of the place. It has four stories total with an outdoor area on the top level. Also, the Treehouse is named for the faux treehouse that is attached to the building and is two stories. Each level had something that held either both or one of the kids to it for some time. We ended up spending one and a half hours there before we could all feel good about leaving.

It is definitely worth another trip, but I'm not sure I want to drive 1.5 hours to get there and another 1.5 hours to drive back. On our next trip to S.A., though, I will definitely want to take the kids there again.

We got home around 5pm, had dinner, and headed out to the Cub Scouts pack meeting at 6:30pm. It lasted less than an hour, and we headed home. I was exhausted.

This morning, we met up with the Austin Home School Nature Explorers Club and hiked St. Edwards Park. The sky lit up with the sun around 11am, and it got hot! The hike was easier than last week's and muddy in places. The creek was high and looked so fresh and clean! The sound of the water falling over the rocks was just musical. We stopped at an open area on an incline and sat down to listen to Ms. Carrie read a story about a box turtle. Then the kids drew in their nature notebooks--some more than others. In the meantime, my son found a frog and was showing it off to everyone. It was tiny. Okay, I admit, it might have been a toad. It was hard to tell. It was brown and looked dry (like mud had dried on it). With the boys handling it and with it trying to escape, it was hard to focus on the hind leg length and to see if it had warts. And it was tiny.

Our return trip home was uneventful. But I realized how t-i-r-e-d I was and decided to take a nap. The kids were gracious enough to allow that, so our Park Day plans were necessarily cancelled. Now I need to get them in gear to go to their KinderGym class at the YMCA. They are supposed to have a routine that includes a jump, roll, and balance prepared for the teacher. They just came up with it now. :)

Off we go!



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We just got back from KinderGym. I've posted some video of each of my children doing his or her "routine."

Tent City

There were about 19 tents set up here. I couldn't get a good angle to get more tents in the shot. It was a nice night. We slept with the rainfly off and got to sleep "under the stars" in a way. Our tent is the one in the middle with the whitish top half and the brownish bottom half. The only thing that was a bummer was that we all got bit from the insects. By the time we retired, I had put on three layers of bug spray! My daughter's legs are so munched on now . . .

Announcements

Cub Scout courtyard campout. This in the courtyard of the sponsoring church. It was getting dark before I remembered to take some pictures!

KinderGym II at the YMCA cont.

The Transformer in the middle of a series of forward rolls.

KinderGym II at the YMCA

The Kitty Cat "sticking it" after a forward roll. The instructor is great!

School!

Okay, so I haven't posted much in the way of school lately. After our trip to Galveston for the Kitty Cat's birthday and Labor Day weekend, this week went into high gear. We got back Monday night, so there wasn't much we could accomplish other than unpacking.

Tuesday morning I got back into my workout schedule. Yay! I had actually missed working out---who'da thunk it? I scrambled to get prepared to lead AHG Pathfinders next week as well as gathering all of my information to finalize the curriculum for the day and contact the parents. I also had the kids back in school. With only Tue through Thu to do our book work, they were long days. Tuesday night I went to the Austin Charlotte Mason monthly meeting to meet with other CMers and discuss "Masterly Inactivity." It was a lot of fun, and I stayed late. :)

Wednesday brought the Kitty Cat to her annual well-child visit. She asked me point blank if she was going to get shots that day. I don't like to lie to my children, but "yes" blurted out of my lips before I could stop and consider another answer. Then I said "maybe," but the damage was already done. She threw a huge fit, screamed, cried, pouted, told me to "Shut up!" and so on. Anyway, long story short, she did go to the doctor's office and ended up not having to get any shots. In fact, no more until she turns 11! You should have seen the smile on her face! :D

Today brought in our last day of book work for the week. Then we went to the Transformer's first den meeting with his new Cub Scout pack. Okay, 2nd grade boys are crazy. Oh my gosh. I am glad that they want the dads to lead. And I can understand why all the meetings are limited to one hour's duration. In fact, the den leader told me that the last 15 minutes of each meeting is spent with the boys playing outside on the trees or in the playground! So that's really only 45 minutes spent working on their scouting activities. Our last pack's den meetings last 1.5 hours. The first 1/2 hour was with all ranks. The last hour was within each rank. However, a lot of the younger ranks ended up playing/wrestling during the last 15 minutes of each meeting. Yet they lasted for 1.25 hours! Granted, it was during the day too. Our meetings with the new pack are in the evening.

So, tomorrow, we are supposed to meet with a new group of Nature Study homeschoolers for a hike and study session. However, it rained today for the first time in forever with a 50% rain forecast for tomorrow and Saturday--so the hike may not happen. Keep our fingers crossed! The topic for tomorrow's meeting is Animal Tracks. Should be fun!

After the hike (if it happens and it isn't soggy), we may start going back to the local Friday park day for a few hours. We were really erratic about our attendance last year. I am hoping to be more consistent this year so that the kids can really make some good local friends.

Then the kids start a gymnastics class at the YMCA (for 5-7yo, just perfect for my kids!) at 4pm. By the end of Friday, the children should be nice and worn out. After we get home, I get to wrap up preparations for the Kitty Cat's 5th birthday party on Saturday. Her actual birthday was last Friday, but we didn't want to compete with Labor Day weekend for guests. We are expecting a total of 13 children as guests, and about 12 adults. She is having a Princesses and Knights Tea Party, so we'll see how that goes. I'm doing all right setting up the Princesses and Tea Party part, but the Knights part isn't coming along so well. The biggest difficulty is being on a tight budget. I've already spent more than I had intended to.

Anyway, it doesn't end there! On Sunday afternoon, AWANA starts up, and the Transformer wants to go check it out to see if he wants to join. So we'll go there and see what this one is all about. Both of my kids had done AWANA for a year in CA, but did not join last year.

Monday night is the first AHG troop meeting, during which I will lead the Pathfinders. Eek! And on the week goes, leading up to the first AHG service project at a nursing home on Saturday, along with the first Cub Scout pack's campout Saturday through Sunday. So this week and next are pretty crazy. But by then we'll have a new rhythm, and our schedule will feel easier. (I hope!)

In the meantime, the kids are keeping up with their studies! Whoo!

Sunday at the Beach Part 2

The rest of the fam . . .

Sunday at the Beach

A rare picture of me.

Saturday of Labor Day Weekend

Here goes the intrepid Transformer with his boogie board.

Happy Birthday Kitty!

Here's the birthday girl at the beach celebrating 5 years of life.

Popcorn Show and Sell

Although our registration with the new pack is not yet official, the Transformer got to participate in a pack activity on Saturday. You can see him here working the exit door at Lowe's with fellow Wolf Scout (pictured wearing his old Tiger colors). Although he did all right with the door solicitations, the Transformer much preferred logging the sales, pitching the product on display, and handling the money. We were so glad for the canopied shade over us as it was dang hot.

Week 2 Wrap-Up

Another week flew by! The second week went much better than the first week. Most of our scheduling conflicts have been resolved, and we are getting into a rhythm. We took Thursday off from school so that we could join other homeschool families in Buda for a game of kickball. It was hot, but it was fun! I didn't play this time so that the Kitty Cat could play in the playground with my supervision. The Transformer did really well.
(The plant above has lettuce edging but very rough, barbed edges.)

On Saturday morning, we had our second nature walk, during which I took pictures of too many plants to identify! I also got a picture of a skull. To expose my ignorance of most things nature, I can't claim to know any names of the items I took pictures of. I am hoping to revisit this post as I discover what their proper names are and update the picture captions to reflect that.
(The skull measured about 4 inches in depth, 2.5 inches wide.)





We are looking into beginning our third week of school tomorrow. This Wednesday, the Transformer will have his final kickball class through the YMCA. Last week's class was cancelled due to rain and no adequate indoor space available to use. Additionally, on Thursday, we will attend the local Cub Scout Pack's Ice-Cream Social to see if we might transfer from our current pack. Then on Friday or Saturday, we will go to a garage sale that is supposed to have lots of nice clothes my daughter's size to update her wardrobe.
(I love how the tree's leaves above are so droopy. My husband thought it might be a ficus. The pictures of the flowers on the right came out so blue--hard to get true purple on computer, I guess.)

Lastly, I am now in the planning stages of a Princesses & Knights Birthday Tea Party for the Kitty Cat, who will be turning five years old in two weeks! The party itself will not be until the week after that to avoid Labor Day weekend and potential guests being out of town.












(I love how the leaves on the tree to the left were so strictly horizontal! It was really hard to see any of the leaves from the side. This tree was just next to the tree above with the droopy leaves and made such a wonderful contrast to it. The fuzzy flowers on the right reminded me of the Who characters' hair from Dr. Seuss! The flowers are so soft and feel like they must be related to cotton.)

Our first week ended well. Yesterday we went on a nature walk first thing in the morning and collected some leaves to paint on Tuesday. Friday is more of an "odds and ends" day, in which we don't have anything from the regular science curriculum, for example, and catch up instead on web links that we had opened over the course of the week. Additionally, the kids have a longer piano instruction time.

I think I have worked out a lot of the time issues with our schedule now, so next week should go more smoothly--that is, if my computer and our internet access behave themselves. And the Rosetta Stone Student Management System software. It's so nice to have a multimedia homeschool, but it certainly has its risks too when the system goes down.

Anyway, the pictures you are seeing on this post are from the Austin Sumobot Tournament that we went to today as spectators. (You can see my son wearing the striped shirt in the photo on the right.) The Transformer is so interested in robots and wants so badly to participate in a Lego Robotics club. However, I don't really know the first thing about robots or how to get him involved. And it appears that most clubs require a minimum age of 8.

Anyway, I had joined the Austin Robotics Yahoo! group and found out about this Sumobot competition. It was really cool and a lot of fun. There is a class that is being offered in the spring for beginners in my son's age group; however, it is all the way up in Round Rock. I'm just not that excited about driving up that far every week. I am considering it, but I am also hoping desperately that something closer to us is available and affordable.

Details, Details

Okay, so I know you want all the details as to what we're going to attempt to cover this year.

Well, we've got the basics: Bible, language arts (Explode the Code, Primary Language Lessons, Sequential Spellling, Winterpromise LA/PreK-K), math (living math, Miquon, Ray's Arithmetic, MathTacular!). We are also incorporating a science curriculum this year. I had previously attempted to incorporate my own, but it just wasn't happening, so I decided to go with Sonlight's Science K program. We are also covering Korean (Rosetta Stone) and introductory French (Flip-Flop). Why French? Well, I have a free introductory curriculum that I thought we'd try. :)

In addition, we have a short period of physical education EVERY day! That's right. We are getting really ambitious this year! It's high time. We're in our fourth year of homeschooling, can you believe it?

Okay, we've also got history (both U.S. and world), geography, literature, and poetry. Most of the previous subjects are a mixture of the unofficial Ambleside Online Year 0.5 created by moms who live in states that require Kindergarten and Sonlight's Core K. We've incorporated a regular schedule for folksongs, picture study, composer study, handicrafts, computer time, creative arts, AND piano! Whew! Piano instruction is actually taking place on a keyboard. We are using the Phonics 4 Piano books (also known as Pianimals). So far the kids love it!

We will also have weekly nature walks with brief nature studies on the other four days of the week. We will also spend time once per week (on a different day than the nature walks) working on our nature notebooks.

I am combining the kids for all subjects except for language arts and math, although there is overlap there as well (the Transformer participates in some of his sister's work as reinforcement--mostly in math). The Transformer gets to narrate most of the readings, while his sister has that as an option (I just ask her to tell me one thing about whatever I read just to check whether she was actually listening or not).

The Kitty Cat is not doing the Rosetta Stone (too advanced for her) and has free time when her brother is working on subjects that she is not included on. The Transformer is also having minor supplementation to his science studies. He also gets a little bit more computer time, but more by default since the topics are too advanced for his sister.

We are covering a LOT of ground in just over 4 hours of school. However, I think the pace is just right to keep the kids from groaning about getting bored. I am also an overachiever so things may fall by the wayside as the year goes on. I hope not entire subjects, however. Just random books and other resources.

Well, there you have it. The details.

Above is a picture of our schoolroom, aka the Discovery Schoolhouse. It would have been great to get a picture with the kids, but my hands are usually full during school hours. I will try, however, to get another picture at some point of an active schoolroom.

Easin' into a new schedule

has been going well today. We finished school within 20 minutes of our scheduled ending time--which was great, of course! We got to do some watercolor painting and science as well. Traditionally, I had not been very good at continuing to expose the children to both creative arts and science on a consistent basis for school, so I am making a concerted effort to do that this year. We are keeping to very short CM-type lessons and getting a whole lot covered in a very short time! We start at 8:40am and end around 1pm. That includes P.E.! Aren't you proud of me? ;p

First Day of School! First Day of School!

We officially began our 2009/10 school year. The Transformer has been promoted to 2nd grade--whoo hoo! and the Kitty Cat is now a Kindergartener!

Unfortunately, our first day did not go so well. I keep many files on my computer, and have software that I use for certain subjects on another computer. I made the mistake of not restarting my laptop to be ready for today, and the loading speed was just horrendous. Too late, I realized that I needed to restart it. That took up a bit of our morning time. Also, I had neglected to account for taking school pics in the morning before classes, so that got us starting out about ten minutes late. Then when it was time for the Transformer to work on his Korean, I had difficulty with the software that we are using and had to uninstall and re-install the whole thing. argh.

Then, when I thought we were getting back on track and were only about thirty minutes behind schedule, our internet service started to go down. Along with my daily plan. ACK! Well, Kirk worked on that and got it back up and running. After that, the rest of the day went relatively normally. Including the bickering and complaining that happens on one of our less popular days.

Tomorrow will be a better day, for sure.

Also, tonight was the American Heritage Girls Parent Orientation and Girl Registration Night. I finally met my Assistant Leader in person, along with all of the girls we have so far in Pathfinders. We had a total of five girls tonight, and I hope that we will have more as people will continue to register during the course of the week. Even so, I think we have a good group of girls.

As for me relaxing. . . I think I get to do that on Wednesday. or Thursday. :)

Mimosa Tree

This is my new favorite tree! The owner of the property happened to come out as we were admiring her trees and identified them for me. They have leaves that are all broken up like ferns, seed pods that look like snow peas, and these wonderful fuzzy pink flowers whose petals are made up of little, soft spikes. When I touched the flowers, hardly any sensation registered on my fingertips.


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From reading a number of posts online, I gather that many people consider this tree to be quite invasive and destructive when the roots push up fences and so forth. From http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00240/mimt.htm

History and Description
The mimosa tree is from Asia and Africa. It is sometimes called a Silk tree. It grows to an average of 20-30 feet. It is a deciduous tree, which attracts bees and butterflies. A mimosa tree has a single trunk and fern-like leafs with fragrant pom-pom like flowers.

Uses
It was introduced in 1745 as an ornamental tree. People plant it in their yards to add beauty to their surroundings.

Reproduction
It spreads by animals and water-dispersed seeds. In wet areas, the seedpods float downstream. This enables them to reproduce quickly. The Mimosa grows better in dry-to-wet places. It is able to survive the winter in the southern U.S. but flowers better in warmer, drier climates. The flowers come up from May to July and the fruits and seeds come up from June to February.

Ecological Threat
Mimosa trees grow rapidly and reproduce easily. One mimosa tree can produce over two hundred thousand seeds each year. This threatens the native species.

Control
Pull the seedlings or shallow-rooted plants when the dirt is wet. If it starts to grow again, cut down the re-growth. Using chemicals also works. Roundup is very effective for controlling the spread of the mimosa tree.

Here is an image from the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. For more information on this beautiful tree, go to http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/node/29

Sunflowers!

Here are some flowers I can readily identify! I can't claim to know the variety. however, so I will try to look that up. These were growing in the greenbelt that runs through our neighborhood.

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Okay, here's what I found out about these sunflowers:
Sunflower
Scientific Name: (Helianthus annuus)
Definition: The sunflower, or common sunflower, is a late summer-fall flower with yellow petals and a brown central disk. Sunflowers may grow to 10 feet tall. Grows throughout Texas.

This is the image that was shown with the above information. The seeds look a bit more defined than the ones that I saw, but I am guessing that is more a matter of seed maturity than difference in variety.

You can find the original information at http://www.lone-star.net/wildflowers/flowers.htm