Happy Homeschooling

Thursday, January 21, 2010
11:01 AM

I realize that my kids’ Halloween pictures were the last thing I posted. On the one hand I feel badly about that. But on the other hand I accept that homeschooling comes with certain sacrifices. This blog happens to be one of those sacrifices – along with afternoon naps.

But the sacrifices are well worth it. I am very happy homeschooling.

Today is an ugly, soggy day. I am extremely thankful that my children and I are warm and dry inside our house. Most of us are still in our pajamas. My morning coffee is perfectly complemented by the Ludwig Van Beethoven Station we created on Pandora. I feel happy.

Banana is in the other room trying to build a house for her dollies out of dominos. She lets out a frustrated shriek every time they fall down. David takes a break from his schoolwork to help her, announcing, “I am a domino expert!” Any other time I would probably ask David to get back to his work, but he was actually being helpful to his sister. I am happy about that and wouldn’t want to interfere with it.

Miss M is working on spelling. Today’s lesson calls for dictionary work – NOT her favorite. She has the dictionary and her papers spread out in front of her, writing each word in a different shade using her 4-color pen. She is doing all of this with a feverish toddler on her lap. I am happy to see him smiling at his big sister, even though he’s not feeling so well this morning.

C.B. and I are sounding out long U words to fill in a story about Sue and her pet mule that eats fruit. We are enjoying the story and it’s making us laugh. I am happy about this because only moments ago he was complaining about having to work on this story.

Today is definitely a good day. My days aren’t all like this one, believe me. That’s why it’s important for me to record days like this one. I tend to focus on the negative instead of on the positive. Writing this post will highlight this day in my memory. I can also go back and read about it when I’m having a different sort of day.

Have a happy day!

posted by Zookeeper at 11:01 AM | Permalink | 1 comments

BOO!!

Wednesday, November 04, 2009
12:01 PM











posted by Zookeeper at 12:01 PM | Permalink | 2 comments

Homeschooling + Blogging = No Blogging

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
7:58 PM

You may have noticed that since I started homeschooling I haven’t really been posting anything here. I guess you could say I have been busy. You could also say that I have never been busier in my entire life. Something is always happening around here, and it’s making time go by much faster than usual. Every day I seem to run out of time for all the things on my To-do List. This phenomenon has made for an incredibly long To-do List. And, yes, writing posts for this blog is definitely on it.

Since the Dinosaur Unit Study, we have spent time studying cheese, one of our favorite things here at the Reddy Zoo. Hey…if I get to create my own curriculum, it should be fun. Not to mention delicious. We learned about how cheese is made, various kinds of cheese, and some of the ways cheese is used in making other food products. We invited grandparents over for a cheese tasting and the kids were spouting off cheese facts for them at lighting speed.

They also used this occasion to show their grandparents all the work they had done so far, which had been hole-punched and put into binders. They were all so proud of their binders, and they enjoyed sharing the details of some of the more complicated things they had done. It was very good for them to have that opportunity to “show-off”, as it were.

We also spent a good deal of time studying Columbus, just in time for Columbus Day. The kids really got into this more than I expected them to. They enjoyed hearing about the long voyage across the ocean. They were surprised that people didn’t know that North and South America existed in 1492. They were even more surprised to learn that Columbus still didn’t know he had reached a completely new continent. He truly thought he had found a new route to the Indies, even after making four trips here and back before his death. We were also surprised to find that Columbus didn’t actually discover America. At least not the chunk of land known today as the United States of America. He never came this far north during his travels. But his voyage did pave the way for future explorers to venture into our hemisphere and eventually settle in this great land.

In addition to our daily lessons and our Unit Studies, we have gotten involved in a Homeschool Co-op. On Wednesday mornings we meet with other homeschooling families for Art, Music and P.E. classes. It has been great for the kids not only to be with other children, but also to have those more creative type of lessons that might get skipped at home in lieu of the 3 R’s. We have also been on multiple field trips, keeping things even more fun and interesting.

Powder Valley Nature Center

Kinder Konzert at Powell Hall

Nature Walk at St. Francois State Park

All in all, I have been very pleased with homeschooling so far. In fact, I am thrilled with how well things are going. Believe it or not, I feel less stressed out this year than I did last year when three of the kids were in school. I like that we make our own schedule, we can keep our own pace, and plan our own lessons. I also like that there are no papers to sign, backpacks to pack, or lunch money to send in. Things are going very, very well.

posted by Zookeeper at 7:58 PM | Permalink | 1 comments

Dino-mania

Friday, September 11, 2009
7:00 AM

For teaching Science and Social Studies, I decided to try using Unit Studies. A Unit Study is defined as “an in-depth study of a topic (space, trees, cars, etc.) that takes into account many areas of the topic, such as geography, science, history, art, etc. It is a complete immersion into the topic so that the student will see things as a 'whole' instead of bits and pieces learned throughout their education.” We started out with a simple subject. One I knew we would all find interesting – Dinosaurs.

I found so many fun things related to dinosaurs. I gathered books, puzzles, games, DVD's and other activities. The kids and I work on Unit Studies two afternoons a week while Banana is at preschool and Mr. H takes his naps. So far it has been working very well. We just finished our three-week study of dinosaurs. We have been very busy reading, doing hands-on activities, and we even took a field trip.

I checked out no less than twenty books about dinosaurs from the library. Some were for the kids to read, some were for me to read to them.

We made a terrarium after reading Dinosaur Habitat, a book about two brothers who find themselves inside of the younger brother’s terrarium. Not only did the plants become life sized, but so did the plastic dinosaurs the boy had carefully put in there. And they were no longer plastic!

Thankfully our dinosaurs are still plastic.

I bought a Dinosaur Dig kit from an educational retailer that I thought would be fun for the kids to try. Then I found small kits at the dollar store that I picked up just in case we needed something extra to do. It turned out that those little kits offered much more fun for a dollar than I ever thought!

The kids scraped away layers of clay to reveal tiny dinosaur bones.

Then they used the bones to make their own fossils out of clay.

They took a longer time excavating the Velociraptor bones in the bigger kit.

But the bones they found actually formed two whole dinosaurs.

We were also able to visit “Sue” before she left the St. Louis Science Center.

“Sue” is the most complete set of Tyrannosaurus bones ever found.

Her skull was HUGE!

There were bones to dig up at the exhibit as well. The kids were pros by that time!

Big D enjoyed the T-Rex vision. His body looked pretty funny with a new head.

We also watched a Discovery Channel movie telling all about the types of dinosaurs that lived in America millions of years ago.

We learned a lot AND had fun doing it!!

posted by Zookeeper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | 1 comments

Worth a Thousand Words (or more)

Wednesday, September 09, 2009
9:32 AM

Since I posted hardly anything all summer long, I went through my pictures from May through August and found quite a few worth sharing. As you can see, we had a fun summer!

Dad at an Alumni basketball game


Grandpa shoots a free throw at the Alumni basketball game


We definitely brought the most fans to the game


These two are just too cute together


Miss M's Girl Scout troop


A self-portait


Banana on a boat with a couple of her cousins


Miss M in the parish picnic parade


Big D in the parish picnic parade


C.B. in the parish picnic parade


All three kids were in the same area in the parish picnic parade group photo


Me and my kids on Mother's Day


Banana and a big ole fish in the hippo habitat at the Zoo


Banana performs in the Tiny Tot Circus


Banana becomes an elephant in the Tiny Tot Circus



Mr. H gives his baby cousin a kiss on her two-week-old head



Mr. H in a sea of bubbles after a Babaloo show



Miss M and her friends at a swim party



Mr. H and C.B. read a story on the couch together



Banana and some of her cousins at a family birthday party



Our tired niece falls asleep while playing at our house


Big D took this cool picture of his uncle from under the water on a float trip


Floating cousins


Big D entertains his baby brother in church


These two look up to no good to me

posted by Zookeeper at 9:32 AM | Permalink | 0 comments

A Baby, a Birthday, and a Wedding

Friday, September 04, 2009
7:56 PM

I have a lot to catch up on. Homeschooling does not allow me as much time to blog as I had gotten used to. In case I don’t get another opportunity to blog again soon, I decided to condense several big events into one post.

First, we have a new nephew!!

This “little” fella weighed in at 9 pounds, 10 ounces! His parents and three older brothers are ecstatic about his arrival. Miss M and I got to snuggle with him for a little while this week.

Secondly, Miss M turned TWELVE last week! You may detect a hint of shock in my words here, but that’s only because there is NO WAY I am old enough to have a twelve-year-old!! But seriously, she is everything I could ever have hoped for in a tween-age daughter. She is bright, polite, responsible and super sweet. She has been helping me with the younger kids since she was four years old, and she rarely complains.

She is starting to help my sisters-in-law with their kiddos as well, which is great because she loves her little cousins.

I don’t think I would be homeschooling right now if it wasn’t for her. Not only is she an excellent student, she is a wonderful teacher’s assistant as well.

Happy Birthday, Miss M!

And last, but not least, we had a family wedding last weekend. With a family as big as my husband’s is, there have been a lot of family weddings. But it has been four years since the last one and we were ready for a PARTY!!

The bride and groom were all smiles all evening.

Everyone looked so nice in their fancy clothes.

Big D was an excellent reader

Mr. H was ready to dance,

But he didn’t last long. He and Banana cut out early.

The rest of us had a ball.

We did the Y.M.C.A.

The Sprinkler

“Shout” (a little bit softer now)


The Macarena

And I always get a special bonus at family weddings. My husband actually dances with me!!!

It was a great night. Congratulations Uncle Beaker and Aunt Mad-dog!!!


posted by Zookeeper at 7:56 PM | Permalink | 0 comments

First Days

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
11:23 AM

Yesterday was our first day of school. Since we are homeschooling this year, things were a little different from previous first days of school. Last year the kids’ “First Day” picture looked like this.

This year it looked like this.

We still had to wake them up for school. And they still looked incredibly tired during breakfast.

Instead of desks they each have boxes for their books, notebooks, folders and pencil cases.

But they still had lots of work to do.


Things went relatively smoothly. Even the little ones kept themselves busy.


I thought it was a great first day. I am hoping for a whole year full of great days!!



And speaking of first days, Banana had her first day at a new preschool today. She will be at school two afternoons a week, when the big kids and I can work on more involved projects (and Mr. H naps.) Banana was so excited this morning and couldn’t wait until after lunch when it was finally time to go.


It may be a few weeks or more until we are actually in the swing of things, but I feel like we have had a great start!!

posted by Zookeeper at 11:23 AM | Permalink | 2 comments

What A Season!!

Thursday, August 06, 2009
9:01 AM

Miss M’s softball season is finally over. But the climactic ending was worth the extra length. Her team won their division and made it into the City-County playoffs. They won their first game in a close and exciting match-up. It was so much fun to watch!

The second game was also a nail-biter. And it didn’t help that the first half of it was played in the rain. Our team was down by 2 in the bottom of the seventh (the last inning), there were two outs and Miss M came up to bat. I have to admit that my heart was in the pit of my stomach. Nobody likes to make the last out of the game. Not to mention the out that would cost the team the playoffs! But she whacked a ball past third and was able to get on base just in time for the next batter to hit a home run and tie the score. Two batters later the game-winning run came in. And I thought the first game was exciting!!

The last game was not quite as exciting, but it was awesome just to be in the City-County Finals. The team was short three players, one of whom was a pitcher and a power-hitter. Miss M played first base for the duration of the game, and she did an excellent job, visibly impressing even the other team’s coaches. It was hard for the girls to get many hits off of the other team's pitcher. Even the top of the lineup was struggling. The other team was up 7-0 by the second inning. Our girls brought it up to 7-5 by the bottom of the fifth, when the other team was up to bat. They were able to pull off eight more runs, whereupon the umpires automatically called the game over because of a 10-run “Mercy” Rule. Our girls were upset by the loss, but even more upset by the fact that they weren’t given a chance to catch up. There were some tears, but at the same time there was a GIANT trophy – much bigger than you would expect the Runners-up. Each girl on the team also received a nice plaque. Coach (Dad) expressed his great pride for his team and made sure the girls knew how cool it was to be the second best team in St. Louis in their division. It really was an unbelievable experience.

I am such a proud Softball Mom/Coach’s Wife.

posted by Zookeeper at 9:01 AM | Permalink | 0 comments

Weekend Pix

Monday, July 27, 2009
1:51 PM

I just had to share these cute pictures I took over the weekend.

Miss M holding her new baby cousin.


Banana deep in thought.

Mr. H lying in a field of clover.

We had a fun and busy weekend. We went bowling with a homeschoolers' group on Friday, attended an ice cream social at church on Saturday, and on Sunday Miss M's softball team won their first City-County playoff game. And what an exciting game it was!! I had so much fun watching Miss M and her coach (Dad) at the game yesterday. I cheered so loudly that I was nearly hoarse afterwards. I am so proud of both of them. And I'm looking forward to the next game tomorrow night!


posted by Zookeeper at 1:51 PM | Permalink | 0 comments

Slip’n and Slid’n

Monday, July 20, 2009
1:22 PM

Yesterday we got together with the G.I.F.T. (Getting Interracial Families Together) group for an outdoor game day. We had a water balloon toss, sack races, and fun with a giant parachute.


There was also a Slip-n-Slide. It was the first time that my youngest two children had ever seen a Slip-n-Slide. I know. They’re deprived children. Ask my dad about the time he brought over a box of Twinkies. My kids had no clue what they were.

Anyway…we tried explaining the concept of running up to the edge of the slippery yellow strip and tossing yourself onto your belly for a wonderfully wet ride with an exciting splash at the end. It sounded simple enough, but for some reason the kids weren’t getting it. They were all sliding on their knees, which is a clumsier trip, and not all that likely to get you to the big splash. It wasn’t just our kids have trouble with this concept either. I heard one of the little girls say, “My mind says ‘belly’ but my body says ‘knees’”. Many of the parents were shouting out their best slip-n-sliding advice. My older boys eventually got the hang of it, but Banana was still having trouble. We finally just had to shove her all the way down.


Mr. H just crawled down it until he got to the little pool at the end.




But once he figured out how much fun it was to play on the Slip-n-Slide, it was hard to keep him off of it. I was afraid he’d get plowed over by the bigger kids.

Thankfully he became interested in the playground while the older kids finished up with a water balloon fight. It was a fun afternoon.

posted by Zookeeper at 1:22 PM | Permalink | 0 comments

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