Fairy Houses Everywhere

Cyan and I made this as a gift for a little friend who is having a birthday and goes along with the book Fairy Houses Everywhere for her sixth birthday.

It will not be the last one we make. I understand now how addictive these little houses can be.

With a back window to look out even... I really enjoyed working with Cyan too... I can't wait until she has had enough experience to use the glue gun on her own. I can see a whole town growing in my backyard in my vivid imagination.

"I fix it!"

He is getting so darned big!

with a dash of chocolate chips...

Last night when Don and I retired, we found a note on our door that said "Notes on your end tables." We followed the notes to our end tables and on there were two little notes that said

"I will make breakfast. Sleap in. Love Alex" (Yes, the typo is authentic.)

This morning, blissfully, after a day of cramps and total uncomfortableness yesterday, I wasn't woken up until 9am. And then, it was because Alex said he couldn't find the eggs. I told him there weren't any... and he went back out. About 10 minutes later he came back, baring a eggless pancake recipe fresh from the printer. See, Alex could not find a pancake recipe that did not include eggs in any of my cookbooks and was dedicated to making pancakes. So he used the all knowing Google to find one. Thought that was pretty ingenious myself. :) BUT... the recipe he found was all wrong. Eventually, by the time I dragged my lazy butt out of bed, Alex and Don had made bagels and hot tea because the pancake batter looked like milk with flour in it. Which sadly, is about what it was.

To honor Alex's effort I had him save his pancake batter and decided to see what I could do to help fix it this afternoon, (after I had gone to get eggs.) We added two eggs to that recipe, and a cup of WW flour. Then Alex cooked them on a hot griddle with some butter to keep them from sticking and added little bits of semisweet mini chocolate chips here and there... making them into all the fun shapes that made him so dedicated to pancakes in the first place. Little kitties for Cyan, tiny griddle cakes for me, and even a x wing fighter from Star Wars for Don.

They were SO good.

It was so sweet and cute... and he did it, start to finish, himself. Follow through isn't his strong suit. Usually he has me hold his hand the whole way through something. It really showed me that homeschool has been really great for his confidence... which is why I pulled him out of public school. Anyway you slice it though, today my son was learning to be a kick ass husband.

Wow it has been a crazy week of non stop sports! With all the hours at sporting events the Elliott's have gotten a cold bug in our home. The boys have been amazing going from practice to game/match and all the extra school events but it all came crashing down this week with Tabor,Tanner and Tamara all missing a day of school. But back at it to finish the week with a ball game in St.Clair on Friday, Wrestling in Jaynesville Friday and headed to South St.Paul for a tournament on Saturday. ( could this be why we would get sick?) Rodolfo got to wrestle his first match this week and did very well. Tabor's Knowledge Bowl team finished 28Th of 42 on Monday. Report cards came out this week as well. All the boyz did great.... still wondering how the oldest can get a "A " in Chinese but not in his own English language ? Can somebody explain that to us? On the other hand we are very blessed to have smart kids who are very active and we can't imagine life any other way. OH for you guys wondering how the dance went........They danced till 12 midnight and had a great time.

Books I love

I have had a hard time getting Cyan to read this year. It hasn't been that she can't do it... more that she won't. I concentrate a lot on successes here so you are probably thinking "What?"... but for the most part, her reading hasn't gotten any faster... no matter what I have done. She is reading really well, but not quickly. Still sounding out every single letter of words she doesn't know... Until this last week.

I was browsing the library Easy Readers trying to get some books that were just under her level to give her some success and came across this series:

This is the same guy (Mo Willems) who wrote "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!"

They are SO great! Cyan read the one above this morning. It is hysterical. And has TONS of punctuation practice and also lots of repeat words, so she can flow really nicely, but say things in different ways like:

"Ask them?" "Yes, ask them." "Okay, I will ask them."

This form makes it very easy to read with expression, and even easier to read with expression quickly.

We are having a lot of laughs in school right now between Moving Beyond the Page and these new readers.

(I read one to Don allowed yesterday. No kids were even in the room. That is how funny they are. lol!)

Idioms, Personification, Similes, and Metaphors

Alex is working on phrases and short poems in Language arts this month. So far we have done Idioms and Personification... today is Metaphors. For most of this I have been able to use easy online resources.

For Idioms I found a site that had a few examples of Idioms and then idioms that had lines under them for Alex to fill in the things he thought they meant. It was really interesting when he brought it back to me. If he got confused, he would say the idiom to me, and I would say it back in a sentence for him so he could pull the meaning from the words around it. After going back and forth for a while like this, we started thinking of them as fast as we could and using them in sentences.

For Personification I got some classic personification poems and then asked Alex to write his own personification poem on page 7 from this lesson in Moving Beyond the Page.

This is what Alex wrote:

"The fire licked and lapped the air

It devoured the trees with anger

With a beep and a honk the fire fighters come

to put out the angry flare."

(The entire thing was written by him... so I didn't have him correct the spelling this time.)

Similes will come first, as they are quick and easy, and flow well into metaphors... However the lesson for metaphors was a bit more in depth than these first two. I found several different definitions of metaphor and put them on one page together along with examples showing comparison without 'like or as' such as: "most dictionaries and textbooks" , or examples of giving things a name that are not their own such as: "Your a peach!".

Then I am having Alex write metaphors for each of the definitions that I found, and then to finish, writing his own with the help of page 5 in that same lesson from Moving Beyond the Page.

Direction and the Compass Rose

Yesterday the kids and I had a great lesson. Very simple. But I realised I am terrible with directions. I can follow streets like nobodies business... but when it comes to "go north" or "turn west" I am completely lost! So I decided that we would start working on directions in Geography. I had bought some organic chocolate balls that were shaped like the world a while back and thought they were the perfect prize for this lesson.

First, I had Cyan make a compass rose. She started with north and then moved around in the the rose clockwise and added E, S, W. Alex said that the phrase "Never Eat Slimy Worms" helps him remember how the directions go... so she drew a worm and a bird eating it with a big slash through it in the center. lol...

Then I had them make signs for each of the walls and use a compass to find out which walls were which direction. I thought we had Southeastern windows in the great room, but I found out they actually face nearly strait East. When they had those up, I had them pick a spot in the center of the room. There was some debate on where the center was. Alex counted the tiles in from the kitchen, and then from the wall, found and marked a spot that was the 'exact' center of the tiles. Cyan decided to take steps from the wall and find the center by feel. So they started the game at two different points in the room. Then I called out directions and how many steps they needed to take. At certain points in the room I had them meet and shake hands, which they thought was hilarious. :) And then at the end of the game I had them come to me, and they got a chocolate ball... which was the best.

All in all, it was a good lesson.

Moving Beyond the Page

This game above was modified from the Moving Beyond the Page directions sample page. I am LOVING this curriculum! I wish it had things that were more Alex's level, but it hasn't been too hard for me to adjust.

Basically, the entire curriculum is made up of unit studies. Each study has a one or two page spread of instructions and information for the parent that talks about what they should know by the end of this lesson, directions and materials that are needed, and a couple of activities that are optional, but lots of fun, so we usually do them. The lessons also break down the instructions for the kids over 8 so they have their own page of what they are supposed to accomplish in that unit and they are able to follow the instructions... or not. ;) The kids are having a blast with the curriculum and I have to admit school is easier for me as well.

The writers in MBTP also really care about literature. Which is nice, because I insist on my children reading 'real' books.

So far I am completely in love.