Lots of apples! Mike make several apple dishes and will be posting about them on www.madcookie.net.












 

We were rewarded today with a super breakfast from our kids. Elijah was the mastermind who got everything together with help from his sisters. He told us it was because Mike did all the schooling, and they were happy Les was back.










 

Leslie thought that you might like to know what the kids are doing for school this year, so she's guest-writing this post! :) 

We're starting our 5th year of homeschooling, and continuing to use Sonlight as our main curriculum. Elijah and Rebekah have finished 2 years of World History, so we're moving on to Part 1 of the 2-year Introduction to American History (called "Core 3"):

 

That's a lot of books, isn't it?!! I'm so glad that my kids are readers just like I am, so that I have good reason to keep buying loads of quality books! That picture represents Elijah's & Rebekah's History, Geography, Bible and Read-alouds, which they do together, and Elijah's Readers (they do their Language Arts & Math separately, on the level that best suits them).

When I bought the Core, I purchased the Grade 2 Regular Readers for Rebekah, but she read read read over the summer, and her skills have improved so much that she's already read all of the readers for the year! We get free shipping from Sonlight (by virture of having bought so much stuff from them!), so I went ahead & ordered the next level of Language Arts for her.

We're trying a few new things this year. Elijah is doing a writing course called Institute of Excellence in Writing, and I am VERY impressed. The course is on DVD, and the teacher uses great techniques to make writing interesting and fun for the student. Elijah is semi-enjoying it, and learning quickly how to become a good writer, so I am happy!

Another new thing we're doing with Elijah & Rebekah is a new Science book. In the past, we've used Sonlight's Science program, which comes with many books & activity sheets. The kids enjoyed it, but I wanted to use something more focused, so we decided to use Apologia's Elementary Science, and we chose Flying Creatures of the 5th Day and got a lab kit to go with it:

It's different from what we're used to, with Apologia being a textbook, but now that we've been doing school for a couple of weeks, we're getting into a good groove.

Joanna started Kindergarten this year! One of the virtues of homeschooling, though, is that we can school each child at his/her own pace, so we had actually started her Core earlier this year. She's using Core 4/5 "Exploring God's World" with her own K readers, and she really enjoys it. Here's what hers looks like:

This is her Social Studies, Science, Bible, Read-alouds & Readers. Here is her Language Arts:

plus a few optional workbooks (listed as optional in the I.G., but SHE doesn't know that!) She's doing really well with her reading. I think that it's a natural affinity, combined with all those hours of being read to, watching Leapfrog Word Factory DVDs, and playing on Starfall.com while I schooled the older kids!

All of our students use Math-U-See for their math. Elijah is in Delta (which he actually started at the end of our last school year):

Rebekah just started Beta:

And Joanna is using Primer (though she had picked up so much from listening to her older siblings & watching Leapfrog math videos that we started her at Lesson 9!):

When they start out with the Math-U-See program, they use these manipulatives to help them learn the concepts, though they are gradually weaned off of their use (or ditch them on their own!):

So we're off to a great start for our year, and it's only a matter of time before Rachel starts clamoring for school of her own, and I start pestering Mike to find out if there's room in the budget to purchase Core P3/4 for little ones: "Fiction, Fairy Tales & Fun for Little Learners", which I've been drooling over since they started offering it last spring!

Doesn't it look like fun?!!! :)

 

Today was our first day of school. As tradition requires, we had a "Principal's Breakfast", where Mike (the principal of our school) took the school-aged children out to breakfast & talked about the goals we have for them for this year. Since Joanna started Kindergarten this year, she got to join the Principal's Breakfast for the first time.

Leslie stays home with the non-school-aged children (just Rachel this year). Where's the justice in that?! :)

(it's hard to read the board, but if you click on the picture, you'll see a bigger version)

 

Today was "Box Day": the day that our big box o' fun books from Sonlight, for our next school year, arrives! I'm sure the Fed Ex guy doesn't look forward to it!

Joanna will be starting K, so she's got her own Language Arts Binder now! Elijah & Rebekah are starting American History, and they've already starting reading some of the books, the punks. Leslie had to hide them away till she's good & ready to start school again (we've only been out for FOUR DAYS!).

 

Since school is over, we took the kids to Seaworld for a little fun

Bay of Play

This canvas "floor" was fun for Rachel to jump on. It is like a huge bed designed to be jumped.

Interaction Pool

Dolphin waiting for people to come play with him.

Shipwreck Rapids

Les and Rebekah waiting in the one hour line for Shipwreck Rapids

Arctic Adventure

Ending

"Ignight" is a fairly new show at Seaworld. It was really cool with blasts of fire and little fireworks timed to stunts done by the dolphins and pilot whales.

Last family photo in front of a display of Megaladon's teeth.

 

 

Today we had a year-end picnic for our homeschool group. It was at a new-to-us park, and the kids had a great time playing!

 

After our time at Happy Isles, Leslie's mom & dad took Joanna & Rachel & caught the shuttle bus back to our Lodge. Meanwhile, Mike & Leslie prepared to hike to Vernal Falls with the older kids.

You'll see that it's "only" 1.5 miles to the top of the falls; what that sign doesn't tell you is that the last 0.3 miles is ALL STAIRS!

And we're off! The trail is paved for the first mile or so.

This is a view back toward the Valley, of Upper Yosemite Falls.

We could see this waterfall (small white streak in the center of the photo) at different points along our hike, growing larger/closer each time. It's called Illilouette Falls. Say that 5 times fast!




We made it to the Vernal Falls footbridge! Though paved, the hike was steep, and we were pretty pooped by this point. However, when the kids saw the next part of the trail, they were pretty excited to continue on!

The Sonlight backpack takes us great places! (you can see Vernal Falls in the background)



Crying tears of blood? Naw, just a mishap with Gatorade!

As we headed up from the bridge, we saw familiar faces coming down! Cousins Tom & Kris gave us some good tips for the rest of the trail (beginning with STAY TO THE INSIDE!)

Up we go! Check out the stairs hewn from rock!

It's really wet from the mist of the waterfall
 
There's one spot where a rock overhangs the trail & we were able to dry off a little bit

This is a neat grotto, where water drips from the upper rocks

and AGAIN, up we go, right on the side of a precipitous cliff next to the falls! Elijah just kept saying over & over again how glad he was that we hadn't brought Rachel with us because it was so dangerous (Mike & Leslie completely agreed!).

We made it! The kids thought that the warning sign was pretty cool; Rebekah took it seriously though, and wouldn't go any farther!

At the edge of Vernal Falls

Rebekah parked it here & refused to go any closer to the edge

Thankfully there were other people up there to take our Victory Picture! (Unfortunately, one of those people was a bozo who tried to show off for his girlfriend by climbing through the fence & sitting at the edge of the falls. Every year, someone dies doing that--recipients of the Darwin Award, I'm sure!)

Headed back down the stairs. Check out the mist filling the canyon!

A gorgeous rainbow in the mist

Rebekah poses at a little view point on the way down

Down into the sunset - We did it!

 

Elijah & Rebekah have been taking swim lessons at the Y all this week. On Friday, they allowed the parents to come out on the deck & take pictures. Since Mike had the day off, he came to watch, and got these great pictures!

Rebekah was a "polliwog", and grinned almost the whole time she was in the pool

Elijah was a "guppy", and after he got over his "swim lessons are for babies" attitude, he had a great time!

 

Their home for about a week. Time to say goodbye.

Joanna took a ton of pictures. She snapped pictures of herself and Rachel.

 

Nearly all of our butterflies have emerged! We got 10 caterpillars, and they started becoming chrysalids on Sat March 8th. They were all chrysalids by the 9th. Yesterday, day 11 of that stage, 2 butterflies emerged. This morning when we got up, there were 5 butterflies, and now there are 8!! We're expectantly waiting one more (unfortunately, I think one of them won't make it). Check them out!

Leslie cut up a tangerine for them to drink

Forgive the flashback, but isn't it cool the way it lit up the interior of the chrysalid so that you can see the wings of the butterfly that has yet to emerge?! Directly beneath it is a butterfly that has just emerged; its wings are still partially furled up.

With our caterpillars, we bought this "Butterfly Bungalow" from Insect Lore, which is a mesh-sided tent so that we can get inside & interact with the butterflies. I'm really glad that we got it--it's been really neat to get inside & up close with the butterflies!

Elijah is inside with a butterfly on the side of the tent (and the tangerines on the bottom of the tent)

Rebekah REALLY likes getting in the tent & playing with the butterflies; I think she'd stay in the there all day if I'd let her!

This is the disk from the top of the cup, to which the caterpillars attached when they started pupating. The shells are the empty chrysalids from which the butterflies emerged, and the red fluid is called "meconium" (a word that should be familiar to moms who've had babies in the past decade). It's the excess fluid & tissue that the butterfly doesn't need, and is excreted when she emerges from the chrysalid.

 

Our homeschool group went on a field trip to Indian Hills Camp. Mike took the day off so that he could join the fun.

Speaking of homeschooling, we've gotten a lot of phone calls & emails with concern about the recent ruling regarding homeschooling in California. It is still legal, and while we are concerned about this court decision, we are trusting that common sense will prevail, and that the authorities will hold this ruling just for the family that was in court and not for all homeschoolers in California. If you'd like to read more about the ruling & the subsequent outcry, go here and please sign the petition if you're so led. Thank you all for your support!

Rachel is pointing out from where we came. We are at Indian Hills Camp. (map)

With all the rain we've had, the grass & flowers were abundant!

The little girls entertained themselves while the older ones were in class

There was a huge playground that all of the kids loved

Even the biggest kids!

Most of the pictures are of the kids playing, but there were two classes that Elijah & Rebekah took.

Volcano class...

...and Orienteering (finding your way in the wilderness)

The kids made their own compasses. Fascinating!

There was even a farmyard, with a very hungry tortoise,

bunnies we could pet,

a fish pond to check out,

and a rock stage for divas-in-training!! :)

 

Land of Enchantment by Norman Rockwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

The caterpillars are growing fast! We should have measured them when they arrived a few days ago, but we didn't, so this Day 3 measurement will have to do!

These caterpillars seem much more active than the last bunch we had (they seemed nocturnal, as they always got active after the kids went to bed...coincidence?!).

 

Mike & Elijah took their bridge to the bridge-buildng co-op class--it was a competition to see which bridges could support the most weight.

Here are all the bridges that the other families in the class made. There were so many different designs. It is interesting how 100 craft sticks can be modeled into so many different designs.

Each bridge had to span at least 12 inches. The bridge was set on two saw horses and then a bucket was wired through the bridge. Weights were added to the bucket. We had 84 pounds in free weights we could add. The kids added the weight to the bucket for their own bridge.







84 pounds and no failure. Elijah's bridge moved to the second phase of testing. The intention of the class was to build a bridge and add weight until it breaks. Well, we didn't have enough weight to break some of the bridges, so those bridges get to move to the next round to be held sometime in the future. (can you see that the weight was enough to break the BUCKET?!)

 

We will be having some photos soon of the bridge testing. This photo is two nights before the test. Don't you love the glue?

 

We had so much fun growing caterpillars into butterflies a couple of years ago that we decided to do it again this year. The caterpillars arrived today! Here is a link to our 2006 butterfly project.

They're little, but they grow fast. Check back often to see their progress!