Seven Quick Takes: Excavation of the Homeschool Room

1. Following up on last week's success with the basement, I am attempting to sort out the homeschool room. It's not quite ready for prime time, but at least I've cleared out our museum again.

Plus, now you can walk into the room!! To be fair, a lot got dumped in here from the basement, but still, who knew there were all these narrow wooden planks at the bottom of it all?

It's almost like there was once a floor there.

Our collection of Things -the-Kids-Have-Found-or-Made continues to grow.

Klenda and I put together the Visible Woman over the course of several Girls' Nights.

Mxyl found the deer skull while on a scouting expedition.



Not that it has anything to do with wanting to get the homeschool room in order, but did I mention I'm doing my portfolio review at my house in a few weeks?

2. The best part of excavating is the rediscovery of new and exciting things I can use. I found a ton of stuff that Choclo and Oob can do while the older kids and I are doing homeschool blocks.

It's such a happy thought that they are productively occupied instead of, I don't know, mixing random ingredients and then cleaning up with toilet paper and fruit.

I know in this picture, Choclo looks like he'd rather be smashing more eggs, but I'm confident that he's really happier playing the Noah's Ark balancing game with Firelord.


3. We also discovered the crystal growing kit that Zorg had gotten for Christmas. Perfect timing! Zorg, ever happy to slip on a lab coat, was able to do the whole thing (except for the boiling water). The crystals will be full grown in a few more days.


4. And then I found these beautiful blank books for Klenda and Leena, as well as some cool pad and pen sets for Mxyl and Zorg.

What is it about beautiful stationary? I found these pretty little books absolutely swoon-worthy, and I am not really one for swooning.





5. I found a Foxtail ball and book which someone gave us a long time ago. I tucked it into Zorg's homeschool drawer. I love tucking things into the drawers and waiting for them to be found.

Zorg found it this morning after all his work was done and went out and played it with Oob for a long time.


6. This is the bear Klenda made for a friend's baby brother. She hand sewed the whole thing by herself!

The baby loved it and started kissing it as soon as she gave it to him. How's that for a reward for your labor?





7. Not in the homeschool room, but Zorg graduated from Cub Scouts! Congratulations, buddy, and welcome to the world of the big Boys!

More with Jen!

Seven Quick Takes Friday: Clearing out the Camera Edition

 1. What is it with Oob and dressing up?  He told me he had a special costume...and he did! 

If you're curious, he's wearing my maternity sweatpants that my Mom made for me before he was born.

The bizarre short "sleeves" are the pockets!

Oh, and he's got Mxyl's hat on, too, the one my Dad gave him.



2. Fun easy craft project with virtually no preparation?   We love it!

Just turn the kids loose with a stack of small post it notes and some walls.

This time we got a cat (from Klenda), a cross (from Zorg) and a fancy crown for a smiling Jesus (from Choclo).

 They do start falling off the walls after a day or so, but that's still a pretty easy clean up.


3.  It's fall!  Actual, honest to goodness, leaf turning autumn!

Fall is one of my favorite seasons here because we are far enough north to get color in the trees, and far enough south to have weeks of sunny weather in the 70s (low 20s C).

Because we only start getting the cool weather and changing trees in October, I always feel like the back to school "fall" stuff (the schools here start in mid-August) is a cruel joke. But now... it's just lovely weather for a walk to the lake!

Klenda buying popcorn from Mxyl and Zorg

 4. It was Family Fun Night at our local parish.

Wheeee!

Little train-like ride

This involved Mxyl and Zorg selling popcorn for the scouts, and the rest of the Zoomlians playing games and riding on bouncy rides.

 5. At home, Choclo has been building increasingly elaborate Rube Goldberg machines in an epic mash up of his Angry Birds and Dominoes obsessions.

It's great!  It's fun!  It's kind of hard to get into my bedroom...


6.  Meanwhile, outside, Zorg has been working on his obstacle course.

It involves both slack lines, the badminton net, climbing up the tree, and rappelling down, and he can do the whole thing in 90 seconds!

7. The Emperor was cleaning out the back basement (Wahoo!!!), and he came across his old briefcase.  He thought, with its nifty combination locks, it might appeal to Zorg.

Well, yes.

And now my home school has taken a sudden left turn towards formal (but cool).

Have a great weekend!  More fun with Jen!

What Zorg learned about Santa in CCD

Disclaimer: If you and your family have a "Santa" tradition, I am OK with that!

First, about Santa: we thoroughly enjoy Santa under his more formal title, "St. Nicholas." The kids know about the conventional North Pole/reindeer silliness, but we present it as made up stories and we tell them the real stories about St Nicholas. When they ask, we explain that we don't call him "Santa" because the made up stories featuring "Santa" tend to get kids focussed on what they are getting, whereas St Nicholas helps lead them to Jesus and helps them think about what they will give. I've always thought that Zorg didn't really buy this.

Second, about CCD: it's the equivalent of Sunday School or Catechism class (it actually stands for Confraternity of Christian Doctrine). I am co-teaching Zorg's class this year and it is the first time I have taught kids who have not been taught the Faith at home.

I asked the group if they knew the story of Christmas. Hands shoot up! Pick me! Pick me! The answer: Santa comes and brings us presents. CLUNK.

The CLUNK was Zorg's jaw hitting the floor. In point of fact, the kids with that answer collectively had a hazy idea that there was something about Jesus and animals, but that was a minor detail to the Santa side of Christmas.

OK. I always wanted to be a missionary and proclaim the Gospel to the "pagan babies who had never heard of Jesus." Here was my chance...

It all ended happily with each child able to explain the actual Christmas story with the help of their own nativity set, but I don't think Zorg is quite the same. They really didn't know...

Scout Camp

 This was actually the first week in July, and the Emperor, Zorg, Choclo and Oob all went together.

It was Oob's first scout camp and Zorg's last scout camp.  Zorg ages out in September, but from May until then, we have three boys in the troop!

They went to Bashore this year, and, despite some brutally hot weather, they had a fantastic time!

Choclo learned to really swim!

 They camped, and they climbed, swam, did archery, and got a ton of merit badges.

Lots of friends and lots of memories.

Lots of fun!

Except when it got too hot to use the slurpee machine.

 And now Choclo is a Tenderfoot, and Oob achieved the rank of Scout!

I know because I just sewed on the patches today!

See, it's not all catching up, sometimes we have breaking news, too.




After camp, Choclo and Oob came home with the troop while the Emperor and Zorg went on to Philadelphia to attend the Memorial service for the Dad of one of the Emperor's oldest friends.

Gardner was famous as an editor who gave a lot of famous writers their start, but I also knew him as a man who was funny and unfailingly kind.  He and his wife, who passed on last year, were close friends of my dear MIL.  I'm so sorry for our friend who lost both his parents, but I'm also deeply grateful for this generation of giants who brought so much joy to so many!

Home School Blocks

This is how it works:

We always start with Prayer Time/Bible Time/Violin Time (usually also nursing Oob time).
The other kids can then take a 15 -30 minute break while I play with Choclo.
Now we start the blocks. I have 4 kids, so there are 4 blocks of time. Everything in a block happens at the same time.

Block 1:
I spend time with Myxyl, maybe doing some math.
Klenda works independently in a workbook, reading a book, or on a project.
Zorg does a chore say, cleans a bathroom.
Leena does something fun, either pouring water in different containers or her own idea

Block 2:
I spend time with Klenda, show her how to make designs with a compass
Zorg does independent work
Leena washes walls
Mxyl draws robots

Block 3:
I play Dolch knights with Zorg (sight word game)
Leena does her wipe off alphabet book
Mxyl cleans a bathroom
Klenda plays with sculpey clay

Block 4:
I do math manipulatives with Leena
Mxyl works independently
Klenda washes windows
Zorg draws on more index cards (he is making a game)


This leaves me time to do stuff together: Child's History of the World (I read while the kids draw about it, or do related activities), and an enormous unit on the human body (lots of experiments!). It also leaves us with large swaths of time free in the afternoon for kids to do their own thing.

The Inner Boys Room

 Figuring out what to call this room is a problem.  This is the room on the main floor which used to be Mxyl and Zorg's.

Now it is Zorg and Choclo's, making Zorg the only kid to not switch rooms.  His consolation was that we started painting his room first!

"Inner" does not refer to the location of the room, but to the birth order of the occupants!  They are the middle two of the four boys.

After so long of having the oldest two and youngest two share their rooms, it's hard to remember who is bunking with whom!

As you probably noticed, the room is gold.  This took one coat of a base layer yellow and two coats of gold paint, so we really painted this room three times.  Good thing it was small!

They picked out burgundy curtains.  Note the extra curtain for the closet.  Replacing all the kids closet doors with curtains has been a huge win for us, both in terms of space and repairing the doors.

And, look!  Choclo still likes penguins, so they followed him!

If you look carefully at the first picture, you can see, hanging from the ceiling, a penguin in a hammock. 

Zorg thinks penguins are fine, but prefers Super Mario Galaxy (and cats).  Fortunately, Choclo also likes both of those, so everyone is happy!

In fact, these boys also share a love of robots and all things Lego, which you can see a bit of on the shelves and bins in the first picture.

Hero

Zorg was just born with the heart of a hero. I have seriously never appealed to this kid's noble spirit in vain.

Today I was already going in 6 directions when I picked up the mail and realized I had been delivered my neighbors outgoing mortgage check. Oops. On the 16th of the month, that can't be good.

No mailman in sight, but the truck was still there. Oob chose that moment to wake up crying.

Zorg to the rescue!

He waited at the door, watching for the mailman. When he finally saw him across the way, he dashed out into the chilly rain, (looked both ways before crossing the street) and gave the mailman the envelope. Through the window I saw him explain to the mailman and the guy give Zorg a hearty slap on the back.

When he came in, I said, "Zorg, you are a superhero!"

"No," he replied, "I don't have any special powers. I'm just a hero."

All this and modesty, too.

Happy Birthday, Zorg!

 Zorg is Fourteen!

We celebrated with a light saber party with friends.  They did real combat with our armory of plastic light sabers (I thought we would ask people to bring them, but then discovered that we owned seven of them ourselves!).

Then they did a light saber tournament with the Wii U.

And we had a Death Star cake.

 And a Death Star Pinata, courtesy of Klenda.

Whacked open with a light saber, naturally!

It was a great party, and then, a few days later, we had a family party on his actual birthday.

More cake!

More fun!

Fourteen Amazing Things About Zorg

1. He has the heart of a hero.  Better not pick on anyone while he is around!

2. He's a Star Scout (that's 2 away from Eagle Scout).

3.He's my lucky Chuzzle. 

4.  He's really fast!

5. He's on Harry Potter Book 7.  This may seem more impressive when I tell you our kids don't start Harry Potter until they're 13!

5. He's a good and loyal friend.

6. Fasting for daily Mass= no problem.  His stomach doesn't wake up for breakfast until at least 9 am (we eat at 6:30 am).

7. He has an amazing sense of direction.

7. He's a natural mathematician.

8. He likes to help the younger scouts (and siblings!).

9.  He's very good at teaching and explaining things.

9. He's vary curious about the world and how things work.

10.  He's an astoundingly hard worker.  Me: Mumpy and Pa need some coal shoveled. Zorg: Sure, how many tons?

11. He's a fearfully good light saber duelist.

11. He's always willing to lend a hand.

12. He has a quirky sense of humor.

13. He can do the impossible.  Choclo asked him to do something impossible, and he drew these squares that look round.

14. He does hard things well with a good attitude.

14. He's very tough, very hard working, and very loving: he's going to be a good man.

Teaching Tests

Zorg and Leena decided that they like doing math together, and since Zorg has already completed all the math he actually needs, he likes to keep up his skills with her.

Sometime in January they finished up Geometry, but instead of going into PreCalculus, they decided they'd like to do a test review class.

The community college where Zorg takes classes (joined by Leena next fall) doesn't have any entrance requirements, but it does have a placement exam, done on computer.  So far Zorg has only needed the English placement, but eventually they will both need the math placement.

My kids have never taken standardized tests, and that kind of testing is a definite skill, especially since some of the math is presented in a strange format (I know this because Mxyl and Klenda did these tests).

So I got a book on preparing for the Accuplacer test, and they've been enjoying it.  They know the math involved pretty well, but are learning a lot from the presentation.  It's funny, but after many years of intentionally not "teaching to the test," I'm teaching how to take tests!

Seven Random Quick Takes

1. Favorite quote of the week.  Choclo: A big hug is even comfier than a comfy chair




2.Tapir babies are cute.  Little brown watermelon's with legs!  And look at that little nose!!  Either you get this, or you don't.


3. Overheard in the back seat, Zorg explaining to Mxyl: I said they didn't have armor, I never said they didn't have food processors! (Random enough for you?)



 
4. At the Arboretum this week, we found this sign.  I think it means: Don't yell at some one who has a head ache. Always good advice. Any alternate theories?




5. Zorg: If you had to wake up to one TV theme song, what would it be?

 Me: How do you even think of... Oh! Hawaii Five-O. Definitely Hawaii Five-O.

 I've never seen the show, I haven't thought of it in years, but the only possible answer ever is Hawaii Five-O!



6.I've been working out schedules: co-op schedules, home school schedules, field trip schedules, college schedules, Scout schedules and schedules for various lessons and doctors appointments.  My brain is now so full of scheduling, that it is leaking nouns.

Picture from Zazzle

I tried to ask Zorg to bring in the... they weren't laundry hampers, but that was all my brain could offer.  Zorg figured out that I was thinking of the garbage cans.

It's not just not being able to remember the nouns (that happens fairly often), it's that my brain is supplying nouns that are clearly wrong.  Pagoda? No. Pergola? No. It was actually a gazebo, but I had to look it up.

The worst was in the middle of a Calculus lesson with Mxyl.  We had forgotten to take the derivative of the...coadjudicant.

Mxyl gave me a very blank look.

It's the, you know, the number that goes with the X.  In the term 3X, X is the variable and 3 is the... coadjudicant, my brain insisted.  It's not, I was trying for coefficient.

Which my brain, clearly is not.

7. I have at last achieved my life's ambition!  I got out of the library in less than an hour (57 minutes!) with fewer than 50 books (49!).

To make this victory even sweeter, I now have gigantic children who can lug those books for me!! 

Have a great weekend!  More fun with Jen!

Happy Birthday, Zorg!

 Happy teenagerhood, Zorg!

Yes, it's true, Zorg is 13!

Of course we had to celebrate with an extended family cook out and party.

Half my kids are now teenagers.  How did that happen?

Despite all the dire warnings, teenagers are a lot of fun!

13 Great Things About Zorg

1. He likes to play games.
2. He's a First Class Scout!
3. He's honest and fair.
4. He likes to build interesting stuff.
4. He's an awesome older brother!
5. He's an awesome younger brother!
5.  He's got a ready wit.
6.  He is half way through Geometry!
7. He doesn't take himself too seriously.
7.  He's cool headed in a crisis.
8. He's a reverent altar server.
9.  He's a very fast laundry folder!
10. He likes exotic food.
11. He's a fun person to talk to.
11. He's quick to help anyone who needs it.
12. He's interested in all kinds of history, science, and technology.
13.  He's adventurous!

End of the Year Part 3

I almost forgot about the guppies! We set up a 10 gallon breeding tank for our guppies. We keep our showy males in the community tank and the female(s) here. The males get, er, conjugal visits.

We started with 2 females, but lost one in a tank disaster (filter got disconnected and the ammonia spiked).

We have also lost a number of the males, although we haven't been able to figure out what went wrong. The water readings have been perfect. We dosed the tank with fish antibiotic, so we'll see...

Interestingly, I met a more experienced fishkeeper at our local fish store and when I asked why my males had died, he told me the following: (It helps to picture him, he looks like a senior member of a biker gang) "Ya know, with guppies, they're either gonna make it, or they're not. Don't worry about it. I had a friend who kept guppies in his toilet tank for 8 months. No kidding! He had a small apartment and he put screening over the hole so the fish didn't get flushed, ya know. They had babies and did just fine. How's that for water quality? Didn't worry about filtering or chlorine or nuthin - but he sure did frequent water changes!"


Our dear friend Fr. Mark arrived back for the summer! We had a little party, naturally! He is from New Orleans, and is the epitome of southern manners. I knew we would be great friends when, the first time we had him over (3 or 4 years ago), he patiently listened to Zorg for 20 solid minutes, then apologized for not understanding all of it (Zorg was 5 and had a speech impediment).

This time around, after the kids had taken him on a whirlwind tour of their rooms, art projects and lego creations (and explained the Bionicle universe), he sat down with a bemused expression and said, "It's like I never left except they're all taller!"


In other news, thanks to the kindness of a lovely lady, we got to visit a horse farm, and everyone got to ride!

That's Mxyl on Hawk.

The gentleman leading the horse also showed some fantastic riding - no saddle or bridle, just riding! I've never seen anything like it, it was lovely to watch.




And Klenda, also on Hawk. It was the first time she had ever been on an actual horse instead of a pony!




Zorg and Leena got to ride on Pumpkin Pie.