Back to Homeschool!

It's electrifying, slightly terrifying, but pretty energizing! It's BACK TO HOMESCHOOL time!!!! (cue the big voice there).

I look back a couple of months ago...ah, the cute little phrase "Oh, I'm planning on homeschooling through the summer...Math twice a week, Phonics three times a week...it'll be a light load" went past my lips multiple times.
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BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! That's really funny now! Yeah, we concentrated on Science primarily. Good luck getting much else done! But the kids are better swimmers, we've been reading a lot...I'll settle for that (especially since Pumpkin hasn't built her time machine yet...she's after dinosaurs, I'm after lost time).

Anywho, the plan is to start back in full swing next week, as public school kids in this neck of the woods start this week. Plus, I'm doing the spring-cleaning fling a bit late...lots of purging of toys and clothes lately. The more I cut, the more fun stuff we can cart around in our travels!

So here's the game plan:

Both Pumpkin and Capt'n Crash:


Bible: Working through Proverbs and "A Purpose-Driven Life" with them for now, and adding in material to their History lesson.


History: The Mystery of History - LOVE that it is history with the Bible as base! The lessons are super-short, but I add in some material from varying resources. I have to say, I love having "The Story of the World" workbooks to go along with this...often, they have better hands-on activities and great supplemental material!


Science: R.E.A.L. Science Level 1, Life - they caught a glimpse of the binoculars, have been avidly studying the field guides...I'm pretty sure they're going to love the material too. There's an anatomy coloring book that is highly recommended for it, but thanks to http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/ , I have the Kaplan Anatomy Coloring book, as well as several wildlife coloring books.


Reading: We're starting out with "Little House in the Big Woods". I'm using a comprehension guide with activities, and the local library has the cookbook, so we'll get to try out some neat associations! I want to go from this to "Little House on the Prairie" (also have the comprehension guide). By the time winter sets in (and it is too cold for Mommy to want to be outside, much less dress three young nomads in their winter gear), I am planning on taking on "The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe". Thankfully, I have a few months to figure out how to tackle that one (although this guide by Progeny Press is what I'm leaning toward).

Grammar: Shurley Method, Level 1. *crossing fingers* I know, I'm finding it a little strange that I'm going to delve into grammar when the nomads can't read very well (or at all, depending on which little nomad I'm discussing), but I'm hoping that they'll at least pick up the jingles and learn the definitions. I know a gal who, in public school, was taught a year of the Shurley Method and can STILL dissect a sentence as she recites the jingles! So I'm not hoping for prodigies, but I am hopeful that whatever they can soak up into those little nomadic sponges-of-brains will help them in the future.

Misc.: We're going to be looking into more physical self-sufficiency material (this facet of our lives seems to take a special place with the kids...they positively ooze self-esteem when they describe how they found xyz growing and knew that they could/couldn't touch/eat it.). I have a few books now that will help in our endeavors. Pumpkin still REALLY wants her own beehive and chickens, but it's just going to have to wait until we settle down. We've already started talking about farmer's markets in the next 5 years, and Pumpkin and I keep coming up with ideas as to what we want to be able to offer. I'm hoping that this physical self-sufficiency material will help them develop the self-assurance they need to forge ahead (and perhaps create their own businesses in the far-FAR-off future?).

Pumpkin (2nd grade)
Math: Math-U-See Beta - super stoked about this one! RightStart did not work well for us at all...anyone want to buy a slightly-used RightStart starter set?


Capt'n Crash (Kindergarten)
Math: Math-U-See Primer - he has been begging to do schoolwork, and to have his very own math workbook might send him to a wonderful state of bliss, I dunno. What I do know is that the sneaky little nomad can get the manipulative blocks out on his own...those little green ones HURT first thing in the morning on the way to the coffeepot!

Button will just be observing and coloring pictures at this point. I have discovered that most libraries we visit have specialty bags, where a bag is given a designation and there are activities and books and toys that correspond with the designation (dinosaurs, transportation, shapes, etc.). While Capt'n Crash really enjoys these, I think Button is getting to the point where she will enjoy them as well.

Ah, enough already, I still have lots more to clean out of our stuff...gotta find a way to cart all the homeschool material around!

[Addendum: We started our school year yesterday and things are going fantastic! I changed our schedule around a bit this week, trying for a few small core subjects each day and then "go with the flow" off of that. Yesterday turned out to be crammed full of teachable moments! More to follow...it's rather late right now and I'm extremely tired.]

Home Teaching

Nope, not "Home Schooling"..."Home Teaching". This has been a homemaking week (per Pumpkin's request). The first project was learning how to preserve corn (after a wonderful woman dropped off three HUGE bags of field corn). Pumpkin was intent on being a "big helper" and did pretty good (until a caterpillar bit her...then she wanted nothing to do with the corn after she stripped the husk off of it).

How to preserve corn by freezing:

Step 1:  Strip the cob of the husk and snap off the nasty end:

Step 2: Boil the corn:

Step 3: Cut the kernels off of the cob (I couldn't accomplish this safely and take a picture at the same time, sorry!).

Step 4: Put in plastic bags (if you don't have some nifty freezer boxes like I've been lusting after) and cover with a salt & sugar solution (1 tsp. each per pint of water).

Step 5: Push all the air out of the bags, lay flat and freeze.

With fall coming before we know it, we'll be through these bags in just a couple of weeks...we love our tortilla soup!

Our second project was requested by Pumpkin herself. She loves her Littlest Pet Shop critters (btw...some of the BEST traveling toys we have come across!) and wanted to make some stuffed Littlest Pet Shop. 

Step 1: Draw the design. She started out by drawing a picture of what she wanted, and I showed her how to divide up the sections (she wanted ears of a different color) and add a seam allowance.

Step 2: Pick out the fabric. I had a couple of boxes of fabric gifted to me and it proved to be a treasure trove for this project. 

Step 3: Cut out the pattern pieces. 

Step 4: Layout and pin.

Step 5: Sew! 

I try to teach "make do with what you have"...turns out, a cooler 

and the bathroom stool work great as a sewing table at this age!

The project isn't finished yet. Once it is, I'll post up some more pictures. If we're still here in a month, Pumpkin should be able to enter it into the fair...something we haven't been able to do the last couple of years because of our travels. Pumpkin is hopeful and excited!

Learning the Water Cycle

The Library Reading Program focused on water this year...they had some really neat speakers come in and talk to the kids too, which just made it all that much more exciting.

Besides getting to hang out with other kids, create craft projects, watch tornadoes inside of bottles, etc., Pumpkin learned the water cycle in a neat way:

What's so special about a bracelet of non-corresponding colors?

Sh'roomin'

Who would have ever thought that I'd find mushrooms interesting? In the previous decades of my life, the equation was simple: want mushrooms? Go to the grocery store and fill bag. Now? "Look Mom! There's a mushroom in the backyard!" ... "Woohoo honey! Go grab the book!".

What book are we referring to? What magical book could elicit an excited response? Well, in this case, it is one of our newest acquisitions: National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mushrooms!!! It came in quite handy yesterday when we found this in the backyard:

Here I was, thinking "Yay! Maybe it'll be a 'choice edible' and we'll have another item to add to our 'forage for this' list!" However, Pumpkin, Mommy & said field guide identified it as a Green-Spored Lepiota...a VERY poisonous mushroom that can cause "one to two days of violent purging."

Hmm. Guess we won't be eating that after all.

Along with our field guide, we acquired a few other "choice edibles" in terms of brain food. Pumpkin is fascinated with The Self-Sufficiency Handbook and is anxious to put together her very own beehive. Among wanting to own/operate her own zoo and aquarium and dinosaur park, she wants to have a solar/wind-powered farm and raise items for farmers market. Is 7 too young to start teaching the basics of solar/wind power? I have a homeschooling cousin who was drawing circuits by the age of 5, so probably not. Things to ponder as the new school year starts up.

Pumpkin "reading" The Self-Sufficiency Handbook

Yay for the Library Reading Program!!!

The midwest seems to start up earlier than the northwest...back-to-school sales are already up and going. By July 5th, the holiday items were being taken down and pens/pencils/notebooks were being put up. Wow! They don't waste much time here, do they? Maybe it has to do with harvest. We're currently in the middle of wheat country. I had no idea that cattle were such an integral part of the wheat harvest...they plant the wheat in the fall, wait until it starts to show up, then toss a herd out in the field to keep it mowed down all winter long. If the wheat stalk makes a "knuckle" and it freezes, it will not grow past that knuckle again, and will not produce wheat. Amazing what one learns in traveling.

Nature's Critters

Ever see an ant lion? I'd never even heard of them until this summer in the midwest. Duke spent part of his childhood in the midwest and knows all sorts of interesting facts, which the nomads absorb like sponges (and regurgitate mostly at opportune times). Well, the ant lion is a pretty nifty find...they make little funnels in the sand and wait for ants to come along and fall in...slippery sides of sand (say that fast 10x) make it difficult for the ant to get out, and the ant lion helps its meal get closer by flicking sand above it.

Ant lion in Pumpkin's hand

Pumpkin discovered an interesting fact (one that Duke didn't know)...ant lions can only move backward.

But life is not simply full of ant lions...[back story: we like to find local produce (eggs/milk mostly) when we travel...and while realmilk.org is helpful, simply asking tends to find us a source]...our local egg/milk provider gets a kick out of how interested the nomads are in her farm, and learned that we homeschool, so she excitedly calls us up one morning to let us know that she found swallowtail caterpillars in her garden, and were we interested in them? YES!!! We raced up to her place lickety-split and came back with new tenants for our Butterfly Pavilion (empty since the monarchs left).

And we have had two hatch out already!

Our first swallowtail butterfly

Our second swallowtail butterfly

And what do you know, the Black Swallowtail Butterfly is the state butterfly of Oklahoma!

Yet, the fun never stops around here where creepy-crawlies are concerned...Button discovered an unhatched cicada on the front porch early one morning!

Unfortunately, Button is death on anything walking on her, so I had the *lovely* pleasure of said cicada walking up my arm (Those are some spikey little legs! It felt like little needles in my skin with each step it took!). We had been finding all kinds of empty casings, but never a live one, so I don't know if it is common to find them live, or if we just had a rare opportunity. Either way, we tossed it into the Butterfly Pavilion and it hatched out!

Cicada holding onto its casing after emerging

Button is happy to play with the casing, but keep that cicada off of her! :D

I have not forgotten!!!!

I do have loads to post, but Button ran off with my camera cable and I have yet to find it (she also ran off with my iPod cable, but I found it at the very bottom of the toy bin...*phew*...I love my camera, but I rely on that iPod with my audiobooks and nighttime music for the nomads). Oh, a lovely find a couple of weeks ago: http://librivox.org/ has LOADS of free audiobooks! A handy travel tip: audiobooks are FANTASTIC for roadtrips! The time flies by (and makes nighttime travel easier too).

I'll be back! As soon as I can find that daggum cable!

Mutant Monarchs Revisited

They hatched! It was a lovely day in the neighborhood...woke up a little bit later than usual and ended up missing the part where they came out of the cocoons. *sigh* Oh well, we were able to watch their wings start to straighten and dry. After 4-ish hours, they were starting to take short hops around the butterfly enclosure, so we took them out to the front yard and let them loose.

When the monarchs made it up to the top of the enclosure, they were willing to climb up on our fingers. And, of course, upon seeing that there were two monarchs (alas, one of the other caterpillars in the enclosure ate through the third cocoon...ewwww), each of the bigger nomads claimed one as their own. So, Capt'n Crash's monarch took off after just a couple seconds of being perched on his finger, while Pumpkin's monarch took so long in taking off that Pumpkin even got bored of it being perched on her, and I got a turn. Then I got bored and tried to put it on a bush, and that is when it finally took off. Here's hoping it found an energy source quickly!

Pumpkin wants me to order caterpillars to put in her enclosure. I am just not keen on the idea though: bunch of caterpillars eating prepackaged food out of a cup and growing until creating their cocoon and eventually flying away as butterflies...but what type of plant do they eat? Are they suited for the area, or are they going to hatch out and not find the right kind of food? Plus, there is not as much caretaking in the prepackaged caterpillars, and my nomads would get bored with seeing a bunch of caterpillars hanging around a cup. Woohoo. So, not this year dear.