Learn at Every Turn - Creative, Enriched Homeschooling

Do bloggers or homeschooling moms get sick leave?

No matter, I'm taking it anyway. I've been felled by some amazingly vicious bug. After two days of being flat, I struggled to get things done today and regret it greatly. So, I'll be taking a short break from posting till my head stops pounding and my stomach stops somersaulting. The world will have to continue revolving on its axis without my help.

Until then. . . .

After two wonderful days in Seattle, we decided it was time to head home. However, our return trip was not without its highlights.

Our first stop was Mount St. Helens National Park. This was the last in the chain of volcanic mountains we visited on our trip and another chance to discuss geology. Mount St. Helens erupted when Jerry and I were in grade school, and we both remember ash in the air as far away as Sacramento. So, it was particularly interesting to show the boys what the volcano looked like before what looked like the entire top blew off and to see how the devastated area had recovered.

Mount St. Helens

After leaving the park, we drove into Portland to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. I cannot recommend this science center more highly. It is enormous and contains an endless variety of hands-on activities across the spectrum of scientific disciplines. In short, it was the boys' idea of heaven. Again, I can't begin to do this museum justice in a few photographs, but I will give a few highlights.

This is an overview of just one side of one of the exhibit hall at OMSI.


Here is the other side of that same exhibit hall.


Kipp watching humans use robots to play a game where the robots drop balls into the gray grid to form a line.


Landry watching an experiment in the chemistry lab.


A body heat exhibit (I think this would make a very neat Christmas card photo if we had gotten the whole family.)

OMSI had an entire room devoted to balls and tubing and vaccuum-like engines to propel them. The tubes even leave the room and arc across the exhibit hall so you can watch balls roll on the second story. The boys couldn't get enough of this.


Again, this is just a small sample of the exhibits to see at OMSI. I simply can't do justice to this museum in one blog post.

After leaving OMSI with great reluctance, we found our final lodgings in Salem. The next morning, we visited our last museum, the A. C. Gilbert Discovery Village in Salem. The only words to describe this attraction are quaint and charming. The village consists of three Victorian houses set around an amazing play area. All three houses contain exhibits. I would say that this is better for younger children, but we made the most of it.

Galen watching a turtle


Outdoor water exhibit



Amazing outdoor play structure


The history behind the museum is really pretty interesting as well. A. C. Gilbert was, among other things, a toy maker who made many popular educational toys. I wish we had more toy makers like him today.

I must have been tired when I posted last night. I ended my post too soon. After viewing the locks, we drove back to downtown Seattle and wandered the area around the Space Needle. The boys enjoyed a gorgeous fountain, a hay maze and wandering through a labyrinth. Galen's focus on the labyrinth really surprised both Jerry and I. He was adamantly meticulous about following the paths to their conclusions.

The Space Needle


The boys enjoying the fountain


Galen in his labyrinth


Some beautiful flowers I really want to paint


And a beautiful view of Rainier, another volcanic peak on our trip


The next day, we spent an utterly amazing day at the Pacific Science Center. In no way could a few photographs do this center justice, and my photos did not turn out as well as I hoped because it is rather dark. Still, the boys just came alive with so many exhibits to visit. (It also happens to be where Jerry and I went on one of our first and most wonderful dates, eons ago. Little did I ever imagine then that I would return with my own little brood so many years later.)
 
After visiting the center, we took the boys to the top of the Space Needle. We decided to conclude the day with a ferry boat ride to Bremerton. The views from both were just breathtaking.

Outside of the Pacific Science Center




Rainier from the ferry


The cityscape from the ferry

We spent our first day in Seattle visiting some of our favorite haunts. We hit Pike's Place Market and got some wonderful coffee. We also hit my all-time favorite bookstore, Elliott Bay Books, in their new digs.

Toward the end of the day, we drove over to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. We stayed there quite a while as the boys liked watching them raise and lower the boats through the locks.

Boats tied up in the lock.


Some of my favorite people watching the bay.

Waiting for the bridge to open.

Overall, it was a lovely day in one of our favorite cities.  

After leaving the coast, we headed inland to Ashland. Along the way, we came across an elk refuge. (I apologize for the terrible photograph. My beloved Canon failed me, so I was using Jerry's camera and apparently quite badly.)

In Ashland, we found Science Works Hands-On Museum. This museum is smaller, but the boys made the most of it.

Renegade, a very cute resident of Science Works

Galen absorbed in an energy exhibit.

Kipp with an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine on recycling.

From Ashland, we chose to make the the long drive directly to Seattle and arrived there by nightfall. 

I'm taking a break from posting vacation photos today because I am in San Francisco at Bloggy Boot Camp!

Vacation posts should resume tomorrow.

After so much activity and driving, we settled in Bandon for one day and two nights. We spent most of our time combing the beaches, noticing the flora and fauna, exploring beautiful rock alcoves, and absorbing the peace that permeated this place. And, of course, the boys spend a considerable amount of time testing materials to determine how to dam rivulets running into the ocean.

The view from our room.



Exploring alcoves.


We spent some time trying to figure out what creates these interesting sand patterns.


The boys explaining to me what combination of materials worked best to dam the water.



I don't think this one needs a caption.

We began Day 3 with a Shasta Caverns tour. These tours involve a boat ride across Lake Shasta and a bus ride up an extremely narrow one-lane road to a cavern entrance, which is quite some distance up the side of the mountain you see across the lake.


View of Shasta Lake from the bus.



Entering the caverns.


Our tour guide explaining the geology of the cave.


Some more beautiful cave formations.


On completing the tour, we drove into the town of Shasta, which had a gorgeous view of Mt. Shasta, the next peak in the chain of volcanic mountains we visited on this trip.



If volcanic mountains were one unplanned theme of our road trip, science museums became a second. Thanks to our Lawrence Hall of Science membership, we could enter any of a long list of partner science centers free of charge. We took full advantage of this opportunity, and it added greatly to our vacation. Not only did the boys delight in each museum, the museums also made a great stopping points to permit the boys to wear off some energy during our long drives.

After leaving Shasta, we continued to drive north and crossed into Oregon in the afternoon. Once in Ashland, we found ScienceWorks, a terrific hands-on museum.

Galen loved these pulley chairs, and Jerry got a good workout.


By the end of the trip, we actually saw several of these elaborate ball runs, but this was the first, and the boys loved it.

After spending a chaotic Friday packing for five for up to nine days, we headed out of town on Saturday morning. By early afternoon, we arrived at Mt. Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen was the first of several famous peaks we saw during this trip which are all part of chain of old volcanoes formed by a subduction zone off the Pacific coast. As you may imagine, discussions about geology played a big role in our trip.

Sulphur gas escaping from a vent.

Wildflowers

The boys found one of the few remaining patches of snow and made the best of it.


Another shot of the gorgeous scenery.


After leaving Lassen, we drove to Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding, California. We arrived too late to explore their exhibits, but we did see enough to know that I will take the boys back during the year. We also walked across the famous Sundial Bridge. This is a terrible photo. There are better ones on their website. It uses steel, opaque glass and granite to span the Sacramento Riiver. The upright spike you see at the center of the photo forms part of a giant sundial on the other side of the bridge.



All in all, another great day. 

As a pre-vacation day of fun, my Mom and I took the boys to San Francisco for the day to see the California Academy of Sciences and the San Francisco Zoo, which has free admission for children during August.

A couple of things to note. If you want to get your tech-obsessed oldest son to pay attention, give him his father's digital camera and tell him to record the day for his Dad. (You may or may not want to tell his Dad that you gave said camera to said son.) Secondly, when your middle son tells you he's "not good with maps," give him the map of an enormous zoo and tell him to lead the way. It's amazing how quickly leadership responsibilities can improve confidence in map reading.

A partial view of the main floor of the California Academy of Sciences. The water you see here is actually the top of a large aquarium which can be viewed on the lower floor.



A large aquarium on the lower floor of the Academy.


A really beautiful jellyfish exhibit.

An overview of the four-story rainforest biodome at the Academy. The water you see at the bottom is part of another huge aquarium you can walk under on the lower floor.





A butterfly in the rainforest.

There were way too many beautiful animals at the zoo to include in this post. These are just a few of my favorite shots.

Tiger

Capybara





Really cute kangaroos.


Kipp just loved the flamingos. I see lawn ornaments in his future.


Overall, it was a crazy, fun-filled day with the boys. 

Hello again! We're back and connected to my beloved high-speed internet! I can now report that we have been on our first family road trip vacation for the last week or so. Originally, I planned to blog with photos from the road, but reliable internet connections were not to be found. Still, we had an amazing time, and I think it was a blog-worthy experience. So, I am going to do a series of posts and let the photos speak for themselves.

Watch and see how a geek and a bookworm and their passel of geeklets have fun!

This morning, my beloved Canon Power Shot S2 1S died. In terms of blogging, I feel like the Monty Python character who claims it's just a flesh wound as his limbs are hacked off.

Okay, so now, I promise to have blog post. . . .in a few days. . . with or without pictures.

Either way, I'll have a fantastic tale to tell.

*sigh*

Things are currently unpredictable here to say the least. I had intended to have a great group of posts out this week. It turns out my internet connectivity, thus my ability to post, are questionable at best.

Therefore, for the time being, I will leave you with the promise of a series of blog posts filled with some great photos very soon.

Until then. . . .

Galen will be four years old at the end of September. Although too young to enroll in our charter, he loves learning and seems to soak up information from his environment. He really enjoys jigsaw puzzles, matching games, tanagrams and other games where you construct patterns from different shaped blocks. Recently, he's become enamored with books and studies them with an almost unsettling focus. He's been able to count up to and back from ten (and maybe to 20) and recite his ABC's by rote for the last year, but he also seems to be learning to recognize numbers and letters by sight on his own as well. And he doesn't seem to miss any logical connections, which he normally articulates at the top of his lungs with glee.

For a brief time, I considered getting Moving Beyond the Page's 5-7 curriculum for Galen, with the idea that he could work through it slowly. I suspect he is almost ready for it. In the end, however, I've rejected that idea.

I didn't use a formal curriculum with either Landry or Kipp at Galen's age. Instead, I made some fun one-on-one time each day to work on phonics, printing and numbers. I also made certain to take the time to explain whatever was interesting to them. After much debate, I've decided that I can see no reason to depart from what has worked in the past.

Therefore, my curriculum list for Galen is short and low key. I have some basic Kindergarten curriculum books from Costco, a dry erase board for printing, Hot Dot cards for phonics, a board with tiles numbered 1 to 100, Bob Books, and some learning puzzles to teach basic skills. I think Galen will enjoy all of that. In addition, he can join in art with his brothers, and I might see if he enjoys learning Spanish through Rosetta Stone. When he shows an interest in a subject like the moon or ants, I will find books on that subject for him. And I will make the time to read copious amounts to him.

With that, my initial thoughts on curriculum for all three boys are complete. I still need to clean and organize my homeschool room. However, as much as I will miss the summer (and I really will!), I think I am beginning to look forward to this school year. I am excited to see where the year takes us.

Kipp is seven and a half years old. He's enrolled in second grade and attempting third grade state requirements.

As a parent, Kipp fascinates me. I think I instinctively understand Landry and Galen. The way their minds work makes sense to me. Kipp, however, is very different from me. It may be that he is more like his math and engineering father, or it may be that he learned different coping mechanisms as a middle brother. Whatever it is, he challenges me to figure out what is best for him, and I like the challenge.

Kipp has a slight problem with ambition. As far as I can tell, he has none. Unless involved in building, robots or computer games, he will disengage as soon as possible. Indeed, he had me convinced at the beginning of summer that he had a problem with reading. Having listened to him read this summer, I've come to realize the problem has nothing to do with ability, but desire. He's just rather be doing something else.

This character trait makes homeschooling more of a challenge. Kipp drifts into a daydream and builds with anything available the moment I'm not watching him. So, my biggest goals for Kipp this year would be to encourage him to work more independently and help him discover  his own love of reading.

Language Arts: Like Landry, Kipp will continue with Moving Beyond the Page for literature. Kipp really enjoys these units and surprises me with his insights. Just when I think I've lost his attention, he will pop up with some observation about the characters or plot that catches me off guard. So, even I'm looking forward to this portion of the curriculum.

I am also going to introduce some workbooks which I hope will encourage Kipp to work independently. Like Landry, Kipp will have Spelling Connections and Write Source workbooks. I am also going to add in an Explode the Code workbook to see how he takes to it. Depending on how things are going, I may also add in a cursive handwriting workbook.

This summer, Kipp read The Jaguar's Jewel, one of the A to Z Mysteries, aloud to me and enjoyed it. I would like to continue to encourage his oral reading, so we will see how far he can read through that series this year.

Science: While Moving Beyond the Page has a science component, we usually skim these units and will continue to do so. The substantial portion of Kipp's science curriculum will be the same as Landry's. I'm also toying with the idea of auditing science classes with Kipp and Landry at our local junior college to see if anything ignites their interest.

Math: Kipp will continue with Singapore Math. He will start with 3A and 3B. I also have a great resources called Math in the Garden: Hands-On Activities That Bring Math to Life. The chapter topics include numbers, operations and algebra; measurement; geometry and pattern; and data analysis. The activities subsumed under those headings simply look fun. I think it would be wonderful for the boys to see math applied away from workbooks.

Khan Academy videos are another resource I want to try to use more this year. Once in a while, it's nice for the boys to hear a voice different from mine, and I'm really impressed by the Khan Academy.

As with Landry, I am also going to try to encourage Kipp to memorize math facts in whatever way I can.

Art: I will use the same curriculum choices for Kipp as Landry.

Social Studies/History - Again, Moving Beyond the Page provides a social studies curriculum that should meet state requirements. As with Landry, however, I would like Kipp to have an understanding of world history. In addition to the resources I listed for Landry, I just bought two new ones. All through the Ages provides lists of literature by grade for what appears to be every major topic in history. From what I have read, The Human Odyssey is a three volume series of books that uses stories to teach history. I purchased the first volume, which covers from prehistory to the middle ages. I would like to use the former as a resource for free reading. Moving Beyond the Page suggests that I read aloud to the boys for a half an hour each day, and I thought The Human Odyssey might make an interesting choice.

Foreign Language: Kipp will continue Spanish with Rosetta Stone. 

Music: Kipp will continue with piano lessons in September.

P.E.: Kipp has an yellow/orange belt in bok fu kenpo and will continue his lessons in September.

To reiterate, however, this is more a list of resources than a detailed plan. We will see what works and what doesn't and adjust accordingly.

I don't scrapbook or even have photo albums, so I occasionally record cute moments I want to remember here. Truthfully, they are more for me than anyone else.

Today, Kipp and I were reading a funny book when we came across an illustration of a more-than-precarious stack of pumpkins in a wheelbarrow. My beloved little seven-year-old future engineer takes one look at this silly illustration and says, "Mom, the physics of that is all wrong."

Yup, Kipp, it's all wrong, but you make your mom smile.

A few days ago, Subadra at Library of Books, Links & More surprised me very pleasantly by awarding me the Versatile Blogger Award. Honestly, the fact that Subadra reads my blog is the real honor. I've grown to have great respect for her for many different reasons. So, thank you!

I couldn't resist posting this. I was always punctual, if not early. Then, I had three children. This quote will now become my mantra.

"Punctuality is the virtue of the bored."
-- Evelyn Waugh

After much cajoling from me, Jerry finally upgraded Learn at Every Turn to MT 5.02. It looks like it may take a bit of work to get Learn back to normal. I believe I can continue to post and will do so. For those of you who view my posts at the website, just hang in there. I'm working at it.

I've seen this making the internet rounds. I'm posting it just in case anyone missed it because it does seem especially good. The Federal Reserve is giving away comic books explaining our money and banking systems. I'm particularly delighted because these are hot topics in our house at the moment after we opened saving accounts for the boys this summer. I've not received our comic books yet, but I'm hearing good things.

I'd also like to give Freely Educate a tip of the hat for finding this! Thank you!