cool sites

I just wanted to share a couple of neat sites I found this weekend. The first was sent to me by Aunt Leah Ann. It's thinkfinity. You can type in anything you would like more information on and the grade level and it pops up a lot of lessons and links to more sites. I do love links! So for example, I typed in bees and K-2 grade and found this amazing video on how the bees are disappearing around the world. The kids were intrigued and we thought maybe that's why our blueberry patch was closed most of the summer.
The second site is a crafty one. It's zakkalife. I already found some great ideas for Joaquin's upcoming StarWars party, but wow! does she have some fun, original crafts.
I am no original. I like to copy others' great ideas. I did always like Ecclesiastes 1:9....

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

a chance discovery

We took our visitors on a little tour of Richmond yesterday. I always like to start at the observation deck at City Hall. The kids were very excited to be going all the way up to the top.


Diego enjoyed the day, too.


From here you can see the whole city from all four sides of the building.


We saw this building from up high and thought it was the governor's mansion. When we got down to the street, we decided to go take a closer look and found out it's actually the capitol building.


It was at this statue of George Washington, that Joaquin said, "Do you think I could use the governor's bathroom?"


Here's his mansion...with guarded gates. I told Joaquin I don't think so...but we'll try the capitol building.


The grounds are beautiful with lots of nice statues around.


We were at the top of the capitol building, but the entrance is down below on Bank Street. It seemed like this search for a bathroom was taking us way out of our way. We only had about 20 minutes left on our meter, too.


But look what we found went we went inside! A Native American wigwam! They have a huge exhibit on the old times, which we really didn't have to time to read or learn about, but would love to come back and see.


They got to go inside the wigwam where there were real deer skins.


An old school room was also on display...


A carved canoe...


and many other beautiful artifacts. This is a deer skin bag...Isabela just loves purses!


Oh...we did find the bathrooms, too. Very nice and clean.

the first days

So our first two days of school went by pretty good. Public school definitely sounded like heaven at times, but it is just something everyone has to get used to, especially since we really haven't done any skills like writing, cutting or pasting all summer. So I kind of chickened out on the first day from Charlotte Mason's method, and fell back to a more structured routine. Joaquin cried everytime he had to do something, whether it was sit and listen to a story, or write the letter K. You should have heard him! It was almost comical.

Isabela just kept telling me how her teacher did it last year, and making suggestions as to how to improve....come on guys, it's just the first day. So I made a mental note that the second day we'd be more relaxed and it wouldn't even look like school. We'd read on the couch, play a board game for math, cook, etc. and that's what we did. So after the two days, I asked them which one they liked better, and they both said the first day! Well, I liked the second, so we'll see how it goes.

Here's what we've been doing:
Letter K...reading The Three Little Kittens...and doing ideas from homeschool share
Played kick ball at the park
Made homemade ketchup (we'll stick to the bottle)


Ate kiwis
Played our kazoo...name that tune
copywork from The Three Little Kittens

Math...counting objects
Gathered all our pairs of shoes, dumped them in a big pile and sorted them
played a board game

Nature walk
we found a centipede, a black widow, a huge cucumber in our garden, and about a hundred tiny acorns that we're using for counting

We read about Ben Franklin
Started our history timeline with our own birthdays

But their favorite thing has been reading Paddle to the Sea. This is a great book full of geography and nature, and they will hardly let me put it down. It takes place around the Great Lakes and Isabela is even pulling out the map to follow along with the story all on her own.

We have our guests from Bolivia again...so we just did a little school this afternoon....they came and asked for it! I wasn't going to do anything.

Oh, and I learned one more laundry tidbit you may have already known...if you have a food stain on your clothes, just wet it when you get home, rub a bar of soap on it and scrub it a little using your hands and it's gone! We practiced today from the chocolate dessert we inhaled at dinner. Works great!

open house

Welcome to our school! We started on Monday just to get a little head start. Here's a little tour:




We start each day with a Bible or character lesson from one of these books. These are each great in their own way, so I'm glad we rotate between them.


We have calendar time.


Here's the alphabet.


This is the memory verse we've been working on...Psalm 23. The kids are great at this. We add one line at a time and it's pretty easy that way. Later, we can take these off the board, and mix up a line at a time and try to put it in the right order to help with reading.


Our artist is Mary Cassatt. We haven't done anything with this yet.


This is our math basket. Already quite disorganized.


Same with our science basket. I'm going to have to work on these.


You should have seen the room after the first two days. It was a disaster! I've been organizing it the whole summer and when it came down to starting, I couldn't find a thing! Isabela told me not to worry... the same thing used to happen to her Kindergarten teacher last year. That made me feel better.

baths and dogs

What could make a kid happier? Joaquin loved his jacuzzi bath at David and Leah Ann's house.


And helping feed the dogs was a great treat for them.


They just love Ava and Shady.


Look at that smile on Isabela's face. We could have done nothing all weekend but play with the dogs, and they would have been happy. It's still not enough to convince me to get one, but I do love to take the kids for a visit.

the DC monuments

We did the monument tour this weekend with our wonderful guide, Aunt Leah Ann. It was pretty much unplanned and last minute, but turned out to be a great August day to do it on....nice and breezy in the morning...but turning to hot and humid by noon. Originally, we were just going to see the WWII memorial, which has lots of water, and you could put your feet in it. But we found this great parking spot by the Washington Monument so we stopped by it....then the Lincoln Memorial was just over there, so we trekked on. Here are some pictures of our day:

Look how strong that little girl is!


They are standing at the tip top point of the Washington monument's shadow.


This is the WWII memorial.


They were NOT, however, allowing you to put your feet in it, as they were last month. So the kids were highly disappointed and HOT.


So much water, and not a drop to drink.


The birds are starting to circle our heads.


A quick pose in front of VA.


From this spot, you can see the Washington monument one way, and the Lincoln memorial the other.


Head shot.


It's a lot of walking. I don't recommend it for those who can't stand high amounts of whining.


There's our fearless guide leading the way! Remember that red shirt for later.


We did devise a way for one more to ride on the stroller.


She's still holding up that monument!


Isabela and I decided to take the stairs up to see Lincoln.


There he is just over our heads.


Where's Waldo? I mean look for Leah Ann's red shirt. Did you find her?


A great view.


We headed on to the Korean War monument since it was right there. It really is beautiful how our faces are reflected in those who fought for us.


Joaquin wanted to join the soldiers. Leah Ann and I both agreed that monuments would be more fun if they were interactive. But all those black chains block you off.


Gotta love the police on horses.


So by this point, we've split up. I was ready to leave Joaquin at the monuments so Leah Ann took him a different route, and the other kids and I headed back to the car. It was a long, baking trek! We kept checking behind us for Leah Ann and Joaquin but didn't see them anywhere. As we got near the car, I saw people taking pictures of a building across the street. Recognize it?


Yes, it's the REAL white house, as Isabela puts it. Too bad Obama was on vacation. Isabela wondered when he would be back.


And then we saw Joaquin. He finally got what he wanted all along. A fountain to play in. And to think....the two things they loved the most, a water fountain and the white house, were right next to where we parked. Sometimes you have to come full circle to find what you're looking for.