Tennis Bubbles

At tennis class today . . .

. . . our teacher Sue showed us how to serve.  I nailed my first serve right over the net and was feeling pretty good about my tennis skills until I realized I was serving from the middle of the court, not the back where you're actually supposed to serve from.  It's a lot harder from back there.  Oh well--gotta start somewhere, right?

Todd is still having a hard time even hitting the ball, and I've reached the conclusion that he's still a bit young for tennis lessons.  He enjoys coming to class with us, though, and he loved hitting the bubbles Sue blew for him at the end of our lesson today. :)

Lasagna Mulching

After our history presentations yesterday, Daniel and Anna helped me sheet mulch around our new raspberry canes.

Sheet mulching is sometimes called "lasagna mulching" because you put down a layer of compost, then a layer of paper or cardboard to suppress the grass and weeds . . .

. . . and finally a layer of wood chips or other mulch on top.  Eventually the paper or cardboard breaks down, leaving just nutrient-rich soil that retains moisture and has relatively few weeds.  At least, that's the idea. :)

While we mulched our berry patch, a flock of wild turkeys meandered into our neighbor's backyard.  I love autumn in New England!

 

Not THAT Kind of Cataract

The kids and I have been working on oral presentations in history class lately.

We're studying ancient Egypt, and we've spent the last few days researching and writing about the Suez Canal, the Nile River and its cataracts (waterfalls, not cloudy lenses), the city of Memphis (Egypt's ancient capital), and the Library of Alexandria.

This afternoon, each of us stood up and gave a presentation on the topic we had researched.  The kids did a good job, and we learned some interesting things.  Did you know the Nile flows through 10 modern countries, and the Suez Canal follows a winding course through four lakes instead of cutting straight across the Sinai peninsula?

Friday Therapy

Back when we were doing "remote learning" through the school district in spring, I asked Phillip to take the kids on a half-day, Saturday outing once a month.  That was much easier said than done, since parks and many businesses were still closed, yet I begged him to do it anyway.  I love my kids, but it was wearing me out to keep everyone on task hour after hour, day after day, week after week.  I desperately needed a break now and then.

Recently, I noticed that I feel a lot happier and more energetic these days, and I haven't asked Phillip to plan another big outing for a few months now.  I think that's partly because I get a break from homeschooling every Friday, and I spend at least part of that day working on whatever project I want (like planting these raspberry canes that our piano teacher gave us this morning).  Friday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.

You Can Just Tell

Let's play "Fill in the Blank":

You can tell ________, because _________.

For example, you can tell it's fall, because the leaves are changing colors.

You can tell this is Todd's science notebook, because there is a drawing of Globey on every single page.

You can tell Joy was bored this morning, because "somebody" wrote algebraic equations and dozens of digits of pi on her arm with a fountain pen.

You can tell we watched Harry Potter 3 this afternoon, because Daniel is now reading the novel version, and he only does that AFTER we watch the movie.

You can tell we're at the library to pick up books for Joy, because a librarian is practically stumbling to the door under the weight of all the books Joy has reserved in the last few days.  Last week, when I called and told them we were out front to pick up books on hold for Joy Hendrickson, the librarian literally replied, "I'll get the forklift!"

An Unexpected Variable

Sometimes science experiments don't go the way you expect them to. 

To illustrate the principle of heat conduction today, Joy put butter on a plastic spoon, a metal spoon, and a wooden craft stick.  She then stuck a Cheerio on each glob of butter, placed the spoons and craft stick in a mug of very hot water, and asked which Cheerio's butter glob would melt first, allowing it to drop into the water.

Her attentive students remembered that she said metal was an excellent heat conductor, so we guessed the Cheerio on the metal spoon would drop first.  We all failed to realize that . . .

. . . the metal spoon was much longer than the other two items, so it stuck out over the table, protecting its butter glob from the steam rising above the hot water.  The plastic spoon's butter got hit with a lot more steam, so it melted long before the metal spoon's butter.  The conduction demo was a bust, but I guess we all learned something about the power of steam (and the importance of testing demos before class).

Holly Butterscotch

It's the first day of fall, y'all!

That means it's time to make this year's first batch of pumpkin cookies with my sous-chef, Anna.

Just as we were moving the first batch of pumpkin-spiced awesomeness to the cooling rack, I looked out the back door and spotted . . .

. . . the most humongous praying mantis I've ever seen in my life.  Joy is pretty sure it was a girl, since female mantises are bigger than males, and we can't imagine a mantis bigger than this one.

We named her Holly Butterscotch.  "Holly" is reference to the fairy police officer Holly Short in the Artemis Fowl series.  And what about "Butterscotch," you ask?  Well, after a few minutes of bugwatching, we were really excited to go back inside and eat some butterscotch chip-studded pumpkin cookies.  See you later, Holly!

Parks and Research

 The kids are all working on history research projects lately.

All four of them were on computers this afternoon, taking notes on things like the Nile River and the Suez Canal.  Once we had put in a good chunk of research time . . .

. . . we headed to a park in Concord.

These pictures make it look as deserted as the park we visited last month, but there were actually several other families there . . .

. . . including a few homeschooling families who had organized a meetup.  Joy learned that one of the teenagers in that group shares her love of fantasy novels . . .

. . . and they spent about an hour talking about their favorite books.  I'm glad Joy found someone to connect with at a time when it's easy to feel separated from the rest of the world.

Change and Music Are in the Air

The only constant is change.

The weather is turning cooler, so Daddy put the AC units away until next summer.

Meanwhile, Daniel was over at the piano practicing some songs in our new Suzuki book.  He has been flying through Book 2, and although his teacher hasn't technically assigned him anything in Book 3 yet, he couldn't wait to give it a try when it arrived in the mail today.  So far, his favorite Book 3 songs are "The Wild Rider" and "The Teasing Song."

 

Happy Things

Notice anything . . .

. . . different?

Anna's friend Dia brought over a late birthday present last night: a shiny Squishmallow rabbit that Anna has named "Fluffernutter." Unlike some of our rather zany Squishmallows, Fluffernutter is a calm, comforting presence in our home.  When Anna brings her little blue bunny over to give me a gentle hug, it always makes me feel better.

And speaking of happy things, I love the fact that our Pink Icing blueberry bush has pink leaves on the ends of its branches.  When I walked outside this morning and saw dewy diamonds sparkling on those leaves, I just had to take some pictures.  Don't tell the other blueberry bushes, but I think Pink Icing is my favorite.  (Actually, they've probably figured it out.)

Tennis 101

Our family has been clumsily swatting tennis balls around since we lived in Arkansas, but none of us except Daddy had any clue what they were doing.  I've always thought it would be fun to actually learn how to play well, so when a friend told me about a teacher who offers great group rates in the middle of the day . . .

. . . I signed the kids and me up for tennis classes!  One of the perks of homeschooling is that we can choose how and when we do P.E. :)

It was a little challenging for the teacher to instruct five people with such different ages and levels of experience.  On the one hand, you have a teenager who took some tennis lessons last year and has a basic grasp of the game.  On the other hand, you have a six-year-old who doesn't yet have the motor skills to swing a racket properly.

The teacher and I were still considering how to strike the right balance for everyone, especially the bored and very vocal teenager, but the rest of us learned helpful things and had a good time.  I'm sure we'll get our lesson plan streamlined soon enough, and I'm looking forward to next week's class.

Hieroglyphics and Food Flowers

I've noticed that I take a lot of homeschool pictures lately.  I can't resist recording the interesting activities and experiments we do.  I suppose I'm like a new parent with their first child, where every little thing the baby does seems novel, fun, and worthy of documentation.  I wonder how many pictures I'll take next year, if we decide to homeschool again.  We'll see.

Today's interesting homeschool activity involved "food flowers."  Every time Todd or Anna finished reading a chart of practice words . . .

. . . they got to choose items from a plate . . .

. . . and make a food flower.

Todd decided to add some raisin birds to this one.

Todd and Anna's English language arts (ELA) lesson also included a chapter about Native American culture in New England.  After we finished reading, we drew a picture of a Native American mother and her son watching a sunset.  I asked Daniel to join in for that, since he tends to finish his ELA assignments before the younger kids do.

After lunch, we all had a history lesson on Ancient Egypt, then the kids wrote their names using hieroglyphics.

Todd estimates that he took three times as long to write his name with hieroglyphics as he did with the Latin alphabet.  I vote we stick with the alphabet, don't you?

 

The Berry Patch

 Please say hello . . .

. . . to our berry patch.  It's just four little blueberry plants at the moment, but I'm planning to add raspberry canes along our neighbor's fence, and some strawberry plants around the blueberry bushes.  I'm also going to plant lupine and chervil to attract pollinators, and some daffodil and crocus bulbs, just for fun.

The berry patch may not look like much right now, but I'm pretty excited about it.  And I'm grateful that Phillip and the kids helped me with planting today.  Phillip dug the holes, then Anna and Daniel helped me mulch and water the blueberry bushes.  They also helped drill and cover the stumps of the old bushes Phillip and our friend Frank cut down a few weeks ago.  The stumps have been putting up little shoots, and we're trying to send a clear message that it's time for them to step off the stage and let someone else have a turn.

Colorful Atoms

Professor Joy taught about atoms and molecules today.

First we made an atom model out of Play Doh, then she had us pretend to be water molecules in the living room.  When we were at "room temperature," we casually walked around the room.  Then our water started boiling, and we ran around the room like crazy, some of us even leaving the room as "steam."  Finally, our water cooled down until it froze, and we all solidified into a group hug.  It was fun.  I kind of wish I had taken pictures, but I was too busy staying in character.

To demonstrate heat's effect on actual water atoms, we simultaneously dropped red food coloring into hot water and blue food coloring into cold water.

Since the hot water molecules moved faster, they spread the food coloring around much more quickly.  It was an interesting demonstration, and the kids thought the little swirls of blue in the cold water were really beautiful.

 

Pedals (and a Scooter)

Anna has put in a lot of waddling time lately.  She was getting so comfortable balancing on a bike . . . 

. . . that we put the pedals back on so she could try pedaling.  She's getting pretty good at it.

Daniel is working on pedaling too.  He doesn't practice as much as Anna, so he's still a bit wobbly, but he's making progress.

Todd usually prefers to just "push the easy button" and ride his scooter.  He still says he wants to learn to ride a bike, though, so maybe we'll set aside some time each school day for him to work on his goal.

Art Education

I find it interesting--and rather refreshing--that nearly every homeschool subject we are studying includes a bit of art education.  In addition to doodling in their handwriting workbooks . . .

. . . Daniel is learning to use pastels . . .

. . . while Todd and Anna are coloring pictures to practice factoring in math . . .

. . . and writing paragraphs about a nineteenth-century German painting entitled "In Thought." I think the ideal education imparts useful skills, but also teaches us to think about and appreciate the richness of life.  I'm glad our homeschool lessons are doing both.