Happy Groundhog Day!

How is it February already? We have had a homeschooling hiatus lately with a virus affecting the whole family. I am still feeling the affects. I am hoping to get back into the swing of things and updating here more regularly. Between the lack of sleep with the puppies and being sick, it has been a rough month here.

Today we watched a Jack's Big Music Show video circa 2007; more specifically a Groundhog day episode featuring Jon Stewart and a fun song by Steve Burns and Steven Drodz. I don't think C had seen it since he was an infant, but W enjoyed it when he was younger. I am thankful that children's programs are way more appealing and amusing to grownups these days compared to the cartoons of my youth. We also learned about Groundhogs and Punxatawney Phil. Supposedly we will have 6 more weeks of winter. I say bring it on, it feels like we have not had much of a winter since October! ;)



W has been plugging away on Explode the Code book 2, up to page 43. He is on Math-U-See Alpha Chapter 11, which is about 1/3 of the way through the book. Geometry is a section of this chapter, so he is doing some side work of classifying shapes from our Comprehensive Curriculum 1st grade workbook. For a history and science combination project he made a paper mache volcano shortly before we all got sick, so as soon as I charge my camera batteries we will make it erupt. At least it has held up and is dry. That will certainly have its own post.

For reading material, we are rowing Owl Moon by Jane Yolen this week for our Five in a Row group. W learned about Great Horned Owls and he often gets to observe the woods outside. We have only actually seen one owl in the wild since moving to this town, so one theme from the book to focus on is patience. It is a nice book for this time of year and also incorporates some astronomy studies. We discussed the phases of the moon, and have plans to attend some Skywatch events in the near future with our homeschool Astronomy club.

 Lately W is still into the Dinosaur Cove series by Rex Stone (almost finished with book 6). He also adores the Mr. Men books by Roger Hargreaves. I had collected several of these which we came upon years ago during a trip to Scotland, and now he loves reading them on his own. We are also continuing with The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, although we are re-listening to the early chapters on CD as I haven't had much voice to read aloud for long. I am SO glad W is an independent reader and can read to his brother too.

I'm hoping to find an unabridged version of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie for him to read this spring, and also read more of A.A. Milne's books. C is at a good age for the original Thomas the Tank Engine stories as well, so a bedtime re-read is in order. :)

FIAR book review: The Rag Coat

Last week we rowed The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills. The book deals with the concepts of loss, grieving,  friendship and acceptance. It is set in the Appalachian region although there is no specific state or town mentioned, so besides giving an overview of where the Appalachian Mountains are located, W wasn't too interested in the geography parts of our FIAR. As a science component he learned about coal, how it forms under the earth, and mining, and especially due to a news story about mining W appreciated how difficult that job is, and exclaimed he didn't think he would want to do that when he grows up. We were thrilled for the miners in Chile as they were rescued last week.

We listened to a lot of Bluegrass music, including Dolly Parton's touching song "Coat of Many Colors", which the book was partially based on. I think Dolly has even written a similar book based on her song. As a bluegrass fan myself, we do listen to it a lot anyway. :) Another appropriate song for the week was Brad Paisley's "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" which is about working in the mines in Kentucky.

W's favorite activity of the week was making a collage out of fabric bits he cut into a rag coat. The template he used was from the Aussie Pumpkin Patch blog's Free Lapbook printable. We also found another book set in the Appalachians at the library, When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant, which could have been a great book to row (I am going to keep that in mind for the future). W enjoyed learning about the johnny-house, and I think he is thankful we have modern day plumbing. He watched the pilot for Christy, which is probably more interesting to older kids (and adults, I enjoyed it more now than I did when I was growing up), as is the book of the same name by Catherine Marshall that the series is based on. The television show is beautifully shot and gives viewers an idea of the realities of poverty in the Appalachian region in the early 20th century.

For Math-U-See W is starting addition, which he has already been able to do in simple verbal problems for a while and loves it, and seems to be enjoying writing a bit more. He has been asking to do more with it lately so that is encouraging to me. Over the weekend we went to our local library booksale and found some great children's books (score!), and checked out the annual Pumpkin Festival in Keene, but that deserves it's own post.

    

sick boys (and mama too) :(

W has been sick with a fever since Tuesday. I am hoping he gets better today, we have been monitoring him and the doctor's office said if he develops any worse cough let them know, but so far so good. Overall it has gotten way worse at night, and besides being a bit grumpy he has been in good spirits and had lots of jello and popsicles. Sadly we will miss storytime this week and there are only one or two weeks left. C seems to have just a stuffy nose and sneezes, but at least no fever.

W has been wanting to watch Christmas movies since he has been stuck on the couch being sick, so already we have watched more than our share for November, but it is nice to get in the spirit of the season a bit early. We have also listened to holiday music on Pandora.com, which lets you choose artists you like and then plays similar music along with those artists. It is such a great idea to get a bit more variety.

edit: as thursday wore on C and I developed low grade/ mild fevers and coughs, blah :( Hoping we will be over this by next week.