Tuesday, Nov 6th

This week, we're working on science to prepare for our trip to the beach. We're reading the following books:

• Take a Beach Walk
• One Small Square Coral Reefs
• One Small Square Seashore (I want to find this one)
• Encyclopedia of Animals
• World of Animals and God's Design
• Glow in the Dark Fish

We started by reading a section on oceans in the Encyclopedia of Animals and then read about the different types of worms: segmented, round and flat worms. They think parasitic worms are gross, but segmented and tube worms are pretty cool.

I'm hoping to mow through a three weeks of material this week so that we can have a good understanding of the ecosystem that is the beach. 

Here the kids are drawing giant tube worms that live around deep-sea hydrothermal vents. 

Image: Here

These are what we started with and you see what they are drawing. 

These are what we started with and you see what they are drawing. I love their creativity. We needed to accomplish a bit more than we did today, but they'll have Math and Language Arts at Granny's house. 

Photo by: Paul Sutherland, National Geographic

Emma did see these in the image list on Google and thought they were the coolest things (aside from a furry snail) that she'd ever seen. I think that is the origination of her spiral.

On the list for later this week: 

• Blog posts about Maine (from both kids) that we'll put on our Around the States blog
• Blog post from Emma about a topic of her choosing that she'll put on her blog, Emma's Learning Journey
• Blog post from Matthew about his latest Lego creations that he's worked so hard on these last few days. It will be posted on his blog, Matthew's Epic Journey Blog

Hopefully, we'll get it all done!

Make good choices ^_^

Treading Water

Some days, you wake up and feel invigorated and you accomplish everything on today's list, tomorrow's list and things you thought you'd have to pay someone else to day, right? Ok, me neither. Some days, you just want to sleep in. Unfortunately, I had a week of that last week. The kids managed to do nothing but language arts and math all week long last week. They did a bit of outside reading and they outlined their next blog post, but otherwise, nada...nil...bupkiss. I need a bit of motivation to get back on track, so I signed up to review products via my blog. Homeschooling stuff and other things I guess. I hope they approve me, I think it would add some spice to our schooling AND would keep me moving forward.

I'm going to say that Mommy just had a bad week last week and we're going to get our act back together right now, tomorrow. I hope so. We're going on vacation next week, so that's going to be less productive. We're doing some science and history while we're down there. We're calling it an educational field trip ^_^

Mark keeps telling me to relax and just keep plugging along, it will all work out fine. I take this schooling thing very seriously though. I'm already trying to figure out how we can use some of Matthew's middle school classes to take CLEP tests (I can't, btw). I know he's right, but I just have so much I want them to know, so many things I want to teach them. I feel like time is running out and I worry if I can get them prepared in time.

Big Picture Time: the most important thing I can teach them is that they are loved and wonderful and smart. All I need to impart is a love of learning and they'll teach themselves more than I ever could pour into their heads. I know this...in my head, maybe on one side of my head. The other side tells me that I'm going to fail them and they're going to only play video games and watch tv forever.

But no, this week will be better. I have it planned out. The kids are going to blog about the great state of Maine and finish up studying it this week. We're going to mail our pen pal's letters now that we've found her new address again (sorry Charlotte, that's my fault, I misplaced your envelope the last time), we're going to plow through science and study the beach and the ocean as habitats, plus we'll throw a bit of history in there.

Plus, we'll have to celebrate my oldest monkey's birthday, so birthday cards will have to be made and lovey birthday poems written. Good times!