operation habitat

We finished our microscope unit in science, and now we're trying to get our yard certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat. This week we surveyed our yard to see what it offers in the way of food, water, shelter, and places to raise young. We've got a lot of good plants already and some dense shrubs. All we need is a birdbath, and we'll be ready to certify! I'd like to get one that's a fountain, so it doesn't become a breeding ground for mosquitos. Some wildlife we don't want to encourage! Mary wrote a haiku about our backyard:

Firespike is dense
Hummingbirds like its nectar
Butterflies do too.

Need more art

We haven't been doing much art, except for little craft projects that Audrey can do with us (does Play-Doh count as art education?) I liked the books I bought, but pulling all the resources together has been too time-consuming, and we haven't been making time to actually do any of the projects I've planned. So I went ahead and ordered the second Artistic Pursuits K-3 book. We enjoyed their lessons two years ago, and Mary looked forward to art every week. Now art can be a grab-and-go subject.

Drip by drip

Charlotte Mason advocated short, focused lessons, and that's what we're doing here, not on purpose, but because that's all the time Audrey allows us. We're not reading or writing as much as I think we should, but Greek, math and Spanish are touched on every day, or nearly so, and piano happens pretty regularly, even if it's only a playing one short piece a couple of times. When I think we're getting nothing done, I look ahead to the end of the book to see what all these little drips will add up to by the end of the year. Dripping water can drill a hole in rock or build stalactites and stalagmites, one drip at a time.

Greek Everywhere

Now that Mary and I are starting to learn Greek, we're discovering Greek words everywhere. The classical homeschoolers always point out how much English vocabulary comes from Latin, but there's much less mention of how much Greek we have. I would have guessed it was just all those -ology words, but there are so many more Greek-based words in our language. For example, the other day we went to the children's museum (museum comes from Greek). In the painting area, Mary wondered why there was only red paint set out. Another mom sitting next to her said, "I don't know, but do you know what it's called when you paint with shades of just one color? A monochrome."
"Hey," I thought, "I'll bet that's Greek!"
So when we got home we looked it up, and sure enough, mono (one) and chrome (color) are both Greek. We found lots more mono and chrome words in the dictionary. We've started a collection of Greek-based words we come across. Now that we're aware of them, we'll be noticing lots more.

iPod Time

We've been calling our first subject of the day "Memory Time". Some families start their day with a Circle Time or Gathering Time, a time for the family to have devotions, read a story together, maybe sing some songs. Ours is sort of a cross between Circle Time and the Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System, pulled together by my favorite homeschooling tool, the iPod. Mary's learning both Greek and Spanish this year, so there's plenty to memorize, along with poetry and math facts. I've created a playlist called Schoolwork, and I update it every night for the following day's memory work. Tomorrow's list includes the Greek alphabet, her first Greek memory verse, a Spanish song, a few songs for Audrey's enjoyment, and Mary's piano pieces and ear-training exercises. We sometimes include songs we want to learn. The first week of school we learned Lord of the Dance and Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. We're all classics, all the time, here at the Learn-O-Rama.

The poems and math facts aren't on the iPod, they're just printed out and filed in our Memory Folder. I'm thinking of having Mary record them in Garage Band so we can put them in our playlist and she can recite along with herself. Last weekend she went to an Apple Youth Workshop and created three songs in Garage Band, so she's our resident Garage Band expert.

Audrey Math

Scott and Audrey were playing Three Billy Goats Gruff in the bathtub. They had four fish, and Scott said they needed three fish to be the billy goats, and asked Audrey how they could make four into three. She thought about it, then split the four into two groups of two. Scott had her count the fish, then asked again how she could make four into three. She said, "You do it." So Scott took one fish away and asked, "Now how many fish are there?" Audrey knocked the rest of the fish into the tub and announced, "Zero!"

Soup of the Day

We're studying alliteration this month. Today we read a funny poem by Jack Prelutsky, "Gloppe's Soup Shoppe". Gladiola Gloppe's menu includes soups such as Salamander Salmon Slug, Bat Begonia Barley Bug, and Rutabaga Bacon Barracuda Bran. Mary was pretty grossed out by some of Gloppe's offerings, so she made up her own soups. Here's the menu at Marvelous Mary's Soup Shop:
Monday: Marvelous Mango
Tuesday: Tasty Turkey Tomato
Wednesday: Weight Watchers' Special
Thursday: We're closed on Thursdays (because we couldn't think of any foods that start with TH)
Friday: Fantastick Fish Fins (she spelled it that way because it's sticky soup)
Saturday: Sweet and Savory Soup
Sunday: Sour and Savory Soup
If you come on a day off from your work, you get Day Off Devour

Can anybody help us with a soup for Thursday?