Seeing a book through a child's eye

Using Charlotte Mason in our school, we read a lot of books.  A LOT of books.  And with 4 little ones, I find that I read some of the same ones over and over and over again.  But sometimes I forget, that even though I have read a book a million times, at some point, one of my children get to experience a book for the very first time.

Recently, for Ainsley's beginning reading, I had her read Horton Hears a Who to me.  Now, I have read this book more times than I can remember, but when I asked Ainsley to pull this book off the book shelf, she had no idea what book I was talking about.  I finally walked over and pulled the book off the shelf and showed her.  "This is Horton Hears a Who.  Remember?" I asked.  I was met with a blank look and a shake of the head. Turns out, she had never read this book.  She had never even pulled it off of the shelf and looked through the pictures.

So we sat down, curled together on the couch and she started to read to me.  We got to the part where Horton hears the voice for the first time, and Ainsley asks, "He's imagining that voice, right?"  I gave my signature smile and shrug which all my children know means, "I know the answer, and I'm not telling!"  The next few days of reading through this book brought back the magic of this book for me.  Ainsley was at the edge of her seat the entire time.  Were there really little who's down in Whoville on this speck of dust on a clover??  How could the jungle creatures be so mean, even if these Who's are imaginary!?  Are they really going to tie up Horton and cook all of Whoville in Bezzel-nut oil!?  Every time the timer would ring, and we would put aside Horton Hears a Who for the day, Ainsley would BEG for just a few more minutes.

I'm glad that she never had read this book before!  I'm glad she never even pulled it off of the shelf to look at the pictures.  Having her be a bit older, and experience this story for the first time was priceless, and I think I shall never tire of this book again!

Finding fun with Stop Motion Animation

We had a great 2 weeks with things getting back to normal finally!  We did our normal school work - math, spelling, science - you know, the required stuff.  But sometime during our 2 weeks of returning to normal, my Lord of the Ring obsessed and Lego loving boys discovered the magic of stop-motion animation.

They started off with Legos.  They would spend all their free time building sets together, and would make little skits for the Lego figures to carry out.  They would record it all on my camera, one photo at a time.  Then they would play it back on my camera by holding down the right button.  After they had done a few videos like this, I showed them how to put it on the computer and make it into a movie on Windows Movie Maker.  Here is what they came up with:

After making the video of Frodo disappearing with the Ring, Nathaniel made mention that he wished that there was really a ring that could make you disappear.  After that, Nathaniel and Ephraim disappeared for the day.  When I called Ephraim and Nathaniel down for dinner, they couldn't WAIT to show me what they had been working on.  They had applied what they had learned about Lego stop motion animation and made a stop motion animation scene of them using a ring to disappear.

I'm very proud of the creativity and initiative they took to learn this skill!  And they've had a TON of fun learning how to do this!

Recovering!

We are finally healthy and looking forward to a normal week of school!  The last few weeks were filled with nebulizers and vomit buckets.

Time for another nebulizer treatment

And if the weren't taking it easy on the couch, sick in the bathroom, or having a breathing treatment, they would often be sleeping where ever they fell.

Sick, Sleepy Boy

By the end of last week, the kids were feeling much better.  Our local nature center was hosting an "Owl Moon Walk" over the weekend, and since the kids were feeling better, my husband took the 2 older kids to it.  The kids had a BLAST.  They were so happy they went.  The nature center had a local bird rescue come with an assortment of owls and give a presentation on the different types of owls.  They had a saw-whet owl, a great horned owl, a barn owl, a barred owl, a long eared owl, and a screech owl.

Saw-whet owl - Sorry for the blurry picture.  The hubby doesn't know how to work my camera!  :)

 Then they took small groups of kids on a walk through the woods to listen for the sounds of a great horned owl and a screech owl.  They taught the kids how to make the sound of the owls to see if they would answer.  When my kids went, no owl answered, but the group before them got to hear a great horned owl.  After the presentation and the walk through the woods, there was a camp fire with marshmallows to roast and hot chocolate to drink and someone reading the story Owl Moon.  I put a video link of the book below if you have never read it. 

I'll be looking for more extras put on by our nature center, because they did such a great job and the kids had such a great time!

To encourage the children's interest in owls and birds (we just finished participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count), I put a few links on their squidoo pages about owls and birds.  They've been enjoying exploring the different sites in their free time.

Birding by ear video:

All about birds: Owls

Bird Call Challenge - Can you identify the birds in your neighborhood?

The Language of Birds video: 

So, all in all, a fairly good week!  We're looking forward to what a week of healthy children will bring to our homeschool!!

Keep the learning going on sick days

We're about a week into the bronchitis, and while the kids are feeling better, they aren't 100% just yet.  The prednisone and the nebulizer treatments just leave them feeling out of sorts.  So what do we do so that we aren't having a free for all during the week?

Well, the first day, we did absolutely nothing.  They laid in bed all day and did not move.  They couldn't even make it down the stairs without going into a coughing wheezing fit, so I brought the nebulizers to them.  They spent the day sleeping or "listening" to music or books on CD.   I use quotations because they were REALLY out of it.  I'm not sure how much absorbing of information they were doing that day! Ainsley worked on her independent work while the boys felt miserable.

Tuesday, we awoke to kids feeling miserable, but able to make it downstairs - so they were improving!!  Having 3 kids use the nebulizer 3 times a day takes about a half an hour each time - perfect for some educational videos.  So while the nebulizers run, the kids pick an episode of Newton's Workshop.  The kids love this show.  I love that it is entertaining for the kids, and yet teaches them science concepts in a very understandable way, and has a very strong biblical standpoint.

The cheapest place that I've found them is on Library and Educational Services.  You can buy them one disc at a time, or as a set.  We bought the set, and I'm so thankful that we did!  They've gotten a lot of use over the years!

We switched to a light schedule for the week, and I only had them accomplish things that could easily be done on the couch.  They were allowed to skip oral narrations for the day as well.  So Nathaniel read his science book - Wild Animals I Have Known.  We got it for free and put it on our Kindle.  We have used that Kindle more than I ever thought possible.  It has been a great investment for our homeschool.  He also read a chapter in his literature book - The Return of the King.  I let him skip math, even though it is very easily couch work.  Math takes a bit of brain power.  And brain power is lacking when you don't have enough oxygen in your body!!

Ainsley was feeling well that day, so I let her do all her independent work that she had scheduled on her light day schedule, which lucky for her was only math!  Since our family work is done as a family, when someone is sick, we skip family work for the day.

Wednesday, I awoke to the boys playing legos on the floor - a sure sign that they are well on the road to recovery!!  So in between Newton's Workshop episodes during nebulizer treatments, we did a full day's work from our light schedule.  We started our school day with prayer and scripture reading.  We skipped reading Jon Courson's Commentary on the day's reading since we were on a light schedule.  We read a small section of Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends - a book we have all enjoyed.  The kids were happy to be reading this again.  We did history (we've been studying James Monroe), but I let everyone skip narrations since talking too much seems to trigger asthma attacks for Nathaniel.  I read aloud from 5 Little Peppers and How They Grew (once again -free on the Kindle!!).  Ainsley worked on her math for independent work, while Nathaniel worked on his spelling from his McGuffy's reader.  Usually, I have him read the story aloud before I quiz him on the words, but I let him read the story to himself this time.  I had him do half his math.  Usually we do 25 minutes worth of Ray's Arithmetic and his lesson on Xtramath.org. Since fractions would require too much brain power from someone feeling sick, I let him skip his Ray's lesson and only review his subtraction facts on XtraMath.  He ended the day curled up on the couch reading Return of the King.  I've made him promise to stick to only one chapter a day.  I'm pretty sure he'd read the whole thing in one sitting if I let him!!

Today, I felt they were well enough to venture out into the unusually warm day and do a little nature study.  We've been using Snow and Ice from the NaturExplorer series.  Since it was warm, and it had snowed recently, I sent them out to find snow that hadn't melted because of shadows and then journal about it.  They were outside for maybe 15 or so minutes, and the fresh air did them good.  They had a little more color in their skin after that.  We did a full day of family work, which included our Bible readings and Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends, Nature Study and Literature.  Nathaniel worked on his science, xtra math, typing and a chapter from Return of the King.  Ainsley worked on her copywork, her beginning reading and assigned reading.

During this time, I've not done school with Ephraim or Felix.  We usually read a selected book several times over the course of the week along with using bits of Hands on Homeschooling. However this week, I've let them just relax and play legos, read books at their leisure, and watch movies.

So little by little, we've added a little more work on to each day, and supplemented with education videos and books on CD.  When I feel that the kids are able to keep up with a full day's workload, we'll switch back to our normal term schedule, but until then, we'll enjoy the relaxed pace!!!

Not much happening this week

Ugh!  Don't you just hate it when the sickness spreads from one child to the next until you have a houseful of miserably sick children?  Last week, my daughter and I had some nasty stomach virus, so we switched to a light day schedule for the healthy ones, and I had them complete what they could on their own.  The weekend came, Ainsley and I were feeling better!  It looked like we were on the mend, and then, in the middle of the night, I woke up to Nathaniel saying "Mama, it hurts when I breathe."

We are not new to breathing problems here.  Especially Nathaniel.  He had the flu back in November, and his lungs just didn't fully heal, so I knew at that point it was only a matter of time before what could be a simple cold would instead be bronchitis, if not pneumonia.  Looked like the time had come!

At the breakfast table Sunday morning, we were joined by 2 more coughing boys.  And not those dry, I've got an itch in my throat coughs.  More like those wet hacking I belong in a TB ward cough.  How do they go from not even a runny nose the night before, to lungs full of gunk the next morning!? So Monday, Ken took the 3 boys to the Dr.'s and like I suspected, all 3 have bronchitis! 

Looks like we have another week of kids laying in bed, feeling miserable and getting very little school work done! 

Under Construction...

So, while stuck on bed rest until further notice, I have been able to do some things that normally I do not get to indulge in.  I have read book upon book, something I don't have time for as a homeschooling Mama to 4!  I read tons of books during the day, but they revolve around what my children need and want to learn, not necessarily what I want to! I'm currently re-reading Jane Eyre and loving every minute of it!

Besides reading, I also got to start up this blog!  I've wanted to for a while - a place to record down our travels, our home renovations, our homeschooling days, special moments with the kids that I may remember for a while, but ultimately forget.  But I never had time to learn to set one up.  So God gave me a double blessing!  A new baby on the way and ample time to spend some time pursuing things I enjoy! 

So please pardon the blank look of my blog as I set things up.  :)