Halloween '11

So last year, I had a silly list of things I felt nostalgically guilty about Sofia missing out on as a result of not going to public school. Among them were that she wouldn't get to buy a cute backpack, go back-to-school clothes shopping, and participate in the school Halloween parade. Well, not only have more serious concerns been completely abated by her and my experience with public school this year, but my silly ones have as well. There was no Halloween parade or any Halloween festivities allowed at school.

This year, I wasn't to creative about costumes, so I decided to recycle the old chickens I made for Sofia and Marcelo a few years ago, and use them on Marcelo and Peter this time around. I wasn't sure what Sofia would be. If I left it up to her, it would be something different each day up until Halloween and I don't need that kind of drama in my life. So I thought, she'd just be sort of a circus gypsy, because I figured we could throw that together with some things from her own closet. At the last minute, I got a sale e-mail from PBK and instead of deleting it like I customarily do, I found a cute, and easy-to-wear wolf costume on sale with free shipping in the right size! I love it when these things happen. I thought it would be cute with the chickens. Not being sure it would get here in time, I didn't mention it to Sofia. Luckily, it arrived just in time. Sofia loved it as, unknown to me, she was on a wolf kick that week after watching some wolf movie on Netflix. She wore it the very day it arrived on a family trip to the mall with her brown leather riding boots. Very stylish. She got compliments in every store.

Later that night, she thoughtfully asked me if a wolf had to be killed to make this costume. At first, I was taken aback by the ridiculousness of this question paired with her unexpected naivety. But then, I realized her question did make some sense and I appreciated the fact that for a moment she had stopped to ponder such a poignant question.

The Story of the World: The Old Kingdom of Egypt

For our ancient history studies, we've begun using The Story of the World (SOTW) Vol.1 Ancient Times.  For the chapter on the Old Kingdom of Egypt, I ordered this little treasure chest which proved to be very exciting.  I had it sitting out on the study room table for Sofia to find when she got home from school.  (Who needs homework when you can do homeschool like this!)  This might be cute or somewhat interesting to a kid with no background on Ancient Egypt but paired with a quick read-aloud on the topic, suddenly it brings everything you've been learning about to light. 

Sofia had a great time exploring all the little things the treasure chest had to offer: an information guide, a board game, hieroglyphics stamps, a sumerian scroll, and a secret drawer with more goodies including a paper temple.

She was very quick to learn some basic hieroglyph letters. I didn't even realize how much she already knew until she immediately started pointing out discrepancies between the symbols in the set, and what she had learned from browsing through some library books we checked out.

Masquerade Party

For Sofia's seventh birthday, she got to invite some friends from school to her party. There was much hubbub about the party at school. She told kids they could bring their little brothers and sisters. She invited more kids that hadn't really been invited. When I went to volunteer, I was very popular and constantly solicited for invitations. In the end just the right amount showed up. I loosely themed it a masquerade party. Sofia dressed up sort of gypsy-ish / princess-y with black wings. I opted to have the cake made this year to lessen the load on my sanity but I was not all too happy with the colors and details. I wish I had had more time/energy to do it myself. I departed from my regular invitation style and tried something new. I also had to make a new birthday bunting banner as the old one is partly lost. We made some cool butterfly decorations for the living room and our big thing - the party craft project which was to make a feathered mask with crepe paper.  Sofia and all the kids really enjoyed it

Field Trip: "Hoo Ha Barns"

Entering the corn maze.
(Oh, look!  There's one adult not wearing the standard Utah uniform -gym shoes and jeans.  Note the hair.  She's not from here.  You can also tell she's not from here because she's wearing event appropriate shoes AND a wool coat in Winter!  That kind of thing is pure nonsense to a real Utahn).

Sofia's first school field trip was to Hee Haw Farms, or in Sofia-speak, Hoo Ha Barns. I got tired of correcting her. She grew equally weary of correcting me.  I volunteered to go of course, because after being banned from the school's Facebook page for demanding such things as cleanliness and learning in the school environment, I want to show everyone that I am doing my part. And, also because God knows what would happen if I wasn't there to supervise. Right? It was an uncharacteristically cold and crappy day in October. I was really regretting the whole, I-love-to-volunteer facade I was trying to keep up, especially when I found out I would have to ride the bus and have no means of escape for two hours. I forgot to bring an umbrella and I couldn't find my winter gloves. Luckily, I was only assigned three kids to look after and only one of them screamed bloody murder at me when we were told to go to the pumpkin patch and she wanted to go to the slide instead. No wonder people say Sofia is so well behaved. And this whole time, I didn't understand how they were getting that impression. Now, I think she might actually be an angel sent from heaven to grace me with her kindness.

Among the activities we were treated to were a hay ride around the hay where you get to sit on hay; muddy, maneur-y farm animals, a slide, a maneur-y corn kernel pool, a hay stack jumping accident-waiting-to-happen, pedaled vehicles, pumpkins, scary metal playsets, and lots of mud.

Luckily, it didn't rain for the whole two hours we were there. I didn't lose any of my kids like a couple of other really nice looking mom's did, not even the fit-thrower deflected. Sofia still thinks it's neat when I'm with her at school. You never know. She didn't think it was cool when she was three and I went to pick her up from daycare. Her favorite part was getting to ride the bus. My favorite part was that my thermos with hot tea was still waiting for me when we got back in the bus. Thank you thermos for keeping my tea hot, you are more reliable than anyone I know. You made my day.

(It was reported by the boys that there was a dead horse in there.  Luckily, we were too lazy to walk that far and didn't see it).

Prehistory

Our homeschooling approach is mostly classical which has a strong emphasis on the study of history. Well, I like to be thorough in everything I do so I thought we should start at the beginning. One of the coolest things that we have been able to do as a result of homeschooling is studying prehistory. Initially, I thought we would do this quickly in the course of three months or so, but it was more like a school year's worth. Of course, there is no curriculum for primary level on this subject so I made up our own. Using the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History, the Walking With ... series on Netflix, additional read-aloud books, crossword puzzles and the construction of a time line. I wasn't sure how much of this a six-year old would get, but like everything else, they get a lot if one just gives them the opportunity to be exposed to the information.

So now, we are finally at the end of our studies and have begun the classical curriculum, The Story of the World, for Ancient History which is already lots of fun. I'm relieved to not have to come up with my own crossword puzzles and collage pictures anymore. Now it's all about hands-on-projects like making a caveman game bag, constructing a replica of the Nile River, and coloring history pockets. (I think we'll skip the mummifying a chicken this time around. We'll revisit Ancient History in more depths in four years). I don't know why they don't do this stuff in public schools (in Utah). It's so much fun, it's chronological, history makes sense, and kids really get it. In short, I'm so glad to have made the trepidatious decision to homeschool (homeschool is a verb now, right?) a little over a year ago. We've learned so much and the way of learning has been the most enjoyable. Everyone gets something out of it, even the little brothers and dad.

On a side note, I can't wait to see Sofia's 9-week report card from regular school. Yesterday, she told me she wrote all her answers on her math test in roman numerals. (No, they have not studied roman numerals at school, but we have!) I can just see her paper littered with X's, V's and I's. I bet that made the math teacher do a double take.