homeofthebudds

Field Day

Last week we participated in a field day with our homeschool co-op.

Originally, Isaiah wasn't sure he wanted to participate. (He didn't want to 'be bossed around' he said.) But once we got there, he got serious about it.

Ellen was excited about it from the minute she heard about it.

She's pretty sure she likes basketball. Especially when the 'hoop' is a bucket, held by one of your team mates who is allowed to move it around to help you score a point.

Isaiah was attempting a bit of a head start on the 50 yard dash.

Brennan figured he'd rather hang out with me and Joel instead of playing crazy games.

Ellen played enough crazy games for us all. In this relay you pass a leaky cup over your head to fill a bucket at the end of the line.

I'm pretty sure she had a blast.

the old stand-by

We broke out the vinegar + baking soda = blown up balloon science fun again yesterday.

This time everybody got a chance to set off the reaction.

And to enjoy the results. :)

The video's a little long cause I didn't edit it at all, but shoot - that way it's a very realistic representation of science experiments in our house. :)

Watch out.

We're studying the Greeks in History this month. Shields are a very necessary part of Greek history.

We've also been studying Star Wars.

Alright, fine.

Just watching it - a lot.

But Isaiah still takes the fine skills he learns in school (studying something...why not make a craft from it?) and makes himself lightsabers.

He also makes light sabers for Ellen and Brennan.

He's a good guy that way.

Here's Bren getting ready to give me his fierce face...wait for it...

Awwww he's too cute to be fierce.

Next time buddy.

(Ellen and Zaiah both painted intimidating warriors fighting gynormous monsters on their shields.

Brennan, however, felt the red was intimidating enough.)

Ellen, on the other hand, has fierce down. Look at those eyes.

Yikes.

So, now they have lightsabers and shields and they whack each other all day long.

That's the down side.

The upside is they consider themselves knights and call me Queen Sarah.

I kinda dig it.

:)

In which paper bags make good houses

Every so often we break out a fairy tale lesson plan book I found at Learning Palace. The kids absolutely love the crafty parts of it.

On this day we were learning all about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We made little houses out of paper bags and little bears and Goldilocks by folding the bottom of the paper together just so to make the drawings stand up. So simple. And so thrilling to the kids.

Brennan gave me very specific instructions on how his house should look.

He didn't have a copy of the bears and Goldilocks so he decided to make the neighbor's house. There's Julie coming to the door. :)

The next day they raided the cabinets and made houses for the Three Little Pigs. The boys had a fabulous time blowing each other's houses in.

Most of the last several days have been pretty darn nice weather wise. We thought we'd take advantage of the sun and take some school work outside to the park.

We packed up some clipboards and did a little data collection on a few of Mt. Tabor's rocks.

And we thought, really it's more fun to play at the park with friends, so we found some to join us.

The little people occupied themselves playing in the big trees,

while the bigger little people occupied themselves talking (or perhaps yelling)

and listening.

I'm fairly certain there was a fair amount of Star Wars discussion.

*sigh* That was a fun morning.

And now it's started to get rather rainy again. But I am certain, certain, the sun will be returning any moment.

At least it will if it knows what's good for it.

Ellen's theatrical debut

The homeschool co-op that the kids and I go to just wrapped up it's spring term. Last night was a "Presentation Night" where the kids showed off what they've been doing for the last ten weeks. Ellen's been in a theater class, taught by none other than Emily. She was cast as pig 3 in the 3 little pigs. She was so incredibly incredibly nervous to be on stage for the entire ten weeks, and I must say I was so very proud of my girly for being nervous and doing it anyway. Ellen's friend Cole was also in this play and let me just say I think he has a future in theater. If he's not president.

a felty groundhog

Last week, for Groundhogs' Day (last week? two weeks ago?) we went got super crafty with our friends and made some puppets.

Now you see it,

Now you don't!

:)

High adventure for a monday morning.

Yesterday, we decided we were done with books for a bit and it was time for an adventure. The kids and I checked out maps and train stops and packed some lunch and headed out.

First stop: Free parking at Dave's work. Which of course also included a quick hello.

Next: short cut past an ice rink,

to reach the train station. I know it's impossible to tell this was on a train, but you can trust me. I promise.

I put Ellen in charge of getting us off at the right stop and she did a phenomenal job.

After a short walk, a destination: Portland Center for Performing Arts. This statue was a gift from a sister city in Mexico I believe. It was meant to sit out on the waterfront, but after it had a small accident (necessitating a nose job) it found a new home indoors at the PCPA.

Once a month, the volunteer association there hosts a free lunchtime event. Sometimes it's singing or dancing (I think), this time it was theatre.

We got there early enough (truly a rare event for us lately) that the kids could explore a bit.

These monthly events are held in the lobby area, which really qualifies to be called something else entirely. But I'm not sure what...anyone know?

When all the floor seats were filled, folks started up the stairs to these booths. We went up to look at them afterwords and the kids nominated them as the prime seating location next time.

The show was a really well done puppet-rical adaption of Janell Cannon's Stellaluna. It held everyone's attention fabulously.

Our friends the Cox's were there and after the show was over, Cole - our resident history expert - wanted to show us some presidential statues he'd noticed.

There he is, Mr. Rough Rider himself.

The kids were forced to pretend that they too were Rough Riders so we could get the appropriate shot.

Mr. Lincoln was there too.

There was lots of posing.

And then we had to say our goodbyes and find the train stop again.

They never look excited, but I tell you they're out of their minds with being thrilled to look out the windows, to people watch, to constantly go and stop, to repeat all the spanish instructions. I know it looks like just the opposite, but it's a constant "Shhhh" party when we're on the train. I think this is the proper face for people watching actually. It's never a good idea to look too excited when staring at other folks.

There. See. At least one person looks happy.

Then back through the ice rink, where a certain someone snagged some brochures about an ice skating party for a very distant birthday, another quick Dave visit and our adventure came to a close.

Which was good, cause a few of us were plum tuckered out.

Posted at 08:37 AM in Around Town, homeschooling | Permalink | Comments (5)

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*I've become rather sporadic over here. Sorry about that. But I am showing up everyday over at the photography blog. Today plastic snowflakes, pumpkin flowers and Emily Dickinson were all present. The kids don't show up though. But it's still a fun blog! At least I think so. Let me know if you want a link - I really do blog daily there.

*Photography stuff is going well. I'm learning all kinds of things, I have shoots lined up, I have a website up and going...I've always had in my head I was going to take this into a career (not just a hobby) but this week it was all vocalized and the plans are coming together. It's interesting to find a balance with where my time gets invested. We're still very much homeschooling and I have no plans to quit that. That, plus photography, plus house stuff gets to be a little much some days. So usually house stuff goes out the window and the floor stays a little dirty, we wear the same jeans over again and eat some Papa Murphy's. That's one of my biggest frustrations - I haven't done much raw at all since it got cold and I got distracted by shiny cameras. Soon it will all balance out. I hope.

*The kids and I and our friend Lynette made terrariums today. Pictures are coming.

*This has been a big coupla weeks around here with DIY, and Help-Portrait and some shoots and a few other projects I can't quite talk about yet (seriously. isn't that weird?). Usually by now I have Christmas present plans in full effect and they might even be ready to ship. It hasn't happened that way this year. Sorry, family. We really do love you, promise. Even if our gift to you this year isn't the most creative. We really do.

*Last week Dave had the entire week off and we roadtripped it to San Jose. (Did I mention that already? Or was that facebook?) It was great fun. Everyone had a good time - walking the dog (Ellen), playing wii (Isaiah), avoiding the dog (Brennan), among tons of other goodness. Ohh I totally mentioned that cause I know I put up a Big Trees post. Right. Apparently I'm tired.

*Ellen's been doing fun school stuff lately - learning about nouns and proper nouns and she even had her first spelling test. Is that weird I think that's fun? She made up her very own board game which will probably have its own post coming soon. Isaiah's been booking through his workbooks. He sits down and just goes for it and will spend a couple hours coloring and counting and writing and drawing. He loves them. He's a pretty great reader too. They're pretty impressive students.

*Brennan has really taken to caring for his babies. He gets all the dolls out, puts them to bed (in Isaiah's bed - always), reads them stories, helps them brush their teeth, puts them in trouble chair when they make bad choices, changes their diapers and clothes...He's a really caring little guy. And he's loooving to sing. It's funny to hear him sing the lyrics for random songs he's heard that I had no idea he knew. I can't think of which songs they are right now (I'm tired, remember?) but when I do, I'll let you know. Really what I should do is get a video. That'd be smart. Alright, I'm on it.

*Alright. It's off to Lightroom for some photo editing and to sleep I go. Talk to you later.

Yesterday was the last day of our fall semester of our homeschool coop. We had a "presentation night" for all the classes and kids to show what they've been learning. Can you spot Ellen and Isaiah? Neither one of them is looking forward.

Here, I made it easier for you. If you still can't find Isaiah look behind the guy in the red shirt in the left portion.

In the lobby, classes could set up tables showing some of the work they've been doing. This is our arty/crafty preschool-kindergarten stuff. (That's the one I'm responsible for by the way.) You can't really see what's there so I'll tell you the table is full of hand & foot turkeys, pumpkin faces, a Thanksgiving Tree and tons of pictures of the last eight weeks. You can see in the previous picture that the kids in our class were wearing their paper bag vests too.

Here are the posters that Emily made for all the kids in the Lewis & Clark class. Pretty cute. Ellen's is in the upper left corner. That's a picture she drew of the whale Lewis and Clark went to see when it was beached.

Everyone in the cake decorating class all decorated a portion of this cake.

So. Overall I'd have to say the co-op was pretty fun. It's not meeting up again until February, and I think the kids are going to be pretty bummed about that. Luckily for them there's a Christmas party coming up in a few weeks. :)

I've been thinking about what I'm going to do with the co-op next semester since you're supposed to either teach or help out in two classes. I'm pretty sure Brennan will be alright if I don't do something with the preschool class so I think I'm going to figure out some photography classes. Maybe one for the younger elementary that Ellen and Isaiah can go to if they want, and one for the older set (I think the oldest kids are 15 or so). That sounds pretty fun I think. Now I just have to figure out what we'll do in the class besides just going around shooting pictures. Hmmmmm...

The haps.

*I've become rather sporadic over here. Sorry about that. But I am showing up everyday over at the photography blog. Today plastic snowflakes, pumpkin flowers and Emily Dickinson were all present. The kids don't show up though. But it's still a fun blog! At least I think so. Let me know if you want a link - I really do blog daily there.

*Photography stuff is going well. I'm learning all kinds of things, I have shoots lined up, I have a website up and going...I've always had in my head I was going to take this into a career (not just a hobby) but this week it was all vocalized and the plans are coming together. It's interesting to find a balance with where my time gets invested. We're still very much homeschooling and I have no plans to quit that. That, plus photography, plus house stuff gets to be a little much some days. So usually house stuff goes out the window and the floor stays a little dirty, we wear the same jeans over again and eat some Papa Murphy's. That's one of my biggest frustrations - I haven't done much raw at all since it got cold and I got distracted by shiny cameras. Soon it will all balance out. I hope.

*The kids and I and our friend Lynette made terrariums today. Pictures are coming.

*This has been a big coupla weeks around here with DIY, and Help-Portrait and some shoots and a few other projects I can't quite talk about yet (seriously. isn't that weird?). Usually by now I have Christmas present plans in full effect and they might even be ready to ship. It hasn't happened that way this year. Sorry, family. We really do love you, promise. Even if our gift to you this year isn't the most creative. We really do.

*Last week Dave had the entire week off and we roadtripped it to San Jose. (Did I mention that already? Or was that facebook?) It was great fun. Everyone had a good time - walking the dog (Ellen), playing wii (Isaiah), avoiding the dog (Brennan), among tons of other goodness. Ohh I totally mentioned that cause I know I put up a Big Trees post. Right. Apparently I'm tired.

*Ellen's been doing fun school stuff lately - learning about nouns and proper nouns and she even had her first spelling test. Is that weird I think that's fun? She made up her very own board game which will probably have its own post coming soon. Isaiah's been booking through his workbooks. He sits down and just goes for it and will spend a couple hours coloring and counting and writing and drawing. He loves them. He's a pretty great reader too. They're pretty impressive students.

*Brennan has really taken to caring for his babies. He gets all the dolls out, puts them to bed (in Isaiah's bed - always), reads them stories, helps them brush their teeth, puts them in trouble chair when they make bad choices, changes their diapers and clothes...He's a really caring little guy. And he's loooving to sing. It's funny to hear him sing the lyrics for random songs he's heard that I had no idea he knew. I can't think of which songs they are right now (I'm tired, remember?) but when I do, I'll let you know. Really what I should do is get a video. That'd be smart. Alright, I'm on it.

*Alright. It's off to Lightroom for some photo editing and to sleep I go. Talk to you later.

Homeschool co-op comes to a close

Yesterday was the last day of our fall semester of our homeschool coop. We had a "presentation night" for all the classes and kids to show what they've been learning. Can you spot Ellen and Isaiah? Neither one of them is looking forward.

Here, I made it easier for you. If you still can't find Isaiah look behind the guy in the red shirt in the left portion.

In the lobby, classes could set up tables showing some of the work they've been doing. This is our arty/crafty preschool-kindergarten stuff. (That's the one I'm responsible for by the way.) You can't really see what's there so I'll tell you the table is full of hand & foot turkeys, pumpkin faces, a Thanksgiving Tree and tons of pictures of the last eight weeks. You can see in the previous picture that the kids in our class were wearing their paper bag vests too.

Here are the posters that Emily made for all the kids in the Lewis & Clark class. Pretty cute. Ellen's is in the upper left corner. That's a picture she drew of the whale Lewis and Clark went to see when it was beached.

Everyone in the cake decorating class all decorated a portion of this cake.

So. Overall I'd have to say the co-op was pretty fun. It's not meeting up again until February, and I think the kids are going to be pretty bummed about that. Luckily for them there's a Christmas party coming up in a few weeks. :)

I've been thinking about what I'm going to do with the co-op next semester since you're supposed to either teach or help out in two classes. I'm pretty sure Brennan will be alright if I don't do something with the preschool class so I think I'm going to figure out some photography classes. Maybe one for the younger elementary that Ellen and Isaiah can go to if they want, and one for the older set (I think the oldest kids are 15 or so). That sounds pretty fun I think. Now I just have to figure out what we'll do in the class besides just going around shooting pictures. Hmmmmm...