Happy Birthday!

Last night...



and last year...


and the year before...


this crazy get-up also included hot pink rain boots...


this was her favorite dress for two years straight...


my Little T....

Terra's New Smile

(this post by C)

Terra has a shiny, metallic new smile! She now has braces on her top teeth. She got her braces on the 19th of August. Dr. Martinez is her orthodontist.

The bands are lime green. When asked how she feels about them, Terra replies: “I feel great, although the two back brackets are very sore.” The braces should be on a for year to a year and a half.



Why did Terra get braces? “my teeth were very crooked and they had a huge space in them and I really needed them.” says Terra. “Her orthodontist suggested a two phase treatment plan. We will correct her bite now, and work on alignment later when more of her permanent teeth come in.” says Terra's mom.

We Also Homeschool

I haven't been writing about homeschooling lately, but rest assured, we do still do it!

We took a big summer break this year. On the one hand, it was good and we needed it. On the other, I am amazed at how much slipped. Multiplication facts. How to make a cursive Q. You know, the esoteric/little used stuff. I will remember this. We will still take summer breaks (and spring, fall and winter breaks,) but I will be more mindful in the future.

We started cracking the books again about two weeks ago.

Both girls are doing Singapore math on a daily basis. C is in book 5, T is in book 2.

C has just completed order of operations, with and without parenthesis. Today she reviewed double digit multiplication. Tomorrow she will start on a new topic, double digit division.

T is doing double digit addition without renaming. Tomorrow she'll start double digit subtraction.

Math is going swimmingly, as usual. I have heard people criticize Singapore for various reasons (not enough practice exercises, inadequate explanations, a focus on metric measurements...) but it works really, really well for both of my kids (and it's really easy for me!)

This year we have picked up a structured language arts program, Voyages in English. So far it's going pretty well. Both girls have enjoyed the writing assignments. C is planning on posting her news article when she is finished with the editing process, so stay tuned for that. We haven't used the grammar portion yet, but I'm pretty confident it will be what we need.

We are also revisiting Story of the World, vol I. Like any history, SOTW is told from a biased point of view. It has some major flaws, but I make it a point to work critical thinking into the lessons. C completed the first volume several years ago, but as ancient history follows our epic evolution study so neatly, she is revisiting it with T.

Two weeks ago we started with an archaeological dig, wherein I buried a bunch of "artifacts" in a fallow section of our garden. It then rained for several days, so we had to wait for it to dry out, but when it finally did we sectioned off the area with sticks and string and carefully excavated the site with trowels and toothbrushes (to clean our finds.) The girls dutifully recorded each find and speculated on how it might have been used. The activity was a huge hit--I love that about SOTW. The activities are really engaging.

C followed with a book report on Little People, Lost World (form via busyteacherscafe.com) She all ready knew quite a bit about Flores Man, from where I don't recall exactly (Nova? National Geographic magazine?)but nonetheless, she enjoyed the book and really appreciated the ease of a book report form.

Now we are focusing on hunter-gatherers. SOTW is a decent backbone, but I am supplementing quite a bit. Today's supplement was Painters of the Caves by the National Geographic Society. I read several chapters aloud (skipping the stuff we'd all ready covered with two other resources,) focusing on the mechanics of actually making the paintings and the theories of their function. I love how both girls get so excited about new information that fills in the gaps of what they all ready know.

We followed up with another SOTW activity, make your own cave paintings on crumpled (to simulate the rough walls of a cave) grocery bags. That was fun for the whole family. R really got into it. Like most toddlers I know, he likes to be naked when he paints, so I won't be posting pictures.

Our last piece of topic survey type curriculum is Real Science 4 Kids. We are waiting on one last component to arrive in the mail. C is chomping at the bit. She's all ready read the Chemistry textbook. She's read through an unrelated book of experiments (Chemistry for Every Kid) and picked some experiments she wants to try. She continually browses the Edmund's Scientifics catalog in search of glassware and other lab equipment.

We are piecing together other areas of study (health, safety, citizenship, geography, etc) as the girls' interests lead us.

We are continuing with the typical enrichment stuff. C is super stoked about her photography class--but I'll let her tell you about it.

And lastly, my system for holding it all together: I love this planner. I used it last year; it served me well. I bought a new one this year.

Wait a Minute! It's Coming From The Dog!!

My poor Elly girl met the business end of a skunk last week. It was super hot and humid that night, and D and I were up late canning salsa (18 pints of yummy summer goodness!) so the kitchen was extra steamy. The smell hung in the moist air so heavily that it wasn't until the next day that we realized Elly actually had it on her.

Lordy, my poor girl reeked. Our house reeked. When we went to the ballpark for our Sunday game, I felt like we carried the reek with us.

When we came home from the ballpark and opened the door, the smell inside the house about knocked me over.

I called D's sister, the dog grooming entrepreneur. She had some great suggestions, but she warned me that since it had been on her for so long, I would find limited success at best.

It was my thinking that any improvement had to be, well, an improvement, so the next morning I was off to the drugstore to get the supplies.

She was much better after her bath. She's still not quite as fresh as a "Summer's Eve," (yes, I washed her face in it,) but she's worlds better now.

50mm f/1.8

I am so, so pleased with my new lens!

Goats are Hilarious

This evening we visited my aunt's farm for a family cookout.

R loved picking clover flowers for the goats.

The Playground Project

I have to admit, the Playground Project was not an original idea. In addition to following the Free Range Kids blog, I often read the comments. Sometime last week someone wrote about their summer project: critiquing neighborhood playgrounds. I thought it was a brilliant idea.

We have spent this week with our friends, 10yo F and his little sister, 5yo Little C. Their summer babysitter was unavailable, and I was happy to fill in. Fifty hours of childcare is a lot, though, and I needed some fresh ideas for giving the big kids the space they need to burn off big-kid energy while also considering the needs of 2yo R and Little C. Enter The Playground Project.

Over breakfast on Tuesday, I asked the kids what they thought was most important in a playground. They all had good ideas. We made a list of five criteria, with a sixth category of "Overall." We used a five point scale. I made a quick Open Office document, printed up copies, and we were off. We evaluated eight playgrounds on: 1-facility cleanliness (litter and graffiti) and state of repair (including restrooms and drinking fountain,) 2-swings, 3-slides, 4-bars, rings and monkeybars, and 5-special features (zip line, bridge, proximity to batting cage, bike path, etc.)

It was so fun!

Here is our overall winner:



This place was phenomenal! It had every feature you could possible imagine--turrets! Bridges! Multiple slides! A zip line! A suspended balance beam! Two sand pits! A climbing wall! A boat! Plenty of swings with long chains! A tire swing! Nice restrooms! A cold drinking fountain! Benches. Shade. Perfection.

I have a couple of lovely group photos from The Playground Project...but it is my policy to not post identifying pictures of other people's kids on the internet without their express permission, so these will have to do:

Lawn Care is Always on His Mind

The lyrics that accompany this piece? "Weed whacker song/ weed whacker song/ weed whacker song/ weed whacker song...."