We Passed!

Nate got his amateur radio license a few months ago and challenged Toby that if he studied hard he could take the Technician test and get a license too. Nate helped Tobias understand frequency, wavelength, calculating voltage/resistance/current, safety, text-taking skills, FCC rules and a lot of new vocabulary.

There are 350 questions to study for the Technician level exam; some are calculations and some are simply memorizing various rules and terms. They studied a different topic each night like FCC rules or Ohm's law.

With the test date approaching quickly, I helped Tobias review some things during the day. I even took a practice test and nearly passed. So Friday night I decided that I would take the test with him on Sunday.

Sunday afternoon, we had our number 2 pencils and calculators ready to go, filled out all the paperwork, and began the 35-question test. I finished and passed, and then Toby finished up his text. The text administrators counted up his wrong answers and I could see they wanted him to pass. They got up to 9 wrong answers (the maximum you are allowed), and then checked the last column of questions, which had NO mistakes! Whew! We both passed. The test administrator said they had never seen someone so young pass before.

Now we wait for our call signs to appear in the FCC database, and then we are allowed to be on the air.

I'm so proud of the hard work Tobias put in and all the things he now knows about electronics, waves, and more. He has a small radio on the way to use.

Spring 2016

From "When Early March Seems Middle May" by James Whitcomb Riley

When through the twigs the farmer tramps, 

And troughs are chunked beneath the trees, 

And fragrant hints of s'gar-camps  Astray in every breeze, 

 And early March seems middle-May,

The Spring is coming round this way.

We didn't harvest any maple syrup this spring, but we did plant raspberries, kale, elderberries, blueberries, garlic, and peas. We have large baby bunnies and tiny baby bunnies, and a handful of weeks of school work left for the year.

Today we sang "Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad", reviewed some Spanish sentences and Sunday school Bible verses, Tobias and Malachi drew flowers (an indoor one that was on our table) in their nature journals, Tobias read "St. George and the Dragon" and practiced piano, we read a poem and the Bible, and now a serious train-building session is in the works. Later today (aka nap time) we hope to read about Pope Gregory and practice violin.

Park time last week

Tempests and Frogs and Ceasars, Oh My!

Our family is 11 weeks into our homeschool school year, and it's only October. I rightfully anticipated a crazy August and September due to moving and a long road trip, so we got an early start. Although we missed a few details here and there, we kept chugging through our main readings and activities through it all. It has provided a nice constant, and on top of that I think everyone is learning and enjoying themselves.

This year Tobias is in 1st grade and we are using Ambleside Online. It is a freely provided curriculum plan built by a volunteer committee based on the educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason. She was a British educator whose principles included a belief that children are not just receptacles for intellectual facts, but they have a God-given ability and desire to learn ideas and digest a high-quality feast of knowledge. People following her philosophy generally try to follow her ideals of cultivating good habits (especially the habit of attention), relatively short lessons, time in nature, "living books" (not watered down or summarized already for the child, written by people who care about the subject), and having students narrate back a summary or response to what was read rather than worksheets or quiz-type questioning about details.

A typical day for us includes:

• 9:00 Singing time: Hymn and folk song or Spanish song
• Math: We use Miquon math worksheets with some blocks/rods that go with them, or Khan Academy on the computer
• Independent reading. Tobias just finished the My Father's Dragon series and Because of Winn-Dixie.
• A Poem a day: Today we read October's Party
• Handwriting
• Spanish video
• Piano practice
• Bible memory work, or sometimes work on memorizing something else like a poem
• Once or twice a week: Nature study with journals, a craft or useful skill (currently origami), drawing
• Readings from the Ambleside "chart". Readings are assigned by the week, and can be divided into whatever days we want. They cover history, literature, geography, Bible, and more. This week we're on Week 10, so today we read "The Frogs who Wished for a King" from Aesop's fables, and "Prince Darling" from the Blue Fairy book.
• We are also supposed to focus on one composer and artist every 12-week term, and for right now we have just listened to a Brahms playlist and haven't done the artist study yet (oops)

Believe it or not, that takes 2-3 hours depending on the length of the readings and how many interruptions we have. Play, errands, chores, and meals fill up the rest of the day for him.

There are of course lows ("I don't remember anything." and "NO. 3 - 4 has to equal ZERO!" being among them), and those lovely braggable moments where your child declares that Shakespeare's Tempest was even better than A Midsummer Night's Dream (we read children's adaptations), and everything in between. Overall, very happy with how it is going so far!

“The question is not, -- how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education -- but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”  -Charlotte Mason

18 weeks of Kindergarten

We've been chugging along with daily activities! I have weekly charts of what we do, but I wanted to see at a glance what things we have done so far so I compiled it as lists. Maybe more interesting to me than to blog readers…

Here's what has been explored in the last 18 weeks, some things more in-depth than others:

Hymns:

Children of the Heavenly Father

You are Worthy

Praise the Savior Now and Ever

Let All Things Now Living

Come, Ye Thankful People Come

For the Beauty of the Earth

Joy to the World

May the Mind of Christ My Savior

Folk/Children's Songs:

Roll On, Columbia Roll On

3 Little Muffins

Did you Feed My Cow

Rico's Pizza Restaurant

5 Fat Turkeys

Allison's Camel

All Night, All Day

Bible:

Vos Story Bible: 

  Paul's Conversion (Chapter 64) through the end

  The Beginning through finding a wife for Rebekah

Leading Little Ones to God: Chapters 1-23

Misc. other story Bibles and review of Sunday School material

Math:

Ellerby Math Games (with cards, dice, etc.) 1-18

Miquon Math: 1st third or so (pages are not numbered traditionally) of the Orange Book

lots of everyday math: doubling recipes, telling time, calendars

History:

Christopher Columbus (Ann McGovern)

If You Sailed on the Mayflower (Ann McGovern)

If You Grew Up with George Washington (Ruth Belov Gross)

A Book about Benjamin Franklin (Ruth Belov Gross)

The Yakima (Edward Ricciutti)

If you Lived with the Sioux Indians (Ann McGovern)

Pioneering on the Plains (Edith McCall)

Handwriting:

Delightful Handwriting capital letters and almost through the lower case

Piano:

Music Tree: through page 32

Reading:

Every day Toby chooses a book or chapter to read. Sometimes we forget to write down what they were. We have recorded 82 books though that he has read himself, and when he gets to 100 there is talk of ice cream. The most recent book he read was "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs", and Malachi enjoyed listening to that after he convinced Toby to "read it LOUD" (out loud).

Literature:

The Horse and his Boy (C.S. Lewis)

The Window in the Roof (W.G. Vandehulst)

The Magician's Nephew (C.S. Lewis)

The Last Battle (C.S. Lewis)

The best part is seeing Tobias (and also Malachi!) connections about things. After explaining the tax portion of a receipt for eating out, Tobias said "Oh! You mean like the tax collectors in the Bible who took everyone's money?" Kind of.

K: 7 weeks in

We're partway through our 7th week of official Kindergarten for Tobias.

Currently we're singing "Let All Things Now Living" and Rico's Pizza Restaurant, as well as old favorites.

Last Easter we started reading to Tobias out of the Vos Story Bible near the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. We continued through the stories that came after that, and recently finished the book with stories of Paul's missionary journeys and John's visions in the book of Revelation. I have to say, Paul's visits to cities, stints in jail, and trials may have been a bit on the harder to understand side for Tobias. I did my best to explain the differences between governors and emperors, what it meant to be a Roman citizen, and more. He enjoyed looking at maps of Paul's trips and that he went to Rome (somewhere we have been).

After some waffling and testing various free things and samples, I "splurged" to purchase handwriting materials from Simply Charlotte Mason. For $9 and the cost of printing I now don't have to think about what comes next for handwriting, which is worth it. I never really liked those extra curves on the D'Nealian handwriting as a kid, so I went for the "plain" letters (how's that for a mature way to make a decision).

Malachi participates in singing, demands his own "maff sheet", and usually wanders away to the Duplos while we read.

We've also completed two weeks of ECHO, our homeschool co-op, which all the kids have enjoyed. 

I feel like we have a good routine going, although I have small moments of "I'm doing this wrong" panic, usually during moments such as kids crumpling up papers in frustration, or parked in front of YouTube "educational" shows in excess of what I usually allow.

Next I'm contemplating if and how to add other subjects; perhaps some more formal piano lessons and practice or Spanish.

And we called it…Kindergarten

We're still doing stuff, learning, reading, singing and asking and answering questions at our house.

Most mornings we sing a hymn or two, and a traditional children's song or folk song. Pop Goes the Weasel is a perpetual favorite and you may hear little voices around the house singing "half a pound of two penny rice, half a pound of treacle, mix it up and make it nice…POP goes the weasel!"
Then we read a Bible story and have a short prayer for our day.
We also read and explore through the day, and have bedtime reading.

Starting next week we plan to take a turn towards slightly more formal lessons for Tobias. We will be adding some Math activities (Miquon Math and board/card games) and historical books and biographies. More subjects will be added when we get in a good routine.

Stay tuned, it's sure to be an adventure.

T: 5 years!

Five years ago we were very excited to meet Tobias! It would have been hard then to imagine him as a helping, hiking, reading, building, joking 5 year old. It's fun to be able to hear all his ideas and questions about the world and I'm excited to see how much he learns and grows this year.

Some of his current favorite things:

• Book: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (to listen to), Marvin K. Mooney will you Please Go Now (to read himself)
• Food: pizza (for me to cook), sausages (to cook himself)
• Thing to do outside: play on playground with ECHO preschool friends
• Thing to do with Dad: Snap Circuits or go for a walk
• Thing to do with Malachi: build trains or Duplos
• Thing to do with Avery: pat his head
• Thing to do with Mom: help clean the kitchen floor
• Thing to do in the car: look out the window at trains and mountains
• Movie: The Iron Giant

Things he thinks he will do while he is 5:

• learn to cook at ECHO
• finish the Narnia books with Dad
• hold Avery

October Reading

As a former library worker, I sometimes feel I'm in a position to complain about our library system. For example, notice how each title is obscured by the bar code sticker. Drives me crazy. But we are able to find or reserve a lot of good books there, and they've even bought three books that I requested they add to their collection. Here are 4 books Toby and I have enjoyed together in the last month.

One Small Blue Bead

by Byrd Baylor

I don't remember which website or booklist recommended this book, but I reserved it from the library. It's written in rhyming verse and tells the story of a boy who lived long ago; although his people have never met another group of people and believe they are the only ones, he wonders if maybe somewhere else in the world there is another boy like him. Tobias enjoyed the story enough to request it several times, and it was interesting to ponder together how people lived in such a different way.

Blaze Finds the Trail

by C.W. Anderson

Came across this series as something recommended for younger kids who are learning to read. Toby and I enjoyed the story, and we shared the job of reading it: I would take one page and then he would take one. I think my dad would like this book, so maybe Toby can read another in the series with him!

Jenny: The Airplane that Taught America to Fly

by David Weitzman

Toby grabbed this one off the shelf at the library. I guess I'm a book snob because half the time when he picks something it is strange or junk and I try to return it as soon as possible, maybe even on the way out the door the same day. But this one was great. An old photo album prompts a grandmother to tell her grandkids all about the airplanes the great-grandmother flew and how and why they were built. We both learned that "pusher" airplanes had the propeller in the back to push the airplane, and "tractors" had the propellor in front to pull the airplane through the air. He built both kinds out of Duplos afterwards. There was a lot of historical information that was over Toby's head (WW1 and WW2), as well as some of the science (weight of aluminum vs. cast iron...he didn't know what an aluminum pop can was so my explanations fell flat). This would be a great book for us revisit again in a few years again.

Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit up the World

by Elizabeth Rusch

Some of the science in this book was over my head, but I did understand most of it. It explains Nikola Tesla's life: how he became interested in electricity, his rivalry with Thomas Edison, how he lit up the Chicago World's Fair with electric lights for the first time, and how many of his inventions we use today. Toby's favorite part was when Tesla sent 250,000 volts of electricity through his body without killing himself. Apparently if it is alternating fast enough, it travels through the edges of the body and doesn't zap your heart. Don't try it at home though. This is another book that would be beneficial to read again when we are both older and understand electricity and motors more.

Wild, Reading!

Harassing the chickens with dirt clods while dressed half in pajamas and half in backwards pants... and reading Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car while Malachi naps. The latter is more peaceful and requires less clean-up and discipline but I'm trying to convince myself that both types of activities are important!

Some of Toby's favorite books lately have been:

• Happy Birthday Moon (this was the first "real" book that he read almost entirely by himself without having it read to him first)
• Today I Will Fly
• A Carousel Tale
• All the McDuff books by Rosemary Wells

Malachi loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar and any book with animals in it.

What Child is This?

The reading: many possibilities where those genes came from. But the dancing...is a mystery.

Harvest Season

Parkity Park

The cast has been off for over a month now, Toby is walking (even running and sometimes climbing), and the weather is still park-able. Indoors, we're enjoying the usual: Duplos, music, books, and snacks.

John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Brothers at Play. Or work.

For the 8 weeks of cast, Toby and Malachi's play together was limited to "wrestling" on the floor.

Here is some video from today and yesterday...4 to 5 days after getting the cast off. After walking to the mailbox they didn't want to come inside because they were having too much fun pushing each other around on the tractor. Now that's what I've been waiting to see!

Blast Off, Cast Off

The countdown chain was at zero, today was the day!

We got to the doctor's office and had a little panic as Tobias was not on their schedule. They promised to fit us in but said it might be a little wait. We were blessed that the 11:40 appointment (the time we were supposed to be) was a no-show so we got in without having to wait.

Toby was upset as they cut it off: "It's time to go home, I'm not healed, I need another cast, I don't want to take it off!" Change is scary. But he was actually happy to begin wiggling his legs around. Seeing the big blue cast legs poking upwards out of the trash can was a little shocking for me even though I knew that Tobias wasn't in it.

Afterwards we went for a picnic to Howard Amon park and took some pictures on the swing where he broke it, and Finnegan Frost for frozen yogurt.

At home, Toby enjoyed one of the best baths of his life (even without playing outside, he got pretty dirty in 8 weeks without a bath) and rolling and crawling around on the floor. It's nice to have a squeaky clean boy!

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. -Proverbs 17:22

(a verse that Toby sings often)

Constraints Fuel Creativity

It's been a week since Tobias broke his leg. I got just a little sad looking at the 4th of July videos where he was running around with sparklers. And I got just a little sad when a box of clothes for him arrived and he can't wear any of them right now (I think they're big enough that he can still wear them a little this fall). Silly, I know. Don't worry, no one is spending too much time being sad! Mostly I'm proud of how patient and positive he's been.

I asked Toby how many days he thought it would be until the cast came off. He said 47 (that's the 3 year old version of "not quite infinity"). I counted, and that's Sept 16. We'll see.

He's in very good spirits and slept through the night last night for the first time in the cast. He's getting to try lots of new activities like tummy scooting, spirograph spinning, and accompanying Ben (Nate's friend) with shaky eggs.

The Cement Snowsuit

After a tumble off a swing, Toby ended up with a broken femur. He spent two nights in the hospital where he was put under to have a spica cast put on (it goes from his armpits down to his toes on the broken leg, and to his calf on the other leg). It took awhile to get home because we needed to visit with the doctor again, have more x-rays taken, get his cast edges padded and taped up, meet with a carseat technician, etc. Tobias was amazingly patient and brave, although a few times he just "needed to cry about the legs" and asked why his uninjured leg had to be in the cast. That part made me want to cry!

There are a lot of things we are thankful for. Things that "could be worse". We're glad he didn't need surgery to put in pins or plates. We're thankful that at this age he probably won't need any special therapy afterwards to get back to normal. We're glad he's potty trained. We are appreciative of friends and family who are supporting us in prayer and practical help. I'm thankful that I was already on my way home when it happened instead of still in rural Wyoming with no cell reception. He will have full mobility again. We know that whether it's a little hard or a lot hard, God is good. He is providing and will continue to provide!

We're already learning a lot and finding creative ways to keep busy and keep comfortable.

Forward! Upward!

Tobias loves to make or imagine things that are "blastering off into space".
Malachi is definitely crawling, although it is tiring and frustrating for him! Plus, when he arrives at the toys his brother clears them away and replaces them with a boring baby toy. The end clip with the yellow toy is Tobias at a similar age (not quite 6 months...Christmas 2009) and not quite able to maneuver towards it. But crawling wasn't his thing...running was. Thankful to have two happy, smart kids who undoubtedly will both have their own unique ways of doing things!

Physical Education: Wrestling Class

In a scene reminiscent of the classic "Tobias introduces his brother" (except now Malachi can laugh and even fight back), Tobias scoops Malachi into his lap and chats with him.

In case some of the audio is unclear, here's a partial transcript:

H: Hey, gentle.

T: He is not saying stop, and he has one tooth, and he's a baby!

I'm gonna hold him for awhile

Hey, say hi to him! Hiiii! Hiiii! He likes me!

N: He sure does.

T: Yeah, do you like me?

N: I think he likes to pull your hair too.

T: Do you like that baby Malachi? Do you like that baby Malachi? Do you?

This is my friend baby Malachi!

N: It's your brother, Tobes.

T: Yeah, it is my brother...tickle him!

Theological Education

So much to learn! Tobias is soaking up Catechism questions and asking "what letter does that start with" dozens of times per day. Malachi is scootching, sliding, and drifting away from where I set him on the floor. Nate is business-ing and programming and I'm sure he's learning things that I do not even understand. Hannah is sewing and making patterns (hat tutorial coming soon when I work out the last quirks), planning for mega-freezer-cooking day next week, and scheming ways to keep the quail out of the garden. It might be a stretch to say the chickens are learning anything new, but they are enjoying the moveable coop, they get fresh grass every day or two.

Soundtrack: ABCs + Tron

Tobias serenades the Sunday park-goers with an abbreviated version of the ABCs (he does know them all, not sure why he left some out), and Malachi attempts to roll the other way (maybe if I'm lucky I'll catch that on video when it happens).