Fall Week(s) Continued!

As we continue into the fall we have studied trees to some extent (the letter T, talking about how some trees change throughout the year and some don’t, Jonas can now recognize evergreens…) and we had loads of fun with Halloween. My big plans for studying other fall Holidays (Samhain/Dia de los Muertos) will have to wait for another year I think. Halloween was enough in and of itself for one week! I am beginning to realize that I can’t always do everything I plan. However, I also need to plan more reasonable goals and stick to them.

So, this week we studied Halloween. The letter for the week was ‘H’ and all week we recited our favorite ‘H’ words. While we were in the car on our way somewhere I would ask the boys to yell them out; “Happy, Hat, Hair, Head, Horse, House…” Still Jonas is unsure about the letters he’s learned. He knows them, but he’s a little self-conscious about being asked a question that could have a wrong answer. So when asked about certain letters we’ve studied before he will wait until I hint at the answer to give it to me. I think, perhaps, it’s time for some letter flashcards.

We printed more Halloween math sheets this week too. Jonas learned how to write an addition equation. He also is working on recognizing numbers correctly without his number guide (numbers written all in a row so he can count to the correct one).

Jonas tied back into a previous week for Trick-or-Treating as he decided to use the costume Uncle Dan had given him for his birthday. He was a knight: King Arthur to be precise. He rode his noble steed up and down the streets stopping at every house to ask for treats or tricks (but really only asking for treats because who really gives you/shows you tricks anymore). Ronan was persuaded (but very reluctant) to be a dragon for our Trick-or-Treating adventure. After he discovered how much everyone loved his costume though he was very excited and began acting the part. He even named his dragon-self on the way home after many treats were obtained. He was called Oct-pu-tiddle-dee. Who knows how he came up with that! Also joining us in Trick-or-Treating was Hailey who, being from South Korea, enjoyed her very first Halloween with us, and Kimberly who showed us around downtown Snohomish.

Mid-week the boys helped me take down our Halloween decorations and sweep the driveway free from leaves once more. We also attempted to learn the Zumba dance mama knows to their favorite new song: Hella Decale by DJ Mam’s but morphed it into dance like you want to instead. Dancing mama is happy as long as they’re dancing too!

This coming week we are preparing for a road trip! We’re off to go see Abuelita/Abuelito and Francis, and all of Pocho’s family. On the way down we’ll also say hi to Papa and Grandma’s going to make the return trip with us stopping on the way home to visit longer together with Papa! This week we will focus on travel preparation which is as good a subject for study as anything! Time to organize and pack, count our clothing, make lists of important items to remember, learn some new songs/games for the car…

Fall Week(s)

Well our study of fall has continued for several weeks. Sadly, this does not mean we have studied more on the subject but rather that we slowed in our subject studies in favor of some other projects that were happening. Instead of schoolwork we frequently found ourselves outside the house enjoying adventures in Crossfit workouts (mama tried a week free at the gym and tried to take as full advantage of the week as she could) and writing projects needing to be turned in to writing group.

This is not to say, however, that we got no schoolwork done. We went for walks in the neighborhood and the park in search of the very best fall leaves. As we walked we talked about what happens in the fall, how the weather changes (Jonas remarked that he felt like it was getting cold enough for snow soon), how the leaves change color and fall, how some trees’ leaves don’t change color or fall at all… etc. Arriving home the first time from our walk we left the leaves on the table with the intention of pressing them for keeping. Unfortunately we then forgot all about them and we learned about the science of how leaves change and become brittle when they dry out. This experience led us to another walk for leaves which we immediately followed up by pressing them in wax paper for the window. Jonas split his leaves into two separate window displays so that he could send one to Great Grammy. He has had a wonderful time lately describing this and that Great Grammy has done or taught him. His imagination creates some wonderful stories that we will have to share with Great Grammy.



With the leaves that he sent to Great Grammy he also sent a card in which he practiced some of his writing. He attempted to copy: To Great Grammy. Love, Jonas. Mostly he succeeded.

Also in the past couple of weeks Jonas has done several more fall math sheets including a maze (Ronan did one too), he has practiced the letters T, and R, and written the word Fall. He is now practicing the letter E and the sound that the letters ‘ee’ make together so that he can identify them later in his reading. I have decided to focus on no more than one letter a week. Jonas will, perhaps, write more than one letter but we will focus on the sound(s) that that one letter makes and find words that begin with that letter all week long. Then move on.

In movement we are working on tumbling and handstands (something mama recently rediscovered!). Also, the boys like the idea of Zumba so much lately that I thought I’d teach them the dance for one of their favorite Zumba songs “Hella Decale” by DJ Mam’s. It should be loads of fun for all of us. And what could be more “fall” than moving a huge pile of wood into the wood shed? Ronan came up with a great idea to help. He brought over his dump truck and used it to carry a few pieces at a time.

Our biggest scientific moment of the past two weeks had absolutely nothing to do with the fall. We went to the Seattle Aquarium with Kimberly for a special event involving sea stories/songs for small children. On the way there Jonas turned to me and said that he had a difficult question for me. He wanted to know how it was that starfish had eyes attached to their arms. I told him that that sure was a difficult question but that I thought perhaps he might be able to ask someone when we were there. So after our sea story about the unusual clam called the “gooey duck” (or the Geoduck as Wikipedia tells me) we went to see the starfish. Jonas asked a volunteer his question about starfish eyes and the man was blown away! He told Jonas he was absolutely right. Starfish do indeed have something like eyes at the tips of their arms. These eyes are really light/dark sensors that tell the sea star whether it’s night or day. He pointed out the “eyes” on a bigger sea star showing us that they were the tiny little pinprick of red at the very tip of the star’s arms. I never knew that!



We are not quite done with the fall yet as there is so much to study! So as we continue for the third week we are studying trees. After that it’s Samhain and other late October/early November holidays!

Airplane Week

This week we studied airplanes and I was blown away by the interest the boys displayed as well as their ability to direct themselves in their study! Jonas began the week with a beautiful example of one of his paper airplanes that he frequently designs, folds and redesigns according to flight capability. This one wasn’t the best of his fliers but still sailed across the room when thrown right.

I tried something new to catch his interest in writing his letters and was happy to see it worked without much effort! Instead of just starting him on writing the individual letters I wrote out the word ‘airplane’ and had him copy it. Then we broke it down into individual letters again. He liked being able to write the whole word and the fact that writing the word took up his whole line.

Thanks to my friend Kristin’s blog Cactus Schoolhouse I was made aware of www.currclick.com where a homeschooling parent can find all sorts of reasonable teaching aides and curriculum. Searching through available ideas there I found a project book for airplanes and flight. We read bits and pieces but found the majority a bit too advanced for the boys. However, we studied the four main things most airplanes have in common: wings, cockpit, fuselage and tail. After pointing these out several times with Jonas we began a project to test his understanding. He got to color his own airplane and cut out arrows with labels on them for those basic sections of the airplane. He taped them on the airplane just where they were supposed to go. Ronan followed every move Jonas made trying to copy him as to where he put the arrows. However, Ronan doesn’t quite understand to turn the point of the arrow toward what he wants to label.

As for Math, we went on a packing adventure. I labeled 10 cards with individual numbers (1-10) and put the number in stars on the back. Then we took out rolling backpacks to the playroom with a bucket full of animals. The boys each picked a card, figured out what the number was and then put that number of animals in their backpacks. We repeated this again with the next card adding a new number of animals with the previous number. The third card, however, was our subtraction card so they removed that number and told me how many were left.

The boys created several airplanes out of play dough during the week on their own without prompting and Jonas used his knowledge learned from studying airplane parts to include a propeller among other things on his airplane. They also watched several videos from the library on flight and airplanes. My favorite of these was a “The Way Things Work” video about flight where cartoon characters are trying to deliver an awning via mammoth in a wind-storm and accidently make the mammoth fly because of the ‘lift’ created by the air flowing over the tightly wrapped awning strapped to the mammoth’s back.
Both boys practiced their Spanish word of the week ‘avión’ several times throughout the week. I also continue to talk with them more in Spanish, expecting them to understand me but helping them to figure out the meaning where needed.

On to a study of Fall!

Knight Week

This week was a wonderful preparation for Jonas’ special day. We decided that Jonas’ birthday party would be themed around knights and therefore thought it a good idea to study them beforehand. We learned the letters in ‘knight,’ some of them being repeats from previous lessons, and worked on recognizing other words that began with those letters. It turned out to be quite a challenge for Jonas to attempt to find other words that began with ‘kn.’ Instead we focused on other ‘k’ words like kite and tried to differentiate a little between K words and C words. Suffice it to say this was too hard for a beginner in letter/word recognition K and C sound the same so often!


Much easier to focus on was our Knights Code of Honor. We talked a little about what kind of people knights were supposed to be. Jonas learned that knights didn’t just fight to fight, they swore loyalty to a lord or king and a code of honor that guided their behavior. Jonas, Ronan and I created our own Knight’s Code of Honor:








Knight math was the most fun we’ve had with the subject so far! Teacher Mama drew 7 left-handed knights on a paper and below them 8 right-handed knights. Jonas and Ronan each colored a shield and we used these shields to cover certain numbers of the knights to create math problems. We also talked about right-handed and left-handed and how you could tell which hand these knights preferred. Jonas had some amazing responses and I discovered that he still skips the number 13 when he counts. Note for the future.






For our movement section of the week the boys were asked how they thought a knight might dance and they both proceeded to demonstrate their ideas. Both were precious!

At the end of our knight week Papa arrived for the weekend to visit and he instructed the boys in how to help with certain projrects (Jonas’ version of projects). They constructed a picnic table together (yes Uncle Richard, we finally have our picnic table back!!), fixed a rocking goat, and built a model of the telescope project that papa is pulling together: the Giant Magellan Telescope. Jonas’ birthday party was a spectacular success with a dragon jumping castle, a brownie castle for the cake, and a crowd of wonderful friends and family to celebrate!

Overflowing a little over into our airplane week we dropped Papa off at the airport on Monday morning and composed our Knight song on the way home based on our Knight’s Code of Honor.

It’s been a wonderful week, now on to airplanes!

Shark Week

The past week has been a little lax as far as schoolwork. Granted, we watched videos about sharks, read some books about sharks and made some shark pictures, but we never got around to my idea for shark math, and several other thoughts I had. So, into the future idea bin go: School of fish drawn on paper and a paper shark cutout. Cover a number of the fish school and count how many are left! And… Once more we’ve not written our shark song, or our spider song, or our horse song. So…this coming week we are writing a song about something.

That aside, Ronan made a breakthrough this week in his coloring of a shark page from our creatures of Hawaii coloring book. Using both hands indiscriminately, he colored his sharks with more care than I’ve ever seen him use in coloring. While he didn’t remain entirely in the confines of the shark’s outline, he still managed to color the shark and not just scribble the whole page! Jonas used a red pen and a blue pen, making his shark picture a two-toned marvel of precise scribbles.

Perhaps the reason we did little this week as far as sharks go was because the boys already know a lot from one of their favorite books: “Surprising Sharks,” by Nicola Davies. This book is beautifully written and illustrated to teach kids about sharks, showing them the marvelous and irreplaceable creatures that they are. Jonas has learned from this book that sharks bones are made of the same stuff as our noses and ears, cartilage! Both boys point out their favorites from the pictures of different sharks that are illustrated in the front and back of the book. “What’s this mom, oh yeah it’s a whale shark!”

Aside from reading stories, watching videos and coloring pictures, the boys worked on letters and attempted to memorize the name for shark in Spanish. ‘R’s still manage to elude them in Spanish so the actual pronunciation ended up being Tibuón, instead of Tiburón, but they were very close and I applaud their attempt!

Next we study knights and chivalry in preparation for Jonas’ knight-themed birthday party!

Horse Week

After the completion of our first week of homeschooling with the subject of spiders I offered the boys the chance to decide what we would study next. It was unanimous: Horses! With Kimberly, we eagerly planned a week of barn visits, riding lessons on Jax (Kimberly’s kid-friendly thoroughbred), basic horse anatomy lessons and much more.

We started the week out with a study of H and O (followed later in the week with R, S, and E, repeats from SPIDER week). Jonas learned the sounds of the letters and offered possibilities of other words that began with those letters. He practiced writing them while Ronan drew pictures on his writing pages and then we left for the library to find some horse books. Among our horse encyclopedias we also found some story books about a horse named Blaze and his adventures with Billy. The Black Stallion also made it home with us as one of teacher mama’s favorite movies from childhood.


Jax obliged us with a lesson on basic horse grooming, anatomy and riding. Very quickly Jonas learned to give Jax a few basic commands with his body in order to steer the horse in the direction he chose. Jonas learned to keep his toes pointed toward the sky, sit up straight, look where he wanted to go and hold his ice cream cones upright (hands holding the reigns). With the help of a drawing on poster board done the night before by teacher mama, Jonas and Ronan got a bit of anatomy practice before their visit with Jax so that they were somewhat prepared to point out his muzzle, flanks, hocks, withers, nostrils, mane, tail, knees, neck and other basic body parts. Ronan, of course, made sure to point out where his weenie was hiding.

After our visit with Jax we decided we’d like to visit some other horses as well so with the help of the internet and Kimberly we found two more barns to visit. The first we saw was Natural Horse Savvy, run by Monica Meyette at Eden Farms Stables. Monica is truly invested in the horses she works with and rescues horses from bad situations to train them and the people who deal with them to a better understanding of each other. She showed us a Hanoverian mare who had been stuck in a stall for over a year before Monica rescued her. The mare was doing very well when we saw her but had needed extensive physical therapy after being rescued.

Our visit with Natural Horse Savvy flowed quickly into a short visit at Kimberly’s previous barn where we got to see a variety of horses in a beautiful barn setting.



Back at home the boys built a round pen in the living room out of chairs and cushions and we practiced lunging each other. Jonas drew a very beautiful picture of Roskve, his favorite horse that he calls his (grandma’s first filly born at Landwoven Farm). His math for the week was a series of word problems involving counting grandma’s Icelandic horses and imagining rearranging them according to different pastures at the farm.

Horse week was a spectacular success!

Week One: Spiders!

Upon embarking on our unique homeschooling adventure I am overjoyed at the progress already made by Jonas especially (Ronan enjoys everything but at 3 is basically mimicking his brother). He is quick to learn letters and enjoys our games finding other words that begin with the letter we are working on. “S” is a particular favorite of both boys because it begins “Superman” and “Spiderman” in addition to “Spider” and “Soup.” Jonas created spider art paying particular attention to the number of legs the spider we were studying had (sadly we noticed that the specimen we were studying was one leg short). Ronan promptly named the spider Jackson (a nickname Kimberly uses for her horse Jax) because the spider was discovered in Kimberly’s bathroom. I should note that Ronan’s tiger stuffed-animal is also named Jackson. Seems it’s his favorite name.

We observed several spiders over the course of the week and noticed differences in coloring, length of legs, size and shapes of their bodies and more. We even attempted to keep a spider egg sac in a jar in the hopes of seeing it hatch but were not rewarded with baby spiders due to the season already ending.

One particularly note-worthy achievement of Jonas’ was the idea to make, and construction of, a spider web out of string taped to a poster-board. With a little help from teacher mama, Jonas constructed a beautiful web which now hangs in his bedroom.


Spider math was great fun as well. We drew pictures of spiders adding their numbers together and talking about the new number of spiders we’d created in the group.

Jonas was quick to demonstrate how spiders move and had us all crawling on the floor like spiders. This quickly morphed into moving like tigers and we noted the differences in how these very different creatures move.

We did sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider but didn’t get around to making up our own spider song. Also missed this week was a great idea from grandma to capture a real spider web with spray paint on hard cardstock (being careful the spider is out of the way and not repeating the same technique with the same spider’s web continuously or the poor spider wouldn’t be able to catch anything to eat!). Both of these ideas I hope to use in the future.

Now on to horses!