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!