My girls are participating in a summer musical produced by a local children’s theater group.  There are between 100-200 people per cast, and 2 casts.  Needless to say, an 8 year old and a 5 year old are not going to get huge parts.  In fact, during this entire 1.5 hour play, my girls are on stage the last 10 minutes.

The original fee for this was pretty reasonable for a 6 week activity.  But tack on the cost of costumes, driving to rehearsals, and tickets so hubby and I can watch the play, and we are probably spending $200-$250 combined for the girls to participate.

Not to mention my stress level regarding the costumes(being pregnant really exaserbates things likes this)–I hope the director isn’t going to be irritated that my daughter wants to be a tulle skirt wearing racecar driver.

Is the value for my children worth this, or is the time and money better spent elsewhere?

They have fun.  My 8 year old wishes she was on stage more(and she could’ve been, without lines, if I had been willing to commit more time and costume money) and my 5 year old is just excited to be a part of it.  This week is the big week of the show, where every single day has 4-6 hour time commitments.  But dividing that $100 dollars by 2, they could have each done a week’s camp somwhere else.  Would that have been more fun?  That $200 could have purchased family passes to the Zoo and Museum, with money left over.  Would that have had more of a fun factor?

Then there is the learning.  I would say the big learning here isn’t about stage presence, or acting.  It is that you don’t always get the part you want, and you have to put in a lot of work for even a tiny sliver of stage time.  A good lesson, yes, but worth their only summer activity?  They already know the whole “you don’t always get what you want lesson” from never getting a candy bar in the checkout lane.  Does it really take this kind of committment to learn this lesson?

And yes, we all know “There are no small parts, just small actors”.  Trust me, these conversations about value are not being had with the children, rather between my husband and I.  They committed to being in this play and they are going to do the best darn job they can, and follow thru on their commitment.  Because that is how we role in this family.

But when next summer roles around, you can be sure we will be having a much deeper discussion about time, money, and value with our oldest.

I’m wrapping up my first year of homeschool, and my husband and I have spent some time discussing how it has gone.

Socially?  We agree that Emily is a happy, well adjusted girl who is welcoming to all.   She counts many children as friends(funnily enough, last year she only considered 1 or 2 other kids “friends”).  She interacts well with people of all ages, as recently demostrated at my Grandmother’s funeral, where she played her violin.  The funeral was at the retirement community where Grandma has spent the past 8 years, so many of the other residents were there and spoke to Emily afterwards.   She listened and responded accordingly, thanking them for their kind words.  She has chosen to leave situations with neighborhood children when she wasn’t happy/having a good time/and didn’t like the topic of conversation.

Family Life?  We agree it is WONDERFUL.  The girls get along so much better than they did last year.  They can spend hours playing together.  My husband, with his odd professor hours, gets to spend more time with her.  We have time during the day to go places without dealing with the crowds.

Academically?  Weeeeellll, here’s where I feel a bit guilty. I feel like I am TOO lax, especially lately.  With the pregnancy, flu, and 3 trips to Kansas in less than 3 months, we just have not done a lot of “seat work”.  Does that mean she hasn’t learned?  Absolutely not.  I think she learned more in the first semester of homeschooling than she did the entire year last year.  And I am not exaggerating.  But is she feeling challenged?  Am I doing enough?  Do I need to be more rigid?  Follow a schedule?  We do math, reading, and handwriting every day.  She’s gotten a ton of science, social studies/history/spelling etc on and off thru the year.  She does music every day(practicing violin).  We go to the library weekly and she does gymnastics weekly.  She does Options every Tuesday, and volunteers in the preschool classroom of her sister once a month.  We do Girl Scouts twice a month, Science Club and Book Club once a month(when we are healthy).  She’s learning some computer programming with Dad and they are going to work on fashion incorporating technology(LEDs and such, I think) when finals at the colleges are over.

But I just have a nagging feeling every so often we should be doing MORE, especially since the TV has been on a little too much this week as I’ve recouped from last week’s Kansas trip(it took a huge toll on me physically and emotionally).

I am trying to relax a bit about it, as I have decided we are doing year round school this year(to enable some time off after this baby is born) and I think the summer is prime opportunity for fun unit studies and field trips for both girls, as Camille will be joining us fulltime in June and begin her Kindergarten year.

But then there is that nagging self doubt again that we should be doing more. 

(Or are those pregnancy hormones acting up?)

On Saturday, we decided to go to the zoo.  Emily had an early basketball game at the rec center, and we came home, messed around, ate lunch, and were off!  While we try to avoid the Free Day like the plague, since it is always ever so crowded, we just happened to have chosen that particular day to visit.  It saved us $28 dollars, so well worth the free fun afternoon.

We arrived around 2:15, and found that, with the nice weather in the 40s, the animals were all out and active.  Well, maybe not ACTIVE.  More like waiting for their keepers at the doors to their enclosures to feed them.  We saw many animals that normally are not out and about when we visit—the arctic foxes and the wolves being ones I have never seen in 10 years of visits to the zoo.

The baby zebras were out and we witnessed 2 of them nursing, then running around on those long skinny legs playing.  The polar bears were quite playful too.  Their swimming hole had a lot of ice on top, so we witnessed the polar bears swimming under the ice and coming out on the ice.  We could see their black skin underneath their white fur.  One of the largest came over to the glass where we were standing and “itched” himself on it.  Very cool.

As always, a trip to the zoo is not complete without a trip to the pacaderm house.  And this time, we learned an extremely interesting fact about the Tapir.  They can shoot poop at least 10 feet.  I kid you not.  Thankfully, we were not the “lucky” recipients of the pooh in the face, but Emily was RIGHT NEXT TO THE CHILD.  We learned first hand why its not a good idea to lick the guard rails(as many children are liken to do).

I wonder if it is a defense mechanism of the Tapir, or for his own private amusement?

I thought it would be interesting to share my pre-homeschool schedule that I created last August. As you can see, I really worked hard to schedule every conceivable subject. I was also extremely naive optimistic.

8:00 Get Dressed/AM Chores
8:15 Breakfast
8:30 English
9:00 Handwriting
9:15 Math
9:45 Dinner Prep
10:00 Take Dog for Walk
10:30 Violin
11:00 Social Studies
11:30 Unit Study
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Free Time
2:00 Art
2:30 Science
3:00 Spelling
3:15 Computer Time
3:45 Rosetta Stone
4:00 Play Outside/Friends
5:30 Dinner
6:00 Dinner Cleanup
6:30 Straighten Up Rooms
7:00 PJs/Teeth/Outloud Stories
7:30 Reading on Own
8:00 Lights Out
In reality, a day in our life went more like:

Wake up sometime between 7:00 and 8:00
Breakfast/Get Dressed/Hair and Teeth Brushed between 8:00 and 9:00
Start Math at 9:00 and work until done with lesson–time depends on child’s willingness to learn and focus.
Read a social studies chapter out loud and discuss/read a science chapter out loud and discuss 10:30-11:30
Practice violin at some point in the afternoon (30 minutes)
Do some sort of Art of choice (5 minutes to 2 hours, depending on interest)
Read(anywhere from 1 hour to 1.5 hours)

Pretty loosey goosey. A bit more than I like, but it was a semester of adjustment and I am still trying to find my “voice”, as well as looking for a social network (and finding a great one. I love NICHE!). I think I have been more realistic this semester–I have things schedule for AM or PM instead of planning in half hour increments. Hopefully this will help keep us on track.

Why worry? You ask. In reality we did school more than the required 4 hours a day. So why try and fit in more?

Well, my husband and I discussed her progress over break. Was she happier? Yes. Was her learning adequate? Yes. We know she did more than she would’ve covered in school. Could she have learned more? Absolutely. Did she want to learn more? Yes. She is the kind of kid (right now) who needs direction and for you to put the learning in front of her. She’s more than happy to do it. But she doesn’t go in search of knowledge. Perhaps this is because of her 2 years in public school—she definitely had more of an inner desire to learn before Kindergarten.

I’ll let you know how these first 5 planned weeks go.

I am working on a list of fun and educational things to do in the area with your children.  It is ongoing, but instead of hiding it in the “draft” portion of my blog, I decided to post it and work on it on an ongoing basis.  You can find the list here, or see the tab above.

In an afternoon, as a lesson in electronics and building, Emily and I built a small robot. Although it has a small rechargable battery, the robot is based on ideas of BEAM robotics, which combine simple electronics with simple locomotion to produce insect-level behavior. This robot uses two photodiodes as eyes, and vigorously seeks out the brightest light source in a darkened room.

In order to make life easier, we used a kit for the robot that included directions, all parts and a pre-printed circuit board. Emily was able to solder all the joints herself, with me only needing to do some cleanup after the project was done.

You could tell that she was astonished when we charged it up, and it actually worked! Besides the discussions about basic electronics, it was a great way for Emily to learn how to follow written directions, and match parts to a schematic. See the rest of the pictures here.

I don’t know if it was because it was a cold, rainy Denver day, but free day at the DAM was packed.  Add to that a lot of crabby docents(we went to 3 different areas of the museum and in each area, were accosted by a docent and our children told to not touch things(they weren’t!!  Not even close!  And we were right there, one adult with one child!)), and I was quite glad to leave the Museum after 3 hours.

We spent much of our time in the Native American exhibits, catering to Camille’s current interest in all things Native American.  The beadwork/pottery/basketweaving/etc was all gorgeous.  I especially love the teepee made (if memory serves me) in the late 1890s/early 1900s.

From there we moved into the new wing and to the modern art exhibits.  We recently watched the 2nd Installment of the Young Indiana Jones series where he meets Picasso and Baroque.  We saw several examples of work by both, as well as a Pollack(the drip painter) which was huge and beautiful. 

After this it was just so crowded that the kids(and I, I admit, more than they)were on sensory overload and were all ready to leave.

DH and I decided we need to break down and get a membership.  They have an amazing exhibit from the Louvre right now that I am aching to see.  If all of us were to see that on the free day, as well as see the Impressionists exhibit coming in February, it would cost more than a Family Membership(a very reasonable $70)!  With a family membership we would get free tickets to those exhibits, PLUS get to see them on a non crowded free day with Docents in a better mood.

We have started viewing the “Young Indiana Jones” series which was recently released on DVD.  I remember seeing these on television as a pre-teen/teenager and loving them.  When I found out they were coming out on DVD, I thought they would be perfect to use as an introduction to study topics. 

DVD-1 Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt:

1. Watch the DVD and Documentary Extras
2. Read Usborne’s section on Ancient Egypt(or other age appropriate books from the library)
3. Visit an exhibit about Ancient Egypt(The following are available in Denver Area)
   1. WOW Children’s Museum In Lafayette(Egypt:  Mysteries and Puzzles)–this was great!
   2. Denver Museum of Nature and Science  (Fantastic Display with 2 mummies and interesting video, teaching resources available at their website)
   3. Denver Art Museum  We like to go on Free Days, the first Saturday of Each Month–this is the most child friendly art museum I have ever been too! 
4. Mummify a Chicken
5. Do Egyptian Activities

For a Charlotte Mason type activity, we decided to create our own fall wreath from organic materials found on a nature walk in our neighborhood. Armed with buckets, Emily and Camille spent an hour riding bikes and scooters up and down the sidewalk, buckets banging their legs, looking for beautiful leaves to use on our wreath. They also collected crabapples from the ground next to a crabapple tree and cool pieces of bark.

Today, we cut a circle from a big piece of cardboard(a GREAT way to incorporate Math and show its value to Art: we decided what diameter we wanted the wreath to be, divided that by two(to be the radius of the circle), measured a piece of yarn that size and tied it to a pencil. The other end of yarn was attached to the center of the piece of cardboard. We learned that the diameter of a circle is twice the radius.

After cutting the cardboard piece out and cutting an appropriate sized hole in the center, we used a hot glue gun(well, I used the hot glue gun) and attached a layer of leaves to the cardboard. Then we used the other things we found(berries/bark/etc) to add dimension.

Husband was unsure about the “plan” before we did it and was pleasantly surprised at how nicely it turned out.

Not bad for a free art project! Learning points we touched upon included:

• Deciduous and Coniferous Trees
• Geometry–radius/diameter/circumference of a circle
• multi-media art–creating dimension and texture

With the help of Scholastic’s Thanksgiving Website and Plymoth Plantation’s Website, we are currently studying about THE REAL happenings of the Mayflower and Plymoth Colony.  I really love Scholastic’s interactive site, and found a lot of information on books to check out from the Library that would compliment online information.  Emily(8) and Camille(4.5)  are both participating in the unit study.  Emily is supplementing what we do together with reading Dear America: A Journey to the New World-The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple. 

Below is our daily study plan:

• Day 1:  On the Scholastic site, explore “Voyage on the Mayflower” and “Tour the Ship”
• Day 2:  Read the Passenger Interviews\Make your own Picture Postcard\Create a Personal Timeline
• Day 3:  Jobs on the Mayflower\Learn Parts of the Ship and what they are for(see lesson plan for grade 3-6)
• Day 4:  Learn about the Mayflower Compact
• Day 5:  The Wampanoags
• Day 6:  The Wampanoags:  Traditions and Culture
• Day 7:  Daily Life of the Settlers
• Day 8:  Was it *really* the first Thanksgiving?  Myths and Facts
• Day 9:  Arts and Crafts from the 1600’s