Math

We've been using Math-U-See for our Math lessons. It is the same math book series that they use at the school where I work, which is how I was introduced to it.
Each Teacher's Guide comes with a DVD of short lessons that the children watch before they start each unit in their workbook. Most of these video lessons are no more than 5 minutes long, but they do a really good job of explaining new concepts.
Blaze finished the Primer book (the first book in the series) last year and we had started the Alpha book, but his teacher at the school had started him over on the Primer again this year, because she said he wasn't able to stay focused and do his math independently, so he wasn't ready to progress.
I disagreed with the teacher's decision, and had a talk with Blaze about what things he was having trouble with in Math. It turns out that he is still very insecure about writing his numbers wrong, because he does still write some of them backwards or misshapen and he hates making mistakes.
For the first few days after we started homeschooling again, we took a break from the workbooks and did number handwriting instead. This calendar was one of the things we did to practice writing numbers:



(The cornucopia picture was made with the block shaped beeswax crayons. I drew each part of the picture on my paper first and then Blaze copied what I had done on his paper.)

We have just returned to the workbooks, but because the Math-U-See lessons are only printed on one side of each page, I am writing a number line at the top of each blank page. Blaze is now able to do his math pages independently.

An emotional day for mundane reasons

How quickly we return to the little everyday victories and defeats.

Another one of our tadpoles died and I decided we really had to release the last one into the lake so that it would have a better chance at survival. Blaze cried and cried. He cried for the dead tadpole and he cried for how much he would miss the one we released. No matter what I said, he was inconsolable. That went on most of the morning and his eyes remained a little blood shot for the rest of the day.
I don't think he was feeling very well anyway. He had had a small seizure around 9:30 the night before, which had ended with the usual vomiting and then falling deeply asleep right away. I blame myself for this one. He wanted to sit on our bed with us and watch the election returns on t.v., but he wasn't as interested in watching them as non-stop as we were, so he asked if he could play his Gameboy with the sound off and I said that was fine. I think it was watching two flickering screens at once that triggered the seizure.





Later last night, while I was sewing, Blaze decided he wanted to sew too. He has an embroidery project that he has been working on for a full year. It's a picture of a sun that I drew on a piece of muslin last fall when we were learning about space. I kept it near my sewing stuff, so that every time he wanted to sew, he could just pick it up and work on it for awhile. Usually, he'd just do a few stitches and then put it down again, but last night he realized how close he was to getting it done and got very excited about sewing. After I put down my sewing, he still continued.He sat on his bed and sewed while I read the next two chapters of Little House on the Prairie, and he finished the project before I finished reading.

He was very proud of how much he was sewing, and when I got out the camera, he asked me to make a movie of him working.

YES WE DID!

What an emotional night! I don't think I've ever seen an election called so early.
Looking at the cheering crowds in Grant Park and Rockefeller Plaza on the news last night, I couldn't help but think that this had been a Revolution. Armed only with hope, we have changed our country for the better.

I truly believe we have chosen the right man for this time in our history.




Now, back to the celebratory sweet potato pie I'm eating for breakfast.

Flag

In honor of the U.S. presidential election tomorrow, the unplugged challenge for this week was "Flag".
We made a foot and hand print American flag and turned it into a banner to remind people to vote.



The therapeutic brushing we've been doing must really be working because the child who doesn't usually like squishy things repeatedly stepped into the pan of red poster paint and let it squish between his toes.



After we finished the foot print stripes, I just painted the big blue square in the corner. It then was left to dry.

It took us two days to get back to it, but this morning we added the hand print stars.





Then, in blue paint Blaze painted the word "Vote" across the paper in big letters.

Fall Festival and Joe Biden

I love this time of year! The temperatures are mild and every weekend there is something exciting to go do as a family.
Saturday we were still recovering from Halloween, but yesterday we went to the Micanopy Fall Festival.
Micanopy is a very small town with a quaint down town that probably hasn't changed much in the past hundred years, but for their Fall Festival every year, vendors line the streets selling arts, crafts, and food.





We wandered around through bookstores and antique shops while eating kettle corn.



Then we hurried back to Gainesville to hear Joe Biden speaking on the university campus.

There were long lines of people waiting in the drizzling rain to get into the area where the stage was set up, but for security reasons, umbrellas were not allowed inside the fenced off area, so people started hanging their umbrellas on a tree (I just thought the umbrella tree looked funny).





It was a very enthusiastic crowd and Biden managed to keep everyone's interest (without living up to his reputation as a long winded speaker).





Blaze enjoyed all the cheering and clapping, even if he doesn't really understand the issues.

No matter what the outcome is this Tuesday, I think it is important to show children that everyone can be part of the process.



This was the only really "colorful" character I saw in the crowd. His hat says "McCain Campaign Platform".

Inuit Studies Resources

When we were learning about the Inuit, we found lots of great children's books at the library. One author in particular became a favorite, Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak.

Here are some of the books we read:














(I think we can relate to this last one, since it's about a very tiny over-crowded home)

















We also found a fun on-line game, that Blaze is happy to play even when we are not studying the far north. It is called Wumpa's World and a link to it is on the sidebar under "fun, but educational children's websites.


We also made a game that we learned about from a library craft book of Inuit activities. Blaze and I made a set of little arctic animals out of white air-drying clay. When they were dry, we were ready to play the game.
Each player takes a turn gently shaking and tossing the figures as if they were dice. The player then counts up their score, one point for each figure that lands upright.



The first player to get 20 points wins.

Note: Don't add a lot of details that stick out from the animals, because those will break off during the game.

Inuit Projects

Halloween is over and it is time to return to our regularly scheduled social studies topic: Native Americans, which is a perfect topic for November, since the next holiday is Thanksgiving.

We started our school year off this fall, learning about the Inuit people. Here are some of the projects we made:





Blaze and I made this igloo out of a 2 pound box of Model Magic. We covered a large mixing bowl with a plastic trash bag to use as a mold for the dome and a plastic cup for the entrance.
Here it is after we removed the cup ( it had been sticking to the cup and had to be removed carefully).





Next we made an inuksuk.



An Inuksuk or Inukshuk ( pronounced IN-OOK-SHOOK) is a man-made landmark, created by piling stones into the shape of a man. The word means "in the image of man".
Because the areas above the Arctic Circle are mostly tundra, there are not many natural landmarks, so the people of the Arctic built inuksuk. They may be used to mark good spots for hunting, mark a trail, locate a nearby settlement, or show where a food cache can be found.
In modern times the inuksuk has become a symbol of the far North, of hope, and friendship.

To make our inuksuk, we collected rocks that had flat sides, so they were easier to stack and glue together. Then we glued our rock man together laying flat on his back.
After letting him dry over night, he was ready to take his place next to the toy igloo.






Blaze made a sled to be used by his bendy dolls.

We started with two 8 inch long pieces of balsa wood:



Then we used the sander to round off one end of each of the sticks so they'd look more like the fronts of sled runners.
After that, Blaze glued short popsicle sticks to the runners.





I made an Inuit bendy doll to use the sled and igloo:




We also tried an Inuit recipe,akutag, also known as Eskimo Ice Cream.
Akutaq is a high protein, high vitamin C, desert with sugar and fat for the energy needed to stay warm in a cold climate.


Akutaq

2 Cups Crisco, whipped until creamy



2 Cups granulated sugar, added to the shortening and whipped.

1/2 Cup blueberry juice, whip again.

4 Cups of boiled whitefish (we used Whiting). Squeeze out extra moisture before breaking the fish into tiny pieces and adding it to the mix. Stir with a spoon.

Add 12 ounce package of frozen raspberries, 2 Cups frozen blueberries, and 1 cup cooked cranberries (I substituted one can of whole berry cranberry sauce for the fresh cranberries because our local store does not have fresh cranberries yet).



Stir well with a spoon until everything is blended.
Place in the refrigerator until it is cold.



Blaze really liked this from the moment I let him lick the spoon. Mostly what you taste is the sweetened berries.
DH got stuck on the idea that I was making "fish flavored frosting" and he wouldn't even taste it.
The recipe made a mixing bowl full of this yummy treat, but you may want to split the recipe in half if you are not sure how your family will react to a new food.