We have big pockets!

The boys found an old folded up pocket chart and a pocket chart fairy tale set and asked to put them up today. We had fun putting the story in order and making a little video to share (see videos below).

Zachary has been writing a lot of "letters" lately. A lot of proclamations of his love for his family. Yesterday this letter was delivered to me.

"I love you KC. You love" and then lines and periods to include 3 things/people I love.

Our books about China and the Olympics have been returned to the library but we are still enjoying the boys' Olympic ring flags on the wall.


We have checked out books about gardening and oceans. In October we will be going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium so we are reading up on all sorts of sea life.

There Was an Old Woman

They obviously enjoyed this activity! Crazy boys.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Humpty Dumpty

Zachary reads about Humpty Dumpty while William points to the pictures illustrating each part of the story. We started out with all of the pieces on the floor and they worked together to get them in the correct sequence.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Keeping busy

When people ask what we have been up to I always stumble for an answer. We are just doing life. Playing, visiting, finding new things to explore and learn about. Here are a few things we did in the past week (not necessarily in order and definitely not exhaustive of our whole week).

We started work on our Square Foot Garden. The boys made plans for what they would like to plant.

(note: the drawings on the top paper are Zachary's - then he asked me to label them, William drew one giant tomato plant that took up all 16 of his boxes. Carl drew pictures of veggies too but I bet he would appreciate me not posting them on the internet :) ). We started building our raised beds but had some technical difficulties. We will continue with our revised building plan this coming weekend.

I found a great site that has local gardening tips including a year round planting calendar. We are considering starting with a planting of bok choy, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, green onions, spinach and strawberries. In the spring we will definitely plant zucchini and tomatoes - 2 family favorites.

The boys love to help clean up after Carl mows the lawn.




Zachary wanted to make sure everyone knows our house is a homeschool - you are supposed to read it as you walk up the walkway, like driving up to a stop sign.


Zachary's love affair with all things red, race cars and Cars persists. This was his dress up outfit this week. (The socks on his hands are Cars socks).



Sunday was the boys' friend, Andrew's 6th birthday party. They had a great time riding this little train over and over. It was a hit!





Last week we had our regular park day at a water park.



I had our small point and shoot camera with us. William wanted to take some pictures with the screen flipped out so he could see himself (and me).


Carl took a vacation day and we went to the State Fair on a discount day. It was fun but we were hot and exhausted by the day's end.

We sat in the sun waiting for a much anticipated show of "horses dancing to Star Wars music" - I mean who wouldn't love that? It was so strange. #1 there was no Star Wars music and #2 the horses just walked in circles.

(notice how unimpressed they all look?)

Much more fun was visiting the farm area & petting zoo:




This picture cracks me up - makes me think of American Gothic.


This morning we made sidewalk paint out of cornstarch, water and food coloring. It was great fun. I brought out paint brushes but we found it was much more fun to paint with our hands and feet.

My new favorite quote

"Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he's not interested, it's like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating." ~ Barbara Lansing

From Throwing Marshmallows.

Up and coming...

Letterboxing: We discussed trying letterboxing a year or two ago but the boys just weren't old enough. Now we are thinking we can ease in to this fun family activity with finding some simple letterboxes in our area.
Letterboxing, at its basic, is a like a treasure hunt type game. Small boxes are hidden in various locations—usually outdoors, though many are planted indoors as well—and the creator of the box will release clues so others can go out and find them later. The box is expected to have a logbook that finders can log into and a unique stamp, usually hand-carved, that the finder can stamp into their own personal logbook as a record of all the letterboxes they've found. Most letterboxers have a unique stamp to represent themselves, called a signature stamp, they stamp into the logbooks found inside letterboxes so others who find the letterbox later know they found it.

Book Arts Bash
Zachary loves making books and we may do this just for the fun of it.
The purpose of the Book Arts Bash is to have fun writing and illustrating books, and to help students and teachers reach across the curriculum to include writing and art in other areas of study. Any homeschooled student or homeschooling parent can enter. Prizes include the usual stuff you can hold in your hand plus invaluable critiques from people in the writing and illustrating biz.

Books we (as parents) are reading or waiting to get from the library:
Homeschooling Our Children Unschooling Ourselves by Alison McKee
Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling by John Holt and Pat Farenga
How Children Learn (Classics in Child Development) by John Holt
Learning All The Time by John Holt

Zachary is really in to Boy's Quest magazine - we bought a box of back issues on eBay and he thinks they are just spectacular! If anyone finds back issues we would love for you to pick them up. A new subscription is very pricey but he doesn't mind the back issues so we will keep collecting.

HSC Conference

This past weekend we attended our first HSC conference. A whole weekend with 100s and 100s of other homeschoolers. It was amazing! We are all exhausted and overwhelmed but thrilled to have had the experience. Our hotel reservations are made for next year and we are just waiting for the discount conference tickets to go on sale.

My parents drove back and forth each day to spend a few hours with us, go to sessions with the kids, help us out with childcare and bring us food. They were an amazing help. (THANKS, MOM & DAD!)

The boys started out the conference a little soggy - in the water play zone. They had a great time!



Zachary wanted to take official kindergarten pictures wearing his backpack.




Zachary and Carl went to a session called Cupcake Geology - a huge hit!



The art deck was very popular with our kids - all sorts of art supplies and time and space to try them out. We have a beautiful collection of art work on our gallery wall now.


The Construction Zone had blocks of every sort, Knex, wooden trains and model trains, Legos, giant cardboard boxes and lots of small building bits. We spent a lot of time in the Construction Zone.




There were all sorts of kids activities. The boys did finger painting, magic scratcher ornaments, Sharpie tie dye, clay models, hands on science and much more.




We spent hours at the science deck. So many interesting things to explore, touch, manipulate and check out.





Exhaustion sets in:


As Sunday wrapped up wind tubes turned in to Balloon Swords:




We stopped to say goodbye to the giant koi fish and then it was time to head home.