bits

My goal on the task site is to make about 1.30 or more a day for the month, on average, and that would equal around 40 dollars for the month (in gift cards, which must be spent on that site).  I've been averaging a little more than that, and am getting close to my second gift card for the month.  Mark said not to treat it as a second job, but it feels like a good thing to do with extra time - and it really doesn't take that much time... it isn't like I'm devoting even an hour to it usually, and if it is an hour the return is a lot greater than 1.30.  I have to say I feel kind of excited to watch that card balance grow and know we can get something extra I wouldn't normally buy with our bank account dollars.  But there are extra things we can use here and there, birthday gifts and home items being the firstmost category.  Esme has pointed out a color of sheet for her bed that she would like in the future (I asked her) and we talked about colors of tshirts in case I throw one of those for her on an order.  Those seem like useful 'stock up' things to throw in the cart because we'll always get to needing them.

Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste  This is what I was talking about yesterday.  I could probably eat the entire jar with a spoon.  It isn't spicy to me, only savory sweet and citrus tasting.  I put a good tablespoon of it right out of the jar on a sliced boiled egg yesterday.

Esme had some complications with a girl at school who had bamboozled her out of money this week - now she doesn't want to be her friend because Esme found out that the taking of the money was not cool and that her 'friend' tricked her.  She would have better chances of having a true friend with someone else, I told her.  Live and learn.  Esme's PTC is next Monday and now I have it organized at work so I can go to it.

I've been in late the last two days - which has given me time in the morning to do things at home.  We went to the store yesterday morning and by the time I got home it felt like I had lived two days instead of one.  Seriously, as I was driving home I had to think hard - 'Was that this morning?  It seems like a whole different day now, like yesterday...'

Esme would like to play with a friend Sunday but I also want her to go out and take photos of a local landmark to send to a pen pal request from Australia.  It is the only day I get 'off' this week so I was hoping she would want to go do that with me.  I keep thinking about her standing trying to hide under my coat on a cold day earlier this week - looking up at me through her eyelashes... I'm going to miss that when she gets taller than me.

Her new backpack should be coming sometime soon... another week or two maybe.  Her old one is quite sticky inside (even though we rinsed it out!) from repeated spills of drinks and the exploded banana.

SNACK ACCOUNT
How will you spend it?
We've also enacted a weekly 'snack fund' for her, ten dollars maximum (no rollover) to spend on SNACK items we would normally not buy as food OR to spend on buying school lunch or breakfast instead of what she would normally take from home.  She has to plan it out, make choices, and understand that if she takes the money to school and gets it tricked away from her.. well... we can't do anything by the school rules.  So, she'd better pack something in the morning.  We will keep all of our regular 'food' items stocked as always.  Sugary drinks and snacks she wants outside of our usual fare she would have to ask for and decide if that is her choice for the week.  She also has to choose does she want that kind of ice cream bar and then eat half of them immediately after we get them home?  Well... that was $ off your snack account and we won't go automatically buy another box tomorrow.  ETC.  (Can you tell we're not fans of LOTS of sugary drinks and snacks in general?  We keep maybe one or two cookie items on the table in bags and neither of us drink soda).  She always has Kool-Aid in the fridge, yogurt, cereal bars and free reign of anything she can make by herself as long as she isn't wasting it.  We make dinner or 'graze collectively' every night depending on what the leftover situation is from the night before.

Her original request yesterday was that she would like to have us pay a full month of breakfast and lunch at school in addition to the snack items she already purchased this week at the grocery.  Someone else at school told her that all breakfast and lunch are 'free' for them, because their parents pay it.  Hmm.. that's not free kid. I showed her the math, and then told her how much that was compared to what we spent for the entire week for the family groceries. I reminded her that she had decided at the beginning of the year that she wanted to pack her lunch and that we had made our grocery decisions all the way up to now based on that.   

She listened to our snack account proposal and decided that it sounded fair and she could be responsible to make those choices.  She looked at the lunch menu for today and tomorrow and decided that she didn't care for the food served today but did want tomorrows.. so she will get hot lunch tomorrow (but still pack a drink and a snack on the side just in case).

Archaeology

 

 The 'archaeologist' says there was an ocean here six million years ago - she has found shells, but no dinosaurs.  She'd been out there for over an hour.  I sent her in for a bath!

We're currently reading 'Harry Cat's Pet Puppy' by George Selden for our bedtime book.  Monday is her second appointment at the pediatric dentist.   We've also been getting a few things ready for her to have a flea market day and make some money off some of her 'baby' toys.

End of Second Grade Homeschool certificate

It was a great year!

I was especially proud of her for her advancement in math and also for reading chapter books.

First Haircut

She got a trim a few months back, but now she really got it cut in preparation for school starting back in a few months.  We hope she'll be able to brush it out herself by the time August rolls around.

 The hairstylist was crying a little bit from something else - and this made her very emotional, too.  Esme cried just a little bit because of it, but it turned out very nice.

I saved a lock of it for her in her baby book.. it was over four inches long.

//and update : My dad was out of the hospital and seemed to be back in spirits... it sounded like a very scary time for them.  We talked to him on the phone for about an hour a few nights ago.

Friday test week last day of second grade homeschool

8.45    - PE; stationary cycle
9a    - CC Math Workbook
9.15    - reading: Changes for Felicity ch 3 to end
10a    - cooking: scrambled egg sandwich
10.15    - video: Hidden Kingdoms ep 2
11.15    - PE: running laps
11.30    - writing two pages 74/100
2p    - done

We had a long discussion about public school and expectations when she returns tonight.  We told her to think about third vs. fourth  - in case we have a choice.  She doesn't have to decide just now, but there are a lot of things she does have to mull over.

Thursday test week

9.15    - CC Math workbook
9:30     - Felicity book : Changes for Felicity ch 1-3
10.30    - reading: A Good Day's Fishing, Too Many Tamales (she wanted to read it again)
11    - TCAP Science test (all)
    - 66/69, 96%
12.15    - break

1.15    - test review; writing 2 pages about School of Dragons 75/100 (68, +7)
4pm   - done

I discussed with her she will have to do more writing with me this summer to keep in practice.  We have still been discussing whether to try to get her to start fourth grade this next year (if that is even possible with this school system) or to simply accept they will put her into third grade if she returns this year.

Wednesday

She had an utter failure this morning to cooperate at her dental cleaning. She was bawling and screaming at every attempt to touch her, open her mouth, look inside or even spray water.  The lady couldn't even do one thing that she needed to get done.  I was really stressed out as well, nothing worked and the entire hour went by with no progress.  So, now we have an exam at the pediatric surgeon's office in Jackson for Monday.  And she is frightened to death of that, too... 

12.30    - TCAP MAth test (all)
    - 50/55, 90%
2p    - video: Life in the Undergrowth ep 3
3p    - break

3.45    - video: Lewis and Clark pt 4
4.45    - writing: two pages about School of Dragons - 68/100 on scoring +5 bonus points for spelling =73 (infested, gronckle, zippleback, explored, volcano)

(50 points for writing 2 full pages, using punctuation and capitalization in general throughout... then , 2 points off for each spelling error, missed capitalization and for incomplete or run-on sentences.  +1 point back for each difficult word attempted correctly, whether she asked for help spelling it, looked it up or spelled it herself.)

6p    - done

I sent out her writing from March and got back a critique that it wasn't passing for third grade, but that it was equivalent for the end of second grade.  We will have to keep working on it.

Tuesday test week (TCAP)

8.45    - reading: Minecraft wiki
9.30    - CC Math Workbook
    - reading: news articles
------------news articles about children's lives in rural India (they just got a school eight years ago and very few of their parents had the opportunity to go to school), about the price of books in Uganda making reading a luxury and people working to make libraries available for low income  children, rescuing discarded books to create makeshift libraries in  Colombia, and about Nepalese nomadic peoples and their lifestyle.  We had to explain what 'first world' and 'third world' meant to her for one of the Social Studies problems yesterday. 
10.15    - break

10.30    - TCAP Reading / Language test pt 2 (q. 28 - 75)
    - 66/75 88% overall, (pt2) 42/47, 89%; (pt1) 24/27, 88%
12    - break

2p    - TCAP Social Studies test pt 2, (q 38 - 69)
    - 60/69, 86% overall (pt2) 30/31, 96% ; (pt1) 30/37, 81%
3p    - PE: running laps
3.15    - done

Monday Test week (last week of homeschool)

7.45    - TCAP grade 3 /set1 Reading/ Language Test (pgs 1-27)
    - 24 of 27, 88%

8.45    - reading: finishing "Half Magic"
9.15    - reading: "Danielle the Daisy Fairy"
10a    - CC Math Workbook

10.15    - TCAP Social Studies Test, questions 1 - 37
    - 30/37, 81%

11.15    - Minecraft
12p    - done

When I came home from work I grabbed the camera right away to grab a few shots.  Esme, of course, found a rock.  I made some dinner and we watched The Day After Tomorrow, as part of discussing global warming with her again. (it was on the test, of course)

Let's Take School to the Park Friday

9:30 - packing snacks
9:45 - vocabulary words and dictionary work
10:00a - break
10:30a - park, reading, baseball, kids
12:30 - library
1:00p - break

3:00p - store
3:30 - break
3:45p - math workbook
4:00p - done

// We are going to see the Jungle Book tonight... hopefully.  I didn't prebuy tickets.  It is in 3D

We did get tickets, and Esme really enjoyed the movie.  The 3D almost worked right for me, too - (I have mismatched near sighted and far-sighted eyes) nothing was double vision but some of the distances didn't jive up with other things in the picture... nothing too annoying.  It was a pretty good adaptation, too.  After the movie Esme was starting to get cranky... it got worse after a vending machine ate her quarter... and the ice cream machine was being cleaned...and suddenly the entire world was dramatically against her, stomping, frowning  etc... we had some discussion about that and she turned herself around and started discussing the movie again on the way home, went to bed just fine etc...

It was her first 'box office' film.  I put the ticket stubs in tape to laminate them and put them in her second grade memory book.  Weekend off for her, on for me - I have to work.

Thursday

8:30a    - Science discussion : Plant, Animal (invertebrate/ vertebrate), Fungus, Protist (algae), viruses and symbiotic organisms like lichen and sea anemones.  Mineral and viruses as non-living things.  Discussion again of photosynthesis and breathing.
9:00a      - Science test : third grade, State of Virginia - she got most of them right, we talked about several of them.
9:30      - Vocabulary words
10:00     - Math workbook
10:15     - break

10.30     - Video: Life in the Undergrowth ep 2
11.30    - reading: Half Magic chp 7
12.30    - done

Monday Tuesday

Monday

10a    - Library
10.30    - stores, comparison shopping etc
11a    - butcher shop: why you can't rebuild a cow
11.15    - break

12    - Half Magic chp 4
1.15    - CC Math Workbook
1.30    - Writing: 5 sentences about "Tangled" movie
2p    - Minecraft
4p    - done

Tuesday

9a    - Half Magic chp 5
10a    - CC Math Workbook
10.30    - Minecraft
11.30    - PE: stationary cycle
11.45    - break

4.15    - vocabulary words / writing definitions  ascend, coax, essential, distress  (reading 40 more words (4th grade list), 9 of which she mispronounced on first run.. not bad).
4.45    - PE: 3x 500ft laps
5    - cooking: Garlic Bread
5.15    - Video: Life in the Undergrowth ep 1
//Another good Attenborough special on insects and invertebrates... where they live, how they evolved, how they mate and rear young.
6p    - done

//Monday Daddy took Esme to the library while I went to work.  When they came to get me after work I had such a headache it was after midnight before I really recovered enough to think about anything other than pizza, shower and sleep.  Mark helped me make the pizza, as I was dropping things and generally unsafe in the kitchen.  (a pounding head does that).  But the pizza was really good, and I almost felt human afterwards... the bath helped some more, and finally sleep knocked it out.

Friday Friday

//Oh the attitude this morning... I got her up early and let her eat breakfast and play a game for a bit while I did some German language learning... and then she threw half a fit when I told her it was time to get to her book.  She lost her privileges on the game for the rest of the day.

8:00a - reading: Half-Magic to pg.68
9:30a - break
/for all the fuss she gave she is enjoying this book and understanding it well.

10a   - Lewis and Clark : hour 3
//When Grandma came down for a visit she remembered that it was Thomas Jefferson that sent them out to the Pacific Ocean, but she had forgotten where they started their journey... remembering that colonists arrived from England in the United States, but forgetting that the expedition leaders were born Americans...will go over that a bit more when we round up the last hour next week.

11a   - vocabulary and dictionary words , fatigued, prescient, scarce, discussion of 'heretowith'

11:30a - Cc Math workbook
12:00 - Minecraft

12:30 - done
//I close again, third or fourth night in a row?  I can't even remember.... I get a day off on Sunday.  The book  Auralia's Colors is VERY good.

Pastel Thursday

9:00    - reading: Half-Magic to pg.20
10       - Quizlet vocabulary and copying dictionary definitions
10.30    - Art: Intro to Pastels
11    - Minecraft
11.45    - CC Math Workbook
12p    - break

12.30    - town; stores and mechanic's
//Daddy said she held a conversation with a mechanic named Rosemary and observed as much as she could from inside the vehicle, looking through the windshield and talking to the lady.  Mark said Rosemary was much amused to have a running commentary during the oil change, but very open to answering questions.
1    - break

2p    - Stardew Valley
3.30    - done

 

Esme's pastel drawing of a forest scene with a deer, a nest of eggs, a bird and an apple.

Wednesday

8.45    - Video: Lewis and Clark, hour 2
9.45    - break

10:30     - writing paragraph of Minecraft plans
11:00a     - CC Math Workbook
11:10a     - Stardew Valley
12.45    - reading: "Blowin' in the Wind"
    - "The King who tried to Fry an Egg on his Head"
1p    - Minecraft
1.30    - done

//I had the interesting experience of helping five German speaking teenagers (or so) with a project tonight at the hardware store I work at.  They didn't know I understand some German, and they were talking animately between themselves about the project the entire time, over my head, between each other, giving each other advice and exchanging ideas.  I did help with some things, as one of them spoke English well enough to be the interpreter for the rest.  But - I felt like I was a toddler, hearing things I understood all around me, bits and pieces - half the words understood, half not, some of that was too quick etc... but I have almost no ability to respond in German to any of this, only in English.

When I got home from work at ten Esme wanted to go right to bed.. and after she went to bed I opened up my Duolingo and refreshed my Spanish back to level, then started in on the German course (which makes three languages officially started on there, Spanish to level 7, French to level 5 and cleared level 1 in German in no time flat).  I remember a LOT about German, even though it has been years and years since I actively studied it.

Tuesday

8.30    - flea market & store
9.30    - break

10.15    - reading: Borrowers, to end + discussion
11.45    - break

2.45    - CC Math Workbook
3p    - remedial shoe tying
3.15    - Minecraft
4.15    - done

//I can hardly even remember this morning .. as it is now 10:30 at night... but I know I was there *ha*...  Esme asked me if I liked the Borrowers book.. and although she thought it was long and complicated (she asked me what raffia and morose meant as she was reading the end part today), I think she secretly liked it, too..and was a bit disappointed that they didn't tell anymore about them after they were discovered.... she doesn't want to have to read a whole next book (Borrowers Afield) just to know what happened next... but I wasn't intending on making her.  It is saved on my Kindle holds queue for me to read soon.

We're getting so close to the 'end of the schoolyear' for her... and we've really come a long way this year.  Reading all of these chapter books has really opened up something.. she may not want to read long books of her own volition yet, but she knows it is possible and that there is a lot going on in every book she meets.  She can read the Fairy books and the American Girl books with no grumble - as she knows there are even longer books she has read through and gotten to the end.

I'd still like to cover a few more history things - finish Lewis and Clark, cover the Mayans and/or the Incas and go over (because she asked the other day and didn't believe my answers) what goes on in plant and animal cells - and what that means in a bigger context (different types of cells etc.).

And then after the 'end' of the school year... there will be a summer break, and public school starts at the end of July.  Don't really want to think too hard on that yet, although I know I will worry about it subconsciously even as I try to let it be until it gets here....


Mom notes : // start painted lady peas and more marigolds... find transition metals book and dive into chemistry a bit again during MY  break... sew Esme's pair of pants from the Murray fabric, go through her clothes and pick out the destroyed stuff again.. pants and socks with holes etc.  get a clear picture of what she has again.  And I am eagerly awaiting the book for the Magnus Chord Organ we received from a friend at work... ordered a book of the music by mail.  I was reading Dragonspell, the first in a series by Donita Paul,and it has heavy religious overtones... making it a little difficult to keep reading, but it hasn't really stripped the story too much yet... getting close though.  I have Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet lined up for after that.

Monday

10    - reading: Felicity Saves the day chp 5
10.30    - reading: Borrowers to pg 150
12p    - break

1p    - CC Math Workbook
1.15    - PE; walking & stationary bike riding
1.30    - writing: 5 sentences about Stardew Valley
2p    - break

3p    - Minecraft with Mom
4p    - done

Friday

9a    - Stardew Valley
10a    - reading: Felicity Saves the Day chp 4
10.15    - reading: Night Gliders
    - reading: Borrowers to pg 120
12    - break

3:30 - working on a new box house
//I brought a new big cardboard box home from work - she got to cutting and taping and drawing on it immediately... I told her we would start the history movie a little after four...

4:15 - Lewis and Clark movie, part one
5:15 - done

Thursday

 We went for a walk and found lots of interesting things today.  

This birds nest was in a tree by Grandma's garden.

 This is a fungus that grows on our cedar tree... gross.

 This is a little grapevine growing in an oak tree.

 A hickory tree

 May apples

 An oak tree just starting to leaf our.

 A squirrel tree!  Err.. hmm.

This is a willow oak, we are fairly certain...

8.30    - reading: Felixity Saves the Day chp 3
9a    - reading: Borrowers, to chp 11
10.15    - CC math workbook
10.30     - Stardew Valley
12    - PE; stationary bike
12.30    - break
3:30  - Nature walk
4:00 - done

Wednesday is for bikes

 Zombies are coming, pedal fast!

my silly crew :)

9a    - CC math workbook
9.15    - reading: Felicity Saves the Day chp 2
9.30    - reading: Borrowers, to pg 60
11    - math: counting attendence record (17 days left!)

//We bought a stationary bike at the flea market for 3.00 yesterday.  It needed some repair, as the chain kept coming loose.  Mark and Esme planned to fix it today as part of school - and it works and works well.
11.30    - repair / adjust stationary bike
12p    - PE: 30+ mins stationary bike riding
12.30    - break

3:00 -  Nutrition: What's in a meal, and vitamins
3:30 - done