Tchaikovsky

This month, I quickly switched gears for our composer study to learn about Tchaikovsky instead of Bach. Why??? FREE mini concert, that's why!!! Our local children's museum was hosting groups from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and members of the Rochester City Ballet to celebrate the upcoming performances of The Nutcracker. We listened to the String Quartet and the Brass Quintet play selections from the ballet. The musicians spent time talking about their instruments and story behind the ballet that related to the music they were performing. I was impressed with the musician's interest in the children and their willingness to explain in simple words about the music. For only having two interactions with the RPO (both in the past two months) I am very impressed.

It was neat to see the boys bopping their heads and "tum-ta-ta-ta-tum-tuming" with the music. In the week prior to the concert, we read The Nutcracker story and listened the music, so they were familiar with it before attending. While listening the first time, during a lively section, the boys battled with their swords and guns. I was thankful they sat politely during the concert.


Of course, some time was spent enjoying other activities around the museum, too. Although, the boys told their dad that it wasn't much fun because there were too many people visiting on Veteran's Day. We usually visit the mostly empty museum in the afternoon while everyone else is still in school and the afternoon nappers have gone home - he, he!

Field Trip Adventures

We are members of two homeschool support groups in our area. One has over 120 families and has been around for many years. The other has just started this past year with only a handful of families. We've enjoyed two field trips with Armor LEAH this fall and look forward to many more. We're getting to know some great families that live very near to us.


Our first trip was to McPherson Orchards to learn about the process of apple cider making.

The apples get washed then wait to be taken up the elevator to be ground into mush.

Collecting the apple mush on trays lined with cloth. When the stack of trays gets high enough, they move the whole stack under a hydraulic arm to squeeze out the liquid. The juice then goes through a "sterilization" process and on to the holding tank.

Waiting outside for the apple mush to be thrown off the trays to clear them for the next batch of mush.

Flying apple mush! We giggled every time it came flying out of the barn.

Wishing they were throwing the apple mush!

The same day, we headed down the road to Coyle's Pumpkin Ranch to learn about pumpkins and enjoy some playtime.

The far building houses the animals - goats, turkeys, a rabbit and a cow. Luke loved feeding the goats. The building closest held many varieties of pumpkins, gourds and corn.

Jumping on the hay bales was a close favorite to running around the corn maze with the other kids. Fortunately there was only one main path, so getting lost was a near impossibility. The moms were able to chat outside the maze while the kids played.

Petting the soft bunny rabbit. Isaac especially loved the rabbit...but he loves anything super soft.

Asking Mrs. Coyle about the "popcorn" ears of corn. We haven't tried ours yet, but it's ready and waiting.

Last week on Elijah's birthday, we visited the Chili Fire Dept. to learn about fire safety and check out the trucks and equipment.

Little boys in their glory...Luke used to say that he wanted to be a "fire truck" when he grew up. He, he!

Watching a fireman putting on each piece of his gear. He stressed that even though he looked and sounded strange in all his gear that the children were not to be afraid if there was an emergency. I was impressed with his ability to speak at the children's level and make them feel comfortable.

Hanging out in a fire truck with a real fireman!

Spelled to Order

I'm always on the look out for new manipulatives to use with the boys and even though I have several letter type manipulatives, I couldn't pass up these inexpensive new "toys." I found them at the Dollar General for $1 per package. Each package contains 31 magnetic letters which includes an extra set of vowels. I appreciate that the vowels are distinguished by their red color making it easier for my 4 year old to find as he is learning short vowel sounds. I purchased 5 sets to have plenty of letters to share. My mancubs helped me punch out the letters from the sheets and immediately began playing.



After spelling his name, Luke ran over the the fridge and grabbed a few "foods" from our Vtech ABC Food Fun fridge magnet set. He set to work spelling some words.


Elijah, on the other hand, chose his words a little more carefully, being the hungry and growing boy that he is recently. After spelling his words, he asked me to come over and see what he wanted for breakfast. Easy enough to oblige!

These letters appear to be another inexpensive learning tool that will find many hours of enjoyment in our home.

School Day Sampler

Here's a glimpse at part of our school day and schedule minus lots of pictures. I would like to do a blog post on "A Day In The Life..." at some point, but this post is really just about schooling my mancubs.

8:15AM - 8:45AM: Breakfast and Bible time. We're reading through Exodus now - we recently started there because we are learning about Egypt (the ancient world) in our history class using The Story of the World materials. We are memorizing the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20. Yummm...made from scratch pancakes - I've got a great recipe if you need one - and NYS maple syrup! We finished the bottle and it's a sad day other than the fact that I don't have that massive bottle clogging up my fridge space. But back to school...

9:00AM: Everyone is dressed, fed and ready to begin. I give Elijah a run down of what we need to accomplish that day and he chooses the first subject. See my lesson planner (3 ring binder) leaning against the wall behind Eli's chair. That is it's permanent home. On this day, I choose Spelling first and Luke wanted to work on his handwriting.

9:15AM: Practicing those spelling words before the test tomorrow. I like to use manipulatives with the boys to break up the monotony of always writing or using flashcards, etc. Old metal cookie sheets serve as our magnetic boards.

9:30AM: Still playing with the letters. Eli works on spelling words, Luke spells his name, Isaac throws them.

9:45AM - 10:00AM: Break, do morning chores (gathering garbage and dirty laundry), play Legos while mama sorts and starts a load of laundry.

10:00AM - 10:30AM: Elijah's first choice almost 100% of the time - Math - we're learning calendar facts, weather graphing, doubles addition, writing number sentences, more and some more stories, getting tired of counting to 100...so we skip that most days!

10:30AM - 10:40AM: Practicing our other Bible memory verses for Christian Education at church. Elijah is so blessed to have his mama and daddy as school teachers and CE teachers...at least we can say for sure what he is learning!!! We're working on Romans 3:23-24.

10:40AM - 11:00AM: Break to be wild and crazy while mama does something...probably laundry...

11:00AM - 11:30AM: Phonics lesson using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, Grammar lesson using First Language Lessons.

11:30AM - 12:00AM: Mom disappears on account of the laundry monster while the mancubs ascend to the second floor to build forts in their bunk beds and pretend there is a fire everywhere but on their beds...yes, there is loud shrieking and screaming, cries for "HELP!" and warnings of "FIRE" that can be heard all the way down in the basement. I'm praying the neighbors don't hear us...

12:00PM: TV time...A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and The Mayflower Voyagers (another Charlie Brown story) have been the recent favorites.

12:45 - 1:15PM: Lunch consisting of yummy leftover pasta with basil pesto and veggies...for mama...while the mancubs plead for something "better." Okay, flour tortillas with peanut butter and raisins, peas, more raisins and milk. Sweet smiles asking to have a "picnic lunch" as we like to call it meaning that I lay a blanket on the living room floor so they can watch TV while they eat. I probably do it more than I should. More TV...A Charlie Brown Christmas. Can you tell we just bought two new movies?

1:15PM - 2:15PM: I can't remember...I'm amazed that I remember this much so far...definitely more playing and probably folding laundry now on my bed. I've found that if I fold it on my bed, it doesn't get "stuck" in laundry baskets lining the walls of my room to be picked through as needed. I can't go to sleep with piles of clothes on my bed forcing me to take care of them.

2:15PM - 4:45PM: Isaac goes for his nap

2:30PM - 3:30PM: Science, our last subject for the day loosely following Christian Kids Explore Biology. We're studying birds right now and on this day, owls. We read lots of non-fiction books borrowed from our awesome library system. The boys fill out an animal fact sheet for each animal we learn about and then draw a picture of that animal. Facts might include - Does it fly? Does it have a backbone? What does it eat? Is it endangered? These questions and idea for the fact sheet were pulled from a book I reference frequently, The Well Trained Mind. In addition to our animal study this day, we were able to include our "artist of the month" study as well. John James Audubon is well known for his life like animal drawings, especially of birds, so he was an obvious choice for this month's artist.

3:30PM: Done with school stuff for today until Daddy comes home...so the boys and I each do our own thing for a while...dinner prep, sitting around for a few minutes, checking emails, playing, etc.

7:00PM - 7:20PM: Elijah does his independent reading time with Daddy looking over his shoulder to help with harder words...and to make sure he is really reading and not just guessing the story line based on the pictures...

7:30PM: Family read aloud time...we're reading Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski. I like that I can make up a southern accent to read it, Luke just loves strawberries, Isaac pays attention when I show a picture and Elijah keeps asking why they talk that way...it's a little slow go with this one, but we press on.

11:00PM: Mama finally hits the sack knowing that tomorrow will be just as busy yet content and confident there isn't any other alternative as beneficial and rewarding for our family.

Pattern Blocks

Elijah is learning new shape names with wooden pattern blocks (trapezoid, parallelogram, hexagon). The boys love to play with these manipulatives using a pattern block activity book. The books contain everyday, well-known black and white pictures of items (toothbrush, dog, gift, candle, etc) with the outlines of each block to be used to complete the picture. Advanced pages allow you to figure out which pattern blocks to use without the outline clues.

Do you know your shapes???

Elijah creating a "free-form" design...this is really his favorite way to play.


Chaos ensues in the living room during Math on this day...and on most days!

Little Pilgrim's Progress

Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen L. Taylor

We just finished reading this children's version of the classic John Bunyan allegory, Pilgrim's Progress. Taylor has simplified some of the vocabulary and ideas behind the allegory but still maintains a richness of words and imagination. Little Christian is a boy who takes a journey from his burden [of sin] to ultimate peace and rest the Celestial City with the Prince [Jesus]. He meets a variety of characters along the way, Sloth, Obstinate, Ignorance, servants of the Wicked Prince [Satan] who entice him to leave the Way of the King for an easier journey. But Little Christian also meets other pilgrims along their journey as well, Evangelist, Faithful, Hopeful, Discretion who encourage him to stay on the Way of the King.

My boys LOVED this book - soldiers, danger, battles, armor and ultimate victory. There were mornings when the first request was for reading about Little Christian and begging for "just one more chapter...please!" at bedtime. It has been an awesome avenue for talking our relationships with Jesus or the need for one. Now we sometimes refer back to "...remember when Little Christian faced...?" I cried at the end when Little Christian sees his mother in the Celestial City for the first time. He had been asking exactly when he was going to see his mother throughout the entire story and that moment was so emotional for me! (I think especially about my Grandpa Givens...)

As a note of caution, there are situations in the story where characters are beaten, harassed and one even dies because of what he believes. I used these situations to talk about how Jesus died on the cross when he didn't deserve to. But He did it because He loved us so much, He was willing to die in our place to take our sins from us. The character in the story who dies loved the Prince [Jesus] so much that he was willing to give up his life for him.

I highly recommend this book! I usually would stick with the original, unabridged versions of books, but for my boys, aged 2-5, this was perfect! Even Isaac sat for most of reading time!!! As as added bonus, the story of Christiana, Little Christian's friend from the city of Destruction, is included as part two of this book. We haven't read that one yet, but plan to in the future.

Day by Day a Week Goes Round

Day by Day a Week Goes Round by Carol Diggory Shields

I found this sweet book through my library system and love the catchy, rhyming verses for learning the days of the week. The author also has another book called Month by Month a Year Goes Round following the same format.

At the beginning of each of these books there is a poem I thought would be fun for memorization. Elijah is working on it right now and has it almost perfected. We're calling it "Day by Day" because there is no official title so we used the book name as the poem name.

"The sun comes up, the moon goes down,

By tick and tock a day goes round.

The days go dancing, one by one,

When seven pass, a week is done.

The moon is counting in the sky,

As week by week a month goes by.

Month by month the seasons swing,

Summer, autumn, winter, spring.

The moon comes up, the sun goes down,

And month by month a year goes round."