My Little Patriots

In history we've been studying the American Revolution and the founding of our nation. It's been super. Meg and Matthew have been doing more independent study to supplement what we do together, and they have flourished in that.

We brought home from the library a cool book, Projects About the American Revolution. Meg and Matthew both had to read it and choose a project to complete. As it happened, they both chose headwear.

Meg in her mobcap and Matthew in his tri-corner hat:

And Esme, who was at that moment clad as a mermaid (don't even get me started on Ariel's kind of revolution), getting in on the photo action:

We also made parchment paper, though it barely looks aged at all in this shot.

Another cool thing is that we found this cartoon series, Liberty's Kids, on YouTube. It's the Revolution (starting with the Boston Tea Party) as seen through the eyes of three (fictional) young people who always seem to be at the right place at the right time and get to meet everyone from Ben Franklin to Phillis Wheatley, the poet and slave. It's fairly detailed, engages the real questions of that day, and is quite well done overall. I gladly recommend it!

And a Field Trip Pic From Back in February

Early in February, Dave took Meg, Matthew, and Esme for his first ever solo field trip. They hopped on the Metro and whisked off to the American Art Museum with some of our fellow home schooling families. My friend Christine took this picture while they were there:

This shot was not only cute but significant, because we had just finished studying Georgia O'Keefe in our co-op art class. That day everyone got to see not one, but two of O'Keefe's works live and in person! The kids were excited to recognize her style and subject matter, and we moms (even those of us who weren't there) were all geeked out. It's just too cool when God lines life up like that.

"De" Poems

This year we're using Michael Clay Thompson's language arts curriculum for Meg and Matthew. We're studying Latin stems to help build vocabulary, and in each lesson the kids are supposed to write a poem using some words containing that stem. Yesterday we finished the lesson on "de," which means "down," and the kids' poems were so cute I wanted to post them here.

(In our text book, the author often uses a stem as the name of a character. Both of the kids did the same in their poems.)

Meg's "De" Poem

De's mom said, "Define clean up!"

De began to clean up the debris.

As De degrimed, the house shined,

And the mess began to decrease.

Matthew's "De" Poem

(written with a bit of help from Mama)

"I need to defrost," said the 'De' fridge,

"Because I have ice in my head.

But I don't want my food to decay,

So I'll think warm thoughts instead."

A Meg Quote

Given my theater love and background, I'm a pretty animated reader. I do voices, accents, lots of expression, and generally get pretty into it when I'm reading to my kids. My mom was always a lively reader too. I guess what you grow up with becomes your standard... Meg drove this home to me recently when I asked her if she enjoyed listening to the audio recording of our history text, which I purchased this year to spice up our school routine. The reader is a well-respected story teller with many, many recordings to his name. Meg's response?

"I think he is a pretty good reader... for a man."

First Co-Op

Last week our co-op gathered for our first lessons of the school year. It's our third year with the same three other families (fourth year with one!). We love, love, love these folks and are so grateful to share school life with them. Look at all these great kiddos!

It was lovely to do show-and-tell with the students and hear them enthusiastically share some of their summer memories. They have all grown up and learned so much. When we did our first show-and-tell together two autumns ago, some were so shy they couldn't fully participate, and some (like Esme) were barely old enough to speak in complete sentences.

My friend Christine, who took the group shot above, also snapped this one of all the girlies with our latest addition: Baby E!

They were all quite smitten and spent the first few minutes after her arrival sitting quietly around her car seat, staring and cooing and asking questions of the lucky big sister. (This was a pretty big deal--normally most of these girls tend toward the rowdy side.) In just a few months, it'll be deja vu all over again when Baby C arrives to help the boys fight back against the overwhelming current of femininity.

We're using our twice-monthly meetings to study art and science together, as we did last year. It's so much less daunting to approach projects and experiments as a big group, with more mama hands to make the work lighter! The kids are already excited about tackling physics, and we moms were very happy to find Meet the Masters art curriculum.

All aboard for another year of learning, fun and fellowship! Here we go...

Around School

Phonics with Elsa, I mean, Esme. (Doing school in costume is way up there on the "Perks of Homeschooling" list.)

Math practice with Matthew. (Recognize that Superman wristband, Papa Don?)

Handwriting with Meg.

And... Graham, who sometimes prefers working under his desk.

Or nowhere near it.

We Made It!

"First day of school! First day of school! First day of school!" (Nemo has permanent rights to that phrase and always sounds off in my mind when anyone says it. Rowdy little guy.)

We made it to (and almost through... just one more thing to do) our first day here. Last night right before we finally went to bed, Dave took this fancy panoramic picture of my vanquished school room--and me, at last the victor over confusion and disorder! (Although the rest of my house is telling quite a different story.)

The kids were excited last night and didn't sleep well, so we had a few minor rough patches through the morning, but overall I'd say it went very well. I wanted it to go well so badly; I had to pray ahead of time for God's help to hold it loosely and not freak out if something bombed... and then I had to hurry and pray some more in the moment when one (or more) kid didn't respond as I'd hoped. "Do NOT freak out! Do NOT get angry!" (Had to be kinda bossy to myself too.)

Some obligatory first day pics here...

Miss "I-Can't-BELIEVE-I'm-in-Third-Grade!!!"

Mr. "If-You-Have-to-Take-More-Than-One-Shot-I-Am-Totally-Not-Cooperating"

Miss "But-I-Can't-Help-It-My-Head-Just-Cocks-Itself!"

See? She can't even smile properly when her head isn't tipped to one side.

There's a surplus of cuteness there, I tell you. It's a problem.

Oh, and here's Mr. "I-Don't-Know-What-This-Sign-Thing-Is-All-About-But-I-Don't-Care-as-Long-as-I-Get-a-Turn-Too"

And now I need to go get ready for our first Poetry Teatime! Polly, put the kettle on--we'll all have Shel Silverstein!

Getting the School Room Ready

... and still a very long way to go.

This picture doesn't look as chaotic as it feels.

T-minus six days and counting!

Hey, Aaron! Flat Stanley Has Landed!

Our cousin Aaron's second grade class is working on a Flat Stanley project, and we get to help him. Aaron sent Stanley to us in the mail, and we're supposed to show him around town, take him places, and then send him back to Aaron with pictures and notes and souvenirs of his adventures. We're all over it.

Aaron, this is just one picture to let you know that Stanley arrived today, safe and sound! After this you'll have to wait for your final package to learn about the rest of his travels with the Wilcox family...

"Lasts" of the School Year

Our school year wanes. In the last month, we've marked our last co-op of the year, our last field trip of the year, our last dance class of the year, and our last science class of the year. At two of these events, I failed to get any pictures at all, but what I do have, I will share.

First came the end of Meg and Matthew's botany class that ran all semester. We had a lovely farewell meeting at a local farm-park, where the kids put their newly-acquired botanical knowledge to the test in a series of games against (gulp) their mothers. (We moms made a decent showing but got schooled in the end. Rightfully so.)

Here's the whole class, with their lovely teacher Mrs. Perdue with them. (Matthew's the one in the hat.)

Cute story: all the younger siblings were invited to attend this botany shebang along with the moms, so Esme and Graham were with me. At some point Esme pulled me aside and asked, "Mommy, who's dat lady in the puhple shut?" (Translation: purple shirt. We're working on that "R" sound.)

"That's Mrs. Perdue, Meg and Matthew's teacher."

"Her looks bootiful in dat outfit."

"Oh, Sweetie, that's so nice. She does look lovely. You should tell her! I bet that would bless her so much!"

So we went over to talk with Mrs. Perdue. "You look bootiful in dat outfit," Esme said, and all fifteen pounds of Esme got scooped up in a big, long, thank-you hug, which Esme happily returned. Love that sweet affectionate heart. May she always be so free with her compliments! (By the way, she does weigh more than fifteen pounds. Slightly.)

Our last official field trip of the school year was down to good ol' Udvar-Hazy, the auxiliary Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We went there several times when the kids were tiny, but it was so long ago that none of them have any memories of it. They had a great time, and the museum folks did a fine job with our group.

This is the younger half of our group in their workshop, learning about space suits.

Then they got to touch it, and even try on the gloves and boots.

The littles had their tour after lunch, while the big kids did their workshop. Here are the littles with the shuttle Discovery. They learned about all the animals that were sent into space before any humans ever made it there, which was a cute approach and succeeded fairly well in holding their attention.

And this is Esme and her buddy Addie "flying" a Cessna as the finale of their tour. A major highlight.

Perhaps the best part of this field trip for me was that I didn't need directions to get there, and I didn't get lost either coming or going. Thank God for those wonderful signs all along the Dulles toll road. (Some time, if you want a laugh, you can ask me about our field trip to the Rock Creek Nature Center and Planetarium earlier this year. Suffice it to say that I could not. find. the signs. Both ways. It was not a good day in Mommyland.)

Chocolatey Field Trip

In honor of Valentines' Day, some pictures (once again courtesy of Mrs. Apple) of a recent field trip to take the Factory Tour at SPAGnVOLA Chocolatier:

Love the chocolate smear on Matthew's chin!

Happy Valentines Day and many celebrations of true, self-giving love to all of our dear ones out there--with a happy helping of chocolate on the side!

Could you define that?

During Matthew's reading lesson yesterday:

Matthew: "Glob?"

Me: Nope.

Matthew: "Globe."

Me: Yes. How do you know it's "globe"?

Matthew: Because of the "e" at the end.

Me: Right. You know what a globe is, right?

Matthew: Yep. It's the thing that goes around and around and is smaller... (thoughtful pause)... than God.

We're Back... in More Ways Than One

First of all... I know. Unplanned blogging break. Summer hit. It brought camps, travels, trips to the swimming pool, time with family, a frenzy of new school-year planning. It was choppy, busy, and fun. I took almost no pictures of any of it, unfortunately, so this may be all the summer recap you get.

But about that new school year.

Today was our first day of school. I took some quick snaps of the kids this morning, which didn't turn out so well, but... better than nothing?

Here's one excited little girl, totally psyched about her "new school book."

Cuter-than-cute boy who will be so relieved to be back into a real routine:

And the happiest back-to-school girlie ever. This child was born for school.

Our first day went well overall, though it was not without challenges (read: meltdowns). I'm so grateful to get to school my kids here at home, grateful we get to be together, grateful I get to steward their little minds and spirits in such a hands-on way. They are abundantly worth all of the effort it demands!

Field Day!

Last month I helped to plan our second annual home school field day. (This was for the same group of home schooling families from church with whom we do all of our field trips.) At last year's field day, we rotated the kids through a lot of individual, skill events--long jump, 50-yard dash, shooting baskets, etc.--and only did one or two group events at the end. It went well administratively, but it really didn't bring us together as a group or allow the kids to cheer each other on. So this year we scrapped all of the athletic tests and just did a ton of fun and silly relays. And it was a blast.

Here are some of the kids waiting for the first event to start. (You can see that Matthew looks a little woozy here--all three of my big kids had some emotional moments through the morning, but overall they did very well.)

Here they're all lined up and ready to race.

This is Matthew, doing one of the early relays (they got more involved and challenging as we went on), where the kids had to carry beanbags under their chins.

Our friend Mrs. Amanda Welton, who was in charge of the whole shabang and did a terrific job.

For our sack race we used IKEA bags--not a bad fit for little kids. Meg going...

Going...

And coming back.

It was so great to have many of the parents there and involved.

This was the Shoe Box Slide relay; unfortunately, we discovered early on in this event that not all shoe boxes are created equal. Some of them didn't hold up well at all, and that gave the team that ended up with the best boxes an advantage. But when it's all about fun and laughter anyway, you can just keep right on sliding.

And sliding...

And sliding!

Meg didn't have any fun with this one, can you tell?

Our friends the Bangs ran every event with huge grins on their faces; it was too cute.

The piece de resistance was our obstacle course (all credit goes to Mrs. Welton for the planning and gathering all of the materials). Here are a few of our favorite kiddos running the course:

And after everyone had the chance to run the course once, we had to do it again--with water. They did it carrying holey bags of water over their heads...

And they did it with all the dads (and yours truly) shooting water at them with guns and squirters. That one was really fun. But I didn't get any pictures that time, since I was prowling around with my Super Soaker.

The minimum age for participating was four, so Esme was my little helper that day. She ran for jump ropes and swim noodles, helped me fill up buckets, and used my camera to take about 100 pictures of the sky, the grass, and people's elbows. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of her, but a friend snapped this one of my little Seriousness:

After the official events ended, we handed out prizes and ate lunch. One of the prizes was the aforementioned water squirters, so things quickly deteriorated into an all-out water fight (amongst the kids, that is. Some parent had the wisdom to declare adults off-limits after about the first 10 seconds). By the end of the morning, my kids were dripping wet and exhausted, but very satisfied. It was a fantastic time, and I'm so grateful we got to do it again this year.