Narration at Our House

In honor of the next CM Blog Carnival, I'm putting together this post.
First I'll copy and paste a couple of things from some of my former posts
regarding Pooh's narrations. Then, I'll provide more info at the
bottom.

For those new to this blog, please keep in mind that Pooh has autism and some of what we do won't be 'strict' CM.

"I'm learning that the key with Pooh is to make sure and do shorter readings. Even the OIS chapter is too long right now for him to listen and narrate. So I take it in paragraphs. Same thing with 50 Famous Stories. I believe that Narration has to be our focus for Year 1. He's going to need to practice and we'll try to use different types of narration in the process. Oral, drawings and even figurines to act it out."

"I'm adjusting expectations that I had as regards some of our readings and narration. I've learned that Pooh needs me to stop every couple of paragraphs for a narration so that he can stay focused. If I try to do a whole chapter or too large of a section, his mind wanders to other things and then we both get frustrated that 'he's not listening'. I also see where sometimes the language used in the reading confuses him or just causes a general misunderstanding of the storyline. It takes us discussing it together to make sure he can follow along. For instance, from Our Island Story, we read A Laconic Answer. He was able to narrate the end of the story in regards to the one guy (can't remember his name LOL) wanting to make war with the Lacons (or Spartans) but didn't get all the part where it explains what the Lacons were known for and why the end had 'a laconic answer'. Which to me is the whole point of reading this story. So we had to discuss it. Basically, I have to narrate. I have found myself asking questions about the readings, which I'm trying to limit or eliminate. I even found myself interrupting to correct something. Horrors!!!! I stopped myself and said, "whoops I'm interrupting" and put my hand over my mouth. Pooh thought this was funny and smiled as he finished his narration."

As you can see from the above clips, the history narration of AO requires extra work on our part. I think we did well choosing Year 1. It's just about right for him. He loves the history stories, even though he doesn't necessarily follow them as well as he could. These are some common mistakes he makes:

1. Forgetting names. He doesn't seem able to remember them. He will even ask the same person's name several times throughout his narration. I frequently hear "What was the leader of the Romans name again?" I'm need to work on writing out the names for him ahead of time so that he can get into the habit of looking at them for reference during narration.


2. Leaping ahead. Pooh really loves the stories. He is always excited to listen to them. I think he has a great imagination in that he is really thinking about the stories, but in the sense of how he would like them to end. Yesterday we read about How Caligula conquered Britain from OIS. At the point where Caligula rows out into the English Channel and then comes back to make his speech, I stopped for narration. Pooh's narration had him on a ship back to Italy. Then at the end of the story, he told me he preferred the story of Julius Caesar because he took ships instead of walking all the way. LOL Have I mentioned before how much Pooh loves ships!?!


3. Getting mixed up. He can tend to get mixed up as to who is doing what. He knows what events are taking place but will sometimes not know which side is doing a particular thing. Today, from 50 Famous Stories, we read about Horatius at the Bridge. I stopped for narration after Horatius sent his friends across the bridge and the bridge fell. Pooh narrated that all the Etruscans crossed the bridge and died. That's the combination of his getting a little mixed up and leaping ahead in his mind to imagine what is going to happen.

Sometimes these mistakes he makes cause me to have to correct something so as not to have a complete misunderstanding of what's going on. I will also ask questions, though I do try to make declarative statements instead. How he answers the questions will many times reassure me that he's getting it, that he understood the main point of the event/motive, etc. One thing in particular I do is listen to his narration and just wait. (the RDI 45 second rule) This allows him to continue thinking about the reading and often he'll tell me more details, things I was waiting to see if he got. This would be especially helpful for any students with processing issues.

Despite these errors, I believe that overall he does pretty well. Many times he is spot on with his narrations and will even connect it with other things he's learning. Yesterday we started Aesop's fable of The Shepard Boy and the Wolf. I made the comment "I wonder what this story is going to be about." He replied, "Maybe it's like The Boy Who Cried Wolf." And he also did really well with noticing that the whole problem was that the boy was a liar. He also connected with some of our bible reading by saying that it was showing compassion--something he had seen defined on TV.

Some other info is that we do narrate from each of the reading selections and as mentioned before that may mean after each paragraph or several paragraphs depending on what I'm seeing. We did Shakespeare for the first time this week and it was a little rough. I let him draw a picture but even from that I could tell he just hadn't gotten the whole story line. Today we actually went over the book I am using for Tigger that has more pictures in it and I think that may have helped. So I will be looking into some other books recommended by some to help younger kids understand Shakespeare. Drawing has been a good way for him to narrate in the past and I will continue to use it on occasion. You can see examples of his narration of Wind in the Willows in February '08 posts.

All in all I have been extremely impressed with the value of AO's book selections and narration. I see connections being made, I see wonderment in learning and I KNOW that this method is much less stressful that other things we have used in the past. Children who struggle due to whatever kind of disability will benefit from CM's gentle learning style--narration being a major part of that.

Another tip for those working with more than one child. My boys were fighting over narrations--who went first, "he took my answer", etc. This was happening even though, Tigger, age 5, is not expected to narrate. He just wants to be part of everything and is constantly listening in. What I've worked out, that has helped tremendously, is for them to have their 'own' books. Pooh narrates as usual from his Year 1 books. Now Tigger has his own schedule of books that I read to him. These books come from the Year 0 list provided by AO. Neither one is allowed to narrate on the others books. It's worked like a charm. Now they can even take turns without fighting when we have our bible reading. They've automatically starting taking turns on who goes first without me even prompting for it. LOL I think each of them having their own thing that belongs to them, takes away the competition and allows the other stuff we do all together to run more smoothly.

As I'm typing this, my boys are in their bedroom and Pooh is regaling Tigger with narrations of the OIS stories about Julius Caesar and 'the other Romans' and their different approaches to invading Britain. How cool is that?!? History bedtime stories from one brother to the other. Pooh is even making up his own dialogue of what the soldiers were saying to each other and to Julius. Homeschooling is amazing!

I wonder if they know I'm typing about them. ;D

Deer?!?

Yesterday's adventure started with Pooh saying "I see a deer!". I thought he was quoting some movie line I couldn't remember so I ignored him. LOL Then I heard "Mommy, come here, it's at the neighbor's." Sure enough, looking out our kitchen door we see a buck waltzing into our neighbor's backyard about 50 feet from the house. Then, I saw another one, a doe.

We decided to go out to watch them when Pooh said, "let's give them an apple." Gramma and Granpa have taught them to feed apples to deer in a certain place in the mountains. So I tried tossing a piece of apple at them and of course, scared them away.

Thus we ended up tromping through our neighbor's wooded backyard looking for these deer. We found old junk tossed aside, a ravine, a bullet casing, rabbit poop and saw and heard the neighbors behind our neighbor, but never saw the deer again. We decided to leave the pieces of apple for them just in case. ;D

I'm a little amazed at seeing these full grown deer in our neighborhood. I can't imagine what they were after here. In fact, they should be down on their uh, knees? thanking God the neighbor didn't eat them. I know he hunts and even has a place in the woods for target practice.

Flee dear deer! Flee!

Format Update

I almost had it the way i wanted it, and the whole thing blew away. Now I can't even get it back to the orginal way I had it. I no longer have the option to upload my saved template either. (hair is littered around my chair from all the pulling!)

Sorry this may be a pain to come and view it 5 thousand ways before i settle.
:O

Pardon Me

I'm trying to figure out how to customize my blog a bit, so I'll be messing around with some different looks.

Pardon any inconvenience while I sort through it all.

Grasshoppers

This week we decided to find crickets, but ended up with two grasshoppers. That would be because mom knows nothing about the differences in the two and if I HAD known, I would have known that I wouldn't have been finding crickets so easily in the middle of the day. LOL



This "cricket" we found is actually the Red-Legged Grasshopper found in the Handbook of Nature Study. Another new thing we learned was that grasshoppers lay their eggs in the ground.

We also found a spring green colored little grasshopper with no other markings. I'm thinking maybe it was a young one that just hadn't gotten it's full colors yet, because I can't find a picture online to identify it.

We'll see what Nature brings us this week!

Tigger's CM Kindergarten

Tigger is 5 1/2 years old and this is his Kindergarten year. I'm keeping in mind the Year 0 as presented at Ambleside Online, but with a bit more structure. The reasons are these:
1. He wants to be doing schoolwork and has asked since he was three.
2. It fits in with what Pooh is doing during the day.
3. I need the structure to ensure I'm providing him what he needs.
4. Nothing he is doing is strenuous and we are following the CM method of short lessons.
5. He was trying to take over during Pooh's readings, so I figured I better ensure he has his own.

I set Tigger up with his own school bin and binder system with weekly planner. It's set up just like Pooh's schedule to mark things off as we finish them. In it he has his own little things he likes to do on his own. He has gone thru one of those animal sticker books where you put the stickers on and read a little about each one. He just finished his 1-25 Dot to Dot book (and is anxiously awaiting another one.) Each day he will do one page of Math-U-See Primer (if he's having trouble focusing, we just close it up and finish that page the next day.) As soon as I get it ordered, he will have the beginning HWT printing book and possibly the Get Set for the Code series.

For Phonics we've been doing a letter a day. I have some letter cards from LetterLand that we go over. They're really cute. They use mnemonics such as Red Robot the theif for R that are supposed to help. (They then go on to include stories about the letter characters like Arthur 'Ar' the apple stealer who works for Red Robot.) I didn't buy the whole kit though, just the cards. Then I have two ABC type books that you find pictures on the page starting with the letter. One is an ABC I Spy book that i used with Pooh. Then he has a coloring book that is a letter per page and you find anywhere from 11-28 items on the page starting with that letter. We just finished Letter Q, so that gives you idea of how far we've come.

We are using several books to rotate reading from each day. They are:

Winnie the Pooh
Shakespeare (a kids book i picked up at B&N.)
Mother Goose
The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel from Thorton Burgess

I borrowed Jump-the stories of Brer Rabbit from the library. I also have two of the Among the ________ People books that we'll go through.

Other than that, he joins in for bible time, composer, artist, nature study, etc. He kept asking me this week to have a painting session to do Van Gogh's Roses because we weren't able to get to it on Tuesday. LOL This Tuesday that's what we'll be doing for sure!!

So that's it! It's a pretty lite schedule for him but satisfies his need to be doing things. Hope this info helps some others looking for a CM Year K.

Pooh's Year 1

I've got to get down to business sharing what we're doing everyday. Admittedly, life has been crazy around here lately, but at the very least I would like to share our schedule so that it can hopefully help others. I know I am always looking at other's schedules for ideas. So, here is what we're doing with Pooh this year.

This schedule is in my school binder. (Not quite how i view it but this is the way I can copy and paste it. It fits on one page so I have 36 pages for the 36 weeks.) I check things off as we go along. We are currently on Week 6 of AO Year 1. I don't really worry about what day of the week we start a new week. I just move along as the schedule allows.

Week 1



Daily Text:     


Bible Reading:     

Phonics: - Explode the Code   
-Letterland


Math: -Math U See    
-Game

Poetry: - A Child Garden of Verses (poem each day)
-Treasury (poem each day)

An Island Story: ch 1 The Stories of Albion and Brutus

Aesop: - The Wolf and the Kid (pg. 7)
-Tortoise and the Ducks (pg. 8)

Parables From Nature: A Lesson of Faith

Just So Stories: Whale

Baldwin's 50 Famous Tales: The Sword of Damocles (Greek)

Paddle to the Sea: ch. 1

Once A Week:
 Mapping
 Nature Study
 Craft
 Composer
 Artist
 Spanish

Copywork

 Poem
 Aesop’s Moral
 Story Quote
 Bible Verse


Notes: ______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________

Trips:
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________


Year 1 has 36 weeks. I plan on finishing Term 1 by the end of October, Term 2 by the end of February and Term 3 by the end of May. That gives me wiggle room for vacations, field trip days, etc.

Each of the boys has their own school bin that has their everyday things in it---Math book, dot-to-dot books (their choice), E.T.C. for Pooh and other little things like these. They also have their own binders. The binders have a pencil holder in the front followed by a weekly plan page (I'll try to put that page in here as well.) Then there is a section for Narrations (this will be for the days I want him to do a picture narration.) and a section for Copywork. This is part of another "Habit" I'm working on with the boys. After their morning routines and morning chores, they should go to their binders, look what is for that day in their planner and start on the things they can do themselves. I'm hoping that by starting this habit early in their lives, it will help to give them a better sense of self-discipline and order and save me a big headache in the future.

I can't figure out how to paste my Excel page in here, but this is the idea....In a landscape view I have the title "Weekly Assignments". Under that is the place for the week date and the child's name. Under that are blocks under each weekday that allow me to write in what that child will do each day of that week. I usually plan for the following week on either Friday or Sunday evening. The boys cross out stuff as we do it and I think that's part of the appeal-they can see what they've accomplished.

We did Cornelia's Jewels yesterday from 50 Famous Stories and the boys loved it when I called them my jewels. LOL I can see how Pooh is really developing a relationship with the stories. He even remembered the basic story line of the first chapter of Parable of Nature after not having read it for weeks! (I had introduced it earlier to see how he would respond.)

We're usually done by 1pm. That's including the fact that somedays we get started late, the kids snack, have lunch and includes the 'extras' such as composer study. It takes 2-2 1/2 hours to get through the complete process. The one thing I haven't added in yet is Instrument. We have a keyboard for Pooh to practice with piano, but I feel a bit inadequate teaching something I don't know much about. I think that's why it hasn't been a priority yet. We'll get there though.

Well, that's our basic day. Today Pooh will be going to Art class and we have a few errands to run so we'll be doing our school work in the late afternoon. Yeah for flexibility!!!

Why Did Beethoven Go Deaf?

Wait for it.......



Tigger: "Because his hair got in the way."


That's your funny for the day! LOL My King informed me that Tigger gave him this interesting tidbit of information after discussing yesterday's composer. We listened to Beethoven Lives Upstairs. I have no idea why he thought this but it was too funny to forget. Now it's a memory I can cherish through the wonders of blogging. ;D

Habitry

Ok, so I'm coining a new word for myself. I know that CM advocated working on one habit at a time. As of yet, I've found that a bit difficult. Therefore, 'habitry' has become something that I've been intertwining throughout our day and life. The habit of cheerfulness that we work on seems to tie in greatly with respect and kindness. So how do you differentiate?

Perhaps things work a little differently in our family due to Pooh having autism. I'm not sure. He's my oldest so it's a little hard for me to judge. However, I work on the attitude that is displayed all throughout the day. So, for our family, it means working on the habits of Cheerfulness, Respectfulness and Kindness all together.

When I ask the boys to do something, we have since toddlerhood taught them "Yes, ma'am. No, Sir". Now that doesn't mean they aren't allowed to ever say anything else. They may say "Oh, I did that already" or "But I need your help." That's okay as long as it's said in the appropriate tone of voice. What we've been having to work on for quite a while is the 'tone' that we get back. "Well, fine then!" or "Yes ma'am, moommmmyyy!" When this happens I have them 'try again' until they get the tone back to a respectful one. This may mean they do it 5 times before it's correct. We'll also do this if someone stomps off angrily or bangs the door shut. We have a 'try again' until the feet walk softly and the door shuts quietly. They must come all the way back and do it over.

It's common for some of us to get the whiny, complaining attitude as well. I used a bible example with the boys that did make an impression. Our family study last month was about the Israelites and how they reacted to things in the wilderness. I overemphasized what they were saying: "Ohhhhh! We should have stayed in Egypt!! Why did you bring us here to die? This manna is soooo boring! Waaa, Waaa Waaa!" Then I asked them who they thought sounded like this sometimes. "Uh, us?" Right on! LOL So now when the whininess starts, I may something like "I think I hear an Israelite." Usually I get a little smile in response. Even when I don't get the smile, the whining stops. Ahhhh, sweet relief. LOL

Another thing I do is when the question is coming out whiny or complaining, I smile at them. With Tigger this works really well, as he finds it funny and will smile back. That completely changes his attitude. Pooh will at times give me the evil eye in response, but will then lean against me and at least won't be as aggressive with his complaining as he was initially.

I've also been known to break out in song when I hear a rotten attitude. Suddenly singing loudly songs such as "A spoon full of sugar" and "Put on a happy face" tends to take the focus off of themselves. They're too busy trying to get me to stop singing. he he

I do believe that one of the biggest and easiest ways to help with attitude issues is to get outdoors. Being out in nature soothes the savage beast in all of us. So if you're having a bad day, week or month, start making regular times to get outdoors. It doesn't have to be formal nature study. Just take a walk. Visit a new park. Find a stream to explore. Just get outside regularly. I'm still working on this myself so don't feel like you're alone. It does work though. I've seen it happen. I was also struck by an example a friend told me about. A couple of years ago she was watching one of those shows where the family tries living in another completely different place or time period. (Remember the pioneer living one and the one where they lived in victorian england?) Anyway, the one she saw was a family living in Africa alongside another African family. They were living in the bush somewhere. I'm sketchy on the details but the point of it was that the Dad and son were just having a hard time. They were constantly arguing. The African father sort of stepped in and just took the son for a walk. When they came back, the son's attitude had changed. Sometimes we just need a change of scenery and the best kind is of nature.

All in all, it's up to us as the parents, to set the example. Keeping our tone mild and kind and showing them respect, while not a cure-all, does go a long way into helping them see a goal to work towards. They just don't know it. ;D

Music to My Ears

Well, 'pass the salt and call me a slug', I couldn't believe what I heard come out of Pooh's mouth yesterday. We had had a bit of a lag with schoolwork due to lots of goings on and outings and yesterday we sat down to get going again. He asked (With Excitement!!) for Our Island Story!!!

The last two times we've read it, we've had a bit of a struggle because I think he was starting to tune me out. His narrations were weak. That's why it was such a surprise that of all the books for Year 1 he asked for that one.

It wasn't on the schedule for yesterday and actually he's got to wait about a week and a half before the next story from that book. (I love the anticipation factor in the AO schedule). Hopefully, the addition next week of the James Herriot stories will allay his calls for OIS. I can't wait to read Moses the Kitten. I remember watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS with my dad when I was a kid. (My Dad is British so we watched a lot of PBS. LOL I've even got The King--my latino hubby--hooked on Masterpiece Theater now.)

I'm learning that the key with Pooh is to make sure and do shorter readings. Even the OIS chapter is too long right now for him to listen and narrate. So I take it in paragraphs. Same thing with 50 Famous Stories. I believe that Narration has to be our focus for Year 1. He's going to need to practice and we'll try to use different types of narration in the process. Oral, drawings and even figurines to act it out.

I almost feel like we're developing a rhythm with our schedule. Whaddya' know?!?

Nature-Tigger Style

One nice thing about Pooh taking art on his own, is that I have one on one time with Tigger. Forty-five minutes of activity. Tigger wouldn't have it any other way.

When we first started taking Pooh to art, I would take Tigger to a used book store or maybe Target to look around. I still do that every once in a while, but lately have been taking him to a nearby Botanical Gardens park. It has a really nice walkway that's mostly in the shade. It's very windy, so Tigger never knows which route we'll take from time to time but he does recognize certain areas. There's also a foresty type section complete with forest floor full of dropped seed pods and pinecones. Tigger has started a 'collection'. Every time we go he brings home about 5-6 new little things.

On our walks I'll identify a plant here and there, have him smell a flower or herb, watch the bird antics, name the birds, see how close we can get to a bird, rabbit, squirrel or chipmunk and watch Tigger walk the stone walkways for some serious sensory input. (he needs it) None of this is planned. We just go, walk and see what's interesting that day. We even discovered a garden area with a copper music stand and who's music happened to be engraved on it???? That's right, Beethoven! Moonlight Sonata. Tigger got a stick and pretended to be a conductor.

I think for us a combination of a scheduled nature study and casual study works well. I do, sometimes, need the structure of saying "Okay, today we'll study Robins." But what cements those structured studies is the unstructered time of just enjoying what we see. That's what brings it all together.

As we're back in the van, I'm about to turn left to leave the park and I hear Tigger's little voice pipe up from the back, "Nature stuff is cool, Mommy"

Yes, Tigger, Nature stuff is very cool!

Books and Art--Pooh

Pooh is coming along in his reading. He flies throught the level 3 readers he finds. He likes the ones about whales, sharks and dolphins. (of course! anything to do with the sea remember) He likes to read his favorites over and over again and since he does those on his own, I let him do that.

After last weeks dental appt (which went great, I'll blog it!), we went to Barnes and Noble because he really wanted to get Moby Dick. Well, I just had no idea the size of this book!!! LOL For some reason it's never appealed to me to read it. I think because I've seen parts of movies that just didn't do it for me. Anyway, we found the unabridged book and Pooh flipped through it. He was upset that it didn't have any pictures in it. He got a little ticked off at me about it, so I said we'd just put the book back. "No, I want the book." Ok.

Well, as I'm walking through the store I kept thinking about it and what to do/say to him. I finally decided to just explain to him that I thought this book was too big for him, that it was a book for older kids (it was in the adult section after all). His response, "You're trying to trick me, Mommy." ROFLOL We worked it out. He very calmly accepted that perhaps he wasn't ready for Moby Dick and we ended up with Stuart Little. Whew! Dodged that bullet!!

I wanted to slowly start working him into chapter books, which is why I went looking for Stuart Little. The chapters are short and the reading is on the easier side, but still challenging for Pooh. He's not quite ready to read it all on his own, so our 'scaffolding' is to have him read one chapter each night to Dad. That way he's doing the reading and just getting help on those few words he has trouble with.

Pooh's art is coming along nicely as well. He's been going to an art class about 45 minutes from here. I drive all that way for the teacher. She is great with him. He only is there for an hour each time because the normal 2 hours is just too much for him. Mrs. K has had 2 boys herself and has many students somewhere on the spectrum. She's very flexible. For instance, with Pooh, instead of presenting to him what to do (ie fruit, vases, etc) she lets him look through her art books and choose the picture he wants to do. Each time he goes now, he known what he's working on. I don't think that showing up and being presented with something uninteresting to him would have worked long-term.

He's been working in watercolors lately. The last picture he did was of a ship, a whale and a small rowboat. It was a whaling scene. It was great and I just got it framed. Today he finished a watercolor of a grey wolf howling. Mrs K said she's had adults see it and ask "Who did this?" because it's pretty good. She told me that she hopes I'll frame the wolf too. I'm planning on it. He's got another ship picture on tap for next time. It's a good thing I love the ocean theme too. he he

General Update

It seems as if the blogging world has slowed down a bit now that it's summer. Some are on vacation, some have poison ivy :D, and I figured all the others are just busy. It's the same with us. We've actually still been schooling between all the other things we're doing.

We're now working on week 3 of AO's Year 1 schedule. That schedule I made up before isn't getting followed because, as usual, it was overly ambitious. So right now, we're just trying to do our work but in a casual manner. I'm adjusting expectations that I had as regards some of our readings and narration. I've learned that Pooh needs me to stop every couple of paragraphs for a narration so that he can stay focused. If I try to do a whole chapter or too large of a section, his mind wanders to other things and then we both get frustrated that 'he's not listening'. I also see where sometimes the language used in the reading confuses him or just causes a general misunderstanding of the storyline. It takes us discussing it together to make sure he can follow along. For instance, from Our Island Story, we read A Laconic Answer. He was able to narrate the end of the story in regards to the one guy (can't remember his name LOL) wanting to make war with the Lacons (or Spartans) but didn't get all the part where it explains what the Lacons were known for and why the end had 'a laconic answer'. Which to me is the whole point of reading this story. So we had to discuss it. Basically, I have to narrate. I have found myself asking questions about the readings, which I'm trying to limit or eliminate. I even found myself interrupting to correct something. Horrors!!!! I stopped myself and said, "whoops I'm interrupting" and put my hand over my mouth. Pooh thought this was funny and smiled as he finished his narration.

I've started reading Tigger his own books and that's working out better for both boys. I found The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Thornton Burgess (used book store) so that's one of 'his' books. I also read him Winnie the Pooh, Mother Goose and I have a very simple Shakespeare for kids book that I may start with him as well.

I still have some ordering to do. I need HWT copybooks for both boys. I am planning on ordering Sequential Spelling for Pooh and the next Explode the Code book. He'll be starting in #3 so I'll go ahead and order #4 when I make their school order. I'm also going to order a simple workbook for capitilization and punctuation for Pooh. I know, I know, we're not supposed to be doing grammar yet. However, he and I together just need a guide for getting those two concepts. Capitilizing holidays, days of the week, etc. That type of thing I'd like him to practice without having to hunt down some copywork that includes it. I found a workbook at Rainbow Resource that I think will be simple and we can just take our time with it.

I found Beethoven Lives Upstairs cd from a used book store and we've been listening to his music. I also have another regular cd of his music. Both boys will periodically talk about Beethoven. We even heard a doorbell at Lowes today that played Beethoven's Fifth and Tigger knew it right away.

We've been to see Wall-E with some friends. Very cute and has an environmental message. I thought it was better than the last two Pixar films (Ratatouille and Cars) but not as good as Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo.

This week is a dental week. I went today for my cleaning and checkup. I have to have a minor thing taken care of soon. Pooh goes tomorrow for a stainless steel cap put on one of his molars. Ughh! I think we're both nervous. He receives medicaid so it will all be paid for but the whole process wiggs me out. We also go to the only dentist in town that lets parents go back with the kids. (I just hate that all these docs and therapists think of the parents as a nuisance and evict them from the rooms!)

Today we did some Nature Study with the sunflowers that came up from fallen bird seed in our yard. I brought 3 of them into the kitchen in different stages. One where the flower just opened, one with the seeds starting to form and one where it was old and most of the seeds were gone. We examined them, talked about pistals, and seed formation, discussed what happened to all the missing seeds from flower number 3 and then did sketches in our nature journals of the flower and seeds and a leaf rubbing. Then we put the flower petals and a few leaves in our flower press.

We've been to a couple of pools, ice skating and parks. I spent the 3 day weekend doing a lot of gardening that included weeding (loads of it), pruning, pest squishing and organic fertilizing. I pruned back a load of Carolina Jasmine that was taking over the driveway from the fence running alongside and discovered a nest. I think I discovered it a little too late and I don't believe the parents have returned to care for the two little eggs we discovered there. Sigh. I bought an owl today to hopefully help scare the birds away from my developing grapes. I have tons of green tomatoes out there, peppers and eggplants are coming and have gotten one zucchini and a cuke so far. I've already discovered a couple of my squash plants invaded by the squash vine borers, so I split the stalk open to get the borer out, squished it and then covered the damaged stalk with soil. I'm hoping that the plants will continue to survive that way. My basil is all of a sudden growing like gang busters but I'm afraid my melons may not be coming along fast enough to get a harvest before the cold weather. We shall see.

I've discovered a new blog that I've fallen in love with. At this point in my life, I can't live exactly this way, but it's a dream to do it. I've been gorging myself with reading from there. I think that I have learned in my adulthood to do some things that I never knew about in my youth. I wasn't taught gardening, crocheting, sewing, preserving etc. None of it. I wasn't even taught to cook anything. My whole adult life has been a learning process with all of it. So to me, I'm accomplishing major stuff by doing what I am doing. I picked up a bread machine for a $1 at a yard sale, so I can make fresh bread. I still haven't gotten the whole by hand thing down but I still try here and there. I make our own pizzas for boys' night Fridays. I'm gardening and from that, learning to freeze and can food. I haven't gotten to the point of pressure cooking but maybe one day. It's a little by little process. I make our own scarves by crocheting and have been slowly crocheting a black shawl type thing. Add to all this learning stuff, that the older I get the more ADD I think I am, and you have a very interesting life. :D

I haven't been doing any official RDI lately. However, I'm still mindful each day of how I can be declarative, non-verbal and illicit more gestures from Pooh. I just don't know if we'll ever be able to keep up with life and RDI the way that we should. Sometimes I get freaked out by all that is involved in being a mom, but I try to just take one day at a time and do what I have to do for that day.

I need to get some other things accomplished this week like sending out invites for the boys' party, contacting one of those book clubs that don't realize I keep returning their automatic shipments and getting a flyer ready for our Yard Sale Fundraiser that I'm in charge of for our homeschool coop. Eeeeeek!!! One day at a time, breathe, one day at a time....

The War

I'm happy to say I'm winning!!!! I have a WAR with Japanese Beetles every year. They usually win by eating every rosebud in sight and demolishing the leaves of many of my plants including (but definately not limited to) grapes, morning glory, roses, rose of sharon and canna lilies.

This year I was proactive in starting my spray program. It's even ORGANIC!!! I have a two gallon sprayer on wheels with a battery operated sprayer that I put Neem Oil in with a little dish soap. I still see a stray beetle here and there, but the diffence is amazing. I'm using it on my eggplants too, to detract the Flea Beetles. (another extremely damaging bug!) Neem Oil is very inexpensive, but you have to just get out there and spray it. It will help save your veggies and plants.

Gardening Tip of the Summer :D

Sad News

I tried posting this over the weekend, but my post got eaten by something and I was too tired to do it all again.

The babies died. All of them. I knew the little one was going to die. It passed the day after the fall. Then the second one was almost dead the last time I saw it. The next morning they had disappeared. I'm not sure if the mom got rid of them or something came and ate them or what. The strongest of the babies was still in the nest which is why I'm thinking it must have been mom who did it. The last baby died by day 3.

I'm not sure why, but I believe the mom (or dad, you can't tell male/female titmice apart) gave up on the babies. The feedings were few and far inbetween. I watched for 20 minutes straight at one point and never saw them fed. I wonder if the fact that only one parent was doing the work was what made the difference. The last time we helped out a fallen baby, there was only one baby and 2 parents. Maybe 3 against 1 was just too much.

So nature has taken its course, sadly. One positive note is that within that time, I saw another Titmouse parent teaching it's young one to eat at the feeders, so we'll have plenty of future Titmice around.

Kitchen Explosion!!!

This is to inform those of you who haven't yet learned this by experience...Turn Off Your Stove Burners!!!!!!!

I decided that to be more frugal in this now very expensive world, I would make my own granola bars. I usually buy Kashi bars for me and the kids because they are relatively healthy and an easy snack for all the grab and go occasions.

It turned out to be a not so frugal move on my part.

Oh, the bars looked beautiful when I pulled them out of the oven. However, one mustn't eat granola bars with an extra layer of GLASS! Sigh Yes, I left the burner on after heating the honey, brown sugar and peanut butter. Yes, I set my glass casserole dish on top of the stove to cool. No, it didn't cool, but in fact got very hot. Yes, the whole thing exploded and shattered all over my kitchen. No, no one got hurt in the process (THANK GOODNESS! I seriously would have had to go to the emergency room if anyone had been in the kitchen at the time.) Yes, I just wasted more money than a box of Kashi bars. Yes, the boys thought it was cool. After all, there was a "volcano" in the kitchen. What boy wouldn't find that cool?!?

Yes, I'll try it again after I've had time to recover from the trauma. And buy a new casserole dish. (There goes frugality! I'm heading to Goodwill in the hopes that one will be there.)

Bird Rescue

Those Japanese Beetles are here!!! They're attacking my grape vines and my rose bushes. So I got out my sprayer and hosed the plants down with neem oil in the hopes that it would get rid of them. We'll see.

So after being out in the hot sun today, I needed a big glass of ice water in the shade. As I'm peacefully sitting there, along with my trusty timer to let me know when the tea water will be boiling, I look to the left of our swing and see a little baby bird on the ground just wriggling away. I was horrified because he was a teeny tiny thing. Still all pink. Then I'm even more horrified to realize that there's not just one of them, but THREE!! Someone must have attacked the nest. Grrrrr!!!

About 4 years ago, we found a sole baby bird too young to fly under the trees. The King took one of those tiny plastic tool caddys that they sell for kids, drilled holes in it for drainage, hooked it to a stick with a long shoelace, filled it with pine needles and inserted the stick in the ground. We put the baby bird in that and don't you know that the parents found him and fed him until he was old enough to fly away. Too Cool!!

We still have that stick with the caddy attached, so I put all three baby birds in it. I watched for about 20 minutes but nobody came to the rescue. I thought for sure the birds were goners, maybe the parents were dead. A few hours later, I was eating a snack looking out the window and saw a bird go to our Homemade Nest. I got out my trusty telescope (can't use binoculars because of my vision) and discovered that they are Tufted Titmouse babies!!!! I love the titmice, they flit around so fast like they are ADD or something. LOL

There only seems to be one parent feeding the babies. I'm guessing somebody got eaten and the babies dumped in the process. Hopefully, they'll survive. There is one I'm especially worried about as he was the most listless. Thankfully, I was sitting there and got them when they were still in decent shape. And before the dog ate them. Ewwww! As soon as I picked them up, they opened their little beaks and started squawking for food. You can sometimes see the little heads come up from the top of our Homemade Nest because they are hungry and want something NOW. he he I don't think they're being fed fast enough.

I did what I could. Now it's up to momma (or perhaps Papa- I can't tell the males and females apart)

Goings On For This Week

First I have to tell a funny. Last night, during our family bible study, we were discussing the story of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. Towards the end, Tigger starts talking about how a king killed some of the Israelites.

Me: You mean Pharoah?

Tigger: Yes, I mean no. Another king.

Me: (in the interest of trying to figure out which king he meant I proceed to ask) When did this happen?

Tigger: Uh, 1845?

ROFLOL. He is such a hoot, sometimes. Later that night, when they were having their before bed snack, I heard something drop but it didn't sound like breakage, so I didn't think anything of it. Next thing I know, Tigger is snuggling up to me and in a very little voice says, "Pooh broke your cup and he's very very sorry." Then I see Pooh standing there with a very sad face. All was well and I reassured them I wasn't upset.

Thankfully, it was an already cracked cup. LOL

For the rest of the week, I'll be squeezing in some school work with getting ready for this year's District Convention. I have clothes to get ready, food to organize and prepare and keep up with the regular routine as much as possible. Pooh also has an early morning dental appt on Thursday. I found a piece of one of his molars missing last week and it wigged me out. Eeewwww! I hate the dentist anyway but am trying to keep a calm demeanor for his sake.

Well, I must go finish cleaning up all the glass in my kitchen. I just about half an hour ago (in the middle of blogging) heard a crash. I had put my glass pan of freshly made granola bars on an evidently still on burner. Result: a glass explosion. It is swept but needs vacuuming. So toodaloo!!!

My New Habit

As part of our new schedule, I'm trying a new habit for myself. Early Rising. Anyone who knows me will get a good chuckle over this one. I'm terrible at waking up. I don't hear alarms or the sound gets incorporated so well into my dreams that I end up punching a dresser. :O

My goal is to be getting up at 6:30. Yes, this is early for me. I usually am a 8-8:30 kind of gal, but by then the morning is half over. So The King and I have devised a little schedule of sorts for getting us both up and going in the mornings. His new summer schedule at work is to go in for 10 hours 4 days a week. That means he has to be up at 5:30 (his alarm goes off and no I never hear it). He gets ready and wakes me at 6:30 when he's ready to leave. His waking me is just enough so that when my alarm goes off (NPR), I start hearing it and the news stories wake me up. Buzzers just kill me. I hear them, bang them, then ignore them. It has to be a very loud NPR.

I actually did very well this week. I was up between 6:30 and 7:00 every morning except this one. I think the week caught up with me today and I had an allergy thing start during the night, which always throws my sleep off. So I feel fairly successfull at my new habit. I was even vacuuming before 8am the first two mornings!!!!

Our problem now is getting in bed at a decent hour so that this habit doesn't cause a lack of sleep. Life just seems to make early to bed very difficult. I'll let you know if I can figure something out with that one.

Ahoy Maties!

The boys love anything to do with pirates. They dress up all the time and find all sorts of items to change into pirate-looking costumes. They've been known to walk through Walmart and visit the post office in full gear. When they're dressed up and in a store, I'm the captain and give orders for helping load the ship. ;D I've been known to order them to 'swab the deck' ie mop the floor for all you landlubbers. Pooh's favorite author is Robert Louis Stevenson because as he says: "He loved pirates too!" LOL Earlier in the year they memorized the poem Pirate Story and they love Treasure Island and Kidnapped. They haven't yet heard the story Kidnapped but Pooh watched a version on PBS with The King last year.

This year, in honor of Tigger's potty training, he got to pick the theme for their summer party. Pirates!!!! Of course. he he So, I've already found some of the supplies at the dollar store and will be getting supplies for making a pirate cake (too expensive to buy one and they just don't look as good as some I've seen on line).

Here are a couple of pictures for your enjoyment.








Just for fun I'll give you a couple of photos from last year's summer party with the theme of Space. There was an Earth cake and Alien cupcakes.