State College (17/180)

W & R went to a Ninja party (and R went swimming afterwards).

We went to check out a spray park at City Hall with friends:  

J had her ballet class.

We all went to see Tartuffe by Moliere as produced by The Commonwealth Players.

Then we headed out to State College to visit with my brother and his family for my nephew's birthday.  They have about 6 acres of land and are building a barn.  There was also a lot of building of kits my nephew got for his birthday.

On Friday, D turned 7!  We celebrated by going to a tea shop for afternoon tea with friends:

R & D had their circus school classes.

All the kids attended their religious education classes, and sang at church.

W read independently.  R practiced reading with the 4th set of Bob Books.  D practiced reading with the 1st set of Bob Books.  I read to the kids:

Wizard and Wart at Sea by Laura Godwin


Knitty Kitty by David Elliott


The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss


W worked with Life of Fred: Fractions, R worked with Life of Fred: Goldfish, and D worked with Life of Fred, Apples. This was an exciting week out and about but I think the kids watched a science documentary or something. J had a dentist appointment and D observed closely. This week included 5 "days of instruction".

Six Flags America! (12/180)

J's summer ballet class started this week.

We all made birthday cards for family members.  We have 9 family members with birthdays in July.  Including D, although we didn't make her a card.  W, R, and D all got into writing "Happy Birthday _____" using bubble letters and then coloring them in.

W played Dungeons & Dragons with cousins via Google Hangouts and with the mixed aged group at Redcap's Corner this week.

We went to Maryland to use our free tickets from the Six Flags reading program!  We weren't able to do this last year due to chicken pox, so the kids were very excited.  Matt took the big kids to the park and I took J to Matt's cousin's house and my cousin-in-law took us to an Imagination Playground with spray and music features.  It was HOT, so we recuperated in the evening indoors in air conditioning.

We went to the library to pick up a book W had on hold.  I got a parking ticket because despite my intention to just go in, get that one book, and locate three books on the shelf which I returned but which didn't get checked in, and despite R's resistance to going to the library at all, we all got involved in various things and took twice as long as planned.  D & R played with the MagnaTiles, J insisted that one book was not enough and got two, and R, when presented with 5 easy readers I thought he might be willing to get one of, choose all of them.

D & R went to Circus School!

All the kids attended their Religious Education class on Poetry and sang during church.

W worked on writing a D&D adventure to use with one of his groups.  R continues his third read-through of the fourth Bob Books set.  He is also writing out sentences from the first Bob Books set.  D is really excited about reading through the first Bob Books set and is up to book 3 with very little difficulty.  We read:

Hooray for Hoppy! by Tim Hopgood

The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson


All the Awake Animals Are Almost Asleep by Crescent Dragonwagon


W is working with Life of Fred: Fractions, R is close to finishing Life of Fred: Goldfish, and D is beginning Life of Fred: Apples.

The kids watched several science documentaries.

Wolfy made peppermint bark from 'scratch'.  We went swimming and for a couple of walks.

One morning the kids got out some instruments and jammed for a while.  This looks all idealistic and lovely but it didn't last very long due to conflict over who was allowed to control volume levels, etc.

This week included 6 days of "instruction".

Bucket Lists and Old Art

I had the kids do bucket lists a while ago, but just took pictures of them this week.

I also cleared out a huge backlog of filing this week and discarded some old, large format art that had been hanging around for the past 3 - 6 years.  I have no idea who did which ones or any stories about them, but here are the ones I especially liked:

New Year, New Leaf to Turn Over (6/180)

Last year, I intended to blog semi-regularly, but it never happened.  We used a Google Form to keep track of 'days' of 'education' and what we did each day and I hated it.  The idea was for the boys to complete it themselves, which also never happened.

 So this year I am thinking of going back to blogging.  Rather than an entry a day, I'm going to do an entry each week. I think I should be able to manage that if a) I plan to do it at a specific, routine time (probably on Sunday afternoons as I plan out the coming week in work and life) and b) I only write one post and copy it to each kid's blog.  I know I could set up yet another blog, but that seems annoying.

 So: this week (a little more, since there was a holiday weekend at the beginning of the month)

We were in Harvey Cedars for the Fourth of July weekend.  There was lots of swimming, boarding, ping pong, and relaxation.

Once we got home, each kid (except W) got sick in turn, so we didn't do a lot out and about for the rest of the week.  We did sneak in a trip or two to the pool in between viruses.   We went to a couple of pet stores in search of a) additional hermit crabs and shells to keep the one we got as a beach souvenir happy and health and b) an additional goldfish because J wanted one.

W & R played Dungeons & Dragons on Thursday.  W went to an all-day LARP event here on Saturday and had a great time.  On Sunday everybody was healthy and attended their religious education class, which was about mindfulness and involved Yoga.  The recent news of shootings of Black men by police and of police in Dallas was raised in their worship time.

After church, W & R went on a 12 mile bike ride with friends:

Throughout the week we read:

There Once Was a Sky Full of Stars by Bob Crelin


Strange Creatures : the Story of Walter Rothschild and His Museum by Lita Judge


A Piece of Chalk by Jennifer A. Ericsson


Rain Fish by Lois Ehlert


What's Inside Your Tummy, Mommy? by Abby Cocovini


Mixed Me! by Taye Diggs


The Blue Whale by Jenni Desmond


Never Ever by Jo Empson


The Sandwich Swap by Rania Al Abdullah


Gwinna by Barbara Helen Berger


W read:


Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton, Vol. 1 by James Robinson


Runaways, Vol. 6: Parental Guidance by Brian K. Vaughan


Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Vol. 1 by Hajime Isayama


Dragon Ball Full Color, Vol. 2 by Akira Toriyama


Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Vol. 2 by Hajime Isayama


R began his third read-through of the 4th set of Bob Books.  He also be copied (starting with the 1st set of Bob Books) one sentence per day to build writing skill.  D continued working with How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons and also read the first Bob Book several times.  She's excited!

W began work with Life of Fred: Fractions.  R is finishing up Life of Fred: Goldfish.

All the kids watched a variety of science documentaries.  W used Scratch for programming.

We discussed racism, violence, policing, etc.

We practiced compassionate care for sick siblings, and self-care for sick selves.

W and D and J did lots of drawing.  R experimented with some instruments.  All the kids sang at church.

This week (+) included 6 days of instruction.