November and December Recap

It was November 3 the last time I posted here at Camp Homeschool.  Of course I have a few recipes to share, videos of Joseph reading, and a review of Calming Clippers, but first I think a general recap of the last couple of months is in order.

Duck hunting has infected a few members of the family.  Nick spent a good portion of his fall chasing ducks and geese.  He and Amber went to the Mead Wildlife Refuge one morning and brought home 6 nice sized ducks.  Nick's perfected the art of cooking duck - it only took a few pointers from me and now he's the main duck chef.

Joe attends Friday school through the virtual homeschool program.  Just before Thanksgiving he made a turkey head band at school.  It didn't make it to Thanksgiving Day; he had it wore out long before that.

Deer hunting takes center stage in November when everyone eats, sleeps, and breathes deer hunting.  Conversation around the dinner table often includes talk about deer hunting snacks, blaze orange jackets, sighting in rifles, ammunition purchases, and who's sitting with who.  We have so much to be thankful for this hunting season; 7 deer went in the freezer.  Most likely we'll eat it up by the end of July or August.

Can you tell Joseph loves hunting season just as much as his older siblings do?

We alternate hosting Thanksgiving with Warren's brother's family.  It was our year.  I like having a few games ready to play, just in case the electronics are trying to take over the day.  This competitive relay race had everyone laughing and cheering and moaning when the ball dropped.  Good times!

And more post Thanksgiving hunting.

This year we attended Canadian National's Holiday Train light display.  I think it was one of the coldest nights of the year, but we trudged on.  I'm so glad we did; the light display was awesome and it was pretty neat to be so close to the train.  When it was time for the train to leave there were a group of workers shooing people back and checking in between each car to make sure no one was hiding out.  So, it was safe even though we were so close.  It happened to be the vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Thanks to the internet I was able to look up a Catholic church and see what time their vigil Mass would be and it ended up working out perfectly.  I always enjoy, out of curiosity, attending Mass at other churches.  I was surprised by the number of youth at Mass that evening; there had to be at least 100 teens.  And to really top off the night we went out for a late supper at Culver's.

The search for the perfect Christmas tree had us all trudging along one Sunday afternoon.  We had slim pickings so when someone spotted a 30 foot tree with a beautiful top, we decided it would be perfect.

We all watched as Nick notched and sawed and pushed a little until it came down.

We left the bottom section of the tree in the woods for rabbit habitat; Sam carried the top to the truck.

December is also the month of Peter's birthday.  Right away in the morning (when you're the tallest) I measured Peter.  Turns out he's the tallest 5 year old yet.  I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but the boys' measurements are on the left and the girls on the right.

Peter and Maria love to color, so when I found this over-sized Melissa and Doug coloring pad, I snagged one for Peter and Maria each, plus the crayon sets.  Maria got her set for Christmas, but Peter immediately went to coloring.  The pictures are big, clear, and exactly the types of things boys like to color:  spaceships, dinosaurs, race cars, and tractors.

Peter asked for angel food cake, but also wanted cupcakes.  I decided to make mini angel food cupcakes with white frosting, which represented snow and then made white chocolate (tinted green) trees as the decoration.  It's so easy to create chocolate shapes.  I found inspiration here and here.

Now that was a lot of pictures, so I'll stop here for tonight.  I hope to be back soon with more useful posts relating to Catholic life, homeschooling with Down syndrome, and maybe a couple of recipes.

Have a wonderful evening.  We're coming off a cold week of below 0 temps and moving into a week filled with freezing rain and increasing temperatures.

Weekly Wrap-up #3 {the week the van doors fell off and Peter threw up his Halloween candy}

That title is a bit loaded.  Last Sunday after attending 7:30 a.m. Mass, I planned out our homeschool week.  Reading, handwriting, math, art, history, chemistry - all the details were planned out and ready to go.

Then the duck hunters came home and the van door wouldn't close.  Back track 18 months, the other sliding door broke and was Duck taped - good enough.  The remaining sliding door has been giving us grief for 6 months or more, and sadly, Sunday, it wouldn't latch shut.  Warren made a few calls, got some pointers, and tackled the job of fixing it.

Well you know the phrase, drive it till the doors fall off.  That's exactly what happened, because when he tried fixing the door, it actually fell off the track.  Our favorite body shop man is on vacation until just before deer season so we're down a vehicle for a few weeks.  We've vowed to attempt creative carpooling.

That was the start of a week of phone calls.  Life really took a crazy turn, despite my perfect homeschool plan.  Calling the body shop, chiropractor, pulmonary specialist, plumber, and college admissions office took up a lot of time.  Every call required messages and call backs and scheduling appointments.  It was crazy.

Now it's time for my weekly wrap-up.  I like to focus on our homeschool week, but let's face it homeschooling is just a snippet of our life, so the wrap-up includes it all.

Chemistry Chapter 4 lab - the classic cabbage juice indicator lab.  We're working through Focus on High School Chemistry.  It's very thorough and broken down into bite size pieces.

With real lab equipment the fun never stops.  Here are two sets with similar equipment to ours.

It wouldn't be a Halloween week weekly wrap-up without a few costume pics.  Here we have Little Bo Peep.

Hans and Franz with a mini Incredible Hulk

Ariel the Mermaid, Giraffe, French Spy, Super Girl and baseball player.

The costumes lead to candy.  There was a lot of this this week.  Rummaging, trading, eating.

Even a little hiding with candy.

Poor Peter ate so much candy that after all the craziness of costumes and trick-or-treating were done, he hopped into bed and promptly threw up.  Happy Halloween!

Are you familiar with Snap Circuits?  They've been on the dining table all week keeping Peter and Sam occupied.  Playing with electricity is like magic to a 4 year old.  Every time he completes a circuit his eyes light up in amazement.  If I didn't have so many phone calls to make, I'd probably sit there and just watch him.

Snap Circuits are on sale at Amazon for $14.39.

We're setting up for a beautiful weekend.  Most likely one of the last warm and sunny weekends of the year.  I wish you all the best and thanks for visiting my weekly wrap-up.

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Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Rhyming Isn't Necessary to Begin Reading Instruction

Most pre-reading programs include rhyming activities.  It almost seems that mastering the skill of rhyming is necessary to begin the actual reading program.  When I first started the All About Reading Pre-reading program with Joseph last year, I believed he needed to master each lesson before moving on.  Quickly, I realized that rhyming was his nemesis.  We were never going to move on because unprompted rhyming simply was not going to happen.  I have to admit that for a moment I felt despair.  He's never going to read.  This is it.  He's reached the top with his ABC's.  

No rhyming = No reading

WRONG.

WRONG.

And more WRONG.

Eventually, I tightened my belt (loosened my belt)...anyway I decided to do the rhyming activities, but not require mastery.  We would just keep moving on, despite the fact that bat rhymed with ball and hat rhymed with head.  I've talked with other parents of children with Down syndrome and this is a common complaint.  Rhyming is not a favorite activity.  Joseph is proof that a child with Down syndrome can learn to read even if they can't rhyme.  

However, and this is a huge however, rhyming shouldn't be thrown in the trash all together.  It's totally ok to learn things outside of the normal order.  So, I'll share a little game I play with Joseph to practice rhyming.  I call it Nursery Rhyming.  Nursery rhymes are a part of our cultural literacy.  Cultural literacy is having basic background knowledge of one's culture.  Why not incorporate a little cultural literacy and rhyming in one fun game.  

Here's what I do.  I read a few nursery rhymes aloud a couple of times through.  Then I repeat, but I leave out the rhyming word at the end of a stanza.  Here's an example:

The Mouse and the Clock

Hickory, dickory, dock!

The mouse ran up the ________;

The clock struck one,

And down he _____,

Hickory, dickory, dock!

The Cat and the Fiddle

Hey, diddle, diddle!

The cat and the _______,

The cow jumped over the moon;

The little dog laughed

To see such sport,

And the dish ran away with the ______.

Joseph fills in the blank with the right word and then I praise him for rhyming.  Here's a video clip example.

At the end I always review the rhyming words:  dock rhymes with clock, one rhymes with run, diddle rhymes with fiddle, and moon rhymes with spoon.  As Joseph improves, I choose more difficult nursery rhymes.  Here's a video clip of us reviewing the rhyming words.  It's a short clip - certain kids didn't get the message to stay out of the filming area.

For beginners the board book is a good place to start.  It has the most popular rhymes for children.

 Once all these are memorized, then the full length Mother Goose is best - there are so many rhymes to choose from.

And this adorable board book from Tomie de Paola might just show up in Maria's something to read box on Christmas.

Need more fun ways to teach reading skills?

Here's a link to All About Reading's free activity book.

You might like

How I'm Teaching Joseph to Read and All About Reading Level 1 Review

Signs of Reading Readiness for Homeschoolers

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Raising Homemakers

Library Haul

My library account currently reads "61 items checked out".  We've been visiting the library quite frequently again, and it shows.  Our library shelf seems to have shrunk, and now the books are spilling out all over the place.

We tried to shrink the pile a bit today by taking back a few items, and I want to share a couple of our favorites.

Amber has been reading The Selection series.  They must be good; she reads one in a day.

Berry Big Help is your typical character style DVD - characters with high-pitched voices, big heads, big eyes.  After watching it a few times, it needs to go back to the library.

Sesame Street board books are, again a fine library checkout, but not books I'd like to own.

Horses - Trotting!  Prancing!  Racing! is a sweet book about all the actions horses make.  If there's a horse lover or three in your home this is a must read.

Here are the winners!

  We're actually a little sad we had to take them back.

Winter Is Coming is a beautifully illustrated book; the perfect pick for November.  A young girl enjoys observing and drawing nature from her tree platform.  As the days march on, the weather cools, the animals search for food, and her clothing changes from a sweater to hat and mittens.  The kids asked for this book over and over which was fine because it was a joy to read.

I'm not as thrilled with Little Burro as I am with Winter is Coming, but Peter loved this book.  Little burro follows his band of burros away from his favorite spot - home - to a secret place, which turns out to be a beautiful watering hole.  Nice story, Peter's favorite.

What are others checking out from their libraries?  Follow along with the Library Haul link-up.

Weekly Wrap-up #2 {the week I didn't take a single picture}

I didn't take a single picture this week, but I have a few from other weeks I'll share.

We are just finishing week 6 of homeschooling. Why do we have only 6 weeks in? We took two weeks off for cranberry harvest. Well, mostly off. Nick continued with his college classes, but took off completely from homeschool. Amber put in about 3 or 4 days of homeschool over the 2 week period. Sam took off completely, except for violin. His recital was smack dab in the middle of harvest so he still had to put in plenty of practice time. And as for the littles, Joseph, Peter, and Maria continued to learn, whether it be cutting grass, raking leaves, All About Reading, and enjoying plenty of walks on the marsh.

There was all the normal stuff this week - the schooly stuff. 

Teaching Textbooks
From Sea to Shining Sea
Easy Grammar
All About Spelling 
All About Reading
Focus on High School Chemistry
U.S. History
Stories of the Saints

Novels in progress:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
The Impossible Journey
West Side Story

And the extras:

Joe has a tutor every Monday for 1 hour.  She works on fine motor skills and writing skills.  Sam went to Tween Tuesday where 6th and 7th graders take part in phy ed and art and then a rotating project.  Currently they're working on making Google slides and uploading them to their teacher's website.  Peter and Maria attend Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, weekly, with 3 other children at a local parish.

Hobbies were enjoyed:

Horseback riding (pictured below is Amber and Joe bringing the horses back to the paddock)

Duck and Goose hunting (this was September, but they're still going strong)

Ending the week with a little trip up North, Warren, Sam, and Peter are having a boys' weekend.  They're spending it with some relatives.  One of which is Uncle Dan.  It has me thinking about making generational memories with family.  During harvest this year we spent an evening making a traditional family meal - Pork and Dumplings.

Uncle Dan was instrumental in getting it done.  What I mean is he bought pork roasts, sauerkraut, bread, and potatoes.  Nothing says let's get this done like providing all the ingredients.  I think I finally learned the process of making the dumplings.  It looks like Sam, Peter, and Maria will be my helpers next time.

I've also been checking my list twice, tweaking and updating my trimester plan.

And after one more look at my pictures, I actually took one picture this week.  My oldest girls enjoying coffee and tea from their favorite mugs.  Emily's new favorite tea is Lord Grantham Breakfast Blend.  

Description on the tin:

.....This energizing tea is perfect for an early morning foxhunt or preparing for the dramas of the day.

And you can bet there are plenty of dramas to deal with when two teenagers share a room.

That turned out to be a rather long weekly wrap-up, especially since I thought I had nothing to share.  I hope you enjoyed your visit here.  For more weekly wrap-ups from homeschooling families, please visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.