An Eclectic Homeschool Journal

Kate's progressing really quickly with her mulitplication. We are using the Mastering Mathmatics workbooks by Letz Farmer. It tackles math from a mastery perspective - that is it takes you all the way through an operation (like mulitplication) before going into another operation. Kate does really well with this approach.

 

Kate practicing for her performance tomorrow. She is now in two choirs - New Song and HH Choir. New Song is a christain choir that meets on Tuesdays. HH Choir is the homeschooler's drop-in choir. HH Choir meets on Saturday's in the common room of an assisted living facility. On the last Saturday of each month, they plan to do a 1/2 hour performance for the residents. Tomorrow is the first one. 

Kate is pointing out to me where we need to start reading in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.

The kids were finally allowed to watch the Harry Potter movies in December. A few weeks ago, we bought the collection of the first five books. We finished the first book last week and are now on Chapter 4 of the second book.  

Josh with the cow puppet he made. For the last two days, Joshua has been focused on decorating farm and sea animals puppets.

We have quite the collection of cows, pigs, chickens, fish, sea horses, and star fish floating around house this week! 

A decorated rooster by Kate. 

A Pig by Kate.

Unfortunately, this little critter got in Esther's hands and is no more. :{ 

Our collection of Feltcraft dolls grew this week with the addition of gnome children. Kate's is in the middle. Josh's is off playing.

Earlier visits with Ms. Rachel yeilded the angels, nut babies, and dolls. For patterns they've been using Petra Berger's book Feltcraft - Making Dolls, Gifts, and Toys. 

Zachary loves to spray water. When the rain took a break for a few hours this week, he was out spraying the yard! 

A neighbor brought over a bag of plastic balls. Kate and Josh thought it would be fun to see how many balls they could fit in the bucket with Esther. Which then looked like so much fun, they all tried it... 

Kate in the bucket while Zachary, Josh, and Essie fill it with balls. This game eventually led to a conversation about volume. Later Kate was asking how many goldfish bowls full of water would be enough to hold a whale.  

Kate trying to figure out how to fit balls into the bucket with Joshua. The conclusions was no balls. J. got stuck and we had to tip the bucket backward so he could crawl out. :( 

Zachary among the balls. 

An Esther in a bucket! 

This dalmation dog stars in Kate's new story, "The Dog that Wanted to get a Flower".  

Kate working on her submission for the Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrator's contest.  

"Mom, I've got a small problem that will grow into a big problem - My Muscles!" says Joshua 

Kate working on daddy's computer. She was using MS Word to create pictures using just letters in the alphabet (think old dot-matrix days when that was the only way we could create pictures.) 

Happy Valentine's Day!
For Valentine's Day we decorated the front door, and Kate made valentines for the kids in our homeschool play group.  

Esther feeding cheese to "Rosie". Kate bought this doll last year (like we needed any more dolls!), but Esther has adopted it as her own. She packs it around, talks to it, plays with it - and feeds it. :) 

Kate earned her first stripe today at Karate. She is so excited!!

After looking at the pictures in the Magic Tree House #5 - Night of the Ninja's by Mary Pope Osborne, Josh was inspired to write a story. He dictated and I wrote it down verbatim. After we read the book last night, he wrote another version. Then this morning he revised the first story. Here it is for your reading delight:


"Jack"
By Joshie and Shannon Stoltz (I was scribe, following directions)

The Ninjas came to capture the kids. Bring them to see the boss. And now for the secret - The Swordfight.

The Knight with 200 men came to rescue them. And they do a sword fight with the three robbers and the boss. The ninjas died. The kids said 'Thank You' to the leader and his 200 men. The Leader gave the oldest kid, Jack, a surprise - a sword, belt, sword pocket, a shield, and a uniform.

The End.

Zachary playing with his new Rescue Hero and Rescue Hero helicopter. (Imagine helicopter noises)

Josh's response to these new toys was "Z - can we share your new toys?" 

Zachary turned THREE today!! Here he's opening the new Tonka truck from Uncle Nathan and Aunt Tracey. 

When brother won't share his toys - play with the box!

Kate pretending to be a robot. 

Josh and Esther playing with the box that the Tonka truck came in. Zachary wasn't sharing this morning so the others had to make due with the shipping box.

(Thanks Na and Tracey!) 

Queen Esther wearing the hat Kate pieced together out of paper and tape.
(If you didn't know, Kate and Josh long ago dubbed Esther the Queen of Munya world - the Queen of Everything!) 

Josh spent most of Friday cutting and taping little pieces of paper together to make space ship puppets and the "Boss ship".
He asks me to help periodically, but I'm woefully less skilled at creating things in 3-D than he. Definitely a talent he has.