persuasive essays go up in smoke

We are homeschoolers but are under a public school charter. This means our curriculum if it is non-secular and from approved vendors is purchased with public school monies. It is a great help! The school is very parent driven in that they want to help us as homeschoolers do it on our own, but they keep a portfolio of work. They don't ask for much in return, honesty and to do our best is one, STAR testing at the end of the year, and a writing essay each year.
This years genre (or type of writing) was or is persuasive essays. We struggled thru over and over, and then the day arrived I handed out the real and test essay questions. I could not help, they could not use any graphic organizers, it had to be out of their mind.
I must be out of my mind, as this goes all against how I had been unschooling in my eclectic little world. We had two melt downs, and one total freak...Eric already had it down from Mrs. Surowic (in New Mexico, one of the BEST teachers there ever could be)! I yelled and pulled my hair...then said, I am going in the living room to pray, you do the best you can, I love you and when I come out, I will collect them. We will turn them in and then be done.
They floundered and couldn't figure out what I wanted or the paper wanted...
I collected the papers and declared the words: Persuasive and essay when used together a common foul world...and that we were not to use it for the remaining school year with out chastisement.
This brought giggles!
I went on....and so forth...I have decreed that this night in fireplace all paperwork we have done on these nasty things will be burnt at the stake.
You can tell, Eric is a bit worried about my state of mind as he looks at me, Anna couldn't get it in fast enough, and her tears had soaked that notebook just a few hours earlier, Abby's grinned made my evening, and Gabriel was just excited to be able to shove anything into the roaring fire.
I took the pictures while laughing.
Tony shook his head at me, and said something about me enjoying this way to much.
They were good fodder for the fire, much better than teaching 5 paragraphs to persuade someone about animals to buy, vacations to take or the pros and cons of tv. Yeah those were our big topics.
They will be turned in and we moved on to butterflies, stink bugs, scorpions, fire ants and killer bees. You see homeschooling is fun when you let it stay your home!

outside the classroom

We had our first official taught by someone else adventure in homeschooling today! We left the house at 8:30 am for our journey to the other side of Sacramento to Orangevale. These are the woods of the park. I still am awed by the nature of northern California! Bruce Larson, Ranger Bruce came to just us 5 eager students (me being one). He brought an old bee hive he found in his recent journeys:
You can see the hive. This is one of 12 pieces he found that was growing inside a tree. He found it after a big wind storm that brought an old tree down...this was inside it! That alone was so cool to all of us..then he began showing us how it was made and pulled out:
It is from the nursery area of the wax comb..he pulled the top off the little hexagon and pulled out a baby bee that had never made it to the world. Just beautiful!
I had my handy dandy magnifying glass...and we all looked intently!
Then Ranger Bruce explained butterflies to us in ways that just held us captivated! Just as we began to grow tired of sitting and listening, he says now lets explore! oh the joy of it! off we went into the forest!
See the holes, they have acorns in them, put in by woodpeckers..they peck out the holes just enough and shove the acorn in, so it will attrack bugs that they can come eat...the squirrels see it as a buffet gold mine!We all tried to remove one, impossible without a tool to dig it out...they are in there!

Ranger Bruce showed us miner's lettuce, and edible plant that is like bean sprouts. The men that came west needed it to get vitamins. They were hunters for food, but needed to get some greens in them. Abby was devouring it...I liked it. Eric said he didn't want to try it without Ranch! ha ha
Always looking for photo ops with the 4 of them...the 5 I took of Anna trying to get up were beyond hilarious...look for in a scrap page soon!
It was a marvelous day...and we look forward to January to learn about the real Pony Express and the last golden spike of the transcontinental railway!

Grids and maps!

Eric came in last night, with his glasses, and only one lens! AAAAAAAAAAAaargh!
I went on trampoline, and I could see, so I jumped off tramp, took off my glasses and put them in G's shoe(a whole nother story..ugh). I put them on and walked around the porch and noticed I couldn't see. The lens was gone!! I think it went under the porch.


So today we graphed out the back porch patio...

They all numbered the slats of wood. Each child did a row to make for easier mapping. (oh yeah, remember this is not just look for the missing lens, but school)
Chalk put to work~38 rows!Once the numbers were all in order, we then took some wood to draw straight lines to bring in cubes to help us. They were labeled by the alphabet. A thru K. We labeled them at top, half way and at the bottom.So now began the methodical search under the porch. The each were given a quadrant and had to go back and forth and up and down in order. To make it more exciting they had to map out and log the things they found under the porch. To name a few: tiny screw driver, numerous barbie shoes, nerf bullets, hair tyes, plastic knives and a lot of coins. They had to have another verify that the find was in the grid area, then log and label it on the grid map.Here is a view of the grid, and each circle is a find from one of the kids(labeled with initial and number) and the side is the list of items found and the location on grid. The blue squares are the pillars to the porch cover or pergola.
Well, we didn't find the lens. But we had a blast. The neighborhood kids all came over and they joined in trying to find the lens, and I smiled so hard as they explained the grid and how it worked.
This is homeschooling at its finest!

It's my birthday! the big 46!

One of my dear friends over at the homeschool lounge gave me this cake(picture) no fat, no guilt..

I hope your day has you smiling like mine has me!

my dear hubby!

we went to get some crab...well to put the crab trap down a few times and come back.
Eric and Tony had been discussing earlier who was faster and if Dad could win a foot race...the walk to the pier had a big parking lot. There is a boat launch there, so the trucks could park there while the folks were out fishing. There was only us and two paramedics there. The paramedics were measuring for some exercises and training they were doing the next day.
Tony told Eric, come on lets race. The girls joined in also....Yeah, I had my camera, and put it on video...
here it is:


Luckily the paramedics were right there, as the abrasions were on both knees, one hand and one elbow. Bit of pain for the day, ripped pants and wounded pride. No tears, just toughed it out for some giggles around the campfire that evening.

Sunsets in the Pacific

I am addicted to sunsets. Perhaps due to living in New Mexico for so many years and seeing so many different and spectacular sunsets!?!
There is something about watching the sun sink into the Pacific Ocean that just brings happiness and almost awe to me.
We drove a few minutes from the bay to the Pacific. I took this picture...it was so clear and bright...looked like a professional pic to me! ha haMy kids had never been there, and I don't know why...lol, we have been to the bay so many times. They were also transfixed by the power of the Pacific.
Although Lewis & Clark didn't come here on their trip, they did see the Pacific a few hundrend miles north of us in Oregon/Washington. We are studying them and the kids were in awe.This is a sheer cliff off here, and it made me so nervous to have them stand here!
The next few pics are standing on the cliff watching the sun go down. The whole sky becomes so beautiful.

homeschool happens everywhere!

We spent the day at Bodega Bay (West Side Park), with my parents, and the kids were everywhere. We were there on Thursday, due to a bad storm coming in on Friday. I think we were there about 10 minutes and a man putting his boat in the water yelled out to my kids, "How come you guys arn't in school?" We are homeschooled came my oldest reply..."Well, that's not fair." was his response. Not fair....lol, not fair to be out and about on a Thursday! Ah what a life this homeschool!
I am a very blessed lady, as my love for learning was given to me from my parents. Gabriel was wading in the bay...(oh yeah, it was cold, but him and the girls were in) and he picked up a closed clam shell. He loved the shell, I told him if he took it he had to eat it. He was all okay, lets do it.
Back to my parents RV site, where my dad the most awesomess Grandpa, put on some water and helped Gabriel learn about clams.


My parents are RV host for the park and live there most of the year. They have beautiful site that looks out on the bay. Grandpa got the pot out and begin to simmer the clam. He explained that if the clam was already dead...the shell would not pop open. If it was dead then eating it was out of the question.

It simmered and G watched closely. This was such a cool thing!
The bam! It opened. Grandpa took it out added some butter and salt.....

Gman took it with glee, and he tried it! It wasn't something he want again he said. But that shell is now all cleaned in bleach and every time he looks at it...he will remember learning!

Stay tuned for more pics of our trip!