Author Archives: Kim Halloran-Fry
Hands on learning
Sharing some cheap and easy manipulatives today.
This is one of the power tower games I mentioned yesterday. (link in yesterday's post) You write the memory fact on the end. I put the answer inside the cup for self checking. These aren't real neat because his brother wanted to help so he wrote all the math facts for me. Can't refuse willing workers. Especially when they volunteer. Done is better than perfect.
A big sister cut these base ten cards for these two to play war with. (its all linked up on the pinterest page – button over to the right sidebar) It wasn't much of a stretch for Brendan obviously but they are all really good about playing with a sibling. We have also used flash cards and given an older sibling a harder set of facts so the playing field is level. Whoever has the highest answer on the card collects.
I don't love the graphics on these printables but it was a hit for obvious dental reasons. <g> Tess, at 5, is losing a lot of teeth already. She loved this game. The graphic has ten teeth. You black out however many you are subtracting from ten in your math problem.
Usually they complete a regular math book page and then quite happily spend another 15-20 minutes playing more math games.
We made a DIY version of this activity years ago but it was a little wonky due to slight variations in the cuts in the wood made by hand. When I was at the craft store this bucket of dowels in assorted widths caught my eye. Since it was discounted and we have no power tools with us I grabbed it up. Abbie spent a long time this morning sorting and making dowel trains. It requires careful comparing to sort the narrower widths. Much less expensive than Montessori sensorial materials and my heart won't break if one goes missing. Eventually one will. ; )
School’s in
Or on or how do we say that? All I know is I am having so very much fun. So much fun I haven't time to post the things I thought I would. Suffice it to say the pinterest board is filling rapidly and just as rapidly we are making what we see there and trying it out. Power Towers? Big hit. Bible memory? Check. Art trays. You betcha.
We hit the jackpot when we found the craft store on base this week. Let me just say I haven't been in a proper craft store in 2 1/2 yrs. YEARS. We're talking significant withdrawal. I found myself longing for floral foam bricks and styrofoam balls and embroidery floss and origami paper and…. you get the picture. Well, the wait is over. I walked out of there with an armful and promised myself to use it all before I go back. It's been two years though. I am making no promises. I lost so much of last year right after we started that I want to get all our ducks in a row. No day of wellness and strength is ever taken for granted. While I keep telling myself this year is not last year, I know how quickly things can change and I want to bullet proof the year where I can.
Anyway man oh man it is late and these people start the day unreasonably early. I would be in bed myself but making things makes me want to make more things and here I still am. I do have a scrapbook page to show for it though.
I hope your 2012 school year is starting strong and you are learning something new right alongside your little people. There is always something new to learn.
window shopping
It's moments like these that make you realize you aren't in Kansas anymore…. and that your boy needs a haircut. (where DID the good clippers end up?)
Brendan caught sight of these beauties while we were walking down the street. He is a fan of all things Matchbox but seeing the British cars was exceptionally cool.
Shortcake etc
My girls are posting snapshots of London to their Facebook walls at this moment while I do…. as little as I possibly can, actually. It is the day of rest after all. : ) So far that has consisted of fishing an old cricket bat out of the kids' bathtub where it was soaking. (No idea. It wasn't there when I walked by last time) I finished Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. Best read in a looooong time. You might need to be a sanguine sort to appreciate as much as I did. Can't remember when I laughed so hard. When I wasn't wiping the tears from my eyes I was reading exerpts to anyone close by so they could laugh too. But just to show that I do think big thoughts here and there I've also begun one of my new library books so chosen because a) the base library is small and b) it has a couple shelves of brand new books and I have grabbed some unlikely combinations. Then again, maybe not so unlikely. I read like people watch tv. I need several channels to choose from at a given time.
In between I have edited a lot of pictures, watched Winnie the Pooh in the original with the littles, and eaten some chocolate. There was a freak accident involving the tragic amputation of the princess Polly Pocket's arm. Abbie said I should just help her put on her plastic gown anyway because she was pretending that arm was invisible. Girl after my own heart. We keep calm and play on.
Oh that all crises were resolved so easily.
So, pictures. These are from our horsing around the other day after fishing the kids out of the pool. (hence the pool hair ; ))
I made an awesome simple strawberry shortcake with fresh cream, thanks to a daughter who actually enjoys whipping it by hand. Pretty sure it came from Food Network here because we have enjoyed everything we have made from there.
With any luck that will be all the breaking news from this end. Uneventful is good. <g> Hope your holiday weekend (for you American friends) is restful and full of family fun. And some cake. There should be cake.
sunrise, sunset
vision
…the photographic journey is about discovering your vision, allowing it to evolve, change, and find expression…. It is not something that you find and come to terms with once and for all; it is something that changes and grows with you….
It is about what you - unique among billions – find beautiful, ugly, right, wrong, or harmonious in this world. And as you experience life your vision changes. The stories you want to tell, the things that resonate with you – they change and so does your vision.
– Within the Frame, David du Chemin
A similar message in Aliki's Marianthe this afternoon: "Some stories are told with words, and others with pictures."
It all has me thinking about purpose, clarity, focus, and articulation.
And I often think better in pictures.
The Cathedral Cobs
Growing up I lived and breathed horses. My grandparents owned a boarding stable and I was on horseback before I could walk. I devoured Billy and Blaze, Marguerite Henry's Misty, the Black Stallion. I went through every copy of the Timber Trail Riders my aunt had saved. For years, next to the photograph of the ponies in the mist still in its shrink wrap, this poster hung on my wall. I memorized the shape, size and color of every breed listed.
In our area of the country we had Quarter horses and Arabians and Appalosas. As I grew up I occasionally spotted draft breeds or gaited horses. But it wasn't until we came to England that we met our first cobs with their flowing fetlocks.
Welsh Cobs are an ancient breed. They have pulled carts, hauled coal, ploughed fields and gone to war. Today they mostly carry delighted children and smaller adults in riding events. And greet grateful people like us at the fence.
have you ever seen the rain?
…coming down on a sunny day
"Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm,
I know
It's been comin' for some time.
When it's over, so they say,
It'll rain a sunny day,
I know
Shinin' down like water."
– John Fogerty
Like liquid gold dripping down the panes it fell. I thought it was beautiful.
Do these things happen to you? Pass a window and stop dead in your tracks in awe?
Then have a CCR flashback? yeah, probably not. But still. Smile with me. : )
golden rule citizens
"The true picture of the effective home teacher is more often a secure and happy mom. She and the children do straightening up chores the first thing each day so that the home with provide an organized, clean environment for learning. She selects learning tasks for which each child is ready. She requires only enough daily practice or drill to allow her children to progress appropriately to mastery of basic skills. Fun projects are used to integrate and reinforce basic skills. And much of the day is framed around the children's interests with work and service that build genuine golden rule citizens,"
– The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook, Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore
Golden rule citizens. Leave to dear Dr. Moore to help us articulate the highest and best vision and to lay out practical ways to get there. It occurred to me that my homeschool library probably seems highly contradictory. (as well as outdated – intentionally) Still, I find these older books have common messages at their heart which still inspire me to begin again each year just as enthusiastically as I did with those little boys long ago.
(We have begun again, a little bitty bit, with a brand new bookcases in a very old house. The school room is coming together and I am so enjoying this new old space.)
Starry Sky Journal 