Now We Name Crickets

For a year or more we've had a gecko. A leopard gecko to be precise. This gecko is a favorite pet of T and F. They spend a good amount of time staring at Norbert. He seems to like the attention, and will often come up to the glass, standing on his hind paws, staring back unblinking.

What particularly captivates the children is watching Norbert eat. Now Norbert subsists on mealworms and crickets. Watching him hunt crickets is quite entertaining.

This evening T was staring in the cricket keeper. "There are three crickets left," he announced, "so ill name them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego!"
Great. So now we name the lizard's food.

Homeschool Conference Disappointment

I recently attended a hs convention. They brought in some well-known speakers and some lesser known. Overall I gleaned a fair bit but came away disappointed.

What I gleaned:

*One speaker said the same thing my parents always told me (& practiced): don't treat Bible as a separate subject that has to be completed each day. Have devotions and then apply/integrate to allow it to permeate life. But separating it out lowers it to just another box for kids, and de-values it. Kids this speaker noted who grew up with Bible as just another daily subject often grow up and don't value it as highly.

*Re-affirmed pacing lessons for full attention to maximize learning. Even if the lesson isn't over. Set a time limit that's developmentally appropriate (10 minutes for example for k) & move on. You can come back to it later. Your child will absorb more!

*Talk on the value of poetry and Shakespeare as an essential part of education- even in grade school.

* Interesting talk on four major variations in the current classical education world. I was taking kids back and forth to bathroom and diaper changes so missed a lot of that talk.

* A history of the differences in goals of a liberal arts education and creating thinkers vs a lot of the financial backers of the 20th century educational system and teacher training wanting good workers (for the sake of their companies/the economy) but not independent thinkers.

* Also an interesting challenge asking what would happen to our country if all students were required to take 3 years of Logic prior to high school graduation (formal and informal).

Things I didn't like

*Feeling like I've heard a lot of this before.

*Not really seeing much I wasn't familiar with from the vendors.

*Feeling odd that I didn't feel an urge to buy. HSers keep telling me how easy it is to blow a budget at these things. The only money I spent was on food.

*A plenary session that was promoting a personal not-related-to-education agenda. Seriously? Plus I'd respect it more if it hadn't contained some mocking of other beliefs and ignorant comments.

Was it worth $60? Probably not.

I'd rather spend a few hundred to attend the ACCS in the future. Love their recordings and loved attending their conference in the past. I'm thinking I would also prefer to go to the Latin Schools convention for home, cottage, and private schools at the end of summer.

Lego Party part 1- Cake!

T is five! He turned five a week and a half ago but today we are finally having his party. Right now his favorite thing to do is build with Legos. So naturally he wanted a Lego party.

His cake wasn't difficult for an amateur to make. I mixed two cake batters. One was the classic Hershey chocolate cake. The other was a fresh strawberry cake made without added jello or food coloring.  Since T really wanted the strawberry I made a bit more of it than chocolate.

I poured the batter in sheet cake pans. Two standard size and one half size. After baking I turned each cake sheet out on parchment paper.

Next I cut the sheets in half and trimmed as needed. I ended up with two 2*3 & one 2*2 cake "legos".

I filled them with frosting. The chocolate got orange and strawberry got cream cheese buttercream. Getting out the food dyes I mixed just enough in small bowls to get the colors I wanted. Then I dirty iced the tops and sides. While waiting for it to harden a little I got out fondant. I rolled it and cut out circles. After finishing frosting the cakes I added the fondant circles to the tops. I ended up with two 2*3 bricks and one 2*2 brick.

Final step was assembly. I put the large bricks next to each other. They became the base. The smaller brick was stacked on top. Topping it off was a cake topper T built from a kit we found at the Lego store online.

It was a lot of fun to make!

The Wooden Toy Trap

T is now five years old. Looking back my biggest mistake was toys. Although we managed to avoid all the battery powered light-up noismakers and plethora of plastics I fell into an "it's wooden" or "it's Montessori and important for x" trap. Yes, it's a trap. I don't care how educational it is. I now agree with Simplicity Parenting.  If it has limited use/purpose it is excessive.   Sure those Schliek animals and matching nomenculture cards are nice. Yes the knobbed cylinders have their place. And the pound and roll? Fun. The wooden stacking toy puzzle shaped like a caterpillar and the wooden one to five shape stacker? Different but similar enough.

I purged.  And weeks later I've not heard requests for any of the toys waiting in the basement.

Now they have a few choices and know what? They play with these toys happily. For hours. We do rotate a bit, too.

Upstairs:
Brio
Easel
Stuffed bedtime toy

Downstairs:
One doll per child
Basket of puppets
Duplos (Legos for T are in the toy library cupboard and come out any time he asks)
Dressup (probably coming out of rotation as only the hats are being played with)
Wooden blocks
Barn with animals and buildable fence

Library of Toys:
Puzzles
Games
Knex
"House" game items

Wordless Wednesday: Sibling Sweetness

T has been leading to read. This morning he sat down to read to F.