Category Archives: Homeschool

Learning at home with a second-grader and a fifth-grader.

One Monday down, eight to go

The kids’ homeschool co-op started its spring session today. I’m “teaching” a class called “Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Other Things That Go” for the 3- to 5-year-old set. Five boys and one girl signed up, and today when we started there was also a surprise 2-year-old there. I had a book to read and a few craft-ish things planned. But you know what they say: Planning to keep the attention of a hoard of preschoolers for an hour is planning to fail. Or something like that.

How I’d Envisioned the Class Going

Josephine with the storytime kids.

How the Class Actually Went

It’s gonna be a long nine weeks.

A first grader writes a fairy tale

We’re reading about Gilgamesh these days, and our accompanying “Story of the World” activity was to write a fairy tale. Poppy worked on this for two days, and then she asked me to post it here. And so I present to you: “The Cat Crusaders” (which I suspect was heavily influenced by “My Little Pony.” And also, no cats were injured in the writing of this tale).

The Cat Crusaders (a fairy tale)

by Poppy

This is the first adventure. This adventure is called: The cats set off to find new homes.

Marsha is a smart cat, and she always thinks up ideas to get them out of trouble. Hercule is a kind cat, and he always cheers them up when they’re sad. Cinder is a fighter, and she is good at kung-fu. Perrie sometimes gets shy and doesn’t do anything, but the Cat Crusaders help him do it! Boo Radley does everything he can to fight.

Chapter One: The cats and their original homes.

Marsha was resting on a blue couch in the middle of the living room, and her owner, 6-year-old Poppy, was patting her. Then she was thinking in her mind, “I should set up a crew called the Cat Crusaders and set off to find a new home.” (We don’t have time to describe why.)

Hercule heard this idea with his super-sense ears, and he thought the same idea to join that club.

Perrie heard this idea and decided to join it.

Boo Radley heard this idea, and he decided to join the club, too.

And then Cinder decided that she would join the club, too.

(They all have super-sense ears.)

But that’s just the beginning of the adventure!

Chapter Two: The cats plan their club

When they met at the place they were going to meet, they decided to make their club right there. They decided to shape it like a cat, and only the cats were allowed to come in. New members had to say the password. The password was: Daddy’s Big Tummy.

Chapter Three: The cats set off

The first adventure in their club, they set off to find new homes. Marsha was the first one to find her new home. It was old, and it looked haunted. But it wasn’t haunted. It was very nice inside and had nice people. There was even a little 6-year-old girl named Rose.

Hercule was the second. Hercule found a nice home, and inside it was nice too. It had a little table, and it had a little cat play set, and it had a scratching post. It even had a little cat clubhouse. There was even a little 4-year-old boy named Pete.

Perrie was the third. He found a nice, warm house with two little girls named Arabella and Janet. They were both 3 years old, and they loved kitties. Every time Perrie walked past them, they would say “Kitty kitty kitty” and grab him by his neck without permission. Perrie didn’t like them.

Cinder was the fourth. She found a very nice little cozy cottage, and the girls named Janet and Joanne were both very nice to the cat because they knew not to pick her up without permission.

Boo Radley was the last one. He found a very nice cozy little cottage. Inside there was a mother and father and one little boy named Julian. He was 7 years old, and he was very nice to cats.

Chapter Four: The reason they shouldn’t have left their original homes

In Boo Radley’s house, Julian sometimes picked him up without permission and held him by his neck, and Boo Radley didn’t like that. He thought he should’ve stayed in his original home.

Marsha was the next finder of reason. Inside, Rose picked her up and put her on a window. Marsha didn’t like that. She had to stay up there all night until Saturday, and she did not like that. She thought she should’ve stayed with her original family.

Perrie was the third to find a good example. Since Arabella and Janet said “kitty kitty,” they picked him up by his neck and put him on the dryer. He did not like that.

Pete wasn’t nice to Hercule. One time when he was painting a house for helping, he put the cat on wet paint. Then Hercule was pink for three days.

Cinder was the last to find a good example. Janet and Joanne did the same thing, but this time Cinder was red for three days! She did not like that.

Chapter Five: They set off to find their original homes

So they got together in the place their club was and split up to find their original homes. By the time Marsha found her home, everything was the way it was when she was laying on the couch and thinking up the idea.

Hercule was the second to find it. His house was just the same.

And so on.

And so on.

The End of Adventure One.

Ra and the gang give me the heebie-jeebies

Homeschool at ButterscotchSundae.comOK, so am I only posting about homeschooling here now? Seems that way lately. But that could be because we had guests this week. Rockford’s sister and her boyfriend came for a visit. And by the time they left? He was her fiance! The children love him, and they’re thrilled that they’ll be calling him “uncle” in the as-yet-undetermined future.

Anywho, here’s what my l’il first-grader did this week:

Social Studies

This week’s “Story of the World” chapter was on the Egyptians. We started reading a book of “Egyptian Myths” — which Pete calls the “Egyptian Lips” — and my stars are they harsh. I guess most mythology has its gory bits, but I was taken aback by these stories. We were supposed to make a model of the Nile this week, but I didn’t have the materials on hand. That’s always a problem for me, and I’m trying to figure out how to fix that.

Science

In “R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Life,” we headed outside to do a plot study. We tried to find a bit of wilderness in the back yard, and we did successfully spot an ant. Poppy did an excellent job of staying focused despite the lack of wildlife. Pete very helpfully tossed a number of sticks into our designated plot.

Art

Artistic Pursuits arrived late this week, and Poppy was over the moon at the prospect of “doing art.” We did the first lesson, in which she drew a picture of her uncle-to-be spinning her and Pete around the room.

And also

Teaching Textbooks

A Reason for Spelling

A Reason for Handwriting

First Language Lessons