Project and Food Bank

Today, Ben, Maddie, Jon, and I went on our first homeschool field trip -- to Will's presentation at school! Will's latest project was working with his class to design and create a cook book of recipes that the kids created themselves. The presentation time was spent explaining the process, the recipes, the ingredients, and some of the sub-projects (arrays, fractions, bar charts, nutrition, etc.) they did connected to the cookbook. The class also collected canned goods to take to the East Texas Food Bank and we were part of the delivery team. While Will's class wrapped up the day, another mom and teacher helped Ben, Maddie, Jon, and I load all 700+ pounds cans into the back of our van. There were enough products donated to put some in another car, too. After a quick car-picnic lunch and long drive across town, we unloaded the goods and the Innovation kids posed for a pictures with the school donation. All the kids (including younger siblings) on the trip worked hard to fill bags of food for several hundred underprivileged school kids to take home on weekends. All in all, it was a terrific experience for all four of my kiddos, and I always love seeing them work with others so well.

 

First Day for Will

Will started fourth grade today. Yes... August 5th! That IS early compared to most kids around here, but his school is moving to a ten-month calendar this year. Although he isn't so happy about getting up early now, he will be excited to have several one-week breaks throughout the school year. AND... he really IS excited about school. I was able to get our normal first-day-of-school pictures, but since I got such great smiles, I couldn't decide which pictures to share... so I'm sharing all of them.

 

Will's homeroom teacher is Mrs. Bailey. She will be one of the constants for him at this different type of school. Right now, his class is made up of fourth and fifth graders and one teacher. For the second project, he will be with third and fourth graders and rotating thought three different teachers. He is definitely excited about a new year and seeing his friends from last year.

Just so you don't think he was completely cooperative with the camera ;)

In Like A Lion

When they say March always comes in like a lion or a lamb, I know they are usually talking about weather; but somehow, it seems appropriate to say our schedule has come in like a lion as we have been really busy.

The last day of February, Will had a field trip to the art museum because one of the projects the school was doing combined art, math, and language arts. There was a tour of the current exhibit, and the kids learned about impressionistic art -- landscapes and portraits, then they did a quick art project that reinforced some of the lessons they learned on the tour.

Friday, March 1st, Will had a presentation day at school for science. The assigned project was to design an exhibit for Discovery Science Place (the local children's science museum) that uses simple machines. Usually his project teams are made up of the third- and fourth-graders in his class, but this time was a bit different. Every team had four people, with at least one each from third, fourth, and fifth grades. At first, Will wasn't crazy about being the youngest in his group, but it wasn't long until he was boasting about how much fun it was to work with this team and how well they worked together. On presentation day, parents were able to see all the exhibits "in motion," and the science museum sent representatives to select seven (from Will's campus) to actually be displayed at the museum one weekend. Will was a bit upset his team's project wasn't selected, but he had enough fun with the project to make up for any disappointment.

Friday night, our family and a friend of Will's (who might as well be considered family by now) went to see the a musical production of The Jungle Book. It was fun for all of us, but the kids loved it! Afterwards, we stopped for a sweet frozen treat.

Our weekend was a flurry of home-bound busyness as we were scrambling to get all the things done we haven't had a chance to do: cleaning, laundry, sorting through all the kids' and adults' clothes, mowing and yard work, refilling bird feeders and baths, putting up another bluebird house, and getting ready for the rest of March since it will be so busy.

Monday morning, I took the younger kids to school while Allen took Will and Kaleb. Then I headed to Will's school to help set up for another presentation day. The school kids were all really excited to show the projects that combined art with math. In math, the third and fourth graders were studying geometry (shapes, symmetry, angles, and patterns.) This was also the first art project that the kids got to decide what they wanted to make -- that is what I think they LOVED about the art. They did some drawings in math, and in language arts, they've been working on essays describing why arts are important in schools. The prompt they were given was something along the lines of "many schools are cutting funding for the arts because they feel like math, reading, writing, and science are much more important. Do you feel this is a good idea or not? Why?" Though I haven't seen the finished essay yet, the kids had posted some poems about shapes and angles, and Will has been talking with me a lot about why art is an important part of education.

Will's group made a model of the Titanic. I was fascinated with the details he shared with me the last few weeks as they have been working on this at school. One day, he explained their team was disappointed that they didn't estimate the size of part of the ship correctly. The Titanic had four smoke stacks and they only had room for three. He further explained that the real ship only had three working stacks and the fourth was for decoration -- to make the ship look more powerful that it really was. He continued to explain details that I never knew (which isn't saying much, since all I know was that it was a big ship that wasn't supposed to sink-- I didn't even watch the movie.) When I asked how he knew all this, he looked at me like I was silly and told me that of course, their team looked it all up.... just because. His art teacher later explained that the kids really wanted the inside to be accurate and tried to construct part of it correctly even though it wouldn't be seen. These kids had big smiles when they told passers-by about their Titanic and the angles and shapes and lines of symmetry. They were quite proud and had reason to be. At the end, the teacher asked to keep their project (other groups decided someone would take the projects home) and I think the plan is for her to help them submit it to an arts festival later this year.

Here are a few other sculptures I really enjoyed (each scale on the snake is a separate origami triangle! and the guitar-thingy is made mostly of crushed aluminum foil):

Science with Classmates

Today was a family field trip day to the science museum in Shreveport. We had not been to this museum before, but it has been on our "things to do someday" list for quite awhile. This was the first Saturday-field trip set up for families in Will's school, and we jumped at the opportunity to enjoy it with others. This was such a neat place, and since we didn't get to see about half of it, we are hoping to go back someday. The parents who set up the outing, arranged for the students to get to watch two demonstrations that were related to what they are studying in science (those took up an hour and a half of the five hours we were there, but they were awesome!) The younger siblings all had a good time learning about different subjects, but their favorite thing to do was play at the water table (just like at other museums.) Will enjoyed playing with his school friends while he learned, and he thought the flaming salts were pretty awesome!

Starting School

Today was the first day of school for all four kids. Ben, Maddie, and Jon are attending kindergarten at a charter school -- still a public school, but with a few more options than we had at the school we should go to based on where our home is. At the charter school, the kids will be exposed to three types of music classes (musical theater, choir, and violin), they will do PE and dance, they will have art and Spanish -- many of the classes are things I'd like them to be exposed to, but I'd rather not be driving all over town after school trying to fit it all in before dinner. Will is attending a different charter school through UT Tyler. His is a half-day project-based learning experience. Though he is in third grade, his class is actually a mix of fifteen third- and fourth-grade kids. We are really excited about his opportunities there, but I will share more as the year progresses.

All the kids were up on time, ready on time, and even had enough time to spare for Ben and Jon to change into different shirts since the others got egg all over them.

Last week, when I told the kids they would each have their own class and teacher, Ben was upset and started sobbing, "But I don't want to be without Maddie and Jon!" I explained that he would get to have his own class and not have to share his teacher with his sister and brother, but he could play with them at recess. When he understood they would still be close by, he wiped his tears and said, "OK. Let's do it." By this morning, Ben was excited because at school he would meet more girlfriends -- he explained he really wanted forty, more than anyone. Maddie insisted SHE would be able to get more girlfriends. Ben said she needed to get more boyfriends. She replied, "Maybe another day."

Maddie was the most obviously excited of the bunch. For the past week and a half, she has counted the number of days until meet-the-teacher. Then she counted down the days till today. Friday night, she was anxious to go to bed early because when she woke up, it would be closer to the first day of school. "It-is-one-day-closer-to-Monday-and-Monday-is-the-first-day-of- school-and-I'm-so-excited-because-I-get-to-learn-a-lot-and-go-to-art-and-do-math-and-Mrs.Maschall-said-I-will-get-to-help-other-kids-read-and-Mama-I-just-can't-wait!" (insert maniacal giggling here). It was definitely an understatement to say she was exited. She was excited to get to meet new friends, and she promised me she would "try hard to make friends who were both brown and peach."

Jon was also thrilled to be heading off to school. "I'm finally in kindergarten big-school! Now how much longer until we get to the real math problems." I am a bit worried that he and Maddie will get bored. Both of their teachers said they've never had a student know how to read before kindergarten. Those two love playing school, so I don't anticipate any problems, but they will likely find learning the alphabet a bit dull. Jon went to school wanting to learn how to add double digits, but the syllabus said they would be learning to write and identify numbers.

Will is too cool to admit he is looking forward to this school year. Until I picked him up from school, he insisted he already knows what school is like and he knew he wouldn't like it. He was a little bit excited that he was taking his newly-assigned iPad to school. Allen took Will to his school since it is on the way to work, so I don't know what the discussions were in the car.

I took the youngest three. We all talked on the way, and at one point I was {sort of? not really?} joking that I might be lonely at home with all my kids at school. Jon and Maddie overwhelmed me with their wisdom as they finished each others thoughts and sentences to tell me, "Mama, don't worry about being lonely. When we are at school it will be quiet, and God always sits with you when it's quiet. You won't be alone." I took a steadying breath and pinched my eyelids shut to keep them from overflowing, and I told them they were absolutely right. We pulled into the school parking lot before I could tear up any more.

Jon's classroom was first, and he marched right in, hung up his backpack, and took his seat. Maddie's class was next, but she agreed to help take Ben to his first (their classroom doors are about two feet apart, so it wasn't really a detour.) Ben also went in without really looking back at me. Maddie was last and, just like her brothers, she went right in; she found her play-doh and took her seat. That was it. I sort of glumly walked back to the car. I felt a bit lost and unneeded and my eyes threatened to water again. Somehow, I held back the tears. I have been looking forward to the peace and quiet, but I don't think I realized how suddenly it would happen. Did I expect the noise to trickle away to nothing?

This morning, I went to the grocery store right after dropping them off. I sat in the car and called Allen to find out that dropping off Will and his friend went pretty smoothly. I called a friend and just chatted for a few minutes -- sort of my "getting my mind back together" conversation. I went in and got all my groceries quickly -- I'd forgotten how easy that is without reminding kids to stay with me and not touch. I don't think I've had that easy of a shopping trip in almost six months. I came home and put the groceries away. I mentally went through the list of what I wanted to do in my quiet times -- catch up on the blog, clean out the pantry and freezers, reorganize the office, work on Will's scout quilt, read, listen to some school lectures, catch up on my current Bible study workbook, read ahead for the Bible study I start next week, read a bunch of books that are piled dangerously on my nightstand, sit and do nothing. My list is long, but I wanted to capture a few of the moments from this morning before I lost the thoughts in all the busyness.

I picked Will up at noon, and for the first time EVER, he told me, "My school day was AWESOME, Mom! I LOVE this school!" He and I worked on some of his assignments after we had lunch. Ben, Maddie, and Jon also had great days. When we got home, the three little ones went upstairs to play. Three hours later, they were still playing well together, and every time I checked on them, they were huddled close together. I'm guessing they missed each other and had to get their sibling time in before the end of the day.

Just before dinner, Ben told me, "Mama, thanks for sending me a text message at school." I asked what he meant and he showed me the note I put in his lunchbox. I got a kick out of him calling it a text message, but that may be what I call those little love notes from now on.