Funny how things evolve...

I was looking at my blog today and started to think about it's name and how the blog has gone through such an amazing evolution but still the name stands strong in its meaning.

I initially AGONIZED over the title of my blog.  Literally.  It took me DAYS and DAYS to find just the right title.  I was stressed out because I was stressing out.  As a person who used to need everything "just so" before she would embark on any journey, the title was a huge sticking point for me. 

After weeks of painstakingly obsessing over this one detail, the title Twelve Months of June was created in reference to June Cleaver.  The ultimate matriarch of the ultimate family.  I was embarking on a year long journey/challenge of finding my inner housewife, perfecting the art of keeping home, and in the process organizing the house room by room, one month at a time.

As the months passed, the blog became a sounding board for my thoughts beyond the dish rag.  A place to talk about my family, my life , my interests and invariably, things that just out right baffled me. And I started to see the title of my blog as more a title of the life I was enjoying.  You see, I see June as the ultimate month of the year.  Not too hot, not too cold, everything is in bloom, the grass is still green and soft (instead of grey and crunchy from the seemingly endless heatwaves of July and August) and there is still that freshness in the air before the city gets bogged down in smog. During this time in my life, everything was going really well, I was laughing on a daily basis and it really felt like I was enjoying a year of June freshness.

Now, as I blog, my focus is still on home life, but more so on homeschooling, and the title STILL works (my awesomeness amazes even me sometimes).  Through the homeschooling lens I see June as a month where in the school system, teachers begin to relax.  More field trips are planned, more hands on / fun activities are created for the children explore, more outdoor time is added to the schedule to escape the oven of the school interior, classes that are normally taught inside are brought to the school yard and children sit with books on the grass, delighted in the change of scenery.

School in June is exactly what our homeschooling looks like year round (yes, I'm a slave driver and we learn all year round). Lots of variety, lots of outdoor time, lots of books in the grass.

I sometimes wonder if my soul or spirit knew ahead of time the twists and turns of my life would take and how this title would be appropriate for the long run.

Good thing too, because me needing things "just so" has evolved in to "meh, it'll do" and if I had named the blog Rags and Dishcloths, I can guarantee it would still be called that today. Just the thought of transferring posts from one blog to the next, or creating a whole new blog with a new fancy name makes me want to shut down the computer.

I'm far too busy (lazy) for that.

Cheers!
Marina

What do you do all day long? - Math and Numbers

On this episode: Math.

We rarely have a day where we get everything done all at once.  Typically we have a day that focuses on either reading or math as our main table work.  Today was a numbers sort of day.

Little Lady, up first (always).

We do lots of sorting and counting right now.  Here I just grabbed a scrap paper and made circles for her to sort the bears in.  I don't have any type of plan for her, we just kind of go with the flow.



Cutting was up next, another favourite activity.


And cutting wouldn't be any fun if you couldn't paste it to something!


While she was doing that, I made a tally chart for her.  I grabbed a random handful of bears from the tin and gave them to her to sort.


She placed them on the chart...


And then we looked at them to see which one colour had more, and then we counted them. She really enjoyed this activity.


Then ballet called and she felt the need to go dance, so I set her up in a different room with a cd player a wand and she was off.

Little Man is next!  We did our site word flash cards of the week and our reading first, as always. Then I started him with the same tally chart, only he got a bigger handful of bears and had to count the bears and stamp the chart based on how many bears of each colour.






While he did that, I made this.  He picked "one representative from each colour" (his words, not mine) and put them on the appropriate circle. In this picture he is actually telling me to stop taking pictures and give him the paper already so he could get started.



He didn't like that there wasn't one "winner" colour that had all eight, so he added some to his pile and did the whole thing over again, but using the worksheet the way his sister had.



And then he said enough with the pictures already.

While he was re-doing his activity, I threw together some addition questions.  He floored me today because he didn't use counters, he just added everything up in his mind.  The number line across the top is so he can check up on his numbers if he is unsure as to which way they point.



Some other things we do for math type work is building.  It is really more of a problem solving skill, but I like to call it math, ha ha. Our Lincoln Log, blocks and Tinker Toys are three toys, besides lego, that get the most play in our house.



Here Little Man drew a picture of a castle and then used the blocks to re-create it. It is kind of hard to see on the picture because it is in pencil, but the drawing even has the block shapes on it.



Building a bridge.  We had actually built two other ones before this one that were too weak and didn't stand up, and then the kids figured out how to make it stronger by adding more sticks.  But I couldn't take pictures of the first two because my battery was charging.  This is the final product.





So that in a nutshell is what a "Math" day looks like.

Now we are going to play in the snow (for the third time)!

Enjoy the wintry weather!!

Cheers,
Marina

BUSTED

So.

The kids were wanting to watch a DVD this afternoon so I obliged.  We had finished our school work, had been for a very wet, puddle jumping filled walk with the dog, and all our house keeping chores were complete.  

And really, it isn't that hard to convince me to watch a dvd on a rainy afternoon.

The kids picked a DVD and I put it in but it kept on skipping. So I pulled it out and looked on the back.

It was covered in about four little finger prints.

We have a BIG rule in the house that the kids are not allowed to touch the DVDs or DVD player.  So these teeny tiny finger prints were a sign that someone isn't following the rules.

The kids both denied it, repeatedly saying "REALLY!  It wasn't us!"

So I decided to teach them about a little thing called fingerprint lifting.  

Yes, I'm ready to turn any event in to a learning opportunity. 

So I got out the superfine cocoa powder and our camel hair paint brush, dusted the fingerprint on the back of the DVD, lifted it with tape and stuck it to an index card. 

Then we got out the magnifier and the kids were in total awe over what they saw.  We went over the different kinds of finger prints, I printed off a bunch of pictures from the computer and we talked about how no two finger prints are the same and that everyone has their own set that is totally unique. 

Then I showed them how they could take prints of their own finger prints. Each took an index card and a stamp pad and made fingerprint cards of their own.  They. Were. Amazed. The excitement was so wonderful to see and they spent a good twenty minutes comparing their prints to each others and talking about how they are different.  

Then, we compared these to the cocoa lift from the DVD, one by one, trying to find the culprit.

But none of them were a match.  

Then they pulled over MY finger prints. 

And apparently, those pesky finger prints are partials of my pinky finger.

Excuse me while I blush a bit.  

I found myself trying to defend the placement of those finger prints, explaining that it must have happened because i place one finger in the center and my finger must have grazed the disc.

They weren't buying it.  Their exact words?

"Mommy!  Maybe you shouldn't put DVDs in the player anymore if you can't be responsible. That is one of my favourite movies.  Wouldn't want it to get damaged!"

Hrm. 

So I said yes, I obviously need to be more careful and that I would try to make sure it wouldn't happen again. The kids offered suggestions that I could always wash my hands before touching the discs, that maybe I should use the salad tongs to pick them up, that maybe, it would be a good idea if my oldest made us a "disc putter-inner-inator" so that I didn't have to actually touch the discs and risk damaging them.

I distracted them by making stove top pop corn and then went to put the nice clean disc in the player.

"Mommy, did you wash your hands?"

Busted.

Homeschooling can be such a humbling experience sometimes. 

Cheers!

Marina