It's all gouda: Mountain of a Father's Day

Monday, June 16, 2008

Mountain of a Father's Day

Since we were already on a mini road trip to our neighboring state to the north, my hubby man declared that he wanted to partake in a family hike at Mt. Rainier National Park on Father's Day. *Sigh* There are a couple things you should know about me. 1) I am a not a hiker. 2) I am married to a hiker. The hiker of all hikers. A backpack loving, hither and yon trekking, strap on a backpack hiker. Going on a family hike every Father's Day has become a ritual, and while I can weasel out of hiking on other occasions, it's really not possible to boag out on Father's Day.

I had held out hope (with some guilt) that we (I) might be spared this annual trek since the weather out at this end of the world has not been summer-like yet. Most folks are somewhat seriously referring to this month as June-uary. As recently as Wednesday, Mt. Rainier was the recipient of some severe winter storms, but on Sunday it was warm with brilliant blue skies and I knew that we'd be heading to the trail head. Super.

Hubby man was so delighted and the offspring (aka little traitors) were excited as well. As our ancient mini van (hold your snickers to a minimum please) creeped and crawled up the curvy mountain side, I realized that alas I had not brought my tennis shoes with me. All I had were my fancy flip-flops and my dress shoes. Oh, dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. So, I say to hubby man, "um, I don't think I have the proper shoes for this". This set back does not deter hubby man from his goal. Nope, Nadda, No problem; he'll pick out a nice easy hike. (Sidebar: I've been on his nice easy hikes. Pray for me.)

Along the way to the trail head, we stopped so the kids could pummel each other with snowballs. Yes, SNOW ... something like 6 feet deep.

When we reached the trail head, though, there's no snow to be found, just lots of sunshine and comfortable temperatures. Hubby man, you gotta love the guy, took pity on me for like the first time EVER, and said that he'd take the kids for just quick hike if I didn't mind waiting in the van. Picture me, trying not to jump for joy and perform a happy dance simulaneously, responded, "Oh, ok, that would be fine". Fine? It was brilliant! The kids, no longer traitors, provided the appropriate but not overboard protests of disappointment wanting me to go. In the end, they all went on their merry way, and I had time to myself. It was glorious. I pulled out my recent purchases from the homeschool fair and proceeded to enjoy uninterrupted reading time in a beautiful, natural setting. And then, best of all ... wait for it ... I took a nap :-)! It was my perfect outdoors adventure!

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Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before by Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!

Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Books by Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.