The Continuing Adventures of Bonnie and Clyde

Meet Chewie.

Chewie is a panda bear hamster, and is now an official member of the family.  He got his name because he managed to chew his way out of the box on the car ride home from the pet store (good thing we didn’t live 5 more minutes down the road, or THAT would have been a sitcom-worthy situation).  I wanted to name him Harry (Houdini) but Bonnie, very selfishly wants to name her own pet.  Hmph.

So, we have him safely in his home, and we attached a maze, and after scurrying around, Chewie has decided that it’s time for a nap.  Whew.

Happy Birthday, Bonnie.

And, as my friend J reminded me … here’s the Original Hamster Dance.

At the start of the summer, while I was considering what history period to study this year, I decided that we hadn’t really spent enough time on the Revolutionary War period – I really felt like we flew through it, and the kids had missed a lot.  There are still field trips to take, and there are games to play, etc.!  So, I decided to back up a few historical years, and go back and re-cover the American Revolution at the end of the summer, and for the beginning of the fall…

To help with that, I thought it might be fun to tackle a lapbook on the subject.  At the homeschool convention, I purchased the Time Travelers DVD on the American Revolution from Homeschool in the Woods.  Now, I scrapbook, and I absolutely LOVE the idea of lapbooking.  My children, however, don’t seem to quite have the knack for it.  So, the DVD seemed like a good compromise.  We could lapbook, but it would have a lot of structure to it.  The segments were well-defined, and there was a handy-dandy plan for us to follow as well.

It’s finally done.  The kids are thrilled – they want to do another lapbook again soon.  Mom is going to have to take a break from lapbooking for a little bit, though.    Yes, they cried every day while making it.  Yes, they wanted to keep on going.  Yes, they say they enjoyed themselves.  And now they’re going to show it off to everyone who comes by our house.  Consider yourself forewarned!

The cover.  They liked that the theme was “George vs. George”.  They really got a kick out of that.

Opening the first flaps…  On the left hand flap (from top to bottom) is a comparison of George Washington vs. King George.  Then, there’s information on the Boston Tea Party, and what the colonists drank as an alternative to their beloved tea.  At the bottom is information on the 1st and 2nd Continental Congress.  The middle section has a map of all the battles in the American Revolution (and who won which battle), a document pocket with a copy of the major documents of the time (Common Sense, the preamble to the Constitution, the Declaration, etc.), and a little thing about Paul Revere and the Minuteman, complete with a moving horse!  The right hand flap (from top to bottom) has a comparison on the Whigs vs. the Tories, facts about the Liberty Bell, and then the comparison between a Monarchy and a Republic.

The 2nd middle section has information on the different types of soldiers in the American Revolution (Frontiersman, Minutemen, Continental Soldiers, American Indians, the British, the French and the Hessians) and an overview of all the happenings in Boston during the war.

Open up both green middle flaps, and you get the center.  On the back of each of the flaps are portraits of 8 famous people from the war.  Inside the frames, the kids had to write a little biographical information about the person, their contribution to the Revolution, a famous quote, and their personal character traits.  That was kind of interesting to see what they came up with, LOL.  And then in the inside center is a pie-folded chart of the Intolerable Acts passed by the British on the Americans, and a pocket full of women from the war, and their contributions.

Here’s the pie chart unfolded a little bit …

All in all, well worth the money and trouble to put together.  The project is well described, and there’s lots of information on the DVD to help you put together the lapbook.  We did have to use a few other sources, but the kids enjoyed that part.  I did substitute one of the pieces – I was disappointed that the map of all the battles wasn’t included in the lapbook. Originally, it was a notebooking project, but I wanted it, so I substituted out one of the other lapbook activities.

There’s also an entire notebooking activity on the DVD, but we really weren’t up for that part of it for this unit.  But if you’re considering the DVD, there are lots more activities and things to do!

It’s true.  And it’s so weird!  Bonnie and Clyde’s half-brother is on his way to his freshman year at college.  I met him when he was 2.5 years old, and it’s been a long and convoluted journey full of trials and rewards.  We haven’t seen much of him over the past couple of years, but we’re glad to have him back amongst the family, and our relationship is quite close again.

So, before the family separates (again), we took the opportunity to take a family picture.

Good luck in college, A!  We hope you’re well prepared for the experience, and wish you all the best.  Now, get studying. 

The summer break, that is. The new school books have all arrived. I’m currently planning out schedules for the fall. The kids are squeezing in their last few play dates. While my public-school mom-friends are anxiously waiting the start of school (and the start of more free time!), we will miss these lazy days of summer.

Not that we’ve been particularly lazy.

We’ve made numerous trips to the pool, and the library. We’ve helped out friends. We’ve spent the day at Ikea, and then we spent two days putting together our new bookcases and cabinets to hold all our lovely school things.  We’re even squeezed in a lapbooking project.  We’ve played games, we’ve seen family. All in all, a successful, albeit jam-packed summer.

And while I’ve particularly enjoyed this time off from the more formal schooling that we do, I hope the kids didn’t forget all their math facts! 

We went to a park day today, and a PE game spontaneously broke out.

One of the things that I love about homeschooling is that my children spend a decent amount of time with other kids of a wide variety of ages. It’s not 5th graders only playing with 5th graders and shunning the little kids, it’s cooperative play across all the ages. The ground is fertile for mentoring, and I love that they don’t have the idea that someone is “too old” or “too young” to play with.

In fact, when people bring up socialization “issues” as reasons to not homeschool, it’s all I can do to not point out the restrictive nature of school socialization. When, in real life, do we ever just work with or communicate with people our exact same age? The last time I was in a group of just my age-peers, since I left school, was last weekend, for my 20th high school reunion. It was mesmerizing, watching the cliques re-form into the exact same groups that existed in high school. Fascinating to watch the startled glances when someone outside of the clique introduced themselves to join in, and then watched them fade back out as there was no common ground to be found. Every now and again you’d hear someone being asked about, and the comment, “Oh, but she wasn’t our year.” Isn’t it a shame how limiting our experience was? How limiting our experience can be? Apparently, even after 20 years, there’s limited growth.

My high school group could have learned something from the kids at today’s park day. We had kids from approximately 2-12. All playing together in a spontaneous game of dodge ball. All the kids were encouraging one another, and no-one was aggressively trying to wipe someone out. When one little guy didn’t want to give up the ball, the bigger kids encouraged him to throw it, and they worked until they figured out what his issue was (he wanted them all to stand on a particular line first), and the games continued. Cooperation – unguided by parental interference! Everyone was included, and truly, I wish I had had a camera to show you the fun.  Socialization, at its finest.  For isn’t that the point?  Learning how to get along with each other within the rules of our society?