American Girl Series

Well she figured out that Hogwarts wasn't real and asked to learn about American Girls instead. For those unaware, American Girls is a series of books, (and dolls, furniture, clothes, craft sets, paper dolls, activity books, etc), focusing on a girl in each of nine time periods in American history. I had heard glowing reviews about the series, with the only complaints being the cost of the dolls and their accessories, (Dolls are $90, clothing is $20 and up, furniture is $32-200, accessories are $15+), and the sheer amount of stuff available for each girl. The books are at about 3rd to 4th grade level, with short chapters and vivid pictures. There is even a few pages at the end of each book explaining further about the time period, customs or typical daily life of a young girl at the time. There are whole books for each girl on what it was like to live in that time. There are craft, party and cook books for each girl. So I was thrilled there was so much ready curriculum available after having to design so much for her Hogwarts, Disney Fairies, CSI, Magic Tree House, and other curriculums. There are nine girls and nine months of school, so that worked out well. Each girl has 6-7 basic books, some have up to 5 more, that I can let her choose from, so roughly 2 books per week. I even found brownie try its that tie in with each girl so she can keep up with that, (which is a whole other issue I will do at some later point).

The Girls are:
Kaya- Native American from the Nez Pierce tribe in North Western US in 1764

Felicity- Daughter of a patriot store keeper in 1774

Josephina- New Mexican girl from in 1824

Kristen- Sweedish immigrant pioneer to the Minnesota territory in 1854

Addy- Escaped slave from North Carolina to Philadelphia in 1864

Samantha- Orphan living with her Grandmother, (and later her uncle), in New York in 1904.

Kit- Depression era kid entrepreneur in Cincinnati OH in 1934

Molly- 1944, "girl on the home front", in Springfield Illinois

Julie- Flower child in 1974 San Francisco, CA

We finished four weeks with Kaya. I found a workbook on Native American activities and history. I found other printables from the internet. And I found a set of American Girl quiz books at the library book sale. I copied out the quizzes and of of all that I gave her a page or so per day to work on. She made a paper teepee, finger puppets, a medicine bag and a dream catcher from kits from Michael's. We watched Dreamcatcher from Netflix. She made a Native American paper doll from a dover book. And she spent loads of time on the American Girl website.

We are four days into Felicity. She has begun her paper sampler, coloring squares on graph paper to make a picture like a sampler, she will be making a sampler for her lapbook with yarn and plastic canvas and a actual cross stitch for a quilt, from the same pattern. She copied the inscription from the Liberty Bell.

My week from Hell

The car dealership where we bought or new car 2 months ago had asked for checks for the first three months payments made out to the finance company, as well as the down payment. They were supposed to hold the checks until they were due, but they instead turned them over to finance company all at once a few weeks ago and they were all put through last week. We found out when we went to pull our rent out and has $3 instead of $2K.

We heard our niece is in the hospital on a feeding tube, but she is with at her Mom's and her Mom doesn't like anyone in this family since the divorce and is three states away so it's not like we can go check on her. So we know nothing of what is going on.

Our toilet started running and got worse and worse so within a few days we just turned off the water to it, and started using the other bathroom instead, even though that bathroom has no lights. The landlord says he will fix it soon, but has been saying that about the lights for about a year. and the family room floor for even longer.

My Grandma had a stroke and we live close enough to visit, but far enough for it to be a hassle to visit and do anything else in a day. She is an avid reader and opinionated speaker but now can't get her mind to understand written words and has to concentrate to speak even slowly and still struggles to be understood.

I started a new role playing game based on Grimms' fairy tales. Very dark and twisted. But as I am running it it has to be child friendly, or at least PG-13. I'll do a separate blog for Grimm and roleplaying. But needless to say it is time consuming, distracting and another stress I most likely should have put off but didn't because it is fun.

I cleaned up the house before game last Sunday, and it is a wreck again.

I play on Second Life with DH, (Ok, another blog is needed to explain that world). We have fun. We have friends there, but lately there seems to be several extra helpings of drama. Nothing directly involving us too much, but several issues that plant land mines around conversations. I am still not sure of the etiquette of it all, so am not sure how to handle certain things.

DH had a eye Dr. appointment on Saturday, so after driving 2 hrs, (due to major traffic because a RV broke down where there wasn't a shoulder), on mountain roads, a half hour visit with my grandmother, and another hour back, we all drove over to the Dr's office. He was scheduled to have his eyes dilated and I had suggested walking the mile there because then we could just walk home afterwards, but due to time issues he drove instead. I was intending to order DDs new glasses, but the prescription for it must have fallen out at home because it wasn't in my wallet when we got to the Dr's. so DD and I sat while DH had his eyes dilated, and examined. We did choose what glasses she wanted but couldn't order them without the prescription. We wandered through Costco because it was the only place to go kill time. It was hot and we got tired but were a few blocks from costco on our way back to the car, before we decided we needed drinks. So we searched the Dr's office complex for something that was open, only to find nothing was. We eventually found a deli that had it's door open but was not officially open that was willing to sell us some gateraide. DH decided to try and drive home. So we went home. It was 6pm by the time we got home, and 7 by the time we ate dinner.

I, like a fool, tried to prepare thirteen weeks of curriculum in a little over a week, which would have been easy if not for the other issues that sprang up. I didn't really get started until 10 or so at night, and only the last few nights this week. I had collected stuff that may be useful, but not organized it into any logical fashion until late on Saturday. I had asked DH to help but he hadn't gotten around to it, (had intended on working on it on Saturday but couldn't due to his eyes dilation). So I had a few late nights.

Spring Quarter at Hogwarts

For this quarter she wanted CSI, Tinker Bell, (Fairy dust and the Quest for the egg), Herbology, and I insisted on Arithimancy so she can keep up with her skills. We couldn't decide whether to have a 7 week quarter then a 5 week break before our vacation, ( a car trip so she will have schoolwork to do on the way), or a 13 week quarter with no break before vacation. There seemed too much to do in only 7 weeks, but not enough to really fill 13 weeks. I thought I would save myself the weekly hassle of collecting schoolwork by making textbooks for her to go at her own pace with. If I did a little extra work now I would have less to do later as we prepared for vacation and did girl scout stuff, planned a camping trip, cleaned house, and all the other stuff I knew I would have to do soon. I intended to put together the workbooks during her 3 week break after she finished her last thirteen week Magic Tree House quarter. But life interfered. I will write about it in a separate blog. She usually gets her assignments on Sunday morning so she can go over them with her dad, so he is included, and I can sleep in after staying up late to finish them. So she was expecting them when she got up. I did welcome letters, and packages (we found a CSI kit at B&N, and terrariums at fry's), for delivery on Sunday morning with a note from the Hogwarts Owls saying that due to the immense number of things needing delivered they had had to split it into two deliveries. I wound up staying up until 3 a.m. Thursday night, 4:30 a.m. on Friday night, 4:30 Saturday night, and 5 am last night getting the texts finished. I was up by 10 every morning, by 9 on Saturday so we could go see Grandma before DH's eye dr appointment. So I am EXHAUSTED. But there should be less stress as far as school for a while.

Herbology- I found mini terrariums at Frys on their clearance section last fall. I am hoping they will still sprout. If not I will be buying new seeds at OSH this weekend. They need to be watered once then will recycle the water as long as you keep the top on, or up to 4 months, so it seems pretty easy easy to maintain. We have to plant them, figure out where to put them where they get the right light, (one needs SW, one needs SE and one needs E), and check daily for changes. One is a "Princess' garden" with gemstones to decorate the terrarium, and make a path through the garden, which will grow into tiny flowers. Another is a "Dragon's Lair" which has lava rocks to decorate it and a plastic dragon to hide in it, it has seeds for some dark grasses and unusual flowers. The last one looks like an easter egg. It is in an egg shaped terrarium with seeds in a disc of plant food that will grow into polka dot plants. Which looks kinda like ivy only it has pink spots on it. I made her a log for her to circle each day when she checks her plants, C for any changes, (she describes lower on the page), and N for no change. Once a week she needs to draw a picture and write about one of the plants.

CSI-Mysteries, I spy, Logic, Spot the differences, Fingerprints, Footprints, Blood Type, DNA, Observation, Witness description, and other evidence . About 40 pages with about 1 activity per page.

Fairydust and the Quest for the Egg- This is a great book by Gail Carson Levine, the author of Ella Enchanted, (so much better than the movie), and other girl empowering books. It has Tink in it, but more as a connection to the fairy hollow, to show the reader what is happening there, while three other fairies go on a quest to save the source of their magic. It was supposed to kick off the line of new Disney fairies books, toys, clothes, etc. And they tried to save money by having other less known authors write the rest of the fairy books, (10-15 of them in paperback about 10 chapters each), but though they were cute, they were not on par with this one so they had her write sequel last year. I made up or found an activity for her to do after each chapter. Some are on the disney fairies site, where she can make her own fairy, decorate her fairy home, tour Fairy hollow, and play games there. Some are more active, (like acting silly to cheer someone up), or hands on, (such as laying in the tub and singing so she can hear herself like a mermaid). And some are in the workbook, some writing, (What do you think your talent would be and why), some coloring and some more fun activities like crisscross or word finds. About 20 pages for the 30 chapters. She follows along with each chapter on CD. then does her activity for it.

Arithimancy- I made a workbook with about 35 pages of math from single digit addition to simple division, adding fractions, telling time, and money. We also play lots of card and board games.

Hogwarts at Home Year 2 -Magic Tree House

For her 1st grade she asked to learn about the Magic Tree House series of books. It's a great series with a brother and sister who travel through time and space using books they find in a magic tree house. They travel to explore dionosaurs, knights, mummies, pirates, the amazon, ninjas, stone age, the moon, dolphins, the old west, lions in Africa, polar bears in the Arctic, Pompeii, China, Vikings and Monasteries, Ancient Olympics, Titanic, Lakota tribe, tigers in India, Austrailia, Civil War, Revolutionary War, Pioneers, 1906 San Francisco, Shakespeare, Gorillas, first Thanksgiving and Hawaii.

There were 28 books. We did about one book per week. I combined the first two books into one week because we had read them over the summer, so only needed a review. That also meant we got to do the pirates book on the week of International Talk like a Pirate Day. We also combined Amazon and Ninjas because I had a hard time finding stuff for them. So we did them all in 26 weeks, two 13 week quarters.

I made a workbook for her with a page of centers to do in the theme if she liked, a W.A.N.D. page, (Work Assignments Needing Done), 10 vocabulary words, three or four activities do do with them, (crossword, definitions, drawing, word shapes, word find, etc), 5-10 theme activities, 3-7 coloring pages, and 3-5 math pages. We also did a art project, a cooking project, and a movie in the theme each week.

Hogwarts at Home Year 1 Summer Quarter

For summer we did a 7 week "quarter". She took Arithimancy, (taught by a fairy called Nora from a book from the library called Math for girls and other intelligence beings), Transfiguration, (crafts), and Defense Against the Dark Arts with a focus on nightmares and monsters.

Arithimancy brought tiny scrolls in tiny block print. She did 1-2 hands on activities per week ranging from a scale size room to a 3' dome made out of rolled up newspaper.

Transfiguration was taught by Professor McGonnigal, curt but kind McGonnigal. She made baggy butterflies, paper airplanes, birthday cards, decorated a cake, made a mobile, wrapping paper. and a gift for her daddy for his birthday.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was taught by Professor Lupin. Calm, controlled and supportive Lupin. She tried a new "technique" every week and marked whether it worked. She made a sachet to go under her pillow, room spray to give her teddy bear the power to grow to protect her, a soothing tape, a "spell" to chant at bed time, a "Go Away Monsters" sign, and even hot chocolate before brushing teeth. Then she wrote a letter to Professor Lupin saying which worked best.

Hogwarts at Home 2nd Quarter

She decided, (under pressure) to continue with Arithimancy, and add Herbology, Potions and History of Magic with a focus on fairy tales, for her Spring quarter, (13 weeks again).

Herbology wound up being a great way for her to bond with her grandparents who visited early in the quarter for a few weeks. It was taught by Professor Sprout. She had flowery handwriting but was down to earth in the way she spoke. I had found a workbook at a used book store for $2.50 about how plants grow that I copied pages out of, (2-3/week). We spent a little more getting two small plastic planter boxes, potting soil, and seeds, (I let her choose three types of flowers for one box and three vegetables in the other). We made a watering and weeding chart and wrote a one or two sentence "what happened" to send to Hogwarts, (She dictated, I wrote on regular lined paper then she copied it onto primary ruled paper and we send her copy).

Potions was fun. It was taught by Professor Snape. Serious, scathing, Snape. She was assigned one potion a week to guess what would happen, complete the potion, then observe what did happen, and write about it. She made pudding, (I measured the dry mix and divided it into single servings, and put one serving in a baggy. Then she measured and added a single serving's worth of milk into it and shook it until it thickened.), Jello, (similar single serving to pudding. I did the boiling water.), Mentos and soda, vinegar and baking soda, (again in later weeks adding dish soap), oil and water lava lamps, cabbage juice, ice cream, corn starch and water, silly putty, and a few more I can't remember.

History of Magic- Fairy Tales was taught by Professor Bunker, a little flowery but short and sweet style of writing. She was assigned a fairy tale per week. She had to read, (or be read to), three versions of it and had to write the title and what was different about it. She got other activities (coloring pages, finger puppets, paper dolls, stickers, or whatever I could find or it) to do as well. We tried to find a version of it that had been made into a movie or cartoon to watch and discuss what was different in that from the the versions we read.

First Quarter at Hogwarts

For her first quarter (13 weeks), she wanted to enroll in Magical Creatures, and I wanted her to take KinderCharms and Arithimancy. She got letters from each teacher weekly with her assignments for that week .

Magical Creatures was taught by Hagrid who had horrible spelling and often spilled on the letters. He included a page each week "torn" from somewhere, (I frayed the edge), about each mythical animal, a coloring page, a word find, crossword, maze or other activity in the theme.

KinderCharms is a cross between spelling and wand practice. It was taught by Professor Flitwick. I used a more formal flowery stile of writing and font for his letters. She had a list of words each week, (from a recommended list posted on a homeschooling kindergarten yahoo group of "standard" first grade words) She was assigned four activities to do with them, (word shapes, word find, criss cross, telephone words, magnetic spelling, cutting letters from magazines, writing the words in sand, salt, whipped cream, or other mediums), and always writing her words in the air with her wand daily. I let her choose when she was ready for a spelling quiz, (Saturday at the latest). If she got them all right, she didn't have to do any more activities for the week. If she missed any she had to do the rest of the activities with those words, (but not necessarily the ones she got right).

Arithimancy is math and numbers. It was taught by Professor Digot. I tried to use a more interlectual, dry voice. I tried to make it sound like someone that was truly enamored with mathmatics. I had found a 1st grade math and manipulatives set at costco that looked like fun. But once I got it home and looked it over, it was way too easy. I liked some of the manipulatives so I kept it but I went back and got the 2nd grade set as well. Both sets had parent's handbooks, activity books, (with 40-50 manipulative activities), and a workbook, (60-70 pages). She was assigned 2-3 activities and 4-5 workbook pages per week.
Later in the year she discovered my schoolhouse rock dvds and so I started assigning Multiplication rock songs for her to listen to, doubling recipes, and downloading math sheets from off the internet.

Hogwarts Enrollment

I had her write a letter to Hogwarts requesting her registration packet, and put it outside our front door for the owls to take to Hogwarts for her. She found a scroll tied to the door a few days later with her enrollment packet, (Registration form with class interest query, Sorting hat questionnaire and directions for making a Owl Post Box). She decorated a box from the dollar store she placed her completed forms in it.

A few more days brought a Supply List, Wand Order form with a place to trace her hand for measurement, Robes order form and a Diagon Alley order form. We traced her hand, measured other random parts of her body as directed on the Madam Maulkin's form and copied her other supplies onto the Diagon Alley form and put them out for the owl post.

Over the next two weeks or so she received her orders. I sewed a robe and hat out of black cotton. I glued feathers onto pencils and put them in a box marked "Training Quills". I made a wand with sculpy for a handle over a 1/2" dowel sanded so it tapered at the point, (not a sharp point though). I bought a primary lined paper tablet, stickers and other cute stuff that fit the theme at the dollar store. I wrapped each delivery in brown paper, (I bought a roll at a packing store), included invoices, and used address labels and stamp printed off the yahoo group, cut out and taped on.

The following week brought her Sorting hat results, Welcome to Gryffindor letter, a "Fairy Advisor is Arriving soon" letter,(saying that a fairy will come to stay with her and oversee her schooling. She may look like plastic but will travel throughout the house, leave notes and glitter in random places, and report back to hogwarts on any rule breaking) and directions for her fairy house. We chose a box to use as a base,gathered sticks, leaves, and fabric scraps. She decided what went where and I glued them on. She cut out blankets, drew furniture and cut it out.

She put the house in her room before she went to bed the night before her classes started. In the morning she found a fairy in the house, (I actually used one of the Disney Fairies' dolls), and a scroll in her owl post box with welcome letters from each of her teachers and her first week's assignments.