ThadenPierce School

Sitting on couch holding ice cube to Joseph’s sore gums as he frantically gnaws on it. Bennett came to sit by me and is reading me Go, Dog, Go with the cutest inflection. He informed me, “Mom, there a lot of dogs!”

I’m finding him every day sitting down with a book reading to himself. I love it. “Look at those dogs go. Go, dog, go!” When he saw the exclamation point he repeated the sentence with enthusiasm. “Go, dog, GO!”

Really, one of these days I do plan to do lessons with him, teach him some grammar or something… I don’t know. But it’s kinda fun to just see how he’s developing these skills simply from being exposed to reading. Not that this system works for all the kids. We potty “trained” the first two kids by ignoring the issue and they trained themselves. That system did NOT work with Bennett, but ignoring the reading and letting him learn on his own seems to be pretty effective. I know each child will need varying levels of assistance and we do need to to do some formal language lessons with him at some point – I just didn’t plan to do that for at least another year. He’s only four! But I don’t think we can realistically wait another year to start grammar lessons, I don’t want him to form bad habits or struggle because we didn’t help him fill in some of the language gaps.

He’s a hoot. When he asks me what something says now I don’t tell him, I ask him what he thinks. Walking to church through the parking lot he asked me what the road said and I asked him – he read it, “No Parking.”

Christopher side note – he’s hooked on The Magic Treehouse series. He started a new one last night as we got ready for scripture in prayer. Before it was time for lights out he ran back into the living room to tell us he finished it. We asked questions to see how much he remembered – yep, he read it that fast, I think he takes after me with the speed reading. I told him I’m going to time him next book because I’m curious how long it took. He’s reading two or three books a day so we do need to find something more challenging before he finishes this series.

Bennett’s sitting on the toilet, Emy’s on the potty chair. They’re chatting as they both pee before bed and we overhear, “Texas is over here, South Carolina is over here. South Carolina is yellow.”

Bennett’s pointing out states to Emy on the shower curtain map of the world. While they pee. I about fell over laughing.

Christopher started his second piano book and we played our first duet together! It was lovely. For your listening pleasure – Duet

So Kit’s proposed we have a self reliance week. I think he called it “Common Sense Week.” If there is anything the kids can do for themselves, they have to do it and we’re not going to help (unless safety is involved.) All those times they stand there in the kitchen with a dirty plate and ask, “Where do I put this?” We’re not going to tell them! (Right now we always ask, “Where do you think it’s suppose to go?”) If they need help with something and ask, then we help. But otherwise, they are ON THEIR OWN for anything and everything they can feasibly do without us. If they don’t know how to do it, we’ll teach them.

I’m liking this idea. We may need to make it an annual tradition. Perhaps not a week, just a day now and add more days as they get older? But it is really important to us that they learn to do as much as they can for themselves so they are reasonably independent and functioning when they leave home. It’s too easy for me to do things for them but I’m robbing them of the chance to learn to do it for themselves and I’m making my life harder by not enlisting their assistance in running this house. It’s an investment of time to train them now but I know it will reap rewards for our family and for their future families.

So, we’ll set a date and we’ll do some preliminary training and we’ll try survival week at the Thaden-Pierce house. This should be entertaining…

We finally have a sunflower! And it’s enormously tall, as you can see.

Aunt Rebecca and the cousins brought some newly hatched chicks to visit today. They borrowed the eggs from a friend and were able to watch them hatch and they’ll soon return them.

Joseph was frustrated we wouldn’t let him hold one.

Emy & Bennett were very gentle but we stayed close.

Moira & Christopher are begging for some eggs to hatch.

Our history group studied Shakespeare today and did some brewing like in Macbeth.

Here are the kids gathering with their dragon scales, eye of newt, and toe of frog. I thought it was interesting the history book refers to them as the weird old women, they do not call them witches. And when Lady Macbeth kills herself they say she “died of a guilty conscience.” Which I think is nice, it lets us explain as appropriate for our kids’ age/maturity level. (And Katie’s right, I should point out that the real speech from Macbeth is very NOT PG rated. I like the Lamb kids’ versions of Shakespare – they edit as needed for kids. Shakespeare does have some gruesome stuff…)

The baboon’s blood was red vitamin water. VERY yummy brew.

1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin’d.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—’tis time! ’tis time!
1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg’d i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

Some we’re considering, though not all at once.

Natatorium is $240/year. A season pass of 4 months is less, $120 or so? It’s about a 10 minute drive from here. The outdoor pool is less but in Texas there is maybe one month of the year you would want to swim – it’s so HOT and then too cold. Indoor pool seems better investment.

Dallas Museum Nature & Science is $90 for family pass for year or $150 family pass to join Kids’ Club and get into the Heard Museum and the Fort Worth Science Museum as well… all three are about 45 minutes from us.

Texas State Parks Pass is $60. That gets us to the camp grounds (camping is another fee) and “beach” on the lake plus bike trails, hiking, etc. It’s about 30 minutes north of us I heard.

Frank Buck Zoo is $55. (Now that the Fort Worth Zoo does family memberships with a fee PER PERSON in the family it’s way too much for us. I’m bummed, it used to be much cheaper. But they do a discounted homeschool day 2x a year.) Frank Buck is about 30 minutes north so no traffic that direction.

We are looking at some of these as family gifts for the holidays. We would do probably one a year over the next few years. We decided against a pass for the art museums because they all have a free day. The botanical gardens have at least some parts free, so we’re looking at passes for the places that are the most expensive and don’t do discount days/free days.

These were on notes from my Physical Science 110 professor at BYU. A quote from him: “The scriptures and the rocks have the same author – I see no contradiction.” I wish I could remember my professor’s name, I just have these notes in my homeschool binder.

- Why study science? D&C 46:8, D&C 88:78-80.

- Creation: Abraham 5 and Moses 3.

- Entropy: Mosiah 15:23 and on…

- Light: D&C 88:7-13

- Proof of order: Alma 30:44, Abraham 3, Moses 1.

- Water cycle: Ecclesiastes 1:7

- Plate tectonics: 3 Nephi 8:10, Genesis 10:32, D&C 133:26-29.

FHE:
- Gospel Art Book pictures 1 through 3: Jesus Christ, “The Lord Created All Things” Moses 1:32-33, 39; 7:30; Mosiah 4:9; The Earth, D&C 59:16-21.
- Gospel Art Picture Kit card 100 – Creation/Living Creatures, Genesis 1:20-25; Moses 2:20-25
- Behold Your Little Ones (nursery manual) lesson 7: Jesus Christ created the World for Me. “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” Children’s Song Book 228-9. Plant seed, coloring book included on page 35 to copy. (I believe page 34 is duplicate of gospel art picture card 100? Seeing as the kids shuffled our set and we can’t find card 100. )

Art:
- Science Arts p.66 – star window,
- anything from Chapter 5, Earth & Nature
- nature study journal
- tracing our bodies

Music:
- “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” Children’s Song Book 228-9.
- “For the Beauty of the Earth”
- Anything in Children’s Songbook “Nature & Seasons” section, pgs. 228-249.
- Creation songs
- Beautiful World song list.

Nova Clips:
- Life Science
- Earth Science
- Space

Library/Reading List:
- Magic School bus books & DVDs on earth, space & human body.
- The Sky is Full of Stars book
- creation myths books

Social Studies:
- I requested several books of creation myths from around the world so we can discuss with the kids what other cultures, religions and people have believed about creation.