7/30

Nothing like multiple offers on the same day to make it all worthwhile...

We officially have all of O Captain! My Captain! memorized and Audrey and I are cranking away on Spelling while she and April are cranking on math.

7/29

And another showing for tomorrow.  And a part 2 for Behan's boat-schooling post today.

7/28

Began posted about being interviewed for a Btitish radio program on homeschooling, so we're looking forward to having a listen to that. (http://sv-totem.blogspot.com/2013/07/boatschooling-interviewed-by-sociable.html?m=1)

Meanwhile, we did our weekly planning for school today:

We have showing in the morning, and may have some good news this week, but well just have to wait and see...

7/27

More first aid today.  Conscious choking, FTW!

7/25

Audrey wrapped up Unit 6 in the Singapore Math activity book yesterday and she's been on a kick to try to get her name in all her books.  She gets her name in them when she can read them aloud without help.  April and Audrey did another handwriting lesson today too.

I worked through a little of the choking section in the first aid course.

7/24

We had our third showing in 5 days.  This one came with 45 minutes' notice and me at work so the girls made it happen.  And oh, by the way, we dropped the price another $13K, to $357K.  I honestly can't imagine someone not buying this house at this point.

Audrey did Unit 6 in the Singapore Math textbook from beginning to end this morning.  Tomorrow we'll do the activity book for the unit.  She also read aloud all 64 pages of of Amelia Bedelia to me this evening.

April and I went through lesson 2 on CPR in the first aid class together this evening.  I'm really looking forward to the remote first aid class.

7/23

Tonight: first aid.  Tomorrow: math.

7/22

I finished unit 3 in the first aid class.  I doubt we'll have AED aboard, but it was interesting nonetheless.  I was interested to learn that it is in fact safe to use on pregnant women, on kids and babies, in snow or rain, and with a patient lying on a conductive surface.  Those are all things that would certainly have given me pause if I didn't know better.

7/21

More first aid today.

7/20

Audrey finished up unit 4 in math and I finished unit in first aid.

7/16

Audrey's continuing to kick butt in spelling, writing, reading, math, and poetry memorization. 

We're working through the course materials for first aid a little each evening.  Class time now... 

7/14

We did our school plan for next week today.  I think we'll be able to easily knock off unit 5 of our math curriculum.  We'll also forge ahead in writing, spelling, Greek myth, and memorization, with the second verse of Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain."

April took this awesome panorama today.  How could you not buy this place?  Well, speaking of, we had a showing today and so far no news. Which is to say, "so far, so good."

7/12

We finished up Unit 4 in Singapore Math Kindergarten A, so we're on page 110 in that textbook and page 33 in the workbook.  We've been working on the addition wrap-ups too and Audrey's got the 1s and 2s down pretty well now.  That's a lot of math for a girl who hasn't started her first school year yet!

We're on page 73 of Zaner-Bloser Handwriting K, so we're more than half done with that.  We were just trying to decide whether to get the next book or maybe just do some practice and consolidate what we learned in the first book for awhile.

We're on Lesson 11 in the MCP Spelling Workout A, on page 45.  That puts us about a third of the way through that one.

We're all set on the first verse of "O Captain, My Captain," so we'll do a notebook page on that tomorrow.  I'll write it down as Audrey dictates, then she'll trace the letters and decorate the page and that will go into her memorization work notebook.

April and the girls also planted some carrots in a clear-sided container this week, so we'll observe as those guys grow and make science notebook pages on that.  They did Audrey's very first notebook page earlier this week, on the importance of sleep, after reading our Sleep Is for Everyone.

We have a showing on Sunday.  Here's hoping.  Again.

7/11

April picked up a copy of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, and it's a big hit.  I've learned at least as much from it as Audrey.  I never knew that Zeus was the grandson of Gaea and Uranus, nor what the relationships were between Zeus and the other gods of Olympus.  And those are only two of the 10 or 15 new things I learned about Greek myth in the first 2 chapters.  I'm really looking forward to the rest of the book.  And it's going to be great to get all that background prior to jumping into the Iliad and Odyssey.  It will provide plenty of fodder for memorization and composition too.

After all that is said and done, I can't wait to read D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths.

7/10

So we're on www.svlark.com now.  We'll have to update some stuff around here.

We're also all registered for the Red Cross adults and infants first aid and CPR class.  We'll be certified on 8/13, which will allow us to take the remote first aid class. 

7/9

Alright we're finally going to get around to these first aid classes.  We're going to try to sign up tomorrow.

Long Weekend

shopping at the Depot

What a nice long weekend! It was awesome having Jacob home for 4 days in a row! We got a lot done. We spent most of Thursday and Friday working on our 'curb appeal', whatever that means when there isn't a curb for 20 miles. We had a landscape architect come and give us a quote on a few projects, but then realized that we just didn't want to put that much money into the house, so we did it ourselves. We had so much fun picking out the flowers, and we took some left over stone from the previous owner that was behind the house and lined our walkway. We are also considering putting in an outdoor stairway using some of our railroad ties, so Jacob did one to see how it looks. It is cute, but I'm not sure we can spare as much time as it will take. 

We are pretty in love with the result of all our sprucing up outside, and we have to walk out to visit our flowers several times a day! Hopefully it will make a good impression to perspective buyers. The stager told us to grab them in the first 30 seconds. 

We also went to see fireworks in Blackhawk on the 4th, and went for a fun little hike this morning at Left Hand Reservoir. I wish Jacob didn't have to work tomorrow, but I guess we need to build our cruising kitty, so back to the salt mines for him.

Jacob and Audrey doing the 'Audrey' pose

7/7

Our memorization project for this week is the first verse of Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!"  So far, we've gotten down, "Work," "The Caterpillar," "The Adventures of Isabel," "The Sun's Travel," the Song of Bogey.

Homeschooling's going great.  We actually planned for the upcoming week in some detail: 

7/5

Working on "curb appeal."

7/3

The girls are starting up swim lessons again on Monday.  That's key.

I'm all fired up to get this little sextant and learn me some celestial nav after listening to Allan Breckall on The Sailing Podcast.

Jack and Jude are amazing!  I had never heard of them before until I listened to Jack on The Sailing Podcast, but they are definitely going on the inspiration page.

Audrey's on page 32 on MCP Spelling Workout A, page 59 of Zaner-Bloser Handwriting K, and page 71 of Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics A.

7/2

We're moving.  No, we didn't sell the house.  We're moving domains.  We'll be blogging on svlark.com in a couple days.  "Windward Reach" has meaning for us, but I do think it is just a little too obvious, don't you?  Why Lark?  I don't know, April just loves that name, so Lark it is.  Now, if we can only find her...

I got email from Sara, of Wondertime, about the NZ visa questions.  That was a thrill!  She said that the biggest factor in their success, was Michael's profession being on the long-term skill shortage list, which is awesome, as mine and April's both are too.

Funny how we have secret cruising celebrities.  We get starstruck by emails from Sara, Behan, or Pat, and follow breathlessly the adventures of Sara, Michael, Leah, and Holly; Behan, Jamie, Niall, Mairen, and Siobhan; Pat, Ali, Ouest, and Lowe; Mike, Alissa, Elias, and Eric; Jen, Bruce, Carmen, and Richard.  I bet you've never heard of them, but they're our Kardashians.