I made Iggy gluten free soft pretzels to take to the Thunder basketball game. While that fact doesn't have much to do with homeschooling, it does bring my attention to the fact that homeschooling really affords me the time to create alternatives for him when it comes to what he can and can't eat.

If anyone is interested, I used the flour and recipe from Jules Gluten Free and they turned out great. Very buttery and yeasty and chewy. There is a special $1 child's concession stand at the Ford Center that sells soft pretzels (one of Iggy's favorite pre- gluten free treats). It feels great to provide him with his own version of the treat. So, thank you Jules.

Last night we went to Haunt The Harn at the Harn Homestead, a living museum that is fairly close to our house. We had a great time. And in true Oklahoma fashion, the kids were allowed to just walk up and pet a horse and a mule, were handed marshmallows and a stick and just went up to an open fire and roasted them. Coming from the city, I found that sort of astonishing. But fun. If you live in Oklahoma, then I definitely recommend a visit. The Harn family donated the land that the State Capital sits on.

This week has been, mostly, about grammar. We learned all about nouns - common, proper, plural, singular. And pronouns. We used Grammar Ray as a jumping off place, then supplemented with worksheets. Because his brain processes so much faster than his hand can write, he was allowed to do most of the 21 noun worksheets verbally. It is amazing how fast and how correct he is when he gets to do his work verbally!

Speaking of handwriting. (or lack of, or difficulties with)....I finally bought a Handwriting Without Tears book, recommended by my Sister in Law. We just received our copy of Printing Power. We will start on it next week.

Sick Day

Iggy took a sick day from school today - got to stay in his PJs and watch cartoons. We're both suffering from some kind of tummy ailment that is likely related to having been glutened somehow.

Lucy was in fine spirits this morning so I got her dressed and took her to Mother's Day Out.

She likes her teachers, and due to space issues, she is in the "baby room" (crawlers, toddlers). I have convinced her that she is there to work and "help take care of the babies". If she balks at the end of the hallway, I say "Lucy! You have to go to work now. Miss Bobbie and Miss Sida need help taking care of the babies." and she'll seem to do that self-resolve straighten up bottom shake and shuffle into the room on her own, gurbling to and patting the backs of the "babies" as she walks in the door. It is very cute.

Iggy feels well enough to do a little schoolwork - his assignments for today are to read the Thanksgiving Magic TreeHouse, write a reader's entry in his diary, do a few pages of math workbook, play chess with Dad when he gets home, and practice piano.

First Post

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What have we been up to at Iggyschool? Right now we're doing a lot of reading. Iggy has been enjoying all of the different Basher books - Math, Physics, Astronomy, Planet Earth, Rocks and Minerals. We've been getting them from the public library, but Iggy seems to like them so much that my mother has volunteered to send us a small book allowance each month and we will be collecting the whole series over the next year. He has chosen Punctuation as his first book - our library doesn't have it. I will make sure to read it myself - I am a comma junkie and have no idea how to punctuate.

The local library didn't have the Grammar Ray series, but since Iggy loves graphic novels, I ordered the Nouns and Pronouns book, hoping that Iggy would enjoy it. And he did! We'll get one book a month from the series. I had him take a 2nd grade Language Arts standards test at the beginning of the year and he got 2/3 correct (50 out of 75). Grammar seemed to trip him up the most (I remember this being an issue for me, as well) so I am hoping these comics help him retain the information.

We've gone back to the Ancient World Story of the World audiobook. He was desperate to start Volume 2 (Middle Ages), but once we did, he found that he wanted to go back and do more of the workbook and add more to his Ancient World bibliography. I don't blame him. It is a wonderful series and we have more than enough subject matter to last us all year if we stay with Volume 1. Secular homeschoolers - don't let the Christian slant of Classical education scare you away from Story of the World. It is a fantastically written and really unbiased history.

Math seems to be trucking along. We're neither ahead nor behind. Right now we're mainly dealing with place value (up to the thousands) and double digit addition with borrowing, with some very basic multiplication facts thrown in. All normal second grade stuff. Isn't there some joke about homeschoolers trying to make their little kids learn calculus? I think the temptation is there to try and get far ahead - especially as a validation for homeschooling! Hey, I admit it! But, the temptation is small. Though I wonder......if only there was a calculus Basher book, we might dip our toes in. Just kidding! I've never even taken calculus and I think Larry will have to take over for math from seventh grade on (he is the math guy, after all).

We've got a garden (Iggy is holding a little pumpkin he grew from seed in the picture above), which has been lovely. Right now, though it has been totally neglected for a couple of months, it is still churning out cherry romas, peppers, cowpeas, and eggplant. Plants want to grow! This was our first year with a garden and we will definitely do it again next year. Iggy and his little sister Lucy were both very helpful in the garden. Lucy loves to pull a cherry tomato off the plant and eat it raw. While Iggy maintains his "no vegetables" stance, at least he can identify them.

Lucy is 18 months and just starting to pay attention to books being read to her. In true pre-literate fashion, she has chosen two books and mainly wants to be read to from Where is Coco Going? and Mister Dog by Margaret Wise Brown. Where is Coco Going? is really cute and there are a couple of pages where she has memorized a word or two to go with the story. She is "reading". Freight Train by Donald Crews served this purpose for Iggy when he was little.

Mister Dog's appeal for a tiny girl is a little harder to understand - it's a strange story. And it's wordy. But Lucy loves it (I love it, too.), particularly the page where Mister Dog frolics with other dogs and the page that begins something like "Mister Dog was a conservative, which means that he liked everything at the right time.". That cracks her up. Picture a giant question mark over my head.

Oh, and we have a piano! A real piano! A wonderful old upright that is in great shape. It was a gift from a dear friend up the block and Iggy and Larry have been messing around on it quite a bit since we had it moved. We're finally putting Larry's 2/3 of a degree from Berklee School of Music to good use!