Getting ready for the 2012/13 school year!

I am so thankful we've had time to prepare for homeschooling this summer.  Last year, we had two days (more or less) to prepare for homeschooling.  This year, we have had the entire summer.

After much time spent looking (and drooling . . . ) over various curriculums and resources, we have made our final selections.



This isn't all of them, and yes, this is mostly for the fall.  Some things will trickle over into the spring semester.

 Last year, this was our main homeschooling place - the counter in the family room.  Or the kitchen table.  Or the picnic table on the deck.  Or the island in the kitchen.  Or . . . wherever.

Organized, I was not.  Poor Viggo.  Although it was usually me that hauled books and supplies all over the place.

This year, we have a new plan.  We not only have an official third grader, but an official kindergartner and an unofficial preschooler.  So we are turning the craft room into a school room.  I still get to keep my desk with the sewing machine, though.  But we are turning this side of the room into a huge desk unit, maps will be put up, and other changes.  In general, it won't look like this for much longer.

We are using the workbox system to organize everyone's daily work.  We thought we would buy some more trofast organizing systems from Ikea (the girls have some in their closet to store all their little doodads and toys).  However, Nate went out to his shop, realized he had some lumber the exact size he needed, and made them himself.  I love our knockoff trofast units, which are actually improved from Ikea's - there's an extra space on the bottom of each unit to store extra paper, supplies, etc.

Thank you, Nate!

We still needed to get the bins though.  We didn't have any way of replicating those.

Svea has been helping me find school supplies.  Here's a few.

And here is what we are doing:  this is Viggo's math.  He uses Singapore Math, and Svea will also be doing that (Nate started her on Singapore Math last year).  Her books are not pictured; these are all Viggo's.

I am so glad Nate teaches.  A math book labeled "Intensive Practice" is not something I'd like to identify myself with.

Neither is "Challenging Word Problems."  I am so glad Nate teaches math.

I get everything else though.  And since I am in charge, we are doing D'Nealian handwriting this year, which I love!  Svea started looking through her book when it came in the mail the other day, and I had to pry it out of her hands.  She can't wait to start.

This is everything Viggo is doing for language arts.  We used Evan-Moore books last year as well and liked them a lot.

The Mystery of History is something we'll be continuing from last year.  Both Viggo and I love this.

 Land Animals of the Sixth Day continues a zoology series Viggo started last year.

And finally, we are reading The Hobbit and delving into it deeper with questions, activities, etc. from this comprehension book.

Svea's workload is considerably smaller, but just as important.  Mudpies to Magnets is an old-school, but very cool, science book full of fun activities and experiments.  There is a lot for Elin to do in here too!

 Nursery Rhymes Literature Pockets is something that both Svea and Elin will do.  And Drawing with Children will be for everyone.

 We will be reading several different Bible materials; Little Visits With God is one of my favorites.  It is pretty dated, but the themes it covers are not.  It is full of short vignettes, each one providing a character lesson based on biblical principals and backed with scripture.

And we are also doing "Road Trip USA" for geography for both Svea and Viggo, and Elin is doing "Letter of the Week" preschool curriculum, both from Confessions Of A Homeschooler.

I will post some pics of the school room once it is ready to go!

From Hobbiton to Mt. Doom

Today we struck gold.

I got a email informing me about a gal who was purging her home of 25 years' worth of homeschooling stuff.  Doors opened at 9:00 AM.  And even better - it was free to a good home.  I thought, we need to be there.

Well, we made a small but worthwhile haul.  We were there just a few minutes when Viggo came bouncing over to me, his face full of glee.  "Mom!  It's a Lord of the Rings game!" 

We found a handful of books too.  And 10 pounds of apples, 15 pounds of potatoes, and a step stool I am planning on painting red and rosemaling.  While I browsed, Viggo opened up the game and counted every single piece.  Everything was accounted for.

 We came home and Viggo and Svea pulled the LOTR game out immediately.

If you spin and land on the eye of Sauron, you lose your turn.  Bummer!

 They played for an hour, including Elin in a round, until we had a friend come over for lunch (actually, the kids' pastor at our church came over, and we had a delightful time with her!).  Viggo and Svea quickly ate lunch and rushed back to the game.

They played it from 12:15 to 3:45 this afternoon.
I played a few rounds and lost every time.
You have to get from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom and fight Sauron.  Good times!

Viggo insisted we go on amazon.com and find it.  Sure enough, there it was - for $34.  When I told the kids how much it was selling for, you might as well have told them we won the lottery.  Although I gave the lovely woman who organized the sale $10, I felt like that wasn't quite enough!  We are thankful.

 After the LOTR game-a-thon, Viggo looked at a huge Star Wars book we got there that has cross-section drawings of every major Star Wars vehicle.

 Apparently 4.5 hours of playing games wasn't enough.  Svea and Elin then played at least a dozen rounds of Uno, which was the current reigning game in our house - until 10:30 this morning.

 They kept playing and giggling.  They are so funny to listen to.

Oh, and I made Swedish kringle for dessert for the pastor.
I baked it last night and frosted it at 7:00 this morning.  Two kringle.  Kringli?

We had kringle in the morning, kringle in the noontime, kringle at suppertime.  And kringle for snacks.  It's kind of only really good for one day, so, time's a wasting, kids.  Eat up.

Yes, we have had our monthly allotment of butter today, that's for sure.  There's a whole lot of butter in kringle.

Svea asked tonight if we could play a round of Lord of the Rings instead of reading a story at bedtime.  (We didn't, but boy was she disappointed!)

After the girls went to bed tonight, guess what Viggo pulled out - the Lord of the Rings game.  He won.  Three guesses what we'll be doing tomorrow!

Lake Vermilion - three. {Or, when kids really don't want to bother with having their picture taken}

 First Elin and Svea were just being silly.

I spotted my brother-in-law Chris taking photos of the girls together and instantly wanted to do the same.
They gave Chris all the love . . . and I got all the leftovers.

 Svea was smiling her now-typical photo smile:  half-droopy eyes with a weird, tight-lipped smile. 

Then Viggo came and I had hope. Surely now, they would at least smile.

Well . . . not quite what I had in mind.

Close, but still not what I wanted.  They look cute though.

Then Ollie came over and I was sure that, now, something magical would happen.

Svea hugged him; Elin kept her hand on her hip and Viggo apparently fell asleep sitting up.

Now he's itching.  Not to mention all of my kids are looking at the ground.  What is there that is so mesmerizing?!

Then Viggo . . . not quite sure what's happening here.  He is part gorilla, you know.

Svea continued to smile and look endearing for several photos now; Elin is talking about something to someone.

Viggo's smile muscles must have been turned off.  Elin keeps talking and talking.

At this point, I gave up.  Not to mention we're missing another cousin, Soren.  These pictures could only be improved with his sunny presence!

The end . . . who has time for a picture when there is fun to be had!

LBBC 2012!

This summer Viggo went to camp for the second year of his young life.

He was over-the-top-ecstatic.  And excited to get this year over with, because next summer, he'll get to stay twice as long.  

 Going to camp means putting up with a few embarrassing rituals.  When we pulled in the drive to get him registered, he was escorted out of our van by the summer staff welcome wagon and was required to participate in a game.  Last year he had to sing a song; this year he was forced to play duck/duck/gray duck with kids he didn't know (also known as duck/duck/goose to anyone who lives outside of Minnesota, with the possible exception of northern Iowa).

Nate and I find these traditions necessary and highly enriching.

 Thankfully one of Viggo's buddies was in a car behind us, and was also pulled to play the game.  At least he got to be with a friend so they could groan about it together.

 After standing in a couple of lines to register that he was present and healthy, we all trudged up the hill to the most remote cabin, helped him find a bunk, and got him settled.

I refrained from taking pictures of him in his cabin because I didn't want to mortify him in front of his totally cool counselor, but I think next year I'll reconsider.

 After we dropped Viggo off and were officially no longer responsible for him (!!!), Nate and the girls and I walked around a bit, and Svea made herself at home on the stage in the chapel.

I was determined to get a photo of camp life when we came back a couple of days later, so I corralled his counselor (on the left) and staff buddy (on the right) and the remaining campers into a group pic. 

To be able to comfortably fit everyone in the photo, I had to step back a bit from the porch into the woods.

Bad idea.

I stepped one foot back into some brush and immediately smelled . . . something really yucky.  Pee.  Lots and lots of pee.  Apparently the most remote cabins also carry the perk of having the most remote restrooms provided by nature.

I took the picture and moved away quickly.  Several other parents did the same.



I was talking to the parents of two of these boys, who are twins, and we discovered that they and Viggo share the same birthday, although the twins were born early in the morning, and Viggo was born at nearly midnight.  We reminisced how there were so many babies born that day, eight days after Christmas, that there was literally no room at the inn.  (I wasn't even roomed in the maternity ward; honestly, I have no idea where they put me - the hospital was bursting at the seams with all those moms and new babies.)  This is at least the fourth time I have bumped into someone who gave birth exactly when I did and can remember the chaos, but the first time I've ran into one with multiples - I remember hearing from a nurse that there were several sets of twins and even triplets.

And now all those babies are big enough to go to camp.  To stay somewhere overnight without their parents or any other family members.  Time has moved by much too swiftly.

We are so glad Viggo loves to go to camp and are thankful for the opportunity he has to go there.  We love LBBC!

A Goose Story

I noticed that Viggo was out in the backyard tonight watching a couple dozen Canadian geese munching grass and weeds in the field.  I asked Nate what the boy was up to.

Nate said, "Oh, I told him to chase all those geese away.  Or else they're going to make the field slick with goose poop and the kids won't want to go out there." 

We had to save the field from goose poop.  For the sake of the children.

Viggo was just standing there, and not wanting to underestimate the power of goose poop,  I said, "Do you want me to give him a hand?"

Nate looked at me and blinked.  "Sure."

Like the good little wife I am, I went outside.

"Hey Viggo, let's run those geese off.  Dad said we should."  Viggo was up to the challenge.  Off we ran, clapping and marking loud, troll-like noise to scare them off.  And we were giggling.

Those stupid geese didn't budge.  Well, some took a few steps away from us.  Viggo and I stood there, surrounded by geese, who could care less that we were uninvited guests.  We ran around again, in circles, yelling at them, but the geese just went on eating their dinner.  I was concerned:  Who needs a bunch of goose poop out here?  I remember what happened to our deck last month.  (You don't want to know . . . but I promise you, geese, a lot of them, held a memorable gathering on our deck.)

"Viggo, we have to re-think our strategy.  Let's go back to the garden and get a really good running start and yell at them as loud as we can."  The geese had their backs turned to us, but a few glanced at as warily.  I had to wonder, what will they do when we get really close?  Will they hiss and attack us?  Will we become the first geese victims in a nondescript field in central Minnesota?

We went back to the garden, and as planned, ran towards the geese, waving our arms, yelling, clapping, and . . . the geese took a few more steps away, but they weren't even close to flying.  They could care less.

"If Dad wants these gone, honey, we'd better go and get him.  He's much more intimidating than we are."  Viggo thought this was a great idea, so he ran inside to get Nate.  He came back a minute later.

"Dad says it doesn't really matter if we can't get rid of them.  He said he just likes watching us run around trying to chase the geese off."

No way.

We went inside and there was Nate, holding down the couch, innocently watching the Olympics.

"You don't want us to chase off the geese?"

"Um, no, I don't really think we need to worry about it . . . but I sure hope Aulf's parents didn't see you running around.  They might think you're crazy."  (Aulf is our next-door neighbor . . . his folks are visiting from Sweden.) 

What a dork.  Someday, at some point . . . Nate may regret the goose event of August 10, 2012.