Our Gumbie Cats

Last weekend I had the privledge of attending an amazing performance of Cats with my brother. My Sis-in-law was sick and not able to attend with him. I didn't know much about Cats other than people dress like cats and the music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I decided to research Cats. Well, as much as I could in the few hours I had before going (which included eating and getting ready to go). What did I find out? Cat's is a musical that was adapted from T.S. Eliot's book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats", which was written in 1939. It is a collection of whimsical poems about feline psychology and sociology. Well, I love cats so that sounded good to me.

I thouroughly enjoyed the musical. The performers did a fantastic job. In fact, I couldn't imagine that the Broadway performance was much better. Being an owner of two cats, one who is almost 18 years old and one who is almost 14, I was moved to tears and laughter while watching and listening to the poetry.

If you are reading this, at this point you may be wondering how this pertains to our homeschool. Thanks for being patient through this long introduction but I felt that it necessary to explain what we are doing.

The day after watching Cats, I went to the bookstore and purchased T.S. Eliot's book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". Initially I purchased it with the interest of reading it myself. My daughter loves music and cats so I showed her one of the songs on you tube. She was hooked.

Today, I introduced the book to her. We read "The Naming of Cats", "The Old Gumbie Cat" and  "The Rum Tum Tugger". We analyzed each poem and compared our cats to the cats in the poems. Lucy decided that she wanted to write her own poem about our Gumbie Cats. My plan was to read one or two poems and talk about them. So when Lucy said that she wanted to write her own poem I was thrilled. I wanted to share her poem with whoever is sharing in our story.

Our Gumbie Cats

   by Lucy Waterbury

            inspired by T.S. Eliot’s “The Old Gumbie Cat”

We have two gumbie cats.
They sit and sit and sit and sit.
And that’s what makes a gumbie cat.

Jakey sleeps in the little house
And he drinks water and meows really loudly for food.
He sits and sits and sits all day.
That’s what makes a Gumbie Cat.

But when it’s night time,
He sneaks out
And teaches the guinea pigs to behave.
He teachers Bear to be the boss.
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.

Eddie sleeps in the computer room and
sewing room on top of the desk.
He sits upon the windowsill
and sits and sits and sits and sits
And that’s what makes a gumbie cat.

When we’re asleep
Eddie will creep out into the living room
He chases bugs and teacher the baby bugs to fly.
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.

In the morning he creeps back into the computer room and
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.

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If you haven't read this book, we highly recommend it. We will read more poems tomorrow. When we are done we plan on watching a production of Cats on dvd. We'll see what more inspiration comes to us.

Getting the hang of things

It's been almost 2 months since we started homeschooling. This past two weeks we have really felt like we are successful. it takes awhile to "get into the swing of things". I still have a ways to go but definitely getting there. My daughter and I are really enjoying the experience of homeschooling.
I just installed the blogger app on my iPhone so this post is short just to make sure it works correctly.

Learning About Composers

Music is an important element in all of our lives. I believe that it is important to introduce my children to different types of music. This school year my daughter and I will be learning about different composers. What a fun way to introduce music and history together. Lucy loves "The Nutcracker Ballet". It has become a family tradition to attend "The Nutcracker" this time of year. For a few years in a row we went to Golden West Colleges production. Last year we went to a different production and will do the same thing this year. So we figured that it would be great to learn about than Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Upon Googling him I came across this website that looks like a great resource.
http://www.makingmusicfun.net/htm/f_mmf_music_library/hey-kids-meet-peter-ilyich-tchaikovsky.htm

What An Amazing Park!!

We found a park that is only 15 minutes from our house but took us back in time to the 1770's. What an amazing find this was! Like most parks, there is a playground, a big grass field and basketball courts.

The incredible part of the park is an island that is accessed by a covered bridge. A moat runs around the island and is home to many birds and ducks including mallard ducks, white ducks, greebs and a few seagulls. We even saw a Red Eared Slider Turtle. As you adventure towards the island, a statue of Paul Revere welcomes you.

Once we crossed the Charlestown bridge we were transported back in time to a miniature town of Boston, circa 1770.

The little Boston town has a group of "stores" including a print shop, an apothacary, ropemaker and saddlemaker. Inside the shops are slides and poles and ladders that the girls played on. Upon climbing up a very narrow staircase, you can walk across a bridge to other stores. The brick wall in the photo below is the bridge.

Next to the shops is a replica of The North Church Tower with two slides. You can see one of them on the left side of the church in the following photo (along with my beautiful little girl)

There are non-working cannons to protect Boston. Here is one of them with my beautiful older daughter.

The island closed early today so we didn't get to explore the whole town. There is also a replica of Paul Revere's house and a replica of a cemetary. We will definately go back and do some more exploring but we had a great day!

Learning In A Non-Traditional Classroom

We used a park as our "classroom" today to study math, science, history and p.e. Plus, we had a great time learning. You may be wondering how one visit to the park allowed us to study so much. Well, let me explain. We are studying English measurements of length. We took a 12 inch ruler and a yardstick and went on a hunt for items we could measure. Being that it's Autumn, there are leaves of all types on the ground, unless it's an evergreen tree (in comes science and learning about deciduous trees and evergreens). Lucy found different types of leaves and measured them. The smallest she found in the park was 1/4 inches long while the largest leaf was 12 inches long. We recorded the information that we obtained and will make a graph.

P.E. and Math: We played on the basketball court and shot hoops. Each basket we made counted for 2 points. Then we started over and each basket was 3 points, then 4 points each and then 5 points each. This reinforced multiplication and division. She divide the score that we were shooting for and divided it by 2 and found out how many points we each needed to make and then divided that by the point count and figured out how many baskets we each needed to make.

She played on this whirly-twirly thing and made a hypothesis as to whether she would spin faster pushed away from the center or when she moved in closer to the center. She guessed moved into the center. She was right! We then talked about why that is. Just like ice skaters, it is because of angular momentum.
On the playground is a huge "pirate ship" that the kids can climb on on slide down the slides. One of the fears of the earlier explorers, such as Christopher Columbus was pirates. On the "pirate ship" was this sundial. Before clocks, people used the sun to determine the time of day.

Thanks for reading about our educational adventures.

Our First Field Trip

One of the advantages of belonging to a home school group is that we get to go on field trips with other kids and moms (and dads). Yesterday we went on a fantastic field trip to Riley's Farm in Oak Glen. Being that it was on a school holiday, Megan and the girls that I nanny were able to come too. What a great experience we had! By "going" back in time to the colonial-era we learned about homesteading and were able to lend a hand in chores such as washing clothes, sawing wood, peeling, coring and cutting apples, writing with a feather and ink, and building a log-cabin home with real logs. The girls made their own corn husk dolls, went panning for gold, and made fresh apple cider from apples grown on Riley's Farm. We wrapped up our trip with a hay ride around the Farm. We saw different types of apple trees, Indian corn, chickens and potbelly pigs. A great day was had by all! Lucy and I are certainly enjoying the path of home schooling. She was able to meet some new friends that are also home schooled and I was able to meet some moms who love home schooling their children. 


Lucy slicing the apple that she peeled and cored.





Megan and Lucy enjoying the apple cider that they helped make. It was yummy!!



Our First Day was a success!

We had a great first day of school today. We are waiting for our English curriculum to arrive in the mail but we were able to do other subjects today. Lucy and I are really enjoying this time together.
As I sit and reflect on career choices and decisions that I've made over the past couple years, I really see how God has orchestrated my decisions to get me where I am right now. He is awesome!
Last year I loved teaching second grade at a Christian school and I started working on my ACSI Christian teaching credential. (The teaching I did counted as my student teaching) At the end of the year there were changes with the school and we chose not to return this school year.
I pray that I will be able to follow God's will. I really felt that He was calling me to be an elementary school teacher. At the time, I really wondered if I didn't realize what God's will was. Now that I am teaching my daughter I understand how He was using me to be the best teacher that I can be for her.