For years Veronica and I have taken our kids to the Three Sisters Strawberry Farm in Suffolk, VA, to pick organic strawberries. The reason we drive a long way to get strawberries that are organic is that this person...



and this person...



as well as Veronica's little people... do not hesitate to eat as many berries as they can, during the process. So, when you're at an organic farm, you feel like maybe your child isn't gulping down handfuls of mustard gas and won't be growing another kidney out the side of its head as a result. Or whatever.

So we get to Three Sisters Farm, and we start picking:



And the berries are HUGE. Massive, perfectly heartshaped berries, elegantly ripe, hanging in perfect, convenient clusters from every bush. And where are the weeds? There are no weeds. I don't know if you've ever been to an organic farm, but it is sort of weedy. In fact, some of the weeds are there on purpose because they help the pH balance or discourage invasive pests or recite pop poetry which the plants find nothing wrong with because, hey, it's entertaining, but the elitist slugs scorn, or whatever. So where, we wondered, were the weeds?

Veronica and I joked around that the Three Sisters people were sneaking in pesticides and just not telling anyone. Har har har. It is to laugh, right? Except OOPS, when Veronica actually investigated, she discovered that *BOO* they actually ARE using pesticides! It's not organic anymore! In fact, Three Sisters aren't even doing the farming -- they leased it out to something called Faith Farms which is slinging pesticides in great, heaping bucketfuls.

Which is why the berries were so nice and huge and perfect and the rows were so even and unweedy and easy to pick from. Which we found out after the children had eaten about a quart each of unwashed, mustard-gas-laden strawberries.

And so had I! I'm expecting a third kidney at any moment.

Fortunately, we still have our friends! And we will all be creepy third-kidney-havers together:



Another plus: the Three Sisters Farm still operates the store and animal farm connected with the property, and they had lots of completely organic baby ducks, turkeys, chickens, a fully organic cow, a couple of organic peacocks and these astonishingly cute organic kittens:









All in all, it was a super fun day with ice cream, candy, kittens, and massive awesome ripe delicious strawberries. I still highly recommend Three Sisters Farms. The berries might not be organic anymore, but you can always eat the kittens without washing them!

Labels: phi bensa zoe, strawberries, suffolk, three sisters farm

We went up to visit our friends the Porterfields who had the shocking audacity to move North without us. So, this must have been Phi Bensa Zoe gym class? Indeed. Veronica had the awesome idea that we should drive up to Pennsylvania and go snow tubing at Liberty Mountain. There are not a lot of children for whom driving 3 hours only to drive another 2 hours to spend 2 hours tubing and then another 2 hours in the car would be worth it. For these children, it was TOTALLY worth it. Here they are waiting for the shuttle:



When we arrived at the tubing hill, my heart sank. It looked huge, fast, and we were immediately told that we couldn't go with our younger ones -- they had to go on their own. I was so proud and amazed that *all* the kids tried the hill, no one freaked out or hung back, and while Phillip declined to repeat his run after bravely giving it a shot, the rest of them went up and down the hill about a million times.



Benny, having looked over the situation, asked for "self responsibility," which I gave him with the understanding that he and Zoe (both now nine years old) would stick together. They did, and they did great having self responsibility. That alone was worth the effort of getting up there. But then there was Sadie Grace. She was a MANIAC. She loved tubing -- here's a video of one of her runs:



Did you hear her report that she said, "Woo hoo!" I can attest that she did. She said "Woo hoo!" Crammed into that tube with only her little head and her Dora boots sticking out, she woo-hooed her way down that big old hill. And Veronica and I had our moments too -- me going down face first and her circumspectly sitting upright in her tube, hair flying in the wind.



The children definitely experienced total happiness.



In Sadie's words, it was "super fun."

Labels: field trips, gym, phi bensa zoe, skiing, tubing

One challenge in teaching very small children to write poetry is that they don't really know what it looks like -- its literal or even imaginary shape. Children hear stories of a certain length and "shape" regularly. There are reliable forms and predictable elements that a child can make their own. Once upon a time, there was a princess. Once upon a time there was a lonely shepherd. In the end, the monster was defeated and the princess married the prince. From that jumping off place, a child can bring in the talking potatoes or the underwater bicycle or whatever they bring to the form, because they mostly know what to expect, and what is expected of them.

Poetry is different, because its forms are so varied. There are traditional pieces that look very organized and rhyme and maybe fit on a page in a sonnety way. There are more freeform pieces with different line lengths and interesting breaks and punctuation. A child encouraged to write a poem may not immediately know the scope -- two lines, twenty lines, twenty pages? This project was a way that my kindergardener could visualize her poem and get a sense of the space she was going to fill, before she wrote it.

I found this cool painting technique on Scrumdilly-Do and decided to modify it into a poetry prompt for teaching the junior class in Phi Bensa Zoe Academy. Phillip is five, Sadie is four, and they both did really well with this.

If you click on this link for the painting idea, you'll see very excellent how-to pictures, much much better than mine. The basic idea is that you fold up a big piece of paper in a staggered accordion fold. You just put little ripples in it so that when it all lies flat there is a new surface for the paper , with lots of hidden little strips folded up into it. Then you paint on this new surface:



Then you let it dry for a while and stretch it out:



This is where the poetry comes in. After the kids had these neat staggered strips of color and these white strips in between, I had them dictate a poem to me, and I wrote each line in a white strip. Very cool. They could see how many lines they needed and about how long the lines would be, so I think it looked somehow doable for them. Anyway, they did it:



Here's Sadie with her finished project. It is a poem about ballet and karate and I think the theme of it is that she really likes to leap around the house yelling and making muscles at us but that doesn't mean she can't still call herself a ballerina.



The coolest thing about this is that you can fold the paper back up, hiding the poetry, and it becomes a painting again. It's a secret poem. Possibly a magic poem. The magical properties have not yet been tested yet. If I wake up and the sink is empty of dirty dishes, I will let you know. It certainly was cool to put it back together, and unfold it, and fold it up again, etc.

Many skills involved here: folding, paper-clipping, painting in one direction (you want to paint in strokes perpendicular to the folds so you don't get any into the white strips) Sadie enjoyed herself, and so did Phillip. So, good for kindergarten. But would this exercise have value beyond the paste-craving years? An older child, or even an adult, might find this an interesting way to integrate writing and art. The pre-defined line limit could be seen as a constraint or a challenge -- kind of like making yourself write a sestina or even a haiku. Give it a try and see what you come up with. And props to Scrumdilly-do again.

We're part of the Book Arts Bash. Are you?

Labels: art, book arts bash, lessons, phi bensa zoe, poetry, projects

Well, the Porterfield family seems intent on moving away to the DC area. They're packed and planning to leave this weekend. Today we had our final meeting of the Phi Bensa Zoe Academy. It was good and sad.



Sadie and Phillip made bubble prints. You put dishwasher soap and tempera paint in a cup of water, slop it into a pie plate, and blow in it with straws. The pile of bubbles you can make is awesome in and of itself, but then you can also slap a piece of paper on top, and create strange prints that look like the surface of the moon. After we made the prints and they dried, we decorated them. Sadie is doing so well with her letters that she wanted to do words instead of a lunar colony. She did this:



I had to spell the words "Love" and "Together" for her, but she decided the words she was going to write, she correctly spelled "Mom" and "Dad" and she wrote all the letters.

Benny and Zoe finished their Latin book (Minimus) and took a big final quiz on all the material therein, which they both aced. Veronica had trophies for them. Benny's said "Bennimus Optimus Est" -- which is Latin for "Benny ROCKS!" Here he is with his trophy:



It's very, very sad that the Porterfields are leaving. Until summer, they are coming back down here one week out of each month so Veronica can do her consulting work and Phillip can have his group violin class. After that, they're moving back! At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

Labels: phi bensa zoe

Today, Phi Bensa Zoe Academy's junior class resumed its study of the alphabet via South America, to go along with the Spanish studies they are pursuing with Veronica.

Here are the new pages for the South America workbooks:

Junior:



Senior:



Here's our Kapok tree lesson!

1) We read these two books.



2) We painted Kapok trees with no leaves on it, but lots of animals inhabiting them! I drew the tree outlines with pencil and during the painting we concentrated on doing brush-brush-brush instead of scrubbing the brushes around. Both of them did very well filling in their areas, and we had three different watercolor shades of brown to help them get the feel for shading.



3) Cut out lots and lots of big broad leaves for the animals to hide under. Phillip did GREAT with the scissors. Sadie needs me to be her left hand, turning the paper while she operates the scissors.



4) Tape the leaves onto the trees like little flaps, so that you can lift them up and see the hidden animals inside.

What is WRONG with me that I didn't take pictures of the final products! Imagine the trees above with a whole bunch more leaves stuck all over the place.

We concentrated on learning the names of the animals in the book, and on getting that brush technique down, and on precision cutting. A good day.

Labels: alphabet, lessons, phi bensa zoe, preschool, south america

Oobleck is cornstarch and water. Under pressure, it's a solid. Without pressure, it's a liquid. You can pour it and break it. You can yank on a spoon in a bowl full of Oobleck and pick up the whole bowl. Or you can pull gently on the spoon and let the Oobleck dribble off it like pudding. It's amazing. Everybody makes Oobleck at some point in their lives. Friday was our day for Oobleck, and we did not shy away from our destiny. We made Oobleck, and we made it pink. And orange. You know, we did not skimp on the orange.







Apparently, Oobleck makes you have strange facial expressions too. As well as being awesome.

The way you make Oobleck is simple. Cornstarch plus water, in about equal parts, maybe a little more cornstarch than water. Mix, get messy, be amazed. Whack it, dribble it, I guarantee you will be calling in your family from the other room. "Look at this stuff!" you will say. "You have to try this!" I was an Oobleck skeptic, I have to admit, but I am skeptical no more. Neither are the children. This was technically my preschool science lesson for the day, but when the second graders were done with their Latin, they had to come out and have a play with it:

For a proper explanation of Oobleck, including a thoughtful discussion of non-Newtonian fluids, try this web site: The Instructables. Their Oobleck page will also deliver the priceless gift of a YouTube movie showing people running across Oobleck. Then you could check out BARTHOLEMEW AND THE OOBLECK for the full Oobleck experience.

For related posts, click the science tag! Welcome to Little Blue School -- I hope you stick around and leave a comment so I can follow your back to your blog. :)

Labels: oobleck, phi bensa zoe, science

This summer at Phi Bensa Zoe Academy (our homeschooling mini-co-op that we engage in with one other family and their similarly aged children) the senior class (first grade students) have been studying cell biology. We learned the parts of a bacteria cell, the parts of plant and animal cells, and now we're learning about cell division. Here are two of our projects:

We found our first cell model project at a Library Thinkquest site. You make a cell model out of a Ziploc baggie, Karo syrup, and candies. Splendid. We used a plastic easter egg for the nucleus with yarn inside to represent the DNA. We used small balloons for the vacuoles, making the plant cells have big ones, the animal cells smaller ones. We made our bacteria cells with only ribosomes and yarn.

Letting the kids make their own choices as to what candies to use for what organelles was very interesting. Also, we had our first lesson with the saying, "No model is perfect; every model should be useful" since all our model cells were squares and obviously, ribosomes aren't lemon drops.



Here are our plant cells:



The next models we made were of clay. We used Das clay, which I love, although it does make more of a mess than Crayola Model Magic or other "kid" clays. Das really feels like clay, to me, and the fact that it leaves a little clay on your hands is a benefit. Not a benefit to the pipes under the sink, Dan will be happy to remind me.

We made our plant, animal, and bacteria cell shapes, then added the clay organelles. Then we painted the cells, hot-glued them to a very glamorous and impressive gold plaque (spraypainted in the yard on the now-gold grass) and spray varnished the whole thing. Now the grass is gold *and* shiny! Dan will recall that he never liked the grass anyway.

Benny's project:



Zoe's project:



You'll notice that Zoe, who has declared her major as shepherding at the tender age of 7, has included the "lamb" cell, along with the other three. Excellent.

We've learned three songs to go with our study of cells, and I'll include one of them here. The others will have to wait until our next recording session, yo!



Cells are composed of organelles
Kept inside a membrane, given shape by vacuoles!
All living things are made of these
Building blocks of life; they're bio-legos if you please!

That's what makes a cell
All the organelles
Work together well
That's what makes a cell

Plant cells can photosynthesize
Using chlorophyll to turn the sunlight into french fries
Chloroplasts make plant cells green inside
They make food from water, light, and sweet carbon dioxide

(Chorus)

When it is time to reproduce
Centrioles divide the nucleus into a deuce
Chromosomes, made up of DNA,
Line up to be pulled apart, to make two cells today.

(Chorus)

Ribosomes put together proteins
Golgi bodies package up the proteins
Lysosomes get rid of the garbage
They all use the endoplasmic reticulum highway!

(Chorus)

Cells, mon!

***
Interested in more Little Blue Ideas? Try the Idea Box for homeschooling ideas and more.

Labels: biology, cells, educational songs, learning with music, lessons, phi bensa zoe, science

Last week at Phi Bensa Zoe Academy, our homeschool mini-co-op, the junior class did a math/art/nature project that resulted in a picture frame decorated in painted shells. Of course, with preschoolers, it's all about the process.

Step 1: Wash the shells.

I had a big bucket of shells that were pretty much straight from the beach. Sand in them, bits of seaweed, random ocean gunk, etc. I put the bucket in the sink and turned on the water. Sadie and Phillip washed the shells and each chose a bowl full to use in their projects.

This was definitely the kids' favorite part of the whole thing. They liked clinking their hands around in the bucket of shells and water, they liked picking out different variations of color and shape, and we talked about the creatures that had inhabited the shells, why they were shaped how they were shaped, why they were sandy, why some had ridges and some didn't, etc. The nature lesson was good, but I think the tactile sensation was better.

Step 2: Paint the shells.

When they had their shells picked out, I laid paper towels on the table and set their bowls next to their workspace. They each chose ten shells, which we laid out in a row and numbered, then ten more, another row, then ten more. We counted to thirty, we counted by ten to thirty, we talked about three groups of ten making thirty, and we exploited the math moment in other ways. Then we painted.

Painting shells is complicated because of the ridges. We tried, with varying degrees of success, to paint with the ridges rather than across them, to make an even, smooth layer of paint. We also tried to cover the whole shell.

We used pearl white and metallic gold paint, and then came behind with silver and gold glitter paint. I like glitter paint 50 times better than shaking loose glitter onto glue. It's so much easier to control, so much less messy, and so much less likely to get into your eye and drive you crazy for the rest of the day.

Step 3. Arrange the Shells on the Frame.

After the kids chose their favorites and organized them on the frame, I came behind with a glue gun and attached the shells. We used an unfinished wooden frame, which we later varnished with spray varnish, because the glue and the shells will stick better to an unpainted wood surface than to paint or shellac.

Another example of the quiet, private nature of homeschool learning. Looking at the finished frame, some silvery shells stuck onto a wooden rectangle, you don't see the math, the marine biology, the joy in the tactile sensation. While school teachers have to focus on deliverables, proofs, and evidence, the homeschool teacher has her own experience, her own memory, her own relationship with the project and the moment, and there's no one to prove it to, no need to quantify it.

Of course the homeschool teacher also has her homeschool blog where she occasionally does record it, quantify it, and provide all the evidence she likes.

Labels: children, counting, crafts, kids, painting, phi bensa zoe, preschool, projects, shells

The Three Sisters strawberry farm is on Joshua Road in Suffolk. Here's why it's the best place to pick strawberries this week:

1. Organic strawberries. So when your children are rolling around in the plants, and emerging from the field with red juice dripping down their chins, you don't have to say, "NOT UNTIL I WASH THEM!" It's far back from any major road, so there's no exhaust residue, or dust, or anything on the berries. The rows are a little weedy, but that's organic farming. The weeds aren't hurting anything and the berries are BEAUTIFUL. So lovely. Kissed by the sun.

2. Animals.









The nicest, friendliest, child-proofed-est, sweetest farm animals you ever want to know. The first time we went to Three Sisters, we spent three hours there mooning over the animals. Delightful.

3. You'll meet other homeschoolers! This place is a homeschooler magnet. Veronica and I had our four kids, and we ran into two other homeschool families while we were there last time! Homeschoolers know: Three Sisters Strawberry Farm in Suffolk is the place to go!

Labels: field trips, friends, phi bensa zoe, strawberries

We invented new Greek letters. But we had to do it.

My friend Veronica and I each have two kids. Between us we have two seven-year-olds, a three-year-old and a four-year-old. They have been playing together for three years now. Their little conflicts have been worked through, their little power struggles have been settled, and now they play happily, kind of like cousins. Yes, problems arise, but they all know each other very well and they're getting adept at avoiding trouble.

Both of our families have been in search of a co-op to supplement our homeschooling efforts, but haven't found one just right. The closest thing we hit on was the Renaissance school, but that's a looooong way from here, and there are the little ones to consider. We decided to try making our own, tiny, insular co-op, once a week. We started almonst two months ago. She takes the older ones while I take the younger ones, then we have lunch, play, and switch.

We call it, with tongues firmly in cheek, the Phi Bensa Zoe Academy, making pseudo-Greek letters from the kids' names. The pictures you see here are of our first meeting, where we were just figuring things out and we took it very easy. Our second meeting, Veronica began teaching Latin to the older kids (using Minimus) and I am teaching them microbiology -- cells, bacteria, microscopes, etc. I'm teaching the little ones phonics and writing, and Veronica is teaching them science and social studies in mini-units.

I have to say, and I have cautiously waited to blog about it until now, because you never know how kids are going to adjust to these arrangements, that it is working out GREAT. The kids love it, and it gives us a chance to do games and activities that make learning fun, but that you just can't do with only one child. It also helps with the age difference, so that the younger ones aren't always upsetting delicate science experiments, and the older ones aren't always giving the answers before the little ones can work it out for themselves.





How can it possibly work out, having a co-op so small? Well, there are down sides. We can't put on a school play. We have only ourselves to rely on for expertise -- so we have microscopes being operated by an English major, and so on. But we can sing together, play our violins and piano together, do book reports and demos. We're flexible -- if someone is sick, we can move the day, or if someone has an appointment, change the time a few hours forward or back. We can follow our whims -- if we feel like a bike ride first or we really need to eat a snack, we can accommodate that without putting anyone out.

While the children do get a tiny bit of competition, to put a gentle urgency to their answering of questions and completing of assignments, they also can receive the pacing and attention geared to their specific needs.

I have been often confused by people who put their kids into a very school-like environment, after taking them out of school. I understand everyone has different needs and differnet reasons for homeschooling, but for me -- one of the reasons I took him out of school was to avoid the classroom. Our little "academy," for now, is giving us exactly what we need. Structure, accountability, and competition, but it still feels very much like homeschool. I'm grateful to Veronica for being such a kindred spirit!

Watching them jump in the trampoline yesterday, all together, co-operating on how to take turns and protect the littlest one from getting jumped onto her head, I was very happy. It's a good thing, for these children, at this time. I highly recommend it. If you can find one other family, with a similar teaching philosophy and children close in age, try it! See if it works for you.

Labels: groups, phi bensa zoe