Well, This is Embarrassing!

Alrighty, then--
We've been schooling at home since September, and have I bothered to update this blog? Well, no, I haven't.

So many times I've sat at my desk (really a table in the den, beside the kitchen) and said to myself, "Y'know, you really ought to write about what we did today! You really ought to post those pictures! You really ought to update everyone!" But the pics stay in the camera, the posts stay in my head, and my mind strays to other things.

So here's a mini-update, and then maybe I'll get the ball rolling and start posting weekly again. Maybe...

1. Sky came home in August, has started at the local school (transfer came in, no problem), and has...wait for it...All A's (and 1 B+) for the first quarter! He has been working his tushy off. Sky passed his one year sobriety anniversary, also. Everyone who has been down on her knees for us can be assured, "The prayers of the righteous availeth much!" Thank you so much for your faithfulness--he's doing great! We recently visited several colleges, he did ok on his SAT's, and his attitude is very good.

2. We are tooling along with homeschooling. Nature Girl breezes thru most of her work--we do math and we read aloud every day, and we do grammar, spelling, history, and Bible about 4 days a week (once in a while we double up on grammar b/c we do most of it orally and I occasionally let it slide a bit). Keeping to the adage, small things done over time lead to great things. She is currently memorizing the Nativity story in Luke, for example--a couple of verses a week.

3. I am making enough $ to pay down debt and sometimes have enough for a tank of gas--Godly Man helps out with that. I've been babysitting for a dear family (1 year old) about once a week, and can take Nature Girl with me if I need to. I'm also walking dogs/pet sitting for a local company. I would like more hours, but am not ready to throw in the towel yet with hs'ing.

4. Film Buff is hoping to get into the cinema program at his college--he is having some adjustment problems and it's been pretty rough. I'm learning to keep offering up my children (to the Lord, of course) and that he is in charge.

5. Godly Man and I just celebrated the 26th year anni of our engagement--this July it'll be 25 years of marriage. We are thinking of going to the Holy Land, but are not sure at this point. With two in college (or nearly so), it will be tight, but 25 years is worth celebrating. When I told dh that Jerusalem didn't seem like an anniversary place, he said, "Why not? Marriage is sacred." Gotta love that man.

Well that's the update for now. Every day an adventure--Keeping my hands open by letting go of control and being open to God, waiting on him to fill them with all the Good he has for me and mine.

Look for more later in the week--pictures, weekly update, etc. etc.

Oh, and HI BETH!

Changes and Challenges

I've neglected this poor excuse for a blog, but I'm preparing to do more posting.

As this originally started as a way to document and share our homeschooling journey, as well as other parts of our family life, I was not updating frequently because Nature Girl started going to public school, Film Buff graduated, and Sky remained in treatment.

Things are changing, however! Sky is making good progress, and will probably be home the end of July, depending on several factors. Nature Girl did extremely well in school, but longs to be home. I fought everyday with myself about going to work this year--it turned out to be an excellent, refining experience, but I want to be home next year, too, so I'm choosing not to teach preschool next year. Instead, I'm looking for pet sitting and babysitting jobs. So far, I've got a once-a-week job with a sweet, sweet family who have a 1yodd--cutie patootie! I'm also watching Millie The Wonder Dachshund, who is a pee-er, but extremely sweet.

Film Buff was not accepted into the Cinema program at his college of choice, but was accepted to the general program, so he will go in the Fall. I'm having separation anxiety! All will be well. I'm hoping he learned enough in homeschool to get by--he's really quite a nice young man, and pretty sensible.

Nature Girl and I did some work in the homeschool room. We moved the large desk Film Buff used up to the place where the art area was, and moved the art area to the lovely, window-surrounded area where the desk had been. I actually liked it better the other way, but Nature Girl and I were both ready for something new. I will post pics when it is a little more cleaned up. We have also hung a nice African map on the wall--it's a print out using 64 sheets of paper (we couldn't do the top level due to space, but all of Africa is on the wall). Again, I'll post pics and our new curriculum later this week.

Field-Based Science For 4th Grade

Nature Girl is in the 3rd grade this year at the local elementary school. Next year, she would like to homeschool, and so would I, but I will need to find a creative way to keep up with financial obligations. As I am thinking more and more about this, I am trying to plan a little for her 4th grade year.

Science has always been a tough area for me--it's clear that Nature Girl is a hands-on, experiments and field trips kinda gal. She actually came downstairs the other day with a homemade science kit she had put together, containing her Tasco microscope, a pair of plastic tweezers, a mini-notebook, and some other small items. She took a little basket with her on her way outside, after telling me she was going out "to make some observations." I found her later in the garage, sitting on the cold concrete, absorbed in using her microscope to carefully look at the items she had collected. She shared her written observations with me later. This was completely on her own, and showed me how much potential there is for her to enjoy a field-based/observational-type of science instruction.

So, I've been doing a little of my own research (tho not sitting on the garage floor!) to see if there are already some curriculum options out there. While there are many biology/botany/nature study ideas and books floating around, I have yet to see something that's open and go. My idea is to pull together some living books (Jessica at Trivium Academy has tons of great ideas for these on her blog) on several biomes/habitats, and then go visit the ones in our area. Jessica's kids are also using the Junior Ranger program for a park in their area, so I investigated that, too.

I went to the website of one of our nearest National Parks, Prince William Forest Park (PWFP), and downloaded their Junior Ranger Corps packet. Inside are 13 fun activities for children to do at the park. Each activity is introduced by a "kid" from PWFP's history. The activities vary from visiting different trails of the park, looking for specific items, to walking thru the various displays at the visitor's/nature center, reading displays and filling in information on birds, animal life, etc. It really looks like fun! We could do it in 4-5 visits, or do fewer activites and go more often.

At the end of the Ranger program, Nature Girl would earn a certificate, a patch and some little extra thing that they don't spell out in the packet. I think it would be a good beginning to our studies. We may even go before next year ( I have a hard time waiting on things like that! lol).

Last year we took a monthly nature walk in a marsh area not far from us--it was amazing to see how the marsh changed from month to month. We'd probably continue doing that, too. We also have another marsh nearby, as well as our very own woods in the backyard (we are situated on 40 acres of church land, 20 or so which are developed). Could be a lot of fun!

I will be looking for notebooking pages, some living books (I'm thinking One Small Square would be good, as well as using Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study, which we have), and a scope and sequence.

Have Backpack, Will Travel...to 3rd Grade

Here's Nature Girl's Land's End backpack. Love it--sturdy, not too heavy, lots and lots of pockets!

Backpack

Wish I knew how to include a photo from a website, but this will do.

I can heartily recommend Land's End for so many things--Film Buff has had his backpack for 5 years--no rips, tears or significant wear.

Great Math Worksheet Site

I have long looked for supplemental math worksheets that have math facts in a vertical format, with 100 on the page. I ran across this awesome site today--

Math Fact Sheets

I am going to have Nature Girl work on facts the rest of the summer, so she can go to ps with them down pat. She is looking for things to do and sees it as fun.

We've been talking a lot lately about school and what it will be like. We both know there is change coming--I've tried to inspire confidence in her. Having fluency in math facts will help give her a boost.

Back Again

Hi All,
We have not restarted school, but I decided to restart my blog entries. We've done a little school here and there, mostly from Apologia Zoo 3. Film Buff is off on a mission trip, will come home for a week, then jet off to Ireland, courtesy of a nice auntie. We take off for a visit to where we moved from 7 years ago soon after that. He's supposed to be working on 50 Great Short Stories, edited by Crane, but has only read about 5 of them. He says he'll take the book on the plane--sounds ok by me.

I have accepted a position as a part-time preschool teacher for the fall, which means Nature Girl will go to 3rd grade at the local ps. I'm kinda nervous, kinda excited for her. I think much of the textbook curricula will be redundant, but she will have other things to learn--I just want the "hidden curriculum," as they say, to not be too hard on her. I am going to take this year by year. I would love it if she could stay in ps until 6th grade, then come home for Jr. High and the first two years of High School. But we will have to see.

There's a chance I could get my certification, and make some $ by homeschooling other people's kids, along with Nature Girl. Not sure if this would work. Ideally, I'd tutor after school about 10 hours a week, but I'd have to find my own clients, and I'm not sure I can really do that.

We'll see! It's hard not to want to plan curriculum for NG next year. There are some fun things we could use. I don't think a year of school will harm her, but I want to minimize any damage it might cause. That will sound weird to those of you who do not homeschool--I am mostly talking about the social stuff that happens at school. She is quite sweet, has no doubts about God, and still watches Big Comfy Couch and Mr. R. I don't want that ridiculed.

Last Weekly Report for a While

School is dwindling down at our house. Sky's last day was Friday. Film Buff has to continue with math with Dad, and I'm going thru 50 Great Short Stories with him for the rest of the summer (except the 4 weeks we will be off on vacation). Nature Girl has been fooling around with Saxon 5/4--a dear friend who is moving to Okinawa gave it to us, and I casually showed it to her. After 3 weeks with no math, she was intrigued, and we've done the first 4 lessons this week, mostly orally. But we are not going to do much more--it will start to get too hard.

We are continuing with Apologia's Zoology 3. I don't like the heavy-handed Creationist perspective, but I can overlook most of it. Not that I don't think Creationism isn't valid--far from it--but I'm not sure I agree 100% with the way it is presented in this book. It is, however, full of interesting facts, engaging in tone, and beautifully illustrated--it "feels nice" to read. Did you know rabbits have their sweat glands in their lips?

Gotta go--several meetings and appointments this week. We need to figure out what to do with Sky. We need to get Film Buff's registration process completed for Community College, and we need to prepare for our parish retreat. Lots to do!

Almost Done With School! June 2-June6

Just a quick update on school work-
Nature Girl is nearly done, so this week was very light. I gave her some phonics and math pages almost every day. I wish I had kept up with Adventures in Phonics C--there's such good info in that little workbook! I did think it important for us to go over the rules of dividing syllables (and I learned a lot in the process), so I assigned a few pages for independent work. We were off to the dentist on Tues with Film Buff, and yesterday I was here:
so I gave NG small packets to work on in my absence. I must say, she a "git 'er done" kinda gal!

We did the chapters on Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare, in SOTW. The Royal Tudors--what a fun bunch! Nature Girl thinks the name is funny...a little base humor. We followed some of the recommendations for extra literature and non-fiction from the Activity Guide. Talk about a valuable resource--truly, a top find for the year. NG did lots of map work, these narration/copywork pages, and we did this extra reading. Love Love Love the Bruce Colville Shakespeare adaptations! Illustrations (particularly in Midsummer...) are outstanding, and he weaves the original language into the retold stories effectively. In fact, Film Buff will be studying Hamlet and Midsummer next fall, so I picked up our Barron's plays to prepare, and was pleasantly surprised that quite a few of the original phrases showed up in the picture books. Now I know the plots, too--which was my goal for Nature Girl, so that Shakespeare won't be so intimidating when she gets to the real stuff. I asked her what she thought of his stories, right after we had finished Hamlet--she was quite impressed, and thought he was a great storyteller!
We are on our last timeline page. We just need to cover Sir Walter Raleigh and the Lost Colony, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Nature Girl is reading Elizabeth I from the Royal Diaries series--much better than the one I bought on Eleanor of Aquitaine (never did get to it). We are going to continue history until we finish, even if it's into July.
Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day arrived in the mail this week, and Nature Girl couldn't wait to start. I know, it's weird to start a new science program when school is almost out, but we did such a little science this year, and this looked so good when I was surfing the web--she said she'd really like to do it, so what the heck. It will give us something to do on those long summer days (of which there will be too few, of course). The first experiment involved creating a "habitat for M&M's" out of 3 colors of contruction paper, torn into pieces and crumpled up. She had one minute (changed from the 2 minutes in the experiment as written) to hunt for as many as she could find. We should have used the smaller candies, or Skittles--the Peanut M&M's we used were quite easy to find. Anyway, she learned a little and we had a good time. The idea was that the candies of the same color as the paper would be harder to find--like well-camouflaged prey.
She made a chart, and filled in her first "lab report." She also made me take a picture of her eating an M&M and called it "M&M's in their natural habitat," which I thought was pretty clever! I don't post pics of her face, so that's just for her notebook!
The text comes from a 6 Day Creation viewpoint--I'm not there, but I want to give her several perspectives. It was like a mini-Bible study, too--and we both really enjoyed that aspect.
Sky took this picture of a lovely rainbow created by the sprinklers in the backyard. We has so much rain right after this--huge, tornado-filled thunderstorms that knocked out the power for a few minutes, brought down several trees and many branches, but did no other real damage.

Couple of happies--Film Buff got his driver's license!! Yea!! I know he's proud. Ibaked him a cake and Nature Girl and I decorated it with little cars from the dollar store. We will be traveling to see my sil and nieces in OH this weekend, but he will not be driving there! Not yet. J is graduating from HS--we are so proud of her. I'll get to see my parents, too.

Keep us all in your prayers, esp. Sky.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post more regularly in the future.

Weekly Report 5/19-5/23

We had a light week, mostly doing testing (ITBS) and history. We finished the sections on Martin Luther and the Reformation, on Gutenberg and Henry the VIII, and the first section on the Counter-Reformation. We have not done any supplemental readings this week, focusing on our read aloud, Anne of Green Gables. We'll probably do some potato printing this week for fun, and there are a few activities in the AG I want to cover. I think we will extend our history into June, just because there are so many fun thngs to do with this time period. I want to get into Shakespeare, also--we'll read Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare next week.

Nature Girl finished her Saxon 3 math two weeks ago, so I gave her last week off from math, and this week, we didn't do much either. I want to find something easy to give her to do over the summer, just to keep her facts fresh. I know I can just copy some worksheets, but I may look for something more interesting.
Nature Girl likes the Draw Write Now series of books, and worked on a couple of pictures independently. We had lovely visitors from Sweden last weekend and she wanted to give each of them a picture. Here's her starfish picture--she wasn't satisfied with it, so she didn't give it to them.We have a "Seasons" door by the school room--she decided to make a forsythia picture out of tissue and pastel. No help, just her creating.

I'm considering starting a Tea Time once a week. I've collected various tea cups over the years, mostly from yard sales. The idea is to use the time to read a couple of poems and/or a story with a moral, like from The Book of Virtues. Nature Girl will be thrilled to help make a goodie or two--she loves to bake. The boys may not participate, but I'm sure they will stop by for a snack if one's available!
Nature Girl has been doing her Nature Notebook on her own for the last few weeks. Here's a pic she took of some berries in the woods. We haven't identified them yet. She's been pressing lots of flowers, too, and making pages with where she found the items. We have so much around--there are lady slippers in the woods by the driveway, the locusts are blooming, and the honeysuckle looks like it's ready to pop this week (yum!)
We have some bat boxes up in the other house--Nature Girl took the camera when she went down with her dad last Monday. I like to just give her the camera and let her click away.
We are getting so many birds and critters today! Just while I've been posting this, we've had cardinals, a nuthatch, a titmouse, a sparrow, and a very cute chipmunk all eating the seeds Nature Girl scattered on the back porch. The dog has been very interested, too! It's definitely getting closer to summer here.
Hope your week was great!

Where Have You Been?

Tee Hee--
I've been so busy, both physically and emotionally, that I've neglected this poor blog. I can just imagine it asking me Where have you been?

Well, I'm just here for a minute. Nature Girl has finished Saxon 3 math, and that makes me feel like we are almost done for the year. We've learned about 3 great American civilizations (Maya, Aztec, Inca) and learned about Columbus, Magellan, and Cortes (with Vasco De Gama thrown in there, too). Nature Girl had a terrific idea to sail some paper boats down our swollen creek--yes, it was 40 degrees outside and raining, but by Gum, we did it! My shoes are still wet.


Film Buff took a practice SAT math test--oh boy, we have some work to do. But we'll get there. He is signed up for the June test, and we need to get cracking on cracking the thing. He's also almost done with his Behind the Wheel class--still working on turns. Last lesson is Sunday--here's hoping.

We've determined what he should take next year, and I've been working on a lit list--I'll post our plans soon. I'm so glad for the WTM boards--so much good advice there.

Gotta go! Pictures of our work will be up soon.

Notebooking Pages

I've added a notebooking widget--scroll down to see some great, free notebooking resources. We printed out the bird mini-books for NG's Nature Notebook. I love the clear illustrations, colorful and accurate. I often visit this site for ideas--Enjoy!

Weekly Report 4/14 to 4/18

Here's a summary of what Nature Girl has been doing this week.
History: Story of the World continues to intrigue and inspire. This week, we learned about the Wars of the Roses, and some of the Medieval African Kingdoms. These are examples of what Mary copied from the white board--and I can see a couple of my own spelling errors! Oops, we'll have to correct those. Have to say her handwriting is back on track--nice and neat. We haven't done any projects for a while, so I'm looking ahead to see what we can swing next week.
Bible: NG did a few lessons independently in Studying God's Word A this week. She wanted to get back to making her lapbook, largely because I told her she could have her very own Bible when she finishes it (the "give it to her at Easter" didn't happen). She made a mini book about Leviticus--hopefully, my summation on the inside is sufficient.

We are finishing up Saxon 3. The end of the year always brings more advanced concepts that don't show up again until about Lesson 40 of the next year (so far, that is!). This week, we learned about obtuse, right and acute angles--easy to remember for Nature Girl; she said "Oh, A Cute angle! It's little and cute!" Good enough for me. She also learned about division with remainders. That was hard, but she got it.

We picked up Farmer Boy again, and will finish it next week. It's so good, I don't mind reading it for the 5th time (out loud--she's read it herself 4 times now). Dh finished Prince Caspian with her, just in time for the movie. And Sky is reading her Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (second time thru for that one). On her own, she's continuing her Nancy Drew spurt, and read The Secret Garden this week, too. She loves to read, that's for sure. We didn't do any outside history reading this week, but next week, I'm going to go to the library and pick up a few more books.
The camilia's are out, as are plenty of violets, wisteria, and azaleas. She pressed some wisteria for her nature notebook, and, while in the phone book (our "press!") discovered pine and violets that she had pressed previously. Nature Girl really loves flowers--she'll add a few descriptive words to her pages this week.
Speaking of descriptive words, we are on Adjectives in Rod and Staff Grammar. I thought it would be fun to make a word wall--so we started writing out all the adjectives we could think of, and here's what we came up with (in the half hour we had for grammar!):
She liked it so much, we added more words today. The wall is about 12 feet long, so we have plenty of room to add other parts of speech. We do grammar mostly orally, so we can usually get 3 or 4 lessons done at a time--that won't continue, but at least we are on Unit 3. We blew it off for several months, and I did want to cover all the parts of speech before she goes to 3rd grade.
That's it for last week! Here's the back of our house, from the hammock where she spent a good half hour snuggled next to Sky while he read to her:
It's soaking wet around here, and plans are in the works for an Ark...Hope it's a good Spring where you are!

Weekly Report 4-4

Not much to report this week. As I wrote, we went to the Cherry Blossoms on Monday. We did get school done, but it was a very quick morning! I am so sick of the freezing weather and dreary grey skies. We walked in drizzle in DC; we park at Gravelly Point and walk over the bridge to the Jefferson Memorial, where the blossoms are--got pretty damp, but not soaked.

As for academics--Nature Girl started timed division tests, and upped her score by about a dozen points by the end of the week. We also started functions in Saxon 3. Since we were behind in Rod and Staff Grammar, we whizzed thru numerous lessons, and I feel we are doing all right now--still learning the parts of speech, and are on pronouns now.

Spelling went well, and NG has been doing her Bible lessons on her own. I expect she'll finish her Bible book by the end of May, and I'll probably get her started on Christian Liberty's Book C. It's funny to me that so much of what she is learning is new--I thought our Sunday School covered a lot of the stories, but really, they leave so much out. It's such a complex Book, I shouldn't expect the church to do as much as I can at home. Still, I'd love it if they could add in a little more, especially for the older kids.

In history this week we learned about the Black Plague, Henry V and Charles VI at Agincourt, and read about Joan of Arc. We used a beautiful picture book about JoA. I didn't realize it was quite so detailed, so it went a little slowly, but got the points across. We will make our mini-cannon from back in the Rus chapter, this week.

We also have almost finished our read-aloud, Chancy and the Grand Rascal. This would make an excellent resource to add to a US Geography course--or at least it would've been fun to map the trail they took to find Chancy's sisters and brother. Such a funny story--but now I have to find another book to read! Any suggestions?

Sky continues to do well. He needs some reminders about chores and homework--hopefully we can work that out. Film Buff is getting ready for driving school, which starts tomorrow! Everyone clear the roads! lol Not really. He's so motivated, I think he'll do fine. He got to see Leatherheads on Friday--love George Clooney.

That's our quick update for now.

Weekly Report 3-28-08

We had some Nature time this week at our local park. The bay isn't the cleanest around, and we have to be careful to wash our hands after, but Nature Girl just loved stomping around in her orange flowered boots, picking up large snail shells and listening to the water on the shore. We saw many hawks, and maybe even an eagle or two (there are quite a few further down the peninsula).

We had so much fun that we invited some friends to join us. The park has a great new playground, too--

Nature Girl's birthday is coming up, so we are going to rent an itty, bitty cabin on the grounds of this park, and spend the night star gazing and playing with fire. (Shhh, she doesn't know she's getting a telescope for her present from us!)

We finished the SOTW chapter on the Rus on Friday. We read some wonderful Russian folktales, and started Chancy and the Grand Rascal, which is written by the same guy who did By the Great Horn Spoon, which we previously enjoyed. Chancy tells the story of a young boy's search for his siblings, who were fostered out during the last part of the 1800's. It's a great way to learn about life along the Ohio River. Funny, too! I have fond memories of my brother reading this in the car on a trip to see faraway family, and laughing his head off.

Here's a picture of Vladimir the Great Nature Girl colored for history. I love how she used several colors to make his skin. Following are also some history notebook pages for the week. I let her copy from the white board instead of taking narrations.

This week, it's on to Suleiman, then the Plague. Can't wait.

Film Buff starts driving class this week. Everyone stay off the roads in NoVA! LOL He has a retreat this weekend; Sky may go, too. FB has also started Write@Home's Essay 1 class, and is doing very well. I hope it gives him enough instruction to be able to start writing more essay answers to test questions, and to give him confidence and ability in the SAT's. We are reading Cry, the Beloved Country this week, and he's up to 1970 in History. We have several wonderful movies coming to supplement his history--as I've said, it's my desire to acquaint him with at least some of the "Canon of American Film." He's looking now at VCU for film school, but we will see.

Two, Two, Two Weeks in One!

(For those of you who remember the Certs commercial...)

We've had two pretty good weeks since the last report. Now we are on break, but here are some highlights.

In History, we are just finishing the stories of Marco Polo, and Genghis and Kublai Khan. We read some really wonderful books about them, and had fun mapping various journeys and territories. I find the Silk Road fascinating, and Nature Girl was intrigued by stories of Marco Polo opening the East to the Europeans. We are also reading Heidi. Just love this story.
We also went back thru the AG and picked up some map work and this game (Fox and Geese) from the Richard the Lionheart chapter. It gave us a chance to review.

Nature Girl is making a lapbook for Bible. Here is an example of one of the mini-books. The idea originally was to give her a Bible after completing the lapbook, but I'm going to put it in her Easter Basket instead. This is the mini-book for Exodus. I'll post more pics as we go along.


We did a scavenger hunt with our Home Science Adventures kit. The idea was to gather various plant materials, then view them thru the microscope. We found everything on the list except the leaf borer. We also dissected the daffodil to see the pistil, pollen, stamen, and other parts. Pretty cool! Loving this curriculum.


Here's another lapbook mini-book--sorry I didn't put the pics in order. This one has the flaps that open, for the child to take notes or write a verse. We may go back and do that, but I just wanted to move on. Nature Girl wrote very neatly, and I didn't want to overwhelm her. She also started Christian Liberty's Studying God's Word A. I had it laying around, and decided to let her do it. It's quite simple, just reading a story paraphrased from the Bible, then answering 4 or 5 simple questions (the answers are provided for copying). She is intrigued by some of the stories we haven't covered before.
That's it for now. I'll try to be better about posting more next week!

The Spring Purse

This is my blog, so I can post what I want to, right? I need to vent. I am feeling irritated with two homeschooling issues brought up by one of the wonderful boards I frequent.

First--Under the category of THEN WHY BOTHER?--
There was a recent post by someone who claims she wants to homeschool her child, but then goes on to say that she's looking for a way to do it that won't require anything from her. (and here I've edited something very uncharitable...) Oh. MY. What's up with that? I get the "I'm overwhelmed" feelings, and I really do empathize with wanting to give but feeling drained. But why do we let that be an excuse for such behaviour? I just want to scream, "COME ON!" Put the kid in a decent preschool and move on. A poor homeschool is NOT better than a good preschool. Some think it is, just by virtue of being at home. That's such crap.

Then--Under the category of RELAX, AND ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO BE A CHILD--
So many times, people are afraid to let their kids explore with art materials, or make messes in general. OOO, it's messy! OOOO, they might spill! OOO, MUD! OH HORRORS! Geez, Louise. Can't you clean up spills? Doesn't paint wipe off? Ever hear of a wet rag and some newspapers? Because of Mom's (or Dad's, or whatever adult--even teachers at school!) obsession with neatness and cleanliness, germophobia, or simple anxiety about product over process, the child never gets to DO anything that might create a tiny bit of chaos. Art has to be confined to coloring (and that better be with washable crayons and a coloring book, and it better be "within the lines..."), juice has to be poured for the child, outside can't be explored. I just want to shake these people. The kids sometimes survive intact (kids are quite resilient), but what do they miss?

The fact is, Creating and Exploring (and they do deserve Capital Letters) are the work of childhood. Neatness, orderliness and yes, even safety, are not what they are cracked up to be. When these get in the way too much, children become fearful of making mistakes, and of "looking ridiculous." Adults sometimes just need to step back and let the process reveal itself. Let the kid explore. Let the kid risk--
Risk. There is a fine balance here, between letting that risk happen and keeping our kids safe. Yes, we definitely have to provide safety, but my Goodness, can't we do so without squelching the heck out of every creative endeavor?

So, I guess my point is, get off your ass, stop thinking only of your own comfort level in raising your children, and see this time in both your life and the lives of your kids as precious and worth the investment. It goes FAST. It blazes by. One day, they will stop giving messy kisses. They will become so capable that you will be fazed out--just like that, you will become unnecessary for their survival. Instead of a wardrobe staple like black pants, you will become the Spring Purse. Nice, but not essential.

That's our job, isn't it? To become the Spring Purse. Nice to have around, full of good information, but if left behind, not crucial to one's day--because they've learned, you see. They've learned that mistakes are part of the process of becoming whole. That creativity doesn't fit within the lines, and that sometimes the paint spills, and that's OK.

Vent over.

Late! But Here's Our Weekly Report Feb.25-29

We've done lots of reading this week, and lots of Language Arts. Here are some highlights:


Nature Girl had a good week. We've read a lot of picture books about Judaism, as we are on the chapter about the Diaspora in History. I can't recommend Golem, but the Shabbat was quite good.

We made charoset and talked about the Jewish holidays. Passover usually coincides with Easter, but not this year. This was pointed out by a fellow WTM Boardie-- thank goodness people read this blog and correct me!
As you can see, Nature Girl is currently into Nancy Drew. She read these 3 over the last two weeks, as well as two in the Boxcar Children series. Susan Wise Bauer (of The Well-Trained Mind) says to be careful of allowing too many series books, because they can turn kids off to using their brains, as they are often not very well written. I'm ok with these two series, however, because they are wholesome, interesting, and Nature Girl reads plenty that stretches her.
We've also done some other reading aloud these past two weeks. (I'm sorry for the dark picture--I can't seem to edit it correctly on Adobe.) Coraline has got to be the creepiest book for kids EVER. Can't read it to dd at night! We are going through Mary Pope Osborne's 6 book version of the Odyssey again, and will finish that by Monday. Good read--for a younger audience than Sutcliff's Wanderings of Odysseus. We are enjoying comparing different "Cinderella" stories across cultures. Rough Faced Girl and Raisel's Riddle come from American Indian and Jewish cultures, respectively.

Nature Girl is currently curled up on the couch, on day 2 of a fever and cough. We are going to be out of town for a night, so we probably will just call it a sick day tomorrow.

A Small Update

It's hard for me to post right now, because my mind is definitely elsewhere. Sky is still in JDC, and will be until the middle of March. We are trying hard to come up with a plan--think we've got one, but it is dependent on many factors outside of our control (aren't all plans?). I appreciate all the people who are praying for us now. I know it is honoring to God, and I know "the prayer of the righteous availeth much."

We finished up the Beth Moore Bible Study (on the Tabernacle) two weeks ago--what an amazing group of women! I wish we could continue, but I'm also glad to have Mondays free. Not sure what we will do next year--maybe a quick study over the summer. I'm looking at BM's Loving Well.

Dsil came with her youngest for the weekend. They are such a joy to have around. We get along well--many similarities in outlook, but just enough differences to keep it interesting and have something to talk about. She is thinking of homeschooling next year, and was kind enough to be interested in what we do with Nature Girl. I hope they can find what works the best for them.
Had to be enthusiastic about Story of the World--just love our history.

The girls made tea-stained paper on which to write their "Magna Carta" projects from the Activity Guide. Nature Girl decided today not to finish it, which is fine by me. I quizzed her on what the Magna Carta was, who signed it and where (do YOU know? lol), and she passed. Making notebook pages really does help retention! This pass thru history is all about exposure, anyway, so I'm not concerned about memorizing names and dates yet.

Had a nice trip to Mt. Vernon while our family visited. The education addition is phenomenal and I heartily recommend it to everyone.

That's it for now. More at the end of the week. (I know, this is boring! Hang in there.)

Math

I love Saxon Math. I'll say it again--I LOVE Saxon Math.
Ok, did that sound convincing?
Actually, it is going better for Nature Girl. We hit a rough spot about 4 weeks ago, with Nature Girl obviously feeling anxiety and lack of confidence in math. As I wrote previously, I wasn't sure what to do, but decided to put Saxon aside, as we were ahead of schedule, and working a year ahead, anyway.
We are back in Saxon now, and today, for the first time in about a month---

TA DA!

she had an excellent timed test, and pretty much sailed through the lesson. Her confidence has returned, her attitude is better, and things went smoothly. Whew, what a relief.

I really do love Saxon--mostly because it's so intentional. It builds precept upon precept, doesn't let old material disintegrate into the Nether World of Kiddy Forgetfulness ("Honey, you've had this before! Why are you acting like it's completely new?" "HuuuH?" ), and teaches appropriate use of algorithms while making sure the kids handle the concepts,too. I hope we can use it for a looonnnggg time.

BTW, I'm learning to change text color and form!! Yippee for me.

The Week That Was 2-15-08

Eew. Just Eew. The short and sweet? Some good things--tried Microphotography (well, sort of), finished Castle Diary, Film Buff took a practice SAT Critical Reading and didn't do abysmally, Sky is safe. Valentine's was ok, and Lost featured Sayid. Small mercies.

Our family is pretty on edge right now. Film Buff is a little disrespectful, my fuse is a little short, Nature Girl is still having some, I don't know, respect issues? Anxiety? Growing Pains? She's really such a tender little thing that anything like that is unusual, but, I feel, must be nipped in the bud. I'm careful not to slam her when she says negative things, but I also want to teach her to tame her tongue, to work hard (not fall apart if things don't come easily), and to trust us and God, that we will do our best by her. We're having kinda a...um..."human" week.

One fun thing we did was to observe crystals with the Tasco Microscope. (We found we could get the light to work by beating it against the table...) The experiment involved observing salt and sugar thru the microscope, and then describing and comparing the shapes, clarity, etc. I thought it might be fun to see if we could hold the digital camera up to the eyepiece and see if we could get a picture or two. The light finally gave out, so Nature Girl is holding a flashlight on the microscope so I could take the picture. Next up will be actually watching crystals form. I just love the Home Science Adventures Micro Kit!

Not much else I can say. Sky is in JDC for a month. We have new information that leads us to believe we may have to find another placement for him. It is heartbreaking, as we thought he might be coming home in a month. Those who pray, please do. God is so very faithful. Information came to us in the nick of time today, and in a curious way. God's timing is perfect.

Hope your eyes stay open to the blessings around you. Trust Him--He is Good.