Back to School Day

The pencils are sharpened, the planners are filled in, the kids are asleep. For now, that'll do. I got up early this morning so I could have a little peace and maybe tackle the day head-on instead of letting it clothesline me.

So what are we doing this next block? It looks like we're reading. A lot. James is reading the Orestia and the Theogony, as well as The Last Days of Socrates. He'll read some histories (Early History of Rome, History of the Peloponnesian War). And then some fun reading. Right now, he's enjoying Piers Anthony's books, and some of the Jasper Fforde titles.

Before he dives into Physics (doing a non-Calc based Physics this time around), he'll read a translation of Euclid's Elements of Geometry and Archimedes' On the Sphere and the Cylinder.

He's going to finish up Memoria Press' Traditional Logic (yes, it's taken us way too long to do that, but we will finish), wrap up pre-Calc with MUS, bebop through some Henle, and get some good, solid writing under his belt with MCT's writing course. He asked for some of the Art of Problem Solving books before we move into Calculus. I can't say that sounds 'fun' to me, but he thinks it sounds a lot more interesting than the next level of Logic. Perspective matters.

John's set to wrap up Zeta, finish First Form, push his way through the end of Essay Voyage, and follow us through the rest of the Ancients. History isn't as hands-on-fun in the Logic stage, but it is more interesting once you have those pegs tacked into the wall. There aren't a lot of fascinating titles for that stage, though, so we're cobbling, mostly. He's reading through the Yesterday's Classics collections, and some of the Memoria Press titles. He's got the outlining down, which is far ahead of where I was at his age. I'd forgotten how much of a skill it is to be able to pull the main idea out of a collection of thoughts. Good skill to have, though. He may not appreciate it much, now, but he will when he's trying to make sense of the world.

He's nearly done with the Thinking Toolbox and we'll play with The Fallacy Detective for the rest of the year. I think that's one of his favorites. He's been reading poetry and short stories this year, in his free time. Haven't had to add much assigned reading to it. He's found a few new-to-us authors, and we hope to hit the Booklegger sometime this week to pick up some more titles. He's also hoping to get the forge fired up a bit this block, and get some projects done with it.

JakeRabbit is flying through anything I give him, which I don't understand because every time I turn around, he's outside doing his Peter the Goatherd impression. Kid's happiest when he's out there with his satchel, walking stick, and hat. The chickens and dogs follow him everywhere. He's always out there, and he'll come in when I call, but the second he can feasibly excuse himself, *poof*, he's gone again, collecting insects, finding birds, identifying plants, tending the critters. But... his work is done, he knows more now than he did in the Fall... :shrug: I guess that works. When I put together his schedule for this block, I tacked in large chunks of blank time. Why fight it? If he starts to slip, we'll reconsider, but the out-of-doors seems an appropriate place for a 9yo boy to spend his time.

EmBaby is reading, writing, doing sums. She's loving Granny Fox tales and stories from The Blue Fairy Book. So much drawing. Drawing, sketching, painting. More drawing. Such a content little learner. Then she goes out to follow Jake around the property. This level feels downright magical.

Jase is feeling the pressure of not being able to read. So he's asking, now, "What does this say?" and "What's that?" It won't be long before they'll all be readers. Wow.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Learning in the New Year

I've been quiet about our plan since the Big Epiphany. Sorry about that. We were thinking, and working, and wondering how to pull this off. I still don't have a taker for the Committee Chair position, but I'm hopeful. Beyond that, though, I think we have eliminated much of the extraneous mess and have a good, solid plan in place.

Starting in January, we have three strong, traditional, academic days a week carved out. These days will carry the brunt of the hard labor - the math, languages (both foreign and domestic), and the science and history. We still have to go through the lesson plans and make sure this will work, but it looks good.

Wednesdays will be our heavy literature day. I'm considering making some Ozzy or Metallica book covers to go with it, and of course I've got a soundtrack in my head. This will be a day of reading, music, reading, and literature discussion. We will probably re-institute afternoon tea for wrapping things up. History is still tied to literature, so there's a thread of continuity, there. And we already have memory cards in a travel case that we've been using for foreign language and poetry, which we'll use on Wednesdays, as well.

Fridays - and this is where we went off the rails a bit, but I think it could work - Fridays will be our Independent Learning Days. This is the day the boys take charge and lead us on adventures they want to explore. We have Cubs in the mornings, and one Friday a month we have Skate Day, which is only slightly less inviolable than, say, Easter. So we needed to find a way to work with Fridays that wouldn't make the entire day a wash. The boys are old enough, and engaged enough, that I decided to give this day to them. This is the day we'll hit museums, do volunteer work, visit artisans and shops. This will be the day for projects - to make movies or write games, to build models or develop interpretive dance routines based on the Abyssinian military model. Whatever. And I've given the boys a heads up that there are plenty of things *I* want to learn about, so if they don't step up and make suggestions, well, then we're going to have an entire semester of architectural history and more literature!

We've discussed how often people complain that learning this or that is dumb, yet when you give them leave to study things that aren't "dumb", they don't know what they want to learn. They cannot fathom that learning is fun, or that you can sometimes wield your own carrot and stick. There's a disconnect between the mere idea of learning and the joy that it brings. Mine don't, and I appreciate that -- although they've been known to express skepticism about the validity of a lesson or two, they acknowledge that there's probably shizzle they aren't privy to, and they trust me -- that good faith goes a long way. Still, I want to make certain we keep those two ideas connected, without sacrificing the rigor of a quality education, or sucking the joy of a delightful journey from them. We lost some of that this past year, and we aim to get it back. (Way to set the bar at just the right height for a good clotheslining, huh? I hope it doesn't take us down. We'll see.)

And there we are. Now to get to the lesson plans and shuffling of the shelves. Zorak has agreed to build a coat rack for the new dining room similar to the one in the foyer, but with a shelf below it where we can stage our things for each day's adventures. (Now that we use the balcony to come and go, the foyer is less relevant and ends up being more of an open-sided storage cubby than a functional staging platform, so this will be great!) Theoretically, we are set for a fantastic year ahead!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

A Busy Day, and a Night with the Moon

We had a crazy, lazy, busy day. Yes, really -- all of it at once. The kids were up and at it early this morning, in anticipation of playing video games with friends for the morning. Zorak and I slept in, in anticipation of... not moving much until we had to.

Friends came - we talked, worked, played, and generally had a lovely morning.


Then more friends came - we talked, watched the children play, relaxed, and generally had a lovely afternoon. Our friend, Larry, helped James with his computer project, which absolutely made James' day. (Although right now there's a second computer piggybacked onto my monitor, hogging up the leg room under the computer desk. James and I don't seem to use the same ranking process to determine what makes for a great set up. He says it's temporary. I'm hoping our definitions of "temporary" are not equally askew.)

Before we knew it, it was time to eat and head out for International Observe the Moon Night up at the NASA Educational Building in Huntsville. That's one of the things we love about living here: this place is a full-up cornucopia of fantastic opportunities. Science, art, history, music - you name it, Huntsville has it, and usually it's hosted by a group of civic organizations so odds are the event will be full of knowledgeable people with a passion for the topic at hand and an interest in sharing with those who are interested.

Tonight's event was no exception. We were treated to face time with some fascinating people who shared with us about robotic design, imagery technology, colonization research and programs, geology, astronomy, and more. We wished we'd had time to go earlier the event. An hour and a half just wasn't time enough to see and hear all there was available. But we're all really glad we went and enjoyed the time we had.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Liberty Lee's Tail of Independence

Welcome to TLC Book Tours' virtual tour of Liberty Lee's Tail of Independence.


This picture book, written by Peter W. Barnes and Cheryl Shaw Barnes, published by Little Patriot Press, is an illustrated poem that tells the tale of America's founding through the narrative lens of a mouse counterpart to the Framers of the Constitution, the title character, Liberty Lee.

I wasn't expecting a poem. It's enough of an undertaking to explain everything from Colonization to the Battle at Lexington and Concord to a target audience of squirrelly 4-6 year-olds, without trying to do it in rhyme. Yet, they've done it, and surprisingly well, as long as the reader can avoid falling into the cadence pit. The authors did not skimp on vocabulary, but used traditional verbiage connected with the American Revolution. I appreciated that. It helps make this story more than a mere sing-song tale that one tires of reading after one or two rounds.

It took us a full two weeks to read the story, not due to rhythm issues, or wordiness, but as a result of the illustrations. They are vivid, and rich. They look simple, but are incredibly detailed. Each illustration (most are full, two-page spreads) offers a panorama of delightful scenes to unfold and delve into. The detail is fantastic, and it's not unusual for the children to spend ten or fifteen minutes going over every vignette on a page.

This isn't a book they'll want to fly through, and if you try, you'll be frustrated. Liberty Lee's Tail of Independence is the kind of book you meander through, letting your children show you all there is to explore, doubling back, spinning off for a while on inspired tangents, eventually settling back down to continue the journey.

There are additional bonus features for adults and children. The children enjoyed finding Liberty Lee (or one of his ancestors) tucked away in each page. There is also an eagle hidden in each illustration. (It's not always the whole eagle - sometimes it's just his head. It's a nice added layer for older, or more ambitious, children to take up after they've found all the mice, and poured over the other scenes.)

The Tail End offers additional tidbits of information and resources designated for parents and teachers.

In sum, we enjoyed this book. The authors attempted to cover a lot of ground in a condensed space, and the narrative doesn't flow as smoothly as I would prefer for a storybook, but it is solid, and unabashedly designed to be an uplifting, encouraging story, which the authors performed nicely. The illustrations tie the story together well. It's the combination, though, that makes it the type of picture book I'd want to have on my shelf: a good story that piques the children's imaginations, set among lavish, many-layered illustrations that draw in a child's eye and mind. I love that, and I enjoyed this book, on many levels.

Kiss those babies ~ and keep reading with them!
~Dy

You May Be Right

I've got Billy Joel songs stuck in my head. It's been a crazy day. But Good Crazy - anything that conjures up songs from the 80's can't be all bad.

Kids got a lot of school work done. If they did this every day, we could have school three days a week and still be ahead. Then James got to enjoy some Skype time with his buddies. John and Jacob took to the woods (while I stayed inside and tried not to twitch).

We started the Atelier Art program today. It seems good, but I think I may have underestimated the kids' knowledge and abilities. So we modified. This lesson was on lines - specifically, they were asked to draw a turtle and decorate its shell with various line patterns. (This is Level 2, the 5-8yo level - I'd grabbed it for Em, who loves to draw, and Jase, who needs an outlet - but all the kids joined in, because they're cool like that.) So we covered lines, then I turned the kids loose with the guideline that they aren't tied to the turtle, but to draw something and be aware of how they use lines for various features of the art (shading, contour, texture, flow, etc.). When they finished, we put their pieces in the 8x10 frames we'd hung in the hallway last week. The finished product is quite fun, and it's nice to have art in the hall. Plus, they enjoy being able to display their work in a meaningful way. The goal is to have them complete one piece a week for display in the rotating hall gallery.

We slipped out this afternoon to see about getting some nicely fitting t-shirts for Scouts. The 50/50 blend, unisex, chokingly-high crew neck style is not only uncomfortable, but unattractive. As much time as I spend at Scout functions, I'd love to have a shirt I don't hate wearing. Hopefully, we can score some from our regular guy. He's a good printer, and does a beautiful job - plus he's all set up with the approved Troop/Pack graphics. He just needs to narrow down an available style for us. Yay!

Jacob goes to be shorn in the morning. He's bummed about losing his hair after he's upheld his end of the bargain (gotta keep it clean and well-kept if you want it long), but he's on board with his usual sunny attitude. I appreciate that kid more than words can say.

And so, to bed!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Back to School - 3rd Grade

HOW is he in third grade? Sheesh, that happened quickly. Ah, well, that seems to be what they do.

So, Jacob's 3rd Grade year is shaping up thusly:

Math - MUS Gamma. I kind of hate this one, but it won't last forever. (Seriously, it's good. It's thorough, but it also seems to be the only one that causes stress and angst in my children. I don't get it, but I suspect it's a housekeeping issue with respect to multiple digit work. So far, though, we're three for three on that point. :sigh:)

Greek - Year One, Elementary Greek. He's rocking this.

Reading - (this list develops as we go)
Huckleberry Finn, The Doll People, Twenty-One Balloons, Calendar Quest. He reads a lot on his own - he's read a good many of the Boxcar Children, is re-reading the Harry Potter books, and informed me the other day the he really prefers mystery, fantasy, and action genres. Funny kiddo.

Writing - Imitations in Writing, Aesop.

History - Story of the World, Vol. 4 (Modern History)

Science - nature jourals, taking things apart, building things, setting things on fire - general curiosity, coupled with plenty of discussion and engagement, goes so far at this age.

Music - he'll start piano in January

Typing - Typing Instructor Deluxe

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Back to School - 6th Grade

John's sixth grade year is shaping up like this...

Math - Math-U-See Epsilon. He went a little slowly through Delta, in order to master it. We'll all be glad he did when he hits the higher level math!

Latin - Latin Prep 2, from Galore Park. He still doesn't *love* Latin, but he learned so much more with Latin Prep than he did with anything else, so when he completed the first level, it seemed a no-brainer to stick with what works. While we've been waiting for his books to arrive, he's been working through Visual Latin. I think we'll keep using both throughout the year. Although I come down fairly strongly on the side of grammar-based approaches to learning foreign languages, we are enjoying the synthesis and multi-sensory approach of Visual Latin.

Language Arts - Michael Clay Thompson's Voyage series. The material is about dead-on for a rigorous language arts program for an 11yo boy. Truly great material, presented in an engaging manner, at a level that expects you will strive to do well. *Love it!* This series covers Grammar, Poetics, and Writing.

Greek - he's also halfway through Year One in Elementary Greek.

Science - normally, I leave them be to do nature studies, build and break things, and read biographies for science. That's worked well. This year, however, I thought I'd try something new. He's using Galore Park's So You Really Want To Learn Science. He said the book looks lame, and he's not terribly thrilled about it. Honestly, from perusing the table of contents, it does seem he knows most of the material. (Score one for biographies and hands-on learning, at least!) But we have the book - we'll use it to filter out any gaps, and go on. I'll know more about the program after we've used it a bit.

Typing - Typing Instructor Deluxe. He's already doubled his typing speed. Yay!

History - finishing up Modern History (I try to keep everyone somewhat together with history, adding in additional material for the older children). He'll begin Ancients with us, though not with Omnibus, this time around.

Music - piano and guitar. He just started a new book for guitar - it's pretty amazing to Zorak and I, to sit and listen to them play. Wow.

I think that's it. That sounds about right. But he has a question... so I'm going to sign off!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Back to School - 8th Grade

We've been back to school for a while. Sometimes, the school year blends together. Sometimes we have a delineated break. We tried a longer break this summer, but it just about killed us. So, we started back and worked through the hotter part of the year. Today's high is 58, and we're finding it hard to stay motivated when all we really want to do is play in the rain, then curl up in bed with hot tea and good stories.

James' material this year is pretty exciting (he says that's fairly subjective, but he smiles when he says that, so I don't think he's complaining too loudly).

Math - MUS Geometry, which he's finishing up this month. I'm torn on moving him into Algebra II/Trig right away, or giving him some other material to play with for a while so he will go deeper with it. It's hard to tell with him, sometimes.

Language Arts - we've picked up Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program. It includes Grammar, Poetics, and Writing. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. James and John are both working through the Voyage series. James could probably move into Magic Lens, but I don't honestly think he's missing out on anything by working through this series in the fall. His writing is fantastic, and this program is helping him organize his thoughts and develop some structure.

Science - Physical Science with Derek Owens. Wow. James is so happy. I am so happy. This is a great program. I'm thankful to the friend who recommended Mr. Owens' courses.

Greek - we're about halfway through Year One of Elementary Greek. It's coming along nicely. James said the hard part was mastering the characters, which are so different from English and Latin. The grammar, however, is fairly similar, so now we're into familiar territory and making good time.

Latin - he's very nearly done with Latin Book One. It's taken SO long to finish, but he's learned so very much that I cannot complain. We'll start with Henle after the Christmas break. I'm not sure where we'll pick up in Henle, though. I need to find a placement test of sorts, or go through the tables of contents to find a good transition point.

History - we're mid-year-ish on History. We are wrapping up our study of Modern History, preparing to go back into Ancients. I'm planning to use Omnibus I, starting this fall. This is exciting for me, and a bit overwhelming for James. But he's promised to do his best, and I've promised not to be a total slave-driver. I think we'll make a good go of it, between the two of us.

Reading - He's reading The Last of the Mohicans this month, as well as some collections of Poe, and beginning the Hornblower series. He spent the summer on a Gothic Horror and Michael Crichton kick. It's been a good year for reading.

Music - still playing piano and guitar. The house is filled with music.

Typing - I finally bought Typing Instructor Deluxe. The kids love it, and their typing has improved. Goal met! Chocolate chip cookies, all around! James' goal with this is to complete the program so that he can take some online coding courses. He's working on designing a web page for his Boy Scout Troop as part of a project. Good stuff.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Mid-Winter Curriculum Yearning

It's the middle of the winter. The middle of the school term. The middle of the same books we've been looking at for months. Not a thing wrong with what we're using. Except that... it's the same. old. stuff.

I really need to remember this point, and schedule in some Radically Interesting And Different program for us to use in February and March. That would probably eliminate at least a few late nights bouncing between Project Gutenberg, Veritas Press, Amazon, and Myriad Booklists.

Or maybe not. Sometimes it's just fun.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Delayed Response

I tried to post this yesterday from my phone, but my figurative VCR clock is still blinking on that thing, and I couldn't make it work. I may have inadvertently sent a death threat to Putin, though, so... yeah. Remember my Come Find Me post? Totally counts, even if the no-longer-KGB is involved, okay?

So, we got our order in from Yesterday's Classics. The boys perused the books on the way into town. When we arrived at the music store, Smidge held up a book and said, "Mom, we need to add this to my school!"

I looked up to see what he was talking about. Fifty Famous Stories Retold, by James Baldwin. He loves it. He read the first two stories on the drive! Score!!!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Think of A Happy Spot!!

(That's the Happy Spot.) Good grief, we've spent four years thinning our blood so we don't burst in these Southern Summers, and now we're ill-equipped to handle a chilly winter. We got up to 24 degrees today, according to the weather channel. Although, at one point, when it said 23, James checked the outside temp w/ the thermometer and it suggested a balmy and clear 16! I am, again and again, thankful for the wood stove, and the wood to put in it.

We started back to school today. The boys did a stellar job of it. We took the time before breakfast to do a quick term overview (where are we going and how shall we get there), then they gave me feedback on the books they read last term (what do you think of the transportation we've been using to get from Point B to Point Q?), and then we dove in.

James had some excellent suggestions for his work, and we agreed to implement them this term and see how they work. (I'm just so thankful he's willing to give it some thought! Honestly, even if they'd been relatively lousy suggestions, I might have given them the green light, with a few caveats, just to encourage him to keep being involved). He talked a bit today about wanting to put additional focus on his writing (knock me over with a sideways glance!) and his goals for producing quality work in greater quantity this term (*thud*). I just hugged him and quit, right there.

John's got a great attitude about tackling his projects and plans, and he's giving some thought as to where he'd like to go with Latin, from here. (I'm really hoping for LP1, to be honest. I love that program. But we'll see. It does seem to have made an impact on him, as he listened to James work through it. Today, when James read in his book (LBO), "He's hurrying from the house because he sees a sailor in the road," John piped up from across the room, "Yeah, he better run! I've heard about those sailors!" If you've done LP1, that's hilarious. If you haven't, it makes no sense, I know.)

Smidge dove right in, excited about everything except writing. We couldn't find his book, and the prospect of actually *looking* for it just about did him in. And then, he just couldn't bring himself to draw when he could be pestering his sister, who was trying to nap. But really, that's not a bad start after a break. Usually, between the three boys, we're having to locate at least four books the first day.

The Littlest of the bunch? Well, they had a hard adjustment today. Lots of crying and whining and yearning for snacks. I didn't realize how much extra attention they received during break (or how little actual, in-your-face time they get during the school periods). So, it looks like one of my goals for January will be figuring out how to educate the elder ones while not leaving the Littles to feel they've been left to the wolves. Or at least try to find a really nurturing wolf, right?

And on that note, I'm going to have apple pie and ice cream with my Littles and read some stories!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

TOO MUCH!

Too much to post, and not enough time without people touching me, climbing on me, or digging their bony little elbows into my leg. I could blog regularly and well with a few minor modifications. All I need is voice recognition software, a laptop, a gilly suit, and a caramel launcher. Is that so much to ask?

Tomorrow, ask me about the cool new Grammar program for 1st and 2nd! It's awesome! We're going to use it, and we don't normally use a Grammar program at all. But this? This is cool.

We had a splendid Sunday, hanging with Me-Wa and Me-Tae. They met us at church. Actually, they got there on time. We slipped in even later than usual. But I *had* to mop. There was simply no way around it.

Death by Irony point: this, right after Zorak helped talk me out of mopping Saturday night, by whispering sexy things into my ear, like, "It's okay to drop your standards a little, just one more time..."

See what happens when you listen to the Siren's Song, people? You have to panic-clean before church!

After a typically fantastic service (we are SO fortunate for this church), they came to the house, where I did not have to choke down convulsions and horror, because at least the floor was relatively clean-ish. We ate a weird lunch (I don't remember what we made.) Then the guys sighted in a few things, the kids blew bubbles, and played the piano for Me-Tae, and just generally enjoyed the lovely afternoon and the good company.Monday was gorgeous, but we didn't realize that until about 12:30, because it's the middle of August, and seriously, who expects a gorgeous day in the middle of August in the South? Once we clued in, though, we hustled through the rest of our lessons and then got out and enjoyed it.

When, what we should have done was work in it. Because today it rained and rained and rained. And now everything we should have picked up, or mowed, or harvested, is all sparkly and highlighted by droplets of sparkling guilt. But it's beautiful enough that we really hardly felt the guilt at all.
Dishwasher's still not fixed, another part will arrive Friday. I'm running out of one-pot meals we can all eat straight out of the pot, with our hands.

And that, my friends, is the week so far.

First Grade for Smidge

That's such a weird sensation. *pause to reflect how quickly it goes. pause, pause, pause* OK, not getting any easier. Let's move on, anyway.

He's pretty much following the path his brothers have packed down ahead of him, with variations to account for support where he needs it, and leeway where I wish I'd given it with the older two. Not a lot of "seat time". Plenty of "couch time". Lots of "outside time" (when it cools off a bit). This isn't Victorian England, and I don't have a stash of opium, so we don't have the pastoral scenes of young children learning that one might expect or desire. We have a lot of paper, tons of colored pencils and drawing materials, books absolutely *everywhere*, and I think there's Sculpey stuck to the bathroom wall. (I don't know how or why. I quit asking years ago.)

Science is Life. Particularly at this age. It's Parables From Nature. It's a magnifying glass and an afternoon on the floor with encyclopedias and Mom. It's drawings and rabbit trails. Leaves and seeds and flowers and fruit. Eggs and larvae and things you probably don't want in your home. It's antibacterial soap and a lot of deep, slow breathing.

Math-U-See Alpha is math for Smidge. It's his happy spot. He enjoyed Primer, learned plenty, and was anxious to start in his new book. (Comes by that last bit honestly. We all just love a fresh, new book, around here. It's almost, but not quite, a sickness.)

Music and Art are still a bit haphazard, here. Although we do still enjoy Artistic Pursuits and Meet the Great Composers, so he'll continue to use those in a light and painfully unstructured way.

For History, I feel like I ought to go back and start him with Vol. I of Story of the World. We had such a good time with that. Then I realize what a scheduling nightmare I'd be inventing for myself. It's not as if he hasn't been listening in along the way, and I have to remind myself (sometimes forcibly) that he's putting up pegs on which to hang future information. Since he draws Hammurabi cartoons, explains how a trebuchet works, and makes jokes about privateers, I'm guessing he's been listening - at least peripherally - and has been, quite happily, slinging pegs here and there along the way. So he's doing Modern Times with us, at a slower, softer pace.

For Reading, Phonics, Spelling, and so forth, I still cannot recommend The Writing Road to Reading highly enough. It is thorough, concise, and well done. And, with apologies to Ms. Spalding, I modify it to suit our needs. Smidge needs extra work on his speech, so this is where I put that in, too. More focus on speech, less on reading for him than is usual.

Copywork, copying the work you're reading together, is the absolute best at this age. Pick the things you enjoyed as you read. Write them out, let them copy, and then turn them loose to illustrate it. Some children love coloring books. So far, none of mine really have. Smidge seems the closest, but even he will draw his own illustrations quite happily. Put them up. I have no clue what color my fridge used to be. Someday, the weight of the tape, magnets and paper will pull the door off, I'm sure, and then we'll remove the pictures and narrations and copy work and see what it looks like. Before we cover it up again.

A note on reading. (Pardon me while I pull out my little soapbox. It's just a little one.) The reading comes. Whether it comes when they are two, four, six, or seven, it does come. Read aloud to them. Tell stories. Make up stories. Let language fill your days and nights. Create for them a world rich in literary texture, tastes, and images, and they'll want to make it their own. You've got a big old bag full of tools to share along the way, and yes, show them those tools. Explain how they work. But if it doesn't click, don't get angry or frustrated. Put the tools away and dive back into the words for a while. Try again later. Definitely keep your eyes open for places where there may be trouble, and address those spots if you find them, but always remember that reading is a gift we can cultivate in their hearts, as well as their minds. It's interesting to me that that's the one area I've never sweated, and it's the one area I have no/few regrets now that I'm in a position to start looking back. I have a horrible suspicion I'll find many other areas where I will wish I'd applied this philosophy a bit more soundly. (Sheepishly tucks soapbox back under the desk.)

Literature. Such a word! For the Littles, it makes it sound much less enjoyable than it is! There are book lists and book lists and book lists. I can't even pretend to know a tenth of what's out there, and when I try to collect it all, Zorak inevitably finds me curled up on the porch, feverishly figuring out what we'd have to sell or go without in order to BUY IT ALL RIGHT NOW. So. I try not to peruse more than one or two lists at a time. Zorak appreciates that, and so does my blood pressure. I like Veritas Press' reading lists, and of course, The Baldwin Project's books are big favorites, here, too. If you find something at Baldwin Project that you'd like to have in print, Yesterday's Classics offers many titles. We've ordered from them, and have always had great service. The books are decent quality softcover books. Lang's Fairy Books are also a staple.

For an all-in-one collection at this stage, the 20th Century Children's Book Treasury is my all-time favorite collection. It gets read, and read, and loved on and read. The binding is crap, and the book won't last through three children before Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom and part of Swimmy fall out in the hallway. But I haven't found a collection of favorites like this anywhere else. Even Zorak got excited when we received this book, years ago. (Who knew he had such a soft spot for Sylvester?) Ideally, we'd all be able to buy all the books individually, but realistically that's an investment of almost $1,000 all said and done. And you know, if I'm going to lay out a grand for a book collection, it'll be the one *I've* been coveting for almost a decade now, thanks. This, however, does the trick quite nicely. And, as True Favorites emerge, you can pick them up here and there without giving anybody involved in the household finances a stroke. There's that.

Poetry. Don't scoff. (OK, go ahead and scoff, but come back. I'll wait.) Poetry. Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy incorporates daily poetry. As with anybody who has homeschooled more than, say, six months, I've read her papers, poked around Ambleside Online, fallen in love with it, and eventually abandoned it, in general, taking precious gems with me back to my eclectic educational cave. Poetry was one of those gems. It doesn't have to be dry or dull. Hilaire Belloc, Mother Goose, Robert Lewis Stevenson - whimsical, beautiful, rich poetry is available and wonderful for use in daily life. I can tell you this: the best year we've ever had, as far as routine, tone, flavor, and pace, was the year we incorporated poetry into our daily routine. We are bringing it back this year. It was that good.

The bulk of our school is reading, even at this age. When they're older, they read and we discuss. When they're younger, we read together and we discuss. When they're younger, I read to them and we discuss. It looks different at every stage, but you'd be hard pressed to find me, at any stage, putting us in a circle, clipboard on my lap, peering over imaginary spectacles as I toss out a topic and say, in the manner of James Lipton, "Why?" More likely is that Zorak comes home to find us piled up in the boys' room, or the living room, talking animatedly about whatever it was that struck our fancies.

Mostly, it's an organic flow of discussion. Questions, point-counterpoint, more rabbit trails, bantering, back and forth, and always, in the end, more reading. When you care what they think, what they liked, and what they got out of it, they know. And they're happy to share. This is what I'm talking about when I tell people that homeschooling is a lifestyle more than just an exercise in academics. It's how we do things, and who we are, part and parcel, inseparable. Sometimes, you'll want to bang your head against the wall, but not right now (I'll go into that more on the appropriate entry, later). Right now, it's all magic. It's all new and exciting and interesting.

And, I think that's about it, for First Grade.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Happy Tuesday!

No special reason. It just sounds like fun.

Today is the Day of the Paperwork. It's official, and it is as scary as it sounds. I've got to call all our doctors and ask them to print out a list of our visits and payments over 2008 so I can pick them up while I'm in town later this week, find two missing birth certificates, go pay the water bill, get two of five registered for baseball (thank God it's only two!), and then try to have supper ready in time for me to slip out for a church meeting tonight.

I don't really think I can do it, either. But look, it's "Happy Tuesday". Year of Joy. Good thoughts. It's not the end result that matters, it's the effort you put forth. Or something like that. Haven't worked out all the details of the pep talk yet, but that's okay. Mere details. Nothing more.

Sometime in the next month or so, I'm also going to have to carve out time and cash to buy new materials for school. Dang. That went quickly. We are finally ready for Story of the World Vol. III. (THREE!) I'm so excited to find out what happens next. *grin* The boys are ready for new math books. And we are all ready for some new literature. It's been a good school year. Time to start anew and move forward, though. Very exciting.

Well, I've got fresh coffee, the kitchen's clean and the dishwasher is running. The kids won't starve. Fire's hot. Looks like I can't put it off any longer. So, I'm going into the filing cabinet. If I'm not back by Friday, send snacks.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Back to School, Part II

The Christmas break is over. We're halfway through our first week back, and all is well. Mostly. The boys aren't "thrilled" over being back to their studies, but they are tickled to see they haven't forgotten everything (yay!), and they've had good luck so far with getting their things done so that they can still enjoy the afternoons. By Jove, I think they've got it! (They may lose it again in a few weeks, but for now, we'll just go with it.)

In looking back through this year's curriculum choices, I have to say there have been a few stand out winners.

Italic handwriting rendered James' work legible at first glance. In just four months! *sniff* That's like a little gift from Father Christmas, just for me.

Artistic Pursuits, and Meet The Great Composers were two other winners. A great program is only a great program if you'll use it, and these two made it easy to include art and music history in our regular schedule. So happy, we are. So enlightened. *giggle*

Of course, I may request my official MUS-Cultist card with my next math order. But then, y'all already knew that about us.

That's about it, on the round-up.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Hey.

Well, Ernie and KathyJo swear it's a mushroom. I'm inclined to think Josh is on to something, personally. Either way, I figure if we lock the doors and clean the air filters, we should have all our bases covered. Thanks for playing, guys!

Today we began week 10 of the school year. Ten-ish, anyway. Of the previous nine weeks, we've taken three off. That sounds so bad. I can hear NEA members puckering in their seats from here. And yet, the boys have worked up to the nine-week point in a couple of subjects, and worked beyond the nine-week point in all the rest. Heh. Yeah. I love this lifestyle.

So this morning, we sat on the balcony, re-working our plans that will take us through Christmas break. The boys opted to adjust some of their goals to reflect the progress they've made. We sorted, sifted, printed, and planned. Then they got to work. I got sucked into the Tanglewood site. *sigh* There ought to be something I could take for that. Really.

We're off to the library, where we won't find anything and I will return with a bigger Amazon list. (It is SO easy to justify book purchases when you know you'll use each book through five children. So, so easy. I'm going to owe Zorak big-time for this.) But it'll be nice to hit the library again. And, they've fired the wacky library lady and replaced her with someone from an organization we refer to as "The Northern Alabama Branch of the Illuminati" - so I want to be sure to stay on top of the library sale, as they'll be culling all the good books soon, and I don't want to miss out on those buys!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

And So They Learn

I forget to do educational roundups on the blog. Mostly, we go. We learn. We study. Sometimes we (they) (ok, I) filibuster a bit here and there. But here's where they are, as of this morning:

James:
Latin - LP Ch.3 - finishing this up this week. I'd hoped to finish Ch. 5 by Christmas break, and I'm sure we will, so that's good. We really enjoy this program. Sometimes the sentences for translation are so wacky that even though we have it correct, we aren't sure we do, because well, it's wacky. His gut is good on translation, though, and his confidence has increased. Unfortunately, he rattles things off now, then asks me if that was right, and I'm torn between 'fessing up that I didn't follow, or just smiling and nodding. Time for Mama to pick up that dropped ball and get back in the game.
Math - Epsilon Ch. 11 test today. Weeee! How is it that the child who had such a rough time with housekeeping on multiple digit multiplication can handle working so easily with fractions?
Logic - This is so informal, I'm hesitant to include it. (Yet I'm going to, anyway.) He plays Set, he works Sudoku, and he does logic puzzles. They make my eyes bleed, but he love them.
Writing - Imitations in Writing. I'm tempted to say this is so easy, it can't be working. But it is working. And his writing has improved already. I *heart* Imitations in Writing!
Handwriting - Italic Handwriting has pushed my need for bifocals back another five years! His legibility has increased beyond my wildest, weirdest dreams.
Spelling - I'm still not thinking this is a stellar program, but it's not doing any harm, and he likes workbooks. Jury will reonvene at the end of the term.
Reading - The list is not coming toether as easily as I'd hoped. Right now, he is reading Robinson Crusoe with me (and he's hating it - I'm not sure if it's the book, the child, or the mother), reading Parables of Nature (this was supposed to be a summertime read, but we all got distracted), and reading random stories from Howard Pyle's Tales of Robin Hood. I'm working on something with a bit more direction.

John:
Latin - Ch. 4 - *argh* I don't know if this child needs more fish oil, more sleep, more exercize, or electric shock therapy. Whatever it is, he's evidently not getting it because his memorization and retention have been deplorable this month. He's also having trouble remaining upright while he works, which may have something to do with it.
Math - Ch. 5 - he's plugging along and doing well. It took us a week to really convince him that estimation is not just some weird, random thing to learn. Now that he's got that under his belt, he's gung-ho and doing beautifully. Yay for real life!
Writing/Handwriting - The one-two punch of doing the handwriting improvement alongside the writing assignments seems to have freed up his creativity. Again, with the love of Imitations in Writing. We did switch the boys around, so he's doing Aesop, which is a great fit for 3rd grade writing. I'm enjoying his stories, and he's enjoying writing them. John's handwriting has also improved already. Slope is troubling him, but size and shape are now almost always uniform. We're focusing this month on using capitalization appropriately. (Tied in with writing - for him, it's even more of an integrated system than for James, who has two years' more experience on that front.)
Spelling Workout - Jury's still out. He likes the editing marks.
Reading - He's currently reading Owls in the Family; One Horse, One Day, One Hundred Miles (on recommendation of his brother, who just finished and said it's fantastic); Tales of Deltora (he'd started it and then lost it); Howard Pyle's Tales of Robin Hood.

History - we are nearly through the Middle Ages, and it's going well. We keep getting distracted with how things tie together. The People's Crusade led to a lengthy discussion about mob mentality, and the power of charismatic people to sway crowds. We talked about the importance of being not only capable, but willing to maintain your power of reason when in such a situation, of being willing and able to speak up and stand firm in what you know is right. That is why I am thankful we are not tied to fifty minute blocks of time to cover what's on the test. This stuff may not be on the blackline master test, but it's going to be on the Big Test, and that's the one we want them to pass with flying colors.

All:
Art - I need to take photos of the work they've done. So far, so good, with the Artistic Pursuits. I'm still mildly craft-phobic, but the trauma is less with this program, and the results are better, all around, than the willy-nilly craft-n-cry method we were using. Another thumb's up from us!

Music - coming along, doing our thing. I have no idea how to critique this. Meet the Great Composers is interesting, and we're willing to do it - those two things, alone, are of value to us. The boys are still doing piano, and progressing nicely on that front.

Science - I'll have to post separately on that because JT is up and it's time to go!

Have a lovely day, learn something new, and Kiss those babies!
~Dy

What?! Third grade, already?

Yeah, he didn't see that coming, either.

I don't know if this is some post-traumatic homeschooling disorder, or just Mommy Brain at an all new high, but for some reason, John is stuck in my head at about four years old. This has no bearing on reality, at all. He's funny and insightful well beyond his years. He remembers details and makes connections in a way none of my other children do. He's the one in whom I most often catch glimpses of the Man He Will One Day Be -- in his mannerisms, his speech, his thoughtful actions. I glance over at him and *kapow*, I have to do a double-take, because I could have sworn I just saw a 19yo Marine home on leave rather than an 8yo boy sprawled on the couch. Yet, when I sit down to make out the year's plan for him, I find myself stuttering and flailing about, wondering how on EARTH this child can be ready for third grade...

But here he is, and so there we are. Just gotta roll with it. This is our 3rd grade plan for John:

Math: Math-U-See Beta. John took his time in Alpha, and he learned it well. He also spent a great deal of this past year learning math as it applies to carpentry and surveying. So, while he isn't moving into Gamma yet, I also don't feel that he's "behind" in any sense of the word. He'll fly through fractions and decimals, with the practical experience he's already gleaned, and when all is said and done, nobody will ever look at him askew for the order in which he learned his arithmetic and math.

Latin: Latin for Children, Primer A. I think he'll enjoy it this year, and will also enjoy working on Latin through a different program than what his brother is in. That seemed to work beautifully this last year -- took a lot of pressure off John, and alleviated quite a bit of the boys' tendencies toward "education as a competitive sport".

Writing: John's writing plans are similar to James', only geared for third grade rather than fifth. (Funny how that works out, huh?) Imitation in Writing - Fairy Tales. (I suspected there was an order to the books, but Logos School's website is pretty lousy about helping you figure it out. So when the books arrived, I realized John gets "book 2" and James gets "book 1" - I would have switched them, but they're both already attached to their respective plans for the year. However, if you are interested in using this program, it seems that the Fairy Tales book is designed to be used after the Aesop's book.) Italic Handwriting, Book D Again, I went with Italic handwriting this year, because unless this child also becomes a doctor, his current handwriting may find him isolated in a military outpost in Siberia, hand writing ciphers. I don't know, maybe that would work for him, but I'd like for him to have options. Spelling Workout C This has come in, and the boys are both absolutely, positively tickled pink to have a workbook in their hot little hands. Woot!

Reading: I don't have an official list together yet (sound familiar?) However, his reading has taken off this summer in ways that I could not have predicted. I'm glad I didn't have a list ready to go, because I think it would need significant updating shortly. As it stands, I don't think I'll have to work hard to get him to pick up whatever we may stumble upon.

The rest of the materials are things we'll work through together --

History: Story of the World, Vol. 3, with additional readings and encyclopedia work. A little outlining here and there. Good stuff. We'll start up... um, right after we finish up the Middle Ages...

Music: we'll be breaking this up into two segments
Theory: Meet the Great Composers
Practical: Regular piano lessons will continue.

Art: Artistic Pursuits (Got it in. It looks fairly painless, but then, that's how they suck you in. Still waiting for someone, anyone, to start an art co-op class in Morgan County... *hint-hint, nudge-nudge*)

Greek: easy, gentle intro with Hey, Andrew!

Religion:Kids Catechism, Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ for Kids, and interspersed work from Doorposts, Keys for Kids Daily Devotionals.

Still waiting for a science program to grab me and whisper, "Use meeeee, my preciousssss..." (OK, the "my precious" bit is new. I'm starting to get a bit manic about it, alright?) BUT, we did buy a riding mower, so there is hope that I can clear a swath down to the river that'll be wide enough to allay my fears of water moccasins or copperheads sneaking up on us. I've read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and since we do not have a mongoose, I simply do not rest easily around water in these parts.

Yeah. Anyway. Then we can take samples and do a bit of botany, or biology, or zoology. With a microscope. And a shovel.

I think that's it. He's all set, and now, we just have to wrap our minds around the fact that this is third grade... sheesh, where does it go?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

5th Grade, The Plan

... because he's all about the planning!

Math: Math-U-See Epsilon/Zeta He's incredibly familiar with all the topics in these two books, so we plan to complete them this year and add enrichment material to go deeper, instead of moving straight into pre-algebra. (Plus Murderous Maths, just for fun - the boys thought they looked like a blast. Yeah, we're geeks.)

Latin: Latin Prep Book 1 - I know, I know! Don't mock me. We still love Latin for Children, but I don't know if we love it $140 worth of love. That's a lot of books we'll never own, when I could just hand him my Henle and Vulgata and turn him loose. So, shush. We'll give this a shot and see how it goes. I plan to order both the Latin and the Murderous Maths from Ray. Heard good things about doin' business with Ray.

Writing: We're cranking things up a bit with writing this year. He will either excel beautifully or beg for death. Possibly even both. In the end, though, it's all good.

Imitation in Writing - Aesop He tried the samples of IW-Aesop and loved them. The plan is to use Imitation in Writing until he's ready for Classical Writing.
Italic Handwriting, Book F I went with Italic handwriting because unless this child becomes a doctor, his current handwriting is going to hinder any hope of future employment. HWT has scads of room for flair, but it wasn't cutting it for legibility.
Spelling Workout E Aaaaand... I think I may have ordered the wrong spelling book. Just dawned on me while I was looking for links. So, um, anyone want to chime in on Spelling Workout 2001, vs. MCP? Anyone? Anyone? I don't know. He's a natural speller, anyway. This is just my neurosis kicking in. Plus, the kid lives for workbooks, and we just don't use them, really. Maybe he won't notice he's writing? And perhaps I won't care that I bought the wrong edition? You never know how things will turn out.


Reading: I don't have an official list together yet. He wants to work his way through the Chronicles of Narnia again. I have some ideas, some biographies, some historical fiction, some techie type stuff lined up. I think this will be a good year for reading, really. This is one area for which I don't need to plan too terribly much, as he's always on the lookout for a good book.


History: Story of the World, Vol. 3, with additional readings and encyclopedia work. A little outlining here and there. Good stuff. We'll start up... um, right after we finish up the Middle Ages...


Music: we'll be breaking this up into two segments
Theory: Meet the Great Composers
Practical: Regular piano lessons will continue. He's moving along nicely, and loves it. His teacher uses Alfred's books (method? something of Alfred's, anyway) and was explaining that if she'd known he would do as he's doing, she'd have started him at level 1 to begin with, rather than the prep books. So he's gone through three books since he started in March and she did go ahead and jump him ahead. He loves this stuff. Part of me wishes we'd started earlier, but another part really feels he's getting so much out of it because we waited. Don't even get me started on how that can be extrapolated out into other areas of learning. Not. Going. To. Go there, thanks.


Art: Artistic Pursuits I think I can, I think I can, I think... I think someone else really needs to offer a co-op for this one, to be perfectly honest. Until then, this is what we'll be doing.


Greek: easy, gentle intro with Hey, Andrew! and some kind of pronunciation CD I picked up at Rainbow Resource - no clue what it is, and it's too late to look it up now. However, we're on our way.


Religion:
Kids Catechism, Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ for Kids, and interspersed work from Doorposts, Keys for Kids Daily Devotionals, and maybe-hopefully-sure-would-be-great-if... we could get some PCA action down here in Morgan County. We'll see. Not a high-need area for ministry, I suppose. So, we're still pretty much on our own, as far as that goes. But that's okay. We can hang for a while.


As you can see, there is one glaringly obvious piece lacking... no science. I mean, we'll DO science, it's just that I haven't picked a curriculum yet. I have no idea what I want for this year. Biology, per the WTM sounds good, but nothing has grabbed me and said, "USE MEEEEEE" yet, and that's really what I was hoping for this year. We do need a good microscope, and heaven knows we have plenty of things to look at under it. But I still need a good spine.


And so, there you have it - fifth grade, in a nutshell. Probably a fairly sketchy nutshell. I'll edit in the morning. :-) If it looks like I've missed something, let me know, please. The last thing I want to do is tell him at the end of the term that we've got to do a two-month intensive on underwater basketweaving, or some other important skill, because I forgot to schedule it in!


Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Calling All Organizational Gurus!

I seek your guidance, oh wise ones!

It's too cold to work in the basement (22' as of right now), but it's perfect weather for redoing binders and lesson plans for school! (Right? RIGHT!)

With the baby coming, and the overall plan to switch to a predominately literature-based course of study for a couple of months after little Heinie's arrival, I'm contemplating using a worksheet-based approach to the new binders, which will be designed to carry us through the next ten weeks. Something supplemental to add a little... a little... I have no idea what (paper trail? clutter? life is just getting too tidy? What, exactly, am I thinking, here?)

Anyway, I've seen some gorgeous binders. Spinneretta puts together a simply stunning homekeeping book, for example. But something for the kids - anybody do that? Anybody who does that want to share? If you'll share what you do, I will take pictures and 'fess up to what we've been doing (it'll be sort of a What Not To Do expose' on binder systems, if you will).

Yep, that'd be awesome. Right now, I've wasted four hours digging up clipart and making cover pages for various sections. All printed out on brightly colored paper for each child. And somewhere around the third printing of some stoopid calendar page, I realized several things:

I have no idea what I'm doing.

I should probably ask the pros on this one.

And I'm rapidly slipping into an unhealthy condition over the clipart, alone.

(Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right? *ahem* Right...)

I'm shooting for something simple, yet engaging for the boys. Somehow, their current binder system (lovingly slaved over and "perfected", with their input) has developed some kind of kryptonite-like residue on it. They can't use it. They can't put paper in it. They find a pencil in the pouch (or add the one they've been using all day). They can't even find the hole punch, if it's for the binder. (Though they can find it, use it, and then open the bottom of it, when it's for some project of theirs!)

Ok, I'm going to decompress a bit and find something to snack on. Talk amongst yourselves. And please, for the love of educational portfolios everywhere, throw me a line, here! Please?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

And while I'm soliciting help - how can I get text to wrap around an object? You know, so the words can co-exist beside the photo. :-) Thanks.