You people didn't even TRY! Nobody guessed! *pout*
We're not telling, now.
:-D
Dy
Wednesday, January 24
Monday, January 22
...chatting
Well, you know, the problem with making the blogrun, answering the phone, and chatting before actually blogging is that I get all my chatting done, and then, well, I'm done.
Tonight I've read about and discussed (both online and in person) Clinton's announcement, "universal healthcare", the rising price of corn and it's impact in Mexico, Roe V. Wade, knitting, the joys of little boys and winter snowstorms, precious babies, weird years, The Weather Channel's Heidi Cullen, the absolute heart-pounding glee of discovering a reluctant reader curled up quietly enjoying a book sans prompting (!!!), how completely and utterly children nestle themselves into our hearts, a friend's return "home" after a prolonged time away, how to help more and be better at the things we do, whether we have an obligation to do so, Murray's article on education and intelligence (Steph, I started to comment, got carried away and shelved it - will probably blog on that this week, though).
~~~ Insert Time Warp ~~~
OK, I'd planned to link to a selection of news stories on each of these topics, from a few perspectives, but I got lost here, and now it's after midnight. But that's a truly fascinating site!
And so, now I'm *really* done and ready to collapse. So, rather than links or kibbitzing, I'll just show you what we did for fun after lunch today. The boys love word games. The other day, Zorak drew a rocket and a baby head, and asked the boys what it was. (Anybody know? I'll answer in the comments.) Today, they wanted to do more. So we did "Birds". How many "birds" can you find in this photo? (Some of them are horribly obscure, but we were in the Zone already, and there was no going back. And I apologize now for one of them. I think you must be a little boy, or have been a little boy, to get it.)
Oh, and the thing in the bottom left - not a bird. It's a Mario Kart thing. And the road w/ the box? It's a question: what's in the box? (look carefully)
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Tonight I've read about and discussed (both online and in person) Clinton's announcement, "universal healthcare", the rising price of corn and it's impact in Mexico, Roe V. Wade, knitting, the joys of little boys and winter snowstorms, precious babies, weird years, The Weather Channel's Heidi Cullen, the absolute heart-pounding glee of discovering a reluctant reader curled up quietly enjoying a book sans prompting (!!!), how completely and utterly children nestle themselves into our hearts, a friend's return "home" after a prolonged time away, how to help more and be better at the things we do, whether we have an obligation to do so, Murray's article on education and intelligence (Steph, I started to comment, got carried away and shelved it - will probably blog on that this week, though).
~~~ Insert Time Warp ~~~
OK, I'd planned to link to a selection of news stories on each of these topics, from a few perspectives, but I got lost here, and now it's after midnight. But that's a truly fascinating site!
And so, now I'm *really* done and ready to collapse. So, rather than links or kibbitzing, I'll just show you what we did for fun after lunch today. The boys love word games. The other day, Zorak drew a rocket and a baby head, and asked the boys what it was. (Anybody know? I'll answer in the comments.) Today, they wanted to do more. So we did "Birds". How many "birds" can you find in this photo? (Some of them are horribly obscure, but we were in the Zone already, and there was no going back. And I apologize now for one of them. I think you must be a little boy, or have been a little boy, to get it.)
Oh, and the thing in the bottom left - not a bird. It's a Mario Kart thing. And the road w/ the box? It's a question: what's in the box? (look carefully)
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Sunday, January 21
Post-Birthday Day
We had a lovely time Sunday, Officially Observing EmBaby's Birthday. There's just something special about your first introduction to Flaming Food! She warmed up to it after the boys blew out the candle for her.In keeping with The Nature of Things, Zorak and I aren't strong on the "planning" aspect of things, or rather, the "coordinating" part, but we have friends who are gracious about it. I had to use my "Get Out of Hostess Jail Free" card, because Zorak told our guests to arrive a full hour and a half earlier than I'd said I could have everything ready. (Honest misunderstanding. I think.) But then, they called two hours before *that* time to say they were on their way. Oy! Well, folks, at that point, you're just not going to get the full presentation. I need a shower, so make yourself comfortable. Drinks are in the fridge. Probably some snacks in there, too. We visited, we cooked, we ate.
I experimented a bit in the kitchen, which I probably should not ever do in front of others. I hope they forgive me. The lasagna (not an experiment) turned out great. The breadsticks (not normally an experiment, but we'd thrown together a new batch of French Bread mix and it turned out, well, not so much). They were kinda gummy. Well, that's embarrassing. Salad - yeah, I'd have to work pretty hard to botch a salad. It was good.
The Namaste cake turned out lovely, as usual (I love Namaste!) I tried my hand at making my first-ever poured icing. Um... huh. Well, at least I know what to do differently next time! I let it get too warm, so it didn't adhere well to the sides, as you can see. And, as you can see, the boys didn't care one whit what it looked like. I love these ages.And now, the kitchen is clean, the children are detoxed (detoxing... it's a process), and it's back to our regularly scheduled programming. I will leave you with gratuitous first birthday cake photos.
Kiss those sweet, sticky babies!
~Dy
Wednesday, January 17
What A Year!
A year ago, our family grew by one. A girl. Our sweet BabyGirl. Oh. My. Word. She was so tiny. So precious. So new. And she has been busy!
Once she outgrew the bouncy seat, she discovered the joys of alternative transportation! *beep* *beep*
Before long, BabyGirl was ready to see the world. Well, Florida, anyway. What fun! (And that hat? That is inter-generational payback. She will hate this photo one day, and I will think it's the sweetest thing ever. And I have three Grandmas from the boat trip who'll back me up.)
She's become a daring eater. This will not be her only taste of sushi, I'm sure.
She figured out what's behind those pesky zippers on the diaper bag. (And how cupboards work, where the pots are hid, the best place in the boys' closet to hide, and all the good spots for snuggling!)
And a lot of the time, she just sat in awe of her beautiful world.
And we sat in awe, seeing the world through her beautiful eyes.
Happy First Birthday, Sweet BabyGirl! You've changed our home in so many ways, all of them good. You've brought us joy, and delight, and wonder. Just when we thought our lives couldn't be any more full, you came along. We love you, BabyGirl!
*(That lovely white dress up at the top? It's a gift from her birthday buddy, sweet S. J.. Thank you, Mere! She loves her special dress! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH JANE!!)
Happy Baby Kisses All Around!
~Dy
In the last year, Miss Emily has done quite a lot. For starters, she's tripled her birth weight. That's quite a feat! (The boys are envious.)
She's dropped the "Miss" portion of her name. And the "Emily" part. She answers mostly to "BabyGirl", now. Much as we've done with Smidge, I imagine we'll have to start calling her by her proper name at some point. But right now, "BabyGirl" just fits so beautifully.
She developed a healthy sense of humor straight off. It's served her well so far. (She may actually think this is a joke, and is waiting for her real family to come get her... any day now... waiting...)
She's wrapped more than one person around her wee, pudgy fingers with those eyes, and that giggle, and those cheeks...
She's known love, and warmth, and comfort. No matter where we've gone.
She entered the covenant family of believers, and inherited more family than she knows.
She spent the summer being quite the little hostess, gettin' tips from Granny on all the good things in life.
Once she outgrew the bouncy seat, she discovered the joys of alternative transportation! *beep* *beep*
Before long, BabyGirl was ready to see the world. Well, Florida, anyway. What fun! (And that hat? That is inter-generational payback. She will hate this photo one day, and I will think it's the sweetest thing ever. And I have three Grandmas from the boat trip who'll back me up.)
She's become a daring eater. This will not be her only taste of sushi, I'm sure.
She figured out what's behind those pesky zippers on the diaper bag. (And how cupboards work, where the pots are hid, the best place in the boys' closet to hide, and all the good spots for snuggling!)
And a lot of the time, she just sat in awe of her beautiful world.
And we sat in awe, seeing the world through her beautiful eyes.
Happy First Birthday, Sweet BabyGirl! You've changed our home in so many ways, all of them good. You've brought us joy, and delight, and wonder. Just when we thought our lives couldn't be any more full, you came along. We love you, BabyGirl!
*(That lovely white dress up at the top? It's a gift from her birthday buddy, sweet S. J.. Thank you, Mere! She loves her special dress! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH JANE!!)
Happy Baby Kisses All Around!
~Dy
Tuesday, January 16
In twenty years,
I hope to be sitting at the banquet table for the wedding of one of my children. I can see it now... Everyone gathered together, all decked out in their wedding garments, surrounded by the people and things that make them happy, the band playing uplifting music... ah, it will be lovely.
And Zorak and I are going to sit there, beaming on the inside, and...
bicker.
That's right. We're going to touch each other's plates, and whine about it. He's going to swing his leg and kick *my* chair. Repeatedly. Ignoring all warnings. One of us will keep moving, and the other one will get up and FOLLOW, plate and all. And right in the middle of each toast, one of us will shout, "Would you stop TOUCHING ME!"
And that will be just the beginning, because by that time, I'm sure there will be payback galore built up from these four, and it's going to take some ingenuity on our part, but I'm pretty sure we will be able to cram all of it into the wedding festivities. Oh, yes. We're gonna party like somebody else is footin' the bill, folks!
OK.
Probably not. Truthfully, I am deeply grateful that neither of our parents did that at our wedding. Whooeee, that would've been one humdinger of a spectacle (we had a lot of payback coming from our raisings). And I guess that's the thing about parenting. You remind your children of a thousand rules of behavior a thousand times over: do not kick your brother's chair; do not put your fingers in someone else's food; do not get up and follow someone who has just stood, demanded in no uncertain terms that you leave him alone, and stormed off (actually, you may want to cover that one a few extra times - could save a life some day). And still, five years down the road, you find yourself tensing up, bracing yourself for combat because you *know* you're going to have to say it 1,001 times. Or more. And you dream of the day you can start a food fight at your son's promotion party. Or play frisbee with lunchmeats at your daughter's college graduation. Or pick a brawl at the wedding...
But when the time comes, those thousand and one (or million and one) reminders have kicked in and done their job. You've done your job. And suddenly, you realize you don't want to ruin it. You've spent all these years helping them learn not to ruin it for themselves... you want to sit back, wallow it in, think up new things to worry about, and love them. Just like you've loved them through everything.
I will probably look at Zorak, though, and smile mischeviously when he whispers, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" (Because I never am, and we both know that, but at that point, we may just be...)
But just to be on the safe side, don't sit near us at the wedding, ok?
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
And Zorak and I are going to sit there, beaming on the inside, and...
bicker.
That's right. We're going to touch each other's plates, and whine about it. He's going to swing his leg and kick *my* chair. Repeatedly. Ignoring all warnings. One of us will keep moving, and the other one will get up and FOLLOW, plate and all. And right in the middle of each toast, one of us will shout, "Would you stop TOUCHING ME!"
And that will be just the beginning, because by that time, I'm sure there will be payback galore built up from these four, and it's going to take some ingenuity on our part, but I'm pretty sure we will be able to cram all of it into the wedding festivities. Oh, yes. We're gonna party like somebody else is footin' the bill, folks!
OK.
Probably not. Truthfully, I am deeply grateful that neither of our parents did that at our wedding. Whooeee, that would've been one humdinger of a spectacle (we had a lot of payback coming from our raisings). And I guess that's the thing about parenting. You remind your children of a thousand rules of behavior a thousand times over: do not kick your brother's chair; do not put your fingers in someone else's food; do not get up and follow someone who has just stood, demanded in no uncertain terms that you leave him alone, and stormed off (actually, you may want to cover that one a few extra times - could save a life some day). And still, five years down the road, you find yourself tensing up, bracing yourself for combat because you *know* you're going to have to say it 1,001 times. Or more. And you dream of the day you can start a food fight at your son's promotion party. Or play frisbee with lunchmeats at your daughter's college graduation. Or pick a brawl at the wedding...
But when the time comes, those thousand and one (or million and one) reminders have kicked in and done their job. You've done your job. And suddenly, you realize you don't want to ruin it. You've spent all these years helping them learn not to ruin it for themselves... you want to sit back, wallow it in, think up new things to worry about, and love them. Just like you've loved them through everything.
I will probably look at Zorak, though, and smile mischeviously when he whispers, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" (Because I never am, and we both know that, but at that point, we may just be...)
But just to be on the safe side, don't sit near us at the wedding, ok?
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Monday, January 15
Bird Lists (and stuff)
Because there's always "stuff".
Actually, I'll start with birding sites. I knew, growing up, that people bird watch simply because my Dad was a bird watcher. (Of course he was - his heyday was the well-off late 1940's to the 1960's - Weatherby shotguns, hard liquor at ten in the morning, horse races, social causes, mint juleps, oil paintings of hunting dogs, and, naturally, birding.) OK, truth be told, I have no clue how bird watching made it in there with the rest of it, but he had volumes of bird watching books. Stacked neatly beside his thirty year collection of vintage Playboy joke books. When he and my mother married and we moved into his house, the bird books were allowed to stay... and so, I knew people watched birds.
Sadly, I had no real interest in being still and quiet for any period of time, and he, in his late 60's by that point, had no desire to try to make me still and quiet. So the bird books gathered dust, and we both quietly wished Mom had chucked those instead of the joke books.
Fast forward twenty some-odd years, we sit at the breakfast table, and the boys. go. nuts. watching birds out the window. They used to ask me what each bird was, but outside of upland water fowl, your basic crow, jay, cardinal, and sparrow, I'd pretty much have to make things up. "Oh, that looks like the two-footed catfood warbler," or "I do believe that is a tasty-breasted southern wood quail". Eventually, they quit asking for my input, which was for the best. But now, they're making it up themselves. "That's a nuthatch!" "Yeah, right, it's too big. It's obviously the two-footed catfood warbler Mom told us about last Spring!" Oy. OK, time to get serious. So, we sat down and spent a delightful morning looking at bird identification sites, listening to bird songs, and playing reindeer games... er, bird games. I don't know, but it was fun, and we've all learned something, and they're hooked.
Our favorite site today was, hands down, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds. For reader-friendly, get-you-started websites, this one is great. I think it'll become a daily reference point for us as we start into the realm of bird watching and getting to know the neighbors in the area. Navigation through the site is easy and intuitive. It's hard to get lost. You don't have to dig too hard to find pictures (always a plus for the attentionally challenged among us).
Our next favorite today would have to be the pages of photos and songs collected at Birding.com. I don't know how fast the downloads are if you're on dialup, but they're worth listening to. And of course, if you start the children being still and quiet *now*, then, in theory, it won't be such a struggle later. I appreciate the tremendous effort that enthusiasts have put into some of these pages. Doug, over at Nature's Songs, in particular, has set up his site in a way that makes you feel you're having lunch with him right after he's just found each song. His enthusiasm is catching (and we loved the way he detailed the conditions and circumstances under which he recorded each song). Wow. Suddenly, this whole process doesn't feel so intimidating! This, we can do!
Finally, if you're feeling pretty warmed up and ready to go, The Nutty Birdwatcher has some detailed information, and an interesting site.
Obviously, this is just a smattering, but this is where we spent our morning. Grab a snack, a warm cup o' your favorite winter beverage, and gather the kids for a little bird watching warmups. Then trek outside to see what's going on in the neighborhood!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Actually, I'll start with birding sites. I knew, growing up, that people bird watch simply because my Dad was a bird watcher. (Of course he was - his heyday was the well-off late 1940's to the 1960's - Weatherby shotguns, hard liquor at ten in the morning, horse races, social causes, mint juleps, oil paintings of hunting dogs, and, naturally, birding.) OK, truth be told, I have no clue how bird watching made it in there with the rest of it, but he had volumes of bird watching books. Stacked neatly beside his thirty year collection of vintage Playboy joke books. When he and my mother married and we moved into his house, the bird books were allowed to stay... and so, I knew people watched birds.
Sadly, I had no real interest in being still and quiet for any period of time, and he, in his late 60's by that point, had no desire to try to make me still and quiet. So the bird books gathered dust, and we both quietly wished Mom had chucked those instead of the joke books.
Fast forward twenty some-odd years, we sit at the breakfast table, and the boys. go. nuts. watching birds out the window. They used to ask me what each bird was, but outside of upland water fowl, your basic crow, jay, cardinal, and sparrow, I'd pretty much have to make things up. "Oh, that looks like the two-footed catfood warbler," or "I do believe that is a tasty-breasted southern wood quail". Eventually, they quit asking for my input, which was for the best. But now, they're making it up themselves. "That's a nuthatch!" "Yeah, right, it's too big. It's obviously the two-footed catfood warbler Mom told us about last Spring!" Oy. OK, time to get serious. So, we sat down and spent a delightful morning looking at bird identification sites, listening to bird songs, and playing reindeer games... er, bird games. I don't know, but it was fun, and we've all learned something, and they're hooked.
Our favorite site today was, hands down, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds. For reader-friendly, get-you-started websites, this one is great. I think it'll become a daily reference point for us as we start into the realm of bird watching and getting to know the neighbors in the area. Navigation through the site is easy and intuitive. It's hard to get lost. You don't have to dig too hard to find pictures (always a plus for the attentionally challenged among us).
Our next favorite today would have to be the pages of photos and songs collected at Birding.com. I don't know how fast the downloads are if you're on dialup, but they're worth listening to. And of course, if you start the children being still and quiet *now*, then, in theory, it won't be such a struggle later. I appreciate the tremendous effort that enthusiasts have put into some of these pages. Doug, over at Nature's Songs, in particular, has set up his site in a way that makes you feel you're having lunch with him right after he's just found each song. His enthusiasm is catching (and we loved the way he detailed the conditions and circumstances under which he recorded each song). Wow. Suddenly, this whole process doesn't feel so intimidating! This, we can do!
Finally, if you're feeling pretty warmed up and ready to go, The Nutty Birdwatcher has some detailed information, and an interesting site.
Obviously, this is just a smattering, but this is where we spent our morning. Grab a snack, a warm cup o' your favorite winter beverage, and gather the kids for a little bird watching warmups. Then trek outside to see what's going on in the neighborhood!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Adventures Gone Awry
So we're out of creamer and two days from payday. Oh, what bad, bad timing. I thought I'd improvise. "Hey!" I thought, "The Hillbilly Housewife uses vanilla pudding mix in her instant coffee mixes. I'll bet that would be good!" So I drizzled a little pudding mix into my cup, stirred, checked the spoon, stirred again, and it looked good. *sip* Mmm, well, not stellar. But not bad. Eh. It'll do.
Yeah, til I drink it down to where the bottom begins to show when I tip the cup for a drink. And there's a longish blob of... what is that? chewing gum? phlegm? fix-a-dent? No, wait, nobody in the house wears dentures. Dear heaven, what IS that?
Yep, undissolved, yet congealed, vanilla pudding, stuck in the bottom and coated in a layer of black coffee.
Oh. I think I'll just take it sweet and dark this week. Blech.
Dy
Yeah, til I drink it down to where the bottom begins to show when I tip the cup for a drink. And there's a longish blob of... what is that? chewing gum? phlegm? fix-a-dent? No, wait, nobody in the house wears dentures. Dear heaven, what IS that?
Yep, undissolved, yet congealed, vanilla pudding, stuck in the bottom and coated in a layer of black coffee.
Oh. I think I'll just take it sweet and dark this week. Blech.
Dy
Let's Play Ball???
OK, this is the year. We're doing it. *breathe in*
The problem is - I have no idea what we're doing. *breathe out*
John wants to play baseball. OK. Sounds simple enough. You may remember we played heck trying to find a fall ball league last year. Turns out, there aren't any. Oh. OK. Well, we'll try again in the spring.
Yeah. Spring's a'comin!
I will call the Parks & Rec offices for our near communities on Tuesday. Haven't been able to find anything about them online.
I did find the Dixie Youth League. Spent three hours looking for information, and so far, not finding what I need, other than that there's a meeting on Feb. 3rd. (Since when is that "spring"? ACK! I thought I had more time! *breatheinbreatheoutbreatheinbreatheout)
How do they pick the teams?
Does everyone who wants to play get to play?
What do you have to have for tryouts?
What about homeschooled kids?
How does this all work?
What's the competition level?
Where do you start when you're, you know, just starting?
What can we do to help?
What am I doing, again?
Why am I doing it? Oh. Yes. That smile. That's right.
OK, I've answered one question. That's enough to keep me going. If you've done the baseball route before, would you mind chiming in with information? I'll be making phone calls this week, but would love a friendly voice to walk me through this.
Zorak and I are way out of our comfort zone at the moment. It's a twitchy, awkward place to be, and we're trying to maintain our cool-and-on-the-job personas. Not working so well.
And me, with the sports, not so much. I was on the track team in high school only because my ride didn't come until after track practice and they wouldn't let me sit and read. And even then, I went for field events just so I didn't have to run. This drive to engage in competitive sports is right up there in "things I don't get", with choosing a career in nostril hair tweezing, or making clothing from lint. It's foreign to me.
But have you seen that smile? Ah. I've got to figure this out.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
The problem is - I have no idea what we're doing. *breathe out*
John wants to play baseball. OK. Sounds simple enough. You may remember we played heck trying to find a fall ball league last year. Turns out, there aren't any. Oh. OK. Well, we'll try again in the spring.
Yeah. Spring's a'comin!
I will call the Parks & Rec offices for our near communities on Tuesday. Haven't been able to find anything about them online.
I did find the Dixie Youth League. Spent three hours looking for information, and so far, not finding what I need, other than that there's a meeting on Feb. 3rd. (Since when is that "spring"? ACK! I thought I had more time! *breatheinbreatheoutbreatheinbreatheout)
How do they pick the teams?
Does everyone who wants to play get to play?
What do you have to have for tryouts?
What about homeschooled kids?
How does this all work?
What's the competition level?
Where do you start when you're, you know, just starting?
What can we do to help?
What am I doing, again?
Why am I doing it? Oh. Yes. That smile. That's right.
OK, I've answered one question. That's enough to keep me going. If you've done the baseball route before, would you mind chiming in with information? I'll be making phone calls this week, but would love a friendly voice to walk me through this.
Zorak and I are way out of our comfort zone at the moment. It's a twitchy, awkward place to be, and we're trying to maintain our cool-and-on-the-job personas. Not working so well.
And me, with the sports, not so much. I was on the track team in high school only because my ride didn't come until after track practice and they wouldn't let me sit and read. And even then, I went for field events just so I didn't have to run. This drive to engage in competitive sports is right up there in "things I don't get", with choosing a career in nostril hair tweezing, or making clothing from lint. It's foreign to me.
But have you seen that smile? Ah. I've got to figure this out.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Sunday, January 14
Homeschool Review
I think a weekly review is in order. Or, in this case, a bi-weekly review. Because you just never know when one of those little suckers might get away from you. (I'm beginning to believe that homeschoolers are time-challenged. It's not just time, as in "be there at eight in the morning" *gag, cough, gasp*, but rather the general ebb and flow of the Monday-Friday workweek, that we don't grasp. Or that could be just us. I'm okay with that.)
Here's the general scoop on life at the academy...
Latin:
Latin For Children, Primer A. Coming along swimmingly. The boys still enjoy it, and I enjoy teaching with it. We ventured off into deeper work for James this past week, doing more independent translation and writing work, while taking a different turn with John, doing more in-depth vocabulary study. This little twist to the learning curve is what makes homeschooling work so well for us. The children get what they need, without sacrificing any one child to the angry volcano of educational oversight. We'll finish Unit II this coming week, and will begin Unit III before the end of the month.
Math:
MUS, Delta: division is easy when you know your multiplication facts and the Reasons Why. Alpha: the work John put into Primer is paying off in Alpha. I'm glad we did Primer, and still recommend it highly. The gentle introduction, ease of memorization, and the taste of success (particularly for this little guy) is worth every penny spent on Primer.
As we'd planned, we're just letting them take the ball and run with it on math this term. They're both enjoying the work they do (aside from the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning last week), and they still get enough bizarre applications and theory from our normal day-to-day discussion that I just can't see slowing them down or adding anything else to the pot. This is good brew.
History:
Famous Men of Rome: My plan was to read/study one famous man per week. Well, there's not much else available to us for supplementation here in the boonies. So, we've broadened our studies a bit, and read two chapters each week. I add in a little mapwork, some fictional reading, maybe dabble in a little Viking lore. Then I re-read the story of The Horatii and The Curatii, over again, each week. Because when you're six, that is just a horribly cool story.
I would like to add in more of the activities from SOTW, but at this point, I'm ready to forge ahead into the Middle Ages. It took us so long to get to Rome. Oy. Still, we're on track, and enjoying it, and at the end of this term, they'll have some good pegs about the Roman civilization on which to hang next term's studies. It's good. I'm just being impatient. And I need a live-in crafter. Desperately. These children need a few good projects. (I don't need ideas - there are plenty out there. What I need is the motivation!)
Our reading schedule has been fairly laid back, although the two older boys are getting in half an hour of assigned reading each day, as well as half an hour to an hour of free reading time during the day (on top of our normal reading together time, bedtime reading, and the random books that simply must be read whenever).
They're working their way through the Copybooks from Memoria Press. We aren't using them as prescribed, but we are using them as I'd planned, and as such, we're getting just what we need. (Copybook gives the eldest child a chance to write something I didn't outline for him, or expect him to narrate on his own. Just good, quality handwriting practice. Isn't that handy? And for the next child, it's just good practice in general: paying attention, developing good form, finishing a project with minimal fuss. Good stuff.)
Science - isn't every day a science day? No? Oh. Well, we're enjoying the tidbit pages from the list of things to do outside in the winter, and the tangents we go off on from those, alone, are great fun. We're slowly slogging our way through Exploring Creation Through Astronomy. I love the reading part. It's the activities that are just killing me right now. January, it seems, is NOT the time to ask me to do anything other than eat and read.
Bible - Pioneer Club has begun again, so we have memory work and projects for that. Our daily devotionals come from the Keys 4 Kids series, which I found at An Old-Fashioned Education. We do them over breakfast, and they're quite good. If I run into one that I don't think is applicable, or appropriate for my crowd, it's nice to be able to go back through the archives and pick a different day.
And that's the bulk of our lessons, there. We do music, although not officially. We do it by making music and sharing music. By listening to more music and partaking in the process itself. I'm trying not to focus on this, for fear I will scare myself out of it, but for now, I think that creating a lifestyle that includes music will do wonders for the boys. For all of us, really. I'll blog more later about the effects I've seen just since we've begun implementing this approach. It's been good. And by no means am I advocating NO formal music lessons, but for us, that was a cart-before-the-horse scenario. We needed to get the horse first.
How's your school term going?
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Here's the general scoop on life at the academy...
Latin:
Latin For Children, Primer A. Coming along swimmingly. The boys still enjoy it, and I enjoy teaching with it. We ventured off into deeper work for James this past week, doing more independent translation and writing work, while taking a different turn with John, doing more in-depth vocabulary study. This little twist to the learning curve is what makes homeschooling work so well for us. The children get what they need, without sacrificing any one child to the angry volcano of educational oversight. We'll finish Unit II this coming week, and will begin Unit III before the end of the month.
Math:
MUS, Delta: division is easy when you know your multiplication facts and the Reasons Why. Alpha: the work John put into Primer is paying off in Alpha. I'm glad we did Primer, and still recommend it highly. The gentle introduction, ease of memorization, and the taste of success (particularly for this little guy) is worth every penny spent on Primer.
As we'd planned, we're just letting them take the ball and run with it on math this term. They're both enjoying the work they do (aside from the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning last week), and they still get enough bizarre applications and theory from our normal day-to-day discussion that I just can't see slowing them down or adding anything else to the pot. This is good brew.
History:
Famous Men of Rome: My plan was to read/study one famous man per week. Well, there's not much else available to us for supplementation here in the boonies. So, we've broadened our studies a bit, and read two chapters each week. I add in a little mapwork, some fictional reading, maybe dabble in a little Viking lore. Then I re-read the story of The Horatii and The Curatii, over again, each week. Because when you're six, that is just a horribly cool story.
I would like to add in more of the activities from SOTW, but at this point, I'm ready to forge ahead into the Middle Ages. It took us so long to get to Rome. Oy. Still, we're on track, and enjoying it, and at the end of this term, they'll have some good pegs about the Roman civilization on which to hang next term's studies. It's good. I'm just being impatient. And I need a live-in crafter. Desperately. These children need a few good projects. (I don't need ideas - there are plenty out there. What I need is the motivation!)
Our reading schedule has been fairly laid back, although the two older boys are getting in half an hour of assigned reading each day, as well as half an hour to an hour of free reading time during the day (on top of our normal reading together time, bedtime reading, and the random books that simply must be read whenever).
They're working their way through the Copybooks from Memoria Press. We aren't using them as prescribed, but we are using them as I'd planned, and as such, we're getting just what we need. (Copybook gives the eldest child a chance to write something I didn't outline for him, or expect him to narrate on his own. Just good, quality handwriting practice. Isn't that handy? And for the next child, it's just good practice in general: paying attention, developing good form, finishing a project with minimal fuss. Good stuff.)
Science - isn't every day a science day? No? Oh. Well, we're enjoying the tidbit pages from the list of things to do outside in the winter, and the tangents we go off on from those, alone, are great fun. We're slowly slogging our way through Exploring Creation Through Astronomy. I love the reading part. It's the activities that are just killing me right now. January, it seems, is NOT the time to ask me to do anything other than eat and read.
Bible - Pioneer Club has begun again, so we have memory work and projects for that. Our daily devotionals come from the Keys 4 Kids series, which I found at An Old-Fashioned Education. We do them over breakfast, and they're quite good. If I run into one that I don't think is applicable, or appropriate for my crowd, it's nice to be able to go back through the archives and pick a different day.
And that's the bulk of our lessons, there. We do music, although not officially. We do it by making music and sharing music. By listening to more music and partaking in the process itself. I'm trying not to focus on this, for fear I will scare myself out of it, but for now, I think that creating a lifestyle that includes music will do wonders for the boys. For all of us, really. I'll blog more later about the effects I've seen just since we've begun implementing this approach. It's been good. And by no means am I advocating NO formal music lessons, but for us, that was a cart-before-the-horse scenario. We needed to get the horse first.
How's your school term going?
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
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