homeschooling – Page 12 – Letters from Home

Butterflies!

Over the weekend we had 5 butterflies emerge.

They’re still in their little mesh habitat. We’ll release them tomorrow when the nighttime temperatures are higher.

I couldn’t get a good photo through the mesh, so I crouched under their enclosure and snapped some photos through the clear plastic on the bottom.

These are Painted Lady Butterflies.

The caterpillars were fun to watch because they grew so quickly. The pupa stage was very dull until we transplanted them into their mesh habitat. I was holding the fabric on which they’d attached themselves and suddenly they were all gyrating violently. I nearly dropped them (as their defense mechanism hoped I would). I did NOT scream, as my pride as an old entomology student was at stake, but I felt a little bit like Indiana Jones around snakes.

Timothy loved this activity.

Flu Bug

I’ve been in bed for 24 hours with a Nasty flu. The kids have cooked and taken good care of themselves.

Our butterfly larvae arrived in the mail.

These are Painted Lady caterpillars. It should be a special event to watch them emerge as butterflies in a week or two. Timothy is finishing up a butterfly unit.

Watercolor Art Class

Timothy learned that it takes a long time to paint…longer than he was interested, in fact. I love his drawing.

The teacher said you can tell a lot about the personality of the artists in these paintings. Daniel paints in a very precise way.

Paige could be the next Georgia O’Keeffe if she wanted to.

State Presentation

Today is the States Presentation Fair at the library. We prepared art and reports about the state of Arizona.

We made a cool map with sculptures.

The 5 Cs of Arizona: Climate, Cotton, Cattle, Citrus, and Copper

Now you know.

Vendor Day

It was Vendor Day at the park. Daniel sold S’Mores and he let the kids roast their own marshmallows!. Timothy sold candy airplanes in custom-designed packaging. Paige also sold some treats. Her marketing strategy was to produce a commercial with her friend. Fun!

Under Construction

When a website is undergoing some kind of change, they say it’s “under construction.”

Something like that is happening here. I am a hesitant blogger (despite my frequent posts) because unlike many bloggers, I am not here to start a discussion. I’m just here to share. I share to maintain relationships with family and have some personal validation. I have a very small readership. (Bless each of you!) I get a lot of questions about curriculum and activities, so I have tried to share these things here. This may be changing, however.

First, two bits of background information:

A few months ago I found a discussion that asked, “At what point do you stop posting about your children because they are old enough to tell their own stories?” This question has hovered over my head for a while and I can see wisdom in not treading heavily on the experiences of childhood. I have tried to be careful with what I post about the heart-wrenching or embarrassing moments of growing up. There are no posts showing the painful smile after braces or striking out during a baseball game, etc.

This weekend I read a homeschooling discussion and was once again shocked and horrified to read the hatred and mistrust that is directed against parents who educate their own children. Such comments ignore the good and highlight the bad. I have seen homeschooling done very well and I’ve seen it done very poorly. Over the past several days my reaction to the acerbic tone of so many against this movement has been to crawl into a shell and ponder two questions,

“Is the online telling of the education of my children ultimately unfair to them?” (even though I block search engines)

and,

“Do my homeschooling posts serve anyone but myself?”

Since I’m not looking for a discussion, I don’t expect these questions to be answered by my readers, but through prayer. And believe me, that’s enough.

But, if you see fewer posts in the future, or see that I suddenly start posting pictures of decorated corners of my house instead of scenes from the schoolroom you will know that I have decided to protect that aspect of our lives.

Rockets

I lead a homeschool club in my neighborhood. On Friday, we had a rocket class and I used Richard’s rocket launcher. There were many families there and we had a great time in the sun.

Biosphere 2

Today our studies took us into the Catalina foothills where the Biosphere 2 project still stands. In the late 80’s and early 90’s this was an experimental ecosystem. For two years, 8 “biospherians” lived in this sealed environment, testing whether it could be self-sustaining. This is a huge and impressive structure made of steel and glass and an intricate underground network which regulates temperature, humidity, winds, power, and rain. There are very distinct ecosystems within the biosphere: savannah, ocean, desert, and rainforest. At the onset, there were 3800 species of plants and animals living in the structure. It served as a farm, living quarters, and research center.

P.S. Biosphere 1 is the earth itself.

This is the basement of the biosphere. It’s several acres of pipes, power conduits, etc.

The "lung" which is a 20-ton rubber and concrete air pressure regulator. — The “lung” which is a 20-ton rubber and metal air pressure regulator.

This is a view of the living quarters for the 8 people who lived there for 2 years.

Trying to escape against an air pressure gradient.

This is a salt water ocean replica, which once had a coral reef and wave generator.

We celebrated Richard’s birthday today. Guess what? The gift we gave him was THE RIGHT MODEL!! I’m so relieved.

Monkey Muses

These monkeys make me smile.

It’s been that kind of week, people. Can it get any more crazy around here?

Reports, experiments, valentines, bike riding, park day, ballet, Cub Committe work, sign-up sheets, an advertising project, extra piano lessons, hiring a new art teacher, e-mails… and through the din I hear my voice in a muffled, tunnel-like echo saying,

“Let’s start working on The Iliad tomorrow!”

(As if Homer’s pathos, hubris, and other epic themes have anything to add to the life we lead.)

But these Monkey Muses sing on in my head, “Keep reading! Keep writing! Keep creating! This is the time of your life!”

…And of course, they are perfectly correct.

Sing on, Monkey Muses in my head, sing on.

Evidence of a Homeschool: A photo essay

Will anyone remember what we did today?

Will I?

I find that my memory is very short, selective and inaccurate.

In case we ever wonder what we were doing on January 19, 2010, here is evidence of a day of homeschooling:

I hung up the old Greek gods cards. We’re jumping into mythology this month.

I made a crossword puzzle to guide us through our study of Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green.

I bought a new box of crayons this week. It’s hard to beat a good box of 64. I won’t betray which of my older children still likes to color in coloring books.