Category: homeschooling

More History stuff…

… because I’ve been sick and I need some validation for what we do.

The boys went on an adventure in the mountains this weekend. I stayed home in bed, as sick as could be. It was so quiet. I read Confessions by Saint Augustine and watched Cranford. Paige went off with a friend. It was the second time in two weeks that I found myself alone, but unable to do anything interesting. And by interesting, I mean prepare for Mark’s birthday and make homemade poppy accoutrements. I splurged and bought a Martha Stewart magazine last week and now I MUST HAVE POPPIES in my life.

I’m all better now and I’m getting ready for my last home school club meeting on Friday. I’m stepping down as leader and I’m trying to go out with a bang. I need more time to focus on my own kids and I need more unstructured time.

Hot Pursuit

I took this series of pictures from across the field at P.E. class. Timothy was the last person to be tagged in “Sharks and Minnows” because he is FAST. And yes, there were many more children there than just Daniel and Timothy!

 

Daniel is out of breath; Timothy is giggling. As a result, each collapsed in order to regain composure.

Timothy’s History Project

Timothy did this stop motion animation film one day for history class because he didn’t want to color another map. I thought it was a good compromise. We rigged up the ship with two magnets, one stuck to the ship and one hidden behind the map. Timothy inched the ship along its course and we took a lot of photos. We never got to make a movie of Ferdinand Magellan, but Timothy knows the route and the story and that’s all that matters. Richard put the photos to music for us.

Miniature Museum field trip

The miniature museum was an interesting cultural and historical field trip. The museum was full of houses from different eras and countries and one of our favorites was this eighteenth century French mansion.

These paintings are very small replicas, hand painted by the artist.

It made me wish I had a doll house again.

The displays and the tour were interesting. Here is a below-the-floor display with fifties era miniatures.

Here we are celebrating a friend’s birthday at McDonalds. It was a good time with friends.

Dad, can you call me…

Zoomer-Smasher-Dune buggy when I ride my bike?

-Mark, age 4

This is the week that Mark learned to ride a two wheeled bike and picked up a book and read it. Blast. Next thing I know he will be telling me that he is engaged.

Richard bought Mark a bike without pedals because it’s the latest thing in balance theory. (I just made that up.) We’re believers in the balance theory, though. Without training wheels, Mark learned to balance on two wheels in about a day. We live on a hill and he walks himself up and then he glides down the hill. His wrecks are spectacular. I can hardly watch.

Sigh. My little Mark is now “Zoomer-Smasher-Dune buggy.”

And if that was not enough, on the same day he decided to read.

I committed a social faux pas last week when I told two friends who are avid preschool mothers that I haven’t been “pushing” reading for Mark. It seems like everyone wants their preschool children to read. I have known for a while that Mark was ready to read but I hadn’t prepared the little books and incentive program that my other children needed/loved when they were learning. I was waiting for a little prep time before we really got started.

Paige’s incentives were stickers and pizza; Daniel and Timothy ate candy and earned pieces of a pirate ship as they learned their phonics lessons. I was hoping Mark’s incentives would involve sharing chocolates and lots of hugs and kisses.

Somehow without the incentives and the structure he learned anyway. Perhaps his was the most powerful incentive of all: he wants to be a reader like everyone else in the house. I’m not saying he’s reading everything, but yesterday his little readers arrived in the mail and he picked one up and read several pages aloud, commenting that the word “and” was sure used a lot.

So there he goes… our baby(whimper)… off into the big world of high speed and higher education.

 

Greek History Day

We went to a Greek History event. There were costumes. There were plays. There was Spanakopita and dancing. Greek music is so distinctive, don’t you think?

There is something very comforting about mingling with other moms who educate their own children. This was on the car in front of us:

Wishing I had such spunk… but I’m willing to mingle with those who do and find ideas.

There were crafts and Olympic events. I dressed up the kids in all the white fabric I could find in the house. Paige is studying ancient history this year and is wading through philosophy by Plato. I’m pretty sure no one discussed the nature of justice at the banquet table, but it was fun to see her among some friends. I think history days like this are most beneficial for kids who are in elementary school.

This activity didn’t thrill Timothy AT ALL.

Man, it’s no fun to be eleven years old sometimes. I realized that it was probably too much to ask of my sons to enjoy this day. They are studying Medieval history this year and never want to do crafts. That’s one of the challenges I face: finding activities that will make everyone happy and meet their educational needs with a minivan, the internet (hallelujah) and 24 hours in a day.

I found Mark pushing his little friend from across the street in the swing. Isn’t age four just darling? Looking at these pictures reminds me that in all the scurrying about to find drapery to wear, we forgot to comb our hair.

I just sat in the shade and ate Spanakopita. It’s my new favorite food.

 

 

Vendor Day 2011

It was the annual homeschool Vendor Day yesterday. We sold things! We bought things! Everything had to be under a dollar.

This year, we changed our marketing strategy. We abandoned the stationary booth idea. The boys were mobile, moving from person to person. Mark had the cute factor going for him. He was our most successful salesman. He sold fruit snacks. Timothy sold candy.

A group of kids put on a carnival with a cakewalk, games, face painting and PRIZES!

Snow cones!

Jewelry!…and everything was priced under a dollar! The jewelry booth girls probably didn’t make a profit, but they were popular with their nice jewelry, organic lollipops, free balloons, sand art, prickly pear jelly and a raffle for books by their mother who is an author. They became friends with everyone.

This booth provided my lunch. Yum.

One problem with Vendor Day is there are too many salespeople and not enough customers. Just when things began to look bleak, the retired bicyclist club arrived! They engulfed our snow cones, bought all of our Popsicles (it was 85 degrees) and spread their money around in heroic ways.

Aloe vera plants, anyone?

This teen was selling things he had made out of DUCT TAPE. I liked the water lily, myself. It was only 75 cents.

There were many booths I didn’t photograph. There were homemade cards, water bottle holders, sodas, about 5 cupcake booths, refrigerator magnets made with walnuts and googly eyes (I bought two), and sachets. There were about 30-40 cute kids there.

Daniel’s artistic sugar cookies were a hit. He made about $6. Later that evening, we had 3 kids show up on our doorstep to buy more.

Poetry

Some days it feels like I’m scraping the bottom of the peanut butter jar for ideas to entertain and inspire. I see my role as a teacher resembling the role of an inspirational speaker…although I admit I probably sit on the couch too often to be considered very inspirational. I don’t tell the kids what they need to know as much as I try to inspire them to go and figure things out for themselves. Some days it would just be a lot easier to sit everyone down and tell them to take notes. This happens every February/March.

On days when I am tempted to

a) begin lecturing,

b) question my own sanity,

c) lose my temper,

I know it’s time for a little pixie dust in the form of books on CD.

One of my high school English teacher’s classes began with a poetry reading every.single.day. He would write (in colored chalk) long poems on the south panel of his chalkboard for us to discuss. Did I *ever* take notes? Did I even *think* to keep a running list of the titles? NO! Aaaack! “Youth is wasted on the wrong people.” (It’s a Wonderful Life)

I have looked for a good collection of poems for children for years. This collection needed explanations and definitions and biographical information about the poets. The poems needed to be funny, entertaining, and meaningful to children.

This book is the best replacement I have found for my non-existent notes on poetry from 9th grade. I have pulled it out each spring for the past 3 years to get us through the rough times. I read a short lesson about a poet, which is maybe 3-5 paragraphs. We listen to the CD of an actor reading the poems and then discuss form, vocabulary, themes, etc. Then we go and write poetry of our own. We might have a little chocolate. But the important thing is we’re learning something and thinking and it’s DIFFERENT. The kids truly enjoy this book, which is slowly being digested over the years. Today we began the section about the poet who was a “Rebel without Applause,” Emily Dickinson.

The poetry which resulted after our little discussion about metaphor, minimal use of words, and emotion rather than description made me want to pat myself on the back and hug my kids. The poems will remain unpublished. You see, we’ve decided to closet our Emily Dickinsonesque poems in hidden panels of our desks to be discovered someday after we have died or had a yard sale and sold the furniture…whatever comes first.