Become One With The Lesson

So we started studying the rain forest yesterday. We read that a poison dart frog carries its tadpoles on its back up a tree and deposits each in its own bromeliad. Instantly, Mia wanted to be a tree frog. She asked my to make a tadpole from construction paper and tape it to her back. Then she went out in the yard and climbed a tree. I tried to reel her back in, but either she forgot everything she's learned about math in the past 6 weeks, or I failed to recapture her attention. School canceled due to total lack of focus.

Then today, I broke out the funtastic frogs and the balance to attempt something fun, yet math related. Well, about one minute in, she wanted to be the balance. I worked with this by having her hold an item in each hand and guess which was heavier. Then she placed the items on the real balance to check.

Learning to Ride

Here's a bike riding tip I picked up last week. Take the pedals off the bike and lower the seat until the child can place her feet on the ground. Then the child can become comfortable with balancing without having to worry about pedaling.


First, Mia only took her feet off the ground for a few feet:


But pretty soon, she was coasting all over the place:


We're going to put the pedals on this weekend and see what happens.

Class Cancelled On Account of Beautiful Weather

The weather forecast was sunny and 75 degrees for today, with rain later in the week. So, I did that flexible homeschooler thing and took the kids to the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. I've been meaning to check it out for awhile, but it always seemed so far away. In fact, it took us less than 15 minutes and was well worth the trip. They have a great water garden where we saw a frog, a lizard and various butterflies and dragonflies. Sidewalks ran through all of the gardens, making it easy to take the stroller. The baby loved the streams and waterfalls that ran close to the path.

Naturally, I discovered the camera battery was dead and didn't get one picture. But here is one shamelessly pirated from their website:
A good time was had by all and we even got home in time to do math.

Olympic Byproduct

We've been watching a lot of Olympic coverage. We experienced an immediate rise in jumping off furniture, somersaulting across the living room and sprinting down the hall. No problem. I expected it. I did the same thing when I was a kid. But I did not expect to hear this: "Mom, can I have some Coke with lunch? So I can support Olympic dreams".

First Day Done

It went as well as it could have. The baby slept late, allowing me to take some first day pictures and give Mia her schuletute.


Mia did a handwriting worksheet as I nursed the baby. We read a poem. After completing all the readings for Animals and their Worlds she stated "I've had a lot of stories. When are we going to do school?" Hmmmm. So I broke it up by showing a video of a blue-ringed octopus on the net.

We made brownies (definitely the highlight of the day) and the bowl was licked to the first chapter of Our Island Story. Lunch was prepared and eaten to an audio recording of Charlotte's Web. We read a story from the James Herriot Treasury while we waited for the baby to take a nap. At nap time we worked on math for about 20 minutes. It was 12:15 and we were done.

Peter Pan

We got a jump on the school year by reading Peter Pan. I'd never read it. It's quite short and an easy read. Very worth the effort. Don't report me to the Charlotte Mason police, but after finishing the book, we watched the Disney movie version. I tried to make it edifying by asking Mia if she noticed any differences between the book and the movie.

Tomorrow's The Big Day

We start first grade tomorrow. I wanted to do something to mark the occasion. I finally settled on a schuletute, which is traditionally given to German schoolchildren on the first day of school. Ours is filled with plastic jungle animals and Skittles:


Some of the books we will be using this year:

So, Do You Respond...

to a comment left by an unmedicated schizophrenic on a post you wrote four years ago?

YEP THAT IS YOU, NOT ALL AMERICANS. HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE FLAGWAVING IS NOT FASCISM! NO WMD, JUST RACIST ATTACK OF A SOVEREIGN NATION WHOSE DICTATOR CONVEINENTLY WAS A PUPPET OF THE NAZI'S BUSH EMPIRE. YOU ARE A BETRAYOR OF THE CONSTITUTION AND EVERY TIME I SEE A FLAG WAVING IT REMINDS ME OF THE FOURTH REICH THAT HAS TAKEN YOUR MIND AND YOUR SOUL. REAL AMERICANS DON'T FLY FLAGS, WE PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION. EVERY PERSON WHO FLYS A FLAG IS LETTING THE GOVERNMENT KNOW, "I SUPPORT THE DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA" AND "I AM A MINDLESS, THOUGHTLESS, SOULLESS SUPPORTER OF EVIL". GODBLESS THE CONSTITUTION AND THE REAL PATRIOTS, WHO ARE LOYAL TO TRUTH, INTEGRITY AND THE HUMAN RACE. THE AMERICAN FLAG IS A WHITE SUPREMIST SYMBOL. THE CONSTITUTION IS FREEDOM. WAKE UP. HEIL BUSH!

I'm thinking "No". I wanted to edit it for brevity, but it's so packed full of whacky goodness that I just didn't know where to start.

Choosing Charlotte Mason

School planning for fall is almost complete. I've decided on a Charlotte Mason approach which might amuse you, if you knew us. All that nature walk, spend 6 hours a day outside stuff is probably (definitely) not going to happen. None of us are outdoorsy. We are, in fact, devoted indoors men. In the words of Scott Adams, "if I wanted anything that was outdoors, I'd hire someone to bring it inside where civilization lives."

Having said that, it is a goal of mine to get outside more, so I've come around regarding the outdoorsy aspect of CM. I think it will prompt me to get outside even if I can't follow all her recommendations fully.

But what actually attracted me to CM was the combination of twaddle-free books and narration. My daughter has fine-motor delays which cause great difficulty writing. However, she has no cognitive delays and is actually a quick learner. Every rigorous curriculum that I looked at (and those not so rigorous) required a tremendous amount of writing for even the youngest child. Workbooks, copy work. It's just not possible for her right now.

Last year, I bought a kindergarten in a box program, thinking I would shoot for the middle and modify. Well, that was $100 I might as well have flushed. The writing was still too hard and everything else was too easy. And the curriculum was so integrated that I found it impossible to modify. I had the frustrating feeling that we were falling behind in areas where she could excel because she couldn't keep up with the writing.

Imagine my joy upon finding Ambleside and discovering that CM didn't even recommend written narration until the 4th year. I love that the non-writing aspect is integral to the program, not something I'm trying to jerry-rig. I don't really have the confidence to do major modifications to a program and, with a baby in the house, I don't have the time.

I'd already decided to do Winter Promise's Animals and Their Worlds, because Mia loves animals and I love a schedule all laid out. The best part: AW has a option for K-1 and another for 2nd and up all included on the same schedule. You just buy the schedule and a different book package for whichever option you choose. So naturally, I bought the schedule only and a mix of books from each of the options to cover our needs. I'm very optimistic about this program.

I'll be covering history, geography and literature with Ambleside Year 1. We'll substitute the recommended copy work, with our handwriting program (HWT) and, hopefully, some poetry memorization.

Add in Math-U-See: Alpha and we're pretty much done.

If that goes well, there's art, music, foreign language and probably more to add in later. We start officially on August 18th, so wish us luck.

My Brush With Fame

I forgot to mention my opportunity to shake hands with former Virginia governor, Mark Warner. His campaign for Senate took him to the same restaurant in which I was lunching. My sister, an actual Virginia resident, recognized him right away and he came over to chat.

He's all about cutting through party politics to get things done. Aren't they all? But he seems to be making it work. None of the (albeit) small sample of people I talked to could remember his party affiliation.

Update: I guess they'll know he's a Democrat now.

Phobia I Didn't Know I Had

I never knew I was afraid of bats, until I found one on the third floor of my sister's old Victorian flopping around between me and the only exit. Just like in the cartoons, I pointed and soundlessly mouthed the words "Baaaa, baaaa, baaaatttt." It was sad, really.

So If you're ever in Pearisburg...

My dad's coffee shop in Pearisburg, VA got a write-up in the Roanoke Times. So, if you're hiking the Appalachian Trail, stop by and say hello.

Update:

"Mom, that lady has a tattoo on her face"

says my 7yo at top volume about a lady who was twice my size and, in reality, had piercings on her face. Okay, let's go over it again. We don't make comments about how other people look because we might embarrass someone (or get mommy beat up).

Un-freakin-believable

Did you see this? I have a baby about this age if something like this happened to her, the only thing keeping me out of prison would be my husband's restraining influence. Although in this case, I think I might be able to beat the rap.

Really, are teenage boys expected to be this stupid? I can't imagine the shame I would suffer as a parent if I raised a child to the age of 16 only to find he was capable of something like this.

Sweeney Todd

What was I thinking? Oh yeah, I was thinking I love me some Johnny Depp. And some Tim Burton. And it got good reviews. And, technically, it was good. But yikes! That movie had more arterial spray than three seasons of CSI. The ending could have been poignant, but by then, I was too busy wishing it was over to care.

My Big Fat Carbon Footprint

I have a standing shipment of protein bars that comes from Amazon once a month. It's just a small box, so I thought I would save the planet by combining that order with a few books I wanted. So I ordered the books and hit the "combine orders" button. Sorry, these orders cannot be combined. But wait, now I have 2 small orders being shipped separately. Let's order another book I was going to order eventually and combine it with the second order to justify the shipping. Sorry, these orders cannot be combined. Well, less than 30 seconds have passed. Let's just cancel that extra book. Sorry, we're already working on this order. You can't cancel it. Of course, they shipped some items separately, so received 4 shipments in three days. The UPS guy is going to think I have a crush on him.

Priorities

Says Charlotte Church, mother of a nine month old and pregnant with #2: ''We want to have our babies young and then I'm going to get married and look fabulous for that."

She wants up to 6 kids before 32. Does she think she's going to look more fabulous after 10 years and 5 more kids than she does right now? Well, I guess she has enough money to buy her body back, but still. No time to squeeze in a wedding between #1 and #2? I've heard lots of excuses for putting off a wedding, but waiting until after the birth of all the kids you're ever going to have is a new one.

I guess no one cares about illegitimacy anymore. I can't say I care a lot. I have a youngish female relative who is expecting, but not planning to marry the father. My mother (in her 60's) is horrified that they won't marry "just to give the baby a name." Can't say I even thought about that. But I wouldn't continue to have kids with a guy who wouldn't marry me, or who I didn't want to marry. Terribly old-fashioned of me.

Dog Party

Mia wanted a dog-themed birthday party. Check out these cute dog cakes I got from Target:


They're each made from two jumbo cupcakes. The day I picked these up, they had a lion in the display case that was so cute, it made me wish we'd done a jungle theme. $4.99 a piece.

Softening Michelle's Image

The NT Times has an article out today trying to rescue Michelle Obama's image. It's not working for me. She really has to stop saying what a trial it was to go to Princeton. That's a trial only a few have the privilege of suffering through.

The author notes she was one of 94 black students in a class of 1100. Hmmm. That's nearly 9%. Since blacks are around 10%, I'm not sure why she feels the situation was so unreasonable.
Maybe her perception was a little skewed. From the article:

“Diversity can’t be taken care of with 10 kids,” she says. “There is an isolation that comes with that.”

10 kids. Or 94 kids. Or (94 x 4 classes) 376 kids. Whatever. It's all bad. And I guess that's my issue with her. Everything America has to offer has been laid at her feet. And she's still not happy. 95% of the people her husband would presume to govern have less than she does. It's just unseemly to whine about it.

Going Green in Greensburg

Remember Greensburg, Kansas, wiped of the face of the map by a massive tornado last year? Well, the town elders decided to take the opportunity of a blank slate to rebuild the town in an entirely green fashion and, what the heck, do a reality show for the Green Channel. Who knew there was a green channel? I didn't, until this weekend. It's one of Discovery's many channels.

Anyway, I found the first episode interesting and, even though it is a Leo DeCaprio production, I intend to continue watching. He may be putting his money where his mouth is this time. And I'm curious to see what solutions they come up with. I live in an area undergoing rapid (sub)urban sprawl and it never ceases to amaze me that subdivision after subdivision goes up with no obvious concern for energy conservation. You'd think a house that was cheap to heat and cool would be a big seller, at least here on the plains.

Ladies First

A guest on a local public affairs radio show just related this story her grandmother told about arriving at Ellis Island from Slovenia. When an official came around with a basket of apples, all the men pushed forward. The official said "Now, now. Ladies first." When the women figured out what he meant, one of them said "God bless America, where ladies come first."

Mini Frittatas

My latest self-improvement project involves cooking better meals for the family. Alas, they have excluded so many foods that I might as well have decided to climb Everest. In pursuit of my impossible dream of eating from all four food groups, I've taken to checking out what's on Food Network and recording shows that look like they're featuring something my family might eat. I watch the shows when the mood strikes and, if a recipe looks good, I can get it from the Food Network website.

Here's one that actually worked: Mini Frittatas. You can substitute any kind of meat and cheese. I used bacon bits and shredded cheddar, because that's all I had. It was hard to pour out. Next time, I think I'll placed the cheese and meat in the muffin cups and pour the egg mixture on top.

Another First

The Jetta takes premium, so I had the privilege of paying over $4 per gallon for gas for the first time today; $4.12 to be exact. Luckily, the Jetta gets pretty good gas mileage. Couple that with me not driving terribly far and it should be 2 weeks before I have to do that again.

Coincidentally, while I was waiting to pick up Mia from camp, the local public affairs radio show was discussing a plan for light rail in the KC metro area. The mayor of KCMO mentioned how those people in [my part of town] make enough money to not be terrorized by the price of gas. I guess he's right. I'd rather drop $50 on something else, but it's just a bummer, not a budget buster (yet).

Ouch

Bill Bennett:

And thus the Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of George McGovern, albeit without McGovern’s military and political record. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far-left candidate in the tradition of Michael Dukakis, albeit without Dukakis’s executive experience as governor. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of John Kerry, albeit without Kerry’s record of years of service in the Senate. The Democratic party is about to nominate an unvetted candidate in the tradition of Jimmy Carter, albeit without Jimmy Carter’s religious integrity as he spoke about it in 1976.

Chinese Culture Camp

We're lucky to have a branch of the University of Kansas' Confucius Institute a few miles from our house. They offer various summer programs for kids and today was Mia's first day of Chinese Culture Camp. She liked it so much she wanted to go back for the afternoon session, in which, alas, I did not enroll her, never dreaming she would tolerate that much camp.

She did Chinese skip jumping, learned a few Chinese words and did some drawing. She also learned that China was near France and Egypt. Hmmm. I wonder what they were actually trying to say.

If she's still loving at the end of the week, I'll enroll her for Chinese language camp later in the summer. Alas, there is no prayer of me helping her with her Chinese. She's on her own for that one.

Make Your Own Graph

Some of these are pretty funny:


more graph humor and song chart memes


more graph humor and song chart memes

Craft of the Month

I'm not very crafty, but crafts are something I feel we should do, so whenever I see one that looks easy, we give it a go. Result: Mother's Day cards for the grandmas:


The flower on the outside comes from Kids Craft Weekly. They send out an email with lots of great crafts, but I'm embarrassed to admit that most of them are too difficult for us. We lack both fine motor skills and patience around here, but we are working on both.

America's Most Overrated Product:

the Bachelor's Degree.

Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later... Yet four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year!

...[E]ven those who do manage to graduate too rarely end up in careers that require a college education. So it's not surprising that when you hop into a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high-school dropout.

I tend to agree. I didn't need my degree for any job that I held after college, although it would have helped me advance in a few of them. Luckily, I went to the University of Kansas back when it was still a great deal, so I didn't have a lot of debt, but I could have been working all those years.

Homeschool Convention

I actually secured a babysitter for five hours and the in-laws for the rest of the time and drug my husband to the local homeschool convention. We heard some lectures in the morning, tooled around the vendor hall in the afternoon and made it home by 3:00.

I wish we hadn't have been so rushed. Thinking back, there were a few things I would have bought, given a little time to reflect. But we still did pretty good.

What I bought:

Math is not going particularly well, at least partially due to my lack of mad math skillz. So we picked up Math-U-See and we'll see how that goes. This visual learner loves the manipulatives and the DVD that shows parents how to teach it. I also bought the skip counting CD.

Everyone complains about Math-U-See being expensive, but so far, I don't see it. I paid $85 for the alpha level and a set of manipulatives. I paid nearly $50 for Horizons K and didn't get any manipulatives or a DVD to show me how to teach it. Also, I wasn't thrilled with the Horizions teacher's guide. It said stuff like "Teach dimes." Gee, thanks. I gathered from the dimes on the workbook page that we would be "teaching dimes." I had hoped for a few suggestions on HOW to teach dimes if your kid doesn't instantly get it (which mine didn't). Not a math person here, remember. Not full of clever ideas for how to "teach dimes."

A good sign: As soon as I showed Mia the blocks, she pounced on them and played with them for an hour.

Well, babe is in arms again. More later.

And Then, My Hard Drive Died

keeping my off the computer for nearly two weeks. And I lost all the pictures from newbie's early infanthood :( except the few that I had e-mailed to others.

I actually am on the computer frequently, but I usually have a babe in arms, making blogging a near impossibility.

Feeling My Age

So I was chatting with one of the workers we have here fixing up our water damage. He was telling me about how his little girl was a big surprise, a "gee, the doctor told me I couldn't have children" kind of surprise. He went into great detail about how hard it was on his wife who was really too old to be having a baby and who found it hard to spring back at her age, etc. How old was this elderly woman when she had this baby? Yep, one year older than me.

Did This Ever Happen To Charlotte Mason?

School has gone straight to hell in a hand basket since we lost the kitchen/school room to the flood. But I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a little Charlotte Mason, as I have been meaning to do. I have a book that purports to work on narration and picture study for those of us too obtuse to figure it out on our own.

So, as per the instructions, I explain to Mia that we will be looking at the picture and talking about what we see. She looks me in the eye and says ernestly "But I already know how to look at pictures." Sigh.

She humored me, but it was clear she thought it was lame. And you know what? It was lame. I'm beginning to acquire quite a little pile of resources that must have worked well for someone, because they came highly recommended, but didn't work for us.

Homeschooling often reminds me of that Moltke quote "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

Picked A Bad Day To Start Blogging

So I just started blogging again when Mia woke us up one morning saying "You forgot to turn the water off." Well, not exactly. A connection to the water filter under the kitchen sink had broken some time in the night and flooded the kitchen. They tried to save the floor with these nifty rescue mats that force air into the floor:

They failed:

Of course, much of the water ran into the basement:

So we're getting a new kitchen floor and Mia is getting to observe carpenters, plumbers, painters and other assorted tradespeople in lieu of actual schoolwork while I deal with all this.

Borders Home Educator Card

If you are a teacher or a homeschooler, you can get a card which gives you a 20% discount on items purchased for educational purposes. I brought the advertisement Borders had placed in The Old Schoolhouse magazine, but no one asked to see it or asked for any proof that I am a homeschooler.

Education Savings Days: April 2-8, Borders will be offering educators 25% off most items. personal or professional.

However, I must note that after I left Borders, I went to Costco where I found the same book I just bought for $11.99 (including discount) for $8.49. I snapped it up again at the lower price and will exchange the Borders' copy for something else.

My First Push Poll

Thanks to caller ID, I don't answer the phone very much, but finally, out of curiosity, I picked up for a call-bot that had left several messages indicating it was conducting a poll. And thus I was able to experience that venerable American political tradition: the push poll. Of course, I'd heard of them, but couldn't quite imagine how they worked.

First, the call-bot asks you several questions of a general nature, such as "Do you consider yourself a Democrat?" and "Are you voting in the Feburary 9th caucus?"

Then it begins to narrow it down: "Would an endorsement from the Machinists Union influence your vote?" No. "Is illegal immigration an important issue to you?" Yes.

Ah ha! Yes, well, then: "John McCain led the charge on amnesty and Mitt Romney signed sanctuary laws. Does this information make you more likely to support Mike Huckabee who's tough on immigration?"

"Do you consider yourself pro-life?" Yes. "Mitt Romney is a shifty SOB and John McCain eats live babies? Does this information make you more likely to support God's representitive on earth, Mike Huckabee?"

Well, there was something about McCain and live babies.

Update: Besides the push poll, Huckabee called, John and Cindy McCain have called and someone just called asking if I'm voting in the Kansas caucus tomorrow. But (true confessions) I'm not a registered Republican. I'm not eligible to vote in the caucus. Why are they calling me?

Here She Is

...the reason I have abandoned my blog for so long:

I really respect those ladies who blog through pregnancies and newborns. And this one is a good baby, already sleeping through the night at 2 months.