First Veggies

This is the first time in years I've tried to grow veggies. I've only ever managed to get a few green onions to grow. So I was pleased to see a large zucchini, some basil, some parsley and tomato in the garden. I love to puree zucchini and put it in the freezer for slipping into chili or casseroles, but I hate to pay a fortune for it at the store. I grew these from seed, so I've already broke even.

Chicken Mummy, pt I

So now that we're not homeschooling, we have time for some of those fun homeschool projects we could never get around to when we were homeschooling.

Behold, the mummification of King Kluck:




He's been sitting on my counter lilke that for 5 days. We can't smell him, but he looks a little wet. Could it be time to change his salt already? I really didn't want to do that until trash day, iykwim. On the other hand, I don't want him rotting away and ruining our mummy project. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Mia's really only interested in decorating his sarcophagus.

Where do people find the time

to homeschool. We homeschooled for 1.5 school years. It was fun and fruitful when we were actually schooling, but things were always coming up. The main problem was/is my toddler. She is, shall we say, very active. It was one thing when she napped twice a day, but when she went to one nap, our uninterrupted school time dropped precipitously. If we missed a day due to relatives visiting, illness, doctor appointment etc., we had a hard time making it up.

Then, in October of last year, my mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor while on vacation and had emergency brain surgery in Kalispell, MT. So a solid three weeks of being hysterical with worry and flying back and forth from Kalispell made me despair of ever getting anywhere with school.

I remembered a school I'd checked out when Mia was 4 or 5, but she hadn't been ready for a full day program. But she's matured a lot in the intervening years and they had an opening, so she started in January. It's a small school with about 18 first through sixth graders in one classroom. There is one teacher and one aide for the 18 kids, so she gets a lot of individual attention and can work at her level in each subject without leaving the classroom. The public school wanted to pull her out of class several times a week for this and that. The school preserves many of the things I liked about homeschooling, but stuff actually gets done.

Craft Hell

They're supposed to be cats:
Yes, cats. We've always lacked craft skills around here, but alas, Mia is now old enough to notice how much these don't look like cats.

Thought you were having a bad day?

Who knows? Could be the start of a new trend.

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.