World Traveller

Actually I only went two states away, but getting out of Texas is quite a feat. Jeana took me to Colorado, and flew me home. Wish I could take the whole family and stay the rest of the summer.

Ways to Save

Looking for a good handicraft option for your kid(dos)? Check and see if your local Home-Depot hosts a kid's workshop. Many do. It's held monthly, on a Saturday morning, and they provide all the materials needed to complete a small wooden item. Safety goggles, hammers, sanding blocks, wood glue, it's all there for you. We have attended our local workshop for the last four months and we have really enjoyed it. The kids have made bird feeders, planters, a small organizer, and a toy truck. They have a different project designed for each month. Great way to teach your kids how to use a hammer if they don't already know! Also helps with reading and following directions! As an added bonus they get their very own Home-Depot orange apron with their name on it, and when their project is finished they get a pin for their apron and a certificate. Go check it out. It's completely free.

Why not make your own yogurt? I thought I didn't have time, just like you are thinking, until someone told me that you could do it in your crockpot. Yes, you can. And for $5.49 you can have a gallon of whole organic milk yogurt, as opposed to $3 a quart at the store.

And while you're at it, make your own laundry soap! I'm in the middle of a personal journey with homemade laundry soap, so I can't give you all the ins and outs of what I do yet. But I can tell you that I save a lot of money. And if you're needing to find ways to pinch pennies, here's a way to that most people don't think of.

Happy saving!

This Is Why

Why read poetry to your kids? Here's one reason why.

Barter
by Sara Teasdale

Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.

Summer Term School Planning

My biggest project this month was planning our summer school term. I am playing a little bit of *catch-up still, but that is one reason why we are doing school this summer. My goals in planning were these: keep a lighter than normal schedule, finish Joel's and James' respective terms in 10 weeks to allow a slightly shorter Summer Term but also not rushing - thus defeating the purpose of the way we learn, add in definite times for Nature Study and art lessons (not Artist Study, which we already have covered). I hope and pray that these goals are achievable in real life and not just on paper.

Here's what it looks like on paper. Basically. Monday-Thursday lessons. No Friday lessons!!!! I am saving Nature Study and art lessons for Fridays. More on that later. Morning Time and math in the mornings, read alouds afterwards.

I ended up having $0 for books, but was able to find all 5 books I needed at the Library. Yea! I grabbed Good Queen Bess even though I also had grabbed Shakespeare's biography. She was just a favorite of Joel's last term and thought he would enjoy reading it on his own. He read it already. That and a few other factors have led me to decide to let him read The Children of the New Forest on his own this term. I have been listening to it on Librivox, and I really don't like most of the readers, and I really just don't have the time to devote to it 3x week. So this will be interesting and hopefully really great, too.

We will be studying trees in Nature Study. Very exciting. There are more varieties of trees here than anywhere we've lived in awhile. We will also do a mosquito study, and a bird count.

I really had to put art lessons in, and make them a priority because the boys simply love it. It has taken a year and a half, but we finally have pastels, pastel paper, and You Can Paint Pastels by Marie Blake. I will do a 15-30 minute art lesson with them (all three boys) quasi 1-on-1 each week. I think it is very doable, and I am excited to see what we make. I think it helps to simplify and focus on just one thing - such as just pastels, or just sketching, or whatever. Also, thinking of it as only 10 lessons really makes it seem very doable. Also I hope to remember Sketch Tuesday every week.

The bulk of my actual planning was for Morning Time. I plan exactly what is going to happen every morning (if you don't take charge, THEY will), so it takes a good bit if planning. Here's the jist of what we're doing:
Folk Songs: Simple Gifts/Click Go the Shears
Hymns: Sweet Hour of Prayer/Rock of Ages, also a variety of Patriotic Hymns
Bible: Genesis, Gospel of John
Memory Work: John 10:27-30, Ps 67, a poem per child
Manners: Hat etiquette, interrupting, more to come
Artist Study: Albert Bierstadt
Composer Study: Mendelssohn
Shakespeare: Pericles, Measure for Measure, As You Like It
Read Alouds: Buffalo Bill, James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Blue Fairy Book, American Tall Tales, Pilgrim's Progress
Poetry for respective Terms

*Feeling like you are behind schedule is a part of homeschooling. It. Just. Is. I say I am playing catch up because I am not quite where I want to be. That's just a part of life, and so I almost don't feel behind, it's more of a "slow and steady wins the race" feeling.

And then it was ... July???

This month was over before it began. I had it so cram packed full of things to do and places to go. I hoped against hope that I hadn't packed it too full.

I packed it too full. In other words, if all the things I planned for June were groceries, the groceries would be spilling out of the bag and busting it. Oh yea, and one of the handles would break.

But lest you begin to believe that I really deserve to be pitied, let me assure you that it has been a wonderful fun-filled month. I have traveled all over Texas, now it is oh-so-nice to be at home and have nowhere to go.

For 10 weeks. Yes, on Monday we begin our 10-week summer school term. I'm looking forward to it. I have been occasionally dropping an advertisement here and there to the boys, "I'm SO excited about the folksongs we're going to learn in Morning Time.... I can't wait to read another Shakespeare play....". I finally heard, "can't we do Morning Time today???"

Yesssssssssss.

"Nope. You have to wait until Monday."

Current Favorite Picture

Home Education, Part 2

By the way, the subtitle of this book is "Training and educating children under nine". This is not strictly a home schooling book. Charlotte Mason herself was a teacher in what might be called a public school in today's terms.

Part II - Out-of-door life for the children

Or, the indoors are over-rated.

"Perhaps a Mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. And this, not for the gain in bodily health alone - body and soul, heart and mind, are nourished with food convenient for them when the children are let alone, let to live without friction and without stimulus amongst happy influences which incline them to be good."

Are you ready? I am!

"...for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this - that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder - and grow."

Me??? Cackle???

Ah-hem.

Yes, the indoors are overrated, my friends. We have created such comfortable, climate controlled environments in our homes that going outside can seem too much trouble. Such a hassle. Too dirty. Too hot. Too humid. Too wet. Too cold. Too windy. Not as important as doing the dishes ... or scrubbing the toilet. Pack up everything? Be gone how long? We seriously spend too much time inside. This is something that I now realize is way easier to do before your children are in third grade. Then it really becomes a tug of war between what does the older child need versus what do the younger children need. Charlotte gives many suggestions as to the ins and outs of how you should spend your outdoor time. Also she says to not "send" them out, "take" them out.

"the flowers, it is true, are not new; but the children are; and it is the fault of their elders if every new flower they come upon is not to them a Picciola, a mystery of beauty to be watched from day to day with unspeakable awe and delight."

(I was so excited to actually know what she was talking about when she mentioned Picciola!)

"All this is stale knowledge to older people, but one of the secrets of the educator is to present nothing as stale knowledge, but to put himself in the position of the child, and wonder and admire with him;"

I struggle with this. I just simply find it challenging to put myself in their position. I am always needing to be reminded of this.

There is a lovely quote from Audubon, the American ornithologist, that is just lovely and inspiring. I won't share it now but will in a future post.

More CM:

"Most children of six have had this taste of a naturalist's experience, and it is worth speaking of only because, instead of being merely a harmless amusement, it is a valuable piece of education, of more use to the child than the reading of a whole book of natural history, or much geography and Latin. For the evil is, that children get their knowledge of natural history, like all their knowledge, at second hand. They ate so sated with wonders, that nothing surprises them; and they are so little used to see for themselves, that nothing interests them. The cure for this blasé condition is, to let them alone for a bit, and then begin on new lines. Poor children, it is no fault of theirs if they are not as they were meant to be - curious eager little souls, all agog to explore so much of this wonderful world as they can get at, as quite their first business in life.

'He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.'"

There is so much truth in this one paragraph. I think there are much fewer children now, even at the age of six, who have such experience with nature. Babies are placed in front of Baby Einstein videos, first graders are given their "lessons" on iPads, any leisure time is spent on the computer or in front of the tv. I have by no means "arrived" in this area. It's just something I feel very strongly about. We live is a "virtual" culture, and what is real is continually being replaced by something that is not. Don't get me wrong. I love my iPhone, I love Google, I love Pinterest, enjoy keeping in touch on Facebook, I realize these are good things. What I am saying is that we don't always choose what is best. And simply because something is good doesn't mean it is the best choice. Am I making any sense?? CM is saying natural history books are good. But they are not necessarily the best choice for your little ones. Your little ones don't need to look at a tree in a book. Not that in and of itself is bad. They need to go look at a real tree. They need to feel its bark, see how its branches grow. Notice the shape of its leaves, see how the tree changes through the seasons. And so on and so forth. They need to be aquainted, personally, with the natural world.

"Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."

After all, God did create this world for us to live in.

"Reverence for life, as a wonderful and awful gift, which a ruthless child may destroy but never can restore, is a lesson of first importance to the child:-
'Let knowledge grow from more to more;
But more of reverence in us dwell.'
The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the 'print-books' can teach."

More is caught than taught!

"For it is a law of the mind that what we know, we struggle to express. This fact accounts for many of the aimless questions of children; they are in quest, not of knowledge, but of words to express the knowledge they have."

"The evil of the ready-made life we lead is that we do not discern the signs of the times."

What I particularly like about this chapter are all the ideas she gives in spending time outdoors. Things I would never have thought of. I also appreciate her articulating how to let the children alone. Of course, not the one-year-old. But there are so many things that can be taught to the children while outdoors, i.e., not during "school".

I have heard that spending much time outside and nature study is a "Holy Grail" of sorts. I can see why, and have not really found a solution for our family yet. I think it is a process, and different things have to be tried until you get into a routine that fits. For me, I have to see in my head how it will work before I attempt to try. But like I said, I feel very strongly that it is more important than ever to get outside in order to be in touch with nature and real things. Everything else is slipping away into a virtual reality that I find quite frightening.

Home Education, Part 1

I am blogging from my phone today so I can't link things like you can on the full blogger website. Ceridwen, who is a Very Great Friend of mine, and I are reading through Charlotte Mason's first book entitled "Home Education". You can get a copy from your library or purchase one or go online to read it at www.amblesideonline.org .

Part I - Some Preliminary Considerations

"It is a great thing to be a parent: there is no promotion, no dignity, to compare with it."

From page one she wakes you up to the magnitude of the responsibility given to parents, to mothers. It may feel like a thankless poop patrol, vomit patrol, laundry patrol, spills and crumbs everywhere kind of a job. Oh, but it's more.

"And they will take it up as their profession - that is, with the diligence, regularity, and punctuality which men bestow on their professional labours."

Sideways glance here. What we don't have to do we tend not to do or put off for as long as possible. The thought of it is much worse than the actual doing it. What we are fighting here is our own sinful selfish nature. It's the part of growing up that's so hard - we think it will be great to not have someone telling us what to do all the time. And it is great. Until we realize how hard it is to make ourselves do what we ought.

"To give reasons to a child is usually out of place, and is a sacrifice of parental dignity;"

The above quote is under the heading, "They must perceive that their Governors are Law-compelled."

"Children's faults are serious.... To laugh at ugly tempers and let them pass because the child is small, is to sow to the wind."

What comes to mind is Proverbs 31, "she girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms."

"Do not let the children pass a day without distinct efforts, intellectual, moral, volitional; let them brace themselves to understand; let them compel themselves to do and to bear; and let them do right at the sacrifice of ease and pleasure:"

What more can you add that? I'll just say that it is apparent in our society and culture that not enough parents are doing this.

Winding Down

Two days of school left. Everyone is ready for a break. I'm already planning next term (for us, beginning July 1), because June is going to be A Busy Month, and because the planning part of school is so fun and full of possibilities. I have a huge sense of accomplishment right now in finishing up this school term. It is a nice feeling. So much of the time I am always thinking about what I didn't get done each day -- and there's plenty of that to go around in the school department -- but right now there is A Happy Place and A Bright Spot for the end of school. (And you can tell because I am capitalizing everything.)

I finally got to go visit my parents, and for those of you interested in keeping up with what's going on with my dad, my mom started a blog to keep everyone informed. It's www.sightisprecious.blogspot.com . He has had retinal detachment in both eyes since April, and three eye surgeries. It was a busy, special, eventful 10 days. I cried when I first saw my dad, he was just pitiful. But I feel like he made some real progress during the course of time we were there. I think homemade butterscotch pudding had something to do with it. But it was nice to be there and feel like I could actually do something to help, and also just get in some visiting which has been very limited in the past few weeks. The original 6 of us were together for the first time since this all began, and it was nice.

Rainy Day

Happiness

by A. A. Milne

John had

Great Big

Waterproof

Boots on;

John had a 

Great Big

Waterproof

Hat;

John had a

Great Big

Waterproof

Macintosh -

And that

(Said John)

Is

That.



Weekend Project

The results of our weekend project:

Current Favorite Picture

Happenings

This week is finally falling into place, now that it's almost over.  I decided to finally take Josie's pacifier away.  I made this decision on Sunday, planned to do it Monday, and didn't get around to doing it until Tuesday at nap time.  My plan was to snip a little bit off her pacifier every few days until there was hardly any left and she didn't want it anymore.  I used this method with Jack, and it worked fairly well.  So, I snipped a small piece off the end of her pacifier to break the ice a little.  I put it in her mouth.  It promptly came out of her mouth.  She hated it.  So she cried and fussed her whole nap time on Tuesday.  She was perfectly pleasant the rest of the day, however.  The rest of us were rather weary of having to listen to her, though.  She fell asleep Tuesday night fine.  Wednesday she again cried and fussed through her entire nap time.  Again she was pleasant the rest of the day, but fussed a little more than usual at bedtime.  Today - hallelujah! - she took a nap!  Joel had taken to hibernating in the garage to get some peace and quiet, so he is very thankful.  I knew exactly how he felt and just let him stay there.  Hopefully reposing to the garage will no longer be necessary.  I must say, though, that Little Miss is not happy about this, as one might expect.  She is ticked.  When I laid her down tonight, she turned her head away from me on her pillow, didn't want her blanket, didn't want her Lambie.  Sorry, honey. 

I have embarked on a new plan to actually clean my house.  Let's just say it hasn't been a priority lately.  Since the move I have come up with several plans to try, but not one has panned out.  This week my latest plan has been working.  In the afternoon when school is done, I generally have a small amount of time.  It's not enough time to really get into a project, but it's also too much time to just take a break.  So I decided to take 30 minutes after school work is done to clean.  So Mon-Fri for 30 minutes after school I clean.  I broke the rooms of the house down so that I wouldn't purposely avoid certain rooms forget anything, printed up a list and it's now on my fridge.  I have had a good first week with it, although tomorrow will be awash, but I don't feel bad about it.  If I can keep up with this plan it will all get done in time.  It has actually been a good stress reliever.  Scrubbing sometimes has that effect. 

Don't worry, it's just mud. 

Ever since Easter I have been trying to dye eggs with the boys.  I decided to silk dye eggs this year because of a great blog I found.  It hasn't been high on the priority list, though, so they are still not done.  However, this week we finally blew the eggs so that our beautifully dyed eggs could last a long, long time.  This was a first for me.  If you've ever done it before, you know what it's like.  We didn't have any sort of tool to blow the eggs with, so we did it the good old fashioned way.  It's gross and hilarious all at the same time, and it made me think of childbirth the whole time we did it.  It was very odd.  James was the best blower, but he blew so much he made his throat sore.  Joel blew so hard he made himself light headed.  Jack enjoyed it the most.

I am now off to hang a shelf above my faux night table so that I'm not constantly trying to avoid knocking down stacks of books when I make my bed or grab the diaper bag.  It will also be useful in keeping little fingers from pulling bookmarks out of place, and grabbing pencils and the like. 

Our house came with three tires filled with mosquito infested water on the side of the house.  I almost got rid of them, but then googled what things we might be able to use them for.  This is what happened to Tire #1:

Assigned Reading

When we first moved, one of the first things we did was go get Library Cards.  I could hardly contain my astonishment when my mother-in-law pointed to a flyer and said, "Oh, look at that!"  There was a flyer for a Jane Austen Book Club!!!!!  It meets once a month on a Saturday morning, which means Jason is usually able to watch the kids.  I tried to go earlier this year when they were discussing Sense & Sensibility.  I even read the whole book so I could really be a good book club member.  Then something came up and I couldn't make it to the meeting.  I kinda gave up on going, but then realized on Thursday that it actually would work out for me to go on Saturday!  The discussion was going to be on Pride & Prejudice, which I have read before.  But just be sure I downloaded it from Librivox and listened to the first 11 chapters Friday night (which is basically the first VHS video of the BBC 6-tape series).  I was relieved when pretty much everybody there hadn't read P&P during the past month because they had read it recently or once before, etc.  There were 8 people there including myself, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The Librarian/Moderator gave a fun quiz at the end which I won!  There wasn't a prize, but I didn't care.  We were sent home with the book for next month's meeting: The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett by Colleen McCullough.  I've only read the first chapter and I hate it.  Literally.  But I'm going to press on and maybe I won't view it as a waste of my time once I'm finished.  I will read it to remain relevent in my new book club if nothing else.  I'm just saying at this point I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.  One of the ladies who is a member of the JA Book Club moderates the Classic Literature Book Club at our Library, too, which meets just prior to JA  Book Club so I might try to do both.  Anyway, she sent me home with the book they are reading - Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty.  I've never heard of it before so we'll see how it goes.  In the meantime I'm going to finishing P&P, and continue CM's Volume 1 with Ceridwen.  I am quite out of breath. 

Back in the Saddle, Again

The kids and I took a trip to DFW recently, and I was able to be immersed with  CM homeschoolers, which was wonderful.  Lots of deep and thought provoking conversations, and I have come back really ready to take it all on.  On the top of the priority list: Math.  There is this central theme which haunts my thoughts, but has actually made me have greater purpose -- not "ugh, do we really have to do math now?" -- DO NOT GET BEHIND IN MATH.  Next on the priority list: Get back to doing Morning Time.  Lynn Bruce introduced me to MT last spring, and sent me Cindy Rollins' way, which made a huge difference in how things were going with me/us schoolwise at the time.  Towards the end of the year I shifted gears a little in order to do some catch up work with Joel, and we hadn't gotten back into the habit.  I have been wanting to begin morning time again, but it's just like any other habit - hard to get started.  I finally realized that I would just have to sit down and PLAN it out or I'd never begin.  I did, and we are back into it.  It is really such a wonderful concept.  I love, love, love it.  A sample of what MT looks like with us is this. 

Sing (Hymn of the month, Patriotic songs, folk song, anything else the kids want to sing.  They love this part, which is why I start with it.  They are always ready to get started.)
Pray
Bible (We alternate between OT and NT each day, reading small sections at a time.  I have one of the boys narrate, not both older boys)
Artist Study (once a week)
Literature selection - this is when we do Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, D'aulaire books, James Herriot, etc. And I'm really stoked because between now and June, we will be able to work through THREE, yes, three Shakespeare plays.  Only reading two pages at a time!  It's just wonderful. (Caitlin, Joel likes your Shakespeare book better than ours, we have the Nesbit one.  I think I agree with him.)  Again on these I only have one child narrate, not both on the same passage.  That is just better for us.  Or I have them narrate later, privately. 
Poetry - one selection for each child
Composer Study, when I play our selected composer in the background while we read

That's it.  It usually lasts between 40 minutes and an hour.  It doesn't seem like that long while we are doing it, but it takes so much time to do anything with four kids, that the time really flies by.  It is a pretty intense time, just keeping everyone's attention, and keeping everyone's arms and legs to themselves.  But it is so worth it.  I love what my children learn in MT, and in MT I make sure we do what I love about the Ambleside Online curriculum.

A Story In Pictures

These chopsticks have been sitting in the drawer or in a box for years now. I thought we would use them some day. But were they worth keeping until then? I mean, are we really going to eat chicken curry with chopsticks? What a mess. Enter: Jason and goldfish. Yes, Pepperidge Farm goldfish.

Thank you, Rudyard Kipling

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men:
But different folk have different views;
I know a person small -
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes -
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

-from Just So Stories, The Elephant's Child, by Rudyard Kipling

I'm not too good at this...

I finally finished my post about books read in 2011, but it's posted according to the date I originally began writing it. Don't know how to change that, but you can look in my archives (ha!), or go here if you want to read it. It's real short.

I have realized how illiterate I am with computers in coming back to the cyberworld. Sigh. It's just one more thing I don't have time for. Sigh. I am not giving up.

In other news, I have decided to rename the blog. Look for changes soon. I am taking inspiration from a Christmas card a year or two back from one of the dearest of friends. This card remains on my refrigerator to remind me every day. I have never loved the name of my blog anyway, but I love this.

For Joel's Birthday

This blog post is for those wondering what Joel needs/wants for his birthday. You know who you are. Invitations are going out next week, but just so you know the party's on the 17th.

Clothes/Shoes
Jeans (size 8 reg)
Khakis, or dress pants
Longhorns t-shirt
Flip flops (size 2)

Books
Anything unabridged by Howard Pyle, such as The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Men of Iron, Otto of the Silver Hand. Also illustrated by Pyle is a plus. Hardback. Used is a plus.
George MacDonald books; We already have The Princess and the Goblin, but there are plenty more.
Abraham Lincoln by Edgar & Ingri D'aulaire
Any of the Little House books, especially Farmer Boy

Other
Pocket knife
He loves gift cards
Art supplies and books as seen here (having trouble with the link, here it is: http://www.squidoo.com/artsuppliesforkids), especially the Drawing with Children book, and You Can Paint Pastels book.
Anything to do with bugs, animals and birds. He loves bug farms, i.e. growing ladybugs, raising butterflies, etc.
A large magnifying glass
Critter keeper, preferably not plastic

He really doesn't need a lot. No toys, please. We have too many toys.

It Never Stops Nor Slows Down

Today we had internet service installed in our new place. Yea!!! It's been two years since I've been online with this computer. It's good to be back.

We have been in our new place a week and a half now. I think we are doing a fair job on unpacking, not that it really matters - it is what it is. Last Friday night we were involved in a auto accident, and now two of the kiddos have had a stomach virus. Translation: huge mess. No, Huge Mess. Hmmm. HUGE MESS. I am so thankful for washing machines and dryers and chlorine bleach and vacuum cleaners and insurance and leftovers and donation-pick-up-trucks.

Yes, for a moment amidst the HUGE MESS I am very thankful.

Now I Know

A great book to read to your kids is "They Were Strong and Good" by Robert Lawson. The boys and I always get a kick out of the names of the dogs in the story: Sextus Hostilius and Numa Pompilius.

I never knew that those dogs were named after real life famous Romans.

For several months now I have felt the need to go ahead and begin reading Plutarch, and all Shakespeare that I haven't read. I have already begun reading more Shakespeare with the help of Librivox. Even I can see how and why Shakespeare is so important. I suppose whatever happened to Plutarch's Lives is what is slowly but surely happening with Shakespeare. It is becoming obsolete. Will Shakespeare ever be obsolete? No, not really. Just like Plutarch isn't obsolete. But fewer and fewer people know his works, fewer and fewer people understand even their own language in his writings, and it's simply not valued by a huge majority in our society. So yes, I personally can see the same thing happening with Shakespeare as has happened with Plutarch.

I have a few friends whose children are older than mine, and so have already begun working through Plutarch's Lives. It's not easy. But I really believe that if I become familiar with it, it will make the way much easier.

I read Edith Nesbit's Macbeth (Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare) last fall, and I was reading for the first time in addition to reading it aloud to Joel. Can I just recommend that if you plan to read Shakespeare to your kids, you read it yourself, first? Some of the plays are just downright hard to follow. It can be a huge help to familiarize yourself with the story beforehand. I have been learning the stories right alongside Joel, but I can see how it's much easier to read these stories with James just because I know them now. And I think I could've done a better job with Joel had I prepared myself better.

(As a side note, this week we read in Genesis about the death of Sarah, and Abraham asks the children of Heth for a burying place for Sarah. In his narration, Joel called them the children of Macbeth.)

So I've got Plutarch on my reading list for this year.

BTW, the reading list from last year is in the works, as is the plan-to-read-this-year list.

The Evolution of Menu Planning

Sunday is my menu planning/grocery list making day. In the afternoon or evening when we've settled down from the day's activities, I pull out my cook books and wrack my brain coming up with seven breakfasts, seven lunches, and seven suppers for the week. Plus snacks. Plus fit the budget. Plus be somewhat interesting. It really is gruelling, and I don't highly recommend it. But it works for me. I actually hate doing it. It's just one of my jobs that I don't really care for. The plus side is, however, quite wonderful. I don't have to think about what I'm doing for meals for the rest of the week. So instead of agonizing over meals daily, I just agonize of them once a week and have done with it.

Menu planning may not stay this way for ever, but I don't foresee a change any time soon. I have found something that actually works for me/us for now. As life changes, I'm sure it will change though. I began by just writing down on my calendar each week what we'd have. But somehow it never had a grocery list to go along with it. Then there were the times that I didn't calculate the prices of my groceries too good. I took cash to force myself to stay in budget, and embarrassed myself a number of times by having to tell the cashier to pull back groceries that had already been scanned in order to get back to my price limit. Anyhow, it took me several weeks, but I finally managed to end up making a plan and working the plan. I am probably way behind in this area. I think that most people probably do this, or have been doing this masterfully since their first weeks of marriage, and I didn't begin until way into our 9th year. I do wish I had begun sooner. Like before kids, or at least before four kids. But for better or for worse, here I am doing it. Hating it and loving it all at the same time.

I have found that forcing myself to make a menu has made me be more creative. For awhile I tried a new recipe every week. That can tend to be expensive, so I slacked off on that for awhile. Staying here at my in laws, I am using my mil's cook books, so I am again trying new recipes. It's really a lot of fun, and helps to vary the menu. Jason and I tend to like a variety of foods. There aren't many meals that we like to have every week. Well, maybe not any plain and simple ones that we are familiar with (except crunchy tacos). Since I haven't always been creative with the menu, I have burnt us out on quite a few things. We can only eat these a few times a year (this is tongue-in-cheek, or course. We make do with what we have). Such as chicken and rice. Josie is the only one who LOVES chicken and rice. She missed out on the chicken and rice marathon. I guess that's the only dish that we really got burnt out on. That I remember. But things like oatmeal, spaghetti, beans and cornbread, split pea soup. If you possibly can, they need some creativity to put smiles on our faces. Cook books help a lot with that.

A friend at church told me that she lets her children plan one meal's menu each week, and has them find the items needed for it as they are doing their weekly grocery shopping. I have just now tried to begin doing that, and I let Joel plan a supper menu this week. (All of our boys are really into food, probably because Jason and I are really into food. As in Food Network junkies, basically). So he tells me, "bacon, ham, sausage, hamburgers, hot dogs, eggs, biscuits and gravy." Okay, you can only pick one meat, honey. We don't buy that much meat for a whole week. So he picked ham. Thursday's supper will be ham, eggs, biscuits and gravy. And I will have him help me cook, too. I snuck to the grocery store tonight while Jason was at home just to have a little break from the usual Monday show down. So Joel didn't pick out his menu items, but there will be plenty of other times for that.

I am now thinking of Benjamin Franklin's father and mother, who raised 17 children, and taught them to be content with little, and a simple diet. That is truly something to aspire to.

A Good Season

Jason was remarking last night that he feels that the Lord is giving him/us "a good season". It's been a hard few years, and things *seem* at this point to be making a turn for the better. Not that we aren't working hard anymore, have gotten rid of all our problems, or have all the money we will ever need. But our familly is together again, and that is very, very good.

Let's see....

I've had a cup of coffee with Jason every morning before he goes to work. The boys sometimes wake up early enough and see him before he goes to work. He's come home at every lunch time. And we've had supper together every evening. It's surreal. He has been putting the kids to bed, and my mother-in-law has been washing the dishes every night (because I do the cooking since she's working full time, and she says if you cook you don't have to do the clean up. Sweet!)

Last week Jason and I decided to begin looking for a rent house. We liked the first house we found, and are signing a lease on it today. We liked it for a few specific reasons. First of all, it's .6 miles from Jason's office. It's 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage and it is just well laid out. Spacious bedrooms and closets! The kitchen is smallish, but I think we'll be able to manage fine as there is a nice size pantry. Also, there is no carpet in this house which some people may not like, but we love. We can bring our dog, and the price is just right! We just felt like what more could we ask for? So we put in an application and here we are signing the lease. Yea! I get giddy thinking about where we're going to put furniture!

The kids are adjusting well to the move. They have made friends with the kids in my in-law's neighborhood and are learning about the do's and don'ts of living in the city. For the first time yesterday they played a long time in the backyard contentedly. They are used to much more space, so they have come in quite a lot asking to go out front or just not knowing what to do in the space they have. Joel has been finding snails, and that has helped a lot.

Don't know a good way to end the post, except with one of my favorite poems.

Keepsake Mill by Robert Louis Stevenson

Over the borders, a sin without pardon,
Breaking the branches and crawling below,
Out through the breach in the wall of the garden,
Down by the banks of the river we go.

Here is a mill with the humming of thunder,
Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,
Here is the sluice with the race running under--
Marvellous places, though handy to home!

Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,
Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;
Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,
Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.

Years may go by, and the wheel in the river
Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,
Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever
Long after all of the boys are away.

Home for the Indies and home from the ocean,
Heroes and soldiers we all will come home;
Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion,
Turning and churning that river to foam.

You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled,
I with your marble of Saturday last,
Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled,
Here we shall meet and remember the past.

2011 Books

So here's my list of books read in 2011. This is taken from memory, so I could have left something out or gotten the timing wrong on a few. Some I began last year and finished up during the first two weeks of this year so I am including them. On one hand I think it's pretty meager, and on the other hand I think, "not bad, considering". You can decide for yourself.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (great reader on Librivox here)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (another great reader)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - the boys and I listened to this together. I had never thought of reading it to the kids, I just thought Dickens was (for the kids) ... out there ... still ... for now. I was wrong. I have to credit Brandy at Afterthoughts (see blog roll) for giving me the idea, as she reads it to her kids annually during the Christmas season.

Julius Ceasar by the one and only - William Shakespeare

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

The Man Who was Thursday - my first Chesterton. Loved it. Wild.

The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

Parents and Children (CM's Volume 2), just half of it.

A New Year

We are moving in two weeks so this will probably be the last you will hear from me for awhile.

There's so much I want to write about, but just can't right now. Also I know that once we move I can blog with an actual keyboard!

I really want to blog about what I read in 2011, something that I think is a lot of fun to reflect on, especially since 2011 was an especially difficult year.

So until we meet again.... Love from the J Crew!

Let Me Clarify This ...

*Bonnet tip to Ceridwen for the title of this post. It was just too appropriate*

Let me begin by making one clarification. I want to be sure everyone knows that I do not think that it's wrong to get help, ask for help, offer help, lend help .... I am not an anti-help person. I do believe that people nowadays feel the need for more help than in previous generations, but I have a theory on why that is so -- which is not the subject of this post, so let's just not go there. Also I tend to be a very independent person, and people who ask for lots of help when I believe them capable if doing things on their own irritate me. This is probably very judgmental of me, I'm sorry. I have little patience in this area. However, I was not in my previous post trying to discourage people from getting help or asking for help. Or asking something of me. My point was this: help isn't someone else doing things for you, it's someone showing you the way so that you can do it for yourself.

Something I remind myself of a lot lately is that nobody ever starts out doing housework perfectly or having a perfect school schedule. When you see someone who is successful in a particular area, it is probably because that area is of relative importance to them, and they have worked hard to get where they are.

For quite awhile I have been searching for a system that would take care of the constant mess that is a room multi-tasking as a bedroom to three boys, a playroom to three boys, and a schoolroom to two of the three boys. You know the conclusion before I even say it. There is no system that will take care of this. I could try every system known to mankind and it would not work. Why? Because not one person in our family is in the habit -- again I repeat THE HABIT -- of putting things away right away. I finally realized that this was our problem about a week ago. This is definitely something that I don't think you can teach your kids unless you lead by example. Unless you have a child that just LIKES to clean up after themselves. (And if you do, I don't wish to know about it. Thank you!). I don't think this is one of those do-this-for-30-days-and-you've-created-a-new-habit kind of habit. I think it's more like teaching you're kids to not interrupt. It's going to be a continual thing. For years. Perhaps until they're adults. It's rather exhausting to think about it that way, but it's better than becoming frustrated and angry with them because they haven't "gotten it" yet. I think this habit is good for them. It's good for me, and I like the results. But it's good for them too.

The habit I am working on now in addition to putting things away immediately, is having an evening routine. It includes the pajama, teeth brushing typical getting ready for bed stuff, but also includes setting out clothes for the next day. This is important for me because I tend to save all these things until I am so tired that I don't really care I get them done or not. So I am giving myself a time and a list, which are the evening routine tasks. This is still under construction. Meaning I'm working on it and I'm not very good at it yet. And since I am about at the tired point where I start to not care about those things, I will end here and just go get them done.

Self Discipline

Organization has always been a hobby of mine -- that is not to say that I'm even moderately organized, it's just something that I have enjoyed doing when I have free time (before kids), and now wish I had more time to do. Recently I have despaired at how unorganized I am, while all this time I've been telling myself that I must be reasonably organized because I *just like* organizing so much. But I have come to the conclusion that this area of life is no different than any other in that necessity is the mother of invention. Over the years and with reading emails from FlyLady off and on over the last year and a half I have established three habits. Now if I had known that it would take me so long to actually make these things habits I would have been mortified. This was my pride. Guilty of thinking myself above such a lack of self discipline. Me??? I've always been highly motivated. But isn't it easy to be motivated to do those things you like to do? Isn't it convenient to put off things that we dont enjoy till tomorrow or next week or next ... ? Can we change the subject?

As I was saying, necessity is the mother of invention. And that is how I am establishing these habits amidst the chaos of daily life. I believe that these sorts of things have to be mostly figured out on your own. I mean obviously I have benefitted from some help - namely from FlyLady and also Peter Walsh - and there are the Buried Alive types who need more help than the average person. BUT. There is no system out there that is going to fit your lifestyle to a T. Everybody's personality is different, everybody's situation is different. The constant(s) are philosophy and principles. "I always put my things away that I may find them another day." You cannot expect a random system to know how often your children will run out of clean underwear, or can take into account the homeschooling aspect. At least nothing I have seen can. And nothing I have seen claims to be able to do so. But I see so often people (at times myself included) just wanting to be told "how to do it". Here we live in the United States of America, where we are free to live our lives and we just want someone to tell us what to do. I'm sorry, but I think it's pathetic. I can't imagine Susanna Wesley or Harriet Tubman or Laura Ingalls Wilder's Ma or William Wallace or Queen Victoria asking someone, "just tell me what to do, just tell me how". How does anyone figure it out? They try. They fail. They try and they try and they try again. They take responsibility for their lives and face it head on. I think so many times we ask for help because it's easier to blame someone else when we fail or things don't work out the way we thought it would.

Maybe soon I'll post about my established habits. Sorry to rant. Kinda.

Giving Thanks

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Busy. Split between families (which we're planning to do away with -- the splitting part, not the families). My sisters and I went to the outlet malls for Black Friday. Usually we get there at midnight, but this year we decided to go early as some stores were opening as early as 9:00. I got some really great deals including a $250 Pottery Barn quilt for Josie for $32 and a $70 Timberland coat for James for $20. That was exciting.

In other news we are moving in January. This is, ultimately, good news but at the same time overwhelming. First off, packing. And with packing comes an enormous amount of cleaning out and decluttering. Then there are children. Moving with children is a different animal from regular moving. Inevitably, everything you organize gets gotten into, and everything that needs to be discarded is a treasure of sorts. I feel like I really must clean out a good deal, and I have actually been pleased with the progress I've made.

However, the week before Thanksgiving we finished a lot of school. I have been pushing (myself) hard to get caught up with Joel by year's end. But two weeks ago, I completely lost all steam. I kept having panic attacks over nothing, and trying not to have panic attacks about the really important things. Is was just a complete oh-my-word-I-can't-do-this-anymore about everything. Enter: the thought of moving. Result: mental and emotional roller coaster.

I had not planned on such a holiday break from school, I felt I couldn't afford to take a break. But what's done is done. We've had a two week break. I needed to reassess. At first I didn't think I could pack and do school, but I have found a balance I hope. With the good progress we've made since August I think we shall still be able to finish the main books I had planned for us to finish, and just a few to finish during the *unpacking*.

I am also trying to get rid of the ironing pile before we move. I am listening to a couple of chapters of Withering Heights off of Librivox each time I iron. I have never read it before, and it's been great. I've also started reading The Help, and a Cesar Milan book as a refresher since I haven't read any on the subject (dogs) since our black lab, Raven, was a puppy.

And I think Jack wants to learn to read.

And it came to pass ...

I'm up while everyone else in the house is asleep. They're all tucked away, and I'm up waiting on the cinnamon rolls I baked for breakfast to cool so I can put them away and go to bed. When I'm up late (this, of course, is only relatively late) I sometimes begin to think of the days of having newborns. Translation: being up at all and any times of the night. Since I do not have to do that these days, I am thinking of my friends who may be up. If you're awake, dear friends, I am thinking of you.

You may or may not want it to, but this too shall pass.

Farmer Boy

Warning: If you read Farmer Boy to your sons, they may want to become farmers. Joel now wants to be a farmer. And he is practicing for it. He has planted a fall "crop".

Beets.

Thus the younger brothers wanted to plant something too. James at first thought cabbage until he saw turnips.

And we have kept Jack's violet plant alive, which I think is something to be proud of. I have an extra pot that I think he'll plant something edible in.

Go Dog, Go!

Jack: Hello, and now do you like my hat?
Me, trying to play along: No, I do not like your hat.
Jack: Yes you do!

Current Favorite Picture

Reading

I have been reading instead of blogging. I have a lot that I want to write about, but sometimes it's a little too laborious to write a post from my iPhone. I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin'.

I finished The Man Who Was Thursday. I thought it was fantastic. And fantastical. I would like to read more Chesterton in the future.

Joel and I both finished Brighty. It was very enjoyable. I loved the reaction if the librarian when we checked it out of the library, "Oh, I LOVE this book! I read this book over and over when I was a little girl! And now I have a donkey of my own!". I thought it was great for the boys to see the librarian get so excited about their books.

I recently subscribed to receive emails from the CiCLE Institute. The last email had a commentary on reading written by Andrew Kern. I thought I'd share it, as I found it profound.

On Reading
By Andrew Kern

Reading is an extraordinarily complicated intellectual act, which leads some people to think that it can only be taught by experts. In this it parallels, motherhood. However, both reading and motherhood are both too complex for experts for the simple reason that expertise implies that you have identified the way things work regardless of context.

The expert fails at both reading and motherhood because he looks in the wrong place. I will focus on reading. Reading has to do with the soul engaging and grasping the idea (logos) of a text, not remembering the content that embodies the idea. But because we are culturally opposed to the soul and to the logos, we focus our attention on very limited faculties like critical thinking and, to a much lesser extent, memory.

The goal of reading is apprehension. Beyond a few very general ideas, I’m not sure anybody has come close to comprehending how we go about apprehending when we read. I suspect that much of our reading instruction makes students to self-conscious to be conscious of the text.

That is why the best way to teach reading, after students have learned to decode, is by engaging in debates about the text read.

Sometimes, especially on a first read, the idea is better grasped (or maybe felt is a better word to use) through a quick read than through a close analysis. You don’t want to give premature attention to detail and comprehension. First, you simply want to encounter the text as what it is.

Apprehension comes later. I don’t think you can apprehend anything on a first read. The mind has too much work to do to grasp the idea embodied in a text in one or two reads, especially if the text is worth reading.

What to do then? Stop worrying about reading comprehension and attend instead to the point of the story or text. How do you do that? If it’s a story, discuss whether a character should have done something or what will be/are the consequences of a decision made. Then argue about it, using the text to answer the question. If it’s non-fiction, identify the point and discuss whether the author is right – or even comprehensible.

Then let the discussion go. You’ll find out something marvelous: reading is not eyes scanning symbols on a page, it is souls conversing over ideas.

So Sad

I have no pictures of the cake. None. Not one. I do have a video of us singing to Jack and him blowing out his candles, which I may be able to upload by some feat of technology other than this beloved phone.

So sorry. It was very cute.

G K Chesterton

I don't know why I always do this, but I always find about 3 books to bring home from the library and try to read them. When am I going to read these books??? My latest temptation was The Man Who was Thursday by GK Chesterton. I have never read Chesterton or even heard of him until about 5 or so years ago. But whenever I hear him spoken of, I feel as if I must go immediately and read something he has written. So while I was at the library on Saturday, I went perusing, and found two of his works, one of which was The Man Who was Thursday. It was thin, so I felt it was safe to check out.

I am halfway through already.

I have recommended it to none other than my FATHER. And it begins with a POEM.

I really wish this blogger app offered such options as italic and bold, because the all-caps just doesn't cut it.

In other news, James is finishing his ninth week of first grade. It is flying by! And Jack is turning 4 tomorrow! No! It cannot be true!!!

Cake pictures following the weekend.

Caramel Apples

My mom helped my boys make caramel apples last week, here are some pictures. They were delicious but we weren't completely satisfied with the caramel, so no recipe is included. But you can find one online and try it out yourself. It was very simple to do. Beware of extreme sugar high followed by EXTREME sugar low. :) Happy Fall, everybody!

Commitment

I am about half way through Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason. It has been just the right thing for me right now. With subjects such as "parents as inspirers" and "faith and duty", did I mention PARENTS AS INSPIRERS????!!!!! With such subjects discussed, it has been amazing. Really! It has brought so much focus and clarity to my thinking, with regards to education. It's just philosophy, philosophy, philosophy, and I love it. But then it's practical application after practical application. She speaks of the evidence with validates her philosophy to be true, and which I know to be true from my own experience, and which I see evidenced in my children.

I am attempting to retain as much as I can from what I'm reading. I'm not so great at narrating, though. I mean sure, I could narrate Pilgrim's Progress or Our Island Story or Pagoo, but we're talking about a completely different level here. The reason I know that I do do poorly at narrating CM is because I will try to tell Jason about something. Note the word "try". He answers with blank looks and answers such as, "ok, that's the most vague thing I've ever heard".

Sigh.

So I am committing right here, right now, to answer the questions in the appendix when I am finished reading Parents and Children. I mean answer the questions here on my blog. I have never gone through the appendices of CM's books because I was way too intimidated by the questions. But this will force me to clearly articulate what I have learned.

Current Books

I am reading five books right now. I think five is a good amount to keep going as I am not usually in the mood to read the same book night after night. Perhaps it's the Charlotte Mason mental feast thing rubbing off on me. Heh heh. Or maybe I don't see the need to discipline myself into finishing one book before beginning another. Whatever it is, that's just how it is with me right now. Along with CM's Volume 2, I am reading The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer, the Something or Other of Motherhood ... Meaning? Method? It's a Sally Clarkson book I have been reading bits of for months now. So those are the grown up books I'm reading. Definitely each of them need to be savored. I don't think any of them would benefit me at all if I just read them cover to cover. They require Thinking.

So now that Joel is beginning Ambleside Online Year 3, I am finally through the Year 1 free read list. Until now, I have read all the free reads aloud. But at the last visit to the Library I picked up Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry for Joel to read himself. I have him read two chapters a day (they are short chapters), at separate times. Since I have never read the book, I have been reading several chapters at night a few nights a week so I can stay ahead of him. It's a great book, and I'm glad I chose this one for him to read. I also checked out Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit. I plan to have Joel read it when he's done with Brighty. It Is a completely different flavor (from Brighty), and is quite delightful. It has longer chapters, and I am slowly working through them. I never thought I'd be staying up late reading children's books, but I am! Five Little Peppers and How They Grew is what I am reading to the boys at night, with Poems and Verses for Children interspersed. I am finding that reading children's literature while I have children is helping me. It reminds me of my own childhood, my own feelings as a child, and also to have more reasonable expectations of my children. To remember what's important.

Oh yeah, the Sally Clarkson book is The Mission of Motherhood.

Current Favorite Picture

Beautiful Weather

Right now I am working on a system of regular Bible reading, and regular Nature Study. I would love to do the Outdoor Hour Challenge. The only thing keeping me from being able to do it is the no Internet issue. I want to be able to go to the Library weekly -- ALONE -- with the laptop and get what I need to get, download what I need to download, etc., etc., etc. Again I say, I am working on a system. The key is not seeing all the things I cannot do right now and wishing I could be doing those things. It blinds one from seeing what one CAN be doing. If nothing else, we are spending more time outdoors.... The weather has been heavenly!

A New Beginning. Maybe.

After what seems ages of bemoaning the fact that I have no Internet, I finally had the thought that surely someone in this great Age of Blogging had come up with a way for those of us who have need to, to blog from their iDevice of choice. And they have. And there are options. Thankfully there is a free option among them!

Although I am quite aware that no one will probably read this as all have given up on this blog ever being updated, I do not great hopes of a large following. It is only the accountability of Cyberspace that I *keep telling myself* that I need. However, I don't always tell myself the truth (yes, I have been known to lie to myself) I may end up falling off the bandwagon again as we may find that this option is really not a viable one at this time. But let's not give up before we have begun. Again.

Nothing New Under the Sun

For those of us who dream of the Edwardian era in England with perambulators and personal maids and tea time and all those romantical things, it helps to hear that mothers during that era had at least one struggle in common with the modern day mother. Read on, gentle reader, with your best English accent....


Disobedience
by A. A. Milne

James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he;
"You must never go down to the end of the town,
if you don't go down with me."

James James
Morrison's Mother
Put on a golden gown,
James James
Morrison's Mother
Drove to the end of the town.
James James
Morrison's Mother
Said to herself, said she:
"I can get right down to the end of the town and
be back in time for tea."

King John
Put up a notice
"LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES
MORRISON'S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN TO THE END OF THE TOWN -
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!"

James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he:
"You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me."

James James
Morrison's Mother
Hasn't been heard of since.
King John
Said he was sorry,
So did the Queen and Prince.
King John
(Somebody told me)
Said to a man he knew:
"If people go down to the end of the town, well,
what can anyone do?"

(Now then, very softly)

J. J.
M. M.
W. G. Du P.
Took great
C/o his M*****
Though he was only 3.
J. J.
Said to his M*****
"M*****," he said, said he:

"You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-if-you-don't-go-down-with ME!"

1st Day of 1st Grade

Well, we survived, Joel and I. We survived our first day of First Grade (second go-round for me, obviously). Hhew, hhew, hhew.... It was pretty good. Of all the days to begin school on, I could have chosen better - far better, but hey, life is not going to stop just because school has started. We started off with the Aesop for Children. I was way impressed with Joel's narration. You could tell he was nervous about narrating because he used his pretend baby voice. The more he narrated, the less babyish he talked. After Aesop, Joel did his reading, then we did math. Parables from Nature was next and I was wondering what Joel was thinking of the story all the while. He asked about a zillion questions afterwards and seemed to really like the story. For writing I was anticipating a little resistance, so I asked Joel if he'd like to write out A. A. Milne's Bad Sir Brian Botany for his writing lesson, a little each day. He was SUPER excited, as that is his current favorite poem and has been for several months. So needless to say, the writing lesson today was great and his letters are looking very well. We began reading the Gospel of John for Bible.

So... that was today!

Along with playing at the nursing home, ironing day and group guitar lesson. Doesn't sound like much written down, but it was very much a full day.

Our New Place

Even though we are in a severe drought, we have seen three rainbows from our front porch. Thought I'd share a couple views.

These three views are of a single rainbow. We could see the entire thing, from where it touched down on one side to where it touched down on the other.

Favorite Quotes from Summer Reading

As I update the "what we're reading" list, I want to make note that we also read Charlotte's Web and Peter Pan this summer. Those were quite fun. I have favorite quotes from each....


from Charlotte's Web by E. B. White:

"How's Avery?" [Dr. Dorian] asked, opening his eyes wide.

"Oh, Avery," chuckled Mrs. Arable. "Avery is always fine. Of course, he gets into poison ivy and gets stung by wasps and bees and brings frogs and snakes home and breaks everything he lays his hands on. He's fine."

"Good!" said the doctor.

from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie:

"Ah, old lady," Peter said aside to Wendy, warming himself by the fire and looking down at her as she sat turning a heel, "there is nothing more pleasant of an evening for you and me when the day's toil is over than to rest by the fire with the little ones near by."

"It is sweet, Peter, isn't it?" Wendy said, frightfully gratified. "Peter, I think Curly has your nose."

"Michael takes after you."

She went to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Dear Peter," she said, "with such a large family, of course, I have now passed my best, but you don't want to change me, do you?"

"No, Wendy."

Certainly he did not want a change, but he looked at her uncomfortably; blinking, you know, like one not sure whether he was awake or asleep.

"Peter, what is it?"

"I was just thinking," he said, a little scared. "It is only make-believe, isn't it, that I am their father?"

"Oh yes," Wendy said primly.

Quotes of the Day

James:

"Daddy, the sheep got bit by a dolphin, but I think she can fly still!"

Jason to Joel: "Stop eating your boogers! You flush those nasty things down the potty - don't eat them!"
Joel to Jason: "Are boogers waterproof??"

Yellow is the Sun

Math is fun! Especially when you pick your nose!

Sketching

One of my favorite things in homeschooling Joel is sketching. I had no idea it would be something that I would like so much. It is just incredible to see your child create something - it might not be a Michaelangelo creation, but it's your child's creation, and therefore that much more special. Joel has been sketching for Sketch Tuesday again, but his mother has been a little out of habit, shall we say, and has just now this week actually submitted a sketch. So to make up for it, I told Joel I'd put his sketches on my blog. That's still cool to him.

We'll go from newest to oldest....

This is his sketch of money. A $20 bill, $1 bill, and $5 bill.

I love this sketch. It is of the ant farm he got for his birthday. I think it's abstract. You can tell where the tunnels are by the changing direction of the pen strokes. Very cool!

This is a sketch of a scene from "The Big Red Barn" by Margaret Wise Brown. His assignment was to sketch a barnyard animal.

Here's his cowboy boot sketch.

These are my all time favorites! Winnie the Pooh characters and part of the 100 Acre Wood Map. I think A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard would be proud.