Almost There with Some Ups & Downs!

One month to go, and we'll be done until mid-August. Phew!

In general, a good week, though there were ups and downs as always!

The Very Good

I loved The Girl's story this week. To have her voluntarily writing is just amazing to me after her struggle with reading. And it means she can start writing more in the fall - to be honest, I was afraid she'd still be working just on reading, and not writing yet, but she's shown me otherwise!

The Boy loves the work he's doing on Khan Academy, mainly multiplication and division, but he also did some exercises on graphing! I wouldn't call it a complete program, at least not for us, but in boosting his math skills, it is invaluable. Out of idle curiosity, I had him take the Saxon Middle Grades Math Placement test this week, and you can read about that below, in my Not-So-Good section.

We're really enjoying The Trumpet of the Swan, learning so much about Trumpeter Swans! At bedtime, we're making good progress through both Heidi and Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone. Next up: Cheaper by the Dozen (daytime read), The Light Princess (The Girl at bedtime), and Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (both kids, bedtime)!

The Quite Good
We read more in A Little History of the World and A Little History of Science, with some additional reading on the Phoenicians from Builders of the Old World. Mainly the Phoenicians and Persians this week, with some Islamic, Greek, and Roman science in there, including Aristotle and Galen.

The Girl spent some time this week learning about colossal squids with a documentary, and then had me search online for a quiz she could take. When I eventually found one, she nailed it! We need to finish her book on rhinos though.

And The Not-So-Good

I had a major "oops" moment this week. As I mentioned above, I had The Boy take the Saxon Middle Grades Math Placement test this week, and crap, he's in the wrong book. He needed 15/20 in the first section to be in 6/5, and 16/20 in the first two sections to be in 7/6. He scored 18/20 in section one, so I had him take section 2, and he got 17/20. Guess we'll be going straight into 7/6 this fall!

And then there was my momentary panic about the more free-wheeling route we're experimenting with lately. I hurriedly re-wrote all our plans for fall, twice.

Then I stopped, and took a deep breath.

And realized that we can do this. Yes, it will take some diligence, but I am not afraid of that. And organization, but I am working on that. It does help that The Boy can handle his science reading and biographies on his own, so I'll have him working on those while I read through The Girl's with her, and then The Boy and I can discuss what he read, while The Girl watches a documentary, or works on her combo Main-Lesson-Note/LapBook. Or something like that. I think at this point, this age, it will do The Boy some good to have more responsibility for his own education, though of course, I am always right there to help!

So it has been a roller-coaster week, at least for me. Seemed pretty standard for the kids!

Too Much!!!

Remember how excited I was about this idea? Well, it turns out that while it is a lovely idea, for my family at least it is just too much work. I have to constantly be on the kids about reading their books. And, it is taking a lot of time each day to get through everything with the two of them. So I am simplifying very, very much. It was a good experiment, and I learned more about our learning styles in this house, so it wasn't a waste of time. it also got the kids looking at different sections of the library!

And while we're really enjoying A Little History of the World and A Little History of Science, speeding through them is getting irritating, so we're slowing down and adding in content from Builders of the Old World.

And now for something completely different!

A garden collage...

The Girl's clematis is blooming madly; my hydrangeas are in nearly full flower; the lamb's ear bloomed this year; and we've started picking cherries off our tree already!

College by 12?

How the Harding Family Sent Six Kids to University by the Age of 12

This has been a topic of huge contention on a couple of homeschooling forums lately, so I thought I'd go ahead and share my opinion here - I welcome yours too!

Personally, NO. I don't think it is a good plan. Why? A myriad of reasons...

1. How many twelve year olds really know what they want to do when they grow up? Granted, there are some that do--there are people who, from an early age, have a path in life that they want to follow. But I think this is more rare than not. And, once they have these degrees, if they change their mind later in life, and have to go back to school, it will cost them a lot more to get another degree--there simply isn't as much financial aid available for second, third, however many degrees, as there is for the first.

2. How many kids, at twelve, are socially prepared to be in college with older teens, young adults, and so forth? The Boy is twelve now, and I have to say that while he gets along quite well with kids of varying ages, I am not sure how comfortable he'd be in a classroom full of young adults every day. Besides the maturity levels needed to deal with the other students, what about the maturity to deal with the subject matter, and the [potential] depth of the classes?

3. In reading the article, this stood out to me: "Mr Harding shares his wife's philosophy, stressing that 'the expectation is that you're going to have a fun day, not that you're going to score A's.' " If this is the expectation, why pay for the classes to begin with? They're limiting the possibilities of scholarships down the line if their grades are on the lower end of the spectrum. A couple of other things concern me too, one being that this was the parents idea, NOT a request by any of their children. Why is this so important to these parents? Is it the sales of their new e-book? Or the $10,000 they are charging per speaking engagement? Bragging rights? And the other concern is that one of their younger children won't want to do this, but won't say anything, because the others managed to get through.

4. Adult life is long enough already. I don't want to further shorten my kids' childhoods by shoving them through college at a young age, by making them choose a career path at 11 or 12. Childhood is for exploration, for learning about who you are, having the freedom to try new things, and to change your mind.

5. How in-depth is their education if they're hurrying through it so quickly? If they are completing high school level work around the age of 11, it seems to be they must be just skimming the surface. I could be wrong, but I just don't see how else you could accomplish this.

6. I homeschool in part so that my kids' can follow their passions. I don't need to send them to college for that... yet. For me, efficiency isn't getting them into college by 12, it's finding a way of homeschooling that gives them a solid grounding in necessary skills, while allowing time for rabbit trails. I homeschool in part because I want to be with my kids, not shuttle them off to another school. I homeschool so we can have time for good books, and even better discussions, and time to both approach subjects in ways that work for them, and have time to follow rabbit trails, not so I can accelerate them through life. Yes, I do streamline some subjects, but that is so we have plenty of time to spend on what interests them, here, homeschooling. And no, that's not to say we won't use the local cc in another few years - I could easily see The Boy taking some science and math classes in another few years, when he is maybe 15 and more socially ready for attending school with older students. In the meantime, I am not in a huge hurry to graduate them, and get them out of the house into the adult world.

For an opinion on the family's e-book, you can read this blog post.

What are your thoughts on this?

Story Time...

The Girl, with all the awesome confidence she's building in reading, decided to take it to the next level with writing, so here's her 5 minute story from last night--she only asked for help with spelling tale and tail:

Isn't it cute? She's leaving little notes all over the house now too.

Politically Aware...

Yesterday, my kids and I happily participated in the March Against Monsanto. They made their own signs, and off we went!

We ran into a few different friends, listened to a couple of short speeches, and some great music by the the Hubbub Club kept the energy up!

When we got home, we downloaded a suggested app, Buycott, and The Girl tested various products in our house. We were pleased to see that much of what we buy supports a sustainable future, or at the very least does not support Monsanto/etc... in fact, the only foods that came up a big fat NO were the cans of stuff left behind by BIL when he moved out!

It's really got the kids thinking abut what we're putting on our plates. I'm writing up this week's menu and grocery list shortly, and they asked me to "please be careful about what you buy". I wonder if they're ready for Food Inc.? It's been a while since I watched it honestly, so maybe I should screen it again first - The Girl, especially but The Boy to a degree too, tends to have issues with some factory farming images.

I think too I may have them start watching CNN Student News - of course I would watch it with them - but at 10 and 12, I think they should maybe have some familiarity with what's going on in the world.

Anyhow, for their first march/political protest, I am satisfied that it was a good choice. It is something they feel strongly about, and the atmosphere was largely calm and upbeat, not quite like the anti-war protests I marched in back in 1991!

Are your kids politically aware/active? Do they have pet causes?

Smooth Sailing... Mostly...

We had a good week, overall. We didn't do quite as much as I hoped, but we made some good progress!

The Boy

I've temporarily, through the end of our school year, dropped writing for him, to give him more time to concentrate on math. He worked through a few lessons in his Saxon book, and we've noticed, he only makes mistakes when he doesn't write the problem out and/or show his work. I always check his work right after he finishes, and then we go over what went wrong, and I have him correct his work.

He's continuing his reading through the Hitchhiker's Guide series, especially since we got him this book for his birthday...

He also worked on several projects this week: he's started a very intricate model car; worked on a film project; built various Lego Star Wars aircraft; watched a few episodes of Top Gear (all about cars!); and helped his dad move a bunch of rocks out in the backyard, leftover from one of my brother-in-law's unfinished projects.

The Girl

She's taking a break from math right now to focus more on reading. She worked through another few lessons in Reading Horizons, and read to me from her Elson Reader. She's still enjoying

And I have a small stack of "early/easy readers" for her to start working through. At first, when we started with Reading Horizons, she refused to do any additional reading with me, but now that her confidence is soaring, she's perfectly willing to try!

And we're both really enjoying Emi and the Rhino Scientist, from the Scientists in the Field series. If you haven't read any of these books, I highly recommend them! We also loved re-reading this version of Rapunzel - absolutely gorgeous illustrations...


She has helped with cooking this week, and weeding in the front yard. She's working on sewing projects at my mom's, and enjoying an episode here and there of Sabrina: The Teenage Witch. She enjoyed Melissa Joan Hart in Clarissa Explains It All, and was thrilled to find another series with the same actress (and believe me, I'd rather her watch these than a lot of the garbage marketed at "tweens" these days!)

All of Us

We're really enjoying reading through these books...

We read, in them, about early humans, the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, early astronomy, language and writing, mathematics in ancient India, and the inventions of gunpowder and paper in China, among other topics. The kids had some interesting questions and observations, such as "Why do we use some Roman names in the days of the week [Sunday, Monday, Saturday], and then Germanic names for the rest?", and "Why don't we still base the months on moon cycles?", and "Do you think gunpowder was an accidental invention?" We talked about the concepts of yin and yang, multiple gods, Ayurveda and other ancient forms of practicing medicine, and probably a lot more I can't remember at the moment! Reading about ancient India in A Little History of Science led us to watch the first episode of The Story of India.

This all really makes me happy - the kids are engaged, we're following those enchanting rabbit trails, and having really good discussions! This is what I want in our homeschooling!

We're more than halfway through with both our daytime and bedtime read-alouds at the moment, those being The Trumpet of the Swan and Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone (and The Boy wants to know why they changed the name from Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone before publishing it in the U.S.?) In the evenings, we're also enjoying a few TV series, among them Once Upon a Time, and Eureka, so twisted fairy tales and [theoretical] science make up a good portion of conversation on those evenings!

Other Stuff

For P.E., we've been heading down to the local elementary school after hours, to use the playground, shoot some hoops, run short races, and so on. For art, there was a lot of sidewalk chalk drawing/painting going on, and The Girl has been designing dresses all week, after watching some Downton Abbey with me. We've been cooking dinner on the grill a lot, since the weather has been really nice lately... upper 70's, some low to mid 80's, and crystal clear. This afternoon, we're off to our usual park day, this time with lemon mini-cupcakes in tow for a celebration-with-friends of The Boy's recent birthday. And then this weekend, the kids will be participating in their first political protest, the March Against Monsanto. We all feel really strongly about this issue, and I think they're old enough to become more politically aware.

Hope you all had a good week too!

Review #1: Reading Horizons

Reading Horizons is a fairly intensive program, aimed at helping struggling readers. As I have one of those, I decided it would definitely be worth a try. We're using the interactive software for ages 10-adult.

At first, truthfully, Cassia was a little reluctant to use it. She thought the first few lessons were "just dumb. I know what a bag is!", but, we persevered (at my insistence), and she soon changed her tune as the lessons ramped up! Each lesson presents a sound/set of sounds, and has the student complete a variety of exercises to really cement the concepts. They work in lessons on grammar, punctuation, and more, along the way. There are also built-in reviews of "Most Common Words", words such as "the", "you", "people", etc. Many of the lessons have a secondary part, which is vocabulary review of the concepts just learned, as well as those from previous lessons.

The first chapter/unit went by pretty quickly, as a lot of it was review work for her. We're in the second chapter/unit now, and while there's still some review, it is definitely getting more challenging for her!

What I like about this program is that I can see her developing confidence. It used to be that when I asked her to read to me (outside the constraints of the program), she would really resist, I think mainly from a feeling that she couldn't do it, or would at least struggle in the process. While she's still not a fluent reader, yet, she is now willing to try, and she's doing pretty well! I like that there is a lot of review built in--this is something that works well with her (like the spiral approach in Saxon Math). And that I can set a passing percentage for the lessons... I have it set at 85% as a minimum for moving on, though she hasn't scored anything under 90% so far.

Let's just say that yesterday, I caught her reading a story in the Teacher's Guide to her Elson Reader! She said "It's pretty hard, but I did read some of it." And believe me, that is a HUGE step up for the girl who claimed she would never be able to read!

Disclaimer: I did receive a free copy of the interactive software in return for reviews.

Would It Be Wrong... UPDATED

of me to try to talk The Boy into staying with Saxon rather than switching to Teaching Textbooks? It's just that I already have Saxon 6/5 and 7/6.

Hmmm.

Oh, and thanks for the compliments on the new blog look! I played around with it a little more, obviously, and I'm really happy with it!

Okay, funny boy. He comes up to yesterday and says "Did I say Teaching Textbooks? I meant I wanted to keep doing Saxon."

That boy of mine [shaking head]

Wishing....

My boy the happiest twelfth birthday ever!

It is an honor and a joy to be your mom! You are creative, funny, and so smart it scares me sometimes. I love you more than words can ever say!

MY Summer Plans...

I do have some goals for myself, mainly reading/re-reading, now that I am done with the classes I was taking, and have graded my last stack of papers until fall.

First, reading-related goals...

Goal One:
Re-read The Writer's Jungle and the Brave Writer Lifestyle Articles, and decide if we really need Writing With Ease and Writing With Skill (for what it is worth, The Boy says he'd rather have me teach him than a book do the work). My issue is, BW looks like more "fun" and it would give me a chance to use some of the stuff I have laying about the house, while WWS looks very thorough. I also want to research more about the Elson Readers and the accompanying Teacher Guides/Workbooks for The Girl.

Goal Two:
Finish re-reading Charlotte Mason's Home Education

Goal Three:
Read at least 4-6 books/assigned readings from my gigantic college reading list

And then non-reading-related goals...

Goal One:
Finish taking all the carpeting out of the house

Goal Two:
Clean out the garage

Goal Three:
Get everything set for homeschooling again in mid-August, which includes ordering any supplies (not much thankfully), cleaning out and organizing bookshelves, and getting the rest of the house nicely organized

Goal Four:
Take the kids on some fun field trips!!

Thankfully, I have 5 weeks off from work to help me accomplish all this. Of course, during that five weeks off, we'll also be heading to the beach a few times, going swimming with friends, maybe get in a couple of long weekends of camping.... I am really looking forward to it!

Weekly Report: Finding Balance...

image courtesy of craftgawker

While this was a [purposely] light week, it was a good one. It gave us time to make goals for the rest of this school year, and to figure out where we're going down the road. And, I was able to let go of all the history and science plans that frankly drive me batty.

Following up on yesterday's post, I took the kids to the library, along with the new guidelines:
1 science book (per week)
1 biography/autobiography (per two weeks)
1 book of poetry (per week or two)

We'll add in history and music/art a little later on, since I have history all planned out for the rest of this year.

I expected maybe a little resistance on being told what to check out, but to my pleasant surprise, there was none! And actually, they seemed to enjoy finding books that fit these categories! A couple of the books we had to place on hold, namely the biographies... The Boy has chosen to learn about Henry Ford, and The Girl wants to know more about Amelia Earhart. We're using this fabulous list of "Messner Biographies" as a source for well-written, in-depth, but still fun to read biographies.

They also found poetry, The Girl discovered the Scientists in the Field series, and The Boy is going to continue reading through the Secrets of the Universe series.

image courtesy of thegospelcoalition

So I think, at long last, I have found balance, somewhere between schooling and unschooling!  Child-and-interest-led, within parameters. Besides this giving them freedom to explore their own interests, I think it builds responsibility--they are taking ownership of their own educations.

So, what did we do this week, besides figure some stuff out?

We read about early lawsuits surrounding the manufacture of cars. We enjoyed egg-laying. We traveled to Hogwarts with Harry Potter, and to Frankfurt with Heidi. We read about herons and egrets, after seeing some on Mother's Day. We watched a couple of episodes from season one of Downton Abbey (I've got the kids hooked at last!), and discussed civil rights and art during and after watching Pleasantville. The kids played a lot on their scooters, and did chalk paintings all over the driveway. We sprouted corn for our garden, and bell peppers.

Oh, and The Boy and I (maybe The Girl will tag along) signed up for The History of Rock Part I through Coursera. If you haven't looked at Coursera, you should! From their website: 
"Coursera is an education company that partners with the top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free."

Since we're a week "behind" in signing up, we have a little catching up to do over the weekend, but we're pretty excited about this. We're looking at future courses on archaeology, Beethoven, from the Big Bang to Dark Matter, and so on.

Next week we dive back into the depths of homeschooling... six weeks to go, then we'll take somewhere between six and eight weeks off.

Hope you all had a good week!

Flutterbys....

You might remember that we hatched butterflies earlier this spring. We think they are still hanging around...

Isn't s/he pretty? M found her hanging out on the passion fruit vines. We keep finding little mantises all over the yard too!

So, yesterday, I was reading a discussion on unschooling on a classical homeschooling message board, and someone said something about "required" types of library books, and CLICK! A light bulb totally went off and I remembered the following passage from The Well Trained Mind:

On each library visit, I had them check out the following books: one science book, one history book, one art or music appreciation book, one practical book (a craft, hobby, or "how-to"), a biography or autobiography, a classic novel (or adaptation suited to age), an imaginative storybook, a book of poetry. They were allowed to choose the titles, but I asked them to follow this pattern. And they were also allowed to check out other books on any topic they pleased.

Now, she was having her kids do this weekly. I think I would start maybe bi-weekly, until they got used to it, and maybe any good fiction rather than just classics. I think I would require a certain number of documentaries as well, covering science, history/social studies, and/or people, cultures, etc.

I've been trying for the longest time to figure out a balance to required schooling and child-led. I think I like this idea very much! And, The Boy and The Girl like it too! The Girl asked "So if I want to learn about Amelia Earhart, or Pocahontas, that would be okay? And I could check out books about animals, and that would count?" The Boy asked, "Well, what if I get a BIG book about science? Do I have to read it in just a week?" I told The Girl yes, and The Boy that we could adjust time periods accordingly.

Hmmmm... lots to ponder! While I am pondering, I'm also printing up book lists the kids can work from, mainly from Valerie's Living Books. I adore her book lists!

Hope you're all having a good week!

Getting Started on Wrapping It Up...

We are nearing the end of this school year, with 6 weeks (not including the rest of this week) to go before our summer break. We're wrapping a few things up, starting--and hopefully finishing--a few things, and looking forward to some field trips, swimming with friends, and all the joy that summer brings!

Finishing Up:

The Trumpet of the Swan
The Early Days of Automobiles
Life in a Bucket of Soil
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Heidi

Starting AND Finishing Up:

Cheaper by the Dozen
A Little History of the World, concurrently with A Little History of Science  
(Note: the kids will be making lists of things - events, people, etc. - that intrigue them along the way, so that we have topics to explore this fall IF we don't do American history, but go instead with interest-led)

Slogging Along:

Elson Readers: Primer, with the Teacher Guide/Workbook (The Girl)

Writing Skills, for The Boy
Reading Horizons, for The Girl. She wants to finish this up before the end of summer, if not sooner!

Still Figuring Out:

The Boy has decided on Teaching Textbooks for the fall. We'll be doing some moderately intensive work on multiplication, division, fractions and decimals with Math Mammoth's Blue series.

The Girl will continue working in Saxon.

How about you? Are you wrapping things up for the year?

Monday, Monday....

First of all, a belated

Mine started off well, with The Girl bringing me breakfast in bed! I love that she's old enough, and capable enough, to do this. The rest of the day was okay, but by nighttime, after a lovely evening picnic, I had my first ever migraine settle in, and then I felt like this...

 

image courtesy of villifane studies

It was miserable. Thankfully, M took good care of me, and today I feel much better, though kind of that hollowed out feeling you get after a flu.

I am happy to report, I finally solved my history dilemma!!! We're going to spend the next 7 weeks reading through the book below. The kids can keep running lists of events, people, stories, etc., that intrigue them, and that they would like to explore in more depth, and then in August, after a 6 week summer vacation, we can start up with their lists!

I really like the looks of this book, kind of like an up-to-date version of A Little History of the World (our back-up book for a quick overview of world history).

Anyhow, I'm off work today, recovering from the nasty headache, so hopefully we'll get some good homeschooling done. We may even go to a Civil Air Patrol meeting tonight, to learn more about it, and see if The Boy is really interested.

Have a good week!

Creekside Trails...

"The children walk every day; they are never out less than an hour when the weather is suitable." Charlotte Mason, Home Education.

With that in mind, we decided, as a family, to take more advantage of the numerous creekside trails in our area...

The trail itself. Some are paved like this one, others are just dirt

A nice view of the creek

Mustard flowers, which smell heavenly

Taking a brief break by the water

Such prettiness

Launching a leaf "boat"

Elder in bloom

My girl, glowing in the sunshine, gathering more leaf "boats"

It was a nice way to wrap up the week! We also saw birds - a mating pair of Mallard ducks, a couple of Snowy Egrets, and one magnificent Black Crowned Night Heron (not, as my BIL once told the kids, a "Great Night Herring", which always makes us giggle as we picture a fish soaring through the air), fishing for its evening meal. And we saw entire schools of little fish in the creek.

This, overall, has been a pretty good week as far as homeschooling and all that went. 

Science:

We read about creatures in the soil in science, and The Boy read some more of a couple of Paul Fleisher's books on physics. The Girl and I read about dragonflies as well, in A Child's Story of the Animal World. We did the final check on our moldy bread experiment, coming to the conclusion that the damp bread definitely molds more quickly, and much more grotesquely, and we re-started the bean sprouting experiment (my bad).

History:

We read a bit more about the ancient Egyptians, mainly Thutmose I and Hatshepsut, and we read about automobiles, along with a chapter on Marie Antoinette. Believe it or not, I'm still not absolutely positive about history in the fall! I'm down to these choices:

• American History, using Hakim's Concise History of US as a "spine" text
• Continue world history with K12's Human Odyssey as the spine text
• Just read various titles from this amazing list (pdf) of Landmark and World Landmark books
• Read from both world and American history spine texts once a week, and then explore areas of interest with the Landmark books (adapt the Core Knowledge sequence, 2 grades per year?)

I'll figure it out before fall, I think!

Math and Language Arts:

We're trucking along! The Boy is tackling division work in math, and participles in writing, while The Girl is working on cardinal and ordinal numbers in math. She's on lesson 18 in Reading Horizons, which I will be writing more about quite soon.

The Girl also read a couple more stories to me this week, from the Elson Reader: Primer, and The Boy wrote a lot in his journal. We didn't work in the Complete Writer this week, but I plan to get back to it next week.

Everything Else:

We read about the Rock of Gibraltar this week, in Halliburton's book, located it on our world map, and then watched Anthony Bourdain's visit to Spain. We did an art project on complimentary colors (I'll get pics up asap!), and then The Girl spent a lot of the week painting.

The Girl's complimentary colors project

 And The Boy's work

The Girl and I are really enjoying Heidi together (although every time they talk about the food Heidi eats, wants to know where the fruits and vegetables are!), and we're all having a lot of fun with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We've settled into a really nice routine at bedtime: I read a chapter of Heidi to The Girl, while The Boy reads his own book, and then we all settle in with a good chapter of Harry Potter!

We also started reading The Trumpet of the Swan, which led to great discussions on swans, including measuring out what an eight foot wing span would look like, as well as compasses, and being out in nature alone. The Girl likes all the nature descriptions in the book so far, and liked that the main character keeps a journal, just like he does!

Other Bits & Pieces:

I finished up another semester! I actually turned in my last paper today. As for my fall class schedule, I'm waiting to see the language offerings at the local community/junior college, since the class times at the university don't mesh well with my schedule, though I did sign up for the grad-level seminar on American literature.

The kids spent a lot of time outdoors this week, playing around with chalk "paintings" on the driveway; throwing the indestructible ball our neighbor gave us to the dogs; watching insects; and all that. We watched Back to the Future last night, and will watch the other two in the trilogy over the next couple of days. I have a lot of fun watching movies like that with them!

It has been a nice week. Nothing too exciting, but just nice! Hope you all had a good week too, and enjoy your weekend!

P.S. Thanks for all the feedback on scheduling! We're going to give year 'round homeschooling a try!

Scheduling Thoughts...

Do you follow a "traditional" school calendar? School year 'round? Do something else entirely?

image courtesy of madison.k12

I read this post this morning, and it got me thinking. Why exactly do we follow the traditional schedule, and what would it look like if we didn't? What would it be like knowing that every six weeks (or however many I chose), we could take a week off? And extra time off around Christmas sounds good too... time for baking cookies, reading stories, watching all our favorite Christmas movies...

Then, how to transition the kids to such a schedule? Actually, that might not be that hard. We're already planning, this year, on going through the end of June since we took off a few extra days/weeks here and there. So if we just took July and August off over the summer (8 weeks), then started back up with the new schedule in September, it might transition pretty well!

What do you think? Have a good Tuesday!

Monday Musings... Words of Wisdom...

image courtesy of freakonomics

While I really dislike the word "ain't", I think this just about says it all.

I definitely tend to subject myself to "the grass is greener" syndrome...

image courtesy of cosmicannoyance

When instead, I should look at it this way...

image courtesy of acreativereality

So my goal this week? To remember the watering!

Tools in Art...

We actually took this field trip a couple of weeks or so ago, and it has taken me this long to take the pictures off my camera (hanging head in shame). We visited the local museum, for their Tools in Art exhibit, which turned out to be pretty cool!

 An interesting use for hammers!

 I loved this boat made of polished wood and rusty old tools!

 Some very old tools

This was a really intricate little diorama of the tool store behind the art exhibit. It turns out this all started with tool art commissioned a few decades ago to boost interest in the hardware store featured here!

 Enjoying the gallery and exhibitions

3D art created with various nails through metal

 A school of "fishes" (wrenches)

 One of my personal favorites as far as the pieces went

Reminds me of a Gary Larson cartoon!

We also got to complete an art project of our own downstairs, that involved tracing tools and making something of the outlines... lots of crayons and pens were involved.  And we went upstairs to look at the history of mail exhibit, which I found fascinating, the kids not quite as much (all WWI, WWII, and other war mail). It was a nice little field trip, and definitely whetted our appetite for more!