Catching Up & Moving Along...

Summer has flown by so quickly! Next week, we'll be back in the thick of things, though we did manage to have a lot of fun the last couple of months.

Catching Up...

There's been fishing, hanging out in scenic spots, and -- for me -- trail running:

And a day at the local fair, thanks to a set of free tickets I won from the bank! We went on some rides, ate funnel cakes, gazed at the amazing flower show, and visited the animals!

I even have a classroom now! There's been continued truck work, and some random fun moments along the way.

Moving Along...

The Boy starts a stellar astronomy class next week, so we're shelving chemistry for now. The Girl has a new volunteer orientation coming up at the local wildlife rescue center, so fall will be spent studying and rehabilitating animals.

I start my new career next week! I have my first day planned, my syllabus written, and a few writing assignments designed/under design. And I start my own classes.

We'll start our full-on homeschooling after Labor Day. Our first read-aloud for literature will be Watership Down. For animal studies, The Girl will be reading various selections from our collection of vintage books, alongside numerous library books, and I think she and I will enjoy The Tarantula in My Purse and 172 Other Wild Pets. She and I will also work on turning our habitat plans into reality.

Hope your summers have been going well!

Whoops! Time Does Fly...

Lazing by a small river

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."
 ~ John Lubbock

Summer is fully upon us, and so I've been too busy to post! Not necessarily busy with practical things, but with enjoying life right now.

Swimming hole

Puppy petting

Fishing

Canoeing

Beach play

More beach play

One of the best places to be

We've also...

Gone swimming at one of my former co-worker's pool

Watched fireworks

Enjoyed a few movies

Eaten popsicles and crazy amounts of watermelon

Listened to a lot of music

Spent time playing games at the park with friends

Talked about planning and ideas for next fall

Skipped math lessons/practice too often (need to get back on the wagon here!)

It's been very, very good so far! I hope your summers are going equally well!

So Much for Planning...

Last week did not work out as planned. Instead, Tuesday I came home with a sore throat and a wicked headache. The Boy's two friends had missed class on Monday due to much the same complaint, and by Wednesday, The Boy was sick too. I missed work Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday... The Boy missed school Wednesday... The Girl was sick by Thursday. We spent the days sleeping as much as we could, living on soup and hot tea, with frequent doses of elderberry, vitamin C, and echinacea.

The Boy is still not fully recovered today, and so I kept him home again. His plan is to spend the morning working on his current art class project, to get caught up, and maybe even a little ahead. I returned to one job today, but am offering only online support for the other. I tried tutoring yesterday, and ended up with a massive coughing fit partway through. The Girl has a really horrendous sounding cough still. We also missed fencing class, and an in-club tournament, derby practice, and even my class.

UGH.

About the only thing we got done, when feeling better here and there, was a little homeschooling. They both worked on math. The Boy did a lesson from The Lively Art of Writing, and did it quite well. The Girl, after complaining about her reading abilities, read out loud to me from one of her Cinderella books...and she did it beautifully. I hooked her up with some spelling words this week on Spelling City, and will continue to have her practice reading aloud throughout the week.

And we watched the first episode of Human Planet (which is very good!), and read a little from The Magic of Reality. That was it for the week, besides watching Edward Scissorhands. Oh, we also watched a lot of The Worst Cook in America, and The Great Food Truck Race, both on Netflix. I can tell when The Girl has been watching a lot of foodie shows, because then she makes desserts like this one (notice the attention to plating, and the "textural contrast" of the granola)...

Coconut Greek yogurt, with sauteed bananas and a homemade caramel sauce.

Also, during a brief bout of energy, the kids built the bottle rocket from our free Tinker Crate kit...

They launched it a number of times, trying out both the included citric acid + baking soda, as well as vinegar + baking soda. It launched well most of the time, and I think The Boy got footage on his GoPro.

My honest opinion of Tinker Crate? Well, I think they certainly serve a place in the market. If getting around to hands-on activities is hard for your family, then this is a fabulous option, as the kids can really do most, if not all, of it themselves. We've had some good fun with the one we got, but chose not to subscribe, as we aren't sure the cost is equaled in the value of the supplies/projects.

So on the agenda:
Mondays are never "school" days for us, really, as The Boy is usually gone all day, and when he gets home in the early evening, after a full day of classes, I hate to make him do more. Hopefully by tomorrow we will be getting back to normal.

More math -- this is going very well right now. I have The Girl working on various lessons in multiplication, division, and place value, from Math Mammoth. She likes that I am mixing it up a bit, so she's not doing just one thing every day. The Boy hasn't gotten anything below 96% on a lesson yet in Teaching Textbooks.

Language Arts --  The Boy will hopefully finish chapter 1 in The Lively Art of Writing. The Girl will be working on spelling, reading aloud, and maybe some work from her old Writing Skills book.

The Boy is studying for his first midterm, which he is very glad will be an open-note test.

I want to get back to having some sort of physical activity planned for each day, but right now that depends on the coughing fits.

We'll probably watch another episode of Human Planet, read some more from The Magic of Reality, get in another few chapters of The Shakespeare Stealer, and some more Cinderella.

Besides homeschooling, I am taking my dad to the doctor this week for a follow-up. I plan to return to my junior college on-campus office hours Wednesday, and I have somewhere around 60 essays to grade over the next week or so. The Boy hopes to get back to fencing by Friday, and The Girl back to derby by Thursday. We are really hoping to hang out with friends on Friday, as we haven't seen them in two+ weeks, due to one thing or another.

I had a brief burst of usefulness yesterday evening too, and made a giant bowl of pasta salad, and a big pot of butternut squash-orange-ginger soup.

We'll watch Sleepy Hollow, or maybe Beetlejuice, this week for family movie night, and at some point soon, the kids and I will be watching Sweeney Todd (M has no interest in re-watching it).

We also need to catch up on housework...again. I had a burst of energy last week, before getting sick, and cleaned the kitchen and living room, and had the kids clean the family room. Unfortunately, things fell back apart after that, but I think we'll catch up again fairly quickly.

On my way out for the day, here's a picture of our nature observation from a few days ago... spider versus bee, and the spider won:

Anyhow, have a good week!

Overload...

I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don't work. ~ Thomas Edison

That's my mantra for the moment.

Yesterday, The Boy had a two hour fencing class on his schedule. He came to me and said "Mom, I don't want to go today. I feel like we never have any time. We have fencing, and derby, and school, and we're barely homeschooling, and I have homework. We don't have any time." His face (none of us are good at hiding emotions) was pinched and upset.

So we emailed his fencing coach, and asked about drop-ins for the time being. His coach was delighted to hear that he wanted to come even with everything else going on, and understood too why we need to back off from two classes a week. He offered us a great drop-in rate too. Then The Boy and I talked about his school load, and scheduling homework time more effectively. I explained that the Big History Project, etc., could be done when he has time... at his discretion. That all he needs to do for me is math, and writing, and I want to see him pursue interests. We can squeeze in more story reading, or lunch time documentaries, and time out in nature.

His face relaxed, and he smiled!

He built an intricate Keva plank structure, chatted on the phone with his best buddy. We ordered pizza, and watched an episode of Chopped, with teen chefs, as a family. We played a few rounds of You've Been Sentenced. Totally the right move at the time.

Yes, college has been a learning curve for him, definitely. Being accountable to a teacher, following a syllabus -- all new territory, but he's navigating it very well overall. I don' want him feeling overloaded at home, so I am absolutely fine backing off on some of the academics (just not math and writing), and the fencing classes. I don't want him to feel like this...

Any words of advice on balancing the busy life of a teen?

Current Exploits...

Since I stopped actively planning, our summer has very much improved! And we have a lot going on these days...

The Boy is working on a post-apocalyptic short story, and is about to start reading Animal Farm. He's simultaneously reading The Hitchhiker's Guide and The Maze Runner as well.

He's studying pen & ink techniques, such as stippling, with the aid of library books

The Girl is working on a veritable Minecraft universe in between bursts of reading from the last pages of The Time Cat and the beginning pages of Ronia, the Robber's Daughter

Plus a huge stack of library books on sea creatures

And both are helping with a tabletop garden project my sister is putting together for her severely disabled students - the table they are building here is the right height for students in wheelchairs to work...

We've also spent a lot of time at the beach with friends, learning the joy of body boarding! And for The Girl, some surfing too...

We're playing a lot of Garbage (aka Trash) and Apples to Apples Junior these days. I should dig out Scrambled States and Totally Tut while we're in game mode!

We're watching a few movies (tonight's is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, as we've been fairly extensively discussing WWII recently), and lining up documentaries that look good, and we've finally hit season three of Once Upon a Time, after taking a long break.

We identified a newcomer to our backyard, the Gulf Fritillary, which only nests on/lives in/eats passionflower vines. Our vine has expanded rapidly the last couple of years, and we were thrilled to identify the caterpillars we found all over it! We brought three, complete with the vines they were on, into the house, and then into our old butterfly habitat, for further inspection. We'll re-release them when they become butterflies. One's cocooning already!

And we are looking forward to the new things starting in just another week, when I head back to work, and The Boy heads to the junior college! The Girl is thinking of doing some volunteer work (maybe for this organization if we can get permission due to her age) while The Boy is in class.

A couple of weeks or so after that, we'll get back to regular math and writing. And we'll see where everything else falls into place.

Hope your summer is going as well as ours is!

Coastal Day...

Yesterday we headed out to China Camp State Park, to celebrate the twelfth birthday of The Girl's friend. It was a gorgeous day... sunny, very warm, just right for a day at the coast. We saw fascinating rock formations; fantasized about an intriguing, albeit tiny, island just offshore; lokked at beautiful oaks; explored a very shallow bay perfect for swimming; and stuck out tongues turned blue with awesome Dr. Who themed cupcakes (they even had blue chocolate Tardises on top!!).

Derby Days...

The Girl attended her first roller derby tournament over the last weekend! We spent two nights, two days, in Bakersfield. While they did not come home victorious, our girls played hard, and played clean games. They lost the first bout, won the second, and lost the third. While I did take some photos of my own, there were professional photographers on the scene too, so here are a few pictures of The Girl from day 1...

I wish there was a better picture of her from day 2, but at least she can be seen in this one...

The nice thing is that they get another chance -- next month they are playing the team from day 2, the Bakersfield Juniors, but at a home game.

It was a good weekend in many ways. First, the girls spent all their time together, so it helped the team bond a bit more. Secondly, The Girl has never been away from me for the night before, so spending two nights, plus travel time there and back, with her coaches and teammates was an interesting experience for her, one that I think helped cement that she's growing up. I also got that lovely thing I have so rarely... alone time. I read all of The Other Boleyn Girl in my hotel room! And now I'd like to see the film adaptation. And, I rode down and back with a longtime derby skater/derby mom, so I learned a lot more about the game, and the players and players' families, in the six hours each direction.

Other than that, what have we been up to?

Math -- The Girl is burning through Life of Fred Cats, and The Boy loves Life of Fred Prealgebra with Biology. They are enjoying it enough that they agreed to continue with the books over summer, just a lesson (The Boy) or two (The Girl) a day.

Writing -- The Boy is working on an essay outline, and spends some of his time working on his story plot. The Girl is practicing sentence structure and spelling. She learned to text over the long weekend.

Self-taught -- The Boy is working hard on computer coding. He regularly chats with a computer science major at fencing, who helps him figure out what codes to tackle. The Boy has also set a goal, with his coaches, of moving up to competitive level fencing by fall, starting with smaller, local tournaments, and going from there.

The Girl has the next derby game to get ready for. She's been working on her sewing skills lately, altering a stuffed animal into something resembling a cat version of L. Frank Baum's "Patchwork Girl" (of Oz). She also learned how to use my vintage sewing machine, and made a purse for one of her dolls.

We're getting back into our regular routine bit by bit this week, and should be back in the full swing of things by next week! Hope your week is going well!

A Day in the Life...

I was inspired by Farrar, over at I Capture The Rowhouse, with her recent Day in the Life post. This is just an overview of a pretty average day for us, not any particular day, but we can call it Tuesday (no evening activities like derby or fencing on Tuesdays!).

...6 am...
I'm up. Most days I take a shower first, though sometimes I have to hit that snooze button and get another 15 or so minutes of sleep. Then coffee, and I lay out breakfast stuff for the kids, or pop a batch of baked oatmeal into the oven (I prep it the night before). I also leave the kids and the husband little notes! And I usually try to wash the previous night's dinner dishes before taking off.

...7:30 am...
I'm off to work, smoothie or egg sandwich, depending on my mood, in hand. I leave a tiny bit early so I can take the pretty backroads instead of the horrid freeway. I get to work just before 8:00, and am there until 12:30 Monday through Thursday, and until noon on Fridays.

...Meanwhile...
The kids get up sometime between 8 and 10 most mornings. I do like it that they can sleep in, as both are adolescents, and have a different circadian rhythm than I do right now! They putter around, fixing breakfast, making tea, feeding the pets, and at some point, they get dressed. Morning is their free time (sort of the opposite of many homeschooling households). They might watch a TV show, play on the Wii or computer, spend time reading, sketching, etc. This is also the time of day that they work on projects with their dad.

...1 pm...
I am home, and fixing lunch! Generally, I eat a sandwich or a salad with some chicken and beans, while the kids have sandwiches, or quesadillas, and fruit/veggies. Sometimes we all have soup. Anyhow, while we eat, we watch something together, like Big History, Downton Abbey, Wild China/Africa/South America [or sometimes Lost]. We chat about their mornings, check the chickens, and all that.

...2 or 2:30 pm...
I read something out loud, like a story from Wild Muir, or a few sections from The Everyday History of Someplace. Then we get some math going! I get The Girl set up with Saxon, then work with The Boy on Jacobs Elementary Algebra. Once they have everything under control, I can work on something else for a bit -- housework, sewing, my homework -- though I am frequently interrupted to further explain something.

Reading goes for about 15-20 minutes. Math generally takes about 45 minutes, then we move on to writing, which is another half an hour or so.

...Around 4 pm...
Snack time and quiet reading time. I do not tell the kids what to read during this time, so on any given day, The Girl may be reading from Little House in the Big Woods, or a Wonder Woman comic, while The Boy spends time with books like The Maze Runner, or The Small Engine Handbook. After a good chunk of reading to ourselves, I read out loud from our current book choice, which right now is The Hobbit.

...4:45ish...
Science time! This can take the form of reading, or looking through the microscope, or working on a project, or watching a documentary.

...About 5:30 or 5:45, or even 6...
We're done with "school" for the day. The Girl often moves on to an art project, or making paper clothing for her Groovy Girls -- she's currently working on a line of girl super hero outfits (Bat Girl, Aqua Woman, Spiderwoman, etc.). The Boy will work on computer science, or engine work (he's rebuilding a four-stroke engine from a rototiller in our garage), or an art project. I catch up on whatever I need to around the house, and start prepping dinner.

...7:30 or 8...
We sit down to dinner. Yes, I am old-fashioned in that I like to eat at the table and talk, rather than sit in front of the TV. Last night (a Tuesday), we had veggie burgers on sourdough toast, salad, and salt potatoes with fresh minced chives.

...9ish...
We start winding down. I like the kids to be in bed by ten, though they can read for an hour after that. 10-11 is the time that I always set aside to hang out with M, since the rest of the day is so busy! We interact a lot during the day, but it's nice to have this time set aside. So the kids will have dessert (last night it was Kashi Dark Chocolate Almond Butter cookies), watch a TV show or play a game, and then brush their teeth and head off to bed. I try to make some tea for myself.

...11ish...
Good night!

What We're Up To These Days...

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but we've been busy living!

Last week:

Swimming at the river, where we ran into friends, sat in the sun, splashed around looking for intriguing rocks, explored the river banks, skipped stones (The Boy is best at this), and enjoyed an active but lazy-feeling afternoon.

Gelatin-printing workshop at the library, part of their free Events for Teens. It was an okay workshop, but the kids said the instructor was not super enthusiastic, and there wasn't a whole lot of instruction.

Park day of course, which is always fun! I am glad to see The Girl, who has always hung back on the edges (gee, I wonder where she gets that from?) participating more in games with the other kids. And she adores climbing trees these days!

Bike rides, fencing practice, roller derby practice, grilling, long mornings in the garden weeding and watering.


This week:

Umm, not so good. We had planned on an afternoon at the river, but The Boy came down with something on Sunday, which unfortunately and painfully involved stomach cramps and vomiting.

He seemed better, but still shaky on Monday, so no fencing practice. Then, out of the blue Monday night, The Girl and I came down with the same thing. I swear, one minute I was fine, and the next, stomach cramps, and a night of vomiting.

Yesterday we laid around the house, dozing off and on. I did manage to stay awake for my telephone unemployment interview, which went fine -- they thought I worked for an actual school and might be on summer vacation, so I quickly rectified that situation, and my unemployment, pitiful though it is, has been approved. While we had rescheduled the river visit for this day, it obviously did not work out.

Today, the poor Girl is still sick. The Boy is still sleeping at the moment. I feel much better, but not at all hungry, and my usual morning coffee did not taste good, so I'm back to herbal tea. I am hoping that The Boy will have recovered sufficiently for today's library event, which is a cartooning class that comes very highly recommended. And maybe fencing. The Girl is sorry, a little, to miss the class, but a) doesn't want to get anyone else sick which is very thoughtful of her, and b) is much more interested in the henna art workshop coming up.

We were supposed to go to a pool with friends tomorrow, but I am calling that off (well, our participation in it anyway), and The Girl won't attend derby practice either. She wants to recover fully for derby boot camp which start next week, and goes for 2 hours a night, 3 nights a week, for 2 weeks! And both kids want to recover for park day.

The Girl has also agreed to start up Reading Pathways   Reading Horizons   (or ???... she needs practice/fluency work) again next week, and finish it (maybe 3-4 weeks of good, solid work). That was supposed to be this week, but I am hardly going to make a puking kid sit there  reading aloud  doing computer-based work. And my attempts at establishing a morning yoga routine will wait until I feel all better too.

So how is YOUR summer going?

Eleven Years...

It has been eleven years since I first held my daughter. Eleven years of laughing, hugging, tears, joy, pain, and love. Grateful for every moment of it!

Focus on The Boy...

We have started seventh grade! I can hardly believe it is going by so darn quickly. From this...

To this, in what seems sometimes like the blink of an eye...

So, just a couple of days into seventh grade, what and how are we doing, you might ask! And I'll answer, so far, so good! He's very willing to sit down and get some work done this year, at least thus far--here's to hoping that lasts!

He seems more independent this year, or at least ready to be independent. Yesterday, I asked him to read a selection from Write With the Best. He finished it, re-read it, then asked for more. We discussed what he had read, read the three rules of writing the program asks for, and discussed those. I love being able to discuss things with him in this manner! He worked through his spelling and math with very little assistance/interference too.

He'll be doing physics this year as an "independent" study. After some flipping back and forth through various books and resources, he'll be reading through and working from The New Way Things Work. Our library has the dvds that compliment it, which will be very helpful. And he's looking forward to using his lab book soon!

As for math, we decided to stick with good, old, trustworthy Saxon, at least for now. We'll still be working in some Jousting Armadillos this year as well!

As far as following his interests, he still reads... a lot, especially anything Steampunk or mythology oriented. He's watching documentaries on physics/quantum physics/space at least once a week. He's researching Victorian attire in preparation for the Dickens Faire this year. He works on animation programs, computer coding programs, filming/editing, and always art. He loves his twice weekly fencing classes as well, and has asked his dad for help with an exercise program to build muscle.

Oh, and he's taller than me. But he'll still sit in my lap once in a while!

Photographic Fun...

Recently, we came across these amazing self-portraits, done by a fourteen year old boy, with a little assistance from his older sister. The Boy was immediately inspired, so here are the first couple of pieces he worked on... I have to say that I am impressed!

He's working on a few more, so be expecting to see more photography by The Boy soon!

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?

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!