Monday Musings...

I am happy because...

~ I finished a double batch of grading papers

~ I will have another batch of papers to grade soon

~ I can pay off another small debt or two with the money I am earning from paper grading, which will make things better in upcoming months

~ I settled on my plans for next fall! Lots of flexibility worked in, so that won't be an issue


On the agenda this week...

~ Cassia is looking forward to roller derby practice tonight - this is the first activity she has chosen to try that she seems anxious to actually do!

~ We're going to read about pirates in the Dangerous Book for Boys and Daring Book for Girls

~ We'll make time to watch the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie (we watched the first one again a couple of weeks ago)

~ We'll keep enjoying Peter Pan on audio book - how we love Jim Dale as a narrator!

~ Picking up the pieces with BFSU again, at long last

~ The Magic of Reality came in at the library, so we can start reading that again. I had to give back my dad's copy before we ever finished it

~ Maybe, just maybe, I will finish reading Abel's Island with Cyrus, and All of a Kind Family with Cassia

~ We'll start playing around with geometry. I've got Janice Van Cleave's Geometry for Every Kid, Math Mammoth printouts, etc., on hand

Hope you all have a good week! Ours is starting out well!

A Smattering of Saturday Thoughts...

We semi-unschooled again this last week, not by choice, but by circumstance. Somehow the whole week just vanished... poof! We did enjoy a Friday birthday celebration at the park... good people, good food, good times...

They did watch a few more nature related shows at my mom's; Cyrus had his piano lesson and made a few more films, with special effects (again, at my mom's); we used applied math in cooking and at the grocery store; and Cassia found her new favorite activity... ROLLER DERBY! She had her first training on Monday, and loved every moment of the 90 minutes on the rink.

And we read: several more chapters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; plus Chanticleer and the Fox; Molly Limbo; Bug read most of The Basilisk's Lair; and we listened to more of Peter Pan. We want to watch both movies again... the cartoon Disney version, and the 2003 live action version.

Peter Pan has actually spawned a great interest in pirates! So we're going to move away from American history as our focus for the moment, and spend the last six weeks of our "school" year enjoying piracy!

On the agenda for the upcoming week...

Reading - lots of good books, mainly pirate-related, but not all
Math - Another few chapters in Life of Fred Apples, plus we're starting a unit on geometry!
Language Arts - more copywork, spelling, and phonics. Cyrus will write in his journal. And I may lead him through writing an essay on pirates!
History - another episode or two of America: The Story of US (I am determined to finish this series!); a documentary or two on pirates perhaps. We might read another few chapters in Early Human World as well, since we're enjoying that book.
Science - Starting up BFSU again. This week we'll study Air (thread A3)
Other - some geography of some sort, art, music appreciation/a composer study (now to choose which composer!); probably the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and so forth.

Have a good weekend and week!

This should keep me busy for a while...

Part of the Master's program I am starting in the fall is the requirement that I take the college's version of the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) in literature. And so I have a reading list to finish by the end of 2013's summer session. I have read a fair bit of this list in the past, but I think I should re-read those that I am familiar with already. Ready? Here it is in all its glory...

British (All MA candidates): 

• Chaucer: from The Canterbury Tales: "General Prologue" and Prologue and Tales told by the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, and the Nun's Priest 
• Shakespeare: Othello, Merchant of Venice 
• Spenser: Book I of Fairie Queene 
• Milton: Books 1, 2, and 9 from Paradise Lost 
• Swift: from Gulliver's Travels, Book 4: "Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms" 
• Pope: Epistle I from "An Essay on Man" 
• Austen: Emma 
• Blake: "The Lamb," "The Tyger," "The Little Vagabond," "Holy Thursday," "The Chimney Sweeper" (both from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience).
• Mary Shelley: Frankenstein 
• Keats: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear" 
• Wordsworth: "Tintern Abbey" and "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" 
• Shelley: "Ode to the West Wind" and "Defense of Poetry" 
• Browning: "Andrea Del Sarto" 
• Rossetti: "In an Artist's Studio" and "Winter my Secret" 
• Hardy: Jude the Obscure
• G. M. Hopkins: "God's Grandeur" and "Pied Beauty" 
• Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse 
• James Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
   

American (All MA candidates): 

• Selected poetry: 
• Anne Bradstreet, "The Prologue To Her Book," "Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burning of our House," "The Flesh and the Spirit," "The Author to Her Book" and Phyllis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," "To his Excellency G. Washington," "On Imagination" 
• Dickinson: selections (numbers as listed in Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of ED):
  49, 106, 165, 173, 178, 181, 216, 255, 258, 371, 426, 974, 985, 994, 84, 106, 175, 184, 185, 193, 204, 216, 280, 299, 1036, 1071, 1056, 1116, 70, 124, 185, 186, 230, 252, 284, 302, 319, 521, 1184, 1219
•  Whitman: Leaves of Grass
• Thoreau: Walden, "Resistance to Civil Government" 
• Hawthorne: "Young Goodman Brown," "Rappacini's Daughter," "The Birth-mark" 
• Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 
• Melville: The Piazza Tales:
  
  •       The Piazza
  •       Bartleby, The Scrivener
  •       Benito Cereno
  •       The Lightning-Rod Man
  •       The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles
  •       The Bell-Tower
• Faulkner: Absalom, Absalom 
• Ellison: Invisible Man 
• Roth: Call It Sleep  

Selected poetry, modern and contemporary (students can find most of these works online): 

Modernist Poetry:

• Wm. C. Williams:—“Spring and All,” entire work, parts I-XXVIII; “Young Sycamore,” “Paterson: the Falls,” and “The Dance"
• Pound—“Ballad of the Goodly Fere,” “Canto I,” “Canto XIV,” “In a Station of the Metro,” “Sestina: Altaforte”
• Eliot—“The Four Quartets,” “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
  H.D.-- “’Sea Rose,” “Chance Meeting,” “White World,’ “Phaedra,” “The Shepherd,” “A Dead Priestess Speaks”
• Gertrude Stein—Tender Buttons
• Mina Loy—“Lunar Baedeker,” “Moreover, the Moon” 

Contemporary Poetry:

• Lyn Hejinian-- My Life
• John Ashbery—“Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror”
• Robert Creeley—“Something,” “Words,” “The Finger,” “The Act of Love,” “The Pattern,” “The Language,” “Distance”
• George Oppen— “The Forms of Love,” “Boy’s Room,” “Of Being Numerous”
• Alice Notley— from The Descent of Alette: [“a car” “awash with blood,”] [“I stood waiting”], [“I walked into”], [“Presently”], [“The water, of the river”], and “At Night the States”
• Yusef Komunyakaa- “Facing It,” “My Father’s Love Letters,” “Believing in Iron”

For students in rhetoric/pedagogy/literacy: 
From Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook, Cushman, Kingten, Kroll & Rose (Eds.)

• Harvey Graff, "The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Our Times" 
• Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole, "Unpackaging Literacy" 
• Luis Moll and Norma Gonzalez, "Lessons from Research with Language Minority Students" 
• Shirley Brice Heath, "Protean Shapes in Literacy Events: Ever-Shifting Oral and Literate Traditions" Deborah Brandt, "Sponsors of Literacy" 
• David Bartholomae, "Inventing the University" 
• James Paul Gee, "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction" and "What is Literacy?" 
• Lisa Delpit, "The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse"

From Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, Villanueva, V. (Ed.) 

• Mina Shaugnessy, “Diving In: An Introduction to Basic Writing” 
• James Berlin, “Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories” 
• Mike Rose, "Narrowing the Mind and Page: Remedial Writers and Cognitive Reductionism" 
• Patricia Bizzell, "Cognition, Convention, and Certainty: What We Need to Know about Writing" Victor Villanueva, "On the Rhetoric and Precedents of Racism"

So, you think that might keep me busy for a while? Many of the classics I found free for my Kindle already, at least the British classics. I haven't gotten any further than that yet!

Weekly Report... 4/16-4/20...

The week started off very well--Monday was awesome! The rest of the week... well. Pretty good, but not as good.

What We Did...

Cyrus: worked on fractions and division this week in Math Mammoth, as well as a review of his times tables up to 12. He made it through another spelling lesson, and did the "bonus" work this week of writing additional sentences using each word. He also made all the extra sentences alliterative, for example (spelling word in italics): "Bulbous blue baboons believe belching breaks barriers." Lovely, isn't it? What can I say.. he's a nearly 11 year old boy!

He started on the second book in the Beastologist series: The Basilisk's Lair. We read more in Abel's Island together, but haven't quite finished it. He worked on any number of art projects, made a few more short films at my mom's house, worked on computer animation (soft body physics), and helped in the garden a bit. No piano lesson this week, as our piano teacher was out of town, but he did practice twice each day!


Cassia: Made more progress in Phonics Pathways, working on 3 letter blends (short words and phrases)--this program is making her much more confident, and she's no longer struggling with letter sounds, at long, LONG last! She worked on place value and a review of addition facts in math, using Math Mammoth and this addition chart I found.

We read more of All of a Kind Family, and a book called Emily, by Michael Bedard, which led to an interest in Emily Dickinson's poetry, so I have promised to run by the library tomorrow to get a book of her poetry. Cassia also helped with cooking, gardening, and laundry, and she made a little felt playing board imaginary world, peopled with tiny animals made of tin foil. I'll have to get a picture of it!


With both: We read about Niagara in geography (Halliburton's Book of Marvels); read some more of Little House in the Big Woods; picked up Early Human World again and read a chapter; worked on getting the weeds out of the front yard; identified a few birds; and read 11 or 12 chapters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They watched a few episodes of America the Wild at my mom's, and Birds of the Gods at home. We listened to more of Peter Pan in the car. We love Jim Dale as a narrator, and we had a fantastic conversation/discussion about Mr. Darling and his terrible attitude toward ties and medicine! We also read the story of Thomas the Rhymer from a book of Scottish Fairy Tales - very enjoyable, and now I want to look into other versions of this story.

I am debating between four books for our next read aloud... The Secret Garden, The Marvelous Land of Oz, The Smoky House, and The Princess & the Goblin. I think I may have to choose two and just read them at different times of day! We will be reading The Birchbark House as soon as we finish Little House. And then?

Overall it was a good week. I'd like to have more days like Monday, instead of the days where we got the basics done and called it quits! How was your week?

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday... Bedtime Reading...

My guy, chillin' on his loft bed... Funnily enough, I don't know that I've ever considered a volume of the encyclopedia as bedtime reading, but then, whatever works for him!

Bits of happiness...

I have planned, very loosely, for next year.

I'll get to keep my web site work for the company I currently work for, as an independent contractor.

I'm getting some more papers to read/grade.

Less time on the computer, and having the kids in front of the TV, has equaled more reading, the housework getting done more regularly, and a calmer atmosphere in our home.

We had a great day of homeschooling yesterday! Cassia worked on place value, and showed me a hundred chart she made all on her own at my mom's house. She read three letter blends (second section of Phonics Pathways) and did her copywork, plus then re-did the copywork and changed it slightly to make me a little gift! Cyrus worked on fractions and division, wrote some silly sentences for spelling, did some copywork as well, and finished The Flight of the Phoenix.

We read about Niagara Falls in Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels (geography), watched a documentary called Birds of the Gods (science), and enjoyed three more chapters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We went for a walk (PE) and admired the red clover coming up by the wayside.

I finished reading The Red Tent, which someone had recommended to me ages ago. Very good book. Now I'm reading Pilate's Wife, which is promising so far! It reminds me slightly of a couple of Marian Zimmer Bradley's Avalon books in tone and setting. I put The Read Aloud Handbook on hold at the library, and am looking forward to that. I also need to read The Unbearable Lightness of Being for my reader/grader work.

Today... more reading, math, spelling, phonics, and copywork. Soup for dinner. Piano practice will happen, at least once (he loves his piano!)

Monday Musings...

Ideas for the week....

~ We started reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as I misplaced The Time Garden. I think we'll continue with the Wizard for a bit!

~ Cyrus asked if he could fill out multiplication tables again, so I'll print some of those, and Cricket can do a couple of 100's charts. Some Life of Fred, and a little Math Mammoth to be done as well.

~ I'd like to start reading from The Story Book of Science again. And do a project or two from one of our experiment books.

~ I think we'll finish Abel's Island (with Cyrus), All of a Kind Family (with Cassia), and Little House in the Big Woods (both kids) this week. Debating what to start with next for individual-with-the-kids reading. I think for history, we'll either go with Little House on the Prairie or Ben and Me next.

~ The kids started week one of the Couch Potato to 5k program yesterday. We'll be jogging three times a week with this, in the early evenings. We're lucky because we have loads of creekside biking/walking trails near home.

~ I'd like to finish weeding the front yard, and get the backyard rototilling done this week. I did plant two kinds of mint, some cilantro, and basil out front yesterday. Garden therapy! (Works every time, though I did get a funny stripe of sunburn right across my lower back from bending over to weed!)

~ Cassia will move into the second section of Phonics Pathways this week. Toward the end of last week I dictated two-letter blends to her to write, and she did very well with them. I'm a bit afraid to say we're making real progress... perhaps I'll jinx myself if I do! But I will say I am truly hopeful!

~ Cyrus has been writing in his journal a lot lately, but I'd like him to start working on an essay as well... maybe. I am thinking something like Writing Skills--nice, simple, uncluttered and very straightforward--might be good for the fall. Any thoughts?

~ I'm ready to start massive decluttering. First to go are all my "fat" clothes!

What is on your agenda for the week?

Cruisin' Along...

Feeling more settled today, after Thursday's news. After posting, I went and took a long, hot, and UNinterrupted bath (thank you so much to M and the kids for leaving me alone). Friday, I called in sick to work, taking a "personal necessity" day, and we spent the afternoon at park day, surrounded by friends. And thanks for the kind comments on that post!

M is encouraging me to go ahead and file for unemployment, something I have never done in the 26-27 years I've been working (really... I'll be 40 this year, and have been working since the age of 13). To take some time off between jobs, and just be a mom. We know that this would make finances even tighter, but M said he would see if he could pick up some extra hours and/or find some supplemental work. And yes, even with unemployment, I would continue looking for work... I'll admit in part because one has to. I guess I could look into other aid as well, if needed. The kids are already insured through Healthy Families, so we'll keep them on that.

In the meantime, since my raise is in place, and all that, I am going to stretch every dollar to its breaking point, and pinch every penny until it screams so that we can start July off in the best financial shape possible, whether I decide to immediately find work or not. No, I still am not going to clip coupons, or buy those weird big log-tube things of ground beef. The vegetable garden is increasing in size though! Thanks to Jessica, I have recipes for household cleaners. Thanks to my mom, I know how to cook from scratch, to mend, alter a little, and so forth.

I haven't decided what to do at this point. But, I do have two and a half months left to figure it out... well, maybe a month and a half, because I'd like to know before the end of June what I'll be doing next!

Life is a Roller Coaster...

And right now I'm plummeting down the incline. I got my six-month evaluation at work today... all good scores, excellent feedback, got my first raise, and was placed on regular (non-probationary) status.

Then I got all the air knocked out of me. My boss started crying a bit, and told me that due to cutbacks and layoffs, I am being "displaced" by a senior employee that was being laid off - her position was eliminated.

After June 30th, I am unemployed.

I am trying to keep in mind that when a door is closed, a window opens, and that there is SOME reason for this, even though I can't see it from where I am.

I was placed on regular status partly so that if anything similar opens up in the next 39 months, I am on the call list for the position. I can also get unemployment as a regular employee, not as probationary. My boss, and her boss, are writing me letters of recommendation as well.

I'm stunned. I am worried about money too, but somehow we'll work this out... we've always kept afloat before. M is going to try to pick up more hours at his job, or do some side work to help.

Thursday Thoughts... A Very Good Article...

We all have those days where, as mothers, we don't feel like we do enough. April Perry wrote a beautiful article that brought tears to my eyes, and humbled me a bit...

Your Children Want YOU

I'd really recommend reading it!

Wordless Wednesday... Waiting for their dad to leave work...

Monday Menu Plan, Musings, etc....

I've got the house clean and tidy (now if I can just keep it that way.) My laundry is actually... gasp... folded and put away! I've printed out math and spelling for the week. I am feeling fantastically organized today!

So I thought I would actually menu plan this week too. I had done well with this for about a month, maybe a month and a half, then fell with a thud off of the organizational wagon.

Hopping back on, and here's this week's menu:

Sunday: We ate at my mom's Pastor's house for Easter. BBQ'd lamb, a yummy rice dish, warm corn tortillas, addictive homemade salsa, watermelon. So delicious, and best of all, I didn't have to lift a finger (though I did help clean up!)

Monday: Ribs (cooked by M); artichokes with a lemon-pepper-garlic mayonnaise.

Tuesday: Soup, of some sort, with good bread for the kids and M. I haven't decided which soup yet though! What are your favorite soups?

Wednesday: London Broil, with a homemade marinade of some sort. Sauteed green beans, red bell pepper, and mushrooms with garlic and ginger.

Thursday: Baked beans, cornbread, and a green salad.

Friday: Homemade pizzas!

Saturday: Spaghetti and meatballs; garlic bread for M and the kids; green salad

Frugal Notes:
We're actually doing okay. Our budget is tight, but we have a roof over our head, the bills are paid, and we have grocery money! Things are better than I thought in all honesty. Our electric bill dropped another $50 - that's a savings of over $100 in just two months. I am learning to not worry so much, and just accept things as they are. I even managed to squirrel away a little money for savings. Of course it helps that I am NOT buying anything for homeschooling right now! And my tax refund will someday be appreciated... whenever it decides to show up!

I have been doing a little side work here and there too, and that is one of the things that is making a small but appreciable difference. I graded papers in March, and did a few hours of website work. Hoping to do more of the same in April--well, the website work is a definite this month, so I am merely hoping for more papers to grade.

Next month is Beetle's birthday, so in part the money I am setting aside will help with that. I need him to prune down his wish list a bit though. It seems everyday he got about ten new ideas for things he must have!

Musings for the week:
Cricket wants to learn all things Little House for the rest of our school year, and perhaps beyond that. I imagine it'll take us more than the 8 or 9 weeks we have left to get through the books. Cricket rarely makes a special request for something to study, so I am all gung-ho to go with it!

Both kids want to get back into some anatomy. Maybe we will finally make the amazing human body paper models from this book!

I think Buge might enjoy some pirate studies. Yesterday, we visited a tall ship. And it was a great little field trip! The one we were on, the Lady Washington, was The Interceptor in Pirates of the Caribbean, which now we're going to have to re-watch. I put Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates on my Kindle, so I'll give that a go with Bug.

Other than that, there will be more gardening, weeding, cooking, playing, documentaries, and so forth. We'll continue too with lots of reading!


Hope you all have a good week, and belated Happy Easter!

Weekly Report... 4/2-4/6...

Such a good week! Things flowed, we learned a lot, had room to expand on ideas and explore new topics, read good books, and more! I have learned a lot this week about letting go and just being, although I still need to work on this, and probably always will!

Language Arts

The copywork jars were (and still are) a big hit! Both kids worked hard to make their copied quotations look really nice.

Cyrus worked on spelling, alphabetizing his words for the week one day, writing sentences over another two days, and taking an oral spelling test in the car (which he aced!), and he worked on his alliterative piece.

Cassia worked through a total of 16 pages in Phonics Pathways. The segmenting and blending approach is working really well for her. I've dropped ETC, and all readers for the moment... just focusing on reading skills.

Math
We started a unit on fractions. Math Mammoth is working so well for us! I had printed up placement tests for Teaching Textbooks, and Saxon, but the kids want to stick with MM, so stick with it we will.

Cricket worked in Intro to Fractions, starting with halves, then moving in quarters, fifths, and sixths.

Bug worked in Fractions 1. He learned about improper and mixed fractions, and comparing and converting, and said he really enjoyed this!

Literature
We read from Knight's Castle, and listened to more of The Cricket in Times Square.

Bug finished The Lost Hero. He then started The Flight of the Phoenix (thank you farrarwilliams!) He then read Latin Phrases Every Boy Should Knows in The Dangerous Book for Boys. I read to him from Abel's Island. Lots of laughing out loud with this one - Bug thinks it is terribly funny how pleased snooty Abel is with every little thing he does.

I read from All of a Kind Family to Cricket, as well as some short stories we picked up at the library, including The Korean Cinderella, The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies (really good!), and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.

Poetry at long last! We read The Owl and the Pussycat, and The Duck and the Kangaroo, by Edward Lear. We also started reading The Jumblies (same Author), but that is a longer piece, and we have a way to go. Cricket noticed the references in both The Owl... and The Jumblies to the color "pea green," so she's wondering if that was one of Lear's favorite colors. Bug liked the format of the first two poems, and I think I may try to have him try writing his own poem! Instead of tea time, we had smoothies with our poetry. Whatever works!

History

We were reading Johnny Tremain, but it just didn't resonate with us, at least not right now. Maybe when they are a little older?

We also started watching Little House on the Prairie (the 2005 Disney mini-series version.) They've seen episodes of the TV show too. This is grimmer in comparison, a tad more realistic... mud halfway up the wagon wheels and all over the characters, death, danger, etc. While I don't like some things about it (I doubt Ma would have ever worn her hair down that much, and why isn't Jack the right kind of dog?), I will say that I like the resulting discussion! Cricket has asked if we can make this a focus for a while. I also picked up The Birchbark House at the library - while it is not directly related, it relates... if that makes any sense! Bug says he's okay with studying some Little House too, as long as I "add in some boy stuff!"

Bug also read the Declaration of Independence in The Dangerous Book for Boys.

Science

We hit up the local garden center/home improvement store that was having a 50% off sale on vegetable and herb starts.We planted seeds as well. And talked about seedlings, what plants need, and gardening in general.

There was some rock collecting from around the yard, and subsequent reading from Rocks and Fossils.

Bug read to us about cloud formations from The Dangerous Book for Boys. He and Cricket then spent some time identifying clouds as they passed far overhead.

They have been watching episodes of America The Wild at my mom's house in the mornings, and then they come home with all kinds of great animal facts and information!

We worked out in the garden a lot, for probably a couple of hours. We weeded, and collected caterpillars and grubs to look at, discussed snails (of which we have far too many), looked at roly-poly bugs, made some simple and fast terrariums, checked out the tulips that are blooming, and then the kids discovered... wait for it... bird watching!

We promptly pulled out our bird identification guides. Bug is keeping a list of the birds he has spotted in a little notebook, with both common and Latin names. Cricket wants to know how they all sound, so we spent some time online with Cornell's Ornithology department. I'm going to get out my copy of the Burgess Bird Book for Children, which at least Cricket will enjoy, if not Beetle as well.

We also started a very loose botany study (to go with gardening), with reading about nonflowering plants in a couple of our science encyclopedias. The kids then each drew a nonflowering plant of their choice from said encyclopedias (Bug's is the top picture, Cricket's the bottom)...




Other
Bug continues to work hard in piano. He has two songs to master this week. He is also experimenting with the songs he already knows... turning the entire piano book upside down and playing it that way, or playing just the left hand, and then just the right hand, or moving it all up or down an octave.

And there was park day! The weather this week has been incredible... clear, deep blue skies, a little chilly, but hey, the sun is out and about! We're enjoying every moment of it after a few weeks of damp and gray skies. The kids played ball tag for about two hours, bringing a nice rosy glow to their cheeks.

Cricket helped out in the kitchen again this week. She chopped veggies for her dad when he made omelets, she measured dry ingredients for me, helped make some super delicious smoothies, and is going to help me make a coconut cake for Easter. She watched Whale Rider again--truthfully I am surprised at how much she loves this movie--it is not all happiness and brightness, but instead complex and a bit dark, though triumphant in the end.

There was art, and music, laughter, and some arguing (when is there not arguing with kids?) We're looking forward to next week!

Wordy Wednesday... Living in the Now & Letting Go...

"It's like washing the dishes. If you focus on getting the dishes done so your kitchen will be clean, you miss everything that happens between dirty and clean. The warmth of the water, the pop of the bubbles, the movements of your hand. You miss the life that happens in the middle zone--between now and what you think your life should be like. And when you miss those moments because you'd rather be doing something else, you are missing your own life. Those moments are gone. You will never get them back....even when you arrive at being Someone because you are where you were going--your life may not be any better if you haven't learned to be awake, alive, now. To take this moment for what it is." from Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth

This is an excerpt from one of the books I am reading, recommended by a good friend who is on a weight loss journey with me. I realized recently that while I am losing weight, and keeping it off so far, if I don't change the way I think about food, I'll probably gain all the weight back in a couple of years. The piece I quoted above though got me thinking about more than just food--it applies to homeschooling, day-to-day life, and much more!

And so I am letting go. I am letting go of the planning. I really don't need to know what we're going to be studying in three years time. What I do need is to focus on now.

I don't mean that we're going to be unschooling, or that I am throwing all caution to the wind. I still print out approximately a week's worth of math at a time. I still have a [huge] book list I'd like to read with the kids, and goals for what I'd like them to learn. But, I'm not guaranteeing when we'll get through a book. I'm not planning out exactly what we'll cover in history this week. I'm allowing room enough for exploration and expansion, room enough to be in the now. And it is a good thing. We're all calmer. I haven't lowered my expectations... I think I've actually raised them. A good part of this hearkens back to what I wrote at the beginning of my weekly report last Friday. We're cutting out the fluff, and that naturally allows more room for discussion, questioning, and child-formed connections.

As for the rest of life, I find if I try to live in the moment, I feel happier. I enjoyed ironing some shirts yesterday, because I allowed myself to, instead of thinking about everything else. I'm sleeping better at night because I am realizing that I can worry all I want, and it doesn't fix anything. And believe me, my kids can tell I am more present!

Living in the now is a work in progress, never a constant state. But if I am always waiting until whatever (until I'm thinner, or until we get to x subject in science/history, until whatever), then I miss out on a lot of now.

Monday Musings...

Another sunny day, although we're supposed to have rain again tomorrow, and the next day. But we'll enjoy the warmth and light while we can!

So, what are we up to this week?

We're trying to move away from too much screen time, both TV and computer. I want the kids to play [outside] more, and there are plenty of things to keep them busy besides staring at something. And I always have things I want to get done too, so limiting my own time on the computer will help... I swear I will finish my first knitting project (a scarf that has taken far too long!)

I made copywork jars! Cricket's has bits about the meanings of flowers, and information on dogs and horses, while Bug gets quotes related to geology, astronomy, and ancient Egypt.

We'll be reading more of Johnny Tremain, and I think I will read the Declaration of Independence from The Dangerous Book for Boys.

Cricket and I will continue enjoying All of a Kind Family.

I decided to read Bug's "assigned" (I recommend books, but don't generally actually assign them) reading with him, so we'll be snuggling up in the big chair to read Abel's Island over the next couple of weeks. He just started Dragon Rider as his free time book, having finally finished The Lost Hero. (Note: I think he's been sneak-reading at night again too, since I found The Lightening Thief in his bed this morning.)

I'm going to have both kids focus on fractions for a while, using the Math Mammoth Blue series. Cricket will be doing work from Intro to Fractions, while Bug will be using Fractions 1.

We're going to read from The Story Book of Science, and work with all the plants we bought yesterday. We also planted some seeds, so we'll be keeping a close eye on those. I've decided this lends itself quite well to a lesson on botany. We'll use the Spiral Scouts Handbook: Gardening Badge for a lot of inspiration.

The kids will be getting some hands-on construction experience, with building raised garden beds.

I want Bug to finish his alliterative piece, and then copy it out again once I correct the spelling. He also needs to work through a (remedial) lesson on spelling. Cricket will be working in Phonics Pathways and Explode the Code.

I am going to work on reading The Writer's Jungle, and incorporating more of the Brave Writer Lifestyle tips. We will have poetry tea time this week!

Hope you all have a good week!

Thoughts on a Sunday...

The sun keeps peeking out at us--after weeks of off and on rain, it is a welcome sight! We're supposed to have rain again this week, but I'll enjoy the sun while I can.

I'm thinking ahead to the rest of this week... we're now homeschooling Sunday through Thursday, since Fridays are so busy with other things, and we honestly never get to schoolwork. A four day school week would be nice, but since we love our shorter lessons, five days it is. I'm using this schedule for my general planning, but switching their Friday to my Sunday.

We're kind of in a gap space with science. I really want BFSU (Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding) to work, but somehow it never seems to come together for us. I own Elemental Science Biology (logic stage), but then heard it is dry. And I'm not sure if my haphazard approach of books and random experiments is working either. Unit studies are not happening right now, because I swear every time I take the time and energy to plan it all out, the kids lose interest, and we all get frustrated.

I don't know...

I think for the upcoming week, I am going to simply focus on reading (The Story Book of Science), and add in the gardening "badge" work from Spiral Scouts. Maybe.

Other than that, I plan to continue all the readings from the last week. I'd like to do a Poetry Teatime. And have Beetle finish his alliterative poem-of-sorts. I also want to get around to making copywork jars for each of them. And I need to print out math worksheets for the week, Beetle's spelling work, and probably something else I am forgetting right now.

On my reading list this week:
The Writer's Jungle
More of Mere Christianity
Finish the stack of books I have on the life behind the Little House series

Today's plans for the afternoon:

• hit up the local garden center/home improvement store that is having a 50% off sale on vegetable starts
• laundry - I did wash two loads already, but things need to be folded and put away
• baths/showers for the kids
• getting set up for work tomorrow, which means making sure jackets, slippers, and so forth are ready; anything the kids want to take to my mom's is by the front door; and things of that nature
• We're going to "force" M to watch Hugo with us tonight. Such a good movie!

Hope you're all having a good weekend, and Happy April Fools!