Thinking, Planning, Choices to be Made... UPDATED

We're thinking about fall. A few choices have been made, but there are still some to go.

For The Boy, we know he will be:

• taking art and basic welding this fall (spring 2016 still to be decided) at the local junior college. Art is for enjoyment, and the basic welding is part of the automotive repair training certificate program. The Boy has decided that he intends to complete the automotive repair certificate program, and take all applicable tests to become a fully certified mechanic by the age of 17 or 18.
• doing an overview of world history with the Big History Project  World History: Our Human Story, as per California state graduation requirements. Not that he has to follow those, as we are a private school, but he wants to "just in case", and this seemed the easiest route.  Plus, we like the K12 books! I think he'll just be reading through it for a "survey" approach.
• reading a lot. I'm putting together a list of suggested books, mostly dystopian or sci fi, but will leave it up to him as to what he actually reads off the list, aiming for at least one book per month. He'll be listening in on family read alouds as well.
• algebra. Which program to use? He and I are looking at and comparing: Life of Fred Beginning Algebra, Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1, TabletClass Algebra, and ChalkDust Algebra. This is proving to be a difficult decision! We do like Fred, but I worry that it isn't enough.... and video lectures might be helpful. I just don't know right now.  Update: He ended up choosing Teaching Textbooks as he wants the step-by-step instruction at this point.
• he will probably be finishing off reading the roughly 3/4 of Conceptual Physics that he neglected this last year. Or ????  Science will be integrated with his history program, using additional readings and documentaries, maybe lectures from The Joy of Science if I can get it.

Then, still up in the air:

• writing. I have The Lively Art of Writing on hand, as well as Fairview's Guide to Composition & Essay Writing, and both are quite solid, but then I love Brave Writer, and Help for High School is supposed to be fantastic. He might also be doing Excavating English, or using something like English From the Roots Up, or Word Roots.

For The Girl, we know she will be:

• for science, literature, and some light history (see below too), I'm putting together a plan based off of the Scientists in the Field series, adding in either literature or biographies with each title we cover. She'll be doing hands-on science through nature studies.
• doing some light history this year, mainly through books like Girls Who Looked Under Rocks, Girls Think of Everything,  and Girls Who Rocked the World. We'll just read through a profile each week, and she might keep a notebook/timeline of some sort. I decided that since she'll be hitting high school in another couple of years, and will do world then American history at that point, we could go "light" this year.
• spelling. Her invented spelling is very, very interesting, but hard for anyone besides me to actually read. I think I've settled on Spelling Works, though I am also considering Spelling Workout, or Megawords. I'm also looking at Apples & Pears, as it is supposed to be very good for dyslexic students.
• and plenty of reading. She is finding books she really enjoys, though I will continue making suggestions, and I will be reading aloud to her, both from family read aloud books, and books she would love, but that are above her current reading capabilities.

And up in the air:

• math. Math Mammoth? Life of Fred Fractions, then Decimals & Percents (both after some fall multiplication/division review with Math Mammoth)? Saxon 7/6? She says no to Teaching Textbooks. And thank you Erin, for mentioning Math Essentials. This looks like it might be right up Cassia's alley!
• and writing. Again, it comes down to Brave Writer (the author suggested Partnership Writing to begin as The Girl has not done a lot of writing), or a more "standard" approach, with something like Jump In (although I might have to do a fair amount to "secularize" that one), or maybe Evan Moor's Writing Fabulous Sentences & Paragraphs , or something like Core Skills Writing 6?

And for both, I know we will be:

• using the old Great Books academy schedule (no longer available on their website!) of math, writing, science, and literature 4 days a week, then a 5th day with history, geography, the arts, and maybe philosophy or logic (I'm leaning toward The Fallacy Detective). Of course, our time frames will likely differ from what they have listed, example: The Boy may well spend an hour 4 days a week doing math, not 30 minutes!
• using our Afternoon Basket, though I haven't decided quite how yet. I know we want to read good books together, and enjoy some more of Richard Halliburton's travels (geography), etc., but I have to put it together.

A Weekly Wrap-Up of Sorts...

We have been BUSY here lately! I can't wait for next week to be over, as I will then be on summer break. Well, sort of. I still have one tutoring student, am helping with an advanced English class at the local junior college, and am still sewing cat toys on the side. But I will be less busy, and that is good!

So here's a quick run-down on what we've been up to...

Exploring creek side trails

Watching the Peggy Sue Cruise

We saw so many beautifully kept/restored cars!

 And The Boy, with the help of his best friend, J, got to do a pretty major job on the car. They put on new front brake pads, which involved removed tires, a lot of pounding to get things loose, some tools borrowed from a neighbor (as some of ours are missing), and lots of grease, as you can see!

At least now my brakes are working well, and not grinding when I stop.

We've also been... 

watching movies (Excalibur and Mists of Avalon last weekend)

Enjoying a read aloud of Holes

Getting ready for M's birthday tomorrow

Preparing to celebrate summer at our park day, and then at home on Sunday (I think I'll make these muffins for Sunday's breakfast, and I am making this dip to go with strawberries for today's park celebration)

Rearranging parts of the house

I've also been fairly hard at work on the front yard. My brother-in-law, when he lived here, insisted on keeping a small patch of lawn out there, which he surrounded with bark... bark that brought bindweed with it (I am sure Jessica can sympathize). We had thought about a gravel and plant combo, but have decided bark, combined with grasses and flowering plants, would look nicest... if put over a weed cloth barrier. And I want to plant a Meyer lemon tree to compliment our very healthy olive tree. We also have well established lavender, rosemary, and sage to work around, as I like landscaping with herbs too.

image courtesy of dogislandfarm.com

So I have been tearing up dead lawn (thank you drought), removing bindweed, and daydreaming about something prettier.

Cooking-wise, the kids and I have been eating a lot of meat-free dinners when M is at work in the evenings. Inexpensive and healthy. Do you have any favorite vegetarian main dishes/meals to share? I'm always looking for new ideas!

Have a good weekend, and

Morning in My Garden...

"Morning is the best of all times in the garden.  The sun is not yet hot.  Sweet vapors rise from the earth.  Night dew clings to the soil and makes plants glisten.  Birds call to one another.  Bees are already at work."
-  William Longgood

Reading...

 "The whole world opened to me when I learned to read." 

Mary McLeod Bethune 

For The Boy, it was Diary of a Wimpy Kid... the book that hooked him indefinitely on reading. The Girl has at last found her hook, The Time Cat. She reads aloud to me little snippets that she finds especially beautiful, and when not reading, talks eagerly of returning to her book. She carries it with her wherever she goes, in case there is a "moment to read".

Oh, the Agony...

I wish high school had not gotten here so quickly. I am in a quandary with planning for The Boy. On the one hand, I feel maybe he needs to have a full plan, a "real" high school line-up, and on the other, I would love to see him continue his exploration of the world. I am set on math and English... everything is fine there. But, once I move past the "skills", the "content" areas befuddle me (see here for content subjects/areas versus skill subjects/areas). I worry about not giving him enough, versus overloading him.

He too vacillates a bit between the two. "Mom, I should do all the regular high school subjects, just in case", or "Mom, I really feel I do better when we unschool some stuff."

It doesn't help that there isn't a lot out there, that I can find, about unschooling the high school years. It seems that many unschooling families do a 180 when they reach ninth grade (How to Stop Unschooling Attrition), or at least I've seen that in more than one case. Of course, I have read about studies like this one: How do Unschoolers Turn Out?, and I've heard of unschoolers heading off merrily to college, like the Colfax family, I still worry.

What if I turn my wonderfully curious son into the class dunce?

I don't know yet if I have the courage it seems it will take to make this jump, this leap of faith.

Any words of wisdom out there?

School's Out for Summer!

Well, sort of. We still have a lot going on! Both kids have come up with some plans for their summer months...

The Boy:

Finish reading

And then read

 

[I love Edward Gorey's art....]

Take a four hour (free at the library) class on

Go to a car show or two with his best buddy

Take another workshop at the library on printing with a

And then there is The Girl

She gets a couple of library workshops with friends too...

And she has fallen in love with a book...

To be followed by ???

And of course there will be beach days

And river-swimming days

And hiking

Movies, a few good books (we're planning to read Holes next -- I understand it is very good, and we enjoyed the movie!), a few random field trips to be determined, some general laziness when we're not doing yard work, or home repairs. They're keeping up with their math over summer as well, but are off of all other "official" homeschooling until fall!

 I'm also planning to read some "unschooling" books from the library, among them HomeGrown: Adventures in Parenting Off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, & Reconnecting with the Natural World; And the Children Played; and a couple of David Albert's books.

Do you have any fun summer plans? I did read this great blog post yesterday, which got me thinking about little ways to add some fun.

What a Weekend!...

Yes, that is a very large tree branch, ON MY HOUSE! Saturday afternoon, The Boy, The Girl, and I were over by the computer, checking out footage from The Boy's birthday gift camera (an older GoPro), when we heard a terrible, and very loud, wrenching sound, followed by cracking noises and a tremendous "swish", then an equally tremendous THUD! The only other thing I remember is yelling to the kids to "get down, get down!", throwing myself over The Girl, and seeing The Boy duck and cover his head with his arms. The Girl was screaming.

Then dead quiet. Until M came out of our room, where he was getting ready for work, yelling "What the %^$# was that?" He thought something had exploded... or ???

We saw branches pressed up against the window right next to us (the large window in the picture)... I am so thankful it didn't break all over us! The neighbor's elm branch hanging over our family room menacingly for the last several years had finally cracked off. We had been worried about this for a while, as we've had some smaller branches come down, and the neighbor was trying to work out a way (physically and financially) to remove the dangerous branch. At least we don't have to worry about it any more! And no real damage was done, and no one was hurt. PHEW! And the neighbor already got the mess cleaned up, and offered us the firewood.

In other news...

Outside My Window...
Cool, cloudy mornings. Today, the first day of June, was actually so damp out from the fog that I had to use the windshield wipers a bit this morning on my way in to work, and there were puddles gathering! I'm hoping that will counteract some of the drying out that is already happening around us in the 4th (or is it 5th?) year of drought.

In My Home and Kitchen...
We made a delicious roasted chicken this weekend (it was in the oven at the time of the tree crash), and last night I cooked pappardelle with alfredo sauce, broccoli, and leftover chicken. I plan to make stock this week as well, and Thursday (The Girl's late derby practice night), I think I might make Sopa Seca. Tonight we're planning on split pea soup after fencing. Yes, split pea soup in June, as the evenings are still very cool. I am doing better at planning meals ahead again, utilizing leftovers well, and a lot of homemade foods!

As far as the house, we're keeping things tidier these days, and have winnowed out a lot that we don't need.

In the Garden...
We had almost decided to not grow any veggies this year. Between the poor soil and the drought, we were a bit reluctant to plant. Then M came up with a lovely design for tiered boxes, using scrap wood we already have, and compost from our own garden. We're building the boxes/tiers this summer, and will put in a fall garden. In the meantime, we've got tomato plants, and I am planting more herbs. I've decided rather than a gravelled front yard (as I had mentioned here), to work on incorporating meadow grass and more native plants that attract bees, butterflies, birds, and moths... i.e. a meadow garden/native cottage garden. We've been enjoying the presence of butterflies and hummingbirds, and would like to see more!

And we have fruit coming on...

Fresh cherries ripening

Apple blossoms AND apples

We're talking about adding a Meyer lemon tree, a dwarf apricot, and maybe one other fruit tree to our "orchard".

In Our Homeschooling...
We've pretty much wrapped things up "officially" for this year. However, we are doing some light summer schooling, with the continuance of Life of Fred (math), reading about British history (Great Tales from English History) and bringing in movies as appropriate, and some good books over the summer. We also have plans, mostly with friends, to attend some library workshops for teens: 3D printing and Minecraft coding (The Boy), henna body art (The Girl), origami (both), duct tape crafts (both), etc. And we're hoping for beach days, river swimming, a few trips here and there... We also plan to read a children's version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, as we will be going to see a production of it in July!

I am having fun daydreaming about/roughly planning out the first blocks of our Big History/Science and Big Fairy Tale projects for fall!

Reading and Watching...
We've started Great Tales from English History, and find it to be very enjoyable. We're still reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and have Through the Looking Glass at the ready. We might listen to The Hobbit on audiobook (since we only got a third of the way through it) after finishing The Last Olympian. What are you reading this summer?

We've finally gotten the kids interested in Star Trek! We've started with Enterprise, and then will watch the old series before moving on. We had a two movie weekend, with Total Recall and Daddy Day Care. It was a silly movie kind of weekend, and yes, I definitely consider parts of Total Recall to be silly. This upcoming Friday, I think we'll watch The Eagle to go with British history, and then on Saturday, something lighter.

On the Agenda...
I am down to the last week or two of one of my tutoring jobs, though the student's family has asked me to continue working with her for 11th and 12th grades, (she's in a public Waldorf school). The other student (homechooler) will be tutored right through the summer. I am also back to grading papers for a college English class this summer. Fencing and derby practices continue too. I have four weeks left at work, then am off for seven weeks! M is picking up more hours at his new job -- he's excelling there, and loves it. I love having him come home from work happy! Exhausted, but happy!

Have a good week, and Happy June! Do you have summer school plans?

image courtesy of hourglass-paperboats