April 2010 Archives

I know many homeschoolers are currently finishing their school year and looking towards planning next year. Therefore, I thought now might be a good time to explain how we homeschool.

First, I choose our course of study and books. I use Charlotte Mason and AmblesideOnline (AO) as a guide. Though we are eclectic homeschoolers, I would say we are Charlotte Mason followers at our core. If you have not heard of Charlotte Mason or her educational ideas, please read AmblesideOnline's Introduction page. In a nutshell, I would say a Charlotte Mason education is filled with good books and beautiful things.

Second, I don't follow AmblesideOnline's booklists explicitly. You'll notice that their Year 8 is not exactly like my Year 8. One reason for that is that I make substitutions according to what is available to me. Another reason is that AO travels through World History in only two rotations. I chose four rotations - each lasting three years. Potatoes, Potahtoes. Both choices are valid.

Third, I make checklists for each term. These checklists itemize every chapter to be read and lesson to be completed.  In a few cases, as in the Free Reading section, the checklist merely lists a book title. The date when the assignment is finished is to be written in the blank next to the assignment.

Here are our current checklists:

Year 5 - Term 2 Checklist.doc

Year 8 - Term 2 Checklist.doc

And here is a snippet for Year 8:

Utopia by Sir Thomas More.

_____ Of the Cities

_____ Of the Magistrates

_____ Of the Sciences, Crafts, Occupations

_____ Of their living

_____ Of their journeying

_____ Of Bondmen, Sick Persons, Wedlock

_____ Of Warfare

_____ Of the Religions

I let the children complete assignments at times of their own choosing. The Montessori part of me believes that it stifles a child to always demand that Geography lessons take place every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00. However, we are currently working on "Together" subjects (such as Plutarch and Shakespeare) at 2:00 each day, but we chose this time as opitmum for all, much as a college student would sign up for Intro to Criminal Justice - choosing the best fit for her schedule from the days and times offered.

A new addition to our school this term is a wooden recipe box filled with index cards. This idea was born out of my need to give my children a visual reference as to how much work should be completed each week. We all have ADD or ADHD here and it is very easy to become distracted. It would be very unpleasant to arrive at the last week of school and still have most of a seven-page checklist of assignments to complete. Not that I'm saying this has happened. Oh, no, we have never hopped down all the delightful bunny trails of knowledge to suddenly find responsibility staring us solemnly in the face. Ahem.  

Anyway, I divided each book or subject's assignments among 12 weeks and wrote one index card for each time an assignment should be completed during a week of school. For instance, Plutarch's Solon has twelve sections and one should be completed each week. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has 24 sections and two should be completed each week.

When a child completes a lesson of Solon and writes the date on his checklist, he should also move a Solon index card to the Done area of the recipe box. At the end of the week, all of a child's cards should be in the Done area. On Monday, all of the child's cards are moved back into his or her own section of the recipe box and the process begins again.

We have found the card box to be a very helpful in keeping us on track with our educational goals and it looks like we will continue using it.

I hope this post has helped explain how we homeschool and helps others on their own homeschooling adventure. Please let me know if you have any questions. You can comment here or, if unable, send a missive via email: mrshappyhousewife at yahoo dot com.

I am still working on the 100 Species Challenge (looks like Melissa Wiley is also). Now that everything is growing and blooming again, I'm hoping to work much more on the challenge. For those who have forgotten, the goal is to identify 100 species of plant life in your area.

Number three on my list are Rain Lilies: 

I've already counted this species, but I can't help showing these new photos. Last Friday, the children and I dug up scores of bulbs around our yard to plant in pots. When wild plants show up in the yard, I try to rescue them from the lawnmower.

Digging up the bulbs was very educational because we got a chance to see how large bulbs would form bulbous growths that, with time, would separate from the mother bulbs to form bulblets.

I am hoping to plant these bulbs in a flower bed next spring. As for now, they have been saved from the mower and the weedkiller spray as my husband and I do not agree on what constitutes a "weed".

I do not think anything this lovely could ever be called a weed. I am trying to help my husband understand that there is a difference betwixt a plant blessing and a plant nuisance.

I think he must be coming around to my way of thinking because he kindly spared mowing a Rain Lily in the front yard which I had overlooked. Or perhaps he did that just because he is so indulgent of my gardening fancies. 

For a Christian, every day is Earth Day because God made the Earth and everything in it and set it under the stewardship of man.

For a bit of "earthy" scripture (courtesy of my Twitterfeed today):

The Caron yarn company blessed us again with a free yarn sample - this time a very soft Bamboo blend.

It's so soft. I can't wait to try it out.

Wow, today is simply packed with significance.

It's Patriot's Day.

Concord Hymn

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's fifteen years since the OKC bombing:

It's the anniversary of Israel's re-birth:

And the "new" Pope marked the fifth anniversary since his election.

What a day filled with sadness and celebration!

It rained for twenty-four hours at my house and some local ducks decided to throw a little party on my back fence.

In other news, our Mango tree bit the dust recently. A frost weakened it and then it caught a blight of some sort. I finally decided it had to go last Friday and my children kindly did the honors. With their bare hands, they ripped the stump from the ground. Here is photographic evidence that my kids are mighty strong:

Would anyone like to suggest a replacement fruit tree species?

Am I the only mom who hums the Redwall theme song? I always thought the tune was rather catchy.  I never actually watched the show, but the children saw all of the episodes - thanks to Netflix. And, yes, they informed me of every discrepancy with the Redwall books.

For those who play instruments, here is the sheet music.

The Official Redwall website is here.

Today is the 5th anniversary of my foray into the Blogosphere (though, I did have a Geocities website long before 2005).

And what was that very first post of mine?

"Everyone Needs a Little Love":

These cinnamon mints I bought last week at Jo-Ann's Etc. are tasty but I really bought them for the TIN.

The accompanying photo has long since disappeared into the vapors of the internet, but the tin is still going strong in my purse as an impromptu (and inexpensive) pill box.

I seem to be celebrating important anniversaries left and right lately.

Last November, it was the 10th anniversary of this little homeschooling adventure of ours. Who knew that those early days of phonics and addition would lead to Dante's Inferno and polynomials?

And my husband and I will celebrate 15 years of marriage this summer. Phenomenal!

But today I fondly remember that single sentence that propelled me into the land of blogs and posts, of navel gazing and soapbox minutia. 

Hundreds visit my little part of the internet every day and I appreciate each and every one of you.

Thank you all for stopping by.

May your day be filled with...

It is very sad when a blogger must be reminded by her son to post. It's not really that I forgot, though; I've just been so occupied lately.

Spring fever has hit me and I keep thinking all the time about planting and growing.

Also, I've been terribly busy outfitting my rapidly-growing children. But I only enjoy shopping in theory, so let's return to the topic of planting.

I have this wonderful husband who actually buys me dirt. Buying dirt is an activity my children still find perplexing, but it is impossible to do anything much with all the sand we have lurking beneath the surface in this neighborhood.

My husband also bought me seed packets: True Lavender, Yarrow, Snow-in-Summer, Blue Flax, Mammoth Sunflower, and Black-Eyed-Susans. It is one of my life goals to grow my own sunflowers. It's another life goal to eat sunflower seeds I've grown. Kissing the Blarney Stone is yet another goal, but that's a tale for some other day.

In addition to all these seeds, I planted my Grand-MIL's amaryllis bulbs. Now, she said they were amaryllis, but it seems many bulbs of the Amaryllis family are erroneously called "Amaryllis". All I really know is that these bulbs grow lovely flowers.

This is what the flowers looked like when the plants bloomed back in April of 2006.

So, it's not that I've forgotten y'all. I'm just busy at the moment cleaning the dirt from underneath my fingernails. 

The backyard birdfeeder has been in desperate need of a makeover for quite some time - a makeover being much less expensive than buying a new birdfeeder. I finally could not stand it any more and took a few minutes this weekend to slap a bit of paint on it.

We chose the paint from amongst the half-used gallons in our garage. It's "Olympia" by Valspar.

For three days, we have waited with bated breath to see what bird would be first to visit our painted birdfeeder.

As you can see here, our first visitor had a bushy tail and was not a bird.

Oh, well. I suppose the birds haven't yet gotten the memo that we have a buffet ready for them.

Easter celebrations at my house may have been a bust, but I did manage to whip up a couple of Peep Bunnies:

The pink one is 10in x 5in and the yellow one is 3 1/4in x 1 3/4in. The eyes and noses are painted on with brown paint. I managed the eyes and nose for the tiny Peep Bunny by using an unused pencil eraser to paint the circles. Worked perfectly.

The pattern for the small Peep Bunny is here. I just copied and pasted the pattern into Microsoft Word and then enlarged it to make the large Peep Bunny. 

The yellow Peep Bunny is for myself, but the pink one is for my daughter who says Easter is not complete without Peeps to eat. (Yes, we made sure she had some edible Peeps, too.) I told her not to eat this one - might cause indigestion.

Yesterday, after yet another doctor visit (hip, hip, hooray), we popped over to Walmart to comb through the clearanced Easter candy. Post-holidays are when we indulge the children with sweets and it's a bit of a treasure hunt to find the good stuff in the randsacked holiday aisles.

Candy isn't the only thing clearanced after Easter is over. I also snatched up these 50% off Easter baskets. I'll probably use these in my craft cubbies in the Family Room. I really like that the handles fold down, unlike most of the baskets I acquire.

Also, if you're looking for Toy Story III and other children's theme tin buckets, Walmart had those. 

So, now is the time for inexpensive baskets and decorative buckets, as well as solid chocolate bunnies.

I'm home this Easter morning. A family member has come down again with the Spring Plague that is going around.  I'm home and there are so many other places I wish I was.

I wish I was in church. I wish we had a church. I wish I wasn't in constant pain. I wish I didn't have to take medicines that cloud my faculties. I wish I was not so impatient. I wish I didn't cry at the drop of a hat. I wish I could spend just one day healthy.

I wonder if Christ had wishes, that night in the garden, the night he sweated blood.

How much did he know about what was to come?

Did he know just how much he was going to suffer? Was it the pain of torture that hurt him so or the betrayals and abandonment? Which was worse: the nails or the broken heart?

I don't know, but I do know that when he exclaimed, "It is finished," on the cross that it wasn't. It was far from finished.

The story didn't end on the cross, in the darkness, in the midst of a coming storm. It looked like the end, but things are seldom as they appear.

And as much as we are persuaded that the story ends with sunrise services, with frilly dresses, with fancy brunches, with pastel eggs, with fluffy bunnies, that is not the end either.

The end has already been revealed; it is no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. The end is no more pain.

Today is not the end; it is the remembrance of things past, the celebration of things to come. Today is the reminder of Christ's promise to those who take up the cross and follow him.

Our story doesn't end alone in the dark; it ends with jubilee. 

Remember that offer from Caron for free samples of their new line of yarn? Although we understood the offer to have ended after only two days, my daughter and I sent our requests anyway.

I've always wanted a Hobbit home. I think it has something to do with the round doors. I prefer round things, curvy things. They meander gently, without the sharpness of angles.

Knowing my fondness, my daughter made me a tiny Hobbit hill with a minusucle Hobbit house.

Isn't that so sweet? I'll completely overlook the fact that she made this whilst she was supposed to be engrossed in schoolwork. Ahem.

Really, though, who can be mad at her for long? She is such a sweet lass. And her left eyebrow always rises when she laughs. Just like her father.

He has very curly hair and promised she would too. He swore she'd have a head full of delicious baby curls.

Imagine my surprise when the midwife handed me a nearly-bald baby girl. But my husband promised me...and I've been bringing that up for fourteen years. 

Yet, the poor child still had nothing but straight hair.

Then, suddenly, these springy spirals came from nowhere. I still can't believe it and I can't stop making them go boing-boing.

What an obnoxious mother I am!

But, honestly, could you restrain yourself around such angelic ringlets?

It took quite a while, but my husband did indeed keep his promise and gave me a beautiful, curly-tressed daughter.

But I supplied the freckles.