I am going to have to take a break for a few days, maybe even a week. My computer has decided to have a mini-breakdown. This breakdown has taken away my email services as well as the usual way to get into the internet. In all of my sneakiness, I found a backwards way to get on the internet but it is a pain in the patootie. So I will be taking the computer into the repair shop tomorrow. I probably won't get it back until Wed. or Thurs.
I am going to use this internet--free sabbatical to weed my garden and use the unit study on Nim's Island with my kids. This unit study is found at Homeschool Share. We started this last week and had a ball with it. We learned all about hurricanes on Thursday. It was very well timed as we had tornado warnings just south of us. So the kids were wound up pretty tight as the wind and rained blew us around on Thursday night. This week we will spend time with oceanography. If you have some free learning time this year, I really recommend this unit study. All you need is right in the lesson plans. It is an awesome study.
This summer has been a bit atypical than those in the past as I have been able to get lots of reading done. I don't know how that is happening as I am getting my work done as well. Maybe, after all of these years, I am turning into a superwoman--able to get every task done at a blink of an eye! I'll wait a minute while you gain your composure.
Anyway, we have been reading alot in this family lately so I thought I would share our titles. Books are meant to be shared.
We finished Snow Treasure last week and have moved on to Nim's Island by Wende Orr. What a delightful book! Mia could have easily read this book on her own but it is such a fun book that I am glad that we are reading it all together. I also found out that Homeschool Share has a unit study on this book. We saw the movie a few months ago but it does not compare at all. We loved the movie but it is totally different than the book. It is like having two separate stories.
Rocky and I are reading Children's Treasure of Animal Stories by James Herriott. This book is a selection on Ambleside Online for Year 1. I really like this book and, thankfully, so does Rocky. The pictures are beautiful and the stories are endearing. I think that my favourite year so far of AO is Year 1 due to all of the book selections for that year. Books like Pinocchio, Paddle to the Sea, Peter Pan and Herriott's book add to the charm of that first year.
Mia is reading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright. This is one book that I have not pre-read. I am relying on AO for picking good choices. This is a series by Enright. We were able to get the rest of the series at Chapters a few weeks ago.
On to my reading, I tried to read Resistance by Owen Sheers. I have heard lots of this book but it just is not doing it for me. I have decided to give up for now and maybe try again in the winter when I will have more patience for plugging along with a book. I have moved on to Drop Shot by Harlan Coben. I love Coben, but a word to the wise, his books are not for the faint of heart. Cobens books are dark--terrifyingly, scary, dark. The language is rough as well. Then why do I read him. Hmmm. Because I like the story line. (That is as lame as the music has a good beat.) I just really like Cobens writing style plus he knows how to tell a good story.
i have also come into the possession of I Kissed Dating Good Bye by Josh Harris. We had an incident in our family a few weeks ago that opened my eyes to the reality that my children are growing up at a quickening pace. Subjects in which I thought I had lots of time before I had to deal with are presenting themselves at my doorstep. I realize that it would be very wise to read up on courtship and dating so that my husband and I can make an informed decision about how we want this issue to be addressed in our family. Then we can start preparing our children for this decision. I realized after our little incident that preparation is never too soon. It is better to start paving the way when they are young so that it becomes second nature to them as they get older. A friend gave me her copy of Harris book (thanks Lola) and I have been reading it. I am liking what I am reading so far. His words are very wise.
I have also just finished Wisdom and Eloquence by Robert LIttlejohn and Charles Evans. This book is about Classical Education. It is also written from the viewpoint of a private Christian school, so the information is not always helpful to me as a homeschooler but there were some good points made that I would like to address in a future post. I am now reading Classical Education by Gene Veith and Andrew Kern. I have just started this so the jury is still out on its helpfulness.
There. I think that is all the literature that is being read in our house these days. We have a wide kaleidoscope of genres and choices, but that is the way that it should be.
Tueaday is the day for the weekly edition of the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival. Every week, Jacqueline gives those who wish to particpate a theme or a jumping off point for their posts. This week, seeing that it was Independence Day on the 4th, Jacqueline suggested that we might share links from American blogs or websites that have helped us in our homeschool journey. For me, that would mean a few pages of links but I think I can narrow the number down so that they will fit in this post. These sites have given me much food for thought in the area of improving our learning time. I am indebted to the people who have given of their time and gifts to share their thoughts and ideas through the cyber world.
Here are the sites that have helped me form our learning time. Some have have given me a gentle push to wander out on a less-traveled path. That push has made our learning that much more exciting.
Ambleside Online is an online Charlotte Mason curriculum. If you are interested in this philosophy, then this is the place where you need to park for a few weeks as there is so much to read and learn. I use this curriculum for my book lists but they also have suggested weekly schedules that you can follow t take away the stress of figuring everything out yourself.
Living Math if you have read a few of my posts you know how indebted I am to the owner of this site for saving our math time. This concept of living math used to be an unusual concept but now it has really caught on. I have heard that the schools in my region are starting a pilot program using living math to teach this subject. Homeschoolers were the first to put this idea into play and actually use it.
Handbook of Nature Study Nature study has been one area where we have flagged behind. I am not good at this part of our day. But this site has sparked an interest in nature study for me. The owner is using Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study as her spine. She has made up lesson plans aka activities with each area of study from Comstock's book. Each week she submits a new lesson. Even I think that I can do this with the help of this wonderful site.
Elizabeth Foss' Real Learning blog is one of the blogs that I read faithfully every week. I have been touched by her honesty and her desire to help other homeschooling moms. This blog is a treat to read every week.
Melissa Wiley is another person whose blog I read quite regularly. I love her humour. She portrays such an inviting picture of homeschooling and learning that I wish I could be a fly on her wall so that I could see how it all plays out. I think learning in her house would be fun.
I am going to wind up my thoughts on leisure with this short post on how to apply it to our children's education. This stream of consciousness that I have been subjecting you to as of late has been very helpful for me to organize my thoughts and to see life's truth.
I mentioned in my first post that a CD lecture by James Daniel on leisure was what got me started on this path of thought. Mr. Daniel's recommends taking time out of your day and present your child with a question based on what he has been learning. Give him time to just think about his answer. Don't rush him because you have to move on to Grammar. Just let him ponder and muse about all that your question entails. Giving him this time to think is considered leisure. He isn't being lazy during this time, he is thinking. His mind is being productive in contemplating every aspect that is evident in your question. Then give him time to answer your question. Discuss his answer. Meet his answer with more questions to cause him to think more deeply. This is leisure. Giving a person time to think.
After listening to this tape, I thought of another way to lay leisure down in your learning days. Usually we, as teachers, try our darnedest to squeeze as many reading books into our chidren's year. Whether they be read alouds, books that your children must read, history, literature, science, etc. We push as many books as we can towards our children. I am guilty of that as well. My reasoning towards this is that there are so many books to read and I want to give my children every opportunity to read them all. Do you see it, though? Do you see the busy-ness poppiing it's ugly head up even in our children's reading schedule? It is everywhere!
I think that this is where Charlotte Mason had the right idea. She advocates reading books slowly so that the child can inhale and exhale the book as he/she reads it. When a child runs through a book at breakneck speed, he rushes past any connections he might find if he had gone through it slower. He has no time to simply enjoy the book and think of all that is buried deep inside its pages. He misses out on the most important part of reading.
I think that it is okay to race through books on occasion, but I believe that there should be some books that are taken to ramble through slowly. That is why Mia has her own books that she gets from the library that she races through. The books that we read, just the two of us together, are read at a snail's pace so that we can enjoy it all the more. We haven't started discussing literary elements with our read alouds but that is my plan for this coming year. I don't want to discuss the book to death, but I do want Mia to be aware of the various elements of a story and it's devices. I also think it is better to familiarize her with them now than to wait when she is in high school. Teaching her these elements will give her a strong foundation for thinking in leisure about the characters and the plot of the story.
In thinking about this concept of leisure, I have been given much food thought as to how I want to educate my children. It has given me a starting point. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you.
I wrote a post yesterday on leisure. As I was writing out my thoughts, I realized that my thoughts went beyond just one post. As I have had time to think this all through, I have decided that to do this justice so that there are no rambly, meadering thoughts, I am going to write two more posts on this subject. Today's post will deal with leisure from the perspective of everyday life and being a Christian. The next post will be from an educational point of view.
Yesterday, I commented on how busy-oriented we have become as a society. It seems that we try to out-busy each other. If we can prove how busy we are, then we are also proving that we are a popular, interesting person. What does this busyness actually produce? Other than exhausted, drained humans, we are producing people who cannot handle being alone with themselves and their thoughts. In our world today, our children have to be on the go constantly, either physically (going somewhere to some class or game) or mentally (game boy or whatever the modern version of this is--I am so behind in the technological world.) All of this action fills up their brain so that they don't have to think, ponder or contemplate the simple things of life. I am afraid with all of this busyness, we are deleting our child's ablility to think in a beneficial way.
As I have written before, the month of June was a whole pot of busyness for our family. We were on the go for the entire month. As a result, my children had a cranky, grumpy (is there any other adjective for miserable that I am leaving out?) mother. I was exhausted the entire month of June. As a result of this exhaustion, Satan was able to worm his way into my thoughts and lay eggs of doubt and despair. I started thinking extremely negative things about myself. I dumped on myself constantly about how I was not being a good mom or wife. Those thoughts found a great breeding ground in my tiredness. It's funny, I didn't have time to think positive thoughts but time was not needed for the negative ones to move on in. Satan can do many things under bad circumstances.
Thankfully, I wisened up by the time July rolled around. I decided that I was going to make a conscious effort to stay home more during this month. We would go to church on Sun, to town one day to get mail then if need be we would go to the bigger town on the other side of us for any social opportunities that might come up. This might still seem like alot but compared to the pace of June, I feel like I am standing still. It is glorious! I can't believe the difference all the way around. My children are much happier because they can actually play at home (today they played in the mud in the garden.) I am happier because I am able to get most of my work done during the day. There is much happiness in productivity.
Now this is where we actually get to the definition of leisure. Leisure does not mean that you are doing nothing. Leisure is not equated with laziness. They are not on the same level. Being productive can still be termed as leisure. The key here is that the productivity or the work is not being done at a maddened pace of busyness. We are not barreling through our jobs so that we can move on to the next one. Again, this type of work pushes out any ability to think. When you are speeding through your day at the speed of light, you are thinking only of what you have to do next, you aren't enjoying the world around you, you aren't able to think about major life issues that are staring you in the face. Taking life at a leisurely pace enables you to praise God for His wonderful works. You have time to think about what you just read in the Bible that morning during your devotions. You have time to pray about that life issue that has been screaming at you lately. You have time. What a wonderful concept!
I have discovered the gift of leisure. I have also discovered that the gift of leisure is wrapped up in the concept of rhythm. When your days flow together in a seamless rhythm, thoughtful, peaceful productivity is more apt to take place. We have our rhythm down to an art right now. We go outside in the morning so that the kids can play and I can cut grass, water gardens, obliterate weeds. After lunch, we have our learning time and then we clean the house. So is the simplicity of our days. In this simplicity there is still much work but it is work that is done in worship, in prayer and in thought. I have solved a few of the world's problems in the past two weeks--all due to my time of leisure.
It seems to me that we, as a society, are a very busy bunch of people. We try as hard as we can to fill up every waking minute of our days. In order to feel like a really busy person, we have to broadcast it to anyone who will listen. If there are any waiting ears, we promptly tell them of how busy our days are. We complain that we have no time for ourselves. We complain about being tired. We complain about being so busy that we have no time to think.
It seems to me that we use this uber-busyness as a badge of honour. If we are busy, then we must be important, we must be very popular, we must be an exciting person to be around. We use our busyness as a measuring instrument of what kind of person we are. If we spend our days running around from one event to one dr's appointment to one's friend's house then back to another event, then we are a person of value, a person of importance.
I have fallen into this trap as have others that I know. My month of June was jam-packed with things to do and people to see. I was exhausted but I rattled off our doings to anyone who listened. In a way, I was proud of our busyness. This meant, as a homeschooler, that we do have a life. My children are capable of being out in the world. They do possess social skills. I find that others in my life do the same things. I listen in amusement as we rattle off our lists of 'busyness' to each other. It is as if we are having a 'busy showdown.' Who is the busiest? This has all gotten to the point of craziness.
I recently listened to a CD on leisure by James Daniels. This CD was part of the Circe Conference in 2006. The theme of the conference was knowledge. This lecture was one of the best that I have listened to in quite awhile. Mr. Daniels humbly upbraided our society for running through life at breakneck speed. He applied this to school. We, as teachers, race through our day's lessons as we fear that we won't get done all that we had planned. We barrel through the curriculum as we worry that we won't get done the book before the year's end. Racing through material is what school has become. What do we have to show for it? Well, we got done our plans. We finished the book for the year. Yes, but do your children really know anything of what you raced through? Did they attain any knowledge during the year? What's more important, did they have a chance to think, I mean really think, about the information you stuffed down their throat? Or did you just leave them hanging there in their thoughts as you careened off onto the next subject or the next topic?
According to Daniels, in barreling through information, we are not teaching our chilren how to think, how to savour, how to enjoy all that they are learning. We are just shoveling their little brains with information but we are not showing them where to put that information. The only direction that they know where to put it all is out. That information goes out of their brain just as quickly as we stuff it in... if we don't give them time to sort it all out. We need to give them time to ponder all that we have given them. In letting them ponder, there is a better chance of having the knowledge stick. They are able to keep that information in their brain so that they can use it again in the future when a situation arises that requires them to use what they have learned.
Daniels recommended that we give the child some time--5 or 10 min-- after we have filled them up with information. We ask a question then we give them time to think of the answer and all of its ramifications. We give them time to think, to process, to ponder. All the good things that come when we are able to relax and be calm. Adding the leisure of thinking to our schedules will benefit our children in ways that we could not imagine.
I was going to address this issue with one post but I still have more to say and I have three children who are asking for pancakes with raspberries for breakfast. I think I will continue my thoughts in another post next time.
I have become a big proponent of daily rhythm -- of how your days flow to together on a consistent basis. I have seen from our winter rhythm how having a daily rhythm can instill a peace and a calm into our house that never existed before. It helps my kids see that every day is, essentially. going to be the same. There is comfort and stablitiy in sameness.
There wasn't much flowing rhythm in our days during the month of June. On the contrary, every day was quite different from the one before. As a result, the month of June was full of chaos and stress -- not just for me but for my children as well. I have seen first hand the results of having your days go nilly willy.... and I don't like it.
This is why we have gone back to the safety of daily rhythms for the summer. There is something about having a summer rhythm that is so relaxing and, again, calming. I am giddy with excitement as I have seen how our days have unraveled in the past week. I am very happy with our summer rhythm. More importantly, my kids are comforted by this rhythm as well.
Let me tell you how our days usually pan out. I get up around 7:00 and have some me time before the kids wake up. They wake up whenever they wake up. I do not wake them up during the summer. This means I could see their sleep encrusted faces anywhere from 7:30 to 10:00. We all have breakfast and then I quickly clean up the kitchen. We read a few picture books to start our day and then we all head outside. The kids may help me weed or they will go off and play while I cut the grass and water the flowers. We come inside to fix lunch.
After lunch, we have our learning time. Rocky has reading daily and Mia has math daily as well. The rest is gravy. If we have time, Rocky might do math and Mia might get some cursive in. We also take this time for our read aloud. We are not at all structured during this time. Whatever we get to, gets done. Make sense, doesn't it?
Quiet time is then slotted in after our learning time. Then comes the house cleaning. The kids help me with this if there are jobs that they can do. If not, then they play while I clean and tidy. By this time it is time for baths and fixing supper.
That's it! That's our day! It is very simple. I think, though, that is why our summer days mean so much to me and my kids. It's simplicity nourishes our soul.
In the past ten years, it has seemed that our society has become label happy. We are looking to put some kind of label on our chlldren that explains his learning difficulties, behaviour difficulties or any other difficulties our chlldren may have. It occurs to me that some parents may run to these labels as to alleviate any blame that may be put on them due to their child's out-of-control behaviour. These labels have multiplied to the point where it is out of control. You need a can of alphabet soup to figure out just what these labels stand for: ADD, ADD/HDD, SID, VPD, PDD, APD, and the letters roll on. It amuses me when a new malady is given a new rotation of letters to add to the roll call of labels.
Now, that I have written about my amusement with these labels and why I am cynical about the birth of some of them, I would like to write about why sometimes these labels are useful. They are useful when they are used in productive ways. When we look at labels, we see them as putting a child into prison. To our thinking, a label binds a child to that way of learning or behaving for the rest of their lives. We give up on that child because of that label. That label becomes his scapegoat for everything he does in life. Obviously, this is not productive. Labels, though, can be used to help a child deal with their surroundings as well as the way that they learn.
Last year, after reading a book on sensory issues, I realized that my children all had these issues. One of my children had them more predominently than the other two. What I used to think of as ideosyncrasies or personality quirks were actually my child dealing with over-stimulation. I have written about this before but it seemed like a light flooded my world. Things were starting to make sense. I read as much as I could about HSC (alphabet soup again), Highly Sensitive Children. That information was freeing to me and my children. I was able to take that information and find ways--strategies if you will-- to help my chlldren cope when they were overwhelmed with the world. These strategies have helped my children cope in a sometimes scary world. Now, some of these strategies are common sense but others were life changing for my children. For example, learning about rhythm has saved my children's sanity. When something comes up that causes a child stress or fear, we simply follow that situation with one that gives peace, like painting, reading aloud, listening to music, etc. As I said before, these ideas might be common sense but if you don't know the reason why this behaviour is gushing out, it makes it harder to know what to do to stop it or at least to slow it down a bit.
Learning about HSC last year was freeing. It allowed my children to overcome these little ideosyncracies. We weren't living a life of bondage, on the contrary, we were able to live a life of victory due to this knowledge.
Last month, another label was thrown at us. This time by a professional who knows about these sorts of things. I did some reading and I agree with this woman that my child has all of the characteristics of this label. Another light flooded the path that I was on. This path had been one of fear and paralysis. I knew there was something not quite right but i just didn't know what it was. People around me gave me the 'you are blowing things out of proportion' card. I knew that I was seen as a label-happy mom but I knew my child. I knew my child better than anyone else and I knew there was something off kilter. Turns out that I was right.
When the label first came upon my ears, I felt that old familiar fear. I had never heard of this label before. It did sound very much like a prison sentence with no hope of parole. I was overwhelmed by all that this professional was telling me. I needed a couple of days to process all that was being thrown at me then I began to take action. I started to read all that I could about this label. I read things by the proponents of this label and the nay-sayers so that I could get a full picture. After reading all of this, I still believed that my child had all of these characteristics.
After I was sure that this label was accurate, I started to read about things to do to help my child. I have been reading about the various kinds of therapies that may be taken to help with this problem. I took all of this information and made a decision that I think will be beneficial to my child.
I have decided to take the summer and read even more about all of this so that I know it all inside out. In the fall, we will take our child to another professional to get an official diagnosis. I do this only because I don't want to put a label on my child through an armchair diagnosis. I want this to be official as this is a big deal. If this is confirmed, then we have decided what kind of therapy we will take. But most of the work will be done by me. I have been reading lots and lots of how to help my child on my own.
This knowledge has been overpowering to me. I now have a plan of attack, if you will, on how to help my child to learn. I have gained this plan from talking to the professional, other mothers in similar situations and reading lots of information. This label is not going to be a prison sentence. My child will overcome this problem due to the knowledge that this label has given us. I am certain that we will be in victory over this alphabet soup label.
Labels can, indeed, hinder a child but they can also help. We just need to know how to actually do this. Knowledge is the first step.
A few months ago, I had the delightful experience of reading Leif Enger's first novel entitled Peace Like a River. The odd thing was that this book was published in 2001 and I had never heard anything about it until just before I ordered it from the library. I was at a loss as to how this book escaped me for seven years. I loved this book. Leif Enger's writing style is charming, if not one of genius. If I were to be a novelist, this would be the type of writing that I would spin out. The story of Peace LIke a River was interesting as well. It is about how a murder affects a family. The family that is the subject of this book is the murderer's family. This book was a great read.
As I was reading this book, it came to my attention that Engers had just published his second book, So Brave, Young and Handsome. I immediately ordered it from the library. It finally fell into my hands two weeks ago. I dived into it right away with great expectations. I was to be disappointed. I could not get into that book. The writng style was its same charming style but for some reason, I couldn't fall into its pages. I couldn't get wrapped up into the story. It took me a week to get to page 69 and that is where I sat for two days. I kept picking up other books other than that blue covered one. I still don't know why I faltered. Maybe it was the story. The book is about a struggling writer in the early 1900's whose path crosses with an outlaw. This was along the lines of a cowboy story (of sorts.) Admittedly, I am not into cowboy stories. This might be why I dragged my feet through the first 69 pages.
Then Wednesday night came along. I could not sleep for reasons I will not disclose here. I finally decided at midnight to come to the realization that I was not going to go to sleep right away. I went into the living room and took THE book with me. I figured that this might be a good way to fall asleep: read a book that did not interest me. It didn't work. After page 69, the story picked up and my reading speed sailed away with it. By the time I went to bed at 2:00, I was on page 120. The rest of my reading timeline goes like this: Thursday night I was on page 189 and I finished the book yesterday morning.
In my opinion, So Brave, Young and Handsome wasn't as good of a story as Peace Like a River but it was still a great read. Also, Leif Engers is an extremely talented writer. I sincerely hope I don't have to wait another 7 years for his next book.
I heard those ever familiar sounds at 3:30 this morning of pounding feet on the bathroom linoleum. As I listened to Mia heaving the contents of her stomach into the toilet, my first thought was "what do we have to cancel today?" It was so nice to hear the answer of "nothing, we were going to stay home today, anyway."
Yesterday was our first day home after two weeks of galivanting all around the province. It was a blissful day. It was a warm, sunny day which, in my books, determines the level of bliss that is sprinkled throughout that day. We all went out first thing in the morning to do yard work. The kids and I weeded then I cut grassand watered flowers. I even had time to make dessert for yesterday's lunch. Dessert has become a lost art in our house as of late.
After lunch, we had some school time. Rocky practised his reading and Mia did her math. It didn't take long at all. We also had time for everyone's read alouds. I am reading Henry and Beezus with Rocky, Pollyanna with Mia and the family read aloud is Snow Treasure. This book is the telling of how Norwegian children smuggled gold bullion past the Nazi's during WWII. It was a slow start but we are starting to pick up speed in our reading.
When learning time was over, the time that the children had been waiting for all day finally arrived. We watched Spiderwick Chronicles on DVD. It was extra special for everyone because Daddy came home early to watch with us. We haven't seen Daddy much lately so this was a special treat.
Mia and I had already read Spiderwick Chronicles. I let her read them because the line between good and evil was very clear. What was more important was that good had won out over evil. In my opinion, this is very important in children's literature. I wasn't too sure, though, if the movie people had made that same distinction so I watched the movie the night before the kids did. I was relieved to see that the movie carried this out as well. They made it obvious that Jared, the main character, who began the movie as a trouble maker, evolved into a boy who showed perseverance and courage in order to save his family from great danger. Knowing all of this, I let all three of my children watch the movie.
I told them beforehand that the movie was very scary. I encouraged them that, if they felt scared at any time during the movie, they could go play in another part of the house. Rocky actually did this half-way through but he came back after the scariness calmed down. I thought that there were two characters that were of the heebie-jeebie nature: Mulgareth, the Ogre, and the Troll. The other characters were weird looking but not terrifying.
There were a few things in this movie that I did not care for but know that this is inevitable in a movie. There were many places in the movie where God's name is taken in vain. I know that in our society it is common place to hear people utter "Oh my God!" but I don't like to hear it. Also, there were two instances of out and out swearing. The other thing that was disturbing to me was the blatant disrespect of Jared towards his mother. It could be argued that he was just dealing with the emotions of his parents separating, but the tone of his voice whenever he talked to his mother was bothersome to me.
All in all, I thought it was a good movie. The girls liked it, too. Rocky has decided that if we watch it again, he will play in his room.
So we have another day at home. I think, though, that I will spend most of my day nursing a sick girl.
Our month of craziness is officially over. We have had a very busy month of trips to Cypress Hills, Sask Landing, visiting, dentist appointments, soccer, etc. We have decided, though, that a person cannot go through this kind of pace two months in a row, so we are staying home for the most part in July. I am looking forward to it with baited breath.
The highlight of our month came on Sunday when we went to the Science Center in Regina. We went with friends of ours. We had a blast! We had been to the Center once before when Missy was a baby so that was about 5 yrs. ago. We had a great time then but the two older children were so young that they were limited in their level of enjoyment. This time, though, we enjoyed all of the exhibits to the max.
Right now, the Science Centre has a Magic School Bus exhibit on weather. It was awesome. There was a television camera there in which Mia shined in giving the weather. There were many different stations to explain the various phenomena of weather.
There was a also a hockey exhibit, a bubble station (we stayed here a very long time) and an animal habitat room. We stayed in this room the longest. I think we were in this room a half an hour. There were video games to play with regards to the frog (this was a favourite amongst my kids.) There were a few puzzles with bird calls and animal scat (poop--they will make puzzles out of anything these days.) There was also a neat playroom for Mia. We went there to recuperate while the older people stayed in the hockey room trying to regain the glory of their youth.
After the Science Centre, we made a stop at Chapters book store. This is my favourite store in the world. In this book store, it is okay to read the books while you are in the store. Our friends dropped off me and the kids at the store and they went to do some errands of their own. The kids played with the in-store train set while I wallowed in the childrens book selections. I was deliriously happy. What added to my happiness was the knowledge that there was a Buy Three Books, Get One Free sale going on during that week.
I came away with a stack of wonderful chapter books for children. I really like the Regina Chapters. They have an amazing children section. There were many books there that you kind find anywhere else, unless maybe a really good homeschool resource store. I bought books from these authors: Jerry Spinelli, Elizabeth Enright, Edward Eager, E.L Konigsburg, to name a few. I was quite happy with my purchases.
The day was a total success. My kids had much fun with my friends kids as well as running through the Science Centre. I had fun in the book store, visiting with my friend and watching my children run through the Science Centre. What is more, I had always been under the assumption that the centre was a hard place to drive to. I am not a city driver. I was sure that I would get lost in driving to the centre. Well, it is the easiest place to find, as is Chapters. You know what that means: more trips to the science centre and the book store. Oh, what bliss!
I have never been one to do things traditionally. I have always done things differently. I am not one to follow the rules per se. When I got engaged, I did not want an engagement ring because I don't like wearing rings. I asked my soon-to-be husband for an engagment necklace. He gave me a beautiful necklace that held my birthstone, surrounded by tiny diamonds. This meant so much more to me than a diamond ring. I did not go the traditional route and put my children in school. I teach them myself. Where I live, this is extremely unusual (although, I am pleased to say that there are more like me as the years go by.) As a Christian, I do not attend a traditional church where hymn singing takes place. I am a member of a Pentecostal church where we worship God with loud but beautiful music. Even though, this church steps far from tradition, the Word of God is preached and it is preached loudly and strongly.
I guess you could say that I am a person who thinks outside of the box. I do not follow rules. Let me clarify that statement. The rules that are in place for my safety and the safety of others are the rules that I follow. But some rules are in place that just do not make sense to me. These are the rules that I break. I don't break them in a rebellious spirit. I break them with much thought and for good reasons.
When we went to Cypress on Wednesday with our friends, we talked about thinking outside of the box. My friend, K, is also one who follows her own path. In going down this path, we have a sense of freedom, of Christ's freedom. In following some of the senseless rules that are in place in today's society instills a sense of bondage. This bondage is not in accordance to God's Word.
Let me give you an example. While we were at Cypress, we took all five of the kids to play mini-golf. That was five children between the ages 2 and 9. The traditional way to play mini-golf is to wait in line until eveyone has had a turn hitting the ball. Then you keep taking turns until everyone has put the ball in the hole. Then you move on to the next hole. This is the tradtional way to play. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this way was not going to work with five young children.
We were the only ones on the golf course. I told the older kids that they could go to whichever hole they wanted to go to, but they could only play each hole once. They could not play a hole twice because we only paid for them to play once. I stressed this a few times. The kids understood. The younger ones stayed with K and I so that we could keep track of them. K and I played the holes in order. We were having a great time. The kids were so enamored with watching the balls going in all of the various holes. Mia had gone to the holes out of order. She went to the last ones first, then worked her way to the first holes. This cut down on that dreaded waiting.
As Missy and I were playing a hole, I saw the owner come out of her hut and make her way to Mia. I heard her say something about playing out of order. I made me way to the lady and asked what the problem was. She said that Mia was playing out of order and that she couldn't play the holes twice as we only paid for one round. I explained to the lady that even though Mia was playing out of order, she was told to only play each hole once and this was what she was doing. The owner then told me that she had to play in order. Why? was the word that kept pounding in my brain. We were the only ones there. Why did she need to go in order?
I told Mia that she needed to play the later numbered holes, the ones that she hadn't played yet and that she needed to go in order. Mia couldn't understand why either. After we were finished the game, K and I got into the van and we both said at the same time, "That woman does not know how to think outside of the box."
I hope that I never fall into that trap. I hope that I will be able to think critically about rules--follow the ones that keep us safe and ditch the ones that do not make any sense. What is more important, I pray that I will be able to raise my children in knowing how to think critically about all of those rules. I pray that they will be able to see that some times in life it is okay to go out of order. It is okay to think outside of the box.
The rains have finally stopped so my life of leisure is over. I am back outside trimming, mowing, weeding,etc. You can tell that by the absence of blog posts this week. I am having difficulty in getting everything done so blogging is the first to go.
We went on another field trip yesterday with another homeschooling family. We went to Cypress Park which is a provincial park here in SK. It is quite beautiful there. I feel like I am back home in Ontario when I go to Cypress. We had a pond dipping there. We played on the beach as our kids caught leeches (then let them go.) I have never seen leeches before. They are the neatest looking things! We played miniature golf, had some ice cream, then went on a nature hike. The park is full of trails. The kids loved exploring the woods. We even saw a few deer up close.
Soccer is just about over. Hip, hip, hooray! Tonight is the last regular game for Rocky. Monday would have been the last game for Missy but it was canceled due to storm warnings. Saturday is the end of the year tournament then it is all over for soccer for the year. I can't say that I will miss all that driving. I am looking forward to staying home a little bit more.
My infection has come back. Remember the infected bump I had on my head? Well, the surrounding area is now infected. I am back on antibiotics. If this doesn't work then I guess we go on the assumption that this might be something other than an infection. Hmmm.
The kids and I are going to the Science Centre in Regina on Sunday. We are going with some family friends. The kids are very excited about this. The last time we went, I think Mia was 5 yrs. old. So it is time to revisit. We are hoping to go to the IMAX as well, if there is a good movie playing.
Let's see, what else is popping up for the next week. We are going back to Sask Landing on Mon. to play on the beach with some friends. Mia asked to do this in lieu of a birthday day party (her birthday was on June 14th.) Tuesday, we are having some friends come over for lunch. These friends have two boys that are similar in age to my two oldest. They have never come to our house before so we might have to show them the grand sights of the creek. We have dentist appointments on Wed as well as hair appointments. Next Thursday, I am hoping to help a friend pack as they leave for Missouri at the end of the month. Then, I do believe, the craziness is over. We might actually be able to stay home for a few days at a time. That is my hope, at least.
I have a few rambly things to write about today so I will be doing some jumping across rabbit trails in this post, so I invite you to jump along with me. 
Odds #1-- The 8th edition of the Canadian Home Education Carnival is up. Check it out. If you are from Canada, a blogger and are not already involved in the Carnival, I urge you to look into being involved. Jacqueline would love have to more participants.
Ends #2 -- I received lesson plans for living math history that is written by Julie atLiving Math. They are awesome! I am so excited about doing this with my kids. Another homeschooling family has agreed to join us on this math adventure. We will meet twice a month to go through the plans. There is so much offered in these pages. There is also a myriad of activities found in the readers that are part of the book list. You could spend a great deal of time just on one lesson. I don't know if I can wait until Sept. to start.
Odds #3 -- I can't remember if I had written about the dilemma that I had over writing. I was trying to find the right curriculum for Mia for this coming year. I had bought Writing Strands but I have heard over and over that it is not a good program. I will still use it but not as our major source. I have Classical Writing Aesop and we had used the A book last year. I didn't go any farther with it as CW can only be bought at Lulu's. We do not buy online so this crossed this option out for us. I didn't see any point in going on with Aesop B if we weren't going any further with the other books. Someone suggested Imitations in Writing. I looked at it. I wasn't sold on it but I thought this might be my only option. Thank goodness I hadn't bought it yet.
Yesterday, an online friend brought my attention to the fact that Rainbow Resource offers Classical Writing on their online catalogue. I am ashamed to admit that I didin't believe her at first. I went over there to check it out and she was right! It is there in all of its cyber glory! Wahoo! I am so happy! Now we can continue on with Aesop B then we can move on to Homer next year for Grade 5. This is all just fitting into my plan so nicely.
Evens #4 -- I am jumping back to math again. I had to buy some math spine books for our living math history plans. Our library didn't have them. The only place I could find them was at Amazon. Due to our not buying online, this left a pickle in my plans. I called my brother and asked him if he would be willing to buy these books for me (I would pay him back, of course.) He very graciously agreed to do this. Well, I received one of the books in the mail yesterday. The book is The Adventures of Penrose the Cat by Theoni Pappas. I should probably insert here that this particular book isn't on the book list but I had to make it worth my shipping charges so I bought some extra math books. This book is fun. There is talk about Fibonacci numbers, polygons, magic squares and fractal dragons. I can use some of this info for Mia when we get to this in the living math plans.
Okay, I think this is all for my ramblings today. You did a great job of jumping around the rabbit trails with me. Congratulations!
The Canadian Prairies, especially Saskatchewan, are well-known for lack of rain. SK is very dry. It does not rain very often here and when it does rain, it doesn't last that long. I remember the first year I was here as a farmer's wife. It hadn't rained in a year. The only thing this is good for is for conversation starters. Everywhere you went, you always heard people talking around you about the lack of rain. This is usually the topic of conversations amongst SK farmers. "When are we going to get that rain?"
This spring has been totally different. The opposite, actually. With the exception of 3 days, it has rained every day since June 1. Now, this is a very good thing, but even by farmer's standards, I am so ready for the rain to stop. It has been raining non-stop since yesterday at lunch time. Our driveway can now officially be called a lake. The grass is the greenest that I have ever seen it. This is all a good thing, but this rain is putting a hamper on our social life.
I have said many times before that we live out in no-man's land. To get to us from the highway, you have to travel 20 mins.(give or take) on gravel road. Have you ever been on a gravel road when it has been raining for days on end? It is not a pretty sight. It is even less prettier when you have to drive on it. Gravel roads are very soupy when they are met with unending rains. As a result, we have been staying home alot this past week.
Soccer games were cancelled the last two nights. Our weekly swimming get-together that we have with friends on Wed's will have to be cancelled. Tomorrow, we were supposed to go to our local library book sale and then have a picnic lunch with some other homeschoolers. If the rain continues, this will have to be cancelled, too.
I do like staying home but there does come a time when you do want to see the rest of civilization. I have come to that time.
The best part of my day is our family read alouds. I always get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I am sitting on the couch with all three of my children close by listening to the adventures and experiences of another person. This is the time when we make good friends with those literary characters. I love to see my kids falling into the plot hook, line and sinker. I love hearing those words, "Oh, Mom, can we read another chapter?" Those words make my heart sing.
It has taken us awhile to find our groove as far as the read alouds go. My children are finally at the age where they will all listen. It took a long time but we have finally arrived. There were many times that Rocky and Mia would sit with me listening to a great story and Missy would be running around the couch making car noises that competed with my voice. But those times are no more. Now, Missy will sit on the couch next to me sitting very quietly. I don't know just how much she understands but she fakes it well.
When Missy was old enough to listen quietly to our books, Rocky would delegate sitting positions for everyone present. One child would sit on the stool next to me, another child would sit on the top of the couch looking down at me and the last child would sit on my lap as I laid out on the couch. Every day, each child would change positions. Rocky knew where each child was supposed to sit on any given day. He had it all worked out. He would make a great foreman.
Now, though, things have changed. I can see that this change is a result of my children growing up (sob.) I still lay on the couch but the children now kneel at the coffee table or at the fireplace hearth. They are busy drawing while I read. We have those DrawWriteNow books. I bought them last year but, at the time, I was remorseful over this purchase as my children did not even look at them. I guess they just needed to grow into them. They use them every day now to make spectacular creations on paper. Mia is getting to be a very good drawer courtesy of these books and our read alouds. Rocky is doing pretty good too, he just needs time to grow into his drawing arm. Even Missy will try her arm at drawing or she will get her writing workbooks out and practise her letters while I read.
It gives me goose bumps just thinking about our times together. Everyone is quiet save the scritch-scratch of pencils and the drone of my voice. Right now we are finishing up Swallows and Amazons. I am pleasantly surprised at how much of the books my children have retained even though they are busy drawing landcapes and animals. This is the place that I had always hoped our read alouds would come. We have arrived!
I have always tried to pre-read what my kids are reading or what we are reading as a read aloud. I like to do this so I have a heads up if there is a part of the book that needs some special explanations. I also like to pre-read the books that Mia is reading on her own just in case she is not ready emotionally to handle it. Now, I don't necessarily read all of our books. Like I won't pre-read Trumpets of the Swan or Homer Price just because I think they are fairly safe. I definitely read the more modern books that Mia is reading as some of them can be questionable in their content.
I have learned not to trust other's opinions on books because they mght not have the same standards as I do. Case in point: two years ago many homeschoolers were reading The Penderwicks, a contemporary story of a family who is being raised by their father. Everyone was raving about this book. I got it from the library and proceeded to read it to the kids without reading it myself. Big mistake! The book was just too mature for my kids. There was quite a bit about boy/girl friendships that I just didn't want to expose my chidlren to--at least not yet. It was an okay book but I didn't think the writing was as spectacular as I was led to believe. I learned my lesson from that book. I now try very hard to pre-read.
Something else happened this past week that made me thankful that I pre-read. I had heard quite a bit about the book Artemis Fowl written by Eoin Colfer. I wondered if this would be a book for Mia. I found it in the library two weeks ago so I picked it up so that I could read it first. I quickly decided this was not a book I want my children to read, at least not until they are much older. The main character is a criminal. Everything he does is motivated by greed or by making life better for himself. His actions, on the surface, may be construed as being kind but the author quickly lets you know that his motivations for such actions are pure and simple greed. There are no redeeming qualities in Artemis, not that I could see. Also, there is swearing in this book. Mind you, it is a little bit but for a young person that is too much.
I was quite surprised to read this week of two separate cases where moms were recommending Artemis Fowl to others. They had not read the books but their 9 year olds were reading the series and liked it, so that was all they needed to know. That concerned me. A 9 yr. old is not old enough to critically think through a book in order to figure out whether it is a good book or not. They might like it, but that doesn't mean that they should be reading it.
I am in the middle of another pre-read. I have been hearing alot about this book lately as well. It is The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. I started it on Thursday and I am two-thirds finished. I really like this book. It is about a secret group of gifted orphans who solve puzzles and mysteries to make the world a better place. In the first book, they are off to an institute for the gifted in order to find out if the owner is brainwashing the world. The four children are, with the exception of Constance, polite, kind and thoughtful. They use these qualities to overcome the evil that is in the world. This book is ripe for all sorts of discussion. It is also a book that promotes critical thinking. I think that I will read this book to Mia sometime during this school year. I was actually relieved to like this book. It is nice to know that there are some contemporary books that are well-written and enjoyable.
i just want to reiterate something. I think that it would be okay for a 12 yr. old or older child to read Artemis Fowl but I think that for a 9 yr. old this is just too much of a heavy read.
My summer is going to be chock full of pre-reading. There are many books on Mia's reading list that I have never read before. Thank goodness I have read the ones on the lists of the other two. So there will be an end in sight....until next year.
We have had a busy and exhausting week. When I say exhausting I mean it in both the physcial and emotional sense of the word. I don't think I have had this kind of week in a very long time.
Last week, I wrote about an infected bump that I had on my head. Now, before this had happened to me I would have thought this as an inconsequential thing. Infected bump? Whoopee! What's the big deal about this anyway! Well, my friends, I am hear to tell you that infected bumps are huge in the world of pain. Who knew that a tiny thing in proportion to your body could cause so much pain and trouble in one's life? Again, I say, who knew? I know now. I will never trivialize anything as small as an infected bump. Not after the week that I have lived through.
That last paragraph sounds a tad bit melodramatic, doesn't it? You read the travails of my week and then you be the judge.
I went to the doctor last week with a very painful bump on my head. The doctor told me that it was infected. She gave me antibiotic, anti-inflammatories and painkillers. The aforementioned medication made me nauseous and loopy. The doctor told me that the bump would surely pop sometime during the week.
She was wrong.
I went back to the doctor on Monday of this week. She said that she would have to cut the bump and drain the infection. Now, I knew that this was going to happen. I had relayed this all to my parents and had expressed the fear that was building up in me about having someone cut into my head. I was expecting a mega amount of pain. My dad, in all of his wisdom, said that it wouldn't hurt at all beause they would freeze it. Fool that I am, I believed him.
He was wrong.
I had so much infection in the bump that the freezing didn't work. I felt every little incision that was made. I felt every little tug and squeeze. Now, this was not worse than childbirth, but it comes in at a close second. This hurt like the dickens. The doctor finally squeezed out all of the runny pus as well as a sac (the size of a gumball) of pus. To say it was gross was an understatement. The doctor put in some packing and let me go on my merry way.
I had to go to the pharmacy to get my perscription filled of more neause inducing drugs. It was supposed to take only ten minutes but it took thirty. I nearly passed out while waiting. I had blood dripping from my hair onto the floor. I am so thankful that the bump was at the back of my head so that I couldn't see the looks of horror from other people. When Mia saw my head, she exclaimed, "Oh. My. Goodness. Is that your brain that is sticking out?" I did look like Frankenstein's daughter from the back.
I had to go back to the doctor's on Tuesday to get the packing out. That was painful, but compared to my experience the day before, it was a walk in the park. They put a bandage over the incision so as to keep it clear of more infection. They put a bandage on my hair. Bandages are sticky. They pull hair. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to getting this thing off. But I put the possible pain out of my mind as we had our nature hike to go on on Wednesday.
Yesterday, I had to go back to the doctor to get the bandage taken off. Let me back up a minute, though, On Monday, the reading specialist came to meet Rocky. She assessed him for any reading problems. She came out again yesterday morning. She spent the entire morning talking to me, telling me of her assessment and giving me a plan in order to help Rocky. There was a lot of information thrown at me. This woman told me things that I had long suspected but was secretly hoping that I was wrong. She told me of how we can correct these problems but of course these things take lots of money, time and effort. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed from all that this woman told me. I need time to process it all.
Getting back to my bump. I went to the doctor's in the afternoon for that blasted bandage. Lo and behold, it did not hurt at all to take it off. What is even more important is that all of my hair is still on my head. I still have to wear a hat for a few days as it still looks a bit icky but compared to what it could have looked like, I am very thankful.
I went home to get Mia and then we went back to town (oh, the driving that I have done this week) so she could have her last swimming lesson. This is the third time that Mia has taken this level. Swimming does not come easy to our family. But Mia has worked oh-so-hard this spring on her swimming. We have been going once a week for family swim so she can work on what she needs to do. She was very hopeful that she would pass. Well, when we got the report card, she did not pass. Mia's words to me were "I worked so hard this time." Indeed she had. The things that she had not gotten the first and second time (the front and back crawl) she did get them this time. I immediately went to the front desk to sign her up for private lessons. As I was looking at her card, I realized that there was one thing not marked off that I know that was marked off on her previous cards. I mettioned this to the girl and she said that if I showed them the other cards then Mia could get credit for this. We only had to book one private lesson. We went back home and I looked at her previous report cards. The things that she did not get marked off on this report, were marked off on the other cards. I was a bit upset. I called the pool and told them my findings. The girl said that we could then consider Mia as having passed this level. Whew! The lesson learned here is don't throw away past report cards.
As a celebratory meal, we had ice cream and popcorn. I know, bad mama, but I was too tired to care.
Today it is raining. This means no planting of garden, no cutting of grass, no going to town to get mail. Darn. I guess I will just have to do laudry and read. After the happenings of this week, I am really okay about it.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about our homeschooling group and lack of group activities. Our group's meetings are sporadic. We have been doing some field trips but they were the generic kind like tour of the police station, fire station, etc . I wanted to do some nature hikes or have a group similar to a co-op where we would get together with other families and focus on one subject for a period of time. I am thankful for what we have but I guess it is human to want more. 
Lately, we have been given more. We have recently met another homeschool family whom we have really clicked with. I really like the mom and my children love her children. Her children are 6 and 2 but that doesn't seem to matter to my kids. They all play really well together. K and I have started doing things together as a group. We go swimming once a week. Yesterday, we began our group nature hikes. It was awesome!
Saskatchewan has two main parks that are quite lovely to visit. We went to the one yesterday. I have never been to Sask Landing before but after visiting yesterday we will go many more times in the future. Two university students gave us a nature hike and assisted us with a pond dipping. It didn't matter that there were only five children. They told us that technically we are a school so we get all of the perks that a public school gets. That was refreshing to hear.
First we had the pond dipping. The pond was dry so our guides made a makeshift pond. They had a sheet of plastic laid on the ground and propped up so the water wouldn't run off. They poured water from the pond onto the plastic. The gave each child a magnifying glass and plastic spoon and let them go at it. They had identification charts for the kids to figure out what they had scooped up with their spoon. My kids loved this, especially Mia. She and one of the guides spent a great deal of time trying to identify all of the tiny organisms that Mia was scooping up. We saw a May fly larvae and a May fly nymph from this dipping. We were able to explain the fly life cycle to the kids with these two organisms. It was really neat.
After the pond dipping, they let the kids explore the pond then we went on our hike. By this time, K's kids were getting tired we went on a tiny hike. I was quite impressed with our guides. They were quite knowledgeable about weeds, wildflowers, bird calls, etc. Mia was in her element on this hike.
The ending of our day came at the other side of the Saskatchewan River where we had lunch and let the kids play in the river. It is hard to find a really good beach in Saskatchewan. What people term a beach here in this province is really nothing but a small (and I mean small) portion of space with sand on it. It is not my definition of beach. Yesterday, though, I found a real beach. The beach at Sask Landing is wonderful. The kids had a blast making sandcastles and running down the beach into the water. The water was horribly dirty but the kids didn't mind so I tried not to as well.
We finally came home at 4:30 with a vanload of tired but happy kids. We had such a great day. It was so nice to be able to spend the day and the experience of a nature hike with another family who is like-minded. This has been a wonderful answer to prayer.
It's that time again. Time for the 7th edition of theCanadian Home Educators blog. This edition's theme is favorite homeschool resource or curriculum. Enjoy!
It is also time for theAuthor Fiesta's author of the month pick. This time the author is for June and July. This month's author is Mem Fox. I have only heard of her recently. We read Feathers and Fools last month. It was a very good book. Ms. Fox is from Australia so Cay has some activities to familiarize your chilldren with this country. As the month rolls on, Cay will also add resource sheets and other goodies in helping you with your picture book study of Mem Fox's books. Again, enjoy!