Quote of the Day

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.”

1:59 AM - Oct. 20, 2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Blogger School Assignment #3

This week’s assignment is to share favorite internet sites.

My favortie website has to do with meal planning. For me, homeschooling is a piece of cake compared to planning meals week after week. Sometimes I need a little inspiration to keep it fresh and fun.

Favorite website

veganlunchbox.com

Content of website

A mother posts pictures of the lunches she packs for her son and then rates how well he liked them.

Meat Eaters
Don’t be turned-off by the vegan part. If you are a carnivore, you’ll figure out how to get meat into your meals, and the website meals can be adapted easily enough. It’s not a recipe source as much as it is an idea generator.

It's fun to look at all the different lunches. Well, I think it’s fun anyway.

12:52 AM - Oct. 19, 2006 - comments {8} - post comment

Amish Book for Kids

7:44 PM - Oct. 17, 2006 - comments {1} - post comment

Ambleside Aha! Moment

Fellow Amblesiders will appreciate this, I’m sure.

Last week, while waiting for the kids during their music classes, I read from The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution by Barbara W. Tuchman, and whom did I run across in the narrative but that dashing fellow, Sir Philip Sidney.

The kids and I had just read about Sir Philip Sidney in Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. He’s the chap who, dying from battlefront injuries, gave his cup of water to an injured comrade instead of drinking it himself. "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine,” he gallantly, and I assume hoarsely, uttered.

I was tickled to see him in my reading, and I knew the kids would be, too. I’ll share our conversation and that magical moment that homeschooling moms delight in:

Roo (that’s me): Guess who I read about in my book today?

Son: What book?

Roo: Oh, it’s a book about the Netherlands and the American colonists, but I read a part today about the English. Guess who was in my book.

Son: The Netherlands? Where Peter Pan lives?

Roo: Um, no...So anyway, I read about Sir Philip Sidney in my book today!!!

Daughter: Cool.

Son: I’m hungry.

Hmmm. Now that I see it in print, I see that the moment was rather subtle (some might say almost non-existent), so I highlighted the magical moment in blue so you can’t miss it.

You know, Sir Philip Sidney was quite accomplished beyond his ability to speak poetically while dehydrated. He even wrote something to inspire bloggers:

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,

'Fool,' said my Muse to me; 'look in thy heart and write.'

~ Sir Philip Sidney

12:12 PM - Oct. 16, 2006 - comments {3} - post comment

Quote of the Day

10:01 AM - Oct. 13, 2006 - comments {2} - post comment

It's All in the Presentation

8:47 AM - Oct. 12, 2006 - comments {4} - post comment

Blogger School Assignment #2

Just the other day I decluttered our ABC books since my kids have outgrown them. Then, today I received the next assignment in the blogger school: we're supposed to come up with one word for each letter of the alphabet that relates to something important to us or describes something about us.

I keep thinking, "Ichabod is Itchy and so am I." (That's from Dr. Seuss' ABCs. I'm not really itchy, and I don't know what's up with Ichabod.)

Here goes:

Ambleside Blues Crystal Daughter Enough Family Giggle Homeschool Independent Jukebox Kiss Lakes Mom Needle Organic Peace Quiet Read Son Thankful Urban Vegetarian Walk Xchromosome Yoga Zen

12:01 AM - Oct. 12, 2006 - comments {13} - post comment

Something Fishy

On Columbus Day we took a field trip to Wowza Big Deal Wild Animals in Captivity Adventureland. What was I thinking going on a school holiday?! Remind me not to do that again.

After we toured, and endured, the Wowza Big Deal Wild Animals in Captivity Adventureland, we walked to the nearby beach. The kids jumped the waves, ran on the beach, laughed, ran some more, splashed some more, hunted for shells, got dirty, tired, and hungry.

What part of the day do you think they will remember? Jostling with a crowd to get a peek at a seahorse, or laughing on the beach while the waves splashed them?  I know the argument that animals in zoos provide an educational experience which may help in their species’ survival, but I can’t help but wondering if the animals in captivity would agree it’s such a great experience.

I’m glad we went to Wowza Adventureland, but the real fun, real education, and real memories, came from a simple walk on the beach.

I have the world's largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all the beaches of the world... perhaps you've seen it.

~Steven Wright

11:25 AM - Oct. 10, 2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Blogger Friend School Assignment #1

I was a bit hesitant to join a blog school group, but everyone seems to be having fun with it so I’ll give it a shot. According to the rules, which I’ll try really hard not to break, I’m supposed to introduce myself and tell why I started a blog, and then describe my ideal home. Okay, here goes.

Who am I:

Hi, I’m Roo and I’m homeschooling mom.

Why Did I Start a Blog:

Pretty much everything I’ve posted so far comes from conversations with RealLife homeschoolers, friends, and family. This blog is a way of extending those conversations, and exploring some different ideas that pop into my head, too. I was inspired to set this up after the school shootings, of all strange inspirations. I wrote about this in my first blog entry.

I used to love to write. I haven’t had time for the past several years to write, and I miss it. I have more time now to get back to it. I am rusty with my writing, and I know the only way to get my groove back is to write. So here I am.

What Is My Dream House:

I’ll be a sap and say that I really like my home, and I’m happy with where I am.

I’d feel even happier if I had one more room.

With a door.

Just for me.

Alone.

Oh, and I’d love a home with very little in it, but full of clear and open interior space. This is the type of room I love:

And if I had to chose a different home entirely, I would pick Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright. Why? Because it’s perfect. See:

12:25 AM - Oct. 9, 2006 - comments {6} - post comment

Pioneer Spirit

I thought the world’s regional differences have been smothered under globalism, but reading Learning To Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler made me feel, well, all-American.

The book is a true and contemporary memoir about a young American who goes to a small town in Japan to teach English in a Japanese middle school.

Sometimes you don’t understand your own culture until you see it through another person’s eyes. In the book, the author tells how the Japanese describe the American pioneer spirit.

For example, when the American teacher plans to travel from the small town where he is living by train to Tokyo to visit a friend, a colleague tries to accompany him, assuming it will be difficult for the foreigner to travel alone. The American explains that he can manage the trip independently, thank you very much, and the Japanese man marvels at his pioneer spirit.

It seems so easy to travel alone. Is that really a pioneer spirit? It seems funny to me that someone would think so.

Do we still have a pioneer spirit in this country? I guess we do. It must be the American in me that is turned on by being independent and willing to march to a different drummer. When everyone is doing one thing, it seems natural for me to question it and often do the opposite thing. I thought that was just my ornery personality, but perhaps it’s my national heritage showing through, the comfort of having a choice.

Obviously the book deals with the educational system in Japan. As an educator, I was fascinated with the differences between the Japanese and American systems of schooling. I admired the cooperation and sense of obligation that is emphasized in the schools, and I got some ideas on how to implement that with my family.

Other aspects of the educational system saddened me, especially the forced conformity. Compared to the strict school conformity there, I definitely feel like an American pioneer as a homeschooling parent. The idea of parents bucking the system and homeschooling must seem absolutely alien, or American, to the Japanese.

One episode truly amazed me. The American teacher planned to set up a game of charades for the kids to practice their English. As the American explained the game to the Japanese teacher, he mimed the word “mother” by cradling his arms and rocking them back and forth as if he were holding a baby. The Japanese teacher couldn’t guess what that movement meant, and the American told him he was pretending to be a mother. The Japanese teacher said the students would never understand that gesture.

When the children played the game in class, the student who drew the word “mother” in charades demonstrated the word by making devil horns on her head and then shaking her finger in a menacing way. The other kids guessed the word. Not exactly the apple-pie image of motherhood that I take for granted.

2:14 PM - Oct. 8, 2006 - comments {0} - post comment