February saw my birthday, Valentine's Day, my and dh's anniversary (17 years now!)  and now in March, in just a few days, my oldest son will turn 16.  That seems just a significant age.

I tried to post a week or so but couldn't get on so I gave up.  I still have a testimony I want to  share with you.  I need to get off this now so Samuel can do more of his schoolwork, but I will try to come back to this soon!

Thank you to those who have left comments.  I'm sorry I have not been very active lately on HSB but I will try to improve. 

Absent without posting?  Yeah, guilty.  Sorry about that.   January started hard, but got a little better when I remembered to pray.  I still need to pray and remember that I need God's help daily.  

My oldest daughter turned 14 in January.  We're still planning a time to go to the pool with a couple of her friends.  This month sees a few special days.  My birthday (soon), Valentine's Day, and my anniversary are all in February.

I have a story to tell you, but it will have to wait until I have some time to spend on it.  It's not very long, but I'd like to tell it right!

...I've just been bad about posting.

The week before last, over the weekend, I was really dreading the week to come.  I just had no desire to homeschool right then.  I realized I needed God's help and had neglected to ask Him.  I did ask Him, and that week went OK, Praise God.  Last week went OK, but I did also ask God's help and blessing.  This week also has started out OK (although it's only Monday).  I know I rely on God's help, and have asked His blessing for certain things, but this afternoon I think I need to seek Him a bit more earnestly for His aid. 

I was sharing with a (former) missionary friend yesterday morning about www.sermonaudio.com, and mentioned a few sermons I had heard.  I told him about Duncan Campbell's testimony of what occurred during the revival on the Isle of Lewis, in the Hebrides in Scotland, back in the early 1950's.  He knew of it (that sermon is available in print too) and said that he had heard Duncan Campbell in person.  He preached "Is There a Broken Altar in Your Home?" - about prayer and if his hearers had been neglecting it.  Oh how I wish I could hear that today!   I need it myself, and such a topic needs to be preached in many churches I think.

My friend's wife is not so well.  I am knitting her a shawl.  Par for my course I've had to start it several times for different reasons but I think I'm on the right way with it now.  I've also got a few other WIPs (also par for the course).

Our hens are laying more now.  We now have 4 of the 5 hens laying.  The araucana, Stormie, has not begun yet.  I hope she does, I am looking forward to the colored eggs her breed produces.

Yoshi, Ben's chameleon, is doing well.  He has shed twice so far now, the second time happening today.  From start to finish takes about 3 hours.  I think it looks very uncomfortable and he expends a lot of energy twisting, turning, rubbing against his leaves and stems and otherwise manoevering to get the peeling skin off.  I've got a photo but need to upload it to Photo Bucket first I think.

David's sight has not improved.  He has a follow-up visit at the Eye Hospital tomorrow and I hope the doctor will have some good ideas to help David.

The gales last week were fierce.  Oklahoma has tornados, which cause so much damage and loss of life, but the gales here last for days, and this last episode saw the deaths of 11 people, and I don't know how many injuries.  We lost our "green box" (a plastic bin for putting recycling out for the council to collect) but nothing else.  We did have a dead tree in the back blow down, but it was quite small and did no damage to anything else.  Many people lost their electricity supply and some still had not got it back when the weather turned cold over the weekend.

That's all for now!

Unfortunately I ended up with a migraine and went to bed for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.  I got up and made meatloaf for the crockpot, with a little help from Kerenza (4 1/2 years old).   Despite my migraine I'm not too displeased with how things have gone today, Benjamin fussed over his math assignment but got on and did it (I haven't graded it yet though) and he did his handwriting.   Just a few minutes ago I had him start reading Farmer Boy by L I Wilder and  thought he initially said it was hard when he looked at it, I told him just to read a couple of paragraphs if that is all he could manage.  He got through almost the whole chapter!  So I am quite pleased at what he accomplished.  On other days I plan to "tag read" (I read some, he reads some) with him, as well as having him read a bit by himself. 

The older kids have done some of their work - my 15 year old son did less than his younger sister as he daydreamed too much but I'm OK with that for today.  I'm not OK with the fact that he couldn't find his Apologia Biology CD Rom. 

The little children did some pages of their workbooks and have played with Geomag, which is quite educational.  I found some at less than half price on Saturday so after calling David to ask if he wanted me to get some (I was having a "Mom gets to be by herself" afternoon in Oxford) I bought a few boxes.

It's not been as productive a day as I'd hoped, but not too bad given the fact that I'm a bit out of commission.

I'd appreciate your prayers about my migraines.  They seem to be getting more frequent and/or harder to get rid of. 

We got our 11 year old the chameleon he wanted for Christmas.  Yoshi joined our family on December 23.  We could have waited until the 24th to go get him, but I wanted to get him on Saturday so over the first full day of our having them we would be able to call Chris at the pet store if anything concerned us.

I took a photo of Yoshi tonight as he was going to bed.  I keep getting blurry pictures of him but you get the idea and can see his beautiful tail.

He is about 12 weeks old, so still a baby.

I hope you had a nice Christmas.  We had (and still have) no oven, but some friends lent us a counter-top oven, which I used for the turkey (crown) and I also used the crockpots.  It all worked out.    I'm even more pleased that we managed to have devotions on Christmas morning, Bible reading (with a flannelgraph set of the Nativity, sent by my mom), prayer, and even singing a couple of carols.   Last year our devotions were cut short by the breakage of a radiator and the subsequent panic of getting the water caught and soaked up from the carpet!   On Christmas evening David read the final installment of Jotham's Journey, the book we had been reading all Advent. 

May 2007 bring many blessings to all of us.  I'm hoping and praying that David's eye issue will be resolved.  He had an ultrasound on his neck done today, which showed normal blood flow.  He goes back to the eye hospital later this month. 

We're still on vacation from home education.    My plan is to start back up on Monday.  We will have an interruption on Wednesday as I take the older ones to the orthodontist and David takes Stephen to the plastic surgery clinic in Stoke Mandeville for a follow-up appt (he had burns from hot water back in September).  I think it all looks pretty good now.  The appt. is just for the consultant to see that everything has healed OK.

I may duck into the yarn shop in Oxford after the orthodontist visit on Wednesday.  David bought me a book from there last time he took the children for their appt. but I have not yet visited the shop. 

We got our 11 year old son the chameleon he wanted.  We all like Yoshi who is a Yemen or Veiled chameleon.  I'll try to get some photos up another time.  I hope we can do a good job taking care of this creature - they have a lot of needs.

I've got a number of finished projects I might show pictures of, and I've got a number of things I'm working on.  I've got two hats for charity going, and I've started my first pair of socks!  Of course I have a number of UFOs about (unfinished objects) -  I did work on one of them this afternoon, which feels good.

I've recently started listening to podcasts.  My favorite knitting one so far is Sticks and String - you can find it on David Reidy's website, www.sticksandstring.com.au . 

I've got a few things I need to grade from the "big kids" schoolwork from before we started our Christmas break.  I was going to do some this afternoon but had a migraine this morning and early afternoon, so I didn't get to it.  Maybe tomorrow.  I'm finally ready to tackle it - I thought about getting it done the first week of break, but I just did not want to.  A bit of laziness or perhaps burnout. 

I do need to do some praying - I'm still not 100% revved up for the winter/spring term - but I know God gives us the strength we need.  I need to spend some time with Him.

Have you already started back if you had a break?  If not, how are you feeling about starting?  Am I the only one not feeling ready?

Happy New Year!

Last Monday, I think, our oven was "condemned."  It had so much wrong with it, and was so old it was no longer worth repairing.  The lower oven I had been using, was corroded on the bottom and the eletrician told me not to use it any more.   So we've been using the slow-cookers or the stove top for our meals since then.

We've looked at some ovens on Ebay but have lost all the auctions we've bid on. I'd be willing to do without an oven for another month or so, it does mean no Christmas cookie baking ,but I could do without the calories so it's no bad thing. 

Speaking of David we've had a bit of a scare with his vision - to make a long story and several dr. appointments short, we (well, I and the drs) were concerned he had a detached retina.  After a thorough exam at the eye hospital it was discovered he has a blocked blood vessel which has starved his retina (we think) which led to the loss of 1/4 to 1/3 of his vision.   He is taking aspirin now, and hopefully the clot will dissolve.  If it does, the eye may repair itself.  That is what we are praying for.    He has to go back in January for an ultrasound, and then later for another appointment with the eye specialist.   Please pray for him.

We've taken this last week off.  I sure needed it.  Didn't get as much done as I'd like - either in housework, marking schoolwork, or even just sitting and knitting but it's been a good week.  I got my hair cut again - just about 3 weeks after a trim at my normal salon, and 2 weeks after getting it permed.  This time I went to another salon because I finally admitted to myself that I just wasn't happy at my former one and the girl there who does my hair, just too often doesn't get what I want, and when I have perms I've been disappointed.  At the new salon the stylist showed me what she would have done and used to get the effect I told her I wanted, and it made sense to me and in fact lined up with what I thought should have been done in the first place.  She cut my hair quite quickly, and even when wet I could see it had a much better shape it.   And to top it all off, as it was my first time there, the cut was half price!

We are getting ds2, Ben, a chameleon this Christmas.  David brought home the vivarium and all the stuff for it yesterday after work but didn't have time to work on it until today.  He had a half-day off, but still didn't manage to get a lot done on it until tonight.  Preparing to have this creature in our home has been a real learning experience.  We've learned about caring for one, and what kind of habitat they need, and tonight we learned first-hand about setting their kit up!

Ben was sick in the night last night.  I sure hope that no one else gets it.  On Wednesday night I felt queasy but didn't get sick, poor old Ben was sick for real.  Why do my children always get sick at night?  It's rare that they ever start anything in the daytime!  

If I don't write again before Monday, I hope you have a lovely Christmas!

we didn't electrocute ourselves or have an electrical fire.  On the bad side, it turns out that our oven is at least 25 years old, has too many things wrong with it to be worth fixing if we could, and we couldn't get the parts for it anyway - and the lower oven is unuseable due to corrosion which would allow any spills to get to the heating element.   So we need a new oven.  The repairman strongly recommended that I not use the lower, smaller oven at all now (which I had been doing, as it did heat up) which leaves us with the stove top (a separate unit) and the slow cookers.   I am thankful for those.

I do hope that perhaps very soon something will come up on Freecycle.

This beautiful template was arranged by a "secret sister" for me.  Isn't it lovely? 

Thank you so much, SS!!

This is about Men who knit. I've got two boys who have both asked me to teach them to knit. I need to get started with them! I might have them see this video. Knitting used to be men's work. Women did the spinning, but men did the knitting and weaving, in many cultures.  I remember reading that Icelandic shepherds walked with their sheep, while knitting, and recently learned that Japanese Samurai, after all the feudal warring stopped, took up knitting to supplement their incomes. (www.knitjapan.co.uk ; there are some pages about the history of knitting in Japan on it) I'm glad that such crafts no longer are restricted to one gender. I have pretty traditional and I hope Biblical views of family roles, but I think some of our views about things like art can be more cultural than Biblical.

No, not because the weather is great.  It's not too cold, but typically gray and it's starting to rain.  I think it's fine, because after I cleaned the chicken house out, I stood there watching my chickens who were loose in the garden, and I watched my two youngest children playing with chalks on the pavement that is at the bottom of our garden. 

It's a fine thing, to have the strength and health to take care of my chickens.  It's a fine thing, to have sight, and hearing, and leisure in order to watch both chickens and children.  It's a fine thing to have the chickens, and more-than-fine to have the children.  I am so richly blessed to have my five children.  How beautiful, and clever, and interesting they are all in their own ways.  I thank God for them, and for the time I have to spend with them.

Now off to do some knitting.  I'll probably be interrupted by Miss Four Year Old a number of times.  Oh yes, it's a fine afternoon indeed. 

Or perhaps that should be Apologia and the poncho....

My oldest son just finished getting stuff ready for a lab session on micro-organisms - we don't have a pond nearby so he went to the nearby stream and hopefully he got a sample from a slow-enough section that there will be enough little things to reproduce in his jars to which are added various goodies that the little things can feed on.    That was just a great example of a run-on sentence, wasn't it?

Dad is going to do the microscope work for the project this weekend.  He's a scientist, so I figure he can take some of the science!

I decided to take the poncho seams apart so I could add more rows, which will make the neck larger.  It will also make the poncho longer but with my height and size that won't be a problem.  The first seam went well, but on the second I had a minor disaster - I started taking apart the cast-on edge!   I was nearly dispairing but then I thought I could use a needle and sew the edge back together.  That worked and I am grateful.  I put more rows on one side, but haven't put any more rows on the second side.  I've been working on some wrist warmers, and a crocheted project for a gift.

I've also made some beaded stitch markers - I've never tried them before this month and I've been pleased at how they've come out.  I've made some of them for a swap on Fiber Freaks ( a forum for people who enjoy various fiber crafts). 

The other night I stayed up late and made some felt.  I decided to take a chance the next day and put my partially felted piece in the washing machine with some towels and let it go along for the ride.  I had read that front-loading washers didn't provide enough agitation but I tell you (and I should have remembered, from unintentional feltings in the past) that they do.  My felted piece is much smaller and thicker. Not a bad thing at all, but it was more felted than I expected it to be.

Generally with the homeschooling things aren't too bad  - but with all the difficulties with the one son ( a lot of emotional outbursts when made to do things even when well within his abilities), and just the normal hassles of everyday life I am ready for a break  - but can't really take one because we didn't really start until the beginning of October!  We've also had a few easy Fridays.  

We won't be doing much schoolwork on Friday, but we won't be having a real easy day either as I have to take the children to the orthodontist.  Only two need to be seen but I will have to take the whole family along.  We have to go on the bus, which is not an unpleasant journey, but it is time consuming and costly.   Sometimes dh will take them, but I think this week is not a good week for him.   The bus fare for us will be around £20.00 I think, and then we will eat out.  If we were stoic enough I suppose I could just get everybody to the bus stop immediately afterward and eat at home but I myself will be worn out from it all so I don't think that's a great scenario.  I think I will try to find something to see in Oxford that we haven't seen before, perhaps the Museum of Modern Art,  perhaps something else.   I figure if we have made the effort to get there we should take advantage of what the town has to offer, if it is not too costly.

I realized I never got a photo of the fleece poncho.  I had a photo taken of me at Wayland's Smithy last weekend, although you can't see it hanging down, you can at least get an idea, so here it is:

I'm crocheting, if you're wondering....

Today we are having a very easy day - my excuse is that it is Dh's birthday!!  Happy birthday David!   We had Bible and a fiction book this morning, and I did some practical life-skills with Benj (shoe tying, many children learn it earlier but he wasn't ready at the "normal" age and then we kind of left it!).  Abby will do some sewing later.  Right now she and Samuel are in town buying some things for their dad's birthday.

All of the younger 3 children have been playing with KNex yesterday and today.  They have been working on wheeled objects - really working on balance which I think is a practical side of physics.

Last weekend Dh did some experiment in the garage with the two younger boys.  Here is a photo:

It had something to do with a battery, that's all I know.

I finished my poncho - all but the fringe.  I sewed the seams last night.  I'm a bit disappointed with how small the neck is, I suppose I should just lose more weight!  I hope to get the fringe on in the next few days, and I'll post a new photo of it then.  Here's how it is so far:

While sorting out my photos on Photobucket to post these here, I accidentally deleted another photo!  I'm not sure which it is so I am going to trawel through my posts here and a couple of other place to find out what's missing! How silly of me!

More news another time, there is a possibility of a big change for us but I'll write about it later.....

We've already had to administer some vet care to the new chickens - or at least one.  The arucauna was getting pecked and her feathers were bleeding, which provoked more pecking.   I couldn't find the gentian violet (which disguises the red) so after washing the hen (after we had a great time separating her, accidentally letting the flightly leghorn loose, catching the leghorn which was not easy, letting the arucauna out by accident, and catching her) I made do with blue food coloring.  It seemed to work though, as the other hens looked at her bottom and lost interest immediately. 

I've started another poncho for myself with a chunky yarn.  I'll show you a picture of it on 9mm pins, which is what the pattern and the manufacturer call for, but I will frog that as I was not pleased with how open it was.  As I mean it for more of an outdoor garment I wanted the knit a bit tighter.  My swatch on the 8mm needles is not tight at all but still less holey than the work on the 9s and I think I will be happier with the smaller pins.   The yarn is Shriek, by Rowan (but they have discontinued their Chunky Print range, too bad).

We went to a rare breeds farm up near Kidderminster yesterday - oh my long-suffering husband!  We chose 2 banties, and 3 large breed chickens.   We got a white Pekin bantam ("Cochin" in the US), a buff colored bantam (I have forgotten the breed!), a brown leghorn, a buff Orpington, and a lavendar Arucauna.     These photos are not good, since I took them today through the wire but I wanted to share them anyway!  (They can't free range in our backyard as they need to be kept in their run for a week or two, to make sure they learn it is their home.)   I had to shove them down their ladder this morning as the sill creatures didn't seem to work out how to get down!   Last time we had new chickens, I had to go out in the evening and shove them up the ladder to put them to bed; I hope I don't have to do that this time!!  Me, inside the coop, trying to not let any escape, while trying to get them one by one up to their bed may have made a fun picture but it was not a fun thing to do!!

The buff banty, the white banty, and the buff Orpington

Lavendar arucauna (she will lay blue/green eggs, DV):

The little white banty who already seems to be the boss:

This is not a good picture of my brown leghorn but wanted to share it until I can get a new one:  (there is also the white banty in there)

The leghorn will lay white eggs.  You can see she has white "earlobes" and this means she will lay white eggs.

I meant to add another post last week but just didn't get around to it.   I wanted to tell about how in about 12 hours, I came across three things on blogs or a forum that spoke about waiting on God, when He does not answer when we'd like, and about God's silences.  Considering that I have felt quite low sometimes about not having answers from God about some issues, despite trying to be patient and faith-full, those thoughts about waiting on God were very helpful.

We're trying to think of how we can save money to get ds2's chameleon. We're thinking of building our own vivarium which would save the greatest amount of money needed for all the kit we need for such a creature.   I'm trying to study up on caring for chameleons and we are using learning about chameleons as Benj's science topic on some days.  Perhaps we could even do a lapbook?  I've never done one before.

Dh has been working hard to get the old furniture  (wardrobes made out of particleboard, or MDF as they call it here) out of the boys' room so we can paint it and have the room ready for a new pine wardrobe and chest of drawers (with 9 drawers!) which will come this week or next.  He really  is a hard worker.  Love ya, hubby!   

This is strongly on my heart and mind, so that is why I will risk offending someone today. 

I have heard yet again of another injury to a child known to me, who had been jumping on a trampoline when the injury occurred.  The break involves the growth plate so more care than usual will need to be taken to set the bone, and much more monitoring than usual will need to be done as the bone heals.   This child will spend time in the hospital and there is a risk, though small, that things might not go well with the setting and healing.

I know that accidents happen (we have made enough trips to urgent care  ourselves) but I am just so tired and aggravated at children being injured because parents will not study up on and/or enforce the safety rules for trampoline use.   Almost all the injuries I have personally heard about involve more than one person jumping on the trampoline.  In the case of my daughter, two rules were broken :  that of more than one person on the trampoline, and a ladder leading up to the mat (allowing access by a too-young child).   Acturally, more rules were broken:  no spotters, no adult supervision, no safe landing surface around the tramp, but I think the most important facts were the first two in our case.  

 (We were visiting friends and though I knew they had a trampoline I did not know they had a ladder which allowed my not-quite-three year old to access the tramp.  The first I knew was when I saw my daughter bouncing upsupervised with their youngest daughter.  I got out there as soon as I could, to get her off.   I told the other child not to jump until I got my girl off.  I nearly had dd off, when the other girl gave a jump, which catapulted dd up into the air, from whence she fell onto the ground.  Thankfully it was a grassy area instead of concrete, but damage was still done. She had broken her collarbone.  I supposed that perhaps a safety surface may have helped, but if there had not been another person on the tramp she would not have been catapulted off.    Do you know how traumatic it is for a two year old to be Xrayed by a big machine on the ceiling in an echo-ey room and that moves and buzzes as it gets into place?)

A teenaged girl at church injured her leg badly this summer, again, on a trampoline with another person.

We know some people with a tramp that is right next to a cement sidewalk, and next to their house windows.    I shudder at the possibilities there.  By God's grace nothing has happened yet. 

And I know that it is God's grace that any of our children get through a day unscathed.  But I still believe we have responsibilities - not to wrap our children in cotton wool, as the English say -  but when we know we can take precautions to minimize the chance of severe injury, I believe we should take them.  

http://www.trampledunderfoot.co.uk/trampolines/safety/trampoline-safety-rules.html

(edited 20:33 for clarification/better grammar)

On Thursday night I shut the back door, which because of its weak hinges, scrapes the tile floor when it's moved, and it screeched.  Immediately I heard an answering screech from the back yard.  I assumed it was an owl and listened as it continued screeching.   I got a flashlight and dh got one too, and we went out back to see if we could see it.  Dh went in after a bit, but I continued on toward the back of our property, shining the light from time to time, to see if I could see the screeching owl.  I saw nothing, so decided to come in.

I started looking up the tawny owl on the internet, as I assumed that that was what it was.  I read that they do attack humans occasionally when disturbed.  I thought, well, good thing I didn't disturb it.  I found a page with sound  (Owl Calls and Sounds  - go about halfway down to find the section for Eurasian Tawny Owl) on it, and listened to a call.  My husband agreed that that was the sound we had heard.  I became very thankful that I did not have an encounter with the owl, as the call we heard apparently displayed aggression!

On Saturday ds1 went to play paintball with some men and their sons from church.  They were split up and put into teams with other people who were playing that day.  When Ds told us about it all over lunch today, I was impressed at how the paintballing was run.  They organize things so that the risk of injury is minimalized, fair play is observed, and enmity is not formed between the various groups who come to play (a church group will be divided and put with another group, which is also divided, for example).  I was glad ds had a good time.

The rest of us, in the afternoon, went to a couple of pet stores to learn about various reptiles that Ds2 is interested in for a birthday present (it was back in Sept!).  I am putting my foot down about snakes, spiders, and other insects (I could have conceded over stick insects, perhaps).  So many of the reptiles are so expensive!   I encouraged ds to think of a caged pet because I thought our home is too small for a dog (and I'm not too fond of cats, and they make me sneeze).   

 I tried not to influence him too much as he looked around.  At the second pet shop, for which we had driven a long way by English standards, a man spent quite a little while with us talking to us about axolotls and chameleons.  As we held a chameleon, ds decided that that is what he wanted. They are my favorite reptile too.   They are extremely interesting little creatures (although they won't stay little!) and if we can keep one healthy it should be a fascinating pet.  We did not buy one then, though I did buy a book (a bit too advanced for ds, but I will direct him to sections he will be able to understand).  We need to think about sorting out the finances for this venture.  It's not so much the chameleon, as the kit for it that will cost so much. 

I'd like to get some chickens too.  I found a place with prices much more in line with our budget, even though they sell purebreds.  I was and still am thinking about getting hybrids again, as they are much less expensive.  The problem is that they produce eggs like mad for about a year and a half, and then stop and my last lot was not all that thrifty, dying earlier than I felt they should have.  Purebreds would lay fewer eggs, but for longer (in theory).  I still need to think about this all.  I wonder if we can sell the eggs.

On Friday Ds3 turned 6.  I loved the whole year when he was five, he was inquisitive, and cuddly, and so bright in how he noticed and learned things, so I was sad a bit to see it end!  Of course he is still the same boy, but I know this year will bring many changes and I was just nostalgic already about when he was five!  I made him a "worm" cake for his birthday, which he liked.   

Tonight at dinner - which consisted of apple pie and ice cream - my daughter asked "Does God know how to swim?"

I have been reading Charlotte Mason's book, Ourselves over the last month or so.  I have found it easy to read, yet full of ideas that are nourishing to the mind (would we expect less from CM?).  A chapter that gave me much to think about lately, and was very convicting, was in Part III, The House of Heart, under the subtopic of Love (one of the Lords of the Heart).   Courage is one of the Lords in Waiting to Love, along with Pity,  Benevolence, Sympathy, Kindness, Generosity, Gratitude, Loyalty, Humility, and Gladness.  

I never thought of Courage as a part of Love, but of course it can be and often is.  It influences how we act in all sorts of situations.  Miss Mason discusses various aspects of courage, and has all sorts of useful things to say, but what really struck me was idea of "The Courage of our Opinions."  So I wanted to share it with you.  I think that copying it out here will not be a violation of copyright, as it is only an excerpt from the book, but if I am wrong please let me know.

The Courage of our Opinions, -- Besides the Courage of Attack, the Courage of Endurance, the Courage of Serenity, and the Courage of our Affairs, there are lesser forms of Courage which as truly belong to the courageous heart.  There is the courage of our opinions.  By opinions I do not mean the loosely taken up catchwords of the moment, those things which 'everybody says,' and with which it is rather agreeable than otherwise to startle our less advanced friends; but those few opinions founded upon knowledge and principle which we really possess.

It is worth while to examine ourselves as to what our opinions are as to the questions discussed in conversation or otherwise.  We may find that we have no distinct opinion.  If so, let us not take up with the first that offers, but think, inquire, read, consider both sides, and then be ready with a gentle, clear, well-grounded expression of opinion, when someone remarks, for example: 'I think missionaries are a mistake!'  'The religions people have are those best suited to their natures'; or, 'It is not use thinking about the multitude, it is the few who have intellect or art who are worth caring for'; and so on.  We often allow other people's opinions to pass without protest, because we believe that they have been carefully thought out;  but it is surprising how a word of simple conviction will arrest people who express the most outrageous opinions.  At any rate this form of Courage is due from us.

I found this challenging because I have very strong opinions, but very rarely voice them plainly in real-life situations.  My reason is not quite the one Miss Mason mentions above, but rather the cowardice of worrying what others will think of me,  either because I'm afraid I'll come across as a know-it-all, or a holier-than-thou,  or because they won't like what I say and reject all I have to say, not only in the matter of opinion but of more important matters such as the Gospel.  I feel it's wise to be cautious in some circumstances, and not say all one thinks, but I know I take this caution too far and have often ended up not speaking when to have spoken would probably have been helpful.  I even end up not dealing with on a blog like this, for example, because someone who knows me might find it and be offended about how I think on all sorts of issues!  Even posting that entry on what people have brought to dinners, made me uncomfortable!   

I think remembering to have courage will be helpful to me, if I will just follow through.   We'll see how it goes.

Attention: those interested in the Charlotte Mason method.

I am thinking about approaching a missionary couple in my church who used the PNEU program (Parents' National Education Union, founded by Charlotte Mason) to home educate their two daughters while they lived in Africa to see if they will let me interview them.

If they are agreeable to an interview, what questions would you want to ask them, either about their use of the Charlotte Mason -based curriculum or about home education in general? (Or home educating as missionaries.) 

In fact, would anyone be interested in reading about such an interview?

On a forum I frequent there was a discussion about what to bring to someone (or the couple) who has invited you to dinner.  There were some good suggestions. I mentioned something about flowers and then said I had some stories about when people brought rather inappropriate items.  I was asked to share them, and I thought that I could blog about them too, and so I give you my post (slightly edited from what I put on the forum) on two unusual things that have been brought to me when I have given dinners.  

When I share these two, I in no way wish to be unkind to the people mentioned. So here goes. One I find quite funny, and the other I rather shake my head over still.

Well, one time my mom and I had an Indonesian friend (male)from college over to my mom's house for a dinner. (I lived on campus, but in my own home town.) He came over, and brought cans of fruit cocktail as a gift!  Mom and I conferred in the kitchen about what to do - we weren't sure whether he meant for them to be served with the meal, as his "contribution" (which we didn't expect in any way, as we invited him) or whether he just thought it was a nice hostess gift. We smiled a bit (privately) but we took the matter seriously because we didn't want to hurt his feelings. My mother finally tactfully asked him somehow if he wanted these with the dinner, did he bring them to be served that day, and he said yes. So we did. We still don't know if this was a cultural difference or more of a "young male" sort of thing. We just appreciated his kindness in bringing what to him was something special (we assumed it was special to him, anyway).

The other thing that comes to mind of a (more) major nature is when I was living on my own, and invited two couples over for quite a fancy dinner. 

I had a very elaborate meal prepared; baked ham en croute, with vegetables of some sort, chocolate victoria tarts and homemade toffee topped with chocolate (all from my beloved Victoria magazine!). So all was covered, from a to z as far as I was concerned.

One couple brought ... doughnuts in a box. I was able to confer with the wife of the other couple (who had been married longer and was a Southerner like me) and although the cream was already whipped, and the chocolate cream might separate and make the tarts' crusts soggy if not eaten, she helped me see that the only thing to do was to serve those doughnuts that night. So I did.

I think in the first instance, my mom and I didn't mind the situation, realizing we were dealing with both a single young man and one who came from a different country. In the second instance, I tried to cope graciously with the situation (and so didn't let the couple know that I had made the tarts, for example), but given their age and other things, I feel they should have realized that you don't bring a dessert or other food item for a dinner unless you have been asked or cleared it with the hostess. Now, if they had brought a smaller box and said, we hope you will enjoy these tomorrow, that would have been great! I did try to appreciate their kindness but do feel it is an example of "what not to bring!"

Those are the two main ones. I have had flower issues (with trying to hurry to find someplace to put them and more importantly a vessel to put them in, while greeting people and trying to keep the food under control) but again realize that kindness was the intent and receive them with as much grace as I can. (And I do appreciate the kindness.)

Typing this out has made me realize that I ought to get myself a second-hand tall vase, so that I can just plunk the flowers in and think ahead of where such a thing might go (sometimes my mantle is already decorated) so that I may be more appreciative and gracious and less stressed. So I'm glad for this opportunity to write these things down - it's made me realize a way I can do better!

Now, after writing all this, I think I sound like an unappreciative, ungrateful shrew - truly that has not been my intent and I hope you will understand that I did not write in mean-spiritedness....

(OK, I just checked Peggy Post's Etiquette book and she says if you take flowers make sure they're in a vase, for the reasons I've mentioned. In the same paragraph she says don't bring food unless requested  and she mentions wine, chocolates, and gift soaps as good things to bring. )

I read something I found hysterical today, and wanted to share it with you:

"We're on our 3rd pair of underwear and it's only 10 a.m."   (h/t Berrymorin )

from Stephen, age 5:

When the sun is in a very bright mood, I have to close my eyes.

I thought I'd put up a few photos at a time.  I have quite a number but doing them bit by bit will keep me from spending so much time at the computer in one day.  Please excuse the quality; they are not the best but I thought I'd share them anyway.

These are photos from our campsite.  The first is a shot of the picnic table we used for our meals.  We had brought a table along with us but the picnic table was better.  As we were among only about 7 or 8 families at the camp there was no competition for using it (another advantage of being homeschoolers! - being able to vacation when the rates are down and the campsites or tourist attractions are less crowded).

The next shot is simply one of my husband walking with our two youngest children.  I like photos like this, they are soul-soothing to me, for some reason.

The last photo is of my husband and younger children examining a WWII pillbox. There were two of them on the campsite itself and a third a short distance away on a path we walked along one day.  The older children didn't notice it, and after we told them of it, one night they wanted to go see it!  So we took flashlights and walked along a very dark country track to go see the old pillbox in the dark, at night.  It was a bit tricky as the track was very muddy but it was still a good adventure.  A pillbox, by the way, is not something to keep medicine in, but a small fortification in which a small group of soldiers could stay, keep watch, and defend a section of land. They are found stretched out across southern England.  By God's grace England was not invaded so these pillboxes were never used.  Here is a site that features Pillboxes http://www.pillboxesuk.co.uk/ .  I have not explored all the site, so look through it before turning loose your WWII learners on it.

It seems that lately I have had a lot of answers of "no" or "not yet" to my prayers.  I won't go into all the theology, but I believe that through the parable of the woman who kept going to the judge Jesus taught us to keep praying.  Some of all this "no-ness" has made me wonder if I am doing anything to hinder my prayers, or just what the deal is because I think they are pretty reasonable requests that would benefit other people (mostly my family, but others too).  That last comment was truthful but I am also being slightly ironic, as I know I still am a selfish human being.  Anyway that is a little background, to explain why I wanted to share this, why I found this answer such an encouragement to me.

Last night ds1 came in from Air Cadets, with a list of events he wanted to do with his squadron over the next couple of months.  Some were fine, but I wasn't too happy with the week-long camp that he wanted to go on in October.  Not that I'd object generally, I just didn't feel it right for him spiritually at this time; I'd like him to be a bit more mature before he goes on the "fun" camps.  Weekends for training (they are kept very busy in lectures and practices, etc) I feel more comfortable with.   I  feel that  he does a lot of ATC stuff and there isn't a good balance between that and church or Christian related things. I'm putting it badly but perhaps you know what I mean.  I don't want to spoil his fun, I don't want to spoil him by letting him do everything, I don't want to keep him from non-Christians, but I don't want him to hang out too much with non-Christians either.  Also, I wasn't happy that it would be a week in October, when we are just starting up our "school year" due to our taking weeks in September for vacation. 

So, I prayed about it last night and maybe this morning (I'm not real alert in the morning, so I often do pray about things but my memory is fuzzy sometimes!).  I felt that I wished he had more Christian people to have fellowship with, and that I could offer an alternative somehow to this week camp in October, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted.  I can just say "no" sometimes, that's not a problem, but I didn't feel great about it this time.  I just laid all my concerns out to God and asked for His help.

In the mail this morning I received a letter about a Young Men's Discipleship conference over the last weekend in October! (It is on some of the dates of that week-long camp.)  In the letter the organizer stated that his sons had told him that Samuel had indicated at Cefn Lea that he'd like to go to something like that, and that's why they were inviting him.  I showed the letter to S. and he said he'd like to go!  I did point out to him that it was during some of the camp time, and I would prefer him not to go to the camp this time, although perhaps he can go to another one sometime (and he can go to the other events) and he seemed alright with that. 

I am really thankful, I feel the Lord truly worked this out, providing Samuel with something he wanted to do and smoothing things out, in a way.  I hope he will be blessed by this conference and strengthened greatly in his faith.  This episode has encouraged me, seeing such an answer so soon after my prayers for my son, and for wisdom for myself and husband.

Another blessing came when this afternoon I received a phone call from a former homeschooling mom (whose children are older than ours), inviting Samuel over to spend time with her sons today.  This family lived in our town since last November, but they only came in contact with some of us Christian homeschoolers this summer!  So Samuel went over and had a nice time playing Monopoly.  I have prayed for Christian friends for him as relationships with other Christian boys (mostly all younger than him) have not been bad, but just have not developed into real friendships.  I don't know how these relationships with the "new" older boys will go, but it was wonderful to have him go off and spend the afternoon with other Christian boys, doing something he enjoyed.  I am thankful.

I know I still need to blog about our camping trip and I plan to list my curriculum choices for my children at some point; perhaps I can do these things this weekend.

We're home!  I'll write about our trip another time.  Today I'm supposed to be organizing and tidying.  Have spent too much time on the computer, is what has really happened, although I have done a few useful things.  I had the older children do some reading, but we are mostly all just reacclimating ourselves to our home environment. 

I've been printing out some things for ds1's Systematic Mathmatics unit but something went wrong with the printer and I had to quit.  I will look at it but I'm not sure I will be able to do anything that will fix the problem.  I think the nozzle is probably blocked, but that is just a guess.

I'm off now to supervise some teethbrushing, dishwasher loading, laundry doing before tackling a few chores of my own (such as bleaching the shower tiles and tidying up my desk (that I share).  See you later!

Are we ready? No, not quite.  The children's clothing is mostly all packed, except for shoes.  David's and mine are packed, except for toiletries (that's for everyone) and our shoes.  In fact we still need to get boots for Stephen.   I am going to iron a couple of things tonight (it's 11:15). 

The tent and most of the other camping stuff is already in the car.   The cooking stuff is still in the house.

As you can imagine I've been doing laundry, and packing.  I did manage to get my poncho made - and a hat!  The poncho took longer than it should have due to my making a mistake, and then not having right lengths left to add a border all of one color - so I did a kind of patchwork border.  It came out alright, I think.  The neck is a bit big, but that was part of the original problem of my rectangles being too long.  I kept shortening them but didn't do it enough.  Anyway, it's not too bad.

The hat matches the poncho, and came out fairly well. Another time I will scan the envelope upon which David worked out with geometry or algebra what diameter of circle I needed to fit in the circumference of the upright portion of the hat (I'm sure it has a better name) plus extra in order to have a seam allowance.   This exercise is proof that algebra (or geometry) is indeed used in real life!

I'll try to get photos of me in it during our camping week.  Tonight I added to my workload by deciding to do a skirt last-minute.  I took a nursing jumper I had, took off the top part, made a waistline casing, and there was my skirt.  It's one of the things I need to iron now....

Also, what books am I going to take along??  I've started reading Ourselves by Charlotte Mason and I'm delighted to report that it is quite enjoyable - not so heavy as her other books.  I'm thinking about taking along Favorite Poems Old and New but that is quite large.  There are nature identification books to take along.  Maybe I'll take the book from our Sonlight Alt 4 American History list, The Great Turkey Walk and see if we can get it finished (we started before our summer break).  I've got some old (1975 and 1976!) Highlights magazines that I think will be nice.  What else do I take along for myself?  Maybe another Charlotte Mason book, but perhaps something easier too.  I want to take I Saw the Angel in the Marble as I hope David will continue reading it.  I might take Educating the Whole-Hearted Child.

I need to remember to take along the mystery books for my mother-in-law.  I lent her some back in the spring, and am going to take her some more.  She is an avid reader, but I don't know if she gets to the library yet.  If she hasn't joined yet I hope David can take her to visit it and join while we visit during the coming week.  (We're camping near another town in Somerset, not hers, but not too far away.) 

Stephen's burns are healing nicely, I'm thankful to say.  We still need to keep some areas moist, and will need to be diligent to apply sunscreen on the burned areas to reduce scarring. 

I leave you with a book-pile photo.  Some of the books I have read, some I have yet to read, some I'm in the middle of (and some I started and will need to start again as I've left them too long).  I'm off to iron.  Have a great week!  (Oh, since the photo isn't great I'll put the titles below.)

*Charlotte Mason Study Guide

*Formation of Character

*Blind Dates Can Be Deadly

*Ourselves

*The Well-Educated Mind

*Holiness by Grace

*Why Not Freedom?

*The Republic

*Praying Backwards

*The World That Perished

*Constitutional Chaos

*Democracy in America

*Across Five Aprils

*Why Men Can't (do something, I can't remember what) and Why Women Always  Need New Shoes

*Cliff Notes for To Kill a Mockingbird

*Shoeless Joe

*The Constitution in Exile

And with that I bid you adieu until next week. 

I suppose this is making up for the times I don't put anything in!

I did get to town today, and bought some fleece.  Some is for blankets for my two youngest children.   Some is for a poncho for myself, just for casual wear. I'm thinking it might be nice to wear while camping (we're supposed to be going soon).  I've got some coordinating fleece to make a hat and bag with too.  I'm going to base my poncho on the directions found here.  I'm going to look around to see if I can find a pattern for a hat and bag too, or I might just figure something out myself. 

Here is something I found inspirational today, from the Homeschoolblog "Serendipity"  What Kind of Wife Are You?

I've changed the template to a fall theme.  I'd like something else, but will have to search around, and I'm not even sure how to customize a template. 

I'm off to town to look for some fleece fabric.

We did manage to get a walk yesterday.  We walked to the stables of a famous racehorse breeder.  There are signs not to feed the animals, but the owners obviously don't mind people going up to the horses and petting them.

The weather was lovely, and the trees are beginning to turn.  The horse chestnuts are still growing but in a couple of weeks will start to drop.  Then the conker collecting will begin!  (Conkers are the horse chestnut - er, nuts! They are non-edible, so they aren't the chestnuts that will be roasting on an open fire later on.)

Here are some of the unplanned purchases we made at our home education conference and week-long holiday.

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, and Charlotte Mason Study Guide (both from Ichthus Resources).  I think the FLL might work well for us.  I hope so.

These are books on the history of the Greeks, Romans, and Middle Ages featuring historical characters.  They are reprints or updated versions of books from the 19th century. I'm not sure how I'm going to use them yet.   The Understanding Spelling book is meant for Samuel, 15.  The card game is about English Monarchs, and we have not tried it yet.

These are leaflets by the Sherwoods, the couple who produces material on thinking Biblically.  Steve preached the Sunday morning sermon for the conference.  I can't remember exactly what the leaflets are all about; two are about Mothers and Daughters, and Fathers and Sons.

Another purchase from Ichthus Resources.  The tape set is about Church history and is by Diana Waring.  The charts and book are by Doorposts.  We already have the "Go To the Ant" chart but it is quite old and scruffy now.

David picked up this magazine-format booklet on evolution.  I hope my older children will want to read it.  David, who is a scientist, thought it was pretty good (although not technical/detailed enough for him!!). 

We also bought some things from the second-hand tables - I bought a copy of The Pilgrim's Progress , a cassette tape course of Spanish, a children's video and I can't remember if there was anything else.  

So there you have my loot from Cefn Lea. 

Here are my purchases that I expected to make at Cefn Lea  (with a lot of comments; I hope they are helpful):

There should be two of this one; I had pre-ordered from this vendor and he forgot one copy which he will send me.  This is a book of Latin Roots, for my two oldest children.  They finished Latina Christiana II this year, and I am going to have them use this book for practice and retention of vocabulary and derivatives.  I did not expect for them to become Latin scholars, but wanted for them to have the exposure to the vocabulary and the experience of learning words and  foreign grammar, and of translating simple passages. 

These are for my oldest boy, 15.  Samuel has read The Fallacy Detective by the Bluedorns previously. This year I want him to go through this Memoria Press course, and possibly another one, and read The Thinking Toolbox (also by the Bluedorns).  I feel that learning to think for oneself is very important and that is why I want to use these resources.  My 13 year old daughter will use The Fallacy Detective this year.

Ludere Latine I is a book to supplement Latina Christiana I which Benjamin, just 11, is doing.  He did the first part of LC1 last year, after doing Prima Latina the year before last.  I felt Benj needed more time so that is why we did not complete the course.  We did review of the first 10 lessons over the summer.  We'll review again, and use the Ludere Latine (Latin games) book for fun and reinforcement while we review, and as we proceed through the course.

Apologia Science (Biology) is for Samuel, age 15.  We just got the CD Rom.  I hope this works well for him.

The Handbook of Christian Apologetics goes along with the Traditional Logic 1.  The booklets were an unexpected purchase from a couple who now have grown children and home educated them up to GCSE level.  Their ministry is about helping Christians to think Biblically about a number of topics.  In case you can't see the top booklet clearly, the title is Looking at Maths.

This was the last part of my pre-order from Halfmoon Books.  Both my 13 year old and my 11 year old need remedial work for their handwriting, so I got these.

Here are my planned purchases from the Rod and Staff stall:

These are first grade books for Math, Phonics and Reading.  They are for my five year old Stephen who will be six in October.   I don't plan on starting them until late in the fall at the earliest, and possibly not until the new year.  I realize he would just be entering kindergarten this year back home, and I don't plan on pushing him.  He does show a number of signs of reading readiness, though, so I am not going to hold him back if he is able, and wants to, move into reading.   We still have some of the Preschool ABC books to finish up first.

These are the Rod and Staff Preschool ABC books.  They are marketed toward kindergarten level, but some children can start using them at 2 1/2 - although I would work slowly through the series and now there are books for 3s and 4s that are available from R&S and we have used those for the earlier years.   I bought this set of the ABC series for my four year old daughter.  We still have some of the 3s and 4s series to finish up, so we will not begin on these right away.

This book was another from Halfmoon Books that I preordered.  It is for me though, not the children, so I've put it here last.

These are the books that I planned to buy (with the 2 exceptions).   This does not include all the things I've ordered over the internet! (Amazon, CBD, and Systematic Mathmatics)

My next post should feature some of my unexpected purchases that I made at Cefn Lea.

as after a few rainy days I thought it would be good to go out for a walk after lunch.

Today I received what I thought was my bank statement from back home, and it looked like other things were enclosed (they do send advertisements, annual reports, etc).  Well it turns out the other things are other people's statements!! 

I will be trying to call the bank in about an hour, hopefully there will be someone there then.  Otherwise I'll do it this evening.  I think this is a very bad mistake on someone's part, don't you??

I still intend to share my list of book purchases with you book lovers!  I didn't get a lot of opportunity to take photos (because I wanted to share photos of the books too) and then our evening was completely disrupted by an accident that thankfully did not turn out to be worse than it did.

My five year old came quietly into the kitchen behind me and the short of the story is that his head and a pot of potatoes with not-quite boiling water collided, resulting in what seemed to us fairly severe burns to his forehead and collarbone area.   We started applying cold wet tea towels after trying to get him under running water proved too difficult. We gave him an analgesic and after phoning the "local" (in another town) minor emergency clinic we went there, where the nurse practitioner phoned the doctors at Oxford, who said due to the nature of the burns (on the face) he ought to be seen at Stoke Mandeville, by one of the plastic surgeons specializing in burns.  In Abingdon (the "local" place) he was given another analgesic which can be taken alongside the type we already had given him, so he was fairly comfortable.

By the time we got to Stoke Mandeville, which is about an hour away from Oxford, it was about 9:30 at night, and the doctor we saw recommended Stephen stay overnight and he could go first thing in the morning.  Now, I should have known better to believe him (long story behind that one) but considering that the doctor said that burns can take up to 48 hours to fully reveal the extent of their damage, and not wanting to be seen as disagreeable, we had Stephen stay, and I stayed with him (I don't have a license so couldn't have driven back, and had left the house without my glasses, so David left us). 

 (By this time, the areas of redness had lessened considerably, and Stephen was just left with a few red areas, and an area that had blistered and popped immediately (which was one of my big concerns when it first happened), about the size of a silver dollar I think, on his forehead.  There were some smaller popped blister areas on his collarbone.  I am so thankful that it was not worse.  Part of why it wasn't so bad, was that the water was not boiling, steaming but not even beginning to bubble, and because we applied the wet towels so quickly.  And of course, the Lord's mercy above all. I prayed for Stephen in the car as we drove to SM.)

Something for Stephen (and me) to eat was brought around 11:00 or so.  A nurse put on some bandages to protect the burns but no other treatment was given.  Stephen was fairly wound up and talked constantly (he's our big talker in our family) until he finally got to sleep around 12:30.  I was given a cot to sleep on, and got a little sleep.

Doctors (several) came around 9:00 a.m. and said that the burns round would occur at 12 noon, and after that we could go.  This was par for the course in my experience of the NHS - being told that one could go in the morning, but then find out that one thing after another needs to happen, even when no real need to stay is present.  Doctoring in hospitals is done by committee, it seems, and the whole system is ponderous and machine-like at times.  

David arrived after this first visit.  While I was in the bathroom getting freshened up with toiletries and clean clothes that David brought, a hospital teacher came around and after talking with Stephen got him set up with some painting, which he really enjoyed.  I would have enjoyed talking to her about her work. 

Before lunch a kind nurse got off the temporary bandages and applied plastic wrap to the burns on the collarbone.  At the noon rounds more doctors came (although fewer than earlier) and the one main doctor said the burns were superficial and should heal nicely.  More senior doctor arrives, introduces himself, looks at the burns, says same thing.  They go off somewhere else, and the kind nurse applies some sort of bandage/dressing to the collarbone and starts things rolling so we can go home.  She gives me some of the special bandages and chats with me, and advises me that Stephen should not go swimming until his burns have healed more. (This is an issue because of our holiday that we were supposed to leave for on Wednesday.)

(Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my older children are looking after the 11 year old, and the 4 year old.  I know they're capable of arising to the job, but I am still concerned.  It is the 11 year old's birthday, which makes it worse for this mommy!)

We're sent down to the hospital pharmacy to get some sort of special gel.  We have to wait the anticipated 30 minutes, and then are told there is some problem - they do not know of this gel  and a further 30 minutes elapses (Stephen is doing great, is well-behaved and as usual spends his time observing things around him, imagining things, and talking constantly). It turns out that they did not have this special gel in the pharmacy.  We were sent back to the ward, where we were given some cream to put on his forehead three times a day.

We escaped from the hospital around 3:00 I think, and we started the drive home.  David and I hadn't eaten so we stopped and had something to eat.  Stephen got onion rings, which he liked.

When we arrived home, I just about fell into bed and after an hour nap we got ready to go out.  Benjamin, who turned 11 that day, wanted to let Stephen choose where to go out, which I thought was super of him.  (He is our "difficult" child, with possibly some learning problems, although they are not severe, just enough to cause problems sometimes. So I was pleased - not surprised, just very pleased - that he was nice in that way.)  We went to McDonalds, no big surprise there!  We had a nice time there.

We have to return to the hospital next Tuesday for the burn clinic.   We expect things to have healed well.  Stephen is doing quite well and I thank the Lord.  The campsite owner was very sympathetic and it was no problem to postpone our holiday, and that was an added blessing.

Others want on the computer tonight, so I probably can't do the book things tonight, but I will try tomorrow!  If I can manage tonight, I will.  It will be good therapy for me!  I tidied our shelves and work area today.  I still am having trouble finding room for an aquarium or terrarium so Ben can have some type of pet.   Well, more on that another time.  Off to take off the dressing and give Stephen a shower.

Well, my mnemonic will have to change.  What I thought was a name, Xena, was only a code name and the celestial object known as UB313, because of its role in the controversy regarding whether Pluto was a real planet, was named after the Greek goddess of discord, according to this BBC article.

Eris has its own moon, which astronomers named after the daughter of Eris, Dysnomia.  This name means the spirit of lawlessness (those interested in theology might note the "nomia" portion of the name, which is law).

Regarding Dysnomia, my husband quipped that the name was quite apt for this age.

As to my mnemonic, I now have, with the dwarf planets, My Very Excellent Mother Certainly Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, Cheesecakes, and Eccles cakes (or eggs, if you think I've overdone the desserts).

...for a few days anyway.

We went to our homeschool conference and holiday week over in Wales.  As usual, we had a great time.  Sadly, the Boyers didn't get to come after all, as something went wrong with their airplane and with the new security rules in place, they couldn't get on another flight until Sunday (the end of the conference!).  The organizers had to quickly make other arrangements, and we still had a good conference.  The holiday (vacation) week was lovely although for me it was physically tiring.   I'll try to post more about it tomorrow. 

Now we're planning to go camping for a few days.  I'm glad to say that the sun has been shining and I have been able to dry about six loads of laundry!  I was able to do laundry at Cefn Lea (the Christian park/camp where we have our conference and vacation) but there was still much left to do at home, and I still came back with dirty laundry.  It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, so I hope to get through a few more loads.  Tomorrow also should see the arrival of the heating element for our tumble drier, so we should be able to start using it again soon, if David is able to install it.

I came back with quite a few books - many I had intended to purchase, and some which I hadn't!  I'll try to list them tomorrow.

Tomorrow DH is taking our computer in to work so a colleague can work on it at home, to see what might be wrong with it.  We've had lots of trouble with it over the last months. 

We are also going to our homeschool conference on Friday, and really looking forward to it.  Rick and Marilyn Boyer are coming, D.V., to be the speakers for the conference.  They are also staying for the holiday week after the conference.  I hope they enjoy the week they spend with us home educators in Britain. 

Planning for going away, as you know, always means laundry!!  I love hanging out laundry anyway, and also press my children to do it when they are on laundry duty (they have such chores on a weekly basis) - but it is especially crucial to get it hung out when the tumble drier is not working, like ours is not (broken heating element). 

Here are a couple of photos of it today:

Wet laundry looking from about halfway down the garden, looking toward house:

You can see the chicken run, which is half-way painted (the other side needs to be done, plus it all needs a second coat, plus special treatment for the bottom).

More wet laundry, looking to the bottom of the garden, and you can see the newly-painted chicken ark (which still needs the special treatment for its feet):

You can see why I called it mustard yellow.  You have to admit it does add a touch of brightness to our extremely verdant back garden.  ("Extremely verdant" sounds a bit more sophisticated than "totally overgrown and in desparate need of brush-hogging", don't you think?)

Well I do live in England, and at one point the wet laundry became:

Even wetter laundry!!

another fun webcam site is Pete's Pond.  This features a man-made watering hole in Botswana.  They usually have visitors in the fall (northern hemisphere season) as during the rainy season the animals do not have to go to the pond to get water.

Last year we saw all sorts of animals, including elephants, giraffes, crocodiles or alligators, and a good number of other things. 

The web site is not well updated and the side bar says that the Pete's Pond camera is off  - but that is last year's news.  I hope they will update it soon. 

I've put the links for both the UK Hencam, and Pete's Pond in my sidebar so you can find the links when these posts are no longer on the front page.

Hencam.

If you are between chicken flocks, as we are, this makes a decent substitute.  What is really interesting is the night-time viewing, made possible by some infra-red dealy.  You can see that the hens do not just snore the night away, but rather have cycles of sleep and consciousness, perhaps sleeping more than being awake, but still there is more activity than I would have imagined.  By the way if you are viewing this cam from places other than the UK, be aware that the time difference will affect what you see.  So, if you are in my homestate of Oklahoma, if you check in at suppertime, you will see that the hens are in their beds.  (well, on their roosts, then).

And as a side thought, you can use this hencam for your lessons about latitude and seasons, etc.   If you check in in December, around 9:30 a.m. CST, you will see that it is nearly or completely dark already over here at 3:30 p.m.!  Conversely in June if you check in around 3:00 p.m. you will see that at 9:00 p.m. it is still quite light!

I finished hemming my skirt this week, and yesterday hemmed the trouser legs for my 5 year old's camo trousers.  Now he'll be able to wear them safely.

My daughter and I went to town today to go to the fabric store to choose some material for her to make a skirt with.  Unfortunately they were closed so we will go again tomorrow.  I did a few errands but forgot a couple of the things I needed to get.

When I came back, I began painting the chicken house.   On Tuesday I sanded it down quite well but was concerned over the fact that algae still seemed to be on the wood, and I was having difficulty getting it off.  Wednesday, not surprisingly, it rained all day, soaking the wood and I was a bit worried that it would rain for days and I'd never get to get the wood painted before it really got ruined. 

Yesterday the sun came out about midday (reversing the normal weather pattern here of pretty mornings and then rain in midmorning and all afternoon) and the wood dried out all afternoon, and then today was very nice and warm, so it finished drying.   When I started working on it this afternoon, I saw that the algae was gone, I supposed washed away or bleached out by the sun.

I had bought two tins of paint, one a palish green called "Willow" and the other a yellow called "Sunflower."  I think it looks like mustard but I suppose "Mustard Yellow" would not be a great seller for paint meant for garden fixtures.  With Abby's help I decided to go with the yellow although young Stephen wanted green.  I finished the first coat on most of it, just as the rain began to fall. Since it will likely rain tomorrow I probably won't be able to work on it then, but maybe I can get a photo.   It does look cheery.

A broughaha has developed over the decision by less than 4% of all astronomers that demotes Pluto from being a planet to a "dwarf planet."

For those who have problems memorizing lists, having only eight planets might be a good thing.  It could have gone the other way, though.  If Pluto remained in the list of planets, the astronomers would have also had to include Ceres, Charon, and 2003 UB313.  Gotta love the names astronomers confer upon new space objects.  Fortunately the last planet, or rather, dwarf planet, is also called Xena, which is a nice enough name.  If we include the dwarf planets, our mnemonic would then might be:

My Very Excellent Mother Certainly Just Served Us Nine Pizzas and Cheescakes (on a) Xylophone.  Ok, maybe you can come up with something better!!  Leave your new version in the comments; I'd love to hear from you.

Yesterday I spent most of the daylight sanding our chicken house.  I learned something new, how to use an orbital sander.  I'm thankful for that tool, as a lot of weathered wood needed to come off.  There is still some wood affected by algae and I think I'm going to have to do some more sanding to see if I can get that off, but it could just be staining. 

Roly polys have had a great time munching on the bottom supports of the ark  You should have heard me shrieking away as I was brushing them off (my husband turned the ark on its end so I could sand the bottom parts) because the ends were so high that I had trouble brushing them in such a manner that they would be sure not to fall on me.  Ugh.  I'm not too afraid of bugs but don't like them falling on me.

I don't think I've been as dirty afterwards, since I was a kid.  I got in the shower and the water from my hair was black!  All that dust was all over me.

Today it's raining so I can't work on it today.  I need to buy some clear wood preserver for the bottom but I don't want to walk to the garden center in the rain.

Tomorrow a new mother from my church is coming over to visit me.  I hope I can be an encouragement to her.

This afternoon, after failing in my installing the trackback service, I should start something I can do, gathering up the schoolwork from this last year and putting it into separate boxes (one box per child) so we can store them away.  Archiving, you know.   David (dh) wants to keep their work so we have proof we've educated them, if we have to prove such.   And, I need to get things cleared away so I can put the new things out.  Better get cracking, then.  After I get the split peas boiling again and put in the crockpot. 

I'm trying to add Haloscan for doing trackbacks. 

update: Well, after trying to add in some code, as explained by a Haloscan user on the forums there, I am still not successful.  I'll have dh look at it at some time, but if you are reading this, and know what to do, please have a look at my code and give me some advice!  Thanks!

La Shawn Barber has a great post on "The Classics" and why it's such a good idea to read them.  She has a link that takes one to a site listing the great books from way back and it looks like you can read someof them right on that site, although I haven't tried it out.  Anyway, I recommend you go and see what Miss Barber has to say.  Some of you may not have visited her blog before.  She blogs mostly about politics and current events, and is unashamedly a Christian.  She is a supporter of homeschooling and has written a number of posts about education and hers is one of the blogs I read on a regular basis.

Below is the henhouse which needs sanding and re-staining.  The stain/wood treatment is already bought, but we need to sand the edifice first.  I was going to tackle that project, or at least get started, today, but after Samuel (15) fixed up a handy-dandy sanding tool for me (tacking a piece of sandpaper around a block of wood), and after Abby (13) attempted to do some sanding, I discovered that the sandpaper is too fine for our needs.  So the project is postponed, and I hope we will buy some more tomorrow.   I could go out today, but I think I will tackle the skirt that is nearly finished, and perhaps do some more sewing.  We'll see. 

An article on the BBC website today states that according to a CBI survery, One in three employers have to give their staff remedial lessons in basic English and maths.   Schools minister Jim Knight said that extra lessons in literacy and numeracy have been in place in primary schools since the late 1990s and that "... GCSEs were being updated to include grammar tests and focus on the basics. "  

You may remember GCSEs from a previous post of mine.

I often find the comments relating to the articles more entertaining or informative than the articles themselves, and here are a couple of nuggets, good or otherwise, on the Have Your Say page entitled Should Managers Give Their Staff Remedial Lessons? 

If these people cannot read and write to a basic standard. How on earth did they fill in their application forms ? and secondly why did employers take them on   [sic]

When I was 3 I was very enthusiastic to learn to read and write so my mum taught me in her spare time. Throughout primary school and secondary school, I never really felt that correct spelling and grammar were high on the teachers list of concerns. I got an A in GCSE English and Maths 4 years ago, but even to this day nobody has taught me what an adverb or noun is! You just have to find out for yourself if you want to.

Speaking as a teacher in a 6th Form College, I think the root of the problem is the focus on student age as the sole benchmark of progression. A student ought to reach certain levels of attainment before moving on to the next stage, hence basic skills would have to be acquired before more advanced work could be done - pushing students into it before they are competent with basic skills means they do not get the chance to master them, and often fail at more advanced work too!

It is unfortunate that employers are picking up the pieces for our educational system's failure, it is not their responsibility whatsoever. I believe it goes further than this though. With the plethora of mindless media celebrity brain-rot content and the "It could be you!" culture, it is no surprise that many school children pay limited attention at school. Instead they dream of being the next overpaid footballer or annoying screeching waste of space of C4's next reality TV show.

Just proves what most of us have known for a long time. A year or two ago I saw a big sign in the window of a local estate agency proclaiming "Property's Wanted"; the agency closed down shortly afterwards, probably because no one wanted to trust a company that boasted the short comings of its staff. If employers only employed the numerate and literate then the government would have to take steps to produce such employable school leavers and "Propery's Wanted" signs would be a thing of the past [sic]

Yesterday afternoon I took the two youngest children with me to the local garden center to buy some wood stain/treatment/whatever for the chicken house.  I ended up buying two different colors as we had differences of opinion (I even called my older daughter at home for hers).  I thought I might paint the inside one color and the outside another color!  Goofy, I know.  Now I'm not even sure if the inside needs or is supposed to be treated.  Oh well.  I think I am going to have to do some sanding, which I do not want to do, before I attempt to paint.  I wish I could find my camera, then I'd put up some "before" and "after" photos. 

On the way home we stopped at a little neighborhood park so the children could play for a few minutes.  When Kerenza (4) was up on some little climbing frame/slide sort of thing, she told me it was a boat - an underground boat!  I told her usually boats didn't go underground but didn't object when she insisted that this one did - what's wrong with a little imagination, right?

Well, she was chattering about it being a boat, which was fine with me, but then some little boy, who was also on the equipment, said "It's not a boat."  He muttered something , trying to say what it was, but as he was not sure he only came up with "it's a playground."    I told him it was alright for it to be a boat in her imagination, maybe he could imagine it was something else.   He insisted it wasn't or couldn't be a boat, that it was a playground, in a very disagreeable tone.  I can't remember what he said or did then, but I ended up telling him, in a non-threatening, light tone (or I tried), that he was being quite rude.   He was a bit taken aback, and then said "anyway my mother's bigger than you"!  Trying to keep my tone light and kind, I replied with something like,  "Oh?" (or more likely, "So?") while inwardly laughing because without giving out my personal details here, trust me, I was the biggest mom there.  Both in height and girdth (sigh).  After sizing me up a bit better he then said, "Well, I'm bigger than her," indicating Kerenza.  I said (again, as kindly as possible, but this time taking him on a bit), "do you think so?  Kerenza, move on up and we'll see" and as she moved toward him his he offered no more comment.  

Her time on the "boat" rather ruined, Kerenza decided to move to the toddler swings.  She began playing with one swing, moving it from side to side, saying she'd like a ride like that.  The little boy had followed us over, and said the swing didn't go like that.  I told him that it could, that it was alright to do it that way if she wanted.  At this point he grabbed the swing from her and told her it didn't go like that.  I put my hands on him (gently! but I knew this was still a bit risky) and moved him over, saying that Kerenza was at this swing first and he could play with that swing there (the next one). He didn't play with the swing. 

I gave Kerenza a sideways ride on the swing for a few minutes, just to satisfy her curiosity about it, and then pushed her in the regular manner.  While I was doing that the boy got up on the wooden retaining wall ( about 1 1/2 feet high, needed because the playground is at the bottom of a steepish slope) and said in a challenging way, that he could jump off.  I said in a somewhat-kind-but-also-disinterested tone of voice, that I bet he could.  He did, and then said "See?" as if I hadn't believed he could do it.   

We left soon after that, with me reflecting on what had gone on.   I wished his accompanying adult had paid more attention to him (I assume it was one of the women who busily chatted with another, although  she was probably keeping an eye out), at first because I wanted him not to be so annoying, but then I felt sad that although he was so disagreeable he obviously wanted interaction quite badly.  I know I was not attending closely to my own son at that moment, but at least that was because I was watching and interacting with my daughter and I still kept watch for Stephen.   The disturbing thing is, that nowadays, even if the mother had overheard what her boy was saying, and saw how he was acting, she might have thought nothing wrong with it. 

As we walked home, and then I prepared dinner, I felt rather sad, as I reflected on my feelings toward this boy.  First, annoyance at his spoiling my daughter's imaginings (it's hard to keep up a nice pretend game when someone's always nay-saying it, isn't it?), and annoyance at his rudeness, but then sadness as I realized he wanted interaction and to be noticed. It could be that he is normally a polite child being brought up well, but just having a bad day.  I doubt that though, times being what they are, and as a Christian I could have done better.  I think I was not wrong to correct or comment on his rude behavior,  but I probably would have been more Christ-like if I had spoken to him a bit more after his jumping bit, or at least said goodbye to him as we left the area.   

No, I'm not working in it.   My two oldest children (boy 15, and girl 13) are "junior helpers" and then my next two children (boy 10 and boy 5) are "attendees."  They all seem to be having a good time.  The theme is "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" - I don't know exactly how they are tying it into Christianity, but my 5 year old did come home with a bead bracelet that spelled "self-control."  I need to talk to my teens to find out a little more.  Today there is no regular club as this particular HBC takes a trip to the seaside on the Thursdays, and after trying it once, we have chosen not to go.

My youngest child has stayed at home this week with Mom.  We haven't done a lot, but yesterday I did let her paint.  She used a paper cup and a toilet paper roll to make circles, like she saw on a children's BBC art program.  Then she asked for a brush and painted with brushes, then she did some fingerpainting (just using fingers to make marks, not using that nice squidgy stuff that you use on slick paper - they don't seem  to do that here).

I am not one of those great moms who lets her children do painting and all sorts of messy crafts often.   I don't mind playdough and coloring at the table, but have to give myself a pep talk in order to get the paints out.  I know this is something I need to work on.  Part of the problem is that we only have the one table that can be worked on, and during the school year the children are working on it during the morning and into the afternoon, and by the time everyone is finished I am often so tired I can't bear to deal with painting. 

I just need to try harder, I think, and plan some painting activities with a theme (if only using different techniques, etc) and have the children work elsewhere for an hour about twice a month. 

I've got a lot of craft materials around the house, and need to use them with the children.   This last year I got so bogged down in getting the older children through all their work, and making sure I did some preschool work with the five-year-old, and a bit of work with the four-year-old, that we just didn't do much art or craft.  The older boys aren't that bothered anyway, although they have enjoyed going to classes with a proper art or ceramics teacher when they have been organized by one of the other homeschooling moms here.  My older daughter tries her hand at a few things, but much of our craft store remains untouched.  

To the "Encouragement" that I mentioned earlier.  I had a lot written out, but I've decided to shorten things a bit.  My nearly-11 year old boy has been a bit slow academically and in other ways.  One of the reasons we homeschool is to allow each child to go at his own pace, but having a child "behind" became a greater concern as time went on.  We are now considering whether he has ADD and dyspraxia, but I'm sure I'll blog on that later.  Anyway, as I looked through the LLATL book for him, I began to worry about all the reading required.  I still think getting through the books will take longer than average, and be more effort for us, but I was encouraged, when I compared the books to what he is reading aloud with me now (Summer of the Monkeys).  SOTM seems a little more advanced in some ways than the other books, so I think that he is not really as behind in reading as I worried he might be, although there is room for improvement. 

Another thing that encouraged me yesterday was hearing that my children, on their way home from HBC yesterday, went out of their way a bit to go talk to another homeschooling family whom we only recently met, who were waiting at a bus stop.  All three older children are a bit on the shy side so I was pleased that they did not just return the greeting of the other family who saw my children first, but that Samuel (15) took initiative to converse with people he doesn't know well.

The past two years have been difficult, and this last month has been quite stressful for a couple of reasons, so I am really thankful for these two encouraging things. 

(First, I apologize for the changing colors in this post.  I copied the questions over, which were in a colored font, and I don't know how to now make everything uniform; the font color button does not seem to work for me here.)

Anne, a.k.a. PalmTree Pundit  linked to Shannon's blog , Rocks in My Dryer for her meme on books so after reading Anne's list I thought I'd surf on over to Shannon's.  I don't usually join things like this, but I have been writing about books quite a bit lately, so I thought I would participate in this one. 

1. Book that changed your life: Oh my.  I suppose one of the main influences in my life, besides the Bible, was Mary Pride's The Way Home  (and All the Way Home, the follow-up, but mainly her first book)  published in the '80s.  That book spurred me on to further investigating and then embracing,  two ideas that have had great impact on my life - letting the Lord plan our family, and homeschooling.   Another book that helped me greatly, but that I only read once, and have not found again, is Affliction, by Edith Shaeffer.  Her thoughts on God's design for suffering have been helpful throughout the years, but especially when we lost our newborn daughter.

2. Book that you've read more than once:   Too many to list, but of the more important or ones that I enjoyed over and over again are Mary Pride's books, the "Little House" series when I was a girl, the "Anne of Green Gables" series,  the "Jeeves and Wooster" series, and I don't know how many others!  I plan on re-reading Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell in the near future, and A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola soon too.

3. Book you'd want on a desert island: Besides the Bible?  I'm not sure.  A survival manual might be handy.  Or it could just make me more miserable, I don't know.  Perhaps something humorous, like a Jeeves and Wooster book, but I would get tired of about anything.

4. Book that made you laugh: Most recently, perhaps Shoeless Joe, or the second-hand copy of Carry On Jeeves that I bought last week.

5. Book that made you cry:  Again, most recently, A Lantern in Her Hand, at the end.  A package from Christianbook.com came last Friday and contained many books for the coming academic year.  A Lantern in Her Hand is part of my 13 year old's Learning Language Arts Through Literature curriculum, and I started skimming through the book instead of getting everybody up and through their chores.  I ended up weeping on my bed and making us late for a get-together!  (But not too late.)  I do tend to cry easily at books. 

6. Book that you wish had been written:  The Guaranteed, Completely Reliable, Fool-Proof Guide to Being the Perfect Wife and Mother (including how to insure perfect natural births and how never to be annoyed at your spouse).

7. Book you don't enjoy: I don't care for a lot of modern fiction.  Christian romance I find cringe-worthy, much of the time.  Bleh, bleh.  Should I also mention things like science or engineering books, most of the time?

8. Book you are currently reading:  Shoeless Joe, Carry On, Jeeves, Plato's The Republic, and de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (although that's a bit on hold as I work on the others), oh, and Farmer Boy.  I'm also reading ahead the books for my children's schoolwork this coming year, so I could list a number of those, but will just mention The Thinking Toolbox by the Bluedorn Brothers, which I read over the last couple of evenings.

9. Book you've been meaning to read:  The Plato and deTocqueville books I've mentioned, which I'm working on,  and various titles from "the classics" which someday I'll get to, D.V.  I'd also like to read the homeschooling books by Mary Hood but they don't seem to be available.

10. Book you remember as a real page-turner:  I think the last one was a Patricia Sprinkle mystery.  Also, a few months ago, The Hunt for Confederate Gold.

11.  Non-fiction books that you have enjoyed:  Lots.  In fact, until the last few years, I went through a long spell of reading hardly any fiction at all.  But I'll toss out a few :  I've enjoyed John Wiseman's SAS Urban Survival Handbook, books on homeschooling, books on smallholding, and lately books on multi-media art. 

12.  Children's books your family has loved:  The Narnia series, Clifford books, Goodnight Moon, Curious George books, Anne of Green Gables and sequels (for my older daughter), the Arthur books, and various others.  Several of the books from the Sonlight Alt 4 American History list have been well-received.  We recently read Because of Winn-Dixie and the children liked that really well.

I guess that's it from me on this.

If you've been reading my blog lately you know that literature has been on my mind lately.  What should be my approach, how should I choose books for my children, etc.   Sometimes, when I think about how my oldest son doesn't seem to enjoy reading much, or doesn't seem as scholarly as I'd like him to be, or how my middle son is a slower learner, I feel perhaps it is my fault and I must be doing a terrible job at homeschooling (don't most of us have such doubts from time to time, though the triggers may be different for each of us?).   

We're often told not to compare ourselves with other homeschoolers because it often leads to discontent with our own lives, but sometimes a little comparison can "spur us on to good deeds" for our own families.   And while "bashing" of regular schools is probably not a Christ-like activity, hearing of the problems or lacks in schools can bolster a fading confidence, like mine is from time to time. 

Recently on the BBC website there was an article about the state schools and a possible removal of several books from the recommended list for literature study - a summary of the article (and a link to the original article which does not have much more information) is published on a "Have Your Say" page with comments about the curriculum ~ http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=3121&&&edition=1&ttl=20060812121538

Here is the summary: 

Education secretary Alan Johnson has moved to end speculation that classics will disappear from reading lists, saying that pupils will continue to read writers like Charles Dickens and George Eliot.

Last month the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) recommended giving teachers more freedom by scrapping the list of prescribed authors, as part of the review of the curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds.

The QCA is also reviewing the list of modern authors recommended to schools.

The original article is not what encouraged me, rather, the comments did.   Comments like this one by a former teacher:

I wonder how many here know HOW the classics are being taught these days? I'm a teacher with 12 years' experience (10 in Aus) and was appalled when I began teaching in London to be told to start our 'study' of Great Expectations (Yr 10) by 'telling them the plot'. 4 chapters were picked out to focus on - which I read aloud to them; the students did no private reading - and then we discussed background, themes etc in that context. And that was it. Farce, or what? I've now left the profession.

Year 10 would correspond with Grade 9 in the US and Canada, I believe.  I am going to have my 15 year old son do a lot of reading this year, with little "study" aside from discussing the books with me, but he will be reading them himself, the whole thing, and not just getting the plot told to him and hearing four chapters. I think through our conversations we can deal with "theme" and "background" without much difficulty.   It won't be literature "study" in the traditional "pick-apart-to-death" style, but I can't help but think that reading many of the classics, and letting the books themselves touch the soul, is a superior thing.  How can someone with even a rudimentary idea of British history, supplemented with trips to historically important sites, not understand much of the background of many of Dicken's works, for example?    I'm also recalling something Charlotte Mason said here, about not "getting between" the author and the reader (student) but can't remember the quote exactly.  Maybe you know the one I mean.  I'm aware that background does need to be studied a bit, in order for a book to be appreciated, but surely we can do that fairly easily?

Here's another comment from either a parent or teacher (I'm not sure what s/he meant by "my kids"):

It has already happened - English GCSE has been dumbed down to remove any author born before 1930 except Shakespear - no Dickens or Austen or Bronte for our 15 year olds, too 'difficult', not 'relevant', doesn't 'address diversity'. Instead my kids got a load of frightful modern 3rd world rubbish in 'English'.

Still, every year a few weirdos will choose to pick up a real 'book' and read for themselves, though they had better not admit as much when applying for university.

Austen too difficult for 15 year olds?  I am indeed comforted as I consider even my reluctant reader's abilities now.  

GCSE stands for "General Certificate of Secondary Education" and the exams in different subjects are typically taken at age 15 or 16.   Depending on how well he or she does with GCSEs, a student can enroll in a "6th Form" to study "A" levels for 2 years, with the exams taken at age 17 or 18.  Those who do not do so well with GCSEs either go to a vocational college, go into an apprenticeships (which combines study, practical learning, and some work I believe) or just find a job.   Or, as is sadly too often the case, just go on the dole (welfare).   In Britain the thought is more of "staying on" after age 16, instead of the standard of staying in school until graduating High School, with those who leave at age 16 being called "drop outs".

I am digressing from the idea with which I started out, which is that I am comforted now and feel happy with the standards our children are achieving in our home, after comparing them to what is actually being accomplished in the state schools here (not that I ever wanted my children going to the state schools - public schools as they are known in the US).
I think I agree with this woman who looks back on her school:

My posh school didn't take Lit for O Level - our Head said studying only a limited list for two years would put us off reading for life. Instead we read and discussed EVERY book on the list, and I can't thank her enough. The price of an O Level grade was negligible in comparison with the pleasure I have gained from Jane Austen alone over my lifetime. Perhaps all schools should emphasise the reading and enjoyment and not worry about the GCSE results for English Lit?

"O" Levels are still about, but have been largely superseded by the GCSEs.  O stands for "ordinary" and A stands for "advanced."   Although GCSEs have been the normal standards for 15/16 year olds since I have been here (16+ years) there have been all sorts of changes in the system like the addition of "AS" levels which seem to be something in-between GCSEs and A levels.  The pressure on the kids here, to do well in exams, you wouldn't believe.  Almost everything in the schools is geared to getting the students  to successfully pass the exams, and as we know, teaching to the test makes for neither a broad or deep education.

I enjoy humorous irony so I leave you with "Bart's" comment:

What have those dusty works of literature got to offer us? Nothing, that's what! Not one thing! The brilliant illuminations of flawed genius lighting the foggy path through troubled life? Tcah! Elegantly crafted bitter-sweet autopsies on the suffering of the human soul? As if! The eternal verities? A comforting voice in the silent darkness??? Pah! Do me a favour! Give me a John Grisham anyday. No-one's going to hold a mirror up to my life thank you very much!

:)

I say almost, because I still have one exam to grade, and then I need to organize and tidy our shelves, storage unit, and my desk.  Then I need to start familiarizing myself with the books we will be using this next year.  Some of the books I won't receive until we go to our homeschool conference in a few weeks.  So in some ways I won't really have a break from homeschooling tasks, but I am still enjoying not teaching/supervising right now.

ChathamMommy (Knights Becoming and a Lady in Waiting), who has recently posted some hilarious homeschool-themed spoofs on the TV  series "Lost", today passed on the URL to yet another blogger, "Copperswife" who has written a very useful post on the stresses on homeschoolers:

Thinking Homeschool - Stressed Out??? Tired??

http://www.xanga.com/copperswife/517942363/thinking-homeschool---stressed-out--tired.html

I feel there are sometimes more issues than what Copperswife addresses - like discipline in the home, for example - but it is a good post and I would recommend a prayerful read of it.

We were enjoying pistachios at lunch today.  We were amused by the labels, probably now required by law - the front said "Roasted and Salted Pistachios" while the back label helpfully informed us that the ingredients were "pistachios and salt" and the allergen warning alerted us to the fact that the packet contains nuts.   Who'd have guessed it?

Besides reading silly labels I realized that I did not know specifically where pistachios came from.  I thought they might come from India or some tropical isles.  So I turned to Google and found Pistachios.org.  Here is a link to the page on the history (and a little bit of how the nuts are processed) of the pistachio in California:  http://www.pistachios.org/History/History.asp

Here's to learning something new everyday.

Lots of thoughts, but not a lot of energy to blog them. 

I finished To Kill A Mockingbird.  I really enjoyed it, although I wish I had not looked into the Cliffs Notes before I read it, as I think it took off some of the freshness.

Today from Amazon arrived another book, a Patricia Sprinkle one, called Who Left That Body in the Rain?    I've already started it and in a minute will get a fresh drink of a diet cola (store brand) and head outside to read more. 

I'm also still trying to read Plato's The Republic and de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.  Plus a couple of political books.  

I blogged about some of the craft/sewing things I need to do, on my other blog http://rosesandtea.blogdrive.com/archive/192.html; although I was not direct in my thoughts about modesty, it is clear that I was thinking about it as I discussed a garment for my daughter.  If you are interested in such topics, please go by and leave your thoughts either there or here. 

I had my older children start choosing their summer reading books.  DD1 has already read her first book (in one day, which doesn't surprise me) which was Out of the Silent Planet. She has now started Perelandra.  I suggested that she not read quite so fast, and try to get more out of the books.  She does like I did at her age, and reads so fast she doesn't take in as much as she might.   Like I used to, she does re-read things and then picks up on more ideas the next time around.  I feel though, that with the Lewis books it might be good to read at a more measured pace. 

DS1 has today, under some duress by mom, chosen his first book.  He chose Orwell's Animal Farm.  (edited Aug. 22 '06, as I realized I had originally put "1984.")

I am having them choose three books, one of each category (I placed the books into categories of easy, medium, and hard or long).   Besides the various books to choose from,  I am asking them to read Dale Evans Rogers's An Angel Unawares  about her little Down Syndrome baby, Robin.  I just felt it would be a good book for them to read, to stimulate their thoughts about such matters as:  the value of human life, compassion, and eternity.  As I was deciding to have them read it, I didn't delineate such ideas, but writing it here seemed to crystallize the issues I want them to think about. 

I wonder if I can pick your brain on something.  I'm not much on celebrities usually, but Mel Gibson's troubles recently have been provoking a lot of discussion.   Mark Shea has some interesting comments in his post Mel Gibson's Bad Weekend  (I hope that works) about the "True Self".  I'm not Catholic but I feel he has some sensible things to say, that is, when someone is acting  under the deep influence of sin, you are not seeing the true person.  Have we not ourselves, or at least seen someone who we suspect is doing this, said things that we don't really think true while we are in our right mind, that is sober and seeking to please Christ, which is what our regenerate selves truly want, in order to hurt or shock someone?

 It is a contrast to the Freudian idea, and what Shea says is the Calvinist viewpoint.  I am not sure that Shea is giving Calvinism a fair shake here.  What do you think?   And what about what Jesus said, that "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks?"   I'm just trying to put it all together and weigh what Shea says up, which strikes me as being true - have we not come to our senses and realized what we did was wrong?  And was not an action that our true self would normally take? 

I realize this is not real homeschooling related, but I thought I'd put it up here anyway.    I normally use my other blog for serious topics, but I get more traffic here.  :)

... just arrived this morning from Amazon.  I got it for my 15 year old son to read this year.  I bought Cliffs Notes to go along with it, and will see if they actually are helpful to use.  I don't remember ever getting Cliffs Notes in high school or college although I might have done - the memory is getting holes in it now, don't you know. 

I can't believe I am over 40 and have never read TKAM yet.  There are so many good books that I haven't read.  I know that we can't do everything in high school or even college, but I think now that it would have been better to get through more books, and dissect the books we did do, much less.  They were all written to be read, not torn apart looking for all sorts of things - no wonder so many people think they do not like to read. 

Last night I made no-back cookies with my two youngest children.  I am not the most patient person with little "helpers," but I am working on it and must not be too awful as they continue to want to be with me.  I need to think of some activities to do this summer with them.

Although my two oldest are still finishing up this year's work, and I will be reading with my 10 year old, I am already enjoying the easier pace and find myself more willing to do fun things with the children. 

I read on Palm Tree Pundit   (who got the idea from Doug Wilson) an important idea that I need to cogitate upon, share with my husband, and see where it leads us:

"Don't boil a kid in its mother's milk." In other words, don't take what is intended for life (in this case, education) and make it death."    Anne talks about how trying to accomplish all her educational goals can get in the way of the true educational goal, which is to foster a love of learning.  Click on the link above to read her post.   (h/t SpunkyHomeschool )

Tonight is Friday night, we usually get a take-away meal on Friday nights.  I'm not really wanting fish and chips (or kebabs - spiced lamb meat and salad in a pitta bread) tonight and it's quite hot for cooking, so I don't know what we'll do. 

Right now I need to go look at something with my four year old. 

Beware- some rambling thoughts ahead!

I've bought a few things to use in the new school year.  I've decided to use some things we already have for my oldest child, plus a few new items.  Other children will be getting new workbooks, etc, and the 13 year old (girl) will still use some workbooks that she didn't finish up this year.  So, a big mix of new and old, workbooks, living books, not-quite-text books,  tapes and DVDs.   I still have some things to buy, like first grade reading workbooks from R&S, and some critical thinking material.  However the CT stuff can be purchased a bit later as I want to use the Bluedorns' Thinking Toolbox book at first.

I'm still hoping dh will approve going to MUS for our 15 year old, as the CLE Algebra is not going well. 

I'll try to write out  and post what each child will be doing after I get it sorted out more logically myself!

As I was thinking about it all last night, lying in bed before going to sleep,  I realized that trying for perfection; that is, the "perfect" curriculum for each child, won't work - at least to my feeble brain it seems that way.  If I can sort out the perfect things for one child, and do it all perfectly with him/her, it means that someone else in the family will be short-changed.   Now, sometimes things are so important that you do have to really reach for perfection in one area for one child - I consider learning to read such a thing - and realize that you can't do all the other perfect things that you'd like to do for him or for all the others - you make the best job you can of it all and trust the Lord.  Yet I think it is generally not a good thing to allow the needs of one child to deeply and consistantly disrupt the good of all (very special circumstances excepted - like medical needs, etc.  Very possibly when there are special talents involved - but much wisdom is needed, I think, and I am glad I do not have to deal with such a circumstance.).   I think the Lord puts us into families and we are to grow together.  I'm thinking of when we might be tempted to do things for one child (or more) that mean we do not allow our other children to enjoy the benefits of  home educating, the way the older children did, or the way we actually think would be good for the whole family.   It is the case of the good being the enemy of the beset.

Another aspect that seems important to me when I start stressing over curriculum choices, is that at least I can choose what I think will be best for my children, each year.  They are not stuck in a one-size-fits-all educational mold (despite my despair over sometimes things not being perfect at all times for each child).  They are still receiving an education that is carefully considered for each of their needs and abilities - a far sight better deal than what they would receive in a classroom of 30 -40.  

Two things come to mind now that I want to say as a caveat regarding not acheiving perfection - first is that I am not advocating slacking, not caring, not trying or being lazy.  I'm just saying we can't do everything we would like to do, educationally, sometimes.  Surely I am not the only mother who has discovered this?   Second, and this is something that I have come to realize a long time ago, but still need to remind myself of : God loves our children even more than we love them.  He has a plan for them.  If He does not allow our family to have a piano, He can still work things out if He desires our children to become great pianists.  He will provide the piano or allow our children to learn at rocket speed when they are older and can have access to a piano.   I am not talking of situations where Mom and Dad are selfish and spend the money on a personal Jacuzzi or something instead of a piano when they know deep down the Lord desires them to get a piano for the kiddies.  (nothing wrong with Jacuzzis, mind - it's just an example of a luxury item that I thought of .)  But if we are trying hard to please God, and serve our children by helping them, disciplining them, leading them, and providing for them,  the Lord will provide what is truly needed in their lives.  

Group time now - gotta go!

We've been having computer problems.  It's amazing to me how dependent we have become on a piece of equipment that up to 9 years ago, we didn't own.  I think we'll probably be needing to get a new computer fairly soon.  Not a great time for the expense, as I am getting some curriculum items and paying for our homeschool conference this month. 

Our conference is the first weekend of Septemeber, and the speakers are Rick and Marilyn Boyer!!  I am so excited, I expect it will be a really good conference.  We meet at a Christian holiday park in mid-Wales, called Cefn Lea.  The whole camp is given over to us home educators for that weekend, plus the week afterwards for those who want to stay and have vacation there (we do this).  The conference is wonderful, but busy, and the week-long vacation gives us a time to relax a bit, and meet homeschoolers we haven't met, and renew friendships.   The park/camp is situated on several acres of Welsh countryside, fenced in,  and the older children can have a bit of freedom.  The teens often organize "wide games" for themselves (like "manhunt") and they enjoy running around and forming friendships in the group.  Parents and children organize events as they like- so someone might have a session of English country dancing, someone else offers cooking for 9-13 year olds, etc.   My husband has done some science seminars and one time I made myself available to teach crochet. 

On the off-years from the conferences (held only every 2 years) we have a week-long holiday there in May.   We all look forward a great deal to going.

I'm trying to plan for next year's curriculum - I am a bit behind.  Some things are easy as some of the children will continue working in the workbooks we have for them.  I'm switching to Learning Language Arts Through Literature for two of the children and I hope it works well.   I'm interested in Math U See for my two older boys, but don't know if dh will go for it.  

For my older son's language arts, I'll work on writing skills with him (have got some nifty books - well they look nifty anyway) and will have him read various books that we'll agree upon.   I think sometimes English course pick to death books and leave students indifferent to the literature they are supposed to be gaining an appreciation of.  I think that actually reading some of the great books of English-language literature without the pressure of dissecting them might foster enjoyment of them, and we might get through more that way too.  I want my children to be familiar with many of the classic books by reading them and not just reading sections of them in a textbook. 

I need to finalize what I want to get - some things I can order from vendors over here, and have them bring them to the conference, thus saving postage.

I'll probably start my 5 year old in first grade this year with Rod and Staff material like I have with the other children.  I dither a bit, wondering whether it's worth it to change this year (as I do switch them to other curriculum later on) but R&S has served us well so perhaps in the absence of a strong conviction to change, I ought to keep the tradition going!

this is a thing on the internet that little children can enjoy :

Kitty cat  (it's a kitty that moves in response to the mouse movements)

I don't know what else is on the site, so use caution if you start to surf. 

This was something I wrote for one of the email lists I'm on and some people liked it so I thought I'd post it here.

Hanging out the wash is my favorite household task. 

I remember hearing Oprah some years back, talking about how as a child she didn't want to do laundry and hang it out, etc.   It's funny how our backgrounds and present views color our perceptions.  For me, having a clothesline means freedom and at least a certain amount of wealth -

1st to have enough land to be able to put a clothesline up! (i.e. not having to live in an apartment or something, although a perk to my "single girl" garage appt was the small back yard in back with clothesline, so that was an exception!)  I really don't take that for granted, especially here where houses and yards are often  so small, and after living as a poor single and seeing other poor singles like me  in their apartments and no way of hanging clothes!

2nd to not be bound by some neighborhood rules that say you can't hang out washing, etc.  Also the freedom from fear that someone will steal the things off the line!  (Couple of stories there, but they'll wait for another time.)

3rd, not having to do with money or freedom, but the blessing of good weather - living in England I am thrilled when the weather is good enough to hang out and not so humid or cloudy that the clothes only get half-way dry.  We are having some days of good weather and I can get 2-3 loads dry per day!  Great! 

4th the blessing of health, that I can bend down and pick clothes up and put them on the line, thank God for that.

I didn't add this to my list when I wrote my email, but I am also thankful for the number of people in my family when I see all the laundry!

I thought I would post a picture of an Artist Trading Card (ATC) - they are things I like to do, usually incorporating stamping which is one of my hobbies. 

ATCs are always a standard size, 2 1/2" by 3 1/2", and they are meant to be traded and never sold.  Cards that are made to be sold are called "Art Cards Editions and Originals" (ACEO).  You'll find them on Ebay.  I've never sold any, I just like making them.  I let my children join me too, usually just pasting on punched-out shapes and such, and we can enjoy doing something together.  I need to let them stamp more often.

I haven't attended to this blog as often as I ought to have.  Therefore I have missed the fact that a number of people have commented on a few of my posts.   I want to thank you all for your encouragement and prayers.   Homeschooling is still a bit difficult on a regular basis, but I'm still convinced it is the right thing to do and am trusting the Lord to guide and help us. 

On a light note, you know it rains a lot here in England.  We've had about 5 days of warm weather and no rain this last week.  Today it's raining and my two youngest have been out playing in it!  I supposed that after a 5 day dry spell rain feels like a novelty to them.  Plus, being out in the rain in warm weather is quite nice, isn't it?  I mean, if you like that sort of thing. :)

Oh, I hope someone does read this. :)   I'd like to hear from people about this question: "what makes a book worthy of reading?" - especially in the context of older students.

The reason I'm thinking about this is because I am trying to organize a summer reading list for my three older children, and some literature for my 15 year old son to cover next year.

It's not enough to say "it's a classic" although in some respects I do think that we should be familiar with "the classics".   

I'm thinking mostly about my older son, and the books I want him to read.  I think this year I'm going to brave it and not do a pre-package language arts curriculum for him.  I've got some books coming about teaching essay writing, etc, and hope to get a book called "Spelling Power 3" which I saw recommended on oklahomahomeschool.com (I think).  What I don't want to do is make my ds analyze books to death, which just ruined them for me.  I was a good reader, and read a lot, and I hated the dissection of books - well, as happened in college.  I don't think what we did in high school was so bad.   I do wonder about some of the choices, why some things and not others?

I look back on my high school and college educations, both of which were supposed to provide a broad, well-rounded education in general, and I just feel a lot was missed.   Dh and I were talking about the books that came in the Amazon order or my eBay purchases yesterday, and how although Plato's Republic is a classic, and considered quite important in it's treatment of government, neither one of us had read it.  Now, in England people specialize in things so early, that although British education is supposed to be very good, young people are channeled toward their college major as teens, so someone who is wanting to go into the sciences for example may have no classes in English literature, or civics, etc,  after age 16 or so.  The education here gets very narrow very quickly. 

As far as American high school is concerned,  I suppose the literature choices were OK, but I'm still surprised at some of the things I have never read.   So now I'm addressing those, but I want to make sure my children don't have those gaps.

So for part of his civics/economics ds will be reading The Republic and hopefully we can discuss it.   I haven't firmed up all of the books I want to use, and I do have some already purchased and either in use now or waiting their turn (books by "Uncle Eric" and Gary deMar for example).

Some of the other books I have planned for either summer reading or for next scholastic year are by Orwell and Dickens (haven't finalized the lists yet) because I have this feeling they are important if only because the ideas and perhaps phrases or analogies are in common use in discussions about all sorts of things.  (It's difficult to think when the little kids are playing with a Happy Meal "computer" game so please forgive the incompleteness and disjointedness in this paragraph and indeed the whole entry!)   Back to what I am trying to say (or ask) - how else are these and other famous books important?

Maybe when I get more thoughts together I can post again with a bit more coherence!  

I'd love to hear from other parents - if you have a reading list for the high school years (for any subjects, but I'm interested in regular books, not textbooks or curriculae), would you mind sharing the titles and why you've chosen them?   What do you wish you had read (even if you would have been made to read it!) when you were younger?   What do you wish you had not read when you were younger?  What is on your reading list now, other than light reading?

It is now the end of our day here in England, but still the afternoon for many of you.  I hope you had or are having a lovely day, and may the remembrance of our Lord's great victory over death bring you great joy today.

We have been having spring break, which I have much needed.  Dh is home for a few days, and that is good!

January, February, and March are always difficult months for me, and have been since I became an adult.  They've been even more difficult since homeschooling has become more taxing for me due to a few of my children's needs and academic limitations (not to mention everyone's, including my own, sinful nature) .  (No point in pretending that HS'ing is always a bed of roses!)  

Much of the worst feelings for me are mostly due to the weather although I also feel that I would benefit from a break from responsibilities during these months  and I never ever seem to get what I feel I need.  It can be very discouraging and although I don't really want to throw in the homeschooling towel I have entertained wishes of putting certain of my children into schools. 

And I know the truths, that God doesn't send us more than we can cope with (with Him), and that we are called to service and not a life of ease, etc.  But sometimes it's still hard.  My flesh rebels.

What a help, then, to read yesterday, in my private reading, the portion in Matthew 16 where Jesus tells His followers:

 "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  

I needed that reminder, to pick up that cross once again, to deny myself, and lose my "life"  (you know, that thing that stay-at-home mothers are often told to get their own of?) so that I can truly Follow Him and find Life.   

We did! 

We did have a bit of a problem though.  On Christmas day a radiator pipe broke (longish story I won't bore you with) in our living room, necessitating the scrapping of our plans to sing after our devotional, the procuring of plastic containers, mopping up and switching around of the plastic containers at frequent intervals until the whole central heating system was drained.  (We opened presents after lunch, when things were calmer.)  We had no hot water made until Boxing Day (the 26th) when we found out we could turn on a secondary hot water heater.  Hooray, hot water again!

Today, Wednesday, we were meant to go to dh's mother's house.  We loaded up, and the car wouldn't start.  It didn't even turn over.  Charging up the battery all day made no difference.  We hope that we can find out what's wrong tomorrow.

Then, this evening, part of the kitchen ceiling which was threatening to fall due to a leak in the bathroom upstairs (another longish bit that I'll spare you) - fell. 

So tomorrow will see dh trying to contact the insurance company to see if any of our house stuff is covered, and perhaps will call a friend to help find out what's wrong with our car. 

I'm still happy we had a nice peaceful Christmas and that aside from colds we are healthy, and that we have each other.  I am grateful that throughout this we have still had running water, and that we were without hot water for only 24 hours, and although our central heating is broken we do have a gas fireplace in the living room.  So much to be thankful for.  :)

but I will start trying to post more regularly.

We've really wound down our homeschooling even though I was planning to go whole hog until the end of this week.  It's been a difficult year and I think the need for a break came earlier than I thought it should.  I think we will do some Latin review and also multiplication review today and perhaps watch a DVD I got at the library. 

I'm wondering about switching our schedule around a bit - do something like 4 weeks on, 1 week off.  I don't know - I'll pray about it, because I sure need the Lord's wisdom!

I've been pleased that I've been able to do a bit of FIAR with my 5 year old.  We did alphabet flash cards yesterday and I was pleased that he got all the upper case letter correct.  Lower case still needs a bit of work, but he's nearly there.  We are doing "Owl Moon" this week and yesterday the two youngest color a picture of a Great Horned Owl.  Today we listened to the GHO's call, and with my five-year-old I discussed self-control.

So that is the good.

The bad is that all the older children are taking just ages to do their work.  Some days they whizz through it; in fact yesterday was a good day for my oldest son - he got through all his work.  My older daughter, 12 1/2, has been struggling yesterday and today to get through things. 

And my 10 year old - what a story.  He is doing much better than he did last year, but still has problems concentrating, and exercising self-control, so he takes much longer to do many things than what he'd really need to.  Sometimes he does stick to it, and he actually finishes in good time (usually with most of the lesson correct) so I know he can do it.  He just has bad days sometimes.  They all do - I'm not sure what to do about it, as there doesn't seem to be much pattern to it.

That said, they're all doing reasonably well, so I guess I shouldn't sweat too much.  I just wish we didn't have the "pulling out hen's teeth"/dragging the feet/having emotional outbursts kind of days!

I want to vacuum the computer and desk, but can't do it while they're still working.

Maybe I'll go read the little kids a story.

We had two weeks of vacation, up in Scotland.  It certainly is a beautiful country and we saw lots of things (some photos are on my other blog, and I will put a few more up soon).  I didn't realize how far things were apart though, and I think I scheduled too many places to visit and we didn't see all we could have in each spot.  We visited Stirling, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Braemar, Loch Ness and New Lanark.  We stayed in youth hostels the whole time, which are cheap accomodation but I think I am a little too old for them now. 

This week I have been getting the children and myself slowly back into the routine of homeschooling, although not as strictly as what I'd like to have us do most of the time.  I needed a bit of time to wind down so I didn't get us up early - we enjoyed our vacation but it was not real restful for various reasons (mostly to do with the fact that we were in youth hostels!).  Mt. Laundry is slowly being tackled by my 12 year old dd this week - with me doing loads as well.

I did get to read some mysteries while on vacation - most by Laura Childs (the Tea Shop mysteries, and one Scrapbooking mystery) and one by Maggie Sefton, I think it is, called "Knit One,  Kill Two" which is about a young woman who moves back to the Colorado mountains and discovers the joys of knitting and the different types of yarn.

I need to help out with the lunch dishes so goodbye for now.

My three-year-old was asking me this afternoon about various body parts.  She asked me to point to my forehead, and she pointed to hers.  Then she asked, "Where is my three-head?" 

If you'd like to see a photo of almost 5-year-old  DS3 with a geomag creation (that he made) please go to my other blog  because I can't upload photos onto this site.  

This week hasn't been too bad but it has had a good share of things that I wish were different.  Monday seemed to be a difficult day for my 10 year old son.  Getting through Latin with him that day required super-human strength and patience.  Tuesday seemed to go much better for him, at least while doing Latin. 

My 14 year old likes his algebra books but struggles to do it correctly.  I thought he'd find it easy, as I did, even though I did poorly in math.  Hopefully we'll see an improvement as time goes on.  If not, I wonder if we should get some sort of video curriculum for him - having a "proper" instructor might make things better.  I sound like I believe in "if it doesn't work, throw money at it" - I don't really, but in this case a change in tactic might be wise.  We'll see.

My 12 year old daughter is going along nicely for the most part, but gets bogged down when she is required to look up her spelling words in the dictionary.  Part of it is a tendency to day-dream which slows her down.   She is doing double lessons of language arts as we are still waiting for her math books to come!  I had bought them, and they had come earlier this summer - but we misplaced them!  We have the books from 705 up, but not the first books of the series which had arrived earlier and were misplaced.  I ordered some more, they arrived to our supplier in Ireland, he had apparently sent them on to us - but they still have not arrived!  I am hoping they will arrive soon.

Off to do a page in a workbook with my 4 year old.  Then to put the pork into the crockpot after finding a recipe I want to use.

Oh, before I go, we bought some Geomags recently and our children really like them.  It could be the novelty effect, but all 5 children are playing with them and my husband and I think they have good play and learning value.

Hi.  I set up this account mostly to be able to comment on other people's posts!

But perhaps I will use this to journal some homeschooling things we do.  I am from Oklahoma, but have lived in England for over 15 years, as my husband is English.  We have 5 children, ranging in age from 14 down to 3.  Gender balance is 3 boys and 2 girls.

I love to read, spend time on the computer, crochet, occasionally do other crafts, bake, do Bible studies, and go for walks.  I do enjoy many other things but those are the ones I am able to enjoy most often. 

Here is something fun and educational for you - this is a link for a National Geographic page featuring a webcam in Botswana.  You can see all sorts of wildlife - we have seen impala, warthogs (just this morning I saw two of them tussling!), all sorts of birds, monkeys, and elephants!

I may not post frequently, but I'll be around some. :)