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After listening to an endless litany of the evils of Harry Potter, I finally read them myself.  Yes, I read all 6 books in an amazing 3 weeks or less.  I was shocked to find them engaging, fascinating and not without good philosophy.  I am not sure what all the fuss has been about.  Yes, it is about magical people.  Yes, they are witches and wizards, but they also have wonderful lessons and intricate plot and no little amount of writing skill.  I should not let a young child read them, but I would certainly hand it to an older child to be read alongside the parent.  I think that sometimes making things into a big deal gives them more power than they really should have.  Narnia has witches.  Tolkien has wizards.  We embrace them.  Maybe we should spend less time crusading for the removal of ____________ (fill in the blank).  If people spent half the energy given to things like this doing something truly useful to the world...  Well, you see my point. 

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We once again loaded up and took to the mountains for a day in the orchard.  We used to make an annual pilgrimage, but health issues kept us homebound the last two years.  I finally feel like we are emerging to our former selves and re-starting our old traditions that fell by the wayside.  The children were in heaven. They climbed trees and ate all the apples they could hold.  We had a picnic together and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and atmosphere.  Now it is time to pull out the apple recipes and make some autumn yummies! 

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A new year is here! It feels strange to start school in August this year, we usually are on a "weird" schedule and start back to school in April.  This year we are starting back at the traditional time.  After a brief review of the Romans and their fall from power, we are diving into the Middle Ages.  DD is very excited about learning about knights, castles and the lot.  Already the children have turned themselves into celtic warriors, read the tale of Beowulf, and traced the Angles and Saxons across the sea to live in Britain.  This week we will use a quill pen and ink to learn about monks and illumination.  DD has found a lovely feather to make a pen out of.  DS likes the warrior aspect to all of this.  They are enjoying a return to the books.  DD is planning her history project for the annual history fair.  DD has also taken a major interest in the Magic Treehouse Books and reads them by the stack.  All in all, I am glad the summer is winding down and that homeschool is back in session.  The children seem delighted with having DH as a "new teacher" this year.  Sharing the schooling seems to benefit all of us.  I am looking forward to my favorite season of all - the wonderous autumn!  I am already scheduling our annual pilgrimage to the apple orchard in the mountains.  The State Fair will be here before too long - so many fun and delightful things to do!  I can't wait!

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I am taking a bit of time off for the summer!  I have been super busy with a new job and a new routine.  I will hop back into blogging when we start back to homeschool, but for now... Enjoy the summertime!

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I have heard of culture shock.  I think I am experiencing "season shock".  I have always read things about living life in "seasons".  I have found this very sage advice.  I like to be present in my days as much as possible.  It is easier to do this when you know you are living life one season at a time.  It makes it possible to "do your very best" when you know that it won't last forever.  I nursed my son for almost three years and he was up and down so much at night.  His health problems made him miserable and cranky (and apparantly very thirsty!).  I was exhausted a lot of the time, but I felt like it was just a "season" that would pass.  I felt he needed me, so I stuck it out.  Suddenly, he is weaned and sleeping - happy and feeling better - and growing in independence every day.  I am so glad that I stuck it out with him.  There are so many examples that I have had with living in the "season".  My life has been so consumed by young children for years.  I have loved it.  I still have young ones, but they are changing.  My life is changing.  I started my new job this week.  After all of the gut-wrenching agony of facing this decision, the reality is...well...pleasant!  I had imagined so many horrors of being gone for some of the day, only to discover that my children are just fine.  It has helped that we made major preparation before I started.  We read books about Mommy working, talked about it, etc., etc.  Then, my job worked out my hours so that my husband and I can completely flip-flop schedules.  It has worked out so nicely.  Of course, it is only week one, but I choose to stay optimistic.  We have a nicely organized homeschool plan and a tidying up schedule that, frankly, works better than when I was at home 24/7.  It might be because we are all so highly committed to making this work.  We don't have a choice right now, but to make it work.  The important thing is, everyone, each one of us, has contributed to the success of week one.  This is a homeschool lesson by itself.  A family coming together to make the most of the situation you find yourself in - that is important.  In some way, I think I thought that the season of very young children was the "best" one and that I would be so sad to see it pass.  Instead I am finding that the new season of change that leaves behind nursing and nappies and ushers in scouting and slumber parties can be a lot of fun.  I thought that I would have to be home (without an outside the home job) to be the "perfect" Mom.  Now I find that there are as many ways to make a home work as there are people in homes.  Sometimes your world can shrink to just the "loop" that you are in - your homeschooling, breastfeeding, church friends, etc.  I am not saying that this is bad -for a season.  But then, stepping out into the world and seeing new people and meeting new challenges can be an inspirational experience.  If you had told me, years ago, that I would one day say that, I would have laughed.  It used to seem to me that I had to be the "textbook perfect Mom" to be happy.  Now, I just want to live contently in each season - to accept the cup that is mine alone to drink, and to experience the freedom and grace that God has poured out on my family.  I am in "season shock".  I thought it would be sad to move on.  I find that it is only a step in a bigger journey.

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Okay, hopefully you have realized I am being sarcastic!  Now my husband is sick and is at the Doctor.  I feel wrung out after sleeping on the sofa.  He had fever and I am trying to stay healthy.  My son seems to be fine so far.  (KNOCK, KNOCK - Yes, that is me knocking on wood!)  But, noone likes to read "gripe posts", so let's just keep this pity party short and to the point.  I am too tired to really write anything worth reading, but couldn't seem to leave another day without an entry.  On a positive note, my daughter seems to feel much better.  I have gotten the children "pressed and dressed" and am planning to take them out for a little while to clear all of our heads.  We all have weeks like this.  So you know where I am coming from.  I will be back to myself soon, I think!  Am I the only one who has serious fantasies about that scene in "Mary Poppins" where she snaps her fingers and the nursery magically tidies itself up?  I didn't think so.  I am imagining that now - the laundry marching off to the drawers, the dishes putting themselves away, etc., etc.  Oh well, no Mary Poppins forth coming, so I am off to "tidy up the house".

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This will be a short entry.  Yesterday was quite a day.  I ran from sun up to sun down.  Does anyone else ever feel like their mind is racing ahead and has somehow left you behind?  I took my daughter to the doctor and came home with antibiotics for infections - yes, infectionS - plural.  She has an ear infection, a urinary tract infection and possible strept.  I was a bit dazed - she seemed fine!  She had one small complaint, so I took her in.  I was surprised to find that she was really quite sick.  She is not a complainer, so it can be hard to know how sick she is.  I also had a job interview yesterday and kept three children other than my own at my house.  To say that I was dazed and confused by sun down is a gross understatement.  This morning I am going to try and pull up the strings of the chaotic house and get things in order.  It has been a long week already and it is Tuesday!

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I must say that one of the best things about throwing all of my thoughts out into this space is the positive feedback from the "comments".  It is fabulous fun to check out what people have to say about what I have written.  It is like keeping a journal that talks back.  I have kept journals since I was eight years old.  But this is the only one that talks back to me!  The biggest downside of blogging has been that my paper journal has suffered.  I suppose I shall have to make an effort to go between the two.  Anyway, keep the comments coming!  Such fun!

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While the entry below speaks to the backdrop of our homeschooling journey, this entry is a peek at how we practically apply those thoughts.

We are not true unschoolers.  We cannot claim a pure classical approach.  We love Charlotte Mason, but doubt that purist of that group would claim us either.  We decided that we are "eclectic homeschoolers".  We borrow from many great ideas to build a custom plan for our children.  Here is an example of how we arrived at where we are in our studies.

It is hard to pull out a slice of our daughter's homeschool "curriculum" without an explanation of why and how we got there.  There is a fluidity to her education that would probably only be apparant to us.  We base each choice of curriculum, structure, outside activities, etc. on several factors.  It is a very intentional program.  To begin with, I have a meeting with my daughter periodically.  It will usually go something like this.  We will go out to a local coffee shop and settle in.  I will bring my notepad.  I will ask her questions and take notes on her answers.  It is a very conversational thing - no pressure.  Typical questions would include:  "What have you enjoyed learning about lately?"  "What books do you still enjoy using and why?"  "Are there any books that you are bored with and why?"  "Is there anything you really would like to know more about?"  (Answers for this one have varied from, I would like to know more about Betsy Ross - I would like to try a karate lesson - I would like to look into the girl scouts - I would like to know how an elevator works - What happens if people don't pay their speeding tickets?)  Try to treat any area as a valid area for study.  You may be surprised at what you end of learning about.  After asking all of the questions I can think of, we might go look at books in a bookstore for ideas.  It is useful to stand back and see what they gravitate towards.  I try to be able to buy at least one book on these outings - strike while the iron is hot.  It is also good to ask questions about their "ideal" homeschool day.  When they would like to read, do math, etc. and why.  Usually at this point, I have a pretty good idea of how to proceed.  My daughter has always liked workbooks (hard for me to understand, but there it is!).  She will usually say that she is still enjoying "Spelling Workout" or whatever workbook she is presently interested in.  She did "Explode the Code" last year and loved it.  Then suddenly, she was tired of it and took up "Spelling Workout".  She had seen her friends book and wanted to try it.  We did Miquon Math with great success so far.  But changes within the structure of our days have made it necessary to pick out another math that is easy for anyone to pick up and help her with.  She decided to try Saxon.  She took the online placement test and ordered it.  She now does Saxon with a day of Miquon mixed in.  I am going to have to work more (outside of the home) and my husband and I are going to be splitting up homeschooling next year.  It is okay for choices to be made year by year and based on what will fit for that time.  We did "Story of the World volume 1" last year.  We had been reading straight through the "Children's Story Bible" and she was interested in ancient times.  She was only in kindergarten then, so we skipped around and took our time.  She loved learning about ancient Egypt.  We made an "archeaological dig" in the back yard.  This past year we skipped to American history.  She had a fetish for the American girl dolls, so we ordered the unit study, "Portraits of American Girlhood".  This is a unit study on different periods of American history.  This would probably be a good time to mention another aspect of our homeschooling.  Homeschooling is not just for the children.  I try and pick an area that I would like to learn about and focus on it from year to year.  It helps if it could correspond with the children's study, but it isn't necessary that it do so.  I chose to learn more about sewing last year.  I made her historical costumes for the time periods we studied.  I was delighted with the results and I learned so much about different stitches and piecing things together as well as about clothing in the past.  Next year, we return to a chronological study of history with "Story of the World volume 2".  She is very excited.  Please don't feel that you must "re-invent the wheel".  I used to find it smashing fun to write my own studies for the children.  I had the time then and I loved it.  My life is at a different place now.  I no longer have the time to build it all from scratch, but so many beautiful studies and books are out there.  It is possible to do these things without doing it all yourself.  We also did our history this year with another Mom and her daughter.  We got together each Thursday morning to study the book of the week and to do activities relating to that time period.  This worked for us as it kept us plodding along and encouraged us to plan our fun activities.  We could also share supply costs.  Creative problem solving is the name of the game.  You do not have to homeschool in a vaccum.  I have learned this the hard way.  I used to never do lesson plans ahead.  We just recorded as we went - journal style.  It was a lovely way to do it, but it no longer will work for us.  This year I did lesson plans by the week or month.  They were flexible and left plenty of room for change, but they enabled me to do the "fun" stuff that kept things lively.  You can't do the experiment if you haven't purchased the supplies.  I found that a level of organization was necessary for providing this.  Next year will be even more planned out ahead.  As I return to the out-of-the-home workforce, our homeschooling will have to change with us.  I am presently typing out all 36 weeks.  I simply divided each subject by how many lessons I thought we would do and then divided that out by week.  My plan book will have one day for each week and will list the minimum to complete and still cover the desired material.  My daughter has already had lots of choice in this.  She chose her own curriculum.  So I do not feel this is too much structure for her.  In order to continue with both parents working, this is what we must do.  I cannot cover here the vortex of feelings and struggles that have gone into the decision for me to work and the health problems that have made it necessary.  Suffice to say, life is what you make it.  We can play with the hand we are dealt or whine about it.  I feel like I am gearing up for a very busy year, as you can imagine. My husband is very excited to take on more of the homeschooling.  I think it is good for the children to see us working together on this. 

Choosing what curriculum to use is difficult.  I read reviews, I look online, I go to conferences, and I share things with my children.  Then, together, we decide what would be a good fit.  I usually take the "meeting" results and do a little foot work.  Then I might show her a few different approaches.  We all discuss pro's and con's and the price.  Then we decide.  I do feel that this offers your child a feeling of being invested in their education.  Motivation doesn't seem to be much of an issue when they helped to choose what they wanted to study.  I keep plastic rubbermaid boxes and put their work in there during the year.  Periodically, we go through it and choose what to keep and what to take a photo of.  In this way, it is easy to keep a portfolio of work.  The notebook idea in the "Well-Trained Mind" has worked well for us too. 

Other areas that I feel might be of interest are:

*  We do let the phone ring if we are busy, they can leave a message.

*  We all have chores.  We all work together, play together, learn together, and cook and clean together.  The house is still not always clean.  I try to put a good morning of cleaning in when I can.  We all do it together, but it seldom looks like the magazine pictures.  (Okay, it never looks like the magazine pictures, but somedays it is very clean and organized.  Many days it is not.)

*  If you have babies or toddlers, do the easiest thing you can to cook, clean, or lesson plan.  It will pass soon and then you can do more.  Babies and toddlers first - elaborate projects and immaculate floors later.

*  We have a son with celiac disease and anaphylactic food allergies.  We cannot eat out.  I have to cook every day.  When I make an organized meal plan and grocery list, life is 100% easier.  I easily feel overwhelmed without it.

*  Those of you who have read my entries and commented about how great it all sounds - It is great.  I love my children and I love home education.  But my life isn't simple or easy.  We have bad days here too.  Extend grace to yourself and your family.  If you have to take a day to lie around and the kids have too much computer time or PBS, that is okay - just so it isn't every day.  Some of my most productive days come on the heels of a day like that.

*  Every family member is important - even the Mom and Dad.  Try to follow some of your interests.  It is a good example to always be learning something new. 

*  Make lists.  I make lists of fun projects or ideas that I really want to do.  Then plan for it.  Sometimes you will have to make it happen if it is going to happen at all.  Put it on the calendar and guard the date.

*  Limit your committments.  Live in seasons.  You may not be able to teach Sunday school, lead scouts, volunteer, and head any committees.  Prioritize.  You can do all that after the kids are older.  We don't have to have so many programs anyway. We pick and choose carefully.  Remember, what is good this year, may not be for the next.

I hope these entries will offer you a glimpse of our journey.  Forgive any typo's, misspelled words, run-on sentences, etc.!  It is getting late and I am going to go watch a movie with my husband!  Happy homeschooling!

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This entry is dedicated to Marlamom and is partially in response to her comments.  Smiles and hugs to you!

Before I had children, I knew we would homeschool.  My husband and I were the best of friends even before we dated.  I remember sitting in the lobby of a glamorous Chicago hotel and having a specific conversation with him about children.  It was a cold Chicago evening and we had ducked into the lobby to escape the cold and finish our coffee.  We weren't dating yet, but somehow the conversation turned to children and education.  We talked about how children learn and how we wanted to one day have a different kind of family.  We envisioned having a home that was a place of freedom and creativity - for the parents as well as the children.  I had been homeschooled for the last two years of highschool, so I, then in college, had already glimpsed what "education" could be when you removed "school" from the equation.  This evening is one we both can still recall with clarity.  I think it was then that I began to see him as a future husband/father material.  He says that he knew that he wanted me to be the mother of his children.  But as this is a story of educating and not a romance - I will leave those details for another day.  It would be years before we married and still more years before we had those children we were discussing.  I have always had an interest in learning and how we learn and why.  After we were married, my job was working with children.  I did this for six years before our first child was born.  I read alot of books.  I read everything by John Taylor Gatto.  I read John Holt.  I read the Moore's.  I read Mary Pride.  I read from one end of the spectrum to the other.  And then I started to read the books that were compiled from homeschoolers and what their days looked like - the puzzling thing was that noone's day seemed to look the same.  I would read these amazing stories of children who were never offered a text book, but went to Harvard.  I read how they were building models, winning contests, building businesses, creating art and writing books.  I would read and think about how I could do all that.  It seemed so surreal.  It seemed like an educational Utopia.  It seemed like an impossible dream.  Then, my first child was born.  Overnight, my life changed and I realized that no book could ever compare with the experience of mothering a real live breathing child.  I joined an unschooler support group when my daughter was still a toddler.  Those were fun days.  We went to hear David Albert speak.  He was inspirational.  But what stood out the most was when I was introduced to him.  My husband works odd shifts, so I was there with just my daughter.  She was an older two at the time.  We came in and David went down on one knee in front of her.  He greeted her like a real person, not in a cute sing-song voice, but like any other person there.  He asked about her day and her interests.  I was surprised when she answered him (she was shy of strangers).  Then he saw her eyes go to the violin he had sitting on a stand.  She didn't say a word, but her eyes told the story.  "Would you like to hold it?"  She seemed shocked that he asked or had even noticed her interest.  He patiently spent time letting her hold it and showed her a few things about it.  His talk that night was about his book, "And the Skylark Sings with Me", but I think it was a lesson just to meet him and to see how he treated people, even the youngest among us.  I mention this because out outlook on our children has more to do with our homeschooling than any other factor.  Regardless of our curriculum or philosophy of education, our outlook on the children and on the process of education is the spirit of what we do as homeschoolers.  As my daughter got older, we read her stacks of books, we went to museums and plays, we took her to the ballet, we gave her the music lessons she asked for and she took an interest in gymnastics.  We used some texts and some workbooks and some curriculum.  But, most of all we listened to our children and valued their input and jumped on their interest with both feet.  Time marched on an we had another child.  We ran into health hurdles.  We got busy and harried.  And then one day I was helping my daughter get ready for a history presentation with our local homeschool support group.  She had chosen Laura Ingalls Wilder for her report.  She was wearing the costume I made, she had built a Lincoln log house and furnished it with paper dolls of the Ingalls family.  She had made a rag doll and named it Charlotte.  She had hand sewn the buttons on herself, as well as the red yarn mouth.  She had stuffed it with filling and sat on my lap as I helped her sew up the body.  She had written a report all on her own.  She stood up in front of the parents and children gathered and did a wonderful job!  This was her kindergarten year.  It hit me that day that we had done it - or a piece of it anyway.  We were like a page in the "homeschooling days" books.  Here was my daugher, immersed in her topic, delighted with learning, happy and engaged with her life.  She could read, she could write well enough to make her own poster.  She had her own interests.  She was being "EDUCATED".  And somehow, it was happening, that long ago dream that my husband and I had for our children.  We were living and learning together.  In some ways, it could be hard, but mostly, it was just life.  The journey of homeschooling (or home education) is hard to define, it is hard to tell you just how we do it.  That is because it will be as different in your home as your child is from mine.  Home education involves risk.  You are daring to step out and think for yourself.  You are daring to let your children have a radical freedom.  They will also have a radical opportunity.  Imagine where all of these children, who are free to learn and study and explore in their own unique ways can take us?  We have come along way in this country from the early days of freedom and the pioneer spirit.  I am excited to discover that it has been here all along, for those that have the courage to take the risk.

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I have always loved history - the story of what has happened to people just like us - who happened to live in a time other than our own.  It is now apparant that my daughter is destined to share my fascination with all things past.  We have only been "out of school" for a short time and already she is begging to start our next year of history.  We will be using the "Story of the World - Volume 2 - The Middle Ages".  She asked me on the way home tonight if they had slaves in the middle ages.  What were their battles like?  Did everyone have to do what a king or queen said to?  What did they make their houses out of?  What did they eat?  Did they have time to play?  And so it went, all the way home from Baba's house (Great-Grandma) who only lives about 5 miles away.  She is just chomping to get into her new history book.  We did "Story of the World - Vol. 1" a year ago.  This past year we used the "Potraits of American Girlhood" unit study to learn about American history.  The success of our approach was brought home to me the other day.  I walked to her bedroom door and peeked in at her.  A row of well-dressed dolls were sitting in an orderly fashion across the floor.  I made a comment about all of her dolls and how fine they looked.  She then told me that they were all in a bomb shelter.  My eyeballs widened - I wasn't sure how to respond to that!  She went on to explain that they were in London and it was during WWII.  They had come to the shelter to escape the bombing and were waiting to hear from the "governor" to see if it was safe to come out yet.  Granted, she has watched Narnia, but we also did a lesson on the bombings, a geography lesson on Axis/Allies, and other things to learn about that war and the times surrounding it.  My Grandfather was a marine in the Pacific.  I had heard the first hand account of things from his experience.  It is amazing to think of what we can learn from the past.  I was impressed that her imagination had so taken hold of the event.  She has been carried away as we read the "Little House" books in the past.  She wore her prairie dress and bonnet and wanted only to study from the "McGuffey reader" for awhile.  She was so adorable!  When I look back, I see that there has never been a time in her life when she wasn't, in some fashion, interested in history.  We read several of the "Little House" books to her when she was only three.  She would sit in awe.  Even before that she was entranced by the Beatrix Potter stories.  She loved to see real photo's of that area where she had lived and penned her beloved books.  She looked at pictures of Beatrix's house and her portraits from different ages.  I was impressed that she would sit and listen to those long stories with such big words in them - but she loved them!  Now, my two and a half year old son loves Beatrix Potter too.  I wonder if it is partly the size of those dear little books.  They are so easy for little hands to hold.  History seems to grip all of our imaginations.  We love to learn about the writers who created our beloved favorite books and the times they lived in.  We love to hear true stories from our family about how life was when "Grandma was a little girl".  We love to hear about life in times that were completely different and foreign to our own.  Somehow we feel connected to them through the stories of who they were and what they did.  Now, my daughter is ready to immerse herself in a new study.  She informed me that my son was "going to need a knight's costume".  I can only imagine the hours they will spend defending castles and noble causes as we travel through the middle ages.  I confess she is making me eager to get started!

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I had to have a hit.  I just had to.  It was a long week filled with stressful issues and frantic activity and all I could think about was the feeling of all that caramel and coffee hitting the taste buds and blood stream.  My daughter asked what I wanted for Mother's day and my reply was, "a caramel frappicino".  I meant it too, I felt like if I could just get one, I could unwind.  Finally last night, the kids and I made it to the local Barnes and Noble.  My daughter wanted to order it for me.  So there she is at the counter and the guy asked what she wants, "a VENTI CARAMEL FRAPPICINO" she shouts across the counter.  (She knows I needed one like yesterday!)  And then it is there, cool in my hand, and all of that wonderful caramel delight is mine - all mine!!!  (Yes, I know I am warped!)  Anyway, the children enjoyed playing with the train and I enjoyed the drink and the night out.  It is the little things in life that carry us through.  Starbucks is my down fall.  I do so love almost everything about it (okay, the price is prohibitive, but it really is soooo good!).  I love the trendy set up, I love meeting friends for coffee, I love the smell of books and coffee in the same place - almost hypnotic.  I love their coffee hot or cold or blended with ice or whatever.  I love to go there for a few minutes alone and sip my coffee and just reflect.  So there it is, my confession.  I am a starbucks junky.  Ummmmm good!  Anyone for a cuppa?

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Curious George 

This one is a keeper.  This is the first movie that I have taken my 2 and a half year old to see.  I am glad we waited for this gentle introduction to the fun of the theater.  The movie will appeal to the toddler crowd with little to get worked up about.  There is a very mild reference to evolution, but it went completely over my children's heads.  My son especially like the "peek-a-boo" sequence and the apartment painting scene.  This should be a fun one that everyone can go to see.  Even my seven year old liked it. 

Narnia - The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe

This is one we decided to let our seven year old skip until the DVD came out.  I loved the film and it was brilliant on the big screen.  We are huge C.S. Lewis fans.  With a few exceptions, they stuck to the book.  We felt it a bit too intense for our sensitive daughter in the theater.  She has read the book, and we watched the DVD recently where she could control or mute the action.  This approach worked well.  She loved it!  She did hide her eyes during the stone table scene.  Otherwise, she was fine.  This is a spectacular film for those old enough to handle the action.

Pride and Prejudice

I loved this one!  But, I always do!  I loved the BBC version as well.  It is hard to go wrong with Jane Austen.  This was a lovely rendition of the classic, just don't get too worked up on the details.  After all, they are taking a long book and condensing it to fit in a movie, not a mini-series.  A great way to spend the evening!  (Sigh)

Mission Impossible III

Are you shocked to find this here?!  Well, I put my son's recent movie, my daughter's recent movie, and my own.  This is one my husband and I went to yesterday.  Clearly, this one is pure special effects and adrenalin - literally - they shoot adrenalin into someone's heart in the beginning of the flick - yikes!  and OUCH!  Still, if you can handle the non-stop tension and the violence, maybe you could watch this one with hubby.  Let's be clear that this is not a movie for children of any age.  I found myself laughing out loud in the theater in inappropriate times - at the absurdity of the scenes.  It is, of course, not a realistic story, but if you like the spy scene, it can be a fun ride.  I went for the theme song. 

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My beautiful and exuberant daughter turned seven a few weeks ago.  After the agonizing over what sort of party, what theme, what activities, what colors that my daughter spent days on - we finally settled on merging her best ideas into a birthday all-night extravaganza.  It truly was an awesome experience.  She invited eleven girls to her slumber party.  It was the first time we have a allowed an all-nighter.  The pressure was on to live up to the glossy images of girls in cute pajamas and giggling that danced in her head.  We decided on a "spa night" theme with American girls (or any other doll) brought along for doll-sized fun.  We made brochures inviting the girls over and outlining the highlights of the evening.  We began with a cake decorating class.  Every girl had their own individual two-layer cake and decorated it to her taste.  We pretended we were on a cooking show and gave tips on different styles.  Then we looked in a full-length mirror and each girl painted a self-portrait.  These were beautiful and very insightful on each girls personality.  After that we played some games.  We had everything from Twister to checkers.  Then, out came some borrowed "foot soakers".  Nana, my cousin, Great Grandma, and myself took turns painting toes and fingernails, applying our homemade "banana mask" and doling out cucumbers for eyes.  We topped off the night with our "midnight buffet" of fresh fruit and popcorn and a movie.  Lots of people said that I was insane to have so many girls over at once, but this was just as much fun to chaperone as it was to attend.  All but two of the girls were homeschooled.  Our youngest attendee was four, the oldest was thirteen.  Everyone else fell somewhere inbetween.  They were polite, involved and so much fun to interact with!  Everyone was proud of their creativity and individuality.  As my daughter moves forward towards those years that get so much bad press, I am delighted to report that there are girls who are strong and who have a voice.  I have read "Reviving Ophelia" and "Queen Bees and Wannabees".  I hope to give my daughter a balanced foundation to figure out who she is and what God has for her life.  I think it is never too early to instill self-respect and an appreciation of the unique ways that God has gifted you.  I was pleased to take the opportunity to get to know her friends and to offer them an accepting place to create and be pampered.  I hope that my daughter will continue to have such vibrant friends.  Smart, opinionated girls that know how to be a good confidant - it was a pleasure to have them in my home.

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It is very late.  I am bleary-eyed.  My shoulders burn.  I have been working on my masterpiece all night.  In a massive attempt to become organized,  I have already chosen, purchased and looked through next years curriculum.  I am attempting to write my own lesson manual.  While attending a local classical co-op style program with a friend (we were visiting), I took a look at their lesson book for the year.  It was a nice thick book of lessons layed out week by week.  Each week told you exactly what to memorize, what to read, etc.  Out family is in the midst of a large scale makeover.  Things are going to be a lot more complicated for us in the next few months.  I decided that while I didn't want to join the co-op, I could take a page from their book and write my own manual.  I am sure that I will be delighted while it is put to use.  Right now I am just tired and hunched and my eyeballs are burning.  I know I am rambling and writing all sorts of run-on sentences, but I just planned out a years worth of math and a semester of astronomy, so give me some credit.  For all of you unschoolers out there who are reading my plans with dismay, never fear, plenty of time for following our interests are included - after all, it was my daughters idea to study the astronomy in the first place.  Come to think of it, she asked for that Saxon Math 3 as well.  At any rate, there should be a rule against late night blogging - you never know what sort of nonsense you will spout.  Still, I just couldn't go without another entry, so it is what it is.  I thought the rantings of an insanely tired homeschooler might be encouraging to someone to give it a try.  It shows our human side!   

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One day, several weeks back, my grandmother came and spent a day day with the children.  My husband and I were out, and when we returned, she had a lot to say about the fun they had in our backyard.  But, as she saw it, something was missing.  We hadn't yet filled our sandbox with its allotted amount of springtime sand.  The next day, Grandma phoned to ask if we would mind if she purchased some new sand for the children.  This is the kind of gift homeschool Mom's love, of course it was fine to give the wonderful gift of sand.  What happened next will doubtless live in the The Rivendell School's hall of fame for many a year to come.  Three days later a HUGE truck pulled up in front of our house with 22 TONS of sand - yes, you read correctly - 22 TONS!  In awe my children watched the truck groan its way up our driveway, around the house, and into the back yard, where it proceeded to dump, in one huge mountain, 22 tons of sand.  To try and describe the excitement would certainly cheapen the experience.  They were ecstatic.  For weeks now they have lived in the backyard.  The mountain of sand shows little sign of wear and tear for all of the climbing, exploring, digging, and play.  It has had a crater dug out at the center to make it into a volcano.  A plastic set of dinosaurs ruled there for days.  It has been a mountain in many and various adventures involving giants and villians of all sorts.  It has been the site of a restaurant, serving only the finest sand pies and cakes.  The extraordinary uses of this wonderous addition to our school can hardly be breached here.  Dump trucks have made roads in and over it, flags have been planted on top.  New and exciting adventures take place almost daily.  If any of you have ever considered the merits of a large load of sand, I can only sing its praises!  I did buy a small mat to catch the dirt and sand as they come in the back door.  Now the children come in and take off their shoes and head for the Montessori cabinet to get the little sweep broom and tray.  They can sweep up the sand at the door and toss it back out for another day!  If you can budget for a mountain of sand - the benefits are truly worth it - or just find a kind and adventerous Grandmother with creative gift ideas! 

Thank you Grandma!

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After a year of dazzling costumes from yesteryore, we come to the end of our "Portraits of American Girlhood" study.  It was a truly fun experience.  My sewing skills are much improved after re-creating dresses that could have been worn by Felicity, Josefina, Kirsten, and Addy.  We didn't make a costume for Samantha and Kit - it seems their costumes could be easily thought up from a modern wardrobe anyway.  The "Portraits of American Girlhood" is a unit study that utilizes the American Girl books to study American history.  We studied one girl and her time period over six weeks and then took one week off before starting a new study.  In this way, we were able to cover one book a week (each time period has six books), as well as literature about real people in that time.  I highly recommend the study as we both enjoyed it immensly.  What brought in even more fun was meeting with another Mom and her daughter each Thursday morning to do "school" together.  The girls loved the interaction and the Mom's did too!  We didn't make it to the "Molly" study before we had finished our required 180 days - but we may do now - just for fun!  We incorporated our other curriuculum choices in to the mix and ended up with a school year that pleased my daughter and afforded her the chance to move ahead in the areas that she expressed an interest.  Her year in curriculum looked like this:

Spelling Workouts A and B

Miquon Math and presently part way through Saxon 3

Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind - the 1st grade section

Calvert Schools Melody Lane music program

Piano lessons

Gymnastics lessons

Explode the Code 4

Portraits of American Girlhood unit study (includes your Science, History, etc.)

It was a challenging and satisfying experience to travel this road with her this year.  She has a lot to be proud of!  Before we choose curriculum for our children, I sit down with them and have a meeting.  We discuss what she would like to learn and any ideas she has for learning it.  She has also been to curriculum fairs with me to look at resources.  I used to be a strictly "no workbook" sort of educator, then along came my daughter who likes them a lot!  It is important to give children a say in their education - to let them "own" their own experience.  It may not look like we envisioned it, but it is offering them a beautiful freedom and opportunity.  Children, given a chance to choose their own study, will often choose an even more vigorous path than the one you would have chosen.  My daughter often speaks of how she "loves a challenge".  I hope that she can look back on this year with wonderful memories of challenges met!

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It is a quiet evening at home.  The children are in bed. And I am embarking on my brave new world - the lare of the homeschooling bloggers!  Having come late to the computer era (my computer and I have been together since Christmas), I am still in awe as I explore the universe that has opened up to me.  I am now a member of websites that have ongoing discussions about thousands of topics, enjoy the delight of Friday night chats with other Mom's across the country, and have instant access to all sorts of wonderful information.  The computer has been a revolution in my homeschooling and mothering.  This is my first "blog" entry.  So I welcome you to our little corner of the web.  We have been homeschooling for seven years if you count homeschooling as beginning at birth. The Rivendell school can trace its roots to the amazing day when our daughter took her first breath in the world and her father and I stared at her perfect set of elfkin ears.  I immediately exclaimed that she must have been brought by fairy folk.  She still has the most beautiful little ears!  My husbands preoccupation with J.R.R. Tolkien led him to dub us "The Rivendell School".  I loved those books as well, I see Rivendell as being a peaceful place - a place where a future King was raised away from the evil that sought him.  I think it a fit title for a haven for my little prince and princess to come into themselves and experience the wonder of a creation so massive and mysterious that even the most wise among us can only stare in amazement.  Almost three years ago, our little prince joined out little elfkin daughter.  Now we invite you in to experience our journey in educating our precious children.  Life is learning and learning is life.

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