My oldest son is 12 years old, reads the New King James Bible to his little siblings every morning, and reading is his favorite subject in school.  He is required to read 20 minutes every day, but often ignores the timer that signals time is up.    He just polished off Treasure Island all on his own,  from which he gave me vivid narrations that left me smelling the salt air, creeped out by dead pirate skeletons, and haunted by a little voice cackling out, "Pieces of eight!  Pieces of eight!"  He was crushed that this beloved book had come to an end. 

But oh, what a long strange trip it's been to get here.

When Max was 4, we began gently homeschooling.  A little phonics, a little fun.  Nothing heavy.  It was a wonderful year, although he seemed not quite ready for reading, and writing was so very difficult for him, so we set it aside aside and had fun mostly reading great books and studying nature.  He had keen powers of observation;  he was endlessly fascinated with insects and lizards and such and could descibe them in astonishing detail. 

When he was five, he finally learned to write his name, but it was backwards and mirror image:  XAM.  When all the kids at homeschool co-op classes made these round, nail-and-yarn sculptures in the kindergarten art class, his was square and, well, different.  I knew before I flipped it over to check the name on the back that it was his:  XAM.  He could not cut with scissors or color very well, and did not seem to remember his phonics lessons from day to day.  Curiously, he seemed to be ambidextrous as well.

That year I noticed that in addition to being an observer of all things nature, he loved tinkering with things, and "inventing".  Nothing was safe once he learned to make an electrical circuit.  He was fascinated with small engines.  We could not buy enough of those "Klutz" kits and he loved the little dollar store personal fans;  he took them apart and used the motor.  Even my hair accessories were not safe - banana hair clips made great cranes for elaborate motorized pulley systems.

When he was six, having reached cumpolsary age for schooling in Texas, I began phonics in earnest.  My happy, bright boy would become tired and grumpy and stressed when we pull those books out, but I insisted we do it for 15 minutes a day.  We used Alpha Phonics.  We would drill and drill, but never got past the first few lessons.  He was struggling, and so was I.  I was questioning my teaching ability more than anything.  Aside from school, I noticed that Max had an amazing memory.  He still loved for me to read to him, and I did, for an hour a day, even though I had given birth to three more children (the last two were twins).  He had (and has) a very impressive listening level of comprehension.  Reading was a struggle, but he was still learning the things he needed to know because I read to him.

By now he was spending all of his time on the lake by our house, rowing his canoe, running trout lines and trapping fish for dinner.  He was helping us in the garden and trapping pesky raccoons that attacked our garden and chicken coop and skinning them.  For Christmas, he got his Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.  It was love at first shot.  We noticed that while he wrote (mostly) with his left hand, he liked to shoot with his right.  Just like his dad.

When he was 7, I was seriously doubting my ability to teach.  I felt that perhaps he needed a very structured reading program to get him on level.  I chose a very traditional, conservative, well known reading program.  We did every single worksheet, exercise, drill, flashcard, and the entire script.  He was miserable and so was I and he was making little progress. He had managed to memorize  a few sight words, so he had the appearance of reading, but phonetic words eluded him.  Reading just seemed to suck the life out of him, and writing was torture.  He would get dark circles under his eyes and become physically very tired during our school time.  Math was a struggle, too.  Numbers seemed to jump around and reverse themselves.   

It was obvious that the child was dyslexic and probably disgraphic. 

My mother was a public school teacher at the time, and a teacher friend of hers (a dear friend of our family) suggested that she ask their  principal for help.  She did, and God bless him, he had Max tested and he was referred to dyslexia lab. 

We still homeschooled him, but he went to the public school for an hour a day for lab.  I also kept working with him at home, just reading aloud to each other every day.  He made a little progress in lab, but when they began putting him on computers every day to play "phonics games" he really began to faltar, and we realized the lab was a waste of time.  So we brought him home and went back to AlphaPhonics.  I could see that he had gotten to where he wanted to make everything a sight word;  he needed straight, good old fashioned phonics.

At this point, Max was very interested in creating natural habitats for wild animals in captivity.  This is how we ended up with a room full of glass aquariums.  He used dirt, branches, stones, etc. to make his own biospheres in the playroom.  He was also trapping turtles and labeling them before releasing them to see how many times he caught them over and over.  He also loved shooting. His daddy taught him how to handle and care for many different types of guns. 

I devoured homeschooling books that suggested a tighter structure or the "better late than early" approach of backing off from all formal academics until he was 10 or such.  I read all the dyslexia books, and attended a dyslexia conference, all of which was heavy on describing my child's problems without offering any real solutions.  I visited all the dyslexia websites, and condidered the dyslexia reading curriculums with their out-of-this-world price tags.  Someone actually gave me one of these curriculums;   we were both in tears at the end of the first day.  All of these things would leave me muddled, confused and uncertain for days;  I rarely read these sorts of thing anymore. 

I kept coming back to prayer, Alpha Phonics, and  the scripture verse about studying to show oneself approved.  I just felt that if we kept at it, a few minutes a day, we would line upon line, measure upon measure, see a little progress by the grace of God.  We also did copywork every day - usually scripture verses, and I used the Evan-Moor Basic Phonics Skills workbooks for reinforcement because they were simple, black and white, friendly and uncluttered looking.  It is good for your child to pour all of his attention and focus into learning to read for 15-20 minutes a day.  This will make him a reader and develop his character, even if he thinks it is torture. 

Max had started to enjoy light carpentry, making pens for his animals and a treehouse for he and his buddies.  He was a very good shooter;  he and his dad enjoyed skeet shooting and occasional hunting.  He began a small businesss with his sister raising layer hens and selling eggs, and they have just started a honey business at our town's farmer's market that looks promising.

And he reads!  Everday, he reads!  Whatever he wants, he reads.  It may never be a very easy thing.  His father is most certainly dyslexic himself, and he says reading is tiring.  I believe their brains are working very hard to isolate those letters, make them stay in place, and process that word.  Likewise with math and numbers.  But glory to God, they read. 

In short, my purpose in writing this post is to encourage moms and dads who have children with reading difficulties to hang in there and never give up on your child or your ability along with God's grace, to teach your child to read.  Just do something - every day - to attack those phonics.  It WILL pay off.  And read, read, read to your child so that (1) their education does not stop just because their reading skills are not following their need for knowledge.  Read their science, history, poetry, literature, and of course bible to them.  Read for an hour or two a day.  (2) Read books to them for pleasure to keep the love of books alive through this difficulty.  This is what will make learning to read , with all of it's pain and difficulty, irresistable to your dyslexic child.  Strew books all over your house.  Make use of audiobooks.  My son loves all the Sugar Creek Gang books on audio.  He listens to them over and over and I know that they have helped develop Christian character in him. 

Other tips are :

(1) Watch what your child eats and make sure they get enough rest.  No food rules from me, but consider laying off the sugary cereal stuff and fruit juice in the morning and giving your child a good eggs-whole wheat toast -cold glass of milk sort of breakfast.  Make sure that blood sugar is stabilized first thing in the morning.  My son, and his father, often have to eat right before bed, too - a hefty peanut butter sandwich helps them sleep all night.

(2)  Easy does it with computers and TV.  Books must be more exciting to them than anything.  If you do TV (we do), select high quality programming that is not overstimulating like PBS.  Be picky about the computer play you allow and limit it to no more than a half hour or so a day.

(3)   Be sure and develop and stretch the other intelligences that your child no doubt possesses in large quantities;  my reasons for pointing out areas in my son's life where he was excelling was not to boast of him and his accomplishments, but to encourage parents to look for these glimpses into the "whole child".  God has gifted everyone;  we must root out and make opportunities in which our children can thrive in other areas.  Often these obsessions will spill over into your target areas of reading and writing.  My son would puzzle out the text in field guides because he was desperate to know about some snake he had seen and Mom was too busy at the moment to read it to him!  At one point he became fascinated with WWII aircraft.  He painstakingly sketched them and colored them and wrote their names on notebook paper.  He now loves to journal.

(4)  Make sure your child reads every day.  You may want to buddy read;  we did, for years.  He would read a sentence, I would read a sentence.  This keeps the story interesting even as they are slowly and with difficulty puzzling out those words.  It keeps their attention.  Eventually, you can work up to a paragraph for you, a paragraph for him, and so on.  Then move on to pages and later chapters.  This might be an excrutiatingly slow process.  You do have the time.  Nothing is more important than this right now. 

(5)  Be picky about your child's reading material - try to avoid twaddle;  what motivation to read is there in that?  And yet, don't write off abridged books.  The Great Illustrated Classics books are just wonderful for your older child.  The reading level is about that of basic literacy - like your newspaper.  The stories are, of course, fabulous, and there is a picture on every other page to encourage comprehension.  After your child reads the abridged version, why not have them listen to the unabridged original?  Most libraries have the great classics available on audio.  It is the best of both worlds.

(6)  Narration is critical.  Your child must give you a "telling" of everything they read so that you may test comprehension.  This is much more challeging then answering comprehension questions.  They should also be narrating everything you read to them.  It is how knowledge sticks in their brain.  Capitalize on those wonderful auditory/memorization powers of these dyslexic kids and develop  their narration skills.  

(7)  Do copywork.  Pull a passage from something you are reading.  Something wonderful and exciting.  Have them copy it.  Keep it short enough to where it is not frustrating.  This may mean one sentence, or even 3-4 words!  Make it a daily thing.  They will write in time.

(8)  If they never learn to write in cursive, don't sweat it.  Let it go.  It's OK.

(9)  If you find the secret to helping them spell, email me, would you?  In the meantime, we work on it line upon line, measure upon measure..........................

(10)  Never, never stop praying or believing.  Never.  Nuff said.

Every month the children and I endeavor to learn a new hymn. 

It is part of our breakfast table routine known as "Thought of the Day". Our routine goes thusly:  Once we are finished eating, the older children read aloud from the Bible.  Lately we are spending a lot of time in Proverbs.  The current election (especially for president and Texas state school board) has impressed on me that in no time in the history of this nation have our children needed more to be fed the wisdom found in Proverbs for breakfast alongside their eggs than right now.

But I digress. We also work on scripture memory and currently are reading about a different missionary each day.  Then we crack open our hymnals, and sing to high heaven.

Hymns are a real escape from the modern day touchy-feely-sensual-bless me music that streams out of the Christian radio stations.  Typically the music of today focuses on the singer/listener and the way that feel at this moment in time.  The lyrics are like those of an abridged book;  the theology is low-cal, low-fat, and "lite". 

Contrast that to the great old hymns, which focus on God and His attributes, character, and mighty works.  There is rich, soul-nourishing doctrine to be gleaned from these songs.  I have also noticed that hymns are more centered on the future hope of heaven.  The hymn writers had a mature view of life.  They acknowledge that life is hard, but it is entirely temperal.  Happiness will only be pursued but never fully secured whilst one is alive on earth.  True happiness is only to be obtained in it's fullness on that heavenly shore in the by and by.  They are at peace with the knowledge of this truth;  it gives them strength to endure present difficulties.  They have an eye to their earthly end; and it is well with their soul.

The missionaries we enjoy reading about often rely on these hymns in the midnight hour to get them through terrifying trials in which their faith is put to the test.  Some sing their way to martyrdom.  No wonder our Lord commanded us to sing to each other spriritual songs and psalms. 

Will our children endure trying circumstances?  Certainly they will die should Jesus not come back for them before.   Could they be persecuted and even martyred?  We haven't the answers to these questions, although most of us entertain these thoughts and others in our minds from time to time.  Just as we prepare for the possibility of a natural disaster by storing up food and boarding up our homes, I believe we must pass on our children as well prepared for these instances.  Scripture memory and hymns will be a bank account they can draw on whenever the need arises. 

"Happy Land" endures as one of our favorite hymns.  We often sing it in addition to whatever our hymn of the month may be.  We particularly love the blugrass rendering of it (and other vintage songs) on the Happy Land CD.

There is a happy land far, far away,

Where saints in glory stand, bright, bright as day.

Oh, how they sweetly sing, worthy is our Savious King,

Loud let his praises ring, praise, praise for aye.

Come to that happy land, come, come away;

Why will you doubting stand, why still delay?

Oh, we shall happy be, when from sin and sorrow free,

Lord, we shall live with thee, blest, blest for aye.

Bright in that happy land, beams every eye;

Kept by a Father's hand, love cannot die.

Oh, then, to glory run;  be a crown and kingdom won;

And, bright above the sun, we reign for aye.

Once upon a time, a wise husband, upon reviewing the recent electric bills,  told his little wife:  "I think we should get a toaster oven.  It would use a lot less power than heating up the oven, not to mention the fact that the hot oven heats up the whole house.  Plus, if we loose power in a hurricane, using the toaster oven would take up less gas with the generator."

His wife, however, was skeptical.  You see, she loves to bake all manner of lovely things, and rather doubted that a humble little box such as a toaster oven could acheieve high, fluffy biscuits and airy breads and dainty-crusted pies.  Plus, she thought it dreadful to impose one more unfortunate looking appliance on her pristine granite counter.

Her good husband persisted, and brought home a gleaming, stainless steel toaster oven that fit nicely into a little alcove that seemed made just for it.

There it sat, alone and dejected, until one day the little wife chanced to toast some bread in it.  After all, she reasoned, she could toast 6 pieces all at once for her hungry little tots.  The little oven hummed to life, and toasted with all it's might.  It seemed to know it had one chance to make a good impression on this shrewd little woman.  It did not fail in it's endeavors, and she was pleased as she doled out lovely, browned, toasted bread to her dear little children.

After this success, the still skeptical but softening little wife decided to bake some biscuits.  Once again, the toaster oven did not fail;  it delivered fluffy, slightly golden, tall biscuits on it's stainless little pan.  The astonished wife praised her husband anew for his wisdom and discernment about appliances and finances. 

But it was time for a big test.  Could the toaster oven actually bake a loaf of bread?  Indeed, it could, and did!  A lovely brown and airy bread that pleased all the hungry children gathered around the long table.  At this point, the eldest son, known all over the valley for his prize-winning pies, mused that it probably could never manage a pie.  After all, it was so, well, so dreadfully small!

The wise little wife smiled, and gently suggested that he should give it a go.  She was now duly convinced of the thrift and abilities of her dear little oven, and she whispered a little encouragement to the toaster oven as he began his humming.  In went the pie, and the minutes ticked by, until the little oven emitted a cheerful little DING!  All the hungry little children leapt to their feet, and would have pressed their noses to the glass of the oven had they not been admonished harshly by their kind mother who herself bore a scar on her arm for having come too close to the toaster oven once it had been turned off but was still warm.  (The toaster oven always regretted bestowing that injury, but what COULD he have done?  He was in fact small, but very powerful indeed).

The pie emerged, golden brown and gooey.  It was absolute perfection!  The wife smiled at her industrious and thrifty little oven. 

And the good husband smiled at the electric bill.

Do you know I never actually had to write an essay on what I did on my summer vacation when I was growing up?

Summer is a disconcerting time for me.  I am glad to have a break from school, but feel a little adrift at the same time.  It is always a relief when fall comes and I get back to the grindstone, which is apparently where I am most comfortable.

The truth is, relaxing makes me nervous.

This summer was interesting:

-We raised 26 baby chickens - all hens.  Some honeys, some blackish with spots, some reds, one white, and two feather footed fancy girls.

-Had a decent summer garden, but not enough to put up anything. 

-Husband had outpatient surgery to remove a painful growth.   

-The kids each read 20 books and got free circus tickets from the library

-The kids watched a PBS show on the maltreatment of circus animals

-We go to the circus this Sat. 

-I broke my finger and spent a month in physical therapy before I decided that I rather liked a bent finger.  I did read through A Tree Grows in Brooklyn during those therapy sessions (when my finger was not being yanked on), so all was not lost. 

-The kids have developed a big interest in cicadas.  They all learned how to imitate them.  It is deafening at times, but really quite authentic. 

-We had a hurricane.  Did not enjoy having 26 baby chickens in the house, but was impressed with my husband's survival skills.  Enjoyed my MIL's tortillas, too.

-Kids went to zoo classes and swam every day.  They are brown as little cocoa beans.  Twins are swimming!  They also went to VBS.  Max has spent a lot of time fishing.  We also do a lot of hibernating in the air conditioning, although this summer has not been as hot as past summers.

-Molly announced that she wanted to go to school.  Reason?  "I want new school clothes!" 

-Took kids to thrift store for "school clothes".  Molly got about 8 really cute skorts/blouse combinations.  Sam and Judah wondered aloud why they needed school clothes (Madison Avenue is going to have to work a little harder to suck them in).  Max got overalls.  He wears them with his straw hat and his generous sprinkling of freckles. 

-Children wear "school clothes" around the house. 

-Nobody wants to go to school anymore.

-My neice got married.  Got to see my beloved cousins!  Max was an usher.  He rather liked it, and now ushers me everywhere (even to and from the chicken coop).  I feel very grand.

-Only took the kids to the beach once.  Was shocked at the pollution.  Who wants to go and spend the day sitting in trash or swimming in maquiladora waste?  We put the kids in the pool when we got home so that the chlorine would kill everything on them.

-I burned myself on the toaster oven.  I learned that my skin does not like aloe vera when it has a second degree burn. 

-My dearest friends and my FIL had surgeries, injuries, illnesses, roofs blown off, and assorted maladies this summer, but we are still here glory to God.

- I decided I wanted to learn more about the Vietnam War.  Among the books I am reading is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian, a Vietnam veteran.    It is at once beautifully poetic as well as grim and downright disturbing.  A completely different animal than the war of their father's youth.  I checked out more books today at the library on Vietnam;  I'll probably "be" there all year and take the kids along, too, to some extent.  Maybe just as far as the new American Girl Julie books.  Not sure.

-We missed the meteor showers again!  I have had self induced insomnia for the last two nights (the kind that kids have on Christmas Eve), waking up repeatedly to check the sky.  Too cloudy and TOO MUCH LIGHT POLLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!

-The boys still have not had haircuts (they are still Vikings).  Max has taken to making Viking vows - silly ones, like "I vow that I will finish this giant jawbreaker in two weeks!"  He then raises his mead horn (OK, chocolate milk cup) to seal the vow. 

-Their father has said the jig's up, it is shearing time.  They are fixin' to be the most clean cut vikings the world ever saw.

-They are also still my scurvy little pirate-lovin'  seadogs, as well.  Even the pretty little lass.  They are somewhat chagrined  that there is no such thing as a "good" pirate.  I recently heard of a book by the name of Salt in His Blood, which is a biography about a sea-faring man who evangelized pirates!  I NEED to hunt that book down.

The foremost thing about this summer:

-My mom had a serious health diagnosis and is quite ill.  I am so thankful she is close by and grateful to God for the opportunity to serve her. 

-My two oldest children will be getting baptized soon.  Praise the Lord! 

I leave it to the cicadas to sing the rest of this summer away.........

..

My daughter, age 7, knitted this cute hat for a newborn baby at church.  She used those round Knifty Knitter looms that you see in the WalMart craft section.  We sewed on the little rosettes because we happened to have them.  Little buttons or a little satin ribbon tied in a bow would also be simple and cute.  This is a great beginner project for a young lady.  The new mom at church was thrilled!

Here is our material for Term III:

Bible:  The Gospels :  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John  and we are reading What Would Jesus Do by Charles M. Sheldon. 

Scripture Memory:  We are finishing up  the scripture songs on ABC Bible Songs by No Greater Joy.

Hymn Study:  April's hymn has been "Happy Land".  Haven't selected May and June yet.

World History:  Continuing Our Island Story (story of England).  Starting Viking Tales. 

American History:  Reading Pocahantas currently;  will follow up with Buffalo Bill (both of them by D'Aulaire).  We will be spending a little time with Stonewall Jackson as well (by playaway from the library and the new DVD from Franklin Media).

Geography:  Seabird   (by Holling C. Holling) and working on a map of the bird's travels (the one from Beautiful Feet). 

Natural History:  Continuing with Thornton Burgess Bird Book and copying, coloring, cutting and pasting the corresponding bird pictures in nature notebook.  Also, we have two more stories to go from James Herriot's Treasury for Children.

Science:  We are reading The Real McCoy (about Elijah McCoy) and transitioning into a physical science study using Handbook of Nature Study and an Abeka science book (mostly with Max in mind).

Poetry:  Favorite Poems Old and New edited by Helen Ferris.

Literature and Tales:  Finishing up Aesop's Fables, Just So Stories,  and The Blue Fairy Book.  Also, continuing Parables from Nature (which will be a four year project), a book I am growing to appreciate more and more in spite of it's difficulty for the younger ones.

Shakespeare:  We will read King Lear and Twelth Night this term (Charles and Mary Lamb).

Copywork:  Continuing with Psalm 91 (Max).

Composer:  Johann Sebastian Bach.  The kids LOVED the Classical Kids story tape  "Mr. Bach Comes to Call".  We also borrowed Story of the Orchestra from the library which comes with a CD to teach all the sounds of the musical instruments.

Artist:  Michelangelo, using lots of little smiley stickers to conceal things that need concealing.  After I saw her son's oral report on Michelangelo, my co-op friend Claudia inspired me to let the children make tiles from plaster of Paris to paint like those in the Sistine Chapel.

Folksongs:  We are liking (and singing boisterously) "Dixie's Land",  "Follow the Drinking Gourd", and "Land of the Silver Birch" (a wonderful primitive sounding Indian song) from The Homestead Pickers Folksong Collection CD.

Other:  We are finishing up math and grammer books for this year, and having fun some evenings having spelling bees with the two oldest children using the "Most Used Words" list from the book, How To Teach Your Dyslexic Child to Read.

Projects:  Molly is working on her Ruby Dolls project from Doorposts, a sewing skills curriculum that accompanies a Proverbs 31 study.  She has already learned the running stitch and whip stitch really well, but the blanket stitch is giving her fits!  I also have plans to teach her to make some shorts (for her and her 18" dolls) using the book Stitches and Pins from Bunkhouse Sewing.  We are also reading The Mary Francis Cookbook, a combination living book/cookbook primer.  We read a chapter, she does the recipe.  Really sweet.

Max is one I cannot seem to keep out of the lake for all his fishing and trapping.  He is always developing new trapping techniques.  He is also enjoying skeet shooting with Daddy.   He finished up his art workbook (with his artist grandmother) called "20 Art Lessons" by Kirk Jorgenson, and is going to start an art history class also with her using a kit from Homeschool in the Woods.

Sam and Judah will be making lapbooks this term.  Sam chose the topic of Ocean Life and Judah chose the Human Body (mostly because he loves skulls and skeletons!  Shiver me timbers!  My fault for teaching the little merrie little landlubber shockingly rambunctious pirate songs!)  We will be using our Evan Moor Giant Science Resource Book for copy, cut and paste for this project.

For oral reading, Max is currently reading and loving The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman and Molly is reading the American Girl series about Addy.

Enough already! 

Worl History: 

Today our yard is absolutely teeming with birds and their "talking" is deafening!  Even my little parakeet is excited.  Wish I spoke bird language.

This fall and winter, birds have been our focus for nature study.  I have taken Miss Mason's approach and used a living book, Thornton Burgess' Bird Book, with all of Burgess' familiar characters  from his other books making appearances (remember Peter Rabbit and Jenny Wren?),  and gently teaching young readers about bird families, their field marks, behavior, songs, nesting patterns, etc.    We have endeavored to get most of the available birds' pictures in our nature notebooks with much success using the bird coloring books from Dover (the Audubon one and the one entitled  "Favorite Birds") which we copy, color with prismacolors, cut , and paste into our notebooks with the identifications.

The other book I have relied heavily on is that big, black, familiar companion known to the homeschool world as Handbook of Nature Study ,which was written by Anna Botsford Comstock and published by Cornell University in 1911.  I have used it the way CM would have suggested and certainly the way Ms. Comstock intended - as teacher training for me, although there are times when I have read aloud passages from the book to my students (esp. the poetry).

We do own the Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day by Jeannie Fulbright and have dabbled in it some, as well as an Abeka science book I got for a quarter at the library.    I appreciate Jeannie's explanation of binomial nomenclature for children (and moms).  But really I have only found these books to be useful for vocabulary.  Although, I did use the Abeka one  to show a diagram of a bird's innards, which motivated Max to go outside, shoot a dove (he does have a hunting license and it was during dove hunting season), and dissect it with his fascinated younger siblings looking on.  They delightedly found the airsacs, gizzard ("It's full of the bird seed we put out, Mom!"), and lungs, and were very excited to dicover that the bones truly are hollow.  

 But truly the Thornton Burgess book, as well as bird watching,  has been more than enough for us (with the Comstock book for my background info).   

We also have several field guides, although the most useful thing we have is a brochure picked up at the local bird refuge and a book written by a local man that I picked up at our city's historical museum.  

Early in the school year we visited Sabal Palm Grove, a tree and wildlife refuge here in town and received excellent training in birdwatching.  It has really served us well this winter.  We learned how a bird's feet and legs can tell us about habitats and how their beaks clue us in to their diet.  We learned about feathers and dusting, preening, and the curious behavior called "anting" to handle mite infestations.

So far we have seen this winter (and in some cases year-round):  Kiskadees, chachalacas, green jays, redwing blackbirds, whistler ducks, muscovy ducks, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, assorted doves, quail, sparrows, white ibis, blue herons, green herons, white pelicans, gulls, mallard ducks, cormorants, sandpipers (not here at home, but in Harlingen), assorted hawks (which do not get a warm welcome from us as we let our chickens free roam), turkey vultures, hummingbirds, nighthawks, wrens, red-crowned parrots (not at home but in Brownsville), oriole (in neighbor's yard), cardinals, and purple martins (at church).

We saw some wild turkeys, scarlet tanagers (or was it vermillion flycatchers?  Can't remember, but bright red bird that was not a cardinal...), sandhill cranes, and caracaras at the King's Ranch.

Two birds I have not seen this year as in the past have been the Indigo and Painted Buntings.

We also raised chickens, turkeys, ducks and a goose this year and keep doves, as well as the above mentioned parakeet.

We have really enjoyed bird watching this year, and I know it will be a lifelong pleasure for the children.

I have been homeschooling now for seven years, and the BEST tip I can give a homeschooling mom has to do with time management, or, how to fit a rich education into the course of every day.  Specifically, a Charlotte Mason-rich education.

I would encourage any homeschool family to establish specific meal times first and foremost.  I'm talking sit down and eat together three times a day, the times of which are as set in stone as the law of the Medes and Persians.   I use mealtimes to get a large bulk of schooling done    (shhhhhh.  The kids don't know this is schooling!)    

At breakfast, we have "Thought of the Day".  Charlotte Mason wrote that every child should have something new to think about every day.  A life of ideas is a thriving environment for anyone.  So, we have a Bible reading and true to Charlotte's ideas, we also have a bit of a living book on a spiritual subject.  I really like the old books being reprinted by Keepers of the Faith for this.  We just finished Angel's Story.  We have also really enjoyed the Miller family books. 

We also sing our hymn that we are studying for the month, going from verse 1 the first week and adding a verse each subsequent week (most hymns only have 4 verses, perfect for a month of study).  We often sing other Christian songs  (we love the Peasall sisters music) and we do our scripture memory verse, which is printed on a chalkboard in the kitchen for the week. 

So, what subjects have we knocked out during breakfast?  Let's see, there's:

Bible - Hymn Study - Memorization - Literature

True to Charlotte's ideas of short lessons, this has taken about 15 minutes.

After their chores, we meet together for pledges, prayer, and patriotic songs (5 minutes).  Then the older children attack math while I do kindergarten with the littles (30 minutes for Molly and twins, 1 hour for Max).

Then it is time for a snack, which is followed by some of our readings (history and more literature, or nature study and geography, depending what's on the "menu" that day).  These readings are all from living books, and I ask for narrations after each reading, making sure that each child narrates a couple of times a day.  So far, all narrations are oral, but I am transitioning Max into written narrations due to his age (something Miss Mason recommends should begin about ages 11-12).  Narrations are simply telling back the story in as much detail as possible.  This takes about 30 minutes.

Sometimes we have mapwork to do or nature noteboorks or Book of the Centuries to update.  But this is usually a once or twice a week thing, and might take 15 minutes.  Also, each week we do about 5 minutes of picture study on whoever our artist is for the term.

Then the kids run wild outside while I get lunch. 

Subjects done:  math-history or nature study -geography-literature-phonics (little boys)

At lunch (you don't think I am just going to let them eat, now do you?) it is time for poetry.  Lately I have been reading classic poetry and lit selections from Everyday Graces, which is edited by Karen Santorum, and is an ingenious book centering famous children's writings around themes of developing good manners in children.  Some CM purists will not like the fact that there are excerpts from books (whole works are preferred), but this has not bothered us  as we already have, or it is our aim, to read the books in entirety at some point. 

My children, from oldest to youngest, have been known to ask for just one more poem with their lunch!

This leaves copywork and grammar and oral reading for afternoon.  Copywork is what Max does for spelling.  CM taught that spelling is best learned not in isolation, but through the copying of passages from books (in our case, that book is the Bible).  Max copies the same verse for several days.  He then uses Miss Mason's techniques for word study of any words that are troublesome and that is followed by 3 days of prepared dictation whereby I read the passage to him and he writes the passage.   The goal is perfect spelling and punctuation.  If he does make a mistake, we immediately correct it so that the mistake does not become imprinted in his memory.  This takes about 15 minutes.  This is the ONLY spelling program that has helped Max (believe me we have tried it all in this journey through dyslexia).

Molly does a workbook based spelling program, and after this year that will be it for her!  She is just not being challenged enough.  We will move into copywork for her and never look back.  The twins will never know what the inside of a spelling text/workbook looks like so long as it is up to me.

Grammar is a worktext as of yet just because I have not found anything else I like, although I am interested in KISS grammar (google it, it is a free grammar program written by Dr. Ed Vavara, a college professor who LOVES grammar) which looks like it could be easily incorporated into your literature readings instead of a stand alone program.  I am going to look more into this over the summer. 

I have the children read to me for about 15-20 minutes daily and we are done.  I have really been challenging Max in his reading with more difficult material, as his fluency has improved so much, and we are buddy reading so it takes a little longer sometimes.  We absolutely love this time together.  Max is reading a biography of Robert E. Lee and Molly is reading one about Sacagawea.  They will be doing oral reports on these at the end of the year for co-op.

This leaves only the subjects of Spanish, composer study, and folksongs.  Spanish is done at the library and during our daily kindergarten drill.  Next year I am looking into adding something more formal. 

Folksongs and composer study are done in the car (I seem to need a captive audience for classical  music, if you get my drift, although folksongs are heartily embraced and sung with absolute gusto) and in the kitchen while baking and such. 

By now it is about 2:00 pm and we have three glorious hours before supper.  All subjects are knocked out. 

Total time spent on "school":  Less than three hours, for three grade levels, spread out over the course of the day, much of it unrecognizable to the children as something called "school".  This is particularly useful to moms of wiggly wild boys who need frequent breaks for checking animal traps, digging to China, and scouring the countryside by bicycle for their get-rich-through-recycling-aluminum-cans-schemes.

So what do we do at supper time?

We eat.

(For those interested in the curriculum we use, check out the links section on the sidebar and click on Ambleside Online to find out more about this meaty - and free - curriculum for pre-k  through 12th.)

Happy homeschooling!

I have been taking the children to Storytime at our local library for a couple of years now.  If all our tax money were this well spent, well, I'd be tickled to render unto Caesar this time of year.

We usually go on Wednesday, when warm, smiling Miss Myra does the bilingual program.  The children sing songs and do finger plays in English and then Spanish.  Miss Myra then reads books - each page first in English, then Spanish with her excellent enunciation.  They then do a tejano version of the Hokey Pokey (best version I have ever heard!) and a craft.  I am sure this program is in place to assist Spanish speaking children with English skills, but you can't tell me it won't work both ways! 

Lately the children have been talking me into going on Tuedays, too, which is all-English with the fabulous Miss Dixie, who uses puppets and wonderful visual aids and is a very gifted teacher. 

There are other homeschoolers who attend, which is so nice for the children.  This program captures all the best things about a school education that children remember so fondly from their early years- singing, fun crafts, great books, and friends.  I am so pleased to be able to give that to my children within our homeschool setting.

Max and his buddy Jeremy enjoy chatting quietly and working on schoolwork together while their little siblings are at storytime and of course moms like to talk shop, too.

Here are some of our dumplings at storytime:

Here are Max and Jeremy, probably talking about airplanes or pirates:

After storytime, I usually let the children play on the computers awhile. They check out books, movies, and the new playaways which are classic, unabridged books on a pre-loaded mp3 player type contraption.  I love these!  Max is listening to Beowulf this week.  Molly just finished Black Beauty, and checked out Peter Pan this week.

Then we go next door to Veteran's Park and picnic, afterwhich I walk laps around the park while the children run around.  We then go home and finish up whatever schoolwork needs to be done (although we try to get most of it done between 9-10 am before we leave for the library).  It is a routine that is working well for us, and I am really greatful for the help in teaching Spanish.

Here are the kid's great-grandparents (Ray's grandparents).  Luisa is on the far left and was the Valentine Princess this year at the nursing home where she resides.  That is her husband, Inocencio, on the far right (he is the Prince, and truly is a prince of a man).

No, this is not an educational post about nature study. 

 Educational only in one respect:  Obviously, my sactification continues.

Last weekend we went to a hockey game.  It was our first (well, Ray had been to one before).  Maybe it was because I grew up watching wrestling with my brother and father.  Maybe it's the Irish in me.  Maybe it was the politically incorrect atmosphere.  I don't know.

All I know is that I loved it.

Sportsmanship?  There is none in hockey.  When the visiting team came skating in, the announcers played "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".  When they made a goal, they played Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers:  "Even the Losers (get lucky sometimes)".  

Contrast to the opening theme song when the Killer Bees took the ice.  It started out as the apocalyptic theme from Space Odyssey 2000and then it was the hardest, loudest (did I say hardest?) hard rock you ever heard.  When they made a goal, it sounded like a tornado siren and there was absolute mayhem for a couple of minutes. 

Then there was the fight.  The boys had all been hoping there would be one.  We dubbed the penalty box the "Naughty Box". 

 I know, I know.  The Bible verse about preferring one another.  I am back in my goode wife, conservative, bread baking home spun mom flow.

Until I figure out a way to get back to the hockey rink.  :0)

Last Friday, our homeschool co-op held a "Planet Day" at the library.  All the big kids who had attended a field trip at the Challenger Space Center were assigned to give an oral report on a planet.  Max selected Earth, because as he noted, "it's the one I know the most about".  Indeed.

We set about doing Max's project Charlotte Mason style (how else?).

He looked through a few books until he found one he liked best.  He narrated his readings - repeatedly - until he had his major points down in his memory. 

He then commenced work on his display board, starting with painting an Earth, being careful of the continent outlines when painting, a silvery moon, and a fiery (glittery) sun.  He liked the way the Bible calls the sun "the greater light to rule the day" and the moon "the lesser light to rule the night", so we typed that up to put on his board, along with Gen 1:1 for the Earth.  His grandmother showed him how to mat the verses and glue them neatly on his board, interspersing some stars for fun.  He also matted some Earth facts to the board (things like exact distance to the sun and diameter and such - not the sort of thing to waste brain space trying to memorize unless you work for NASA).

(for some reason, the website is not allowing me to upload pictures - I'll try again later)

Then it was time for some poetry and copywork.  We studied several poems about the Earth, moon, and sun, and decided to include some copywork from:

The Wonderful World by William Brighty Rands 

Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun by Walt Whitman

The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky by Vachel Lindsay

How can anyone study the Earth and not include a hymn?  So many of them are in praise of God's creation!  We photocopied a page from our church hymnal  - For the Beauty of the Earth - a hymn we learned a while back in the course of our hymn studies, and pasted a portion of it on the display.

Finally, we worked on his speech.  I noticed he was skipping around in his presentation - talking about the sun, then the moon, then back to the sun but forgetting some of his moon info because he would loose his "flow".    I taught him how to use an index card with just guide words to keep him on track.  It worked beautifully, keeping his presentation fairly seemless. 

He gave his speech some personality, all his own, as well.  When talking about the moon, he mentioned some of his favorite astronauts, noting that they were Christians.  When explaining the phases of the moon, he brought up the way Indians marked time by the moon.  He even included a joke when talking about how the earth's atmosphere keeps the earth not too hot or cold and protects us from meteorites, radiation, and...................aliens. 

Once again, I was pleased with the way the CM methods came together and served us well as Max did his first oral report.

The children in our co-op (and the moms and in our case we roped my mom into it, too) are hard at work on their oral reports and corresponding display boards, which are due tomorrow.  The children went on a fieldtrip to the Challenger Space Center this fall, and the big kids were each assigned a planet or part of the solar system on which to report. 

Max chose Earth, because he said it was the planet he knew the most about.  Practical, huh?

My friend Renee called me today  - her son was assigned the planet Uranus, which they just thought was going to be snooze.  But the first words out of her mouth on the phone were (and most sincerely uttered):  "We are really starting to LOVE Uranus!"

It occurred to me that only a homeschool mom would say that. 

I can't wait to learn more about Uranus tomorrow!

Sam and Judah received their ants in the mail for the ant farms we gave them for Christmas.  Oh happy day!  The instructions said to put them in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to suppress their activity.  This was supposed to make transferring them into the farms easier.

NOT!

They appeared to be motionless, but the minute we began to tap them into the habitats, they began to boil over with red ant fury!  As the three small children ran screaming out of the room in horror (they who have all received a great many ant bites in their short years) Max and I became ant wranglers, scooping the renegades up in the vials, capping them in, dumping them in, and chasing the five ants that would get out for every one we put in.  By and by, we developed stategies to overpower them and we rounded up every single one of them with the help of God!  We had only one casualty, who died after the fact, which was pretty good since there were 20 ants for each boy's farm.

The ants are endlessly amusing.  Max noted that they were extremely thin upon arrival.  They immediately set to drinking water - every last one of them.  They began to plump up over the course of the day and went right to work.  Well, most of them went to work.  Max is just sure some of those ants are sluggards.  We'll see.

Here are the twins with their ant farms:

We had a great time at the South Texas Youth Stockshow this weekend.  The kids did well with their projects.  Here they are, on a child-by-child basis:

MAX

Max's apple pie won Grand Champion!!!   Last year he won Reserve, but he tweaked his recipe somewhat and it paid off.  The bidding was crazy - I believe it fetched $30 at auction.  Here he is with his pie (someday I'll figure out how to rotate this picture):

He also made a zuchinni bread that got a white "Good" ribbon.  This is a recipe that became a family favorite due to extreme zuchinni overload (if you garden, you know what I mean):

What a goofy smile!

His mixed media WWII collage took Grand Champion!  Boy was his Nana (art teacher/grandma) pleased!

This fall, the boys decided to re-decorate their bedroom.  Formerly, they had 3 different biospheres as their theme:  Max's top bunk was the different layers of a rainforest, Sam's bottom bunk was the different zones of the ocean, while Judah (my rocketman) looked up from his bed to see the solar system suspended above him.  I had written all the Bible verses from the Creation Week on the hanging monkeys, toads, sharks, octopi, planets, etc.  (I wish I had taken pictures!!!!!) 

Anyway, they have now decided to do a WWII theme.  So down went creation and up went an Uncle Sam poster, propellor from some 1940s era aircraft, model airplanes in simulated dogfights, and now we are working on bedding.  Max stitched a WWII pillowcase with the help of his wonderful 4-H teacher, Miss Sherilyn:

Now I just need to get him to make two more for his brothers!  I think he and I will also do some curtains in this fabric.

He also made a rubberband gun out of a palm branch (this picture dos not do it justice):

Max's animal project this year was a puppy training class he and his dog, Boots, attended at Petsmart.   He and Boots performed some of the commands they worked on this fall in spite of Boots getting horribly carsick because I forgot to give him his Bonine (motion sickness meds).  Poor pup. 

Here he is doing his forward sit.  In spite of his tummy, Boots won First Place in the talent category!  He also won 2nd place for cutest pet and biggest, can you believe it?  This was the year of miniature pets - no kidding, the competition was all tiny!

MOLLY

Molly had a good showing, too.  Her chocolate cake won Reserve Grand Champion!  The recipe hearkens back to the Depression Era/War Rationing years with it's lack of eggs, milk, or butter, but OH!  It is sooooooo good! 

Molly also received a Reserve Grand Champion for her Banana Chocolate Chip bread, another family favorite at snack time:

A dear sister at church gave Molly some quilt squares that were pictures painted on very old (vintage-ish) muslim.  (Thank you, Sister Dorothy!)  She patched them together and made a sweet baby quilt.  It received a red "Excellent"  ribbon:

 She also knitted a hat upon which she affixed a flower she made of ribbon.  Her godmother, Miss DeeDee, helped her with this cute project.  It took a blue, "Superior" ribbon:

This year, Molly showed her turkey, Gobble, in the pet show.  He was quite a hit.

 Gobble is quite the curmudgeon, but we needn't have been concerned that he would go on a wild rampage;  quite the opposite!  He was a perfect gentleman, enduring hugs from his adoring audience with grace.  He won 1st place for Most Unusual Pet, 2nd for Most Talented (he actually flew through the air and leaped upon a blue feed bag, upon which he did a little tap dance.  The children discovered this "talent" some weeks ago and have it perfected. ) He also won 1st place for Largest Pet, and to our delight, was awarded "Best In Show"!!!

The twins are in the above picture:  Sam is to the left of Molly happily showing his toad, Venture.  On the other side of Molly is Judah (just after the little girl in the princess dress, who happens to be our goddaughter, Carissa, who was showing her chicken, Omelet).  Judah is showing his hermit crab, Venture.  Yes, I know, the twin's pets are Venture and Venture.  It's a twin thing.

Which brings me to:

JUDAH

Judah's Venture won 2nd place in Smallest Pet and he also showed him in Most Unusual, Cutest, and Best Dressed (he has a lovely shell painted with a Jolly Roger).  I have forgotten which contest we had to leave for an obviously much needed bathroom break, but the judges smiled and had mercy on a 5 year old's bladder and were kind enough to let him finish! 

 As you can see in this photo, Judah really SHOWED his pet!  (Sam is next to him, and our other goddaughter Heather is after Sam showing her cowboy-hat-wearing crayfish). 

Judah also told the judges all about how wonderful Venture (the hermit crab) is in this picture:

SAM

Here is Sam extolling the virtues of Venture, the toad:

Sam had his own rather breathtaking way of showing off Venture (the Toad)'s best features:

Sam's Venture won 4th place in Smallest pet, 5th in Most Unusual, and also participated in Cutest (why did his toad not win Cutest?  A travesty, I say!).

And now, just for the Royal Watchers of the South Texas Youth Stock Show:

That's Laurel on the left, Queen of the South Texas Youth Stockshow, then Heather, who is the Lil' Miss Queen (and Laurel's lil' sister), Molly, and Miss DeeDee (or Queen Mum, as I like to think of her these days!!)   This royal family is a hard working 4-H family, with projects ranging from home show to pet show to horse show to livestock.

One last photo - remember Gobble?  One of our 4-H club members, Emily,  snapped a picture of him a few weeks past and entered it into the photography contest at the show.  Here he is in all his glory:

That's a wrap for this year's South Texas Youth Stock Show!

This term, the composer we are studying is Handel.

This month (January), we are learning all the verses from Amazing Grace.

We are using ABC Bible Songs (from No Greater Joy) for scripture memory.

This week's song was from Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. 

For folk music, we are listening to Arkansas Traveler (music from the Little House books) and the Homestead Pickers (folk music of England, Ireland, Scotland, as well as the US).

This week's favorite song seems to be Old Dan Tucker (Arkansas Traveler), which Max likes to accompany on harmonica, although the twins still constantly ask for Two Ravens (from the Homestead Pickers which is an old English song about a dead knight and his faithful dogs, falcons, and a doe). 

We are currently savoring during school time:

Our Island Story (British History)

D'Aulaire's George Washington (Biography)

Fifty Famous Stories Retold (World History)

Tree in The Trail (Geography)

Handbook of Nature Study (currently studying birds)

The Burgess Bird Book

James Herriot's Treasury for Children

The Aesop for Children

Just So stories

Parables from Nature

The Blue Fairy Book

Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare

Rembrandt (he is the artist we are studying for this term)

Individually, we are reading:

Sugar Creek Gang books (Max)

Reader's Digest Back to Basics (Max)

Addy - An American Girl (Molly) 

Kaya - An American Girl (Molly)

Persuasion (Erin)

Wuthering Heights (Erin)

Go Dog Go (Sam and Judah are learning to read this one)

This Friday, our homeschool co-op visited the Marine Military Academy Museum in Harlingen, TX.  They have an impressive collection of military items, and an excellent film on the WWII battle for Iwo Jima which is narrated by Ed Swaney who served on the USS Nevada BB36. 

Imagine our surprise when our lively little group was met and warmly greeted by none other than Ed Swaney himself!   A twenty four year old college educated young man, he joined the Navy and saw action not only at Iwo, but at Okinawa, where he was part of an armada of over 1,000 battle ships.  What a sight that must have been.   He told us all about his ship's mission and even their being hit by a kamikaze.  A  kind, most courteous and humble man, he was playful with the children but he never spoke down to them.  They responded to him as though he were a beloved grandfather, gathering around him for picture taking and obtaining his autograph on the museum fliers.  I just knew that I had found a real honest to goodness hero for my boys.  However, Mr. Swaney rejects that title, saying  that the heros were the ones they left behind. 

Even though Mr. Swaney is, at 87 years of age and aided by a walker,  soon to enter a retirement community (along with his wife), make no mistake - the man is still a warrior, and his current fight is getting the history of WWII and particularly the battle of Iwo Jima out to schoolchildren, of whom  he is distressed to say learn virtually nothing about this war or the men  who fought it.  This is why, at an age when most people want to take it easy and no one would blame them for doing so, he leaves the comfort of his home to talk to children about this war against all that was evil.  God bless him.

Thinking back over my own education, my only exposure to WWII was in a literature class when I read the Diary of Ann Frank.  It was only when, as a homeschool mom, my boys got interested in vintage aircraft due to the influence of some dear homeschooling friends that we began to learn about WWII.  Once we started, we were utterly fascinated. 

We inhaled books about the war.  We went to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi.  We went to the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg.  We went to the airshow in Brownsville.  The boys began collecting miniature airplanes.  They relived battles over and over with their friends, using their planes as props. 

Molly (my daughter) and I read the American Girl books about Molly, An American Girl on the home front in 1942.  We looked up ration books on the internet, collected ration era recipes, fell in love with the brave little Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, and called our weedy, wild garden our Victory Garden.  We put on our tap shoes and some Glenn Miller and put on a USO show in the playroom.

This fall, we watched The War on PBS.  It was rough, but it was good and right.  I feel more American, somehow, and more connected to these fine men.  I am so proud of them, and I pledge to do my best to raise up grateful sons and daughters who will know about this truly greatest generation. 

It really is a beautiful day here in the valley - sunny but chilly enough to almost feel winter-ish (by south Texas standards).  And so, I begin my blog.  Church was sweet, with the sermon reminding us that when we come to the end of ourselves and our efforts and blunders, there is the Cross.  The paradox is that we must carry our cross daily, but it is The Cross that ultimately saves us. 

Went to Pizza Hut afterwards because the kids had their Book-It coupons.  God bless Pizza Hut!

The older children went out to shoot the .22 with Dad, and the little boys and I surfed the net a little to get ideas for making bird feeders out of recycled goods - a project for next week, assuming we can get all of our other projects ready for the home show coming up next weekend. 

Tonight the Jane Austen series begins on Masterpiece Theatre!  And yet I am torn because so does the new Larry McMurtry series.  What to do, what to do.

Reminds me of the Robert Louis Stevenson poem the children and I read:

The world is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.