Investing in Knowledge

• Nov. 23, 2009 - Menu Plan Monday

A little late, but here is the plan for the week:

Breakfasts (all served with fruit and egg if desired) -

Oatmeal muffins
Banana bread
Pancakes
Leftover pancakes
Baked oatmeal
Cereal
Cereal

Dinners -

Pork roast (crockpot) with gravy, brown rice, salad, green beans
Tilapia, wild rice, coleslaw, birthday cake
Fried rice (using leftover pork and rice)
Turkey, stuffing, salad, glazed carrots, cranberries, green beans, corn casserole, pumkin pie
Leftovers
Turkey potpie
Chili (crockpot), cornbread

That's the plan for this week. Check out the other great menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

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• Nov. 23, 2009 - Simple Woman's Daybook

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• Nov. 18, 2009 - Prescription Problems

What happened to the days when the pediatrician handed you a paper prescription which you then took to the pharmacy, waited for a few minutes, and went home with the medicine?

I had to get some Amoxicillin today for my youngest son. He has the beginning of an ear infection and has had and upper-respitory infection for going on three weeks now. Time for some antibiotics. Here's how it went today:

Our pediatrician uses the latest and greatest technology to send a fax from her laptop to the pharmacy with the prescription information. The pharmacy receives it, and it sits for a whie. I call about it and get connected to some sort of out-sourcing place who answers calls for this pharmacy. They have no information on the prescription. Of course they don't, it is sitting at the actual pharmacy. I'm not allowed to talk to anyone in the actual pharmacy because they are busy helping other clients. The outsourcing place has no information on my son, my insurance, previous prescriptions, nothing. They keep wanting my son's cell phone number because the prescription is probably under his number. My son is three. Unless he has done something I know absolutely nothing about, he does not own a cell phone. My son's name is Gabriel; not Gabrielle, and yes, I'm sure about that. My son's name is not Eric. My son's name is not Melinda. Yes, I am really sure about that. I spent twenty minutes answering stupid questions, and getting no answers to my questions.

Finally, I decide to just go to the pharmacy. The prescription is filled and waiting on me. Great communication there.

Here's where things get even more interesting. I had to play twenty questions with the pharmacist. Who was the prescribing docter? What was my son being treated for? On and on it went. Why did she need all of that information? I wasn't getting some sort of narcotic or something weird. It was Amoxicillin. He hasn't been on antibiotics since Easter of 2008. It's not like he is on drugs all of the time. It was really weird.

Anyway, if that is how technology has advanced customer service int he pharmaceutical field, I would prefer old-fashioned methods.

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• Nov. 17, 2009 - The Teacher and Technique (or the introduction)

I've started many blogs in the past but seem to get bogged down by the sheer volumes of topics that skitter through my brain on a daily basis. This time, I am going to focus my blog on our schooling efforts. The focus is going to be on the daily stuff. What works for us? How do we use manipulatives? What curriculums do we use and how do they work? Those types of things. I love reading other people's blogs and finding out just that type of information.

Who am I and why would anyone care about what I have to say? Good questions!

I am a homeschooling mom to three bright, beautiful children. My oldest son is 8yo and has been homeschooling since K5. He spent a little time in daycare during his infancy but soon came home and has stayed. He would be in 3rd grade this year if he was in traditional schools. He is doing some 2nd grade, some 3rd grade, and some 4th grade work at the moment. My only daughter is 4yo. She has been begging to do school since she was 2yo when her oldest brother started. She does some phonics and math work right now. We are getting ready to start a new reading program that came highly recommended. She is reading short, 3-letter words but seems ready to keep going. My youngest son is 3yo. He is content with puzzles, scissors, markers, dry-erase books, workbooks, and stickers at the moment. While he doesn't ever appear to be too interested, he still seems to be learning.

I am a reader and have brought that into our school. We use primarily living books following along with Ambleside Online for the curriculum. Teaching grammar, literature, and history are so much fun for me. We breeze through those subjects. Art and music are constants. My daughter is the artist and says she is going to be a "real" artist when she grows up. We study pictures and paint and draw. My youngest son is the musician. He loves to dance and sing, so we play music almost always. My ipod has quite the selection, and this little 3yo can turn it on and find his favorite songs! I am terrible in science and math, but they still must get done. My oldest son has taught me to like science just a little. He loves it and gets so excited for it. My husband is the math whiz in the house. He balances me out with a bit of logic!

I live in a large metropolitan area. We visit lots of museums to make up for the lack of acres of woods to explore. We visit local parks and hike the local trails.

I am not an expert because I am still learning as we go. I can only share what works and doesn't work in our homeschool with our children.

My husband and I have taken the words of William Butler Yeats as our motto, "Education is not the filling of the pail, but the lighting of a fire."

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• Nov. 17, 2009 - Cute Saying from Facebook

I tend to post more on facebook than blog. It's really because I'm such a lazy blogger. Here are the kids' cute saying from the past couple of weeks.

Dylan asked at the dinner table tonight about how we know that God is real. Gabriel answered without missing a second, "My teacher has a picture of Jesus. That's how!" Too cute!!!

Taylor said she was glad tomorrow is a slow Sunday, so she can get some candy. (as opposed to Fast Sunday!)

Gabriel has decided that if he can't have a zebra and whale for a pet, he will be ok with a hamster and chicken.

Gabriel is drinking directly out of the milk jug, and Taylor has taken to hissing and growling at people. At this moment, they are standing outside howling at the moon. My kids are crazy!

Dylan explained RAM vs. ROM to me today and BIOS, motherboard, CPU, and modem. I am very, very lame.

Dylan's question of the day - Did the cavemen have to do math?

And one more dealing with the husband. . .

I kept hearing a ball being thrown up against the window. Went outside to see what was going on. It wasn't one of the children but my husband!

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• Nov. 16, 2009 - 3rd Grade Meltdown

and it's not the student. It is me!

I thought I had it all figured out. We would be Charlotte Mason homeschoolers and follow Ambleside Online. It was a great fit for us. I did want to expand the history just a bit, so I added in Story of the World. Everything was great. We completed years 0, 1, and 2. Then, we hit year 3. . .

I can't explain it. After looking over the year 3, I just felt blah. It didn't seem to have the same excitement as the previous years. It doesn't help that they changed the curriculum around since we started, and we had already read some of the books.

I figured it was time for a change and started seriously looking at The Well-Trained Mind. I have owned this book for a couple of years and have read it several times. After reading it again, I realized that we really are Charlotte Mason homeschoolers not classical. It's just AO that isn't working for us this year.

We started just doing our own thing. We followed the Charlotte Mason model using Story of the World for history. Well, I loved Volume 1 and 2, but Volume 3 is different. Instead of finding the jumping all over the world fitting in pieces of world history fascinating like previous years, I have found it annoying. I really wanted to sit for a while and focus on King James I of England and the discoveries going on in the New World. I didn't want to jump to Japan and the Middle East. I was perfectly content to stew in British and US History for quite a while. What a disappointment!

I have even considered changing math curriculums this year. What is wrong with me?!? I love Saxon Math, and I have been blessed with all of the books up to 6th grade. It's just Signapore looks really good too. This is our 4th year homeschooling. I should be more settled!

Honestly, it's not the curriculum. It's me. I'm unsettled and unsure of myself. Dylan is getting older. Taylor is starting to read. Gabriel is nipping at their heels soaking it all up. Dylan loves science which is not my best subject. Taylor just wants to do school. She begs for it, and I don't want her to grow up too fast. At the same time, I feel like I am failing her already for not having daily lessons with her. This is also the busiest year we have ever had. We have so much going on with homeschool group, sports teams, and church activities. Frustrating.

I'm not a newbie anymore! Yet, I still feel like one. Every year is so different, and each child is unique in their learning styles and abilities. I think I need a week off!!!!!

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