Our Adventures in Learning

Friday, November 17, 2006

We've moved!

Blogs that is. :) Our new blog is over at Blogger...

http://ourhomelearning.blogspot.com

There's not much there yet, but hopefully it will fill up as quickly as this one did.

And a question for those of you with your own blogs... is there a way to move some of my posts from this to the other? Cut and paste? Or is all hope gone?

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Thursday, November 16, 2006

I'm ok, just busy!

De'Etta and Jodi... thanks for thinking of me! We're doing fine. We're just monstrously busy. I didn't realize that it had been quite as long as it has since I updated last. It's been a crazy month. I looked on the calendar, and the last day that I had at home was when I was sick on the 5th and I stayed home from church! We've done some fun things though, and others were just hectic and icky. We're home tomorrow so I'm going to try to spend some time catching up with this and other things. (Can you say laundry!) We were able to see the exhibit From Abraham to Jesus this week too. It was just absolutely marvelous. If it comes to your area make sure that you go! The audio tour is amazing, and for a history junkie like myself it was wonderful to see so many pieces of our religious heritage. It's very well done. We've also been to the zoo for a homeschool program on repitles. I touched a monitor. This is big news as I don't like reptiles. (I'm ok with bearded dragons because of their personality and geckos because they can't eat me!) Thankfully I left the snake touching to others. Oh goodness..... what else.... We saw the Chihuly exhibit at our botanical garden. It was rather disappointing as I was expecting there to be more additions to the collection than there were. Dale Chihuly is just one of the most amazing artists alive today in my opinion so even the standards that live at the conservatory are wonderful to see but I really would have loved to see more. Next up on my cultural calendar is the Degas exhibit at the art museum. They have his dancer there. I'm a sucker for Degas.

Well, any impressionist really but Degas and Cassatt especially!

School has been going well when we can get it done. We've had a bit of an attitude outbreak but I definitely see the connection between my attitude and her attitude. (Thanks for some conviction, De'Etta. Good parenting posts! I need to read more about your study and probably do a bit of my own.) We're back to using HOW and whatever we pull together... some Truthquest, some Diana Waring if I can ever get my tape player to work again! On the top of my list is her ancient history pack on CD. Maybe I should make my own Chritsmas list. Works for the kids, right?? We're knee deep in Biblical geography right now, and surprisingly enough C really loves it. This is the kid that used to tear up and beg to get out of doing a map at times, so I guess it goes to prove to me that all things do come in their own time. I'm still really weighing what we need to include. I know that we've been rushed too much lately but I am also wondering if we aren't focusing on too much.

OH! Jodi! I found file folder books and math game books for the big kids! I've got two but there were many, many more at United Art and Education, so you might want to check out their website. I'm not sure if they let you order online or not. If you want the titles of the two I bought this week let me know. I haven't cracked them open yet with C but she likes what she saw as she flipped through them. I'm going to get copies and such together this weekend. One is all about "real life projects" for math that the kids love. Now, one project is on Fantasy Football (to teach statistics I believe.) I'm not quite sure how that is a real life project since it has fantasy in the name, but if it works it's all good! I really like the idea of using the stockmarket game, and this has a version so I don't have to figure it out on my own. We're moving into a new section in our math book shortly. I think I've run fractions in the ground. I'm trying to remind myself that it's understanding that is the goal, not spending as much time as I think the other kids/ps kids/whoever's kids did.

I've decided that I never really learned how to study the Bible the way that I want to study, so I'm thumbing through several books to see what I want to tackle first. I've got How to Study the Bible for Yourself, a few Kay Arthur books, and something else with a name that escapes me. I was never taught how to use references in Biblical study, and in using HOW we've just become hooked on using references. Yet another thing to add to my grown up Christmas list.

I'm also ..... are you ready.... thinking of switching over to Blogger.com instead of keeping the blog here. I like that it seems more secure. Jodi - your search results experience scares me. If you haven't noticed I tend not to name people or really identify anything for some personal reasons, so anything that is more secure really makes me happy. (Yeah, I know I identified where we live loosely by where we go on field trips, but the area is big!) I've actually got a blog registered at Blogger now, so if I play around with it this weekend you might get a note telling you that I've moved.

Other than that, I'm still burning the candle at both ends. I've decided to start reading the HOW Teaching Approach again and unfortunately I have been taking it slow since we're so busy. We had our monthly meeting at church today to plan out the lesson framework for next month and through the holiday focus, etc. Our children's pastor has had the lessons written out for large group for ages, but we now have a plan for the Advent focus, small group lessons and projects (which I help write) and special things like the Lottie Moon focus, etc. We're going to also use portions and pieces from the Lisa Whelchel advent/traditions book. I can't wait. We'll use it at home as well. It really makes you feel like you accomplised something when you have several pages of notes and check marks in a notebook! What else... I started working as a Lia Sophia advisor on top of working with Usborne, and it's fast becoming a good investment already. But, it's something else to juggle. I feel like the people with the spinning plates some days! There has been more, but for the life of me I can't think of anything. I can tell you what I haven't gotten done quicker unfortunately than what we have done at this point!

This next week should have things slowing back to normal. I know that it sound odd that things would be normal during a holiday week, but it will actually be so this year! I'm really looking forward to the holidays. However, as much as I love and adore the Christmas season I just don't understand why people have the Christmas music/lights/decorating bug already! Thanksgiving used to be my start point and now it seems that I'm sorely behind. Maybe I'll take a stand and be the one lone hold out in the neighborhood. :)

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

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Sunday, November 5, 2006

A need for prayer...

There is a missionary family in Benin (West Africa) for whom I would like you to pray. We've only met Barbara twice, but each time has been more than memorable. She's touched the lives of so many and has made a permanent impression on me. If you ever have the chance to hear her speak, RUN to it. She spent time with us at our women's retreat last year while she was on an extended leave, and I still look through her study notes. I receive email updates on their work in Benin through their prayer network email list, and in the latest one she shared that their two dogs - both pet and protection - passed because they were poisoned. Please pray for the Singermans and their heartache but also for their protection, and that this is not a threat that will be taken farther. It sounds like they have extra guards on duty around their home, but they have been attacked and robbed in the past so prayers for protection are always a good thing.

Thank you!

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Sunday, November 5, 2006

Another quiet day

Today was another quiet day which suited me just fine. I woke up with the same headache and after trying to shower and not get too terribly dizzy I decided that it wasn't a good day to drive to church by myself. (Well, with dd but as the only adult.

) I spent the rest of the day being lazy. I did manage to make sure we had books on reserve at the library. I think it's very funny when I have lists for the following few weeks that are long enough to max out my reserve allowance! Tomorrow is the first day of our Mesopotamia study. We're also going to start HOW's science unit on Light. I think it will be a lot of fun. It will lend itself to a lot of hands-on work and also some good researching which I'm convinced we need to start now that C is in 5th grade. I'm sure she'll not be happy but I think I'll plan a fun little research project for the lesson on Thomas Edison...

Mesopotamia looks to be really exciting as well. I think that part of the fun of homeschooling is getting to learn about the topics that we want to study as well! I'm thinking of picking up a few books of my own on the topic. Title suggestions appreciated. :)

This week will hopefully be a week where I can finally get some of the things done around here that I need to get done (like cleaning carpet and bathing dogs.) I've got a zoo field trip marked for two weeks in a row which isn't right, so that mystery will have to be dealt with tomorrow. I'm trying to find someone to cover a book fair for me that I won't really be able to take for multiple reasons, but if I can't I'll be doing that toward the end of the week as well as a home show and open house on Saturday. At least the first part of the week is really quiet!

C spent the day playing at a friend's house behind us though they both just returned to play in her room. I'm amazed that they've been together since noon with no fighting or tears. C is always good with younger kids though, so I think that helps. I know that the neighbors think I'm strange that I encourage her to play with the younger kids (well, not too young, she's 7) as well as to keep playing with dolls and such, but why rush it! After seeing some of the outfits on some neighborhood girls Halloween night I am just shaking my head that some parents don't seem to mind their kids growing up WAY too fast. When did 10 become a teenager?

Supper is ready so I'm off to grab my sweetie and watch some mindless TV. I have a video called Connections that sounded wonderful on the Netflix review so we might have to try that. From what I understand it takes some type of idea or invention (such as Napoleon needing to have food preserved for his troops) and trace it through connections to something that is cutting edge today. Well, I think this is from the 80s so cutting edge back then.

Off to munch some veggie soup on this cold night...

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Sunday, November 5, 2006

Random thoughts and late night rambling

I can't sleep at the moment and with just a few days till election day we're down to ten minutes of political ads every ten minutes so tv isn't an option. I don't watch a lot of tv anyway, and this just cements why I don't like watching it. Well, one reason. :) I'm still working on how I will vote for a few things but for the most part I am ready. I love election time! My dd asked me if it's a law that you have to vote, and we had a great conversation that came out of that. I think that she might be old enough to really study how the whole shebang works when the next presidential election comes around. We talked a bit about it with the Bush/Kerry election (and we had quite a few funny political cartoons that popped out of her school work too) but I think she's nearing the age where she is able to really dig in. I can't wait! I was the kid that participated in trips to DC with the Close Up Foundation (www.closeup.org) during my junior and senior years of high school, and the one kid that didn't fall asleep in PoliSci my freshman year too. I couldn't wait to get into the AP Government class my senior year. It turned out that it was scheduled at the same time as another AP class so I didn't get to take it, but I lived viacariously through my friend who was in APG and was able to be on the Constitution team. (Yep... I was a band geek too!) I tend to get really worked up and excited around election day so I've got opinions on the brain that I'm doing very well at keeping as inside words as my husband calls them - vs sharing everything with outside words that others can hear. lol I did slip and comment in a very unkind way about one candidate who supports something that I find to be reprehensible and my kid reminded me that even this person deserved grace. OUCH! Just another lesson that my Father used my daughter to teach me.

It's been quiet otherwise around here the last few days because I've been fighting a migraine since Wednesday. I actually stayed home from a church event tonight (I was supposed to teach) because I just can't seem to shake it. M is convinced that something is eating at me since I usually only get migraines with weather and stress, but I honestly can't think of anything. Maybe it's the stress over making yet another curriculum change! Honestly though we haven't jumped a lot. I don't know why I thought I needed to tweak things from how well they worked this Spring. I'm still convinced that AWOA was perfect for us for Egypt because it got C in love with it again. She's writing up a storm now even choosing to write more, and that is purely because of the gentle writing assignments in the last unit.

After finding time to discuss it today M really thought that I was making the right decision to put together our own units again. With that said, I bought the ebook version of Heart of Wisdom's Mesopotamia unit today! They are very open to tweaking though so it's a good framework to use to start. C has been very worried about skipping several civilizations so rather than have her keyed up for the rest of the fall we're going to stop Greece and go back a bit to cover Mesopotamia, Sumer, Babylon, Persia, Israel, and something else that I can't think of at the moment before starting Greece again. We're only a week into it so I don't feel bad stopping. She just couldn't seem to shake it, and it bothered her each and every time she got out the history encyclopedia or the time line book. (No, I don't do well with time lines either, De'Etta. It's literally a book called Timelines of World History by Usborne.) I think it's similar to how we have to give warning for transition and change of routine. Skipping a region to her was a change of routine with no warning of transition. I have a friend that doesn't quite understand when I mention my kid's need to have her ducks in a chronological row, and it's not something that I can really explain. In the scheme of things though I think this is a little concession that I can make easily enough. It was all worth it to literally see my kid's face relax tonight when I told her that we could shift gears. (And, afterall, Ancient Greece is one of her favorite civilizations so she reads about it in her free time year round!) I do think that we'll be blessed by learning more about Biblical geography with this unit. It's all good.

We found out that a neighbor will need me to start watching their youngest in the mornings before he boards the bus for K at lunch time. He was originally going to start coming here this fall but his dad has been training at home for a new job. He's going to start coming a few days here and there over the next two months and then once school starts again after the holidays he'll be here every day. I think it will work out though because he's a good kid who can easily entertain himself. I'll probably have some fun games or art bits and pieces around for him to have in the mornings. (His parents think that he'll watch tv. I guess they don't realize that not only do we not have anything above very basic cable we don't turn the TV on till after supper as a general unspoken rule.) If all works well C can get her lessons done while E is here in the morning. They can eat lunch together, E can get on the bus, and we still have the afternoon for errands, field trips, play dates and park days. Of course, this is all theory... I'd love to hear if anyone has ever had a similar situation and if so what they charged as a weekly rate. I'm clueless especially since he's not a child that will need constant watching like a toddler or infant. Here's hoping that it doesn't throw off the routine like I just mentioned above!

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Homeschooling is more than an educational choice in our family. It's a lifestyle and an adventure that we've never regretted. We educate using a Hebraic model of education (as opposed to a Greek model) with more emphasis on unit studies that also include an offering of interest-led/child-directed choices and, as always, lots of Charlotte Mason's approach built in.