Our Adventures in Learning - Random thoughts and late night rambling

Our Adventures in Learning

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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Monday, November 6, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Anonymous

Argh about the migraine. I don't get them all that often but I am sure they are from stress when I get them. That is the only common factor I could find.

Glad to hear you've decided how to tweak your homeschooling for now.

I've managed to get behind on my reading and commenting but wanted to try and pop in on some blogs tonight and catch up at least somewhat!

Jodi

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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.