Wyndee Fields - Homeschool Blogger

My New Toy

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:33:00 -0500

My stepfather just introduced me to a new toy. It is a program that creates fractal images. I'm playing around and quite enjoying myself. I'll put some of my new creations on my Flickr acccount. I would love to use one of the images for my blog image, but I'm afraid to change my template. If I do, I won't be able to use my Flickr Javascript.

I have more news, but I will wait until everything is finalized in the next 2 weeks.

Home Sweet Home

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 20:56:00 -0600

Hi everyone! I'm back for my bimonthly update!

We have finally settled into our new home in middle Tennessee. It has been a whirlwind situation in our lives. Now that the dust has settled, I think I can finally update as to what happened. Toward the middle of October, there was a post for a manager position south of Nashville with the company Handsome works for. We have been looking to move out of Florida and Tennessee was one of our possible choices. He applied for the position, not expecting much as previous attempts never came to much. Well, by the end of that week, he was contacted for an interview for the following Monday (October 23). By the following Friday (October 27), he was offered the job! Talk about FAST! Handsome went up to start work November 13, and we came up a couple days later to look for a place to live. We came back for Thanksgiving (literally, the day before!). The following week, the movers came to pack us up, and we were in our new place by Thursday night, November 30!!! My head was spinning by the time we were done.

We are currently living in a rental house on a six month lease, so we didn't unpack everything. The stuff we did intend to unpack, was done in a week. Yes, you read that right, a week! Handsome doesn't live out of boxes. He's terribly cranky until the last box is emptied.

The biggest thing about the move is that we are close to just about everything. Where we were before, if Wally World didn't have it, you had to travel an hour to get it, UGGHH! Have I ever mentioned I HATE Wally World? Oh, sorry, hate isn't allowed in our house. I break out in hives at the thought of going there. Anyway, the convenience is both exciting and scary. I'm used to having to plan my outings, so we didn't spend that much money. Now I have to be very careful.

We had a lovely Christmas in our new place, just the five of us. We went to the theater on Christmas Eve to see The Nativity Story. That was a beautiful movie. New Year's Eve was spent at the neighbor's house singing Karaoke.

We are settling back into our school schedule as well. Little Man has been very unhappy about having to stop playing. Rayman made me proud this week. Everyday (except Thursday) he got himself together and did his schoolwork without my reminding him. That was such a nice break. I was so impressed that I told him I would do something special with him as a thank you.

We found a nice church to go to. It is a family-integrated church, so the children all stay with the parents. We have felt so at home with everyone there. That is the nice thing about Tennessee, everyone has been so nice and welcoming. I'm really going to like living here, I think.

Oh, by the way, yes we are still keeping the children home. We are now under a church-related umbrella school, so technically, they are private school students and their teachers are their parents. I hope that makes sense.

Until next time...

My Blog's New Name

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 20:32:00 -0600

Since I am no longer a "homeschooler", but rather a private schooler with an outside church related school, I have decieded that "Five Acre Academy" needs to be retired as my school's name.

My blog's new name is a little joke I used to tell when I was a kid. I always joked that I should marry a man who's last name was Fields for obvious reasons. However the bigger joke is that my middle initial is C. So, I would have also been known as W. C. Fields. Not that anyone these days would get THAT joke !

The Suspense is Killing Me!!

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 20:15:00 -0600

Well, handsome finally did it. He has gotten a job (with the same company) outside of Florida. We are saying goodbye to my home state and moving south of Nashville! He left today to start work tomorrow and we (the kids and I) are coming up Thursday to help secure a place to stay. We will be home for Thanksgiving, but will make the final move the following week. I'm looking forward to our new adventure.

On another note, Tuesday is Rayman's 10th birthday and Wednesday is Po Po's 5th. Mine was last week, so we have been busy celebrating around here. Rayman seems to be having mixed feelings about his birthday. I have to wonder about a boy who laments his 10th birthday, while I'm working toward (gulp) 40!!

We are in limbo with regards to school right now. We finished up the first term of the year. We are waiting for the moving turmoil to subside before we start up again, only to have Christmas season come around. This is a bad time of year for us to keep motivated. We usually just take December off rather than fight the "I Don't Wanna Do School" blues that prevails in our house.

Nothing else going on around here. I think I have all the excitement I can stand as it is.

Gena Is Having a Contest

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:27:00 -0500

Well Gena is having a contest. She wants to know:

1. Your favorite spelling or phonics program

Well that might be tough. I don't really have a favorite. I didn't use one with my oldest. He was so curious about each word he encountered, that we just naturally introduced him to new concepts as he asked about them. When we officially started school, I attempted to use "Reading Made Easy" by Valerie Bendt. It lasted one week. I found he already knew half the book, that it was pointless to continue. I have since used this book with my middle child, with great success and am now using it with my third child. It is nice being able to follow the dialog provided to talk them through the steps of reading. I have found that once we start accelerating toward the middle of the book, my children are able to read the dialog to themselves, which makes the book obsolete at that point.

2. Your favorite math program

We are using Math-U-See. I have always been impressed with Steven Demme's methods of teaching new concepts. The manipulatives are great for making concepts concrete.

3. Your favorite history and/or science program

We use Ambleside Online and are really impressed with the quality of the History materials we use. History has been made very interesting through the many living books we encounter on a daily basis. We love reading "Our Island Story" by H. E. Marshall. What I enjoy about reading these books is that AO has made what I always considered a tedious, boring subject, into the best subject ever! Now I understand why my dh always enjoyed it so!!

For Science, we have like to read Thornton Burgess books about nature. We are also using Jeannie Fulbright's "Exploring Creation with Astronomy". It falls in nicely into the Charlotte Mason method and fits well into our school day.

Also, tell us your family's basic schedule. Do you do math in the mornings or afternoon? Or do schedules take a back seat so that each new day dictates the learning? How, using your favorite curriculum choices, DO you homeschool in your family?

We have a schedule, but we do have some struggles keeping it:

7-8 Morning Routines (All)
8-8:30 Breakfast (All)
8:30 - 9:30 Chores (All)
9:30-10 Pledge, Recite CM's School Motto, The read a story out of Arthur S. Maxwell's "The Bible Story" (All)
10-10:15 History (Me with Little Man and Po Po, Rayman alone)
10:15-10:30 Spanish (LM & PP)/Copywork or Studied Dictation (Me & R)
10:30-10:45 Literature (same as History
10:45-11:00 Poetry (Me w/LM & PP)/Spanish (R)
11:00-11:15 Geography (Me w/LM & PP)/Poetry (R)
11:15-11:430 Copywork (Me & LM)/Freetime (PP)/Geography (R)
11:30-11:45 Math (Me & LM)/Freetime (PP & R)
11:45-12 Math (Me & R)/Piano (LM)/Freetime (PP)
12-12:30 Lunch/Cleanup
12:30-12:45 Phonics (Me & PP)/Quiet Time (LM & R)
12:45-1:30 Quiet Time (Me, LM & R)/Nap (PP)
1:30-2:30 Baking/Cooking (Me)/Freetime (LM)/Nap (PP)/Piano & Free Reading (R)
2:30-3 The Arts-Composer, Artist, Hymn, Folksong, Art (All)
3-4 Science/Nature Study (All)

We are officially done with school by 4, but often times we don't quite make it to the art/nature subjects. I have, in the past done those subjects on Fridays as a little reward for completing the week's subjects. I may go back to that set-up as I think we all enjoyed the break.

I highly recommend using "Managers of their Homes" by Steve and Teri Maxwell. It is great for helping to get your day planned out.

I'm back....again.

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:37:00 -0500

I'm sorry for not keeping up my blog. I just haven't felt all that inspired to write lately.

We started school back up this week. It has been slow going trying to get the boys motivated. Rayman is in AO year 3 this year and has a lot of work to do. I'm afraid he is getting discouraged. He is complaining that he always feels behind in his work. I broke some bad news to him today. Last year was our first year doing studied dictation. I was having him do copywork on MWF and SD on TTh. Well, I discovered this week, I should have been having him do both every day. That didn't go over too well with him.

Rayman has been chomping at the bit to study chemistry, so I bought a copy of "The Periodic Kingdom" by P. W. Atkins. He is enjoying it so far, but is already complaining that it contains, "...that evolution garbage." I told him that unless it is Christian, he will have to weed out "that evolution garbage." I printed a copy of the periodic table for him months ago and he was studying it intently for weeks. I wonder where this is all going to go.

Little Man is officially in school this year. We started AO year 1 (Po Po is joining in also). So far he seems to be enjoying it. His reading is really starting to take off. Po Po is learning to read now. Pretty soon all my children will be reading well. It almost feels like when I finally potty trained Po Po. It was exciting, but also sad at the same time (not that I enjoyed changing diaper, lol!).

If there are still any of my friends out there, I would like to ask for prayers for my brother. He graduated from high school in May and is taking advantage of his freedom, much to the heartache of my parents. I won't go into details, just that he needs prayer.

I'll try to keep updating...

What I Did On My Vacation

Tue, 9 May 2006 14:27:00 -0500

I know I have been a little quiet around here. I have been a bit busy.

So, what is this about a vacation? Yes, Handsome and I went for a 5 day trip to Maui. He won the trip through work, so we couldn't pass it up. This is the first time he and I have had a chance to be alone together in 2 years. It was a refreshing break for both of us.

Did I mention I lived on Maui for 6 months when I was a kid? Yep, my parents were hippies and sold everything they owned for a chance to move there when I was 4. My uncle, Cliff Arquette, had been living there for a while and was a local radio personality there, so my parents decided they wanted to try their luck there too. We were all living in a little area called Spreckelsville which, at one time, had been a sugarcane plantation. Handsome and I went to visit the old homestead and took a lot of pictures. Of course, after 32 years, it isn't quite the same. It is now an exclusive area with posted "No Trespassing" signs all over the place. The locals say that Willie Nelson and Tom Selleck both have homes over there now. The plantation house (we lived in the old infirmary house next door) has been allowed to be taken over by the elements. All that is left is the cement slab, in pieces on the beach. It was pretty sad to see after all these years. It is amazing how much I recognized since I was only 5 when we left.

We enjoyed a bicycle ride down Haleakala (10,000 ft above sea level). That was fun, until we went through a cloud. Then, we were just drenched. The highpoint of the trip was talking to our guide, Everett. He is a local with a lot of personality. He passed along some of the silly questions he gets sometimes, like:

Is the island completely surrounded by water?
Which side is the Atlantic and which is the Pacific?
What is the distance between those mile marker?

The day we left for home, we drove up the Haleakala to watch the sunrise. Words cannot describe how beautiful the sight was (and how COLD it was!!). It was the best ending to a wonderful trip. I told Handsome that I could stand to have church up there every Sunday morning. It was a great example of God's beauty.

I sure hope I don't have to wait another 30+ years to go back.

P.S. I have uploaded some pictures to Flickr and will be adding more as I can. Please feel free to peruse them.

The Day of the Nearly Dead

Mon, 3 Apr 2006 11:38:00 -0500

Sounds like some bad horror story, doesn't it? I assure you this story is true.

I'm a native Floridian. Up here in the northern part of the state, this is not news. However, I spent 20 years of my life in Sarasota, "Home of the newly wed and the nearly dead." None of these people were natives, so I was a rare breed indeed. I used to laugh at the "Semi-Native" tags that people would proudly display on the front of their cars, as if there was such a thing!! Anyway, I digress.

I was about 20 years old when my mother and I were peacably watching an episode of 20/20 (or was it Dateline, I don't know). This particular episode was about elderly drivers and the extent to which they will go to keep their licenses so they can keep driving.

One of the people they discussed was an elderly woman in Florida who was senile. For those who do not live in Florida, this would be about 1/3 of the entire population of this state. She had just gotten her DL renewed in the mail, so did not have to appear at the DL office to prove her abilities. The neighbors were starting to get concerned about her and their safely, so they had filed a complaint against her with the Department of Motor Vehicles. A representative from the department arrived at her home to interview her and her husband was specifically told not to help her in any way. She was asked simple questions. What is your name? What is your address? Who is the President of the United States? She didn't pass the test. Later, they interviewed the DMV rep who was standing in front of the DMV office. It was here that my mother and I gasped. We recognized the building! It was the very one I took MY driving test at! Oh no!!! This nightmare was taking place in MY HOME TOWN!!!! AAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

By the way, they announced that she did indeed lose her license, so I did start to feel a bit safer on the streets after that. Of course, she only represented thousands just like her driving those streets every day, so the key word here is a "bit" safer.

Logic Lesson for Today

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:17:00 -0600

I was reading this dumb comment at SpunkyHomeschool's site:

"Public schools are what distinguish democracies from every other system in the world," and a country without strong public schools "lends itself to authoritarian thinking."

I saw a problem with this statement from a logic standpoint. So, I'm going to rephrase this so it is a bit more obvious:

"Mandatory socialistic educational systems are what distinguish democracies from every other system in the world," and a country without strong mandatory socialistic educational systems "lends itself to authoritarian thinking."

Socialism
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

Democracy
1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2 : a political unit that has a democratic government
3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the U.S.
4 : the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5 : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges.

Authoritarian
1 : of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority <had authoritarian parents>
2 : of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people

So, based on these definitions, this statement is a fallacy. To make this statement logical, we would have to reword it to this:

"Public schools are what distinguish authoritarian thinking from every other system in the world," and a country without strong public schools "lends itself to democracies ."

Logic was one of my favorite subjects in high school and college.

Original Source: John Stossel

Busy Weekend Ahead

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 09:21:00 -0600

We will be going to an AIG Conference being put on by Mike Riddle. I'm really excited about what we will all be learning. I have been frequenting the AIG website for about a year now and am amazed at what I didn't know about the scientific community. If it weren't for their site, I would still be believing old world beliefs. I'm still new to all this, but am excited about learning more.

The big thing is whether Handsome will receive the message. He, like me, is a product of public school evolution indoctrination. Handsome is just going out of curiosity more than anything else. He first said, "I'm interested in finding out how they write off the dinosuars." He later stated that if he can be convinced this weekend, he would actually like to go to the Creation Museum when it opens.

I'll keep you posted.

Also, thanks to those who commented on my last entry. We are all doing much better now. We still have the occasional coughing fits, but we can handle that.