Eclectic Unschooling - Homeschool Blogger

A family update ...

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 23:23:00 -0500

It has been so very long since I've posted anything that I see all mentions of family members are far, far out-of-date.

We've always used nicknames here for our children, due to family preferences for a measure of anonymity. I have often wondered if that kept my readership low. But no, my lack of posting has done that! We're going to switch to using their names now (still no photos) and those who know us will finally know just who we're talking about!

The Great DH is managing a retail store in the heart of our little downtown. He is great at what he does, and has the happy customers to show it. He'd rather be roaming the countryside with us, though. Work pays the bills so we can afford the little luxuries like nature drives.

Our oldest daughter Mara is now 15 years old. She is a sophomore on paper. She's on a college level in everything except math. Pesky, pesky math! She loves birds and fancies herself an amateur ornithologist. She loves photography, especially when it involves photographing birds! Her high school coursework has been a work in progress since I have experimented to find an approach that works for her. She is working independently from a syllabus with a primary text and required coursework.

Our second child is 10 year old Leah. Her loves are history and horses and anytime the two mesh, she is thrilled. She has an eye for design and loves to crochet. She is learning to be a great help to me, just like her older sister. She's reached that stage where "little girl" is slipping quietly away. I was prepared for that with Mara, but I'm going to miss my "Baby Bougie" as Leah grows.

Sara is 8 years old now and a real spitfire. She is perfecting her reading skills and regularly surprises me with her advancement while it seemed I wasn't looking. Her great academic love is math and she can outwork her older sister in that subject. Her other love is music. We tried a sampler computer CD of Alfred's Music Theory and she gobbled it up! If only it wasn't so expensive! Sara is learning to crochet, too. She is quick to help with the baby whenever he wants a free ride to the next thing that grabs his interest.

Noah is our 5 (nearly 6) year old, and our first son. He stands as proof that boys ARE different from the very start, regardless of what the feminists might claim. He loves tools and cars, grilling out and making strange faces, burping and going places with Daddy or Grandpa. We haven't pressed any academics with him beyond preschool play because his personality and vision issues are markers to show he isn't ready for that just yet.

Jada is our adorable 3 (almost 4) year old. She is the little cutie who was doing basic addition at age 2! Somehow that stage only lasted a short while and now she seems content to be a regular sweetheart, minus the math wiz part. She loves all things pink and Pooh Bear is her dearest friend.

Judahis our 12 month old baby boy. Boy #2 is more proof of the uniqueness of male children. He has been enamored with vehicles in motion since he was four months old. He loves dirt and crayons (yum!) and pulling Jada's hair. He wants nothing more than to be outside whenever he is awake. He is our doll-baby-man and never lacks arms to hold him. He is thoroughly spoiled and we delight in his sweet self.

That's the eight of us, so far ... ;o)

I really do like to blog ...

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 22:58:00 -0500

No, really, I do.

You can't tell it from here, though. No entries since January of 2008?!

I was just considering the deletion of this blog when I saw that I've received more than twice as many comments as I have made posts.

Someone had been reading. A few someones.

I'll try to get back into the swing of things here!

A new vocabulary word ...

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:53:00 -0600

chosen by Bougie deMoose, age 8

Conversazione, noun

A meeting of company

Recommended Music ...

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:37:00 -0600

chosen by The deMoose Children

“The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Please recommend a microscope ...

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:16:00 -0600

We have an inexpensive microscope purchased at a big box store a number of years ago. It's difficult to focus and isn't standing up well to use. The lighting is never sufficient, even though we've tried to devise different methods for supplementing the lighting.

We also have a digital microscope (the Intel QX3) but the drivers don't work in newer computers so we can no longer use it.

Please leave your suggestions in the Comments for both conventional and digital microscopes!

King Tut

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:05:00 -0600

by Bougie deMoose, age 8

Tutankhamen was ten when he became ruler over Egypt. He then died at sixteen. Four large gold boxes held his sarcophagus and coffins inside. There was, in his tomb, a statue of the jackel god Anubis. His tomb was crushed by the stone of the tomb of Rameses the Sixth.

Historical Fact: Howard Carter, who led the party of Egyptian workers that found Tut's tomb, said that there was "a wall of gold" in the tomb. It was the four gold boxes.

Facts on Butterflies

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:11:00 -0600

by Bug deMoose, age 6

Butterflies are very pretty. Their colors are very different. Some butterflies, like the Karner Blue, have blue on them. Monarchs have white, orange and black colors on their wings like Viceroys. If you look close, you can tell a monarch from a viceroy by their markings.

Sometimes you get mixed up between butterflies and moths. You can tell butterflies from moths by looking at their antenna. The moth’s antenna is fuzzy. The butterfly’s antenna is not fuzzy.

Butterflies are very fragile. A lot of butterflies get hurt bumping into cars. They have powdery wings and if you touch their wings you’ll hurt them and they can’t fly. If their wings get wet they can’t fly.

They’re not their whole life a butterfly. Butterflies are an egg, then caterpillar, then cocoon, then butterfly.

Contest at NatureBackpacks.com!

Sat, 26 May 2007 14:32:00 -0500

Come visit NatureBackpacks.com between now and June 30, 2007 and you can sign up to win your own copy of the book Fun With Nature!

Please share this contest with your homeschooling friends.

Some photos to share ...

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:58:00 -0500

The signs of Spring are popping out all over the place. Most of the trees have budded out. Lilies and daffodils are coming up in the yards. We're anxious to plant, though we have another six weeks to wait for the danger of frost to pass.

We had the opportunity to watch a pair of nuthatches preparing their nest. They took possession of a woodpecker hole in a birch tree. As we watched, they would disappear into the hole and emerge with a mouthful of the inside wood. The bird would fly up to a nearby branch and drop all the shavings out of it's mouth, then return for more. We are looking forward to seeing babies, if they don't abandon the nest.

We have seen the same type of butterfly on the Trail the last two times we've walked there. It's the only kind we've seen so far. Our oldest daughter wanted a picture so she could more easily identify it. This is when a good zoom lens comes in handy.

A creek parallels the Trail where we walked today. A lone duck was paddling his way upstream, sometimes walking more than swimming because of the shallows. He took to the far bank when he passed us, but soon resumed paddle-walking his way upstream.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of a pretty cardinal and he was kind enough to sit still for the photo session. The scrub will soon be leafed out making this type of picture more difficult to capture.

This crabby fellow meandered his way across the road and into the brush, obviously annoyed with our presence. Thankfully our pictures of this porcupine were snapped from the Suburban along the highway, rather than on foot on the Trail.

Backyard Visitors ...

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:05:00 -0500

The outdoors comes alive each morning with the sounds of chirping, squabbling birds. It's a glorious time of year!

This is our first Spring in this area and we have been treated to a new group of backyard friends. Cedar Waxwings have found our treeline and taken up residence. They hop about constantly, always in motion, so I can only guess that there were at least a dozen while I was out snapping pictures. They freely mingle with the robins.

I believe they are picking at the remaining elderberries on the ground. We placed a berry-based suet cake in the tree outside the living room window in hopes of attracting them to our direct line of vision. I imagine it may take them a few days to discover it. Particularly when there are elderberries available 'free choice" at the moment.