Labels don't fit. Not 'homeschooler", not "unschooler" not "classical educator". We are a family. We learn, we play, we read, we fight, we laugh, we struggle, and we discover together. We shun the calendar and packaged curriculum. You won't find a "teacher's guide" with a schedule making me it's slave within these walls. What you will find is a group of people, sometimes rough around the edges, digging in the dirt to grow things, reading books to expand our minds, paint up to our elbows, chickens in the yard, something simmering on the stove, and maybe tea on the front porch....this is a record of The Rhythm of Our Days. Living, Learning, Laughing, and Loving. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:34:00 -0500 Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:34:00 -0500 Yeah....okay, not physcially. Done enough of that this year!But I'm getting a new school blog home. Since my other blog is on Wordpress and my bil does such a great job of "having my back" over there, we are moving this one there. All my old posts are under the same date because I had to copy/paste them. The site is still under construction but that's where I'll be posting now. See The Rhythm of Our Days. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/207066/ Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/207066/ "It happened This month".... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/205624/ Wed, 20 Sep 2006 08:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/205624/ Today has been the most perfect early fall day....breezy, white light, cool. My Maple tree is turning red and my poplar, yellow, and the green grass below each is sprinkled with the proof. I've got loads of whites and lights on the clothesline, and I"m happy I changed sheets on Friday and have them drinking in sunshine and fresh air. It's the kind of dry day that gets laundry done in minutes, not hours, and I have the stuff still out there for the pure luxury of it all. Our windows have been open for weeks but today needed more than mere open windows....it needed open doors and lunch outside on the picnic table, reading on the porch swing, and if I had time... .a nap out on a blanket in the grass. A crisp glass of chilled, appley white wine would be the ideal accompianment to what is going to be a spectacular sunset. We won't have that in this "dry" county tonight, but we will have a pot of chili for supper and hot chocolate for tomorrow's brisk morning. Firstborn: he struggled this morning like my old cat used to when the weather changed. In a fit of hyper restlessness and lack of direction, he'd tear across the hard wood floors in persuit of some ghostly dustball or the like. So my boy was all over the place after his breakfast, desperate for something to do that absorbed some of that energy. He made a tomahawk from some old PVC pipe and a butter knife (so THAT's where they all go!), rewired the VCR so his sibs could watch The Lion King, read a Discovery Kids magazine. Eventually he calmed down. A little. I made them spend a lot of time outside in this glorious day....too nice to be in! He went to the P.O twice for me to ship ebay stuff and helped make lunch. After we ate under the Maple tree at the picnic table, I worked through some different multiplication and division problems with him. He knows the concepts well but could use more work on the actual written stuff. The kids all watched the next Math U See lesson. Firstborn spent quite a lot of time cleaning out the shed. They went to tutoring time at the Plateau Home School across the street; he worked on division problems, spelling, and read Gary Paulsen's The Hatchet, to his teacher for a bit. Soccer was boisterous fun surrounded by incredible beauty; they were finally separated into teams. He and his friend spent some time playing in the creek nearby while they waited for the younger kids to finish. Sunshine: she watched The Lion King and played racketball outside. Ms. Rebecca, the administrator over at the Plateau Home School was there early so Sunshine went over to check out a book, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. We have that one but it must be more fun to read when it's someone else's copy! She played dress up with W, wrote a story about Molly (the AG character her enrichment class centers around), and watched the math video. We sat on the swing and she read Benjamin Bunny aloud to me. I focused a bit more on making my finger track ahead of where she was reading to help her go faster; it worked! And we worked on expression with punctuation. Ms. Rebecca came over for a bit and said that when she evaluated the kids (using the system I used to have to pay 60+ bucks for but she did for free!), that they blew away grade level, especially in reading. Spelling is where she'd guess they need the most work, which we agreed with. Both older two are very phonetic in their spelling. What I was most happy with was that a year ago, Sunshine was barely reading 3 letter words and First born was on a 2nd grade level. Waiting for "that magic switch" in their heads to come on is WORTH IT, if you can handle letting them learn at their own pace! Firstborn is closer to a sixth grade level now (but high school in comprehension) and Sunshine is at 3rd grade, which is right where she's at. It's nice to see that trusting having a literature-rich household was the right thing to do, while we (not-so) patiently waited for them to "get it". Anyway....the rest of Sunshine's day: Tutoring went well; she worked nearly the entire time on spelling. She's not so impressed to be on her brother's soccer team but it makes it easier if they practice at the same time. One thing is for sure: she certainly is cute in her long shirt and shorts, ponytail floppin' around!W: woke up ravenous! After a whole grain waffle with cream cheese and apple jelly with milk, he had a snack of yogurt. From there he had Peanut Butter toast and more milk, then a plum, all before 11 am! Must be growing.....still no small miracle with him! I"m thankful every day for his health and growth. "Digression" seems to be the habit of the day. To the topic at hand! After his food-fest he played outside, danced with the dog, played with the baby. He built a train village, watched The Lion King, and looked at books. After lunch we worked on phonics, subraction (EarlyBird K from Singapore), and more on common nouns/proper nouns from First Language Lessons. he did some handwriting and we went over the new poem he's memorizing, "Whole Duty of Children".  He watched the math video. At the Home School he worked on various phonics and counting games and did an art project that matched shapes. He got extra time in for soccer practice because they switched him to a different team midway. All in all it was a great day. We had bowls of chili and cheese late; dad came home and after showers and hugs, everyone is tucked in. There was a good episode of House to watch, a bit of ice cream, and cold air wafting in from the windows. Nightie night. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/205168/ Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/205168/ Still tired from yesterday. "Yesterday" started Sunday. Sunday pm I finished sewing the fabric pouches for my Nature Notebook class at Monday Fun (our co-op). I completed the lesson plan, made my little cave girl costume for my Cultures Through Time (a look at what cultures throughout the past found to be beautiful), and loaded everything necessary into a laundry basket. I made 5 lunches and got the clothes laid out for the next morning. It's not my nature to set so much stuff out ahead of time. But it's even more not my nature to enjoy hectic mornings that require getting a lot done before leaving early. Lo and behold I chose the lesser of two evils ;-). Monday morning came; porridge for breakfast. Dressed, got everyone loaded up, and started the hour and half drive into Maryville. Passed a still-living-but-writhing porcupine....how can one stop to help a porcupine that's been hit? Poor thing. I'm getting so that I really enjoy this ride though. It sounds long but it's smooth and gives me time to think. We listened to a sermon tape and a radio show and it's a pretty straight shot. My Nature Notebook class went very, very well! Middle schoolers are a tough crowd and give LITTLE response! But judging that I a: had to actually MAKE them stop so they could leave, b: they offered to do homework during the week, and c: nearly all of them thanked me as they left, tells me that it was a sucess. During our first hour there, Firstborn is taking Latin, Sunshine is taking an American Girls history class that is focusing on Molly and the World War 2 era, W is taking Hands-On Math, and Phat Baby is in the nursery. We broke for lunch after that. What is it about PB & J type packed lunches that completely don't satisfy and always leave me feeling hungry, no matter how much I ate?I'm so glad I ended up with a "down hour" in between lunch and my next class. I'd planned to be cleaning up from a fund-raiser that has yet to materialize, so the time gives me a chance to make sure everyone got to their classes (Firstborn to Marine Biology, Sunshine to Art, and W to Super Bible Heroes), and nurse Phat Baby who is usually going down for a nap at that hour. I'll have time to take him into nursery calmly, which makes for an easier drop off, and get into costume for my Culture class. I met two new moms in that interval too; one was a new homeschooler, very excited to be at her first day of classes with her first "learner". :-)The following hour has Sunshine in Reader's Theater/Drama, W in Hands-On History, Phat Baby in said nursery, and Firstborn in my own class due to my paperwork and organization SNAFU. Sign ups and moving all happened at the same time so it's little wonder I got a few things mixed up!My Culture class went okay. Not as great as the Nature Notebook class. This is a series of lessons that is going to benefit from the semester's run, from some real-time tweaking and adjusting. I didn't plan enough material and ran out of things to say; having another adult in there as a "helper" was a huge distraction, though she was kind and only meant well. The kids really got into it, much more responsive than the other class was, again offering to do their own created homework. I thought I found myself talking too much, "preaching" too much, and wanted to back off and let the material speak for itself more. That will come with better planning I think. This week we covered the hunter/gatherers, tent people that came before and after the flood, early cities, and into Egypt. I read the story of Ruth and contrasted the growing appreciation for outward displays of beauty with her inner character and loyalty. Next week we'll head into Greece, Rome, and New Testament times. Home for the drive again, with an approaching storm and cold front. It's going to be a whole 10 degrees cooler today than it was yesterday. As soon as we got home the kids washed up and unloaded the car, then headed across the street for tutoring. I sat down to Oprah and a cheeseburger, ready to attack anyone or anything that got between me and food. I was totally drained of any energy!Oprah highlighted her road trip over the summer with Gayle. Good, mindless fodder.I made carrot soup and the kids came home. They'd worked primarily on math skills; Firstborn needs a lot more work on division. They really enjoyed their time over there and came home running and laughing in pouring rain. Dh had planned an evening of school but no one had the steam for it by then. The kids gave him a "massage-a-thon", had bowls of soup, and headed to bed. Dh and I watched The Pianist with a big bowl of popcorn and crashed. This morning is bright and cool. I've done my yoga, made waffles with cream cheese and jam, seen dh out the door, and made the hobbits an after-breakfast snack. Yawn. It's time for a second cup and some laundry duty. A calm day of quiet after a great, hectic first day back. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/204861/ Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/204861/ Sunshine is working on times tables.  Like mother, like daughter....rote memorization gets us no where and counting on fingers only goes so high and is typically one off. Poor girl. Life will go on; it just doesn't feel like when you're staring up from the bottom of that cliff. Firstborn is building a fort and clearing the section of our yard that borders the winding road behind the house. Now comes the challenge to get him to put our tools BACK when he's finished. He never seems to get that part.....We missed scouts, AHG, and soccer yesterday due to a virus Phat Baby and I had. No happy campers here but hopefully it hasn't spread to anyone else. I want to curl up and read in my jammmies all day to them today. Instead, we must venture to town for food or we'll have none, and really, if some things don't get cleaned around here we will all go nuts. I'm putting hot chocolate on our menu this week in response to our chilly mornings.Cold toes call for slippers. Time to get them out. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/202681/ Fri, 15 Sep 2006 07:43:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/202681/ I've spent too much time this afternoon trying to update this blog. I figured out how to manipulate the html to get this template to allow for links. Then I got it to accept a place for an avatar. The problem? It doens't seem to want to upload a new avatar from the internet, only my computer. And my photo (yes, it's properly sized) is on photobucket.com. So...if anyone can tell me how to get this stupid code to let me upload my avatar from an internet site, PLEASE do so! There simply has to be a way. I should be able to junk up the sidebar with as many ads and images as I please....just gotta figure out how. Anway, in the meantime, check out my new links. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201704/ Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201704/ Today First Born and Sunshine made up poems about our fall days. I liked them so well I turned them into a project ;-).They sketched scenes of fall and then I helped them paint them in a light, washy, watercolor. After they were dry, they rewrote their poems (with corrected spelling LOL) over the top of the picture. I wish I could post the pictures; they turned out so well! But here's their poems:The Fall Tree, by: SunshineOh in the summer and springthere is a tree with leaves of greenbut now it's cold and momma soldthe pine from that treeand the leaves scatter around the yard.But not one leaf on that tree.They are red, yellow, and brown anda quarter of green.I think of this as I eat green beans!It is wet and it is cold.The tree lies asleepnever more in the summer length. Fall by: First BornFall. Red and Yellow falling leavesa soft, cooling breezeThere's a mother out in her yardraking leaves that havefallen from the trees. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201635/ Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201635/ Now here's a resonating thought: learning like the rhythm of tides. Read more about it here. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201506/ Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:37:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201506/ Soccer, which has barely gotten started for rainy days, is cancelled yet again. The maples are turning red outside and the walnuts, yellow. We spent the afternoon hot glueing fall potporrie to a foam wreath for the front door; it turned out so great! One of these days I'll get around to being able to post pics. I baked oatmeal cookies with W and Sunshine. They are gone now but 4. It was a small batch but they are still Cookie Monsters. I'm trying to save the remaining few for Dad. Speaking of....he's been working hard with them in the evenings and they love it! They are still working through their poem and they spend a lot of time on spelling. He's also teaching them the 5 Intellectual Virtues: understanding, science, wisdom, prudence, and art. They spend a good deal of time discussing "why" they are being taught what they are. We've also been doing a Math U See lesson a day. They like the guy on the video and how he counts; two-T-nine, three-T-five, etc. W has been blending sounds. His writing is true to a 6 year old boy: atrocious. I need to order My Printing Book by HWT for him. Today we started memorizing the Whole Duty of Children by Robert Louis Stevenson. I hope to get him to 2-3 poems per week. Sunday they visited the church in town with us and attended Sunday school. All the classes are doing different levels of the same thing and we happened to come the day they started a 3 year survey of the OT. Good timing! They started with a dramatization and then broke off into classes. First Born's class took turns reading the creation account verse by verse. His opinion? "So much better than that stupid craft stuff they always make you do in Sunday School". Sunshine's class did nearly the same thing but also used a lesson book. Being mostly girls, they also took some time to get to know one another :-). W's class also had a lesson time and playdough. He says, "We learned about Adam and Eve thankyou."  I sat with Phat Baby, who liked the story time and the grab bag with different examples of the 5 senses (fluffy for touch, Peanut Butter for smell, etc). In all the classes they served sugary snacks and drinks. Added fodder for wondering why church's sometimes beleive kids can't sit through church. Well not if they're sugared up first!   Duh.....I'm inspired by a friend of mine's efforts to educate in a more relaxed way. I feel the loss of a library acutely. Next week starts our co-op's classes. Tutoring will also start that day; scouts and AHG starts this week. Soccer, as I said, is on going sort of, and we have yet to make a decision on music.Time to go make a frittata. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201045/ Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:33:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/201045/ School in the evening is going well. For a closer look at a typical day that incorporates our new schedule see this post Until Dad has more time to either blog or update me so I can do it, I'll have to guess at what they're working on from what I hear now and then as I do other stuff. But here's what I know:Firstborn: During the day I've started enlisting his help more with Phat Baby. Sunshine rightly pointed out that I usually deferred to her and she wanted to "share" the task a bit more. Fair enough. So Firstborn has been learning to attend to basic needs like carrying his brother, getting him up after a nap, making him a cup of milk, helping him eat without making a mess, etc. He's learning to bake cornbread with mixed sucess. I need to suprvise more closely if today's effort was any indication. He's been building with legos often. And he's very anxious to earn money for his stamp collection. Today he washed my car for funds; I sometimes pay him to babysit. He offered to help the neighbor clean off her porch but she turned him down. Undaunted he's trying to think of other things the neighbors may need done that they'd pay him for. He started reading HP5 again (when oh when will he EVER read anything but HP?!) and Dad has him in the McGuffey 5th Reader. We've started Math U See during the day, watching the video lesson and working with blocks. Today was an extra long lesson so I "bought" their added attention with the promise of chocolate chip cookie bars as soon as it was finished. They've made friends with the cooridinator of the tutoring school across the street; started soccer yesterday, and had a cub scout swim party this week. Sunshine: really into letter writing these days! Likes to address and stamp them before I get a chance to see them (or correct her spelling!). Sometimes they don't make it to their destinations because the zip code is missing or something. She's a rollerblading queen. And she's also turned some kind of "hygene corner": making her bed daily, dressing, and coming down for breakfast with hair and teeth brushed. No more ratty hair for the most part. She's in McGuffey's 3rd Reader. She's memorized many lines from Alice in Wonderland and quotes from it often. Baby Ruth is someone she' very excited to meet; her baby cousin due to be born at the end of the year. W: What a stinker these days! Dramatic and stormy a good half of the day, cracking me up with silliness the other half. We're through the vowels in Phonics Pathways. He's learned to write his last name finally and is most proud of mastering the writing of a lower-case "a". Lower case letters have been hard for him. I think he, like his big brother, will be a bit later to write. I'm doing First Language Lessons with him and Singapore Math. He's also watching the Math U See videos during the day. Today I baked cookies with him and Phat Baby; his reward for supervising Phat Baby while I washed the lunch dishes. We're reading A Bear Called Paddington. Phat Baby: busy!!! Make that BUSY! I'm trying to get a sandbox set up for him but can't find a Little Tykes turtle anywhere. I really want a lid due to our cat population. I can build one if I have to but a lid that won't get too heavy and will be weather proof has me a bit stumped. I'm glad the grandparents are coming this weekend and can bring his riding car and little kitchen. Maybe that will help keep him a little more occupied. He's been watching everyone potty with interest but hates to go when his diaper is off.  I think that will change soon though. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/193162/ Wed, 30 Aug 2006 14:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticityTia/193162/