Making Footprints on the Straight Path - Homeschool Blogger

Lions, Tigers and Bears...OH MY!

Tue, 29 May 2007 19:46:00 -0500

Last week was spent camping in the remote mountains of northern Potter County, Pennsylvania where we were treated to the most spectacular of nature walks and sighted deer, many different reptiles and amphibians, including the sweet tempered red eft, many different birds, including purple martins, and we even heard a turkey (the day before and the day AFTER its season closed *smirk*). When we weren’t on a nature walk, nature came to us, like in the form of this Mourning Cloak that flew in the driver’s side window and landed on my head as I turned off Route 49.

Yes, I freaked…and knocked it to the floor mat, then pulled over to see what had caused such commotion and scooped up the stunned butterfly in the coffee cup that my husband left in my truck when fishing that morning. But, this was not what unnerved our nature walks. It was the fresh tracks on the old logging trail that rounds behind the cabin. Just as we started off on our adventure I saw this:

It must be a bear track I thought and I began to be a little nervous since I was alone in the wilderness with 4 children under 8, one of whom was riding in the backpack. I noticed nearby an identical track, only smaller. Great. Momma and cubs. Then about 15 feet away, I noticed this track.

Uh, wait this looks more like a bear, and it is wider, about 6" across. What could the other have been? When we returned I consulted my best field guide, a 1950s that is written by a true naturalist and combines prose and poetry, his personal opinions, and scientific fact in one wonderfully written field guide. (*whispers* sometimes I actually read this field guide…for fun.) Well there was only one animal that makes a track this size and shape: the mountain lion. The problem here is the Commission denies their existence in PA. The Commission claims that the last known pair of wild mountain lions was killed in Clinton County in 1871. Then a mountain lion was killed by a hunter in Potter County in 1967 and the Commission claimed that animal was an escaped pet. You know how many pet mountain lions get out and roam the neighborhood, right? I could email the commission and show them my track but then what? They could claim it is a declawed bear with a missing toe, perhaps an escaped pet, walking up the trail with his friend the bobcat.

A Pleasant Surprise for Mother's Day

Sun, 13 May 2007 19:29:00 -0500

First I will say that I don't look forward to Mother's Day. Usually it is disappointing, the kids act up, my husband is irritable, we hear a sermon that was written by someone trying to identify with mothering, we visit with family and the day goes on. This year was different. THis morning Bill got up first and was down stairs when the girls awoke. Lynds was the first to give me a big kiss good morning and remembered immediately to wish me a happy mother's day. Bill made coffee and pancakes for breakfast AND cleaned up all the dishes. Then off to church without a problem and we heard an incredible sermon from the Messianic Jewish Rabbi that was our guest speaker since we still do not have a pastor. We stopped at the garden center for me to get the rest of my gifts (on Saturday I took the girls on our annual treck to Well Sweep Herb Farm http://www.wellsweep.com/ to pick up my scented geranium that I have traditionally gotten for mother's day, well ever since I became a mom). I got a lavander, and a dill too. I will certainly remember to take cuttings of my scented geraniums in the fall and keep them over the winter. (Note to self, use plastic pots bc the terra cotta dried out too quickly and those cuttings died.) I overwintered my fringed apple geranium last year and it is finally perking up a bit in the garden. Oh yes, my mind does wander...back to today. Today I got some jalepenos, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, oregano, and rooting harmone. The only thing I like as much as planting a garden is propagating my plants. I plan to make lots of little scented geraniums! My parents came for supper and my husband cooked and did all the dishes. He really did a pretty good job considering he does not do any of the cooking. Oh, he did the dishes too and put the kids to bed. I bet you'd think I did all kinds of relaxing, right? Uh...no. I planted everything but the broccoli, and then bagged up in contractor bags more of the scrap wood and other debris next to our nearly dilapidated shed. I have decided to forgo the new computer bc we really need to do something about that shed.

A Nature Walk

Sat, 12 May 2007 19:07:00 -0500

Friday evening I packed a picnic supper and we hiked the Ken Lockwood Gorge while Bill did some fly fishing. We are so blessed to live a couple miles from here so that we can just pick up and go any time. Our first find were swarms of puddling butterflies...

Apparently puddling butterflies are NOT really bothered by much.

We also saw a huge millepede. These are 5 year old hands here but still that is one big millepede.

Oh yes, and this is the result of too much nice weather and sandals -- stripey feet ala Big Bird!

When a Season Comes to an End

Thu, 10 May 2007 15:45:00 -0500

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. - Ecclesiastes 3:1

What about when that season comes to an end? Winter warms and melts into spring. Spring warms and soaks the earth gradually getting warmer and dries into summer. The summer sun dries and cracks the ground until the autumn frost kills the flora and the leaves fall to the ground covering what is left of the green with a brown blanket. All the things of the previous season disappear with the new: the snow, the mud, the blooms, the leaves, each giving way to the next without resistance.

The seasons seem to move along changing sometimes subtly into the next and other times more drastically, like the first killing frost of autumn that turns greens to browns and causes the trees that were a yellow and red haze yesterday to stand bare against the clear blue sky.

Sometimes we hold on to a season, it seems to linger, allowing us to wear our flip flops well into November. That is, until it becomes uncomfortable enough for us to change. Sometimes we hold on to the seasons of our lives that way, especially the ones that are comfortable and easy going or the ones that are cozy and warm. Its like not being quite ready to shed that old wool sweater and give up our cozy place by the fireside to feel the warm spring sun on our skin. Do we hold on because it is comfy or do we not realize that old sweater has become itchy? Either way, we know we need to shed that old wool to feel the warmth of the spring sunshine.

Even YOU Can Touch the World

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:13:00 -0500

As I watched my youngest play with the globe during lessons the other morning it occurred to me that even she could touch the world.

As my family struggles now with the comfortable complacency of the Christian community there is something within cries out, “STOP! I want to step off.” Yet just as my children leave handprints over everything they touch, we leave our handprint on what or who we touch. What kind of hand print are you leaving? Are you leaving God’s handprint or an angry red slap mark?

The media is saturated with the message that it is all about YOU. You want it. You need it. You DESERVE it. Us believers think we are wise against this. We KNOW it is not about us, but do we really know what it is about? Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. (James 3:13 NIV)

When you pull out of your driveway rushing off to church while your neighbor sits on her porch smoking a cigarette, sad that her husband left her, have you remembered what it is about?

When you step over the homeless guy on your way to mail a check to your sponsored child have you remembered what it is about?

When you look crossly at the woman whose small children are running wild, have you remembered what it is about?

When something pulls at your heart but you turn your head away, have you remembered what it is about?

Do you even know what it is?

It is that by our love for one another all men will recognize us as His disciples. (John 13:35)

It is that we ought to be doing what we can to fill the needs of another. (1 John 3:17)

It seems the onus of reaching “the lost” has been placed on the church. It seems that people have reached a sense of security in showing up on Sunday morning, participating in their ministries and sending off their financial offerings. I came. I served. I tithed. Great…what have you done the rest of the week? After you have rushed off to church do you take notice of the people around you or do you still keep going?

Even you can touch the world. Start by touching your sister, your brother and your neighbor and leaving behind the handprint of God.

And the dog gets the bone...

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:18:00 -0500

Sometimes I am in a season where I just feel like the dog. And sometimes, when I am in that season, I pray for God to throw me a bone. I have been feeling like the dog for some time now as some people near and dear to me seem to kick me when they are having a bad day.

Saturday morning we awoke and my husband went fishing and I had some time to watch the birds, journal and pray before the kids awoke. While journaling, my husband calls me. He found 4 chairs on the roadside AND he was agreeable to picking them up for me. We are desperately in need of kitchen chairs being that we only have 2 and a long bench. He brought them home and one was an odd chair, they were not really my style (very 70s pine). After breakfast we headed out into the yard. Yesterday was in the high 70s and not a single cloud. After 2 months of almost all rain and clouds I needed that…badly.

Whilst thinking about what to do with the chairs, I began digging up the yard to level out that area, plant some things and put down some grass. I began to find that someone had buried garbage. I got curious and distracted by pretending to be an archeologist. I determined that I would not make a good archeologist because I shoveled right through a ceramic something. By this time I had a hole about 6’ X 3’ and 3’ deep. I decided to bury some of the scrap wood my husband had piled next to the shed that he’d been meaning to take to the dump for the past 2 years. Then I shoveled all the dirt back over and leveled it out and planted. By that time I had determined that I would paint the chairs black and that they would be very nice like that. So I cleaned up the chairs and began painting. I got a coat on 2 chairs and ran out of paint.

My husband came home from fishing and had caught 2 trout, one of which was tagged. Even after removing the tag, the fish was alive and kicking. So we put him in our pond and revived him. The girls named him Nemo. Nemo seeped very happy. That is until, unbeknownst to us, Nemo jumped out of the pond, landing on the rocks in the sun, effectively committing suicide. *sigh*, oh Nemo, being a big fish in a small pond isn’t that bad of a place to be. Nemo was buried under one of our rose bushes. My husband noticed there was another chair out so I walked down to check and would you just know it…it matched! Now we have 4 matching chairs.

My husband then took my 20 year old truck to inspection and it PASSED. It better pass bc we did about $800 worth of work to it, but all the same, it passed. He fixed his truck too so that will pass next week. He also fixed my trellis which bc the parts that stick in the ground got snapped off during a bad wind storm last spring and its been crooked ever since. He also drilled the holes in the aluminum tent poles that I salvaged to fix my umbrella style clothesline, so I fixed the clothesline and restrung it, which was no small task. Then I planted lettuce garden and a tea garden while the temperature rose. The girls ended up in the kiddie pool splashing around. That kept them contained and busy.

Afterwards my husband announced that our tax return had been wired into our account and this is the first year that it was not already slated to pay something or another. He suggested going out to eat but then I suggested he go buy a new grill and something special to go on it, and while he was picking up the grill, he could pick me up some more paint to finish up those chairs.

He returned with a grill, porterhouse steaks and shrimp, so we had that with salad and sweet potatoes for supper. Putting together the grill took him a little longer than he’d planned but I was able to get the chairs painted. We threw the bone to our dog, Pax.

After church Sunday, still our old church, and I honestly still do not want to leave but that is a story for another day, we went to the Somerset Free4All. I scored bigtime: Sully from Monster’s Inc. (Tabi’s favorite movie), set of twin sheets NWT, open package containing 2 ruffled 2t panties, 2 24 month swimsuits, cool throw pillow NWT, a wool sweater, some beaded hemp necklaces, brand new dishtowel, sewing box (the kind that hinges and folds open and out on both sides, also brandy new), 2 binders (a bit dusty but needed), 2 sets water wings, plastic shoebox NWT, travel mug NWT, water bottles for the girls, a laminated practice writing tablet, visible woman anatomy kit with option parts to simulate pregnancy (not yet put together and sealed in plastic, this is very cool but I think we will wait until winter to do it, maybe even next year bc it will take lots of supervision), 6 boxes green dye we will use to revive some curtains, and a bunch of books and some classical music tapes (bc the Z doesn’t have a cd player).

Ahhh…its good to be the dog that gets the bone

Something is Really Wrong Here

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:04:00 -0500

“Its all about the lost. We need to reach the lost.”

“Invite your neighbor to church.”

“We need programs to reach people with the Gospel. Doing stuff for them is fine but we need to reach them with the Gospel.”

“I need to get fed on Sunday morning. It’s the pastor’s job to feed his sheep.”

*sigh* purpose driven this and the latest that and being contagious. As these things filter into my both ears to a noise level, my spinning mind nearly drowning out that quiet voice. Christianese buzzwords flying, meaning NOTHING!

The more words the less the meaning and how does that profit anyone? – Ecclesiastes 6:11

How I Know My Daughter was Not Working Diligently...

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:10:00 -0500

...while I was in the shower this morning.

Nope, it is not just that the assignment was not done.

When I went to download the five flood pictures from the digital camera there were about 20 pictures like this:

And this:

*sigh* we finally finished lessons around 3 in the afternoon after an early 7:00 am start.

Ten Things I was Asked This Week

Fri, 6 Apr 2007 17:05:00 -0500

In no particular order:

1. Mom, can you really poke your eye out?

2. Can you make a phone call for me? Someone called me and I cannot remember her name and I accidentally deleted the voice mail. Can you call her back?

3. Are rocks bad for you, like poison or something?

4. There is SOMETHING in the yard and I’m not April foolin’. What IS that thing?

5. Can we mix together chemicals? You know. Like a scientist.

6. Hey go in the basement and look at the pump of the boiler and follow the valve stem where it nineties does it have a red valve?

7. Is it okay if Vani plays with that stuff you use for cooking, uh, flour?

8. Were we good this week? I know because none of us got yelled at, right?

9. If I spill egg on the floor its okay to vacuum it up, right Momma?

10. Is it okay if I wear shorts today even though its snowing?

Progress Report - Q1 2007

Sun, 1 Apr 2007 12:23:00 -0500

We have completed our first quarter of 2007 with Schuyler in Grade 3 and Lyndsee in Grade K. When I began this review I did so hesitatingly as I really did not think we had made much progress. We have had some setbacks and I did become discouraged trying to school two students. As I wrote this I realized that we accomplished much more than I had noticed and that perhaps my focus had been on the end rather than the journey.

Memorization and Recitation

Schuyler has memorized most of Hark to the Voice of the Wind by Adelaide Ann Procter and Thoughts by Sara Teasdale. She is has become very interested in the work of Sara Teasdale and I have since ordered and await delivery of Flame and Shadow to reward her for her hard work and interest in this area.

Lyndsee has memorized two poems as well: The First Snowfall by James Russel Lowell (not a favorite) and Mud by Polly Chase Boyden, which was much loved.

Schuyler continues to study the poetry of Sara Teasdale, Hilda Conkling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and William Blake. She and Lyndsee have independently taken up Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein and have committed much of this work to memory.

Schuyler and Lyndsee have memorized several selections of scripture thus far: Psalm 8 (both children), Psalm 23 (Lyndsee), Ephesians 4:29-31 (Schuyler), Matthew 27:32-55 (both children). They do not have the Matthew selection down pat yet but I am sure they will by the end of the week to recite for family on Easter.

Mathematics

Mathematics is Schuyler’s weakest subject. At some point near the end of February I decided to take a month long hiatus from her curriculum to rebuild her confidence and enforce basic skills, so we began to use exclusively calculadders drill sheets. We have just started again with her regular curriculum and she has improved greatly and is not easily frustrated with new concepts.

Lyndsee is using my button box as her manipulatives to create patterns and to perform simple addition. She works about 5 problems daily using buttons or the abacus.

Bible

We have worked through Power of A Praying Kid. This book was captivating to all but the baby. This took us a little longer as we were given a Jesus Tree by a dear friend and attempted to do that in addition to the Community Bible Study we started in January. The CBS curriculum is challenging to Schuyler and a bit over her level as it is the same for all elementary students. She is doing well but tires easily. I am still working out what to push her to do and where to help her. Our Jesus Tree project was nearly half way completed this year. Next year I aspire to start earlier so that we can fit all the readings.

Science

We are working our way through the body systems in The Body Atlas and nature study has been for the birds – literally. We have used our measuring and kitchen skills to mix together different concoctions for different types of birds, many of which are quickly identified when they visit our yard. We took part in Cornell’s Great Backyard Bird Count and made from scrap wood a bluebird nest box. We’ve yet to have a nestling though we are hopeful for continued study next year. The top is hinged as to aid our observation as it becomes occupied. Schuyler used the screw driver on her swiss army knife to salvage the hinge off some scrap doors and then attached it properly to the lid with little help from me.

The girls were excited to have lessons in physics. Yes, I did say physics, thanks to the Ringling Brothers Circus Science program that we attended at the Newark Museum. It was absolutely brilliant.

With the warming weather we started our garden studies as well. We identified and irradiated many weeds. We started some seedlings in trays to be dumped over by one certain child and then redone only to be toppled by yours truly. We abandoned that for starting some cold loving veggies in the ground where they will remain for the growing season. I believe Schuyler is beginning to discover food chains and lifecycles as I see the wheels of her mind turning as we feed the bunnies garden scraps and compost their droppings to return them to the garden.

Language Arts

Schuyler is working through English for the thoughtful Child which we had abandoned last year as her writing ability was not to par to continue without difficulty. She is having a much easier time as she has matured enough to reintroduce grammar lessons.

Schuyler and Lyndsee are hearing Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare twice weekly though some of the concepts are above their level they listen to half a chapter at a time without becoming to wiggly.

Lyndsee is refreshing in her enjoyment of the Alphabet flash cards. Though I mistakenly forced them upon Schuyler three years ago thinking she MUST learn them, Lyndsee takes joy in her letter drills and requests them often.

Schuyler is writing on 1/3 inch wide-ruled paper now instead of the 1-inch wide ruled paper. Her hand writing has improved much this way and I have decided to withhold cursive until she does a better job mastering her manuscript. I expect to resume cursive in June.

Lyndsee is doing some copy but mostly trace letters of her poetry selections.

Schuyler has been reading aloud daily to her younger sisters. She completed the Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter. They occasionally hear readings from Aesop, in addition to Stellaluna (Cannon), Thumbelina, Amelia Bedelia, Sassafras (Penn), Brave Brush-tail Possum (Massie), and Shel Silverstein’s The Missing Piece and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O. I will be adding some more selections for the second quarter.

Schuyler has done well with independent quiet reading, though she often skips and substitutes words distorting the meaning of what she has read. This is not an issue of ability but perhaps maturity as she often rushes and can read the correct word when pushed to do so. We have therefore reduced the quantity of the daily assignment to ensure quality. Titles she has completed this far are: Billy Whiskers (Montgomery), Sara Carew (Burnett), Reddy Fox (Burgess), Orphalines (Carlson), and Ringling Brothers Circus Family (Glendinning).

We are covering a lesson of Latina Christiana over the course of two weeks. This pace is appropriate for us and Schuyler is retaining most of the information come review time.

I have also read aloud Drummond by Sarry Farrel Odgers to Schuyler, Lyndsee and Tabitha.

History

Our approach to history has become its own animal. This Country of Ours (H.E. Marshall) was intended to be our objective for this year, however its content is boring to her. Therefore I have shortened the reading selection and have additionally taken an interest and opportunity based approach. Schuyler’s ability to narrate the shortened selection has improved greatly as a result of this. Schuyler has been to presentations on the Civil War and WW I. Schuyler, Lyndsee and Tabitha participated in a Civil War Museum with the Free Union Homeschoolers, dressing in period clothing as they created a display on fashion. Schuyler enjoyed the research aspect to this as well. The maple sugaring display at Millbrook, NJ was enjoyed by all. Consequently, we will use This Country of Ours as our history book for this and next year, allowing more time for interactive experiences.

Life Skills

Schuyler, Lyndsee and Tabitha are all in ballet classes and Schuyler is assisting her instructor with the younger children’s class. Our music and art studies remain informal, touching on Mary Cassat and Monet, and an assortment of music which they have found interesting, most recently an affinity for bluegrass. Our art experimentation has been lacking though they did manage to do self-portraits, wire sculptures, and Schuyler is learning what is and is not an appropriate application to the functionality of her Swiss army knife. The girls enjoyed (some more than others) the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra's winter concert. We concluded the quarter with Schuyler and Lyndsee’s first experience with theater, seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway.