Violet came home from her piano class tonight totally beaming. I could tell it had been a success.

Her original teacher moved on to something else a few months ago, and the next teacher we got just didn't seem to click.

We arranged for Violet to move up to the final "level" (she does Yamaha method) for the new term. Our old neighbors had this new teacher, Crystal, and they loved her. Turns out, she is a homeschooling mom too! She asked the kids about going back to school, and it turns out that of 6-7 kids in the group at least 2 others besides Violet homeschool!

This was so great -- with all the back to school stuff in the air Violet has really been needing something like that, especially since we'll be missing our homeschool playgroup again this week.

DH felt that she was a good teacher besides, and the new material is a clear step up in difficulty. Violet said the class was like "paradise."

I am just so pleased -- we have been ready to start her in individual lessons for some time, but she wants the group now more than ever, and I do really like the emphasis on ear training and basic keyboard theory. This will be her last "semester" in group so I am really glad it is going to be good for her personally and musically. Hurrah!

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Violet is really happy to be doing geometry! We are taking a break today as she woke up vomiting (Please excuse my lack of maternal sympathy, as I think it was caused by swallowing pool water yet again.), but the Murderous Maths Shape book is our math text for the week. I am really enjoying these books -- they are ideal for Violet, who increasingly demands comedy in all areas of life.

Below, some of our fun with compasses, rulers, protractors, and set squares. "Ms. Math" made me laugh -- naturally Violet sees a semicircle with right angles drawn in and says, "Hey, that could be a giant woman!"

Drawing a line exactly between two points -- a bisector.

Ms. Math, or, angles drawn in a semi circle are always right angles.

Parallelogram with corresponding angles -- they always add up to 180 degrees.

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Wow, it has been a really long time.

Most of that time has been at camps -- church choir camp, science camp -- but also we have just been wilting in the heat. My office is not exactly the coolest place in the house.

So, we're back on our summer schedule. We're back at Singapore, which is a bit dull, as we're starting a new level, and the assumption seems to be that you took 3 months off and forgotten everything from last year. Well, no, we've remembered place values and adding, thank you very much. And it takes about 10 seconds to remember that adding is adding, no matter how long the number is.

At first I thought my plan for whipping through this level was too ambitious, but I'm rethinking that . . . grr . . .

Well, more time for our Murderous Maths books, which just arrived! And Violet is addicted to Fetch on PBS. She loves the idea of being a contestant on the show.

This week is some Chinese review since we had 2 weeks off, and we're trying to get back on a solid piano schedule, although it has been so hard over the summer, as her school has several breaks. We're on the hunt for a new school/studio, or at least new class, so she can participate in church choir during the fall. (Handbells too!)

Poor Violet sprained her ankle Sunday night, which delayed the start of our next new thing -- golf! I think she'll be well enough for the next class, so we'll only have to make up one. She's very excited. Next summer we can get Victoria started too, and then if I learn we'll have a family sport!

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Ooh, it has been too hot to sit up in my office, so the blog has been totally neglected. We've also had a ton of household stuff going on, which I may explain later.

Violet does "Summer Sing!" which is a choir-oriented day camp at our church, next week in the mornings. After that -- and I am so excited! -- she does Wonka Week at the Science Museum. Of course reading about Z's camp experiences at Gray's Academy I am wondering what to expect! It is a narrow age range, 7-9. But maybe the chocolate and thoughts of Johnny Depp will make up for it! ;)

We are still enjoying our Hogwarts experience. Last night a house elf came by and picked up Violet's Care of Magical Creatures assignment -- a very nice photo essay of a fairy house she made with twigs, tree bark, a little log, a black walnut and some rocks. She offered the fairies a nice plump strawberry as well. She had to point out the various media used to make it. Very nicely done

She's also started writing a "Chinese folk-tale." I haven't read much of it. Our tour of Asia is going much more slowly than planned, what with all the summer fun to be had. But you'd better believe we went out for Chinese when the temps hit 100 in the early evening!

Still need to make our chokecherry jam, too.

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Seems like I have been hearing and reading a lot about education being "less about what you cover and more about what you discover."

My homeschool group talked about where we experience awe, and how we can faciliate those magical moments for our kids. I've started reading Last Child in the Woods, and I noticed that a reader advice section of the last Home Education Magazine talks about that book too.

So I ask you -- where do you and, if you like, your kids feel a sense of wonder and discovery? What times in your homeschool day are you and yours saying "Wow! Cool!" or even just silently appreciating something really wonderful?

We had a tiny taste of that today doing our first "Potions" lesson with "Invisibility Crystals," or polyacrylamide. After you let them soak up water, these little guys become totally invisible in a cup of water. If you tie one up with a string and dunk it in water, it looks like an empty loop floating in the cup.

Violet dunked and dunked and dunked and dunked, and would probably keep doing it all day if I hadn't sent her and Victoria to the pool.

The lesson for me -- more hands-on science! There's our discovery and wonder, or at least once source of it.

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Here is a homeschool chemistry activity that is right up my alley!

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Well, not really, but after an interesting discussion about the differences between Asian cultures and how those of us who grew up in Western culture aren't always aware of them — occasioned by a decision about whether to eat Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean (or Indian or Ethiopian) — we have a great new homeschool activity for the summer!

Red Sea School World Tour 2006

Summer in Asia

June 5-16: Thailand

June 19-23: Vacation to Memphis, TN

June 26- July 7: China and Mongolia

July 10-21: Japan

July 24-28 Vacation to Wonkaville (Science Museum Camp)

July 31-August 11: Korea

August 14-18: Vietnam part 1

August 21-24 Vacation to SD

August 28-Sept 1: Vietnam part 2

Tour highlights:

—Flag of each nation

—Myths and legends

—Restaurants

—Home cooking

—Geographical data

—Language and Calligraphy

—and much much more!

Also in September 2007: The Red Sea Pan Asian Festival!

Sample delicious treats from all the Asian countries “visited.” Hear traditional and contemporary music, and play games. Learn about Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam from the Red Sea Scholars.

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Many very full days, shuttling from event to event, pick-up to drop-off. I got a voice mail that said, "For a homeschooler you aren't at home very often." How true . . .

Violet got a Scientific Explorer kit for her birthday, called Spice Adventures, so we did some chemistry today.

Conclusions from our first experiments: cinnamon is likely made up of charged atoms or molecules, because it releases its volatile elements (flavor) in water, which is also charged (as opposed to neutral, or having an equal number of protons and electrons). Peppercorns seem to be less charged (or, in mom's opinion, not charged). Also, hot water works better to extract chemicals than cold, because in the cold water "the atoms and molecules in the cinnamon couldn't move, so the cinnamon couldn't release its flavor." By contrast, in the hot water, "The cinnamon could release its flavor. The atoms were loosening off." (I believe that is the scientific term. ;) )

We had such a good time that I kind of went nuts online ordering Harry Potter science kits. I originally was looking to sign Violet up for one of the Science Museum's "Potions" classes, but of course they are already full. I set out looking for a book to combine potions and chemistry, but I found an Amazon Marketplace seller with a big variety of Hogwarts Optics, Hogwarts Chemistry, Hogwarts Astronomy, and so on. Most were only $9, and they seemed so necessary . . . Well, I think we can make them last for a long time if we include some science reading along with them.

We've been talking about checking out a Chinese Immersion charter school that is opening up in the fall, to see if we could send Violet part-time. But my gut says no -- keep up the de-schooling process, enjoy the time to do music as much as we like, keep at the Chinese via Rosetta Stone. Oh, and we may have found a Chinese-speaking sitter for the summer! Yay!

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As I struggled to meet my deadline today Violet played with blocks, building and filling the castle's food stores. (The castle was not yet built.)

I was so entertained by her ongoing list of the contents that I wrote them down as I was working. For those who know my daughter, especially, you can just imagine it:

Bread, enchiladas, samosas, palak paneer, apples, and pizza.

And here are some turkey legs, and chicken, chicken legs, chicken breasts, popsicles, and poptarts.

And also some deer meat, catfish, eggs -- hardboiled, over easy, sunnyside up, sunnyside down, fried eggs -- Shaunbalaya, lemon drops, and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.

[Note: Violet would never, ever, eat deer meat -- she won't even touch pork or beef; no, our daughter has never seen John Waters' Pink Flamingos; Shaunbalaya is a culinary invention of my own that resembles Jambalaya; and Bertie Botts beans are the disgusting-flavored imaginary beans from the Harry Potter series.]

[Another note: I could not find a URL for Pink Flamingos that I thought I could possibly link to on a family site!]

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First, the drama of today:

Somehow our dog escaped from our fenced-in yard. We still haven't figured out how. But let me tell you, while I was driving our neighborhood for an hour I was praying praying praying that we would find our dog and that she would be unharmed. I was really starting to despair when I saw a teenage girl walking a dog that looked much like our Pupster.

I pulled over excitedly and said, "Is that your dog?" She said, also excitedly, "No, is it yours?" Hurrah! I was almost in tears with relief, and I wanted to hug the girl for being so caring. And of course I was grateful for the answered prayer. Now, would it be too Paul-Harvey if I added the the girl's name is Faith?

We have really enjoyed adding "Easter studies" to our homeschool the past week. Violet was especially excited to learn that in the liturgical year Easter is 50 days. (Longer than Lent, though it doesn't seem like it!) Below see one of her Stations of the Cross. We went and did Stations Friday morning and then she sat and drew for a while. This one is Simon of Cyrene.

And here we are on Easter (I'm in the photo in the sense that I am the photographer):

Today we went to make copies of Violet's comic-style version of a scene from Island of the Blue Dolphins (to follow), and we wound up getting haircuts, as below.

Today's music portion of homeschool consisted of an ingenious vocalization exercise invented by the children, in which one marches around the carpet and loudly sings American Standards accompanied by the electric piano, all the while stretching the muscles of the tongue and mouth, like so:

For my own edification I went to a "salon" (tongue-in-cheek) where we drank wine and discussed Benedict XVI's God is Love" encyclical, which is really lovely, and not at all simple-minded, as the title would suggest. If you're at all curious, let me add that he talks about married luv and gettin' it on. Find a interesting comments here.

Gotta sign up for Science Camp before the spots all fill -- Violet is dying to do Wonka Week!

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Today's subjects:

Piano: I just have to say, having Violet home to practice piano regularly is almost enough to make homeschooling worth it. It is really a joy to watch her learn and see how well she sticks to it. "Sticking to it" is not exactly her speciality—to the extent that the dread "ADD" label has crossed my mind—but her dedication to the piano gives her some good practice in that skill.

Math: Did I say that "sticking to it" is not Violet's specialty? Doodling and drawing "math girls" and decorating workbook pages, on the other hand . . . Still, with lots of prodding we got through our lesson (adding 98 and 99 to two-digit and three-digit numbers) in a reasonable amount of time. (Our nanny was coming, so the promise of going out to play soon helped.)

English: Ugh! Reporting what she's just read is not something that Violet wants to do, and it is really a sore spot with us. Especially since she is reading about 7 years above grade level -- this should be the high point of our day! Today she had to go back and read her chapters again after telling me "I don't remember anything that happened." She likes the story though. Who can explain it?

Chinese: Review of an earlier lesson and speech. The review part of the program has an especially tedious section where you make a sentence out of a jumbled set of individual words. I finally gave in and let her switch to speaking practice after I got bored just listening to her while putting away laundry. The language stuff is also a great motivator; apart from the one boring exercise, she really loves it, and once she's done with the lesson she'd play around with it as long as we'd let her.

Religion: Oops! Try again tomorrow. Guess that's why so many people start with this, eh?

We had a crazy day: DH was out all night working, then had to take Pupster to get spayed, and we are celebrating a birthday dinner before I head out to check out a homeschool group. So I guess if something slides it's not so bad.

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That's right, if you were sending good thoughts our way today, they paid off, as we had a very good First Day of Homeschool. Not so fabulous as to seem unrepeatable, but very good all the same. Here's a quick run down

Piano: Great! Violet had a very positive attitude even though we were starting several new things, and we were able to stop on a positive note. It was easy to stop knowing we’d have time later today or, of course, every day.

Math: Took a while to get started. We started with Singapore, which emphasizes mental math. I think we got the adding-to-100 concept down. It was harder for her than I thought, but I think in part because she is not a “show-your-steps” thinker, and math is so often broken into steps. So we’ll keep working on coming to a meeting of the minds on that.

Reading: We experimented with narration – after reading, Violet tells me her thoughts and I write them, so that she can let her thoughts come out without the impediment of having to think about penmanship as well. As expected, this is the tricky bit. She is not particularly interested in telling me what she thinks. I’m thinking eventually we’ll try writing brief book reviews for the blog, which might encourage her. But I tried my best not to push too hard – which is hard for me!

Then free play with sister, including lots of play-doh and singing along to kid music. She loves to harmonize and try to pick out various lines of the accompaniment – in addition to playing the diva while singing the melody. I love listening to her sing out loud, unselfconsciously, while playing play-doh with Victoria. A bit of that Idyllic Homeschool Vision, I’d say.

Along those lines, I could not believe my eyes as Victoria sat and played with blocks at my feet while Violet and I worked on math! I know I can’t expect that every day – but it was great for today.

Chinese: I let the software do its work while I tried to get some of my own work done. I did sign myself up as a student so I can do 15 minutes here or there to keep up. “Yi ge nu hai er , he yi ge nu ren.” (That would be “a girl and a woman,” in pin yin, without the diacritics to indicate pronounciation.)

The speech recognition part is awesome. Violet thinks it’s a blast, so she keeps working and working at getting a higher mark for matching the speech pattern of a native speaker. From what I can tell, it’s true that the younger you are the easier it is to adopt various accents and sounds.

We closed out the day with root beer floats, more playing around with the new microphone on the computer, and now, as I write, DH and Violet are reading Harry Potter 1 for a bedtime story.

And so, that is our first day, or at least all I have time to write about. Thanks to all our silent supporters!

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Not to be outdone, Victoria -- age 2 and 5/6th -- decided to startle us by recognizing some words today. While DH was driving her to preschool she looked at a sign and said/read "Ice Cream."

We have a favorite story (Sam Who Never Forgets) that has an ice cream cart in it,with the words "Ice Cream" on it, so every time we read it she says, "What does that say?" (Actually sometimes she says "What that says?") And we point at the words and say "Ice Cream."

So today she recognized those words while riding in the car! You can see why I still buy into the some of the "whole language" method of reading, because that's how my kids teach themselves. I actually kept Violet away from phonics-oriented toys, since she was teaching herself so well at an early age, and I think we'll do the same with Victoria.

With Violet we did occasionally look at Bob books, after she had worked out letters and some word recognition by herself, so perhaps we'll see what Victoria thinks. Maybe she's just trying to get in on the homeschooling action!

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Violet and I went through some lessons on the demo we got from Rosetta Stone: I think it's going to be a success!

Violet spent quite a while on the Chinese examples. She did well learning language and also figuring out the software. We have yet to get a microphone that is compatible with the computer she'll be using, so we haven't tried the speech-recognition part yet. She also amused herself with the Spanish Level 1 examples, stuff she'd already learned in school, and the English examples.

I'm very excited! I'm really hoping that learning something totally new and different will get her excited about learning.

And if you're wondering, Why Chinese?, well, Violet just chose it. Frankly I was leaning towards French, Spanish, or Latin, but she was so into the idea of Chinese that I thought hey, let's go with it. Those others will be easier to learn later. And we do have a deal that if all goes well with our homeschool-lite for spring and summer we can start a second language (currently, Latin) in the fall.

Good thing I love foreign languages!

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Thanks to my friend Honey at The New Homemaker for pointing me to this.

Is this what happens when you homeschool? You know that old saying, when you have a new hammer, everything looks like a nail. So when you have a new homeschool, everything looks like a unit study.

Warning: Clicking around on the home site for above link may lead to things not OK for young kids.

Adjustment to not-school is going well for Violet. She is playing the piano a lot: making up melodies to go with accompaniment from the electric piano and practicing her assigned stuff as well. She's also been writing stories and drawing like crazy. Yesterday she went outside and made mud-and-snow pies on the sidewalk.

Yes, there has also been some TV. But I am so pleased that my almost 7-year-old will sit with her almost-3 sister to watch Sesame Street and get excited over Journey to Ernie. So many kids go to Kindergarten thinking that stuff like that is "for babies." I'm delighted that so far that has not really entered Violet's way of thinking!

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