homeschooling adventures the wright way

New location

2006-04-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

I have moved this blog to a new location but will leave this one up for archives. You can now find us here:

http://lvbirders.homeschooljournal.net/

Hope you'll come visit :)

April - National Poetry Month

2006-04-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

Josh and I had a fun time with a picture book I found in our library and used to celebrate April as National Poetry Month. The book is titled Paint Me a Poem: Poems Inspired by Masterpieces of Art by Justine Rowden. One side of the book is a picture of a masterpiece and on the other side the author has written a poem inspired by that painting. Some of the poems were silly and fun and some were more thoughtful. Some rhymed and some were free verse.

I had Josh try his hand at doing this very same thing. As we were ending our study of the painter Jan Vermeer, I had him write a poem about his favorite Vermeer painting, A Lady Writing. (We became very familiar with this painting after reading the book Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett.)

Here is his poem:

Letters can hold secrets just like the thick gray fog.
Sometimes smothering secrets
That make you want to hide yourself in that thick gray fog.
But still others can hold secrets that make that face of yours
turn a cheery red,
That make you want to jump out of that thick gray fog and
Smile to the unknowing world
That does not know what secrets lay just behind that pleasant face of yours
That made that smile so.
Now before I go,
I would like to ask you,
What secrets wait for you in this letter from me.

Word of the Week

2006-04-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

expeditious:

adjective
1. characterized by or acting with speed and efficiency

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Life-long Learners

2006-04-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

There has been alot of talk lately on homeschool blogs and groups about the different philosophies/methods of homeschooling and the implementation of said methods. This has led me to do some inward searching regarding our own journey.

Looking back at the progression after 8 years now of "doing this" it is interesting to see how we have evolved in practice especially. My reason for homeschooling has never wavered from the beginning; I want my children to be life-long learners. I want them to be interested, passionate and excited beings about life and all we learn from it. I want them to have the skills/abilities to go in search of information/answers to questions they have. I still want that for all of my children today, even the ones who are no longer "in school". When we first began homeschooling people would ask question after question about "how we did this thing" and more importantly "why?". My answer was that, for our family, learning new things was just "par for the course" as they say. We are a family that is constantly reading, watching, doing, in any and all aspects of life. I thought it was only right that we continue this. Why did it have to change just because my children were "school age"? I had begun to think outside the box and have stretched that thinking more and more each year we continue on.

We have tried many a "practical" way of doing things. I have found that for us it seems to be an ebb and a flow type of learning and living. I mean this in the sense that at times we look more structured and at others we look more "unschooling". It works for us. I know my son and am able to see what he needs at that particular time of his life, thus the ebb and flow. This not only applies to him but also to me as his mother and guide/mentor. I do not use the term teacher because for us many times my son is the one who ends up teaching me!

I have found many of the philosophies of Charlotte Mason very much in tune with my own thinking. It is important to me that whatever we are looking into at the time that my son "make it his own". He sometimes gets something totally different from myself and in sharing these things with each other we are both enriched. Neither is right or wrong. We take from them those things that speak to us as individuals.

There has also been much talk about the whole notion of "strewing" or a laying out of things that may interest your child. I have found for our family we have a very "direct" way of strewing with each other. Each of us will find something that they think is interesting and wishes to share. Another member of the family may find it also very interesting and go off to find out more or may listen and that is enough. There is much discussion and such sharing that goes on in our family as a daily part of our lives. If any of us just set things out they would probably go unnoticed but in this direct way of sharing we broaden ourselves and each other in many areas. I have to laugh when adults ask my son, who just turned 12, how he got interested in birding at such a young age. Let me explain that this interest has turned into a life passion for him at this time and he is much the more knowledgable one than any other member of the family. The reason for the laughter; when asked this question he proceeds to tell them that one day his mom was reading a book on Thoreau (someone she is very interested in and who she was using as a main character of a children's book she was beginning to write). She shared a bit of information on how he became so familiar with the birds during his time at Walden Pond that they would come and eat out of his hand. This intrigued him and he went outside with some bird seed to see if he could do the same. Thus, an avid birder was born as a result of this "direct strewing/sharing" of something from another family member.

Life-long learning - the homeschool journey that our family is on together sharing in our lives and interests daily.

A Nail in My Pocket

2006-04-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Our studies for the day.
A nail in our pocket.
As a reminder.
As a prayer.

This morning we were paid a visit....

2006-04-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

by Peter the Rabbit. Well, at least that's who Josh and I say it was, as we seem to have Beatrix Potter "on the brain" lately. We are still enjoying Susan Wittig Albert's, The Tale of Hill Top Farm and it is such an appropriate read this time of year with Spring here and with Easter coming fast.

Melissa Wiley, over at Here in the Bonny Glen, has this great post on "seasonal reading". We too find ourselves reading and re-reading certain books during the cyclical seasons of the year, hence Beatrix Potter and all her "little" books including Peter the Rabbit at this time of year say "Spring" to us!

Shakespeare Studies in our Home

2006-04-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Following Charlotte Mason's advice on studying Shakespeare has been a truly enriching experience for my son and I. We generally start off with reading a version of E. Nesbit's, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare or a Lamb's, Tales from Shakespeare. Both of these versions are retellings that can easily be understood by children. These give a basic understandign of the story line of the play.

I found a wonderful resource at the library, DK's Essential Shakespeare Handbook, that has added much to our play studies. This book by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding is a comprehensive overview of each of the plays along with background information on Shakespeare's own life and the writing of his plays. For each play you are given; background information on the history of the play itself as well as actual historical events that may pertain, a listing and explanation of the play's characters, a plot summary broken down into each act with actual quotes from the play scattered through each act's summary, examples of performances of said play as well as video recomendations. Each play also has sections titled Reading the play and Beyond the play.

Josh and I just finished Henry V and had a wonderful time with it. We used lines from the play as copywork and dictation. We watched a video version of the play and had to laugh when at first we had a hard time with the language and yet by the end of the video we were able to understand more and more. The difficulty of the language of Shakepeare's plays sometimes can be very daunting and yet I find that the more we read them the more we come to understand and recognize this rich and beautiful language. We also studied the history of Henry V and compared actual historical accounts to Shakepeare's play. As we were reading another book for fun, The Tale of Holly How by Susan Albert Wittig, which I talked about in this earlier post, we came across a section in which Josh was pleased to recognize Henry V's, St.Crispin's Day speech, albeit the wording had been changed a little. Had we not ever studied Henry V he would have not been able to make such a connection.

We have studied other plays and with each find something unique for that play whether it be a picture book about the play such as Bruce Coville's wonderful William Shakepeare's Hamlet or being able to go to see a production of Macbeth at his sister's high school.

We both have enjoyed Gary Blackwood's, Shakespeare Stealer Series, a series of three juvenile fiction books about Shakespeare and a young boy who joins his troop.

The study of Shakepeare has not only enriched our homeschooling studies but our lives as well.

The Most Incredible, Unbelievable Roller Coaster Ever

2006-04-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

...which no one would ever ride probably.

Not a problem for master design/structural engineer, Josh Wright. :)

This was a result of some of our studies in physics this week. After watching the Nova video, Roller Coaster, and reading from various books on roller coasters and the physics involved with them I let him have at building his own coaster. He had a great time, even at one point designing a coaster that

"jumped track (tube)" AND actually worked as the engineer tested each design, including the jumped track one, using a bead through the tube.

This idea was in the Dec/Jan 2000-20001 issue of The Mailbox - Intermediate. This is a magazine for teachers in the classroom but many of their ideas can be easily tailored to homeschoolers. Josh had a great time and spent the rest of the afternoon in this "masterly inactivity" as Charlotte Mason would say, all of his own choice.

Can't ask for better "schooling" than that, I say. :)

And this one belongs to the Reds!

2006-04-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

We are hoping to hear those words today on Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds baseball season which starts today. We will be watching on tv this morning and rooting our hometown team on.

That is one of the things I miss most about not living in my hometown now. Even though our family lives and breathes ice hockey during its season we will always have a special place in our hearts for baseball, after all we are from Cincinnati, the city that hosts the first major league baseball team ever! I have great memories of baseball and my childhood: watching games all spring, summer and fall with my dad, listening to Marty and Joe on the radio announcing games and eating hot dogs with mustard and relish and Grippo's potato chips, those Straight A tickets for good grades and trying to figure out who I would take with the extra ticket, watching them on tv during high school classes because hey they were in the World Series at the time and even the teachers are big fans there and then getting OFF school when they won :)

One of our family's favorite movies is The Sandlot. I have a feeling we will be watching this one today ;)

For studies today we'll be doing a baseball mad lib for grammar and math will consist of score keeping during the game and LOTS of statistics discussions. We'll read Casey at the Bat for poetry (it is an annual tradition on this day). We will in essence let our love of a game be a part of our homeschool journey today.

So with all other baseball fans we will be listening in anticipation of those words that officially begin spring in our minds:

PLAY BALL!

Vocabulary and Our Word of the Week Study

2006-03-30T08:08:00.000-08:00

In this earlier post, I explained about a vocabulary study we started in which we signed up to receive a new word a day from an online dictionary site. This has been alot of fun for us and we have had so many connections to the words that we are studying. They seem to be popping up everywhere! We have modified this study to just once a week. It has filtered to other members of our family as Josh's older brother remarked on a word Josh had told him about when he himself came across the word in some reading he was doing. Just the other day, Josh called me excitedly over to the computer to read something to me. He then proceeded to read a sentence which used one of our earlier words, pugilist, in it. And in what context was this word used you may be wondering? He was reading an article on the NHL (ice hockey) website lol. He knew EXACTLY what they were talking about.

Our word for this week:

autodidact:
noun- 1. one who is self-taught

A very good word for a homeschooler don't you think :)

We are celebrating a family wedding

2006-03-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

My oldest daughter is getting married in August and has given Josh and I a research project for our studies. She has asked us to listen to and recommend pieces from classical composers for the ceremony. This should add some extra incentive to our composer studies :) Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. We're allowed help she says :))

Picture books

2006-03-25T10:52:00.000-08:00

What's Your Angle, Pythagoras by Julie Ellis

This book helps to make learning the Pythagorean Theorem at a basic level fun and easily understood.

The Battle of New Orleans: The Drummer's Story by Freddi Williams Evans

I had to laugh when we began to watch a History Channel show last week when Josh was sick. The show was on the American Flag and it's origins, refurbishing and such. They discussed the War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans in this context. This book was sitting on our bookshelves from a find in the new books section at our local library. Needless to say we read it that day :)

Music for the End of Time by Jen Bryant

Another good find in the new section of the children's books netted me this book. The cover peeked my interest and upon reading the inside flap knew that this would be one to interest Josh, after all, it spoke of a nightingale and anything that has to do with birds is usually an instant hit lol. Little did I know what a treasure this book really is upon that first glance. Reading it, we learned the story of the French composer, Olivier Messiaen, who composed and performed for the first time, his famous Quartet for the End of Time, while in a German concentration camp during WWII. Messiaen may become Josh's favorite composer, for while doing further research on his life and music, we found out he was, as well as being a deeply religious man, also an avid bird-watcher and incorporated bird songs into his works. We listened to some of quartet, which is written in eight parts for 4 pieces; the piano, the violin, the clarinet and the cello, and is based on a passage in the Revelation of St. John. The opening notes were inspired by a nightingale's song.

Tuesday Teatime

2006-03-23T09:39:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's are always a favorite day for Josh and I. This is the day we have our tea time. It is also the day that we cover our poet, artist and composer studies. Today was designated as a Beatrix Potter Tea per a request from Josh.

As I have said in an earlier post, I have been reading the book The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert to Josh. These are light mysteries in which Beatrix Potter is the main character of the story. Since I began reading it, Josh has been craving scones and so today we made chocolate chip scones for our tea time using a recipe from a book I got from our library titled, Beatrix Potter's Country Cooking by Sara Paston-Williams, as a basis while improvising a few things. We decorated the table with some cut out illustrations from a box of Beatrix Potter chocolates I bought at Target a few weeks ago in the dollar section. We also enjoyed a few of the chocolates along with our scones and Earl Grey tea. :) We put a few of the books we have been reading about Beatrix Potter on the table. These included: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman by Judy Taylor and At Home with Beatrix Potter by Susan Denyer. Of course we had to read a few chapters from The Tale of Holly How too.

It was an usually rainy, grey, chilly day here in Las Vegas earlier in the day and just perfect for tea and Beatrix Potter.

A Homeschool Sick Week

2006-03-23T09:31:00.000-08:00

Josh has been sick with a case of a stomach bug this week so our homeschool studies have consisted of:

- Being prostrate on the couch, sipping 7 Up and ginger ale while nibbling on crackers and watching LOTS of the History Channel.
- Birding out the family room window while lying on said couch.
- When feeling up to it checking on the Iditarod Race on the computer and while there checking the NHL webiste too.
- Birding out the front window while on said computer and yesterday morning spotting a roadrunner (yes I did say roadrunner) sitting on top of our neighbor's roof across the street.
- Commiserating with oldest sister each morning as she stops by and who is dealing with this very same stomach bug.
- Listening to mom read MANY times throughout the day from a fast becoming favorite book, The Tale of Holly How (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter) by Susan Wittig Albert.

I have read both books in this new series and have shared a few things from them. Josh was interested, as he loves a good mystery - The Hardy Boy series is one of his favorites and asked if I would read from one of them. This is actually the second in the series but no matter. The author, who also writes two other mystery series, is also the author of many young adult novels. While browsing her website I read comments on how she wanted these books to be appropriate for that audience also as well as adults. The main character is as you may have guessed the famed children's author, Beatrix Potter. Albert has done meticulous research on the life of Beatrix Potter and incorporates many factual items in the fictional stories. Josh is especially enjoying the way in which Albert incorporates the animals of the village into the story.

"Normally, I'm a disciplined writer who controls her material, but in this case, the material took control. To my surprise, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle began to talk about herself, and about The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and about Miss Potter, and the other animals all chimed in.6 I immediately realized the value of these characters to the story, and to the whole series, and began to incorporate them, not as mere "colorful" characters, but characters who are instrumental to the plot, and who may even have plots of their own. And I used this franchise to create other animal characters—animals that live at the farm, in the village, and in the countryside. Galileo Newton Owl and Bosworth Badger XVII are two of my favorites.

In this imaginative effort, of course, I am following the model Beatrix herself followed: stories featuring animals whose interesting adventures usually point up some sort of important moral lesson, a kind of Aesop's fable. I am also following models of contemporary mystery writers such as Lillian Jackson Braun, Rita Mae Brown, and Carole Nelson Douglas, all of whom have introduced animals into their mystery fiction. (Of course, I had to get permission from Frederick Warne & Co., the owners of Beatrix's copyrights, in order to incorporate Beatrix's creations into my fiction.)

Bringing the animals into the books also broadened the audience, for with a little extra work, I could make the series suitable for a middle-grade and young adult audience, as well as adult readers. These would be books that could be read and enjoyed by whole families, in fact."

This is a quote from Albert's website about her experiences in writing these tales.

A Homeschooling Day in March

2006-03-23T09:28:00.000-08:00

Friday it SNOWED (well for all of 10 minutes or so lol) here in the desert of Las Vegas. Josh and I had already been up to the park for our birding walk, a VERY cold walk - well here in the desert 40 degrees IS cold :) especially with the winds that accompany it. When it began to snow we went back up to the park for yet another walk.

Were we glad we did! We ended up getting some great looks at a Northern Flicker on the second walk. The flicker pictured in the link is a yellow-shafted flicker while here we have a red-shafted flicker. There are just a few differences between the two but you can get a good idea of what we saw from this.

Charlotte Mason would have been proud of us out and about even in this weather.

Iditarod XXXIV - The Last Great Race

2006-03-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the official start of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race in Alaska. For many years our family has followed this race and incorporated it into our homeschooling studies. As you can see we have collected a few items surrounding this, The Last Great Race :)

This year we will be rooting for our favorite musher, Dee Dee Jonrowe, who is making another attempt to win that elusive first place finish. We will also be following Gary Paulsen, a favorite children's author of ours. If you look closely at the picture above you'll see we have a few of his books that are about the Iditarod.

Not sure what this race is all about? Here are a few resources besides the official site linked earlier in this post to get you started:

Websites -
Cabela's Iditarod site
Dogsled.com
Scholastic
Iditarod Unit Study
Anchorage Daily News

Picture Books -
Dogteam - Gary Paulsen
Kiana's Iditarod - Shelley Gill
Mush! - Patricia Seibert
Akiak - Robert Blake

Juvenile Books -
Woodsong - Gary Paulsen
Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers - Gary Paulsen
Iditarod Dream - Ted Wood

Adult Books -
Winterdance - Gary Paulsen
Iditarod Dreams - Lew Freedman and Dee Dee Jonrowe
Iditarod Classics - Lew Freedman

So, what are you waiting for... MUSH :)

Lent Begins

2006-03-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, our family began it's observance of Lent by attending church in the evening and also by creating this Lenten Cross earlier in the day.

While browsing through Lenten activities I came across an idea for a Lenten Cross on this site. Since one of my favorite traditions during Advent is the lighting of our advent candles I knew this would be a great idea for our family for Lent. I used modeling clay for the cross, sculpting it into a free form and then pressed the candles into the clay. There are 7 candles total - one for Ash Wednesday and then one for each Sunday in Lent. At Easter we will remove the lenten candles and replace them with a larger white candle which we will decorate as our Easter Paschal candle. It will sit in the middle empty space of the cross.

Surrounding our Lenten Cross are 40 small crosses I cut out of purple construction paper. These represent the 40 days of Lent. Each day Josh will say a special prayer, perform an act of kindeness or one of sacrifice. He will then take a cross and place it into the basket. These visuals will act as reminders both to the time of Easter approaching and for Josh the acts that he has done in preparation during this most holy time of the church year.

Today's studies

2006-03-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

have been postponed until tomorrow.

Big brother home sick from work with strep throat + Olympic Men's Hockey games starting this morning and on TV for more than 8 hours = Time well spent on other things in life :)

After all, everyone in this family tells me that Hockey itself is Education! lol

With my older son having played for eleven years and Josh for eight, I have to agree with them that during hockey season, hockey = life (at least for this family lol) I also don't have the heart to pull Josh away as this is the first year he hasn't played himself since he was three years old. Cost of playing traveling hockey here in Las Vegas and being a one income family just doesn't allow for it anymore unfortunately.

So today we will enjoy watching Olympic hopefuls and spending time together.

New Vocabulary

2006-03-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

I had to laugh this morning. I overheard Josh telling his older brother (who is home from work for the week because of a bad case of strep throat) about our Word of the Day Study. The study has been modified to Word of the Week. Josh and I are having great fun with it and keep seeing words we have studied pop up in our things we are reading. These are words such as ineffable, dubiety, sussuration etc. He then proceeded to tell him about an "adventure" he had last night when he couldn't get to sleep. He came out to the front room and grabbed the dictionary. Taking it back to bed with him he proceeded to look up words for the fun of it. He came across what he now says is the "coolest word ever"!

Utilitarianism: noun
1. The belief that good and evil should be measured by usefulness of actions in contributing to human happiness and welfare.

According to him it is the "coolest word ever" because it is interesting. Hmmm... I forsee "interesting" discussions on this :)

So what is your "coolest word ever"?

Persuasive enough?

2006-03-23T09:12:00.000-08:00

Since the Narnia movie came out in December, Joshua has LIVED in this world. He read ALL the books, a few of them twice. He has read about C.S.Lewis. He has seen the movie FOUR times lol and begs to see it again. We have had MANY discussions on the symbolism in the movie and book and also the differences between the two mediums. He has asked to see it one last time, again lol, before it leaves the theatre and before it comes out in DVD, April 4.

So.... this morning for his writing process piece I ask him to write a persuasive paragraph. The topic.... you guessed it.

If you can be persuasive enough then we will go see the movie one last time at the theatre tonight. Why should I take you to see Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe again when you have already seen it four times before?

This is his response:

I believe that you should take me to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tonight because it is simply a great movie that makes you feel on a number of levels, spiritually and emotionally. The movie is a fantastic film. It doesn't feel as if you're in a theatre. It feels like you are fighting alongside High King Peter for Narnia, Aslan, and all that is good in the world. The movie is more like a journey than a film. It makes you feel like you were one of the Pevensies stumbling out of the wardrobe and landing in a magical world and being that world's only hope. And I also believe that you will enjoy it immensely.What was it you said to me after the last time we saw it? Hmmm let me think... Oh yeah! "That movie is so good I could just watch it over and over again and not get tired of it." Once again I believe you should take me to the movie tonight because it is an amazing movie and you will enjoy it yourself.

So what do you think? Persuasive enough?

Our birding blog

2006-03-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

Last March we began a journey into a new world; the world of birding. This journey has taken us on many new and exciting adventures and we have learned so much in this time.

As a way to remember our experiences I began a blog to document them. If you visit you will see much more birding goes on than documenting unfortunately. I am trying to be better about this though. Here is part of my latest entry to that blog:

This morning Josh and I headed up to our neighborhood park to bird. We have been trying to do this a few times a week and keeping track of what is there each time. In January we were able to finally see the Burrowing Owl that we had been told by neighbors that lived in the wash sandwiched in between our park and a golf course. He was such an amazing sight. Josh and I stood there hardly daring to breathe for the first few minutes. We have since been blessed to see this bird again numerous times and this morning was no exception. Josh and I smile just thinking how lucky we are to have this species living within a few minutes of where we ourselves live. :) The park has been fairly quiet in the winter but we have enjoyed watching the different behavior of many of the birds. This is another aspect of birding that is fun for Josh besides identifying new birds he hasn't seen before.There has been a tremendous amount of birding that has gone on in our house but we are much poorer at actually documenting it here.In the middle of December we participated in our first Christmas bird count and had a great time! For Christmas, Josh was given a surprise birding trip to Monteray, California with his dad. Then in January, Josh and I were able to go on our local Audubon group's trip to San Diego. My goodness. Between the two trips Josh added over 50 new life birds! We had such a great time with the small group of people that we went with to San Diego. It never ceases to surprise me how generous of their time and knowledge seasoned birders are and how blessed we are as a result. Josh is now up to 266 life birds and he still hasn't closed in on his first year of birding yet!

We hope you'll visit our "bird world" sometime.

Observing Black History Month

2006-03-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

In the past we have done unit studies during Black History Month. This year because of medical complications of an older brother and as a result driving taking up a HUGE part of my day, I thought we would end up losing out on this wonderful learning opportunity this year. I should have known and trusted Him. :) While at the library the other day, I was perusing the new picture books "when what to my wondering eyes should appear" - no not Christmas books :) - but FOUR books to use as read alouds during this month for Black History.

Delivering Justice W.W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights by Jim Haskins

Happy Feet by Richard Michelson

Mr. Williams by Karen Barbour

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni

Looking through Happy Feet I was pleasantly surprised to discover the book is about the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York during the Harlem Renaissance of the Roaring Twenties, THE very same time period we are studying for American History. :)

Picture books are one of my favorite ways to start and build on the topics we study. For those of you who might be skeptical about using them with older children please let me reassure you that there are some beautiful illustrated books that are written in a sophisticated style and full of meaning. Many of these books are not "twaddle" at all. I can't count how many times our studies have been enriched by this genre of books.

Great Backyard Bird Count

2006-03-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

A little over a week ago, I received in one of my Clickschooling emails information about the Great Backyard Bird Count.

What is the GBBC?
The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all levels in counting birds and reporting their results to create a mid-winter snapshot of the numbers, kinds, and distribution of birds across the continent. Participants count birds for as little or as long as they wish during the four-day period and tally the highest number of birds of each species that they see at any one time. At the Great Backyard Bird Count web site, they fill out an online checklist to submit their counts.

This explanation comes from their website where you can get more information if you are interested.

Josh and I will be birding and recording the birds in our neighborhood park. This is something we are in the habit of doing so the results will be put to good use. I sent away for an ambassador packet from Cornell University and it came the other day. In it are data sheets to fill out, promotional sheets and a ton of other information. You can get yours by emailing cornellbirds@cornell.edu

After having participated in our first official Christmas Bird Count in December, we are excited once again in some way to be a part of helping our bird friends.

The picture at the top of my post is of a burrowing owl. Josh and I are hoping to be able to include this species in our count as we have a resident burrowing owl in the wash that is a part of our park. We have seen him on numerous ocassions and have been blessed to be within 5 feet of him. A beautiful bird!

Signs of Spring

2006-03-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Josh and I were out on our back patio and he suddenly exclaimed, "Look mom. The second sign of spring!" I looked down to where he was pointing on the ground and let out a big sigh. There they were running to and fro.... ANTS. Now we await their annual invasion inside the house, in the pantry and bathrooms.

I will remind myself, in the event that I start to feel sorry for myself, about the ladybug invasion happening over at Theresa's place.

And just in case your curiousity was aroused.... the first sign of spring was last week when we looked out and noticed Arnold, our Anna's hummingbird, having to fight off three bees from HIS feeder, poor guy.

Don't know why these signs caught me by surprise as here in Las Vegas we really haven't had any winter to speak of this year. Guess we got spoiled by the snow once each year in the last two years. I'm still hoping though and adding more and more snowflakes (of the paper and craft variety) to our front window display in the hopes of enticing at least one winter snow fall. I think I may have to settle for the brief, and I do mean brief - after all it only lasted for about 2 minutes, of snow and sleet we had about a month ago.

Putting into Practice

2006-03-23T09:02:00.000-08:00

In my last post I wrote about Karen Andreola encouraging us to take time for ourselves as mothers so as to encourage our own growth as women. One way to do this is to have a reading plan of at least 3 books of varying levels.

Check out Dawn's post over on Gentle Art of Learning for a fantastic example of how to do just this. She calls this reading, "Cultivating Mother's Heart". Her latest post is Part 7 but she has links to the previous six parts so be sure to read them too. I hope you are as inspired by her as I am.

This mother's "niches of time"

2006-03-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

In my last post I made reference to those "niche times" I find for myself as a homeschooling mother and wife.

Karen Andreola in her wonderful book, Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning, actually names these times as Mother Culture. She states that following Charlotte Mason's advice to her own teachers it is important for mothers who are homeschooling to take time for themselves. We need to first simplify our lives and organize our time. We are then to use this time for "uninterrupted quiet time to focus on prayer, reading etc."

She tells the story of a wise woman that stresses the importance of reading for ourselves as part of this Mother Culture. This woman states, "Besides my Bible, I always keep three books going that are just for me - a stiff book, a moderately easy book, and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for."

Right now my Mother Culture reading includes:

- re-reading Wuthering Heights and also All's Quiet on the Western Front
- reading Reimagining Christianity by Alan Jones (Episcopal priest and Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Fransisco)
- and I just finished a novel by Gail Godwin called Evensong

When I am sorely in need of my own niche I visit my favorite place, Mitford, and have wonderful times with Fr. Tim and Cynthia and so many others that live in that wonderful world created by Jan Karon.

Grandparenting - Today's style

2006-03-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

Grandparenting - Today's Style
Maybe it's just me but this article really bothered me as I was reading it.

I am not a grandmother yet so can't speak from experience. I also understand the need for "me" time. I long for that too as a mother sometimes and try to find little "niches" just for me. Nothing wrong with that.

This article seemed to underscore the prevalent way we look at things in our society; things that people think are most important such as beauty, power, money all for ME. The ME generation continues on into a style of grandparenting.

Now don't get me wrong. Usually I try not to judge. My motto is "walk in their shoes" first. I am not making a judgment so much on the choices in their lives as I am just saddend that this is how we as humans look at relationships, epecially with our own grandchildren. I often lament the fact that in my own family one set of my children's grandparents have passed away without their getting to know each other and the other set isn't really involved with them on an intimate basis. I have promised my own children that I will be an "involved" Grandma and will proudly wear that name.

Call me old-fashioned if you wish. That's ok. I would whole-heartedly agree with you.

poetry term 2

2006-01-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

Our poet for Term 2 Year 6 per Ambleside Online is Carl Sandburg. I have found an abundant supply of books at our local library to help us in this study such as the book pictured at left, Carl Sandburg Adventures of a Poet by Penelope Niven. We have really been enjoying this book which has biographical information about Sandburg's life on one page with a poem pertaining to that area/time of his life on the opposite page.

Some of the other books of his poetry that we have include:

Poetry for Young People Carl Sandburg

and

Grassroots Poems by Carl Sandburg

This book, The Huckabuck Family and How They Raised Popcorn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back is another that I happened to find which is actually a picture book of one of his famous Rootabaga short stories. Don't you just love the title alone? lol

Carl Sandburg's home in North Carolina is a National Historic Site and the National Park Service has a fabulous website about the home and they also have activities that children can do relating to some of his poems which also includes a teacher's hub section.

Happy "Word Nerd Day"

2006-01-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

In honor of Word Nerd Day, also known as National Word Day, today we are starting a "Word of the Day" plan for our own nerdy family. :) Very timely for us as even my daughter who is a sophomore in a local high school will benefit. She has started her own "Five New Words Each Day" program with a friend as they practice vocabulary studies in preparation for the SAT test they will be taking within the next few months.

Thanks to Dictionary.com here's our word for the day:

ineffable \in-EF-uh-buhl\, adjective:1. Incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable; unutterable; indescribable.2. Not to be uttered; taboo.

Dictionary.com was a great find this morning, as besides giving the definition of a new word each day (you can go online or have it emailed to you), they also give you the history of the word and give you quotes from books, magazines etc where it has been used in a sentence.

fiction to go along with our art

2006-01-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

The artist we are studying this term is Jan Vermeer (1632-1675). I found a fiction book to go along with our study of this painter. We are listening to it on audio and enjoying it immensely so far. The book is Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett.

One of the main characters is "into" the puzzles known as pentominoes. Scholastic who is the publisher has a great site where you can try your own hand at these. Just click on the name. You can play online and they even have printable ones. Josh was much more successful than I was as he was able to get to the hardest level. I got stuck on the middle level but we both had alot of fun with them.

The book is a mystery dealing with a Vermeer painting and in the book illustrations there are clues given. You can check out your solutions on the Scholastic site mentioned above.

I have also gotten some writing assignment ideas from the book such as in Chapter 2 when Ms.Hussey has the class debating whether writing is the most accurate way of communicating. Somehow I think Josh will agree with Calder lol.

Term 2

2006-01-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

Our formal studies will include:

Ambleside Online
Term 2 2006

Artist - Jan Vermeer
Composer - Henry Purcell
Poet - Year 6 - Carl Sandburg
Nature Study - Year 6 Astronomy (along with birding of course)
Plutarch - We will be continuing on with Demetrius as we have not finished this study yet.
Shakespeare - We are actually going out of sequence and studying Winter's Tale this term instead of Term 3

For other subjects we are very eclectic:

American History - Roaring Twenties/Harlem Renaissance
World History - as yet undecided
Math - living books and some worksheets covering such things as fractions, geometry, as well as Julie Brennan's Living Math site
Language Arts- Julie Bogart's Bravewriter's Lifestyle, Cay Gibson's House of Literature, as well as Elizabeth Foss's 4 Real Learning
Science - Chemistry study with experiments
Birthday Wall - includes current events and celebrating birthdays of famous people and events during the year

Looks good on paper huh? lol We will do our best to immerse ourselves in these fields and see where they lead us for the next few months.

the new year

2006-01-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday our "back to school" formal studies were well... not so formal. I had every intention of starting right back, gung ho only to be pre-empted by none other than C.S. Lewis. Hey if I have to take a backseat to anyone at least it's behind a great writer. :)

Josh is into ALL things Narnia. He is now reading his 6th book of the Narnia series, The Horse and His Boy, and has only The Magician's Nephew after that. He has read them in an order that made sense to him and LIVES in the world of Narnia it seems. He received some Narnia action figures for Christmas, numerous Narnia and Narnia-related books and the Playstation game which he has played just a few times. The books, for now, taking precedent. He has seen the movie twice and begs to go again. He tells anyone who will listen about it and professes that it is wayyyyy better than the Harry Potter movie which he loved.

I don't have the heart to pull him away from these wonderful books just so we can "do our studies". For now THESE are HIS studies. You see, this is the same boy who in the summer after "second grade" was still reading at a Kdg level. Within the next six months he was reading "at" level and 6 months later "well beyond" his so called grade level. Doing things in "his own time frame" and not some time frame dictated by a "system". That's why this homeschooling thing works for us, formal studies or not :)

Christmas carols

2005-12-18T19:50:00.000-08:00

Today on one of my favorite homeschooling blogs, Cay Gibson's, House of Literature, she had a post about one of my favorite Christmas carols, Mary Did You Know? by Kenny Rogers and Winonna Judd. Be sure to check out her post.

Having been raised Catholic I have always had a special closeness to Mary which was passed down to me from my own mother so songs of Mary are especially dear to my heart. Another of my favorite songs to listen to at this time of year is Amy Grant's, Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song). (On this site scroll down to the bottom, go to page 10, and it is song #192. Click on it to hear a porotion of this beautiful song.) Having carried my own four children, my heart just bursts listening to this song. The lyrics will stay with you throughout the day and they make a beautiful mother's meditation.

Breath of Heaven...

I have traveled many moonless night
Cold and weary, with a babe inside
And I wonder what I've done
Holy Father, you have come
And chosen me now
To carry your son

I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone,
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now
Be with me now

Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Light up my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy

Breath of heaven
Do you wonder as you watch my face
If a wiser one one should have had my place
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be
Help me

(Chorus)
-Amy Grant

lights on our house and in the sky

2005-12-11T18:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight as we went outside at dark to ooh and aah over my husband's light display on our house, looking up into the night sky I was given more reasons to ooh and aah as I looked upon the moon and bright red Mars close by it,

and Venus , the brightest it has been in 2005.

I was glad we had been lured out to see the house lights because I had completely forgotten the email I had received the other day about this NASA article telling me all about this amazing sight to see tonight.

finding new resources reason to squeal

2005-12-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

In November on Theresa's Lapazfarm Home Learning blog she shared about a great resource the Clickschooling yahoo group. Scroll down to her Thursday, November 10th post titled, A Truly Useful Resource. This group sends out an email with resources for a different subject each day. For FREE! It has been such a wonderful addition to our studies.

Well today, when I checked my email from them and clicked on the link for their history resource of the day, I think I actually squealed in delight. They recommended The Learning Calendar site. What a gem of a find! This site offers for FREE a monthly newsletter that lists events and people and a little blurb about them for each day of that month AND activities to go along! They have a What Happened Today? history section. Click on any day of any month and find out an interesting tidbit. WOW! I have been doing this very thing in making our Monthly Birthday Wall having to hunt ALL over for my resources. THIS site will be such a help with this now. They also have a calendar that you can purchase which has even more ideas. I will be trying this for sure.

Thanks again to Theresa. :)

a little birding news

2005-12-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Above is a poster of Greater-White Fronted Goose from National Geographic's website. This goose was first noted by the Lewis and Clark Expedition on March 15, 1806 at Fort Clatsop, Oregon and sighted as #208 life bird for Josh Wright (who is studying the Lewis and Clark Expedition) on December 4, 2005 at The Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas, Nevada :)

I thought I'd also share the following post from our birding blog (which is linked on the side of this blog) as it is a MAJOR part of our homeschooling.

We have been heading up to the park almost every day for a bird walk in our neighborhood park and I always feel blessed by the "surprises" we are given each and every time. Within the last few weeks we have seen new birds in the park including northern flicker, lesser goldfinch, inca dove, abert's towhee, red-tailed hawk, raven, and prairie falcon.This morning was no exception as we saw two western meadowlarks on the ground under a group of bushes in the park. As we watched them and got great views of their beautiful vibrant yellow breasts with the black v two more flew in next to them.None of these birds are new to Josh as he has seen some of them many times before but to see them in our own environment is reason enough to get excited all over again about them.

In our other birding news, we are gearing up for TWO Christmas bird counts with our local Audubon group that we will be a part of in a couple of weeks. They are back to back on Dec. 17th and Dec. 18th and Josh is in heaven knowing he will be birding ALL day, BOTH days lol. His poor dad is doing both while I opted to just do one.

I had to laugh this morning as we were at Target looking for ornaments to give as gifts. I showed him a "cardinal" and he just looked at me and politely stated that it really looked like a scarlet tangager but had the tail length wrong etc. There was a lady behind us who commented that he must know his birds. That's putting it mildly lol.

literature and movies part 2

2005-12-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

Since my last post Josh and I have finished C.S. Lewis's, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I can't believe I missed this wonderful book when I was younger. We then took Superboy's recommendation, via his pen pal letter to Josh, and listened to Prince Caspian on audio. Another great one! Josh is now counting down each day till Friday when we will see the movie. From previews it looks wonderful. While birthday shopping for his older sister's 16th birthday, we came across a book about the making of the movie. He has been lost in it ever since. It seems that, like Lord of the Rings, it was also filmed in New Zealand and has people from that movie's departments also being used for this film. We'll give a movie review once we have attended.

SuDoku craze invades our house

2005-12-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

I happened upon a SuDoku book of puzzles in the bookstore a few weeks ago and we all began to try our hand at these puzzles. If you are not familiar with them, you can find a great explanation and even take a try at an online one here. Boy are these puzzles addicting lol. We've been having a great time with them even though Josh and I are still at the beginners level :) I was pleasantly surprised to find this kids' Christmas version in the childrens' department at our local Barnes and Noble. We are having a blast with it. I am loving doing the word ones while Josh and his dad like the number ones better. Math and logic. LOTS of fun going on at our house.

literature and movies

2005-11-22T07:20:00.000-08:00

What blessings both are in this thing we call homeschooling.

Josh and I are going out this morning to buy the DVD of Polar Express. He has seen it before and loved it. We are also in the middle of C.S. Lewis's, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. As much of a reader as I am, I can not believe that I have never read this book either as a child or adult until now. It is wonderful to be sharing it with Josh. We are really enjoying it and he begs for more. We saw the previews recently of the movie coming out in December and it looks very interesting. Upon viewing movies of books we have read, always after the fact, a rule that my older daughters still tease me about and yet still abide by themselves, we will compare and contrast and decide which we prefer more. If it is as usual, the book will win out. It always does. I say that's because in most cases no one can match each of our own unique interpretations.

being a mom, being somebody's hero

2005-11-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

This morning as I drove one of my daughters to school, I heard Jamie O'Neal's song, Somebody's Hero, and I had to smile. Each of my 4 children make me feel like a hero, at least once a day, just for being their mom. My mom was and still is my hero even though she is now in heaven with her mother who was her hero. I came home to my youngest, who is 11 now, after hearing this song and who is the child who has been homeschooled all his life and felt blessed especially for that. He is the one who often gives me a kiss on the cheek while saying, "You're the best, Mom" to which I always have to reply back to him with a smile, "I know". It's our secret handshake if you will.

Here's a link to the song if you haven't heard it yet. If you're like me better have the tissues handy :)

http://www.singeruniverse.com/oneal.htm

Birthday Wall and Classical music site

2005-11-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

The other day Josh and I were learning a little about Aaron Copland for our Birthday Wall as it was his birthday (Nov.14). As I searched around the internet for some info and audio to listen to I came upon a wonderful site. I don't know why I was surprised to see it as I have known about it before and then lost it in the never ending longgggg list of favorites I have. Does that ever happen to you? lol We enjoyed listening to a few of the programs they had on Copland and his music.

Later I went back and searched around some to acquaint myself with the site again and was excited to find programs on Beethoven who is the composer we are studying this term as suggested by Ambleside Online. There are lesson plans for various ages, audio to listen to some of his music as well as activity sheets and even games. What a gold mine!

I had to smile as I enjoyed all I was encountering and couldn't help but be a little bit proud as this site is sponsored by a radio station from "back home", Cincinnati, OH.

Hope someone else finds this site as helpful as I do:

http://www.classicsforkids.com

those blessed moments of time

2005-11-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile I am given a moment or so in time that helps me to see that the beauty in this thing we do called "homeschooling". I am reminded it isn't schooling but really living.

Josh and I are studying in more detail The Lewis & Clark Expedition for American History. I say in more detail because we have read about it before but in a very general way. Along with our studies we are reading the book, The Journal of Augustus Pelletier The Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804 by Kathryn Lasky. This book is a part of the wonderful series My Name is America which is within the Dear America books published by Scholastic.

Yesterday being our Wild Wild History Wednesday we read some from our book. And then we had to read more after lunch because Josh didn't want me to stop. Then we had to read AGAIN after dinner because he just had to find out what happened next. THIS is why I love reading fiction books that tie in with what we are learning about. You find out MANY details in an interesting way that leaves you wanting to still find out even more. Josh was thrilled to hear that Sacajewa means "bird woman". Well hey he is a birder after all. :) He wants to read more about her now lol. He drew some of the birds that were talked about and then that we read about from the Captains actual journals. He has commandeered a journal that I had gotten for his dad but which has never been used because it looks just like one of the journals that the Captains used. Dad doesn't seem to mind in the least. :) Copywork will be the "big speech" that the Captains made to the Indian chiefs each time they were encountered. Gus, the main character of the book, has a hard time with this speech, doesn't like it at all. I had the same thinking the first time I read it and I have a feeling that Josh will find it more than a little uncomfortable. Good discussion will ensue I am sure.

Blessed moments.

latest birding news

2005-11-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share on this blog for those that don't read our birding blog.

Josh and I have been having a great time birding our area lately. We have been able to add to his life list with new birds of wood duck (both male and female), bufflehead, and american wigeon, ross's goose, and wild turkeys.

In our own neighborhood park we have new birds that have come in such as the white-crowned sparrow, brewers blackbird, ruby-crowned kinglets, and yellow-rumped warblers.We have even had western meadowlarks there a few times. We still have our regulars such as the verdins, great-tailed grackles, rock and mourning doves, house finches and house sparrows as well as the anna's hummingbirds.

This morning we saw a female summer tanager which was very unusual for this late in the season.

Our best sighting has happened during this last week, a Northern Parula! We saw this on Nov. 7th and then again this morning during our walk. This is a bird that is listed as being a rare vagrant migrant for our area. Because of this I was a little skeptical of Josh's id the first time. This morning there is NO doubt in my mind that Josh NAILED this id. What an amazing bird! I have to also say what an amazing kid I have :) He seems to have a natural talent as well as a passion for this wonderful thing called "birding" and I am blessed to be able to share this with him.

wisdom from a children's book

2005-11-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Josh and I finished the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. We had started this book two days earlier after I had read an entry on Melissa Wiley's blog, Here in the Bonny Glenn. She is author of The Martha Years and The Charlotte Years books about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother and grandmother and is also a homeschooling mother of four children. Fantastic books if you haven't read them! The entry was about the art study they follow using Ambleside Online. Just as we do! She talked about their Michelangelo study and the connection to the book they were reading, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I knew that this book was on our shelves and we hadn't read it so thought we'd give it a try. I am so glad Melissa posted about this book. Josh enjoyed it so much he begged for me to continue reading till yesterday we just read until we finished. We even went on-line today searching to see if there really is a statue of Angel. :)

At the end of the book Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler made a statement that still has me thinking:

Claudia said, "But, Mrs. Frankweiler, you should want to learn one new thing every day. We did even at the museum."

"No," I answered. " I don't agree with that. I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow."

With all the interruptions we have had to our studies I have gone back and forth in my comfort level. These words jumped out at me yesterday. Looking at "down time" as a chance to "absorb" what we have been learning about makes so much sense! And isn't it so true that if we never take the time to make what we learn truly ours it is all just hollow noise. Facts to spout off. Josh shows me this everyday in his passion for birding. This has become something that is so much a part of him now there is no separating his learning in this area from him as a person. He lets all of birding swell inside of him and it really does touch all that he does lately.

Even today. We were getting ready to do Friday Freewrite and he was being reluctant. I gave him things to look over, to choose from, including Julie's choice today of writing about your favorite book. No interest. Well then how about favorite movie, character in movie/book, line in movie/book? Nada. Nothing. OK then...how about your favorite bird on your life list? Bingo!! He was writing before I got the timer started and kept on writing. Now if I can just remeber to do this with the rest of our sudies :)

time flies, they say, when you're having fun...

2005-10-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well here in this house it seems to have "flown the coop" as my mom used to say, as a result of such "twists and turns" as Theresa talked about recently in her blog but I can't complain really because in the midst of all this we are having fun :) We are now slowly but surely getting back into more of a routine with a few less interruptions.

Some things to share that we've done:

Lanuage Arts -
Literature - We are still reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and especially had fun at Tea Time reading the chapter "A Mad Tea-Party". :) We did an impromptu study of nursery rhymes one day inspired by copywork of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eate. Josh is reading more Hardy Boys, birding magazines and field guides and numerous other things. We also read an excellent picture book, The School is Not White! A Treu Story of tyhe Civil Rights Movement by Doreen Rappaport. I had found this in the new books in the library and hadn't had a chance to read it when yesterday we read the news about Rosa Parks and perfect timing then!
Poetry - We compared Robert Frost's poem October with Helen Hunt Jackson's poem October's Bright Blue Weather and Josh wrote a paragraph on which he preferred and why. He used Frost's poem for copywork that day. We have also read and used for copywork G.K.Chesterton's poem Gold Leaves. This was inspired by a nature walk and journal entry using leaves from a walk to our neighborhood park. We also read Lewis Carroll's Hunting of the Snark which was inspired by a math puzzle on Julie Brennan's yahoo group PiCafe. Yesterday after we read about the passing of Rosa Parks I shared with Josh some poems on the civil rights movement that I had found on-line.
Writing - Josh continues to write paragraphs on such things as are related to whatever we are studying such as the poem comparisons talked about previously. He adds to our bird journal that we have started to keep track of our walks up to our park and also making posts on our birding blog and on bird forums that he and his dad contribute to. He is also having a great time writing letters to his pen pal and LOVES the letters he gets from him especially :) We continue to do Friday Freewrites and one especially fun one was a freewrite he did from Julie Bogart's Brave Writer prompts entitled "The Package". He wrote for close to 45 minutes and wants to continue the mystery he started as a result. I told him I would love to know what happens next!
Copywork - has been both printing and cursive using poems, quotes from various sources we are studying or from things each of us is reading such as a quote from mathematician/physicist Richard Feynman, composer Beethoven, and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.

Math -
We are finishing up the book The Number Devil which we have enjoyed immensely. I read sections to him from a math book I am reading by Keith Devlin called The Language of Mathematics. We have been trying some puzzles from the yahoo group PiCafe which is a partner group of Julie Brennan's LivingMathForum. She also has a great website dealing with teaching/learning math. Great stuff there! I think we will be gearing up for more application and tool use along with our "living math books" in the near future.

Science -
Nature Study - well of course birds, birds, and more birds lol. That goes without saying :) We have also done leaf collecting and made leaf prints and drawings from them in our journals. We made drawings of the pumpkins we had picked at the orchard for Halloween just the other week.
Physics - we are still reading articles about Einstein in celebration of 2005 The Year of Einstein. We have been using Core Knowledge books and reading about atoms and molecules and matter and such. We have also used NASA newsletters that I get in my email to learn about and observe such occurrences as "earthshine", the planets and constellations.
We have also been enjoying various National Geographic articles. The recent issue with an article on the bird flu was of particular interest to him as a birder.

American History -
We have watched numerous shows on the History Channel. Used their This Day in History section on the website to learn about and discuss such events as the birth of the United Nations, Black Thursday, Fair Labor Standards Act, and the completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line.
As per Josh's request we have begun a more in depth study of The Lewis and Clark Expedition (we have read about this generally before) with MUCH emphasis on the birds they discovered. I don't think anyone is surprised by this huh lol.
We continue to use the news that happens each day as a jumping off point ie when we read about Rosa Park's passing yesterday we reviewed what we knew (which was alot since we had done a study on her before as she is one of Josh's heroes) and then I read some related articles from MSNBC online such as The Voting Rights Act Turns 40 and one on the laws barring felons from voting and the ramifications that meant. Boy did that one get some discussion going. ALWAYS a good thing in a homeschooling family :)

World History-
Using the wonderful monthly calendar activities from Enchanted Learning yet once again, we read about The Boer Wars of Africa. I pulled some articles from the internet and we read from the encyclopedia. Along with this study we used the Core Knowledge 6th grade book to read about Africa, it's European colonization and the ramifications of such as well as more on the Boer Wars.

With both histories we have been making entries on our wall timeline.

Fine Arts -
Composer - We have continued to listen to our Beethoven CD and have been getting fairly adapt now at recognizing the different pieces :)
Plutarch - We have continued our study of Demetrius using Anne White's fantastic study notes on the Ambleside Online yahoo group.
Artist - We continue to study works of Michelangelo - recently his painting The Doni Tondo (Holy Family)

I know I am leaving things out as I type all this. I have worried that with our hectic past few months we weren't accomplishing much and yet reading my last post and this one I know I shouldn't worry. Learning goes on even as we live our lives. Reflection like this helps me to see that and be grateful for this way of life we have chosen.

the never ending disruptions

2005-10-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

It seems medical issues are going to be a constant disruption to our days at least for a little while longer. It helps me then to put down on paper what we have done to reassure myself. So what has gone on here in the last few weeks? Well more than I think. Again our life style just seems to lend itself to learning especially when two older sisters are in high school and college and share what they are learning. Much discussion goes on in our house! Here's a little of what we have been doing:

- Josh finished My Side of the Mountain on his own and then proceeded to read the sequel The Far Side of the Mountain. He started the third in the series, Frightful's Mountain, but didn't enjoy it so put it down before finishing.
- We read Where the Red Fern Grows together in anticipation of a book club gathering. We then watched the movie on DVD and also found and watched Where the Red Fern Grows II on DVD.
- We have continued reading our Math books The Number Devil and Life by the Numbers.
- We read E.Nesbit's and Lambs' translations of Macbeth in anticipation of going to his older sister's high school performance of this play. We also read passages directly from the play so as to be familiar with the language we would be hearing. We have studied Shakespeare before so this wasn't really something new for him. The play was fantastic and those kids did a magnificent job. The Bard would have been proud of them!
- We have continued reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- We have been birding many times of course :)
- We have taken nature walks and made entries in our journals.
- We have studied the statue of David and read more from our book Michelangelo by Diane Stanley.
- We are still reading poetry of Robert Frost.
- We continue to watch educational shows for fun - Just last week we watched an interesting show called The Last Mission on the History Channel. It had to do with the end of WWII and I learned a few things I never knew.
- We've discussed things we have read or heard about such as the proposed changing of the Endangered Species Act (there was a segment on NPR and this is something Joshua is very passionate about - nature and the environment)
- Josh continues to read ALL the time on his own ie Hardy Boys, bird books and guides etc.
- ice hockey season has started again finally! and so there are many checks on the NHL website for stats and such and much watching of games etc. :)
- and MANY various other assorted things that we do jsut because we call it "living".

I am still trying to concentrate on one field of study each day (along with math, writing, etc daily).

I have been looking into the education practice known as the Thomas Jefferson Education and I am very intrigued. This educational philosophy is proposed by Oliver DeMille, president and founder of Geroge Wythe College. Here is a blurb from their website that helps to define it:

"Today's political, economic, and social challenges are no less daunting than those of past generations. Governments, businesses, schools, churches and other institutions worldwide need men and women of high moral character, sound intellectual understanding, and principled action to lead the way. But where will these statesmen be found?

George Wythe College stands on the belief that Statesmanship is the product of a particular educational system, known to the great leaders of the past, but lost to modern academia. It is a principle-centered process grounded in the belief in God and immutable moral law, framed on the classics of literature, history, science , the arts, and philosophy, and crowned in the discipline of real-world application under the guidance of a committed and caring mentor."

Here's a link to their website to check it out:

http://www.gwc.edu

This philospohy goes along well with some of Charlotte Mason's ideas and is accessible for homeschoolers to easily put into practice. It has me researching the education of the Founding Fathers and I also found an interesting book at the library, "Taught to Lead, The Education of the Presidents of the United States" with Fred L. Israel - General Editor.

Well I best get back to real life skills such as laundry and dishes :)

the best laid plans

2005-09-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

As we enter into our third week I have to keep reminding myself that homeschooling can be adaptable to anything including medical crisis in a family. Last week as we were going merrily on our way in the second week of school, my oldest daughter ended up having a gallstone attack. Thus a day spent in the ER meant a lost day of organized studies. Sooo we did what most others do. We dropped some things, put off a few others and combined some with another day. Hey we are flexible right? Or so I keep trying to remind myself this week as I am up at 1:30 am getting my oldest son from his job. He is on night shift for the next three weeks and still not allowed to drive yet because of medical reasons. Tomorrow is doctor appt for my daughter and later surgeon appt and surgery hopefully sooner than her next attack. Oldest son needs blood work done this week also and in the next month we have sleep deprivation EEG, MRI and neurologist appt for him. Josh and I study in between all this. Thank goodness Josh is such a trooper through all this. He just wants to make sure to get a few birding trips in there when possible and is so looking forward to our local audubon group starting up their field trips again.

So study wise we have been:

- studying Einstein and the field of physics,
- reading The Numer Devil A Mathematical Adventure (which Josh is LOVING),
- reading Alice in Wonderland in connection with The Number Devil,
- reading bios - watching videos - and listening to symphonies of Beethoven,
- reading bios on Michelangelo and studying The Pieta,
- memorizing the poem we each chose of our poet Robert Frost as well as reading his bio -------- reading Nesbit's translation of Shakespeare's play Macbeth in preparation for attending his sister's high school's performance of said play,
- going on nature walks (which usually turn into birding lol) and making entries in our journals, - - reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George for our nature study literature
- doing spelling taking words from his writing which has included 2 Friday Freewrites and a descriptive paragraph of a nature walk
- Josh's own independent reading - right now he is re-reading Ken Kaufman's, Kingbird Highway for the second time. (this is a wonderful adult book about birding) as well as his usual studying of his bird guides of which he now has 3 I think

We try to stick to our days but as the title of this post suggests sometimes these have to be changed or combined. OK with us because as I look back over this list of just some of the things we have been doing it becomes apparent that we are learning even when the best laid plans.....

our first week

2005-09-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

Amongst the heartbreak of so many lives due to Hurricane Katrina, Josh and I had the responsibility to carry on with our own work which was our first week of school. Wishing we could do more than pray and send money, we decided that to go about our studies (often with thoughts and prayers for all affected) was what was required of us. As Helen Keller said:

I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. ~Helen Keller

With all this in mind a new year of concentrated studies then began for us. What follows is just a glimpse of that beginning:

We have named our days. What I mean really is that we have decided to concentrate on one field of study each day (with Language Arts and Math studies done daily) and so we have -

Monday Movie Madness
(this is based on Julie Bogart's movie day from Bravewriter's Lifestyle)
Tuesday Teatime
- Poetry
- Composer
- Library visit
Wild, Wild History Wednesday
- American & World History
Thouroughly Scientific Thursday
- Science
- National Geographic Day (from Cay Gibson's Literature Alive yahoo group) -
we will be visiting B&N bookstore for coffee and reading articles from our magazine
Fine Arts Friday
- Shakespeare, Plutarch, and Artist per Ambleside Online
- Friday Freewrite (again from Julie Bogart's Bravewriter Lifestyle)
- weekly birding with our favorite birder/guide

Daily I will also be including things to post on our Happy Birthday wall which will include people, places and events etc. For example this week we honoured the birthdays of Jacques Louis David, French painter who we have studied in this past and Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley, British novelist and writer of Frankenstein. Many of my ideas for here come from the Enchanted Learning website (which is fantastic) as well as various other resources. I will try to post a picture at the end of each month of our wall.

I have found some fantastic "living" books to use for both Math and Science at the library and we are so enjoying them I may need to purchase our own copies. For Math we are using three books: one a fictional novel called The Number Devil - A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger and the other three are non-fiction books. The first non-fiction is a picture book called G is for Googol - A Mathematical Alphabet Book by David M. Schwartz. This has an entry for each letter of the alphabet focusing on math terms, definitions etc. It is very funny and highly informative at the same time and we are really enjoying it. The other book is Life By the Numbers by Keith Devlin. This is a companion book to the PBS series by the same name. I have not seen the series on tv but we are enjoying the book tremendously. It is a very easy to read book on how math applies to many aspects of our lives. I knew I was going to enjoy it when in the very beginning I read:

"The rules and the procedures learned in school are merely the tools you need to do "real" mathematics. Mathematics - real mathematics - is about trying to understand ourselves and the world we live in."

Since Joshua has become "math phobic/resisting" lately I felt it was important to drop the "tools" for just a bit and expose him to this side of the study of mathematics.

The Science "living" book is a companion to the math one by Schwartz titled Q is for Quark - A Science Alphabet Book. Many aspects of science are explored using the alphabet. Lots of fun! We are using this as a starting point to some of our science topics.

Here's an example of how we used "living" books this week in Math:

We read Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. These are fantastic books (they have a science one too). Very funny and informative! One of the characters was Mrs Fibonacci. After reading this book, we looked up fibonnaci in the G is for Googol book and found an entry for them that explained what they were, how they were named etc. Josh made an entry in his math notebook on what he learned about them as well as trying to answer orally the problems presented in the storyline of the Math Curse book with much laughing and giggling.

Another day we read from the Life by the Numbers book and learned about mathmetician/scientist James Murray who after reading his daughter Rudyard Kiplings, Just So Stories "How the Leopard Got his Spots" embarked on a 20 year journey to answer that question culminating in his own book giving the scientific version of Kipling's story. We grabbed our own copy then of Just So Stories and read Kipling's version. Later that night we searched the internet for information on James Murray. We found an article mentioning Murray and explaining the scientific reasoning behind "how leopards gets their spots". We even got Dad involved in all this lol.

We'll try and be flexible because as they say "life happens" but it feels good to be "back in the groove again".

our Not Back to School Day

2005-08-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

So my youngest and oldest daughters headed back to school today. One is a freshman and a half at UNLV's Honor College and the other is a sophomore at a local public school.

Josh and I ... well we had a Not Back to School Day instead :)

We started with McDonald's McGriddles and watching the weather channel to see what Katrina was up to as she hit landfall. Lots of remembering many facts and such we learned last year when we studied hurricanes and Florida obliged us with 3 to track and study. I'm not sure about this memory thing though. Always seems the student (that's Josh) beats out the mentor (that's me, mom, in case you couldn't figure it out) everytime lol.

We moved on to reading and more remembering (of course by said student again) on the Incas because on Enchanted Learning's calendar they list the fact of Inca King Atahualpa being murdered by the Spanish conqueror Fransisco Pizarro in 1533. We reviewed all this, I say reviewed because we have studied Incas before and yes it seems plenty stuck with Josh. We used one of our favorite resources (which I think the student has memorized!), Dempsey Parr's World History Encyclopedia and also used the Young Student Encyclopedia. Josh has notebooks this year for his subjects and I had him pretend he was a historian and report his findings on the Incan people. I was surprised at how well he did with spelling some of the words since this is usually one of his weaker points. He is coming along without me knowing it seems lol.

Moving on from there was Nature Study (as per our weekly schedule which will be followed very loosely and changed when needed) Now anyone that's been reading this blog knows that nature study with Josh lately is ALL about birds lol. So, on our errand to get groceries we picked up a replacement hummingbird feeder (our original one broke last night when Josh's dad tried to bring it in to refill it). It seems Las Vegas heat and plastic can be at odds- maybe I should make that a science project hmmmm. We not only got the replacement but he talked me into another smaller hummingbird feeder for the front yard, a general bird feeder for the front yard, a thistle sock for the back yard and we just had to get the small suet feeder to be ready for fall migration especially since it was on sale. Oh yeah, we also had to get some black oil sunflower seeds because you can't have a bird feeder with no feed! Thank goodness the hummingbirds nectar is good old fashioned sugar water, 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Hey, but that gave us Math later too as we had to figure out how to half the proportions for the smaller feeder. We then drew in our nature journals, Josh choosing to draw the large hummingbird feeder with one of the black-chinns at it while I drew pictures of each of the feeders we purchased and put up today. He also read part of a chapter of the book he has been reading on birds called Going Wild, Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness by Robert Winkler. This is an adult book thatn he is enjoying. Thank goodness birders, who also happen to be writers, (at least from what we have found) write so that even young birders can read the books and you don't have to worry about the content. We also used a quote from the beginning of the chapter he read from as his copywork. Oh, I forgot to mention before we went on the birding accessory shopping expedition, I mean grocery shopping, we began the book My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. We began a bird field notebook similar to one Winkler has and talks of in his book.

All in all not a bad day to not go back to school. :)

lost post

2005-08-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Welllll... after spending about 1/2 hour on a post for here I went to publish it and my computer messed up. Aghhhh! Needless to say you will not see that one but thought I'd just give the jist of what I had posted.

I have lately been reading Charlotte Mason's A Philosophy of Education Vol. 6 in the Original Home Schooling Series along with the CMSeries yahoo group. In reading Book II Theory Applied Chapter 1 A Liberal Education in Elementary Schools (pages 235-249) I came across a few quotes that made me stop and think.

Miss Mason states, " ... in the nature of things the teacher has a prophetic power of appeal and inspiration, that his part is not the weariful task of spoon-feeding with pap-meat, but the delightful commerce of equal minds where he is the part of guide, philosopher and friend. The friction of wills which makes school work harassing ceases to a surprising degree when we deal with the children, mind to mind, through the medium of knowledge."

I need to remember this when I am confronting a more than reluctant student this year. I have unfortunately been guilty of so called "spoon-feeding" and the results are usually not what I anticipate. No wonder. As Miss Mason reminds us, "Put the 'little minds' of children out of your thooughts. Children have just as big minds as we have." (from A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola) Things would no doubt go alot smoother if I took this view. I have seen this so when we are birding. We are "mind to mind". Actually his is a little farther ahead. Shoot alot farther ahead. I do not "spoon-feed" him on this subject because of the simple fact that he is wayyy ahead in the knowledge dept in this field than I am. So I look at him as "mind to mind" and we work well together. No fuss and tuss, just alot of really excited learning going on for both of us. I need to apply this to other things we study.

I like how she describes children as "... born persons - This is the first article of the educational credo which I am concerned to advance; this implies that they come to us with power of attention, avidity for knowledge, clearness of thought, nice discrimination in books even before they can read, and the power of dealing with many subjects." Both parent and child when engaged in this thing we call homeschooling need to remember perhaps the most important part of all this is respect for each other.

She later reminds us, "He really is capable of much more than he gets credit for, but we go the wrong way about getting his capable mind to action. We err when we allow our admirable teaching to intervene between children and the knowledge their minds demand. The desire for knowledge (curiosity) is the chief agent in education."

Something else that I need to keep in the front of my thoughts. I am not Josh's chief agent in this journey. His own curiosity is the true foundation on which to build this wonder of knowledge. This makes so much sense as I want him to "own" his education.

One last thing that spoke to me was her statement, "One thing at any rate we know with certainty, that no teaching, no information becomes knowledge to any of us until the individual maind has acted upon it, translated it, transformed, absorbed it, to reappear ... in forms of vitality. Therefore, teaching talk and tale, however lucid and fascinating, effect nothing until self-activity be set up; that is, self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer lain on the surface of a child's nature." Again here is what I feel is so important. This is JOSH'S education, not mine. He is a different person than I am and I need to recognize and honor that.

we are legal and official in the state of Nevada

2005-08-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

as of yesterday for once again another year on this journey. :)

Steve went down to the office and filed Josh's paperwork for me yesterday. Said it was the only thing that went easily for him the whole day poor guy. I was glad to hear there were no problems since we now have a new and very easy to use one page form for our notification. If you are into your second year of homeschooling here in Nevada all that is required is name, address, phone and age of child along with the signature of a parent stating they take full responsibilty for their child's education. THAT'S it! No educational goals, curriculum etc. WOW! Couldn't get an easier especially since we do not have any type of end of the year assessment, testing etc either. Living in Las Vegas seems not so bad when I look at it from strictly a homeschooling point of view. lol

Josh and I will begin "officially" on Monday when his big sisters go back to high school and college. He would be in the 6th grade this year if in the "system". Middle school. Goodness I'm getting old - wait - I mean he's sure growing up fast. :) When my children were in school in Ohio they attended Catholic schools so to use the term middle school always seems a little foreign to me. No matter what you call it though he is growing up and I feel so lucky to be a part of ALL of it!

In the famous words of Spongebob Squarepants...

2005-08-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready!! :))))

for our studies to begin. Welllll, not all the way ready but almost. Today I went through my file box of study ideas, worksheets (yes we do use them sometimes), etc etc. I put aside things I know we have done in the past and other things that I know we probably will not be doing this year. I do this every year and every year my youngest daughter teases me that if I would only THROW a few things out I probably wouldn't be doing this year after year lol. I also cleaned out a drawer of paper and such that we use in our studies. I rearranged a little and am FIRED up to start lol.

Living the way we do we seem to learn for the fun of it though. IE Today we watched a new show called Backyard Habitat. I had totally forgotten to remind us it was on at 8 am but Josh found it by luck later in the morning. We both wanted to really see this one as it was about making a yard that would attract ospreys. Being the birders we are it was right up our yard so to say. It was pretty good and showed some great shots of ospreys and their nests. Josh sat watching the show while copying his life list into his field guide so that he will have it in two different places. When you have a life list of 154 birds you don't take chances on having just one list and losing it.

Yesterday we took Julie Bogart's advice of having a movie day once a week and rented and watched The Spongebob movie. I know, I know. A grown woman and Spongebob you are thinking. I have to admit when he first came out a few years ago I did NOT like the show at all but I tell you that little sponge grows on you. I think more than anything I LOVE being able to sit with my 11 year old son and giggle the afternoon away. If it takes watching a sponge this mom's all for it then. :))

Well I'm off to go through the A & E and History Channel listings I was sent in their educator magazine to see what I can plan for us when we actually do get this show on the road.

join us in our birding adventures

2005-08-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to invite anyone interested to join Josh, his dad and I on our birding adventures. You can do this through our blog that is located here:

http://southwesternbirdingtales.blogspot.com

There is alot more birding that goes on than tales of those times unfortunately lately. Hopefully we will be more faithful as our study year begins again in a few weeks. I may make that a part of his Friday freewrite. Josh and his dad just returned from a trip to Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada where he was able to add 9 new birds to his life list. We'll try and get up a post in the next day or so about the trip and even show the picture of the snow which is really hail in their campsite. :)

Pocketful of Pinecones

2005-08-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite homeschooling books is Pocketful of Pinecones in which homechooling mom and author, Karen Andreola, explains "how to do" nature study the Charlotte Mason way in the form of a fictional story. This book is comfort food for my mind and soul and each time inspires me.

Re-reading it presently I have been reminded of one of my nature study resources that I have and do not take advantage of as often as I could/should. This resource is Anna Comstock's, Handbook of Nature Study. Originally published in 1911, it has been revised and republished a few times, the latest being 1986. This book is as timely now as when it was first published.

This morning, in anticipation of his trip to Great Basin National Park with his dad this weekend, Josh was going through his National Geographic Bird Guide discussing birds they anticipate seeing there. He is especially looking foward to trying to see these species of owls there that he does not yet have on his life list: northern saw whet, northern pygmy, great horned, flamulated, barn, and western screech. As he was reading about these owls in his guide, I grabbed my Handbook of Nature Study and began reading to him some of the things that Comstock has to say about owls in her book and discussing various aspects of such information as she shares.

This is the "natural learning" that I love to see happening in our home life. Mutual sharing of knowledge that interests us both.

And we haven't even "officially" started our school year yet. :))

Theresa's hiking analogy and more educational reading

2005-08-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been using Theresa's beautiful hiking analogy and applying it to not only our homeschool journey (as the last post attested to) but also to life's journey. Such a wonderful way to consider the meanings of all that we do and the way we do them. Thanks so much Theresa :)

One of the books that I recently read and have been doing some thinking on is John Taylor Gatto's Dumbing Us Down. In all these years of homeschooling I had never read any of his books though I was familiar with his name and the ideas he espoused. The book was a veritable gold mine of ideas and thoughts for contemplating my own philosophies regarding education and learning.

Here are a few I'd like to share:

"...wherever possible I have broken with teaching tradition and sent kids down their spearate paths to their own private truths."

"...people have to be allowed to make their own mistakes and to try again, or they will never master themselves, although they may well seem to be competent when they have in fact only memorized or imitated someone else's performance."

"... I get out of kids' way. I give them space and time and respect."

"... we've built a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told because they don't know how to tell themselves what to do."

"... reading, writing, and arithmetic only take about 100 hours to transmit as long as the audience is eager and willing to learn. The trick is to wait until someone asks and then move fast while the mood is on."

"... when children are given whole lives instead of age-graded ones in cell blocks they learn to read, write and do arithmetic with ease, if those things make sense in the kind of life that unfolds around them."

"... School takes our children away from any possibility of an active role in community life - in fact, it destroys communities by regulating the training of children to the hands of certified experts - and by doing so it ensures our children cannot grow up fully human."

"... Aristotle taught that without a fully active role in community life one could not hope to become a healthy human being."

"... school insitutions 'school' very well, though it does not 'educate'."

"... two institutions at present control our children's lives: television and schooling, in that order. Both of these reduce the real world of wisdom, fortitude, temperance, and justice to a never-ending, non-stop abstraction... in centuries past, the time of childhood and adolescence would have been occupied in real work, real charity, real adventures, and the realistic search for mentors who might teach what you really wanted to learn."

"... Right now we are taking from our children all the time that they need to develop self-knowledge... I am confident that as they gain self-knowledge they'll also become self-teachers - and only self-teaching has any lasting value..."

"... independent study, community service, adventures and experience, large doses of privacy and solitude, a thousand different apprenticeships - the one day variety or longer - these are all powerful, cheap and effective ways to start a real reform of schooling... no large scale reform is ever going to work until we force open the idea of "school" to include family as the main engine of education."

"...Discovering maning for yourself as well as discovering satisfying purpose for yourself, is a big part of what education is. How this can be done by locking children away from the world is beyond me. "

"... whatever education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; how to live and how to die."

These are only some of the notes that I took as I read this book. Mr. Gatto has hit his finger on the spot so to say. What do we adults expect from children when we require of them things that will not in the long run help them in living life?

I felt as though I had been hit with a 4 by 4 after reading this book regarding a situation with one of my own children. My youngest daughter attends a public high school. She has been homeschooled in the past and is now a part of the educational system. She will be a sophomore this coming school year and is scheduled for all honors classes. She was recommended for an AP class and was making herself physically sick this summer worrying about all that she will be dealing with this coming academic year. After much discusssion with her, her father and I emailed her teacher and called her school to notify them of the fact she will be dropping this class. There is NO reason for that young woman to feel such pressure. I have to admit that in the beginning I forgot to look at HER and all this meant to her. I had felt proud of her and just a bit smug with myself as her parent and let that get in the way of seeing what was really best for her, not only as a student, but as a person in her own right. I was so pleased when her teacher responded postively to our notification of her dropping his class. He said he sees so many students being pressured in "performing" not only by teachers etc but by their own parents and was glad to see parents involved and concerned with their child's education in the exact opposite regard. It was funny that in homeschooling her brother I don't have a problem trying to "live" ideas such as Mr. Gatto talks about in his book and yet when faced with a situation in the education system with one of my other children I almost forgot about my own philosohpies and beliefs and the application of such. Thank you Mr. Gatto for the wake up call!

If you haven't read this book I highly recommend it. I borrowed it from our local library but plan on adding this gem to our own family homeschooling library.

Life happens...

2005-08-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

in a family which makes learning in a perfect world something that only works in mom's study notebook. I had planned on trying to get back to a little more routine in our studies as both Josh and I are wanting and needing this but this past month has thrown our family for a loop in the journey of life. Instead of our planned start in July we have found ourselves trying to make forward motion with an older brother's epilepsy and breakthrough seizures and the myriad tangled brush called the medical system. That, and a few other issues, have kept us continuing our own summer voyages of self-discovery at least for a little while longer. Maybe that's what is needed anyway. So, I find myself reading on education and homeschooling and Josh, well, he is hiking and sitting quietly on the path of the things that have filled his summer thus far. Learning, sharing, and life continue for our family just not in the way that most are used to seeing. The routine will have to wait for just awhile longer and who knows we may even find something wonderful in these other life lessons.

Learning going on at our house...

2005-07-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

thanks to promptings from a great post on Theresa's homeschooling blog, Lapazfarm Home Learning. (a link is on the sidebar) I was having fun reading from her site (as I often do) and she mentioned finding the map The Earth at Night from an old National Geographic (Nov,2004) . That find brought on some great dialogue with her children as they explored the map. Well, I began to go through a pile of some of our own old National Geographics. Don't you just love these. We get alot of our's used for a dime each at our library :) Lo and behold there was THE map. As I opened it up and began looking at it Josh turned off the NHL playstation game he had been playing, joined me on the floor and for the next 45 minutes or so we became a part of the earth at night. As Theresa said in her own post many questions were contemplated and answers mused on. Our own contemplations even included a birding one (of course Josh ALWAYS finds a way to relate his passion to anything lol)

It felt so nice just sitting on that floor together.

Thanks for a gentle nudge in that direction Theresa.

Barb's summer self-discovery journey

2005-07-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

As part of my own summer discovery I have been reading books on education. One of these that I recently finished is Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery: A Journal of Original Seeking by David Albert. Mr. Albert is a writer and homeschooling dad himself. Really interesting reading and as you can see from the title of my posts very thought provoking. I have recently been going through my annual anxiety, uhmm I mean contemplation :) I seem to do this every year even though this will be our 8th year of homeschooling. I have to admit I am getting better about it. Within the last few years I really have been trying (and succeeding) at looking at things in a more positive light - how dynamics change and thus this journey of education changes instead of looking at it negatively in the view that things that didn't work were failures. Changes needing to be made, not failures. Much less anxiety.

My philosophy of what I envision for my children as "education" has been from the beginning the view that I want them to enjoy learning and want to instill in them skills that will enable them to become self-learners. After all that is "life". This really hasn't changed in all these 8 years. What has changed is the way in which we carry out this philosophy.

In the beginning of the book Mr. Albert states, "It is essential that children learn that fulfilling their quests for knowledge, and for mastery, requires time, energy, and effort, and that putting in the necessary time, energy, and effort can get them where they want to go." The truth of this statement has been played out before my own eyes recently with Josh and his interest in birding. He has taken full responsiblity in his quest for this knowledge. I tend to be for him (as a parent) a resource guide, helping him to find books, people etc in his quest. This area of interest is something that came about through himself. One day I happened to share with him something that I had been reading about Henry David Thoreau and his ability to feed animals (including birds) from his hand when he lived at Walden Pond. That day Josh was out trying to entice the birds and the rest as they say is history. His knowledge, ability and expertise in this area far exceeds my own. He claims this for himself. Josh has realized that how much he gets out of this is how much he gives into it. I did not have to teach him this because this was something of his own choosing. One word that I would add to time, energy, and effort would be commitment. I have seen this with Josh both when he plays hockey and also in his birding. They are both passions for him and the commitment he makes to them enhances his quest. Again something he has learned on his own with little or no "instruction" from me.

Mr. Albert discusses Carol Ryff's (a contemporary psychologist and thinker) 6 components of well-being: autonomy, personal growth, self-acceptance, life purpose, mastery, positive relatedness with others. He says that the task of humans is to "seek out that which provides for an inner sense of each of these six components and thus fulfill one's unique inner nature.THIS is the voyage of self-discovery. " (my emphasis) I have been, more and more, seeing Josh's education as the voyage of self-discovery that Ryff and Albert speak of. I am trying to lose "school" in his education. One way to do this is suggested by Mr. Albert. He says that when stuck in homeschooling routines he steps back and asks himself 3 questions: "Have I provided what is necessary so that my kids can discover the beauty in what they are learning? Have I given them opportunities in the present to use it? Do they have models in front of them to which they can aspire if they put in the necessary learning effort?" I can see in our own studies that when things have "failed" I have not done one or more of these things. They then become "school" and not a quest for knowledge. Josh resists and complains. I don't blame him. I do too when people treat me as such. Why would I expect any different just because he is a child and this is his supposed role. According to whom? I have been contemplating our roles in this process. I grew up a product of the education system and it is hard to lose that even when I do not agree with it any longer. Old habits die hard they say.

Late in the book he states "for a vast majority of people, the most important part of their education may not come from formal study at all, but from the pursuit of passions, the development of talents, the cultivation of hobbies, and the nuturing of relationships with peers possessing similar interests... requires a further acknowledgment that this cultivation requires time and will not stand to be hemmed in by curricula, whatever their quality." Think about this. As an adult when and what have you learned most from? Passions, interests etc. NOT scope and sequence. Why would/should this be any different when our children are learning things?

This last sentence is one that made me feel like standing and shouting in agreement. "...we can do the one thing we know we can do better than the schools ever can, and that is listen to them, and act upon what we hear. And we can teach them - and model for them- that the art of learning is a beautiful thing in itself, and one that they can carry with them into a fulfilling adulthood."

We'll see how/if I can apply all I am learning to our adventures :)

Josh's summer voyage of self-discovery

2005-07-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

This summer has been one in which Josh is learning to be with himself and enjoy his own company. Our neighborhood is such that there are not alot of kids and it tends to be very isolating. Part of the reason is the heat. We have had temps of over 100 for the last few weeks or so and for the next 9 days at least our highs will range from 108-116 with lows of 82-85 at night. We tend to hibernate during these times in the AC. Alot of people I know have been mentioning feelings of being lethargic with the heat. We nod in understanding. We do get out every once in awhile and do things with others. Total isolation is NOT good for son or mom lol. So far his self-discovery voyage has included:

- many drawings of super hero characters he has created
- reading ALOT - he has re-read the last 3 Harry Potter stories in anticipation of the party for the release at midnight tomorrow at a local bookstore that we WILL be attending
- listening to mom read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in anticipation of going with the homeschooling group to see the movie next week
- watching Harry Potter movies in anticipation of the latest movie being released in November
- studying his birding books for FUN
- drawing of birds from said books
- reading various web sites and forums about birding
- going birding with whoever he can sweet talk into, his dad, his mom, friends, doesn't matter
- researching the birds expected to see at Great Basin National Park which is where we are going for vacation the second week of August - notice a theme here in the last few things :)
- playing NHL on the Playstation 2 with his big brother to celebrate the players and owners FINALLY coming to an agreement - YES there will be a 2005-2006 season!!
- filling and re-filling our hummingbird feeder and watching the Anna's hummingbird (who he has named Arnold) and the black-chinned hummingbird coming to partake of the sweet nectar along with a hooded oriole who ocassionally stops by
- going to the movies to see such new releases as Madagascar and renting movies newly released on DVD such as Tarzan II, Pacifier etc.
- watching various shows on Animal Planet, the History Channel, National Geographic channel etc because hey they're interesting and fun to watch and it doesn't matter that they are EDUCATIONAL too
- playing catch and hitting the baseball at the park with his dad
- hanging out with hockey friends at least one day a week or so, their house, our house, ice rink, doesn't matter where
- riding his BRAND NEW BIKE with front brakes and GEARS and earning those bike warrior wounds
- playing with the BRAT (oh I mean the kitten) and watching the older cat and the kitten wrestle and such just like he and HIS older brother
- and many other minutae that this mom's brain can't remember

I have at times become worried with the lack of neighborhood kids and yet I look at things such as this list and realize he is "owning" his responsiblity for "being" who he is and what interests him. He is not a social outcast as we do get together with others and enjoy those times too. Solitude and learning to enjoy one's own company are things that in this day and age are very hard for people to do and yet are vital to learning who we are as a person. Important lessons in life he and I BOTH are learning this summer.

check out...

2005-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Theresa's great homeschholing blog, Lapazfarm Home Learning. She's got some great ideas! I have put a link on the sidebar. Enjoy. I know I am gettting some great ideas from her and having fun reading her posts.

tired of justifying homeschooling

2005-06-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked by someone when discussing homeschooling in Nevada whether we were required to "evaluate" at the end of each year. When I answered no they then asked how I knew whether my son had "learned" all he needed and was up to level with all the other kids in his grade/age.

Be forewarned...rant coming... This response ALWAYS amazes me. My son and I are lucky enough to be one on one. I know whether he is understanding a concept or not. When he is having trouble with something we work on it until he "gets" it. This is NOT true of the school system. I know. I speak from first hand experience. I have a child in the public school system. A freshman in high school this past year who has been promoted to 10th grade for next year. She had a hard time all year with honors Algebra 1. She was transfered into a class with a different teacher 5 weeks into the school year along with numerous others because the original class was too large. Her tough luck because the other teacher was the better choice. We tried to get her back into the original but the "system" won out in the end. The new teacher did not "teach" ALL year. The notes my daughter came home with made NO sense. Thank God they at least had a text book I could review in order to try and help her. Higher math is not my strong subject so I did what most homeschoolers do when facing things out of their realm. I turned to a friend who is a "math geek" and proud of it. Thank god for this math geek too. She actually ended up being the one teaching my daughter. What my daughter did learn was a result of time spent with this person. My daughter passed with a C for the year. This was due to being given A's for homework turned in diligently (whether or not the answers were correct) and despite the fact that she had just barely passing grades on her tests. She flunked her final but since it was only worth ten percent of her grade she still ended up with a C for the year. And yes we will be working on taking exams and such on our own as this is not addressed in the "system" even in the supposed Study Skills class she took. We will also work on attitude, personal responsiblity and perseverence. My daughter has proof on paper that she "passed" this course and therefore most would assume she has a fairly good hold on these math concepts.... yet she does NOT "know" the material. She will even admit to this. She became so frustrated during the year before we turned for help "outside the system that is supposed to be teaching her" that her spirit was broken and it took the rest of the year to try and build it up to some degree at least. She had an evaluation at the end of the year (her year end grade) and to me that evaluation is WORTHLESS. It does NOT tell the true story. I KNOW the true story with her and I don't "school" her. I am just her parent who is concerned and involved even when others take the "responsibilty" of teaching her. They don't have this responsiblity in full because I believe it should be a working relationship. I have butted heads many times in trying to make this relationship work for my daughter's sake because this is what she wants. She understands the ramifications of working within this system for she was homeschooled for a time also. To say that their "evaluation" process (a final year end grade) is more legitimate is a farce. The exam itself is not a true measure of knowledge in a field. I myself freeze at them. I may do poorly when in fact I really do know the material. It is NOT superior to my own "evaluations" in our home studies where I am working side by side with these children. In this way I know as a parent, whether the child schools at home or in the system, if they "know" the material. The difference is that I don't allow my son to move on until he truly understands the material. The system on the other hand has given my daughter "proof" that she is ready to move on whether it is true or not.

This rant came about as a result of coming across this article:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20050624-9999-6m24promote.html

According to this article a good number of children who were not able to show a working knowledge of their material are being passed on nonetheless. Evaluation is legitimate though. After all it is the system. Whether it works or not, in some people's eyes it is superior to alternatives only because it is the norm... that thinking "inside the box" mentality. Their evaluations are not questioned even when the results are that the children do not "pass". Well this mom for one is glad that she has learned to think "outside the box" and trust herself when it comes to the "education" of her children whether they happen to be a part of the system or not. And yes we will still work on those Algebra 1 principles at home because it is important to me that she has at least a "working" knowledge so she doesn't get lost later on. After all Algebra 2 comes junior year.

saluting the 2005 National Scripps spellers!

2005-06-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

273 kids showed up as spelling gurus. There was a quiz going aroung on MSN awhile ago for spelling gurus. Don't think any of the words that these kids had to come up with were on that quiz though. Nahhh. Too easy!

So kudos to Anurag Kashyap, a 13 year old from California, for winning with the correct spelling of appoggiatura which means a melodic tone. There was a tie for second place. Samir Patel, an 11 year old homeschooler from Texas and 13 year old Aliya Deri from California. They were taken out with the words Roscian which means skilled in acting and trouvaille meaning windfall. Personally I think Kashyap should have been given that word as his winning prizes are worth around $30,000. I'd say that qualifies as a trouvaille!

Kudos also to California for having two students in the top 3 and I always love to see the homeschoolers up there as well. Yes I am a little prejudiced seeing as we homeschool also. My own 11 year old homeschooler was in awe when he heard the words these kids had to spell. As the eighth grade representative for my own elementary school in the very beginning rounds of this same contest oh soooo many years ago lol I can attest to the hard work and perseverance it takes to get that far. Too bad I never made it past the city level. It was fun while it lasted though. :)

I think I will add a word that stumped another speller this year to my Josh's spelling list next time. He is after all a birder. The word - insessorial meaning birds that perch.

Again congratulations to ALL those young spellers. You sure could beat the pants off this spelling fanatic homeschooling mom.

where has the time gone?

2005-05-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Wow I couldn't believe it's been so long since I last posted on here. This time of year is always hectic as I still have one daughter in high school who goes to a local public school. That's one of the perks with homeschooling, you are on your own schedule not someone else's.

Josh and I have been emeshed in birding lately. He just finished another adult book called Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman. It still amazes me watching him read such books and remembering back when he was 8 and I despaired that he would ever learn to read at all. Now if I could only feel that security with his writing lol. All in good time I guess.

We have taken a few trips with the local Red Rock Audubon group and have had a great time. The people are so accepting of Josh and willing to share their expertise. We are looking forward to a trip out to the Bird Preserve to bird with a staff member on Friday. Hopefully the heat here in Las Vegas will cool down some by then lol. This weekend we took a quick camping trip up to Mt. Charleston and he had a great time checking out the birds up there that we don't usually get down here in the valley.

We are winding down our year. I have reminded him though we will still continue to review and such with math, writing, and penmanship. They may be part of just our everday living experiences or a more structured learning but no matter how we incorporate them it's important to practice and not lose these skills.

just hanging out with the birds

2005-05-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after J and I got finished with our studies we decided to go out on the back patio and sit and read and "just watch the birds". J insists that he is no longer just a "birdwatcher" because now he is often on the hunt. That makes him a "birder". Whatever label you like I say. Anyway there we were hanging out and I tell you watching birds in the backyard of a suburban neighborhood in the desert of Las Vegas is down right FUN! Especially if you get to do it with one of your kids. How many 11 yr olds boys would think mom is cool enough to do this with? Well I am lucky enough to have such a kid. This can be a VERY humbling experience too. Me, adult, wise and full of knowledge, right? WRONG! He knows and can identify the birds ALOT better than I can. He has ALL this knowledge that has escaped me. VERY humbling indeed. The student becomes the teacher. In my case this happens more often than not with him. But hey that's ok. Right?!! lol

Sitting there watching I came away amazed with how much more colorful the males always seemed to be. I knew this was a general rule of thumb. Had heard it before. But to actually spend a few hours intently watching and REALLY looking at each bird it was yes, amazing! I love the reds and oranges of the male house finches and the chestnut with black of the male sparrows. Boy we humans sure did a reverse on that one didn't we. With us it's usually the females in all their finery and colors. Somehow I like the bird way better. Males deserve equal time somewhere. :)

While sitting out there I began to read the book he had taken out of the library, The Big Year A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. This is an adult book that is 248 pages long. He read it in 3 days! Said I just had to read it. I am really enjoying the writing. The author has a very humorous style which makes for enjoyable reading. The content is such that it is pretty much safe for even an 11 year old. And boy am I learning ALL about birds lol. The book is about 3 men who join in the Big Year contest of 1998 to be the person with the most identified birds sighted in just one year's time. Good stuff.

The birder has his dad and I now on the track of birds. He has been begging each of us to take him down to the wash in the park near our house. He is mad at me that I won't let him go alone but hey this is Sin City in 2005. Sorry but I am still a little over protective. Soooo he has to convince one of us to go and he tries this at least twice a day. He officially started a life list and is eagerly adding to it whenever he can. He won't even count the birds we have already seen on hikes before that are listed in our nature journals. I had to laugh at this because if it were me I'd be including everything and anything to make life easier. I guess at 11 life isn't about easy, it's about adventure lol. We are going to try and go to a Red Rock Audubon field trip tomorrow morning to an area outside of Las Vegas that we haven't been to yet. They say that there are opportunites to see migrating birds there and J is excited. Hopefully there is still room for us when I call in a little while. Boy these birders are serious minded though. We have to meet at 7 am! No sleeping in I guess. Oh well Sunday is Mother's Day and MY day. I'll make up for it then.

2005-04-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

Josh wanted me to share a picture of the full garden not just a close up. Enjoy.

2005-04-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

Josh planted a bird garden, that is a flower garden to entice the birds into our yard. Not that they need much more enticement than the seed he has been leaving out for them everyday lol. He has been reading the book Birds in your Backyard by Robert J. Dolezal to get an idea of the kinds of flowers he wanted. Great book! So, yesterday morning with book in hand off we went to Home Depot to browse amongst the flowers. He ended up with Evergreen Candytuft, Lanal Cherry Red Verbena, mix of Celosia plumosa, Gazania, Marigold Safari Tangerine, Festuca Glauca, and Buddleia dividii (Butterfly Bush). He also planted seeds of Columbines and Purple Coneflowers. He and his dad are going to build a bird house and bird feeder to add to the garden. The other day at the used bookstore we found another bird book (notice a theme here lol) for him that he has been buried in ever since. It is called All The Birds of North America and is an American Bird Conservancy Field Guide. It seems confusing to me the way it is based upon feeding behaviors and field recognizable features but Josh is not having a problem at all in using it. He especially likes that they show both genders of the bird and also the juveniles. We are noticing a difference between books using drawings versus actual photographs. Going through the various books we now have I have been going back and forth on whether or not one bird that keeps visiting is a house finch or a hepatic tanager. Being new at this identification stuff I don't have complete confidence yet but am pretty sure it is a tanager. Very pretty too! From marine biologist to ornithologist Josh is changing and growing each day. :)

2005-04-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

in celebration of John Audubon's birthday yesterday...

2005-04-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

friday freewrite - a different view

It was an unconventional day of studies for us last Friday as the pictures bear witness. Not only did we "study" on a bed but for Friday Freewrite, A Different View, from Julie Bogart's Brave Writer's Lifestyle, Josh chose to write from under the small table in my bedroom. Here's his writing to go along with this picture:

I feel like I am under a tent. Almost like I am taking shelter from the rain. I can't see as much of my surroundings. It makes you feel imprisoned although safe. It's cramped. I can see a crack in the wall and the shape of the stucco. The birds are singing but I can not see them. It's like my eyes are not meant to see but for my ears to hear the sweet song.

2005-04-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

just in case the first picture didn't convince you

2005-04-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

picture proof that schooling does not have to take place at a desk or table...

and also that mom needs practice at taking these pictures lol. We had a lazy day last Friday and decided that the best place to do some of our studies was on mom and dad's bed with the patio door open listening to the birds. Not a bad way to spend the morning :)

a couple of new links

2005-04-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

are on the side bar. These are two great astronomy sites. They both have email newsletters they send also. We have used alot of things from these two web sites for our space and astronomy studies.

a great quote

2005-04-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

in honor of John Muir (1838-1914) naturalist and conservationist. whose birthday is also celebrated today:

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."

Josh and I are headed up to our neighborhood park to enjoy the mountain views of Sheep Mountain Range, Iron Mountain Range, and the Spring Mountain Range. All of these ranges contain various mountain peaks that are so beautiful one can't help but catch their breath at the sight of them.

May you receive the beauty your body and soul need today.

ok so moms who are teachers too CAN be wrong

2005-04-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Well it is NOT Audubon's birthday today. That is next Tuesday on the 26th. Looks like we will be holding off on our bird preserve field trip. It IS Elizabeth II, Queen of England's birthday today. Don't think we'll be going to England to celebrate that one though lol.

speaking of learning any time of the day or week

2005-04-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

as I said in an earlier post. Last night as I was laying in my bed working on my idea for a children's story book Josh came in and plopped on the bed.

"What ya doin'?"
"Working on my story idea."
Silent pause.
"Maybe I should write a book."
"That sounds like a great idea."
Silence again as he runs in to get his new journal which is blank with possibilities.
Plop back on the bed.
"I'm going to write a kid's detective book!"
Silence once again as he fills page after page of ideas including a title, the characters' names and personalities, the setting and the plot. He then began the book with his first paragraph of dialogue.

And so mom and son, writers yet undiscovered, toil away in lands of their own making.
Note: English class this day took place at 8 pm.

a top ten list

2005-04-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

In honor of a book Josh just finished reading and thought was GREAT I give you this list of the top ten books we have read this last week or so:

10. Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
9. Children's Night Sky Atlas - Robin Scagell
8. Walt Whitman, Words for America - Barbara Kerley
7. Walt Whitman: Poetry for Young People - Walt Whitman
6. In Flanders Fields - Norman Jorgansen and Brian Harrison-Lever
5. Into the Deep Forest with Henry David Thoreau - Jim Murphy
4. Search for the Golden Moon Bear - Sy Montgomery
3. Kid Caramel - Ghost Ranch The Legend of Mad Jake - Dwayne J. Ferguson
2. Mysterious Caravan Hardy Boys #18 - Franklin W. Dixon

and the number one book Josh read and laughed through on his own this week but shared with his mother and was the inspiration for this post was...... (drum roll sound here).......

1. The Top 10 Ways to Ruin The First Day of 5th Grade - Ken Derby

2005-04-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Bird Viewing Preserve - Henderson, NV

This is one of the pictures we took on our visit. The bird in the picture is an American Coot. It was really interesting to see birds in water when we live here in the desert lol.

catching up

2005-04-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

Henry David Thoreau once explained his philosophy of schooling as such... "students should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end."

And so we have been taking this great man's advice. Last week was a little crazy as Josh's big sister came over for a visit and dinner and then ended up getting very sick and staying with us for a few days to recover. No it was not my cooking lol but unfortunately she caught a bad virus. Josh spent alot of time out in our backyard with his new bird friends. He is set on eventually getting them to eat out of his hand. He has been obsessed with this ever since I told him the story of how Thoreau was able to feed numerous different animals including birds right out of his hand when he was living at Walden Pond. At the end of the week we made a visit to the Bird Viewing Preserve out in Henderson, NV. We had a great time and it was amazing to see so many differnt birds especially the waterbirds and waders. It soon became apparent that Josh is wayyy better at identifying birds than I am. lol We are looking forward to going back. Maybe tomorrow to celebrate John Audubon's birthday. What better way :)

This past Saturday Josh, his dad and I went to a presentation at Red Rock Canyon put on by the Las Vegas Astronomical Society. It was really well done and a fun time. We saw a slide show presentation on Saturn and the Cassini mission and then went outside to use telescopes that numerous volunteers from the society had brought and set up for viewing. We were able to see Saturn and its rings and Jupiter along with other stars and such. What generosity of these people to share of their time, knowledge, and EXPENSIVE telescopes. Some of these were HUGE! It was fun and easier to see the stars without as much light pollution from the strip as we get in our neighborhood. We were excited to be able to see the constellation of Orion. We are looking forward to going on a full moon hike up at Red Rock (this is just one of the many fantastic programs they put on up there) on Sunday. We are also signed up for a "clean up the canyon program" next Tuesday which will be our way of celebrating Earth Day which is this Friday.

This week has been a little crazy again with getting Josh's older brother's passport for his trip to Germany this summer and his oldest sister's Honors Convocation Ceremony today at UNLV and his other older sister getting ready for dance shows at her high school. We are trying to fill in as best we can. That's the beauty of homeschooling. We can learn ANY time of the day or week.

announcing the opening of a new art studio

2005-04-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Art Studio of Joshua Wright

This is Josh's "art studio" that we created. It is really half of his closet. Thank goodness for big closets lol. He's been having a great time painting his master pieces here.

Josh the artist

2005-03-30T07:23:00.000-08:00

Since we studied the painter Jacob Lawrence for Black History month in February Josh has been on a painting frenzy. He even ask for new paints in his easter basket because he was running out. I put up an art gallery on a wall in our hall that I titled The Gallery with the Wright Art. He laughed and told me I was funny for using our name that way on the blog and now the art gallery wall. I have "hung" some of his paintings there and need to put up a few more. I'll take pictures and post one. Last night he came to me as I was posting on the blog all excited about a GREAT idea. He wants to take half of his closet and make it his art studio. He went through our bookshelves and grabbed any art book he could find and ask if he could put them in his studio. He wants to "hang" paintings, his and other famous artists, on the walls. He was lamenting the fact though that he is short of something to paint on. His dad told him we had plenty of paper and Josh responded that his material of choice is cardboard which we are in short supply of unfortunately. I had to laugh and thought Jacob Lawrence would be proud.

Wind Walk

2005-03-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

The other week Josh and I took a "wind walk". That morning was a typical windy March day in the desert and I got the idea for a freewrite based on a "wind walk". The idea came to me because of the "color walk" that Julie suggests on her Bravewriter Lifestyle blog and egroup. I told Josh that as we walked I wanted us to become aware of the wind and when we went home we would describe the wind on our walk using our senses for our freewrite. Here are the freewrites than we did as a result:

Josh

sight - the branches swaying in the wind

hear - the wind going through the trees

smell - flower pollen being picked up in the wind

touch - trying to hold the pages of my book in my hand

taste - the wind blowing into my mouth making it hard to breathe

If the wind were a color what would it be? Gray

Barb

sight - blowing branches, bending trunks, leaves racing down the street, bird struggling to fly

hear - whoosh, whhhhhoooo, shhhhhhh, tttttttt, banging sign

smell - sharp, clean, fresh

touch - cold, strong, stinging

taste - frosty, fresh, take breath away

If the wind were a color what would it be? Blue

We have had a great time with Julie's freewrites. Be sure to check out her site from the links.

2005-03-29T17:50:00.001-08:00

Birthday Wall

This portion represents the days we celebrated the anniversaries of the first fireside chat by FDR and the Ides of March. The small picture on the left of the Ides of March poster is actually a great comic that Josh did representing the assassination of Julius Caesar. I talk about both of these days in a previous post.

2005-03-29T17:50:00.000-08:00

Birthday Wall

This is a general overview of the birthday wall. It is actually just the outside of the door to my older son's room that is a part of a wall in our front room. Every month we celebrate birthdays of people or anniversaries of events and study a little about them as they come up in that month. We have been doing this for a few years now and it is amazing the connections that will get made months down the road during a study of something totally different and yet related in some way. It usually only takes a short time in our studies to do this and is alot of fun.

2005-03-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

Birthday Wall

This is a closeup of a portion of the birthday wall. This represented the day we studied a little about Albert Einstein to celebrate his birthday.

2005-03-29T17:15:00.000-08:00

Mallard Ducks seen in Las Vegas Desert!

This afternoon Josh and I decided to take a quick walk up to our neighborhood park. As we got there Josh caught sight of two ducks under the pathwalk bridge. They were a male and female that looked like those in this picture. I didn't have our camera with us so found this picture online when we came home to show what they looked like. We stopped to observe them and as we did they came out to greet us. I was amazed at how close they were willing to get to us and yet not come within reaching distance. After checking us out they waddled off, and yes ducks really do waddle lol, and we followed at a reasonable distance away. They went to the opposite pathwalk bridge taking their time in their meanderings to get there to preen their feathers. Josh interestingly thought that the female, which is the less colorful one, was the prettier of the two. As the male preened his feathers we caught sight of a beautiful purple patch on the inside of his wings. The two waddled some more and then without warning took to flight. It was such an incredible sight. Josh and I were both flabbergasted that none of the other people who happened by the ducks seemed very interested. We think the ducks probably are from the golf course which is adjacent to the park. We both put entries about the ducks in our nature journals which I had luckily thought to bring.

It was a wonderful day of stress free learning both out in nature with the ducks and having our Tuesday teatime reading the poetry of Robert Frost to celebrate his birthday which was this past Saturday. We both picked a poem from the book Poetry for Young People - Robert Frost choosing one from the Poems of Spring section. I also read a section from a biography I had from the library which told about how Frost and his wife taught their children at home until they were 10 years old. Very interesting homeschooling lives they led. The book is A Restless Spirit, The Story of Robert Frost by Natalie S. Bober. While eating our chocolate chip scones and drinking our Earl Grey Green tea I also read from Shakespeare's Spy by Gary Blackwood. We are almost to the end of the book and not wanting to finish in one way because this is the last of the series. This is a fantastic series that has really captured Josh's interest and imagination.

week of 3/14 thru 3/18

2005-03-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

This past week was a shortened one since Friday was Josh's birthday and I let him take the day off studies. I laugh when I think this because even though we didn't do anything formally I know much learning still goes on.

Within the last week we celebrated:

Ides of March - read various internet articles on the Ides of March/Julius Caesar and his assassination. I had him complete a written documentaion page on this. He created a comic strip for one of the sections which turned out very funny. We read the section from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar where the soothsayer tells Caesar to "beware the Ides of March" and then used this for copywork. Of course we had to continue reading our book Shakespeare's Scribe by Gary Blackwood. Josh absolutely loves this series and begs for me to read. He has resorted to reading parts himself when my voice gives out then has to let me know what happened so I am not lost in the story line. We ended up finishing the book later in the week and I found the last title Shakespeare's Spy at the library yesterday and we started on it last night.

St. Patrick's Day - We read a picture book called Mary McLean and the St. Patrick's Day Parade by Steve Kroll which had Josh and a friend looking for leprechauns in our backyard later that night. We finished our short study of immigration/immigrants on this day by reading and discussing the following books: How People Immigrate (A True Book series) by Sarah De Capua, Ellis Island, Doorway to Freedom by Steven Kroll and Coming to America, The Story of Immigration by Betsy Maestro. We discussed a few of the issues involved in immigration and reflected on some of the negative attitudes apparent in our own city after seeing the graffiti "No Illegal Immigrants" on a power box on a street not far from where we live. We had a St. Paddy's Day Tea on this day and enjoyed Shamrock Shakes which has been a tradition since Josh found the recipe in the back of the book, Bailey School Kids Leprechaun's Don't Play Fetch years ago.

Albert Einstein's birthday - We read an internet article titled "2005 Einstein Year in Germany" and reflected that his older brother will be able to be a part of this when he goes on his trip to Germany this summer. We also read a short bio on Einstein in the Core K 6 book. (That is the Core Knowledge What your 6th grader Needs to Know by ED Hirsch) We supplemented that with a few pages from the book Albert Einstein and Relativity - Science Discoveries by Steve Parker. I also found two really nice picture books to go along with this study: Rescuing Einstein's Compass by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim and Odd Boy Out, Young Albert Einstein by Don Brown. His copywork for this day was a quote by Einstein and he also completed a written documentation page for this study.

We also acknowledged this past week the birthday of President Andrew Jackson by reading his President's card in the Fandex series and the admittance of Maine into the Union by reading their Fandex State card. These are wonderful cards if you are not familiar with them. They are easily avaiable at most bookstores.

We did a little better in our nature studies this week. We took a "wind walk" on Monday since it was extremely windy. Then we came home (after 5 minutes up at the park - it was that windy lol) and we did freewriting recording words, phrases etc describing the wind by using our senses. On Wednesday after our visit to the library we decided to head up to the park up the street it was such a beautiful day. We took a snack, binoculars, a bottle of water and our nature journals. Josh climbed one of the trees and we each drew an entry of a sign of spring that we saw. I read from a book we had gotten from the library titled Saguaro Moon , A Desert Journal by Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini. We had alot of fun as we saw many white-tailed antelope squirrels. A few were very brave and came fairly close to where we were seated.

In math we are still reviewing fractions. I want to make sure he has a complete grasp on this before we move on.

All in all a fun week.

Last week 3/7 - 3/11

2005-03-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

I am telling you up front this is going to be a longgg post so if you hang in there and read the whole thing boy I sure hope you find something you can use because you deserve it for sticking with it lol. I am conducting an experiment and typing out what we did last week hoping it looks like more than it felt like. So open those eyes wide (so hopefully you don't fall asleep) and here goes:

Language Arts -

Literature -We began our Arrow book The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz and discussed opening hooks as suggested by Julie from Brave Writer. (I have talked about her great programs in previous posts and you can check things out through the link on the main page of the blog.) We also read a chapter from Wind in the Willows and a short bio of Kenneth Grahame to celebrate his birthday. This is one of Josh's favorite books that I first read to him when he was 6. I wasn't sure if he'd really enjoy it at first (the descriptions can get long for some children) but he loved every bit of it! I found a beautiful copy of the book illustrated by Inga Moore and this is where we took the chapter from.

Writing - his entries included: - Who is your favorite musher and what one question would you ask them if you could? - If you created a totem pole what would you carve on it to relect your life? - One of Julie's Friday Free Writes which he had a great time with - Face to Face with an Animal. Close your eyes and imagine yourself face to face with an animal. Really see it. Then write what you saw with your inner eye.

Copywork - from Science one day - Newton's Second Law of Motion, a quote from musher Dee Dee Jonrowe, and a quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Library visit - twice in one week :) LOTS of books on various animals and a set of books on Biomes of the World (all his choice) I picked out my own for some things we are doing.

Math - with our long break we are needing to review our study of +/-/mutliplication/division of fractions with like and unlike denominators and GCF and LCD. We also did some math problems in connection with our Iditarod study and he added stats to Dee Dee's musher page.

American History - continued unit on Iditarod race by reading the following books: The Great Serum Race, Racing the Iditarod Trail by Debbie S. Miller, Totem Poles by Jennifer Fritz and Storm Run by Libby Riddle. We also read The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller which was a hoot. We read the FDR card from our Fandex Presidents set, discussed his fireside chats for the anniversary of the first one he gave and then listened to one from a recording I had from years ago when studying this with Lauren. For Women's History Month using my Time Magazine unit study packet we read and discussed Frances Perkins - the first female to be appointed as a presidential cabinet member (FDR appointed her his Secretary of Labor - I LOVE it when things tie in without even trying) We also read about Eleanor Roosevelt - First Lady and wife of FDR. We read a short article from Enchanted Learning as a review of the Alamo Falls to Mexico 3/6/1836.

World History - took a trip to the bookstore to purchase Lift the Lid on Gladiators. He has researched and played gladiators all week.

Science - read a short bio from Enchanted Learning on Luther Burbank (botanist) to celebrate his birthday. He then completed a worksheet from there - Label Parts of a Plant. We read Core K 5 pages 356-358 on Mass and Matter and page 360 on Force. We read an internet article on Newton's Second Law of Motion F=MA.

Nature Study - We were remiss on getting out during the mornings even though it was beautiful. Josh spent time outside playing catch, pokemon and reading so it wasn't a complete waste. We did read a great book John Muir and Stickeen, An Icy Adventure with A No Good Dog by Julian Dunlap and Marybeth Lorbiecki.

Fine Arts -

Art - We read a short bio from Enchanted Learning on Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian to celebrate his birthday. Josh then painted his own painting in a style simiar to Mondrian's. We read the book Giotto by Mike Venezia (Josh loves his books). We reviewed this artist as he was one of our previous studies but just received this book we requested awhile ago.

Shakespeare - We continued reading The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood and ended up finishing it on Saturday morning because Josh kept begging me to keep reading till we came to the end of the story. That's ok though. We still have the next two in the series: The Shakespeare Scribe and The Shakespeare Spy. :)

Music - We read the book The Heroic Symphony by Anna Hartwell Celenza and listened to the CD that came with the book which played the four movements of this Beethoven's Symphony #3. This was an excellent book and the symphony is wonderful.

Well that was most of what we did. I didn't include other educational shows he may have wathced because this is toooo hard to try and keep track of since he thinks watching the History and Discovery Channels are for fun!

Well if you stayed with all that I sure hope you found something you can use in your own journey. Thanks for reading.

lost info on home page

2005-03-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ok So I finally post to update things here with pictures and everything and as I looked at the blog to check the pictures I realized where in the world are my profile. links etc.? Goodness. It's hard to be old in this technological age. Where are my children when I need them? lol. Oh yeah. At work, school and the homeschooler is still asleep lucky guy.

He has been having a great time with a new passion lately. Roman gladiators! I don't have any idea where this came from but hey he has gone through the four books I brought home from the library, been reading the sites I found online and bookmarked for him, has talked his dad into helping him build a coliseum after he drew up his own architectural plans for one, and has been "playing" gladiator since I made him a shield out of a cardboard box top and he made his own lance. He is waiting for the milk jug to be empty so we can begin to work on a helmet. All this has been on "his own time" after we have done our "formal studies". I have learned more than I thought I wanted to about gladiators lately. Did you know there are various different types? I didn't but do now!

He has also found a new series that he is really enjoying. He stumbled upon them last week when we were at the library. The series is called Kid Caramel Private Investigator by Dwayne J. Ferguson. He has read the first 3 books in the series and has asked to look at the bookstore for the 4th since they don't have it at the library. He even had a friend who was over visiting this weekend playing detective outside with him. This is something he has been into since he began reading the Hardy Boy mysteries and now can carry on through this new series. I love it when their interests and passions spill over into their "imaginary play" and even more glad that he hasn't lost this as he has gotten older. It is important "to pretend" no matter what your age.

We are having a great time following the 33 rd Iditarod Dog Sled Race. We have been doing this for years! He has once again picked Dee Dee Jonrowe as his musher to follow. She is a favorite of both of us and we are hoping this is the year she will win. Go Dee Dee!!! You can follow along too at this website: http://www.iditarod.com I always add in math, language arts, science etc topics in our formal study time that go along with the race.

Well I best get together some things we are working on today.

(Checking the blog after I posted this it looks like my links and such are found. Boy am I smart or what? Fixed it and didn't even realize it lol)

2005-03-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

This is the second painting Wheel of Colors.

2005-03-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

These are two paintings that Josh did after our study of the painter Jacob Lawrence. The first is done on a piece of a cardboard box just as Lawrence did when he was growing up in Harlem NY. It is titled Fire in the Sky. The second painting is done on the top lid of a coffee can. Josh's idea entirely. It is titled Wheel of Colors.

2005-03-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

This is a poster collage Josh did for his written documentation for our study of the Enlightenment.

catching up

2005-03-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

WOW! What is that old saying? When it rains it pours.... That is how the month of February felt to me. It started off with Josh being sick with a bad cold. Then his older brother had two seizures within 4 hours and we ended up at the emergency room only to have him come down with strep throat and end up back in the emergency room again 2 days later. A week later it was the sleep deprivation EEG and a few days after that the appt. with the neurologist. Then there was Josh's President's Day ice hockey tournament here in Las Vegas to be followed by another tournament in Fargo, ND 4 days later. It is now March and as things have begun to settle down along comes Spring in the way of high 70's and lots of sunshine.

I worry as I look at my planner and there are days empty of planning etc. AND then I begin thinking, "But wait..." What about the audio book, Al Capone Does My Shirts, that we so enjoyed listening to and reminisced about our trip to San Fransicsco at the same time. It prompted much discussion on autism since this is a major part of the book... AND the study we did of Jacob Lawrence the painter and Langston Hughes the poet for Black History month. Josh had such a great time painting on a piece of cardboard box just like Lawrence did when he was young. It has inspired him to make MANY paintings since then all of his own initiative. AND We have been enjoying Tuesday teatime and reading poetry and picture books along with our all-time favorites, Mr Putter and Tabby books by Cynthia Rylant. We are both too old for those some may say but hey I think NOT. They always bring a smile to both our faces and isn't that a good enough reason to keep reading such great books. AND We have been finishing our study of fractions and will soon move on. AND We are still enjoying The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood and did a review of Hamlet since that is the play talked about in the book. AND we did a month of working on the writing process with Julie's Bravewriting lifestyle in which he wrote a really nice piece on ice hockey (of course). I have only scratched the surface really of things we did during this month that I so worried about because our formal study time got thrown off course. It seems we journeyed on even in the midst of storms.

2005-02-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

Groundhog's Day Cupcakes

Josh was sick all last week with a bad cold and cough so spent the week on the couch resting. Our school consisted mostly of reading and watching the History Channel, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. We did manage to make these really cute (and delicious) cupcakes for Groundhog's Day and watched a program on the holiday on the Travel Channel that night.

getting back to normal ...

2005-02-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

This week we are getting back to some of our new studies thank goodness. We have been reading about the time period of The Enlightenment for American and World History. We are tying our science studies in with this by reading about Isaac Newton and studying his Laws of Motion. I cut out a large E from posterboard and Josh is filling it in with pictures and quotes etc anything having to do with the Enlightenment. He is doing this in place of his usual written documentation pages and seems to be enjoying it.

In Math we are working on LCD and adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. He is doing really well this.

Language Arts we are using Julie's fantastic Brave Writer Lifestyle egroup, blog etc. She has been a godsend to us. I have always worried about his writing and such and she has freed me from that. What a talented, knowledgable and generous lady she is in sharing this with others! We enjoy using her Arrow program too but I haven't been able to order the book for this month and our library doesn't carry it so we will be choosing something different for this month and come back to that book at another time.

I am wanting to tie in our study of the Elightenment with our music so we will be listening to Beethoven and others in the Baroque music period which coincides with this time period in history. We will be having Fine Arts Friday where we will be listening to our music selections, reading from our Shakespeare play (which I still have to choose as the one scheduled on AO we
decided to hold off on) and reading from our fiction book The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood. On Fridays we will continue with Julie's Friday Freewrites which Josh is absolutely loving!

As per Julie's suggestion we will be having Tuesday Tea Time each week also. During this time we will be reading our poetry and studying and discussing prints of our chosen artist who at this time is Giotto de Bondone.

We continue to read LOTS of picture books. I try to find ones that have something to do with what we are studying or have studied in the past. Last week we read The Greatest Skating Race - A WWII Story from the Netherlands. Since it had to do with WWII and ice skating it was a big hit with Josh. I am constantly amazed at the depth of beautiful books such as these.

Today we are celebrating Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). Here in Las Vegas they do not sell these cakes in bakeries like they do in Cinti. I MISS Graeter's!!! Sooooo... I found a recipe and we are making our own. King's cakes have been a tradition for our Fat Tuesday celebrations for years now.We will dig into the cake and see who gets the baby and is king(or queen) after his hockey practice tonight.

is it school yet?

2005-01-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

Well the holidays are over and things should be settling down yet Josh and I are still not back to our normal routine. This last week when everyone else was getting back to "normal" work and schoolwise we found ourselves running errands to help out others and then when we started a routine day on Friday it SNOWED here in Las Vegas! Well I tell you that when it snows here you have to take full advantage of it so we did. We spent most of the day in and out of the house playing in it, walking around the neighborhood just enjoying the falling snow, sledding and building snow angels and snowmen too. :) Life goes on so they say and so does his learning even when at times like these that I fear otherwise. Lifeskills are important and you can't help but learn when watching the Discovery and History channels and reading science books are what you do for fun.

The pictures Steve put up on the site for me are from the WWI study we did using the book The Summer Soldiers. The other picture is of a little unit we did in the beginning of December for Pearl Harbor. The pictures are of the USS Arizona and Memorial in Hawaii that I took when I was about 8 and living there with my family.

We are gearing up for this next term and are trying to figure out what we want to study. I thought we had science and history planned out but now I'm thinking we may go in a different direction. At least I have the fine arts outlined as we are using Ambleside Online suggestions.I'll put those at the end of the post so you can see what we are studying if you are interested. We are also using Julie Bogart's Arrow subscription and new free Brave Writer Lifestyle programs for Language Arts. If you're not familiar with this you should take a look. She is fantastic! I even won a copy of her book for being a Brave Writer Mom and making the first response post to her blog that she has set up to go along with the program. She is an amazing writer herself and an unbelievably wise homeschooling mom who is sharing her talents with parents who may feel lost when trying to teach our children the art of writing. There is a link to her website in the links section.

Right now we are reading Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. Not really a classic but we are enjoying it nonetheless. We will also be reading a few stories from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories for Julie's Arrow subscription.

Next week will be a short week since they will be leaving for Salt Lake for ice hockey championship games early Thursday morning and won't get back until late Monday night.

Well here's a look at our fine arts for this term:

Poet - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Composer - medieval era music
Artist - Giotto di Bondone
Plutarch - Timoleon
Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing

2004-12-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

Pearl Harbor

2004-12-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

Pearl Harbor

2004-12-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

World War I Unit Study

2004-12-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

World War I Unit Study

hodgepodge

2004-12-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

Ok. Well we made it through Thanksgiving and now this is our month to "do as we please". During December we take the time to do alot of crafts and Christmas things. We'll do a hodgepodge of science and history stuff using the Enchanted Learning calendar for ideas as well as watching some good "educational" videos (to us it's just plain interesting stuff lol) and reading some good books.

We've finished The Sign of the Beaver and it was excellent. Very thought provoking and initiated various discusssions on the treatment of natives by the whites etc. Josh still laughs at me because it seems each time we read a good book, there always seems to be one part toward the end where I tear up and can't read on, yet he's there saying come on mom finish it! I need to pick up the book Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh since that is the book we are reading for December with Julie's Arrow subscription. She has not steered us wrong yet so I am looking forward to it.

This morning we watched Vol 6 - Expansionism from the video series we get from the library. This is a video collection of American History that has 20 volumes (videos) each dealing with a specific time period (topic) in American History. They are only 35 minutes long so a good length timewise and are filled with primary source pictures and video footage. They also give a fair telling of things in that they talk about the negative aspects of some of the events and policies as well as the accomplishments. The title of the collection is United States History video collection Origins to WWII put out by Schlessinger video productions.

We'll read Christmas stories each day now to start off the day. We get some new ones from the library as well as read some old time favorites from our own collection of Christmas books.

Yesterday I had him begin writing again. I usually just take a topic from something we are studying. I am amazed at how thought provoking his writing is. I do not correct these in any way as I want him to be comfortable getting his ideas and thoughts down on paper. I do go over them and note words he may be spelling wrong, punctuation etc and then I bring these into our studies separately. That way he does not feel like I am tearing his work apart. This kind of critique can wait for now. I do want to make sure we do not get out of this habit though. It is important for him to be practicing on a consistent basis.

Yesterday was Rosa Parks Day (commemorating her refusal to give up her seat on the bus) and he enjoyed a little cloze we did that I got from the Enchanted Learning site. He still remembers what he read from the biograhpy of her and says she is one of his favorite people to learn about. I had him make a notation on our wall timeline for her. If I can figure out how to download the program to do pictures I will put some pictures on the blog of it.

Well Lauren's home from school and hungry and I have to get Brad from work too.

Barb

Friday's Fine Arts

2004-11-19T15:38:00.000-08:00

Since I have been feeling really guilty about skipping out on our fine arts studies, today I figured we would make a day of it. The other day at the library I came across a picture book called Seurat and La Grande Jatte by Robert Burleigh. It looked interesting and since he is an artist we have not studied yet I checked it out. Well lo and behold last night while watching the Weather channel - don't laugh at me here! :) - they had a segment on a topiary garden in Columbus, Ohio that is totally based on this painting! It is so cool when things work together!!! I went online and found this site about the garden which is amazing.

http://www.topiarygarden.org/default.htm

When Kate got home from school she told Josh about the painting because she had seen it when she visited The Art Institute of Chicago.

I LOVE it when learning connections happen without even trying!

We also started reading the historical fiction book called The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood. In it a young boy is ordered by his master to steal Shakespeare's play Hamlet... or else. Josh and I have read versions of this play in Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb and also E. Nesbit's Beautiful Stories from Shakepeare. Both of these are retellings for children that are very well done. Nesbit's versions can be found online here:

http://www.worldwideschool.org
enter library, click on shakespeare, then click on Beautiful Stories

while Lamb's versions can be found here:

http://www.eldritchpress.org/cml/tfs.html

We have also enjoyed Bruce Coville's retellings of some of Shakespeare's plays.

We read Hamlet last year and so I ask Josh to tell me what he remembered about it. I was amazed at how much of the story line he still knows. Right now he says he does not like the book much because it is very somber. The boy is an orphan and is given to people who don't have his best interest at heart but this prompted a good discussion about how things were in that time period. Lauren has read this book and the sequel that comes after it and really enjoyed them so we will see how it is as we continue to read.

All in all I'd say we had a fairly artistic day!

Barb