Strewsday Tuesday - Funny/disturbing Strewing Story!

Poor neglected blog!

But I just have to tell you this story!

So I've been reading poetry to Becky and Sean at breakfast time.  This month I've been reading Longfellow.  And one of the poems was his The Children's Hour.  Very sweet and lovely poem.

At our Aquinas Learning Center, Becky was studying a retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night's Dream.  She got really into it!  This made her daydream about writing her own play (which she is doing, it's about a princess named Sophie!).  But it also got her interested in plays in general.

So yesterday both she and Josh awoke with nasty coughs.  I decided that they could stay home while I went to Latin class.  While I was gone she was looking through my collection of books and came upon one entitled Twenty Best Plays of the Modern American Theater.  This is an old book from 1950.  Glancing through the table of contents, to her delight, she saw one named The Children's Hour!  Must be a good one, right?

It's the one by Lillian Hellman about the student who accuses two professors of having a homosexual love affair.

Not exactly what I want my 10 year old to be reading!

Luckily, she hadn't gotten too far into it by the time I got home.

Whew!  Strewing can be dangerous!  LOL!

So what are you strewing this week?

What We've Been Up To 9/23/11

Another crazy week.  I'm really exhausted.  I hope this weekend I can spend most of it putzing around my house and maybe tidying and organizing a little bit.  I really need that.

Monday - read The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere to the kids, along with more from the book about the Mass.  Went to Latin class and took another quiz on 3rd declension nouns and adjectives.  Got 100%  Josh did pretty well but not quite up to my standard LOL.  Sean and Becky did a little math, Sean did some Latin.  Becky and I focused on the activity sheets from Aquinas Learning, dealing with Latin roots, the Declaration of Independence.  Josh's friend who is now driving, picked him up and they went to Mass in the evening.  That was pretty cool.  Rick left for CA.

Tuesday - Read more from Exploring the World of Physics.  We said a whole rosary together.  Took 50 minutes because Becky kept wanting to lead.  Drove me crazy!  LOL!  Probably not the feeling one is supposed to come away with after praying the rosary!  Did more math and Latin.  Worked on activity sheets with Becky.  Josh went to Chemistry but unfortunately messed up and didn't get his homework in. Josh did cross country practice.  Was a beautiful afternoon.

Wednesday - Another Latin quiz.  This time Josh got 100% and I didn't.  Totally forgot how to add onto the stem of 5th declension and misspelled it all the way through.  At least I was consistent!  Sean had a playdate over at his friends house.  Josh had his "passing Mass" at his Catholic Life Community.  Becky and I went.  About 20 boys were moving up into various levels of CLC.  Josh is now a full member.  Becky and I finished reading through the activity sheets for Aquinas but didn't actually finish them.

Thursday - Aquinas Learning day - things went pretty well; still working out the kinks.  Sean did math and Latin and read Journey to the Center of the Earth and then hung out in the library with Josh in the afternoon.  Josh did precalculus and Psychology and then worked on Shakespeare homework at the library.  Josh had cross country practice.  He is really enjoying running so much.  Then we got home to find Rick had come home from CA.  Pizza night!  Then Josh worked on chemistry homework but this time didn't finish his Shakespeare homework.  Hmmm.  Told him this week was a lesson in time management!

Friday - I overslept!  Got Josh to Chemistry late.  Did a tiny bit of Latin with Sean and Becky.  Read Sunday's scripture to them.  Sean did a bit of math.  Tennis was cancelled due to rain.  Josh went to Shakespeare.  Sean went over to his friends house again.  They'll go together to a church jr high thing that's going on tonight.  It's been raining that that couple of days and is supposed to rain through the weekend which is a bummer because Josh is supposed to run his first 5k this Sunday.  We'll see.

Strewsday Tuesday

I'm having trouble getting used to my MacBook Pro.  For instance sometimes it lets me link and sometimes no.  And I can't figure out why.  And I can't remember how to post photos.  And I keep losing my word documents.  I mean I save them but then I can't figure out where they went!

So I'm frustrated.  Between being a dunce on my Mac and how busy I've been, I just can't keep up with blogging very well.  Boo hoo.  I so wanted to create a little button for Strewsday Tuesday and Elisa was helping me.  Thank you, Elisa. This was weeks ago and I still haven't gotten around to it.  Stuff like that takes me forever.

Anyway, in the spirit of feeling overwhelmed and frustrated I'll bear my soul and mention three things I'm currently Strewing that don't seem to be going over very well right now:

 I bought Clean Water Science back when we were at the beach a few weeks ago.  I thought it looked interesting.  It's been sitting out in the open for any child to come along and inquire about it or break it open and get started, but nary a bite.

Tonight, we watch the first unit in Exploring America's Musical Heritage.  This is by Professor Carol Reynolds. I would link to her site but I'm doing something wrong and apparently because I can't get the link to copy!  Anyway, I thought it was fasincating.  Seano was bored and in a bad mood and said he didn't like it.  However, I noticed he stayed and watched the whole thing.  If he really didn't like it, he'd have gotten up and left.  So I think maybe he was just being contrary, as is his wont, when he is in one of his moods.

Lately, Becky has shown more interest in learning French, so I bought this for her

.  She read through it for a couple of minutes, reading phrases out loud but then she put it down and it has been gathering dust for the last several days.  However, she just now came to me all excited to realized that Fleur means flower in French and a French character in Harry Potter is named Fleur.  She got the connection.  So maybe she'll get around to picking up the book again.

Math Monday - 9/19/11

My 16 year old is doing a precalculus class with an on line teacher.  He's only been at it two weeks, but so far he likes it.  Josh was having trouble understanding something about real zeros and Mr. Owens made a special video for Josh to explain it!

If you are interested in checking Derek Owens' offerings, his address is simply:  www.derekowens.com

Rufus M. - Book 41

Life's been very busy lately and my reading has really dropped off.   Whenever I have a quiet moment instead of reading I've been playing mindless Scrabble on my ipad.  So while I've got a couple of books going, I didn't manage to finish either of them.  But I did finally finish the last of the Eleanor Estes books I've been reading out loud to Becky.

Rufus M. is about the youngest Moffat and it continues the charming tales of the Moffat family growing up during World War I in Cranbury, Connecticut.  Cranbury is a fictional town based on Estes own childhood home of New Haven.

I highly recommend any of the Estes books, either about the Moffats or the Pyes.  They are well written, amusing, true to life and touching.

What We've Been Up To 9/16/11

Our fall schedule has started up in almost full swing.  I know we are just getting acclimated to it, but, whew!  Maybe we kinda overdid it.

Monday - Read The Village Blacksmith and The Children's Hour by Longfellow to Becky and Sean.  Sean finds him too kitschy.  Read about the Mass, The Last Supper and the Paschal Mystery.
Sean and Becky did some math - still review, mostly about reading really big numbers.  Sean took a quiz on conjugating the present, imperfect and future of 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs.  Did well.  Becky had her first American Heritage Girls meeting of the year.  She earned a sewing badge (she sewed a hat in 4H last spring) and music performance badge for learning the trumpet and being in a show at music camp this summer.  She was very happy to be restarting AHG again.  She loves it.

Josh and I had Latin class. We had a quiz to review active and passive verbs in present and perfect systems.  I did okay but was a little shaky on a couple of the passive ones.  Josh didn't finish the quiz so has to retake it.  He says he just blanked on some of it.  Josh read some of the play Julius Caesar and did Chemistry homework.  He also finally finished the Precalculus he'd started the past Monday (we ran into some snafus) and scanned and sent it to Mr. Owens.

Tuesday - Read more about Physics in Exploring the World of Physics to Becky and Sean.  Still talking about Aristotle and Galileo.  Did some more math and Latin.  In the afternoon took Josh to Chemistry class and Becky to her art class.  She was soooo happy to see her friends.

Sean basically just vegged around the house and was bored by the end of the day.

Josh had cross country.   He and I worked on Latin homework.  We had lots of it plus had to study for another quiz.

Wednesday - Josh and I were crazy busy trying to finish up our Latin which we couldn't do.  Yikes!  Sean watched the next lesson in Latin for Children.  Becky practiced a little penmanship and did a little math.

Latin class again - Josh and I both got A's on our demonstratives quiz.  Teacher realized she'd given too much homework and figured out a more equitable policy.  Hurrah for fair teachers!

Josh finished reading Julius Caesar.

Wednesday afternoon - I went over to the church where we are holding our Aquinas Learning Center and prepared it as much as I could.  Wednesday evening Josh went to CLC.  Sean got a long playdate over at his friend's house.  He was happy.

Thursday - First day of our Aquinas Learning Center - it went really, really well.  The kids were happy and excited.  The mentors were real troopers who really muddled through splendidly.  Becky loved it so much.  The minute she came home she did her IEW and cursive homework!  Then when her dad got home that night, she took it out and showed him everything.  I was exhausted and had to immediately get Josh to cross country.  Sean and Josh are just doing their own thing in an extra room at the church while I run around making sure things are running smoothly and setting/cleaning things up.  Josh did his precalc and wrote his essay for his Shakespeare class.  Sean did his math and read his science lesson.  Sean also helped out with the preschoolers.  Then after lunch Sean and Josh went across the street to the library.  Sean read another chapter in Journey to the Center of the Earth as well as some book on comedy that he picked up at the library.  I'm not sure what Josh did.

I really love that Josh is getting into running.  He realizes that spending all his time in front of a computer is not a good thing.  He wants to increase his endurance.  He says he thinks he's the third fastest running in the group but that he gets winded more easily.  So he's just got to work on getting in shape.  The coaches (a homeschooling couple) are really super nice.  Unfortunately, he 's the only 16 yo boy in the group.  There are several girls his age and several younger boys (like 13 or so).  But I'm glad Josh isn't letting that bother him.

Another sign that Josh is coming out of his shell.  He asked me if we could host a get together for his weekly teen church group.  So they are coming over Saturday evening for pizza, pool and video games.

Today (Friday) - I hope to read Sunday's scripture out loud to Becky and Sean and then do Sean's science experiments from Rainbow Science.  Also a little math and Latin.  Maybe go over the memory sentences from Aquinas Learning.  Josh has Chemistry from 8:30 to noon!!!  Then he's got Shakespeare from 1 to 3.  Becky and Sean have their first tennis class today as well.

One thing that didn't get done this week was Josh's Psychology.

Announcement!

I know I owe people a Homeschooling Meme which is a fun thing to do, but this coming Thursday we are starting up our new Aquinas Learning Center and I have a million little things to do to prepare for it.  So, I'm taking the week off from blogging.  Well, maybe on Friday, I can post, but I'm going to be frantically busy before then (and kinda busy on Friday anyway).

Pray for me!

See you all in a week (or maybe less!).

What We've Been Up To - 9/8/11

It rained this week!  And rained.  And rained. And rained.   I don't remember anything like this before.  Here are some photos I took of the DRY stream bed behind our house.  It is rushing into our normally placid little pond. 

A 12 yo boy on the other side of the town I live in, was swept to his death when he fell into a swollen stream in his back yard.  A terrible tragedy.

This is pouring over the place we usually walk.

This is looking down from a hill into the stream.

The pond looks twice as big as usual and three times as muddy!

Rick had to stay downtown for the night.  The traffic was so bad and so many roads were closed that it was taking hours for people to get home.  

This was supposed to be our first week of our fall schedule but many things wound up being cancelled.

Monday -Labor Day, Rick was still up in Boston with Will doing their orientation program.  I read aloud from a book about the Mass.   I'd link to it but I can't seem to get the hang of linking on my Mac.

Also read some Longfellow poetry to Becky and Sean.

Josh worked on Chemistry homework.  New this year is that homework is due by e-mail the night before the class.  Took Josh to buy running shoes because he's decided to join a local cross country team.

Tuesday -Josh started his on line PreCalculus class with Derek Owens.  Rick got home from Boston around 1 p.m. and took the day off.  It was nice to have him back.  Josh went to Chemistry class.  Josh was supposed to start Cross-country practice, but it was cancelled due to rain.

Wednesday - First Latin class for Josh and myself, dragged Becky and Sean along too.  Josh went to CLC in the evening.  Driving was awful through all the rain.

Thursday - had an Aquinas Learning get together at the church where we'll be holding it.  Got to talk to the Pastor and secretary, ironed out some issues, several moms came and helped with final clean up (but I still think I'll need to go in next Wednesday to see if everything is good for our first day next Thursday).  The church started flooding because the rain, which had been awful all week and suddenly became the most torrential rain I've ever experienced.  It was like someone was dumping buckets from the sky.  The minute you stepped out you were completely drenched.  They say 2 or more inches were falling per hour!  Totalling something like 9+ inches!  Incredible.  We managed to get home but missed our afternoon obligation.  Roads began to flood.  It was quite dramatic!

Friday - Josh was supposed to have another Chem class but it is cancelled because the teacher follows the country rules and the county schools are closed due to flooded roads.  Josh took the time to sleep in, read Julius Caesar and hopefully will finish up his Psychology for the week.  Read Sunday's scripture readings and about St. Peter Claver, whose feast is today, to Sean and Becky.  They each did a bit of math and Latin.  Sean's been reading Journey to the Center of the Earth and he is actually enjoying it!

Will has called every day.  He's homesick and he also caught a cold, so he's feeling a bit crummy.

Heard from Hannah earlier in the week.  She likes all her classes and her tiny single dorm room.

It's been an exciting, uncomfortable, wet week.  But I am grateful to the cancellations in a way because it gives me another week to ease into the hardcore fall routine we are starting up.

Thankful Thursday - 9/8/11

I'm posting this a day early because I might be running from early morn until evening tomorrow.

I'm ashamed to say, I'm not feeling very grateful right now.  I'm tired and my head is full of so many details.  Our fall schedule is starting up and I'm desperately trying to harness a million scattered thoughts into some kind of serviceable order.

So what am I thankful for:

For the i m function on gmail.  I got to chat with Will up at Berklee that way today.  He sounds like he is doing okay, but he misses us.

For Phineas and Ferb, a really funny cartoon show that has kept my kids entertained during this very, very rainy week.

Speaking of rain, I'm grateful for a roof over my head!

And I'm grateful for phones too.  Got to talk to Hannah today.

And now I have to go pick Josh from his CLC group at church.

So that's it!

Wordless Wednesday 9/7/11

Rainy Day Fun

Strewsday Tuesday - Unintentional Strewing

Sometimes strewing is unnecessary.  I mean the parent doesn't have to do anything conscientiously.  The child simply interacts with his world and, presto!  He's off!

Sean loves this book!

Way back when my 12 year old son was about 5, he must have learned about flip books.  I remember once we went to the National Children's Museum in Washington D.C. and they had an exhibit on making flip books to simulate early animation in film.  But he might have been too young for that field trip.  Or maybe he saw something on TV or maybe it was a Klutz book(though I think he was already into this before we discovered that book).  So, anyway, I really don't know how this all started.  But when he was five, I started noticing my little yellow post it pads missing (I love those things!).  My son at that time was really into gymnastics.  Cartwheels, especially.  He and his sister would do 100 cartwheels a day, no exaggeration!  So I found these post note pads made into flip books of someone doing a cartwheel.  He would draw a little stick figure on each of the pages.  Very exactly and gradually, the little stick figure would turn a cartwheel as you flipped through the little pages.  I was amazed at his patience and precision in making these little books.  And I found many of them.  I even went out and bought more post it pads.  He would do this over and over again.

A few years later, maybe when he was 8 and 9, he discovered Pivot.  I think he came home one day from a playdate and mentioned that his friend had this really cool program where you could make animations.  Before this he had found some Line Rider download and liked to make those.  So we got him Pivot for Christmas and he loved it (the link above says it is a free download but it seems to me we had to buy some computer equipment to really do it well.)  He spent many, many hours, patiently (and not so patiently) focused on creating one animation after another.

He became a walking encyclopedia on animation.  He knows so much about its history, the art of voice acting, what makes Japanese anime different from other styles, etc.  He asks questions, like which style of American animation do you like best:  Disney?  Warner Bros?  And somebody I can't remember right now. Then he can give you a run down of the the technical and production differences.

He asked for Animation magazine, which he reads from cover to cover every time it shows up in the mail.


For the last couple of years, he'd been begging us for Flash.  Due to various circumstances, we couldn't deliver right away, but just as his older brother was leaving for college, this past week, we finally got Seano Flash.  It was great timing because it is distracting him from missing his brother so much.  He is completely in love with animating in Flash and has spent every single moment of free time, working away.

He isn't a very good artist, but he's got his own style somehow anyway.  He loves writing up little funny skits and pulling these little cartoons together.  It is really beautiful to see.

And not one of these elements was intentionally strewed by me.   It is all completely Seano.

So what's been going on in your home?

Math Monday - The Math Shark

I bought a Math Shark years ago.  (Mine is purple and red not blue and yellow as in the picture; I wonder if that indicates just how old it is?).


Anyway, it proved to be a good investment.  The kids played on it without any prompting.  It goes through long periods where it gathers dust on a shelf, but then the kids rediscover it at some point and it is like a new toy all over again.  It has gotten a lot of use and is still being used by my 12 and 10 year olds.

It is one of those items, that looking back over the years, I'm glad I plunked the money out for it.  That statement can not be said for much of the educational stuff I threw money away on!

Check out other Math Monday posts here.

David Copperfield - Book 40

Warning! Spoilers ahead!

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens is an old friend of mine. I first read it in high school, then again when I was around college age. I reread it about ten years ago and now I just finished my 4th time. It started out as an all family read aloud (except for Hannah who was away at college) including even my husband. We started it the first day of Advent 2010. However, we were very inconsistent about how much or how often we read it. It was very hard getting all 5 people plus myself together for any length of time. And then, Rick was reading the Harry Potter series out loud to Becky and they had to fnish that before the final movie came out, so the spring was really dominated by that and David Copperfield was put on hold. Alas, I tried very hard to finish it before Will went away to college, but we couldn't quite make it. We have 4 chapters still left to read. We are hoping we can cram it into Thanksgiving vacation when he comes home again. However, I took it up to my room and finished reading it myself, so I could list it as my 40th book in 2011.

I love all the characters in David Copperfield and all the little subplots. It is a warm and cozy book where all the bad people get their just comeuppance and the good people either die or are rewarded! The two themes I think that are the most identifiable are the exploration of what marriage should be and the sorrow that ensues when it doesn't measure up; and the idea that it is the heart that counts. Even the simple, like Mr. Dick or the silly like Dora Spelow or the foolish, like Mr. Micawber are all worthy and lovable and are even capable of wisdom at some level because of their good heartedness.

I think I'll go through all the marriages in the book and point out very, very briefly which ones were marriages between equals (for a good marriage takes 'disciplined hearts" between equals of mind.)

Clara Copperfield and Mr. Murdstone - Mr. Murdstone being far more intelligent and an evil predator to Clara's sweet innocence. We get the definite sense that David falls for Dora because she is so like his mother.

Peggotty and Barkis - In spite of Barkis' miserliness, he's a good fellow and he and Peggotty are a happy couple.

Dr. Strong and Annie - at first we fear this is not a marriage of equals and that Annie has an undisciplined heart and really loves her cousin Jack Maldon. But, to our great relief (for we love the good doctor so) we find that Annie was more than she appeared to be.

Wilkins Micawber and Emma Micawber - an hysterically funny couple, so caught up in the melodrama they've created by their own inability to balance their budget, they are in the end a very devoted couple who admire and respect each other passionately. As Mrs. Micawber says so often through out the book, whenever they are embroiled in yet another crisis: I never will leave Micawber. And she won't. You know it. She has complete faith in his abilities she knows are buried underneath all the hyperbole and posturing. He is kind and loving and true. And in the end she proves right to trust him.

Emily and Steerforth - well they never actually get married. Emily is the poster child, along with David, for having that undisciplined heart of youth. Even though she knows it is wrong and that she is hurting those who love her the most, she can not fight against her feelings for Steerforth and foolishly runs away with him, living in sin, until he grows tired of her and casts her off. Steerforth is a great character though, complex because even though he can't obey his better angels, at times he hears them, and he knows that he is not the great human being his doting, spoiling mother makes him out to be. He knows his shameful selfish side and runs from it.

Betsy Trotwood and her mysterious husband - this is just a minor mention in the book, but eccentric Aunt Betsy had a marriage to a man she loved in her youth, but who broke her heart with his unfaithfulness. In the end she reconciles with him just before he dies. The connection was never completely cut between them.

David and Dora - a touching, humorous and then very sad account of a marriage.

David and Agnes - we know they were meant to be together. The ending is very emotional and satisfying.

I wish I could post a picture of the book but I'm reduced to writing this on my ipad and I don't know how to do links or pictures!

To read more books go to www.read52booksin52week.com.

What we've been up to - 9/2/11

I have been ignoring the kids pretty much all week.  I've been really consumed by getting our new Aquinas Learning Center up and running.  Many phone calls, meetings, e-mails happened this week, even a crisis or two and still there is much more to do.  Crazy!

This is Will's last week at home and I've barely seen him.  I think he's tamping down his emotions and it is making him quiet and kind of retiring from us all.  He's been sleeping in late and staying in his room to practice music.  Plus he has lots of little odds and ends stuff to do before he leaves.  We all went shopping in the middle of the week to get him clothes and a new razor.  He shaved off his beard and got his hair cut on Monday!  I think he's planning on letting the beard grow back and he's hoping it will grow in a little thicker.  Vain teen-age boy!  I grew up with all girls.  I didn't know boys worry about their looks too!  Today, we are doing laundry, packing and cleaning his room.  Yep, we've procrastinated!  Tonight we are all going out to dinner.  Tomorrow morning he leaves us.  Sob.

Josh has been great, trying to get into the swing of things, even though his regular classes haven't started  He goes to his first Chemistry class this a.m.  He's been working hard on his Psychology course which he seems to be really enjoying so far.  He did some more math review and we did a tiny bit of Latin review, but we decided we were going to cram on Monday and Tuesday for those things, as we are too distracted by Will leaving and Aquinas Learning to focus as much as would be ideal.  Josh has also continued to go jogging,  I love that!

Sean - poor Seano, he is already very sad about Will leaving.. This is going to be tough.  I'm still forcing him to finish reading Beorn the Proud.  He's been fighting me but today is the last chapter!  Next week we start Journey to the Center of the Earth!  I do not feel unschoolish at all about this reading thing.  It is a troublesome spot.  Seano's been going on walks.  He and Becky started writing a cartoon together that they are animating.  I've got to go see what they are doing.  I just hear them down in the basement, giggling, making all kinds of weird sounds and voices which erupt into loud squabbles when there is an artistic difference of opinion.  The eruption cools down quickly and they continue on a bit later.  Ah, siblings.

Tuesday I took my aunt into the Rehab hospital to get her prosthesis.  That's put a new element into her routine.  She's really not too happy with it, but she's game to keep trying.  She's looked really tired to me this week and seems quieter.  I feel like I've somehow neglected everyone this week. . . .

And something I'm really sad about.  We will not be able to finish David Copperfield before Will leaves.  We are almost at the end (92% through says Will's ipod) but the chapters are so long and we just don't hours to sit and listen.  It can take a solid hour to read one chapter out loud!  So we are almost done but it is unrealistic to try to finish before Will leaves on Saturday morning.  Rick thinks we should finish it up at Thanksgiving, when Will is back again.  I guess so.

Thankful Thursday - 9/1/11

Right now, I'm thankful to strong, intelligent, faithful people, like Father Walter Cizek, who wrote He Leadeth Me. I just started it and it is very inspirational. I need inspiration right now because I'm struggling against feeling overwhelmed. My little, little concerns, that can have that effect on me, show me just how weak I am! Almost laughably weak.

I'm very thankful to Liz, the woman who is helping me with setting up our Aquinas Learning Center. I honestly don't know where I'd be without her. She's a rock and so sweet!

I'm so thankful for my son, William Elijah. We call him Will, he wants to be called Eli. He leaves for Berklee on Saturday morning. Rick is taking him up to Boston. Will is eccentric, absented-minded, kind, funny, intelligent, ambitious, helpful, immensely talented, religious, innocent, and a joy to have for a son. We will miss him so much. He enlivens this house wonderfully and we will feel his absence. Especially Seano; they are very similar in taste, talent and wit, though they have very different temperaments. His leaving is pretty gut-wrenching.