WARNING! THIS IS A LONG POST!
As I enter my twilight years of homeschooling, I have been in the process of clearing out a lot of old curriculum. I am very chagrinned to find that most of this stuff was a complete waste of money. Actually I have been clearing out curricula for years. There's a constant sloughing off that goes on. And I am ashamed of it. Because looking back I see what a colossal waste it was. It was my consumerist mentality - a thing I buy will fix my need! It will guide me because I don't know what I am doing! It will make it fun and my kids will love me again! Blah, blah, blah. I called myself a curriculum junkie. I knew I had a problem. Sadly, in the homeschool world it is often all about curriculum. On the Catholic Relaxed Homeschoolers facebook group there is an inexorable drift towards threads that obsess on curriculum. Should I enroll here? Will All About Spelling cure my 10 year old's lack of spelling prowess? My dd hates math - will Teaching Textbooks make her love it? And then you get all the testimonials from folks who swear up and down! They've been using this new curriculum for two weeks now and everything is coming up roses!
I do think curriculum can be useful at times, but for the most part it is unnecessary until you get older and are concerned with getting those credit hours for high school by doing things formally. Then I do think you need something for Algebra and Biology and the like all spelled out for you. Although, there are unschoolers who do things differently and somehow their kids seem to come out well. But really, in truth, curriculum is such a crutch.
Throw away your crutches! Get up and walk!
First of all, you have to believe in your heart that God made your child in His image and likeness. Do you believe that? That means that your child has a natural desire to create. People who create need to acquire a certain amount of knowledge and skill in order to be creators. They will naturally gravitate to absorbing knowledge and skill in order to support their creativity. It often happens unconsciously and very naturally.
Appreciate your child's curiosity. Aristotle said: Man, by his nature, desires to know. The word man there means human being. I am guessing your child is a human and therefore, you can trust that your child wants to become knowledgeable about the world around him. Your child has probably been asking 'why?' for a while now. Children are curious and want to explore, experiment, and talk about stuff.
Imitation - your child wants to imitate you. Especially when they are little. But they actually want to imitate you when they get older too. It just isn't as obvious. Teach through imitation. Let them pretend they are like mommy or daddy, unloading the dishwasher, shaving, reading. Model learning for them by doing it yourself when they are little and when they are older let them witness how you handle things in life; how you use your brain to accomplish what you need to, how you broaden and educate yourself. Live out loud so your children will see you.
Your children want to grow into competent adults. Trust that. But this is a marathon, not a sprint. It's complicated. And everybody runs at their own pace. I think this is the thing that really brings us worry. We are afraid they won't launch and the failure will reflect on us. So bottom line obsessing on finding the perfect curriculum is our pride and vanity speaking! We don't want to look bad! We are afraid that if Johnny isn't reading at age 6 he'll never make it to college. That if Mary Catharine isn't getting 100s on her spelling quizzes each week she'll never be successful as an adult. This is fear-based and irrational thinking on our part. It doesn't take into account that when Johnny is older he might decide he'd rather be an airplane mechanic and doesn't want to go to college. Or that Mary Catharine might decide she's going to major in music so spelling really doesn't matter and plus there are editors and spell check anyway.
Most importantly it also doesn't take into account the fact that children change as they mature and they might click with reading and spelling or what have you, later in life when their brain develops or when they see the point in what they need to learn so they choose to focus their attention on it of their own volition, instead of your volition pushing it on them.
So you've got all the above going for you when it comes to teaching your child:
1. Made in God's image
2. Natural curiosity
3. Natural desire to imitate
4. Natural desire to grow into competent adult
5. Maturity and development
So here it is: Even if you never bought a single piece of curriculum, your child can grow into a capable, well educated adult. They do this if you read to them, talk to them, allow them freedom to play, let them be with you as you do your daily tasks and projects, take them on outings, let them intermingle with other people, and most importantly, love them.
You will also need access to books and pencil and paper. If you have access to the internet, you are golden!
Where to get books - even though I've bought lots of books, I've also gotten lots of books free.
Library - If you have a library card you have access to books there and through intra-library loans.
Gifts - You can ask for particular books as gifts from grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.
Borrowing - You can borrow books.
Cast offs - People give away books too. Neighbors, other homeschoolers, libraries, family members. I've got tons of books from my grandparents, parents and aunt. All free.
If you have access to the internet - you can find tons of free books on line. If you have a kindle there are many, many books for free there.
But you say, you want teaching books - books on phonics and math that are set up to teach children. I don't know how to teach! I need someone to hold my hand! First of all, you could choose to educate yourself on how to teach while you are doing the easy thing of reading to, talking to, playing with, working with, living and loving your children.
If you have access to internet, you are completely covered for everything! Even if you have really limited access you can still do it. Even if you have to get internet at the library once a week or at your parents house or at your husband's office, you can still do it. Because this stuff is supplemental anyway to real learning.
Here are some on line math resources:
Free Math Resources
Jumpstart Games
Math.com
Khan Academy
This is just a tiny smattering of what is available on line.
Here's an old fashion Catholic beginning arithmetic text.
Language Arts - I just googled this and someone else has come up with an excellent list of free lessons and resources.
Catechism - Here's something that looks helpful. You need a printer though.
Here is a free catechism course on line.
Here is a list of links for every subject.
If you want Catholic history the best resource is Heritage History.
Perhaps you are still floundering with how to teach. This is all very well and good but I don't know have confidence in being able to educate my kids without enrolling in Seton. Here are ways you can teach without have to worry about method:
Answer questions your child asks. If you don't know the answer, search for the answer with your child. Try to mull it out together.
Play games with your child. Your child will learn math through card games and board games. Your child can learn spelling through boggle or scrabble.
Read out loud to your child.
Granted there are some things that need to be taught rather systematically and it might be good to be able to present them clearly and in a certain order. The things that I think are hardest to explain well are math concepts, phonics or spelling rules and grammar. But I find it is often a matter of looking things up when you stumble upon it. It is good to have references available for just this sort of situation.
Teaching phonics rules.
Spelling rules (this one has 9 spelling rules but then scroll down and the rest of the 26 rules are exceptions).
Free grammar rules
Here's some sound advice about teaching math.
What it boiled down to after 20 years of homeschooling
What follows is a list of the curricula, references, tools or programs that I've bought that I thought were worth the money to purchase. This means that after all my wasteful outpouring of money over the years (I could have fed a village of starving children in Africa!) this is what turned out to be worthwhile:
Reading:
Phonics Pathways - a one book reference from beginning reading to high school spelling.
At Last a Reading Method for Every Child - great for dyslexic kids.
A set of basal readers - if your child needs lots of practice before launching into 'real' books.
Bob books
Writing:
Beginners kit from Handwriting without Tears - if your kids really struggle with handwriting.
A template for how to form manuscript and cursive letters
Copy work (lots of it!)
Math:
A white board or chalk board
Any kind of manipulatives - such as craft sticks, pennies, anything that can be counted and grouped.
Money
Math picture books you can find at your library
Living Math website
Games and puzzles
The TMs from Modern Curriculum Press, especially for Kindergarten and 4th grade. 3rd grade might be helpful too. Some of the Kindergarten concepts are too advanced so you can basically use them for 1st and 2nd grade too. At some point you need to teach regrouping ( borrowing or carrying). The 4th grade book teaches long division really well. You can buy these TMs used really cheaply.
*** If you have been reading math literature as well as engaging your child in real world math, they will have already encountered and learned a bit about things like fractions (cooking teaches this well), decimals (money!), and percents (sales, tips for waiters, etc). Saxon always starts at the very beginning so you can actually start formally teaching this stuff at the pre-Algebra level and your student will catch up amazingly quickly. So fast, that you will truly wonder why schools take YEARS to teach this very simple stuff. The trick is to teach it later, after the student has encountered the concepts in real life for a while and their abstract thinking skills have developed.
Saxon 7/6, 8/7, Algebra I, Algebra II, Advanced Math
Fun math worksheets and puzzles you can print off
Religion:
Lots of picture books with faith related themes (Tomi DePaola, Demi, Weight of the Mass, etc)
Saints books - Sisters of St. Paul, Vision Books, etc.
Living the liturgical year (ideas abound on line at places like Catholic Icing, etc)
St. Patrick's Catechism
The Creed in Slow Motion
Quiet Waters Stations of the Cross
Beginner's Bible
Saint of the Day
CCC videos
Veggie Tales
Glory Stories
(note that the last three listed in religion make great Christmas, birthday or even Easter gifts, so you can collect them slowly over several years.)
For teens, books and talks by Scott Hahn, Matt Pinto and Jason Evert
History:
Lots of historical fiction read alouds (lists abound everywhere!)
Lots of biographies (including saint biographies)
A timeline of some sort
A Little History of the World (or some other classic narrative telling of history aimed at children)
Unit studies on various topics (again these abound - many for free on line)
Didache Church History text
Teaching Company lecture series (for high schoolers; check your library or buy them during one of Great Courses' frequent sales)
Literature:
Library - encourage lots of reading, watch classic movie adaptations too. Don't forget audiobooks!
Jim Weiss's audio retellings of stories and biographies (these make good gifts!)
Kolbe's junior high literature program (nice but not really necessary)
Lightning Literature (all of them are great but again this is nice but not necessary)
Free on line resources at sparknotes and many other free study guides
Science:
Read lots of science literature, biographies, natural history
Lots of fun science videos and shows - TV, youtube, netflix, library
Field trips to museums, nature centers, planetariums, etc
Nature walks
Science kits and experiments - Christmas and birthday gifts or while doing a unit study.
A Beka's High School biology, chemistry and physics (but we've always learned these subjects through formal classes in the homeschool community. I don't really see fundamentalist Creationism as good science or good religion, but these classes have been taught by Catholic women who really understand the Church's teachings on the matter so they modify the A Beka bias.)
Latin:
Free Latin lessons on line
Free Latin course by Catholic priest
Textkit Latin
Latin games
Quia
Quizlet
Absolutely best and simplest introduction to Latin - Getting Started with Latin
National Latin Exam website
****A really great Catholic on line resource that is also very inexpensive - LPH Resource Center
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
And Then There Were None - Book 4
This is one of Agatha Christie's classics. My son in law gave it to Becky for Christmas, saying that when he was 13 he discovered Agatha Christie and how much he loved her books. Becky finished it yesterday and I asked to borrow it. I started reading it at 3:00 p.m. in fits and starts (in between driving people places, doing laundry and cooking dinner!) and I finished at 11:45 p.m. It was engrossing and not at all hard to read.
When I was young I really wasn't into murder mysteries. I thought it was weird that murder was treated so lightly. I remember quite consciously thinking to myself when I was in my early teens, that I was going to save reading those types of books for when I was older. Well, now I am older! Actually I started reading mysteries probably a dozen years ago, but so far, of Christie's work I've only read Murder on the Orient Express, listened to a wonderful audio recording of her short stories and seen the play The Mouse Trap. I think I also read a Christmas story featuring Poirot. I have also caught bits and pieces of PBS Poirot and Miss Marple TV shows. Anyway, it was a fun read. She is a great plot crafter! As is obvious, I couldn't put it down! Becky thinks though that any mind that can think this kind of stuff up is really twisted and scary! I assured her Christie was a proper English lady.
Two thumbs up! For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
When I was young I really wasn't into murder mysteries. I thought it was weird that murder was treated so lightly. I remember quite consciously thinking to myself when I was in my early teens, that I was going to save reading those types of books for when I was older. Well, now I am older! Actually I started reading mysteries probably a dozen years ago, but so far, of Christie's work I've only read Murder on the Orient Express, listened to a wonderful audio recording of her short stories and seen the play The Mouse Trap. I think I also read a Christmas story featuring Poirot. I have also caught bits and pieces of PBS Poirot and Miss Marple TV shows. Anyway, it was a fun read. She is a great plot crafter! As is obvious, I couldn't put it down! Becky thinks though that any mind that can think this kind of stuff up is really twisted and scary! I assured her Christie was a proper English lady.
Two thumbs up! For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
String, Straightedge and Shadow - Book 3
String, Straightedge and Shadow; The History of Geometry by Julia E. Diggins is a middle school level book published in 1965. Ms. Diggins was a math teacher to junior high school students and then a curriculum developer at the University of Maryland. The book is a charming and picturesque telling of how geometry began and some of the major discoveries in ancient history.
Ms. Diggins starts out imagining how pre-historic man first encountered and began to think about geometric concepts. She moves into the practical geometry used by the Egyptian pyramid builders. Literally using string, a straightedge and shadow, they managed to design and build the pyramids. She moved next into ancient Babylonia where their contribution to geometry is measuring circles and first dividing a circle into 360 degrees.
Then we moved to Ancient Greece. First we encounter Thales, then Pythagorus with his theorem and secretive religious society. From Pythagorus we move to Plato's Academy and Eudoxus' Golden Mean. Then onto Archimedes, Menaechmus and his discovery of the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola and finally Eratosthenes and Euclid.
The book is full of two tone illustrations and diagrams. I am so math phobic and shaky in my recollection of geometry but even I could get the Pythagorean theorem. However, I had a bit more of a struggle with the Golden Mean for some reason, even though the author re-creates how Eudoxus must have explained his exciting discovery to Plato and his students. I thought I'd go to youtube for further information and found this charming clip.
There are a number of typos in the book, which annoyed me. Here is this book trying to excite kids about pretty esoteric stuff and the editors can't even proofread it closely. But the enthusiasm of the author comes through clearly. I bet she was a great math teacher!
Apparently this book is really popular with Waldorf educators. You can buy it new from various small publishers like this one. Or directly from the publisher, Whole Spirit Press.
You can get this same sort of history about Geometry in more detail in Joy Hakim's first volume of The Story of Science; Aristotle Leads the Way. And some of this is also recounted in the Mathematicians are People, Too. Hakim's though, is much more detailed and I found was a bit of a drudge. Mathematicians are People Too is a good resource except that the author sometimes seems anti-Catholic.
I found this book enjoyable and I think it would make an excellent math read aloud. Too bad about the typos.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Ms. Diggins starts out imagining how pre-historic man first encountered and began to think about geometric concepts. She moves into the practical geometry used by the Egyptian pyramid builders. Literally using string, a straightedge and shadow, they managed to design and build the pyramids. She moved next into ancient Babylonia where their contribution to geometry is measuring circles and first dividing a circle into 360 degrees.
Then we moved to Ancient Greece. First we encounter Thales, then Pythagorus with his theorem and secretive religious society. From Pythagorus we move to Plato's Academy and Eudoxus' Golden Mean. Then onto Archimedes, Menaechmus and his discovery of the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola and finally Eratosthenes and Euclid.
The book is full of two tone illustrations and diagrams. I am so math phobic and shaky in my recollection of geometry but even I could get the Pythagorean theorem. However, I had a bit more of a struggle with the Golden Mean for some reason, even though the author re-creates how Eudoxus must have explained his exciting discovery to Plato and his students. I thought I'd go to youtube for further information and found this charming clip.
There are a number of typos in the book, which annoyed me. Here is this book trying to excite kids about pretty esoteric stuff and the editors can't even proofread it closely. But the enthusiasm of the author comes through clearly. I bet she was a great math teacher!
Apparently this book is really popular with Waldorf educators. You can buy it new from various small publishers like this one. Or directly from the publisher, Whole Spirit Press.
You can get this same sort of history about Geometry in more detail in Joy Hakim's first volume of The Story of Science; Aristotle Leads the Way. And some of this is also recounted in the Mathematicians are People, Too. Hakim's though, is much more detailed and I found was a bit of a drudge. Mathematicians are People Too is a good resource except that the author sometimes seems anti-Catholic.
I found this book enjoyable and I think it would make an excellent math read aloud. Too bad about the typos.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Duplicate Death - Book 2
Duplicate Death is the third Inspector Hemingway mystery by Georgette Heyer. It was published in 1951 and had a bit of a harder edge to it than her previous ones. There were a couple of instances of mildly not very nice words and cocaine figured heavily in the story. I didn't know they called it 'snow' back then! And one of the characters is a 'pansy' while another, Dan Seaton-Carew, is a handsome, playboy type with no discernible means of income, who swings both ways.
The story centers around a Mrs. Haddington, a socialite who seems to have sprung from nowhere and who is only concerned with getting her beautiful and spoiled daughter, Cynthia, married to someone rich. She holds many parties, one of which is a bridge party with many guests when a murder occurs. To counter the sordidness of some of the company we are introduced to, we've got the Kane family. Mr. and Mrs. Kane who are a delightful couple. Timothy Kane, the younger brother, is in love with one of the prime suspects. And of course, we've got curmudgeonly, quick thinking Inspector Hemingway and his Scottish sidekick, Grant, who is always, 'breathing Gaelic' all over the place.
As always, I found Heyer's writing engaging and diverting. I especially liked the way Heyer wrapped things up.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
The story centers around a Mrs. Haddington, a socialite who seems to have sprung from nowhere and who is only concerned with getting her beautiful and spoiled daughter, Cynthia, married to someone rich. She holds many parties, one of which is a bridge party with many guests when a murder occurs. To counter the sordidness of some of the company we are introduced to, we've got the Kane family. Mr. and Mrs. Kane who are a delightful couple. Timothy Kane, the younger brother, is in love with one of the prime suspects. And of course, we've got curmudgeonly, quick thinking Inspector Hemingway and his Scottish sidekick, Grant, who is always, 'breathing Gaelic' all over the place.
As always, I found Heyer's writing engaging and diverting. I especially liked the way Heyer wrapped things up.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
In Review - what we've been up to
I think I'll record things we've been doing lately:
We are experiencing a winter lull here, exacerbated by weather cancellations due either to actual weather or the school system canceling things because they don't have an ounce of common sense. But in spite of this we've done some things!
The weekend before MLK weekend, Sean, Becky and I helped out at our parish's bingo night fundraiser for the work campers.
Sean made it to Physics class on Tuesday
We made it to Mass and then the Latin Study session on Friday afternoon.
Sean's been meeting with his physical trainer and both Becky and I have been exercising! Oh yes we have!
Josh has been going to work; on his day off last week, he took two of the pets to the vet for me (God bless him for that!).
On Saturday we did a really fun trip up to Philadelphia. We took the train (expensive, except we really didn't feel like driving) and then we bought (expensive) tickets for the Big Bus tour of Philly. We had three things on our bucket list: to see Independence Hall, to eat a cheesesteak and to see the Rocky statue. We saw the Liberty Bell, a guy dressed up like Ben Franklin (turns out 1/17 is Franklin's birthday!), Independence Hall which was very cool. Then we walked to a cheesesteak place called Sonny's and had our cheesesteaks. The kids didn't care them. Rick and I thought it was pretty good but not the best we'd ever eaten. Did I mention it was in the mid 20's and we were freezing? We walked to Betsy Ross' house. That was interesting. Then we waited almost an hour for the tour bus which never came. We called them and they finally came and got us. Turns out they weren't going by the Ross house that day. Hmmm. We were ice cubes! They neglected to tell us that little detail. Then we took the city tour all around Philadelphia. We had a great tour guide. They let us off at the Rocky statue and we ran up the art museum steps (the statue is actually now located at the bottom of the steps). All except Becky who was really frozen because she did not dress warmly enough (Mom! I'll be fine, she said before we left, when I was nagging her to put on something warmer than just a hoodie!). Also, she couldn't care less about Rocky! After that tour was over we still had a little bit of time before we had to get back to the train station, so we wound up going to the vigil mass at SS Peter and Paul Basilica which is just gorgeous. We'd seen the outside on the tour. It has bricks where windows should be on the ground floor. They built it that way because it was built during the No Nothing riots when anti-Catholic mobs were burning down churches and throwing rocks through stained glass windows. Inside though is just beautiful. They made up for the lackluster outside. Then we went back to the station and eventually got home. It was a really fun day.
Sunday we recuperated. Josh went to work both Saturday and Sunday. Becky went to a birthday party in the evening - a friend of hers from Sterling Playmakers. Hannah and Peter came over to visit. I finally got the Christmas tree down and packed up in the attic (thanks again to Josh! I tell you having a 19 year old son around is a very helpful thing!)
Monday - MLK day - Josh got up early and helped at the hypothermia shelter while I got up early to make beef stew for dinner at the hypothermia shelter. Becky had an AHG gathering. They are making decorations for the father-daughter dance and then they all went out to dinner together at a place called Nando's. Sean had his PT. Rick had to go over to Baltimore to help with Steve's stuff. They have to get the condo ready for sale and deal with probate paperwork, etc. Josh wasn't feeling well last night so he didn't come with us but we wound up going out to Red Robin's. That is the 2nd time we've eaten there in the lsat couple months (we went there for Sean's birthday) and honestly I really don't like their food! Sean told me he would never ask me to to go there again. I think they must have had a change of management. It has really gone down hill. Oh well.
This week: Sean has a special physics lab this morning at Starbucks! We'll have some of our usual fare this week with math on Wed, except Thursday is the March for Life - gotta figure out how the kids can get there without me. On Friday we might we see Will. He's going to the march but with a bunch of friends from Boston. Then on Saturday he is taking Sean to MAGFEST.
Alight! Time to get moving with this day!
We are experiencing a winter lull here, exacerbated by weather cancellations due either to actual weather or the school system canceling things because they don't have an ounce of common sense. But in spite of this we've done some things!
The weekend before MLK weekend, Sean, Becky and I helped out at our parish's bingo night fundraiser for the work campers.
Sean made it to Physics class on Tuesday
We made it to Mass and then the Latin Study session on Friday afternoon.
Sean's been meeting with his physical trainer and both Becky and I have been exercising! Oh yes we have!
Josh has been going to work; on his day off last week, he took two of the pets to the vet for me (God bless him for that!).
On Saturday we did a really fun trip up to Philadelphia. We took the train (expensive, except we really didn't feel like driving) and then we bought (expensive) tickets for the Big Bus tour of Philly. We had three things on our bucket list: to see Independence Hall, to eat a cheesesteak and to see the Rocky statue. We saw the Liberty Bell, a guy dressed up like Ben Franklin (turns out 1/17 is Franklin's birthday!), Independence Hall which was very cool. Then we walked to a cheesesteak place called Sonny's and had our cheesesteaks. The kids didn't care them. Rick and I thought it was pretty good but not the best we'd ever eaten. Did I mention it was in the mid 20's and we were freezing? We walked to Betsy Ross' house. That was interesting. Then we waited almost an hour for the tour bus which never came. We called them and they finally came and got us. Turns out they weren't going by the Ross house that day. Hmmm. We were ice cubes! They neglected to tell us that little detail. Then we took the city tour all around Philadelphia. We had a great tour guide. They let us off at the Rocky statue and we ran up the art museum steps (the statue is actually now located at the bottom of the steps). All except Becky who was really frozen because she did not dress warmly enough (Mom! I'll be fine, she said before we left, when I was nagging her to put on something warmer than just a hoodie!). Also, she couldn't care less about Rocky! After that tour was over we still had a little bit of time before we had to get back to the train station, so we wound up going to the vigil mass at SS Peter and Paul Basilica which is just gorgeous. We'd seen the outside on the tour. It has bricks where windows should be on the ground floor. They built it that way because it was built during the No Nothing riots when anti-Catholic mobs were burning down churches and throwing rocks through stained glass windows. Inside though is just beautiful. They made up for the lackluster outside. Then we went back to the station and eventually got home. It was a really fun day.
Sunday we recuperated. Josh went to work both Saturday and Sunday. Becky went to a birthday party in the evening - a friend of hers from Sterling Playmakers. Hannah and Peter came over to visit. I finally got the Christmas tree down and packed up in the attic (thanks again to Josh! I tell you having a 19 year old son around is a very helpful thing!)
Monday - MLK day - Josh got up early and helped at the hypothermia shelter while I got up early to make beef stew for dinner at the hypothermia shelter. Becky had an AHG gathering. They are making decorations for the father-daughter dance and then they all went out to dinner together at a place called Nando's. Sean had his PT. Rick had to go over to Baltimore to help with Steve's stuff. They have to get the condo ready for sale and deal with probate paperwork, etc. Josh wasn't feeling well last night so he didn't come with us but we wound up going out to Red Robin's. That is the 2nd time we've eaten there in the lsat couple months (we went there for Sean's birthday) and honestly I really don't like their food! Sean told me he would never ask me to to go there again. I think they must have had a change of management. It has really gone down hill. Oh well.
This week: Sean has a special physics lab this morning at Starbucks! We'll have some of our usual fare this week with math on Wed, except Thursday is the March for Life - gotta figure out how the kids can get there without me. On Friday we might we see Will. He's going to the march but with a bunch of friends from Boston. Then on Saturday he is taking Sean to MAGFEST.
Alight! Time to get moving with this day!
Monday, January 12, 2015
Teenshare
I've decided to post all the articles and videos I want to share with my teens here. Usually I just keep tabs up or I try to email them with the link (but they are infrequent about checking email so often the link goes stale, or just isn't relevant to whatever inspired me to send it to them). Anyway, I will store them here and that way I can remember to show them at some point during the day when we are hanging out together (usually over breakfast or lunch).
Great article about confession by a priest who is featured in the video Confirmation program we are watching.
Mind-blowingly beautiful!
Musical of Huckleberry Finn - Big River
Really cool videos of the elements of the periodic table. http://www.periodicvideos.com/
Latin quiz site at NLE http://quiz.nle.org/quizBuilder
Language and geography - http://mentalfloss.com/article/12447/why-do-so-many-countries-end-stan
Beginner Bass Guitar Lessons on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m9QGj9GjIY
Great article about confession by a priest who is featured in the video Confirmation program we are watching.
Mind-blowingly beautiful!
Musical of Huckleberry Finn - Big River
Really cool videos of the elements of the periodic table. http://www.periodicvideos.com/
Latin quiz site at NLE http://quiz.nle.org/quizBuilder
Language and geography - http://mentalfloss.com/article/12447/why-do-so-many-countries-end-stan
Beginner Bass Guitar Lessons on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m9QGj9GjIY
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Uncle Tungsten; Memories of a Chemical Boyhood - Book 1
Uncle Tungsten; Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver W. Sacks is the fascinating and beautifully written memoir of Sacks' childhood passion for chemistry in London during and just after World War II. Sacks comes from a huge extended Jewish family of scientists and doctors. His own parents were doctors with their surgery in their own home, a large rambling Victorian mansion. His many uncles and aunts were major influences on him. And especially his Uncle Dave, affectionately know as Uncle Tungsten because he owned a factory that produced tungsten filaments for light bulbs. Sacks must have been a really gifted child. His fascination started early with curiosity about the metals he saw in everyday life. Trips to visit Uncle Tungsten's factory and deep wonderful conversations with his uncle about how tungsten and all the other elements came to be discovered completely captivated his imagination. This blossoming love was interrupted by World War II when he and his older brother Michael were sent away from London to a horrible typically evil British boarding school in the country so the children would be 'safe.' However, just like in Dickens and every other book about British boarding schools, the children were beaten and treated cruelly. Sacks actually felt safer back in London during the bombing, the very few times he got to go home on holiday.
Even though Sacks' family sounds wonderfully smart and eccentric and he obviously loves his parents, they were curiously insensitive to a dysfunctional degree. Sacks wound up being the very last student at his school, Braefield, because all the other students had complained about the cruelty. For some reason Oliver never does. Later, his brother Michael actually goes crazy from abuse and the parents never suspected anything. Sacks even says at one point that it seemed to him his parents had more compassion for their patients than their own children.
After his very scarring years away from home during the war, he returns permanently to his London house where he eventually sets up his own chemistry laboratory. He is enchanted by the heroic explorations and experimentations of early chemists and he seeks to emulate them. He has ready mentors in his Uncles Dave and Abe. He has recourse to all kinds of chemicals, equipment and books. He reads his parents' own chemistry textbooks. He takes long bus rides to a chemical warehouse that he wanders around like a bookworm in a library. This book is a walking advertisement for homeschooling. He hated school and never mentions it once in a positive light except for the fact that he really thought learning Greek and Latin helped him and that in his high school (in London) he had a monomaniacal biology teacher who in spite of his many flaws managed to ignite a fascination with marine biology. All his learning memories are about his own reading, his mentoring uncles and parents, his own explorations in his chemistry lab, his visits to the museums and factories. Sacks even says at the very end of the book when he is beginning to lose his passion for chemistry and move on to other things:
This book is chock full of detailed chemistry and the history of science, much of which I am sure went right over my head. But still Sacks conveys with such lovely nuance how spellbound he was by the mysteries and wonders of chemistry, that even I, who am so very incapable of thinking like a chemist, feel a deep appreciation for what this science really is and what joy it gave him as a young boy growing up in wartime. It made me want to learn chemistry even though I have always been terrified by it.
I really appreciated Sacks' storytelling abilities because he could make very scientific concepts and complex details engaging and sensible to even me, an ignorant reader. There were a couple of times though where the book really disturbed me, but these were about his otherwise charming family. Once he talks about his two oldest brothers, who were quite a good bit older than he. They got a deferment during the war because they were med students at the time. These brothers were as brilliant as any of the brilliant members of this family were. One had a gift for music and the other languages. They had pursued these passions before the war, however, after the war for some reason they felt they couldn't continue their interests because of their medical school demands. I got peeved at this thinking of all the sacrifices that millions made and suffered during this war. These were two young Jewish men who did not have to go fight Hitler and his minions and yet they are sad because of some illusory idea that they could only be doctors and not pursue their avocations. Huh? Count your blessings, boys! How about those who suffered horribly, were in concentration camps, gassed, and all those who experienced the many terrors of war and deprivation in ways you never did. Heck, these enemies were trying to exterminate your own people! (Sacks' parents were Zionists who sometimes helped fleeing Jewish refugees). I don't know. It was the way Sacks wrote it that smacked of superiority and a kind of an insensitive self-importance that bothered me.
The other disturbing thing is again the deep insensitivity his mother had. She was fascinated with anatomy and surgery. She had no clue as to how traumatized Oliver was by the war and death. She would bring home babies who had died or had been born so deformed that she 'quickly drowned them like kittens." She told her son she did this which completely freaked him out. She had also told him that when he was a baby she'd been afraid his skull wasn't developing properly and that he'd be deformed. Of course as a child this really traumatized him. Then when he was 14 she had him go to the medical school to dissect a corpse!!! He had done some dissections of worms and frogs (and once his own pet octopus murdered by a maid at the seaside hotel) before but this was a person! And it turned out to be a girl his own age. He was given a leg to dissect! It took him a month and while he did learn much, he was also completely horrified by the whole thing as well. Sacks did love his mother and she had much that was good about her, but something was definitely amiss too. And when Oliver talks about his father, he does so in warm terms, except that he goes chapters and chapters without even mentioning him. The uncles get far more attention. At times Sacks talks about how his love of chemistry was really a form of escape from all the uncertainties and horrors he encountered in his childhood.
It seems to me this book would make a great living book for a high schooler learning chemistry. There are a couple of references to burgeoning sexuality that I could have done without, but you could easily strike these few passages out. I was surprised to find no one had come up with a unit study approach to learning chemistry based on this book. I guess we are too linear when teaching it now. But really I think you could do a very thorough job of introducing chemistry and physics through this book. For the first time in my life I think I might grasp what quanta are, so thank you Dr. Sacks!
Here is a really in depth analysis of the book I found by someone who also loved chemistry.
I actually bought and read parts of Uncle Tungsten years ago and have always wanted to revisit it and read it from cover to cover. So I am very happy with myself for finally doing that and having it be my first book completed in 2015!
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Even though Sacks' family sounds wonderfully smart and eccentric and he obviously loves his parents, they were curiously insensitive to a dysfunctional degree. Sacks wound up being the very last student at his school, Braefield, because all the other students had complained about the cruelty. For some reason Oliver never does. Later, his brother Michael actually goes crazy from abuse and the parents never suspected anything. Sacks even says at one point that it seemed to him his parents had more compassion for their patients than their own children.
After his very scarring years away from home during the war, he returns permanently to his London house where he eventually sets up his own chemistry laboratory. He is enchanted by the heroic explorations and experimentations of early chemists and he seeks to emulate them. He has ready mentors in his Uncles Dave and Abe. He has recourse to all kinds of chemicals, equipment and books. He reads his parents' own chemistry textbooks. He takes long bus rides to a chemical warehouse that he wanders around like a bookworm in a library. This book is a walking advertisement for homeschooling. He hated school and never mentions it once in a positive light except for the fact that he really thought learning Greek and Latin helped him and that in his high school (in London) he had a monomaniacal biology teacher who in spite of his many flaws managed to ignite a fascination with marine biology. All his learning memories are about his own reading, his mentoring uncles and parents, his own explorations in his chemistry lab, his visits to the museums and factories. Sacks even says at the very end of the book when he is beginning to lose his passion for chemistry and move on to other things:
Now at school I was forced to sit in classes, to take notes and exams, to use textbooks that were flat, impersonal, deadly. What had been fun, delight, when I did it my own way became an aversion, an ordeal, when I had to do it in order. What had been a holy subject for me, full of poetry, was being rendered prosaic, profane.
This book is chock full of detailed chemistry and the history of science, much of which I am sure went right over my head. But still Sacks conveys with such lovely nuance how spellbound he was by the mysteries and wonders of chemistry, that even I, who am so very incapable of thinking like a chemist, feel a deep appreciation for what this science really is and what joy it gave him as a young boy growing up in wartime. It made me want to learn chemistry even though I have always been terrified by it.
I really appreciated Sacks' storytelling abilities because he could make very scientific concepts and complex details engaging and sensible to even me, an ignorant reader. There were a couple of times though where the book really disturbed me, but these were about his otherwise charming family. Once he talks about his two oldest brothers, who were quite a good bit older than he. They got a deferment during the war because they were med students at the time. These brothers were as brilliant as any of the brilliant members of this family were. One had a gift for music and the other languages. They had pursued these passions before the war, however, after the war for some reason they felt they couldn't continue their interests because of their medical school demands. I got peeved at this thinking of all the sacrifices that millions made and suffered during this war. These were two young Jewish men who did not have to go fight Hitler and his minions and yet they are sad because of some illusory idea that they could only be doctors and not pursue their avocations. Huh? Count your blessings, boys! How about those who suffered horribly, were in concentration camps, gassed, and all those who experienced the many terrors of war and deprivation in ways you never did. Heck, these enemies were trying to exterminate your own people! (Sacks' parents were Zionists who sometimes helped fleeing Jewish refugees). I don't know. It was the way Sacks wrote it that smacked of superiority and a kind of an insensitive self-importance that bothered me.
The other disturbing thing is again the deep insensitivity his mother had. She was fascinated with anatomy and surgery. She had no clue as to how traumatized Oliver was by the war and death. She would bring home babies who had died or had been born so deformed that she 'quickly drowned them like kittens." She told her son she did this which completely freaked him out. She had also told him that when he was a baby she'd been afraid his skull wasn't developing properly and that he'd be deformed. Of course as a child this really traumatized him. Then when he was 14 she had him go to the medical school to dissect a corpse!!! He had done some dissections of worms and frogs (and once his own pet octopus murdered by a maid at the seaside hotel) before but this was a person! And it turned out to be a girl his own age. He was given a leg to dissect! It took him a month and while he did learn much, he was also completely horrified by the whole thing as well. Sacks did love his mother and she had much that was good about her, but something was definitely amiss too. And when Oliver talks about his father, he does so in warm terms, except that he goes chapters and chapters without even mentioning him. The uncles get far more attention. At times Sacks talks about how his love of chemistry was really a form of escape from all the uncertainties and horrors he encountered in his childhood.
It seems to me this book would make a great living book for a high schooler learning chemistry. There are a couple of references to burgeoning sexuality that I could have done without, but you could easily strike these few passages out. I was surprised to find no one had come up with a unit study approach to learning chemistry based on this book. I guess we are too linear when teaching it now. But really I think you could do a very thorough job of introducing chemistry and physics through this book. For the first time in my life I think I might grasp what quanta are, so thank you Dr. Sacks!
Here is a really in depth analysis of the book I found by someone who also loved chemistry.
I actually bought and read parts of Uncle Tungsten years ago and have always wanted to revisit it and read it from cover to cover. So I am very happy with myself for finally doing that and having it be my first book completed in 2015!
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Friday, January 9, 2015
A Day in the Life
I was inspired to write this post by Simple Homeschool's Day in the Life series currently underway at that blog. I thought perhaps it was something I could Mr. Linky to, but I don't see how. But please go and read the wonderful Day in the Life posts there. Simple Homeschool is a really great homeschooling blog.
Background Info: We have been homeschooling for nearly 20 years. We have graduated our three oldest children from homeschool high school. Our oldest daughter is recently married and attending grad school at night. Our second oldest, a son, is graduating from a music conservatory this coming spring. Our 19 year old son lives at home and works. He tried a year of college and it did not go well. So he came home. We decided he could take a year to just work and figure out what he wants to do. He has been much happier working and he thinks he wants to try out an apprenticeship in some kind of trade next fall.
Right now I am homeschooling our two youngest kids - a 13 year old girl in 8th grade and a 16 year old boy in 10th.
I wake early, anywhere between 5:30 and 7:00. Sometimes my husband is up if he has a meeting or needs to fly out of town, but since his clients are mostly on the west coast and we are on the east, he tends to sleep in a bit and doesn't get into work until 10 or later. Sometimes he works from home for an hour or two before going in to the office.
My first act of the day is to feed the dog and three cats. Then I get coffee and have my quiet time for the morning which involves prayer, theological reading, checking email, making a to do list for the day. Then I get things prepared for when the kids awake.
I get them up anytime between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. The first thing they do is lie down on the couches in the living room while we pray, read the gospel and listen to a short audio on the saint of the day. Some times we are sleepy and do the bare minimum of this, sometimes a conversation is sparked or we start listening to interesting youtube videos we want to share with each other.
I fix a quick breakfast of some sort (or I might have already fixed something and it is waiting for us) and we move into the kitchen. While we are eating we discuss what will happen that day. Sometimes I will read something out loud to them or we'll continue to watch youtube videos.
Right after breakfast we take out our copy books or commonplace books and write in them. What we write varies. Right now we are studying for the National Latin Exam so we've been copying over paradigms to refresh our memories. Throughout this school year though we've been mining Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric for great quotes and learning about various literary devices. We also often copy over prayers or quotes from saints or other heroic figures.
After copy work, what we do depends on the day. We have a math tutor come to the house on Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:00. She is working through Learn Math Fast with the 8th grader who doesn't particularly like math. And she's working through Saxon's Algebra 2 with the 10th grader who doesn't mind math and may occasionally admit to enjoying it. Our tutor is also teaching the 8th grader Physical Science following Kolbe's syllabus for the course (Kolbe calls it Intro to Physics and Chemistry which is a better name for the course, in my opinion). This has been rocky though, as my theater-loving, bookworm daughter is floundering with the textbook approach. This was an experiment on my part. I wanted her to try a traditional schooly approach to science because initially we thought she might like to go to a brick and mortar high school and I thought this might help prepare her. However, we've changed our minds about that but, since we started the year off with the Physical Science course we are trying to persevere through the end of it. I am looking forward to next year when we can go back to living books, fun exploration and unit type studies. I am thinking we won't tackle high school Biology with a lab until her 10th grade. Right now to buoy up enthusiasm for science I've been reading The Mystery of the Periodic Table to her for fun.
On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, my 16 year old has outside classes. He is taking a Physics class on Tuesdays and an American Literature class on Thursdays. He wanted to take classes in the homeschool community instead of being at home all day. Since he isn't driving yet and in any event I'd have to share my mini-van with him if he was, I drive him and drop him off. Back home with my 8th grader we work on preparation for her coming Confirmation this spring or she has free time to follow her own interests. We are slowly reading Bible Basics for Catholics by John Bergsma. It is wonderful! We've also just started watching Chosen - both my son, who is her confirmation sponsor and my daughter LOVE this program. She loves to read. In 2014 she read 30 books and listened to 5 (either read by me or her father or on audio). She kept track of her reading by writing down the name of the book on a slip of paper and keeping it in a special jar she has in her room. This was her own initiative that perhaps she got from somewhere (Pinterest?). She is taking voice lessons and often practices singing. She's also been bitten by the theater bug. This past summer she was in a production of Peter Pan at the local community theater. This fall she spent rehearsing for a holiday show. She watches a lot of youtube clips from musicals. Yesterday she was walking around singing songs from Fiddler on the Roof all day! She has just volunteered to be a runner for another show this spring that she is too young to audition for. She's hoping to get into next summer's planned production of The Music Man. She also works on her American Heritage Girls badge work at times. Right now that means knitting!
On Thursdays after the 16 year old's literature class, we often go to daily noon Mass and then out to lunch. If we don't make it to Mass on Thursday, we will go on Fridays at noon. Thursday afternoons are usually reserved for history. We have a lot of casual components to our history studies! I read aloud from a spine, right now This Country of Ours. The kids are building a timeline of events on Word. We also are doing short units on different topics. Right now I am also reading out loud The Story of the Constitution and we are doing various things to learn about that. Next month we'll focus on the French Revolution. My 16 year old is also watching a Great Courses lecture series called The American Identity. These are lectures his three older siblings also watched for high school American History. While he's watching his video, my daughter does her Geography lesson from LPH.
Finally we study Latin whenever we can fit it in - so sometimes we tackle it in the morning and sometimes not until evening. We were using Cambridge Latin this past fall, but now I've just gathered various resources to study from as we prepare for the National Latin Exam in March. We've just signed up for a study group that will meet on Fridays in January.
Afternoons and evenings are different each day. Last night my 16 year old had a friend over. We've got various AHG, church groups, volunteer activities, etc going on. My 16 yo who is not athletically inclined but really needs to be physically fit has a physical trainer who comes to work out with him twice a week. Right now my daughter and I are just slugs! We need to find something to do to exercise! And usually there is homework to be done in math, science and literature. Right now my 16 year old really needs to get moving on reading Huckleberry Finn, something he was supposed to read over the Christmas holidays and then write a three page paper on by next Thursday. He struggles a little with dyslexia. He can read on grade level but he is very slow and he really has to work to get his comprehension level up. He'll read shorter works (he read Ben Franklin's Autobiography and Frederick Douglass' Narrative) but when the book is long, like Huck Finn, he listens to it on audio. It is so good we have those alternatives!
My 19 year old has shift work, so we may or may not see him at different points of the day. My married daughter lives near us and is currently working as a substitute teacher at a nearby middle school. Sometimes she and her husband pop in for a visit. With the kids help somehow lunch and dinner happen. We don't have set chores but as help is needed they pitch in, and somehow, in some very unsystematic way, we all manage to function! My 16 year old has just taken up playing the bass. He's also a video game enthusiast. My 13 year old is becoming pretty good at games too! Sometimes we break out a board game. Big Boggle is the current favorite.
I never know when my husband will get home. He's hardly ever home for dinner. He usually gets back between 8 and 10 p.m.
We always pray again together at night. Often our 22 year old son in Boston calls in the evening to fill us in on his very interesting escapades. At night I am usually the first to go to bed. I try to remember (but often don't) to take the ipod/ipads away from the high school teens. We've had issues with staying up late and not being able to function in the morning.
So that's what our days look like right now. We really leaned towards unschooling in the younger years but about 7th grade or so we start moving into more formal studies. I am still in shock that my youngest child is now a teen!!! Where did the time go?
Right now it is 4:30 on Friday. Today, the kids:
Woke at 9, prayed, ate French toast for breakfast, did some Latin copy work, did some science homework, showered, went to Mass at noon, ate at Chipotle for lunch, spent 1:30 - 3:15 p.m. studying Latin with a Latin teacher, came home and right now the 16 year old is out running with his physical trainer and the 13 year old is up in her room reading.
Background Info: We have been homeschooling for nearly 20 years. We have graduated our three oldest children from homeschool high school. Our oldest daughter is recently married and attending grad school at night. Our second oldest, a son, is graduating from a music conservatory this coming spring. Our 19 year old son lives at home and works. He tried a year of college and it did not go well. So he came home. We decided he could take a year to just work and figure out what he wants to do. He has been much happier working and he thinks he wants to try out an apprenticeship in some kind of trade next fall.
Right now I am homeschooling our two youngest kids - a 13 year old girl in 8th grade and a 16 year old boy in 10th.
I wake early, anywhere between 5:30 and 7:00. Sometimes my husband is up if he has a meeting or needs to fly out of town, but since his clients are mostly on the west coast and we are on the east, he tends to sleep in a bit and doesn't get into work until 10 or later. Sometimes he works from home for an hour or two before going in to the office.
My first act of the day is to feed the dog and three cats. Then I get coffee and have my quiet time for the morning which involves prayer, theological reading, checking email, making a to do list for the day. Then I get things prepared for when the kids awake.
I get them up anytime between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. The first thing they do is lie down on the couches in the living room while we pray, read the gospel and listen to a short audio on the saint of the day. Some times we are sleepy and do the bare minimum of this, sometimes a conversation is sparked or we start listening to interesting youtube videos we want to share with each other.
I fix a quick breakfast of some sort (or I might have already fixed something and it is waiting for us) and we move into the kitchen. While we are eating we discuss what will happen that day. Sometimes I will read something out loud to them or we'll continue to watch youtube videos.
Right after breakfast we take out our copy books or commonplace books and write in them. What we write varies. Right now we are studying for the National Latin Exam so we've been copying over paradigms to refresh our memories. Throughout this school year though we've been mining Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric for great quotes and learning about various literary devices. We also often copy over prayers or quotes from saints or other heroic figures.
After copy work, what we do depends on the day. We have a math tutor come to the house on Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:00. She is working through Learn Math Fast with the 8th grader who doesn't particularly like math. And she's working through Saxon's Algebra 2 with the 10th grader who doesn't mind math and may occasionally admit to enjoying it. Our tutor is also teaching the 8th grader Physical Science following Kolbe's syllabus for the course (Kolbe calls it Intro to Physics and Chemistry which is a better name for the course, in my opinion). This has been rocky though, as my theater-loving, bookworm daughter is floundering with the textbook approach. This was an experiment on my part. I wanted her to try a traditional schooly approach to science because initially we thought she might like to go to a brick and mortar high school and I thought this might help prepare her. However, we've changed our minds about that but, since we started the year off with the Physical Science course we are trying to persevere through the end of it. I am looking forward to next year when we can go back to living books, fun exploration and unit type studies. I am thinking we won't tackle high school Biology with a lab until her 10th grade. Right now to buoy up enthusiasm for science I've been reading The Mystery of the Periodic Table to her for fun.
On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, my 16 year old has outside classes. He is taking a Physics class on Tuesdays and an American Literature class on Thursdays. He wanted to take classes in the homeschool community instead of being at home all day. Since he isn't driving yet and in any event I'd have to share my mini-van with him if he was, I drive him and drop him off. Back home with my 8th grader we work on preparation for her coming Confirmation this spring or she has free time to follow her own interests. We are slowly reading Bible Basics for Catholics by John Bergsma. It is wonderful! We've also just started watching Chosen - both my son, who is her confirmation sponsor and my daughter LOVE this program. She loves to read. In 2014 she read 30 books and listened to 5 (either read by me or her father or on audio). She kept track of her reading by writing down the name of the book on a slip of paper and keeping it in a special jar she has in her room. This was her own initiative that perhaps she got from somewhere (Pinterest?). She is taking voice lessons and often practices singing. She's also been bitten by the theater bug. This past summer she was in a production of Peter Pan at the local community theater. This fall she spent rehearsing for a holiday show. She watches a lot of youtube clips from musicals. Yesterday she was walking around singing songs from Fiddler on the Roof all day! She has just volunteered to be a runner for another show this spring that she is too young to audition for. She's hoping to get into next summer's planned production of The Music Man. She also works on her American Heritage Girls badge work at times. Right now that means knitting!
On Thursdays after the 16 year old's literature class, we often go to daily noon Mass and then out to lunch. If we don't make it to Mass on Thursday, we will go on Fridays at noon. Thursday afternoons are usually reserved for history. We have a lot of casual components to our history studies! I read aloud from a spine, right now This Country of Ours. The kids are building a timeline of events on Word. We also are doing short units on different topics. Right now I am also reading out loud The Story of the Constitution and we are doing various things to learn about that. Next month we'll focus on the French Revolution. My 16 year old is also watching a Great Courses lecture series called The American Identity. These are lectures his three older siblings also watched for high school American History. While he's watching his video, my daughter does her Geography lesson from LPH.
Finally we study Latin whenever we can fit it in - so sometimes we tackle it in the morning and sometimes not until evening. We were using Cambridge Latin this past fall, but now I've just gathered various resources to study from as we prepare for the National Latin Exam in March. We've just signed up for a study group that will meet on Fridays in January.
Afternoons and evenings are different each day. Last night my 16 year old had a friend over. We've got various AHG, church groups, volunteer activities, etc going on. My 16 yo who is not athletically inclined but really needs to be physically fit has a physical trainer who comes to work out with him twice a week. Right now my daughter and I are just slugs! We need to find something to do to exercise! And usually there is homework to be done in math, science and literature. Right now my 16 year old really needs to get moving on reading Huckleberry Finn, something he was supposed to read over the Christmas holidays and then write a three page paper on by next Thursday. He struggles a little with dyslexia. He can read on grade level but he is very slow and he really has to work to get his comprehension level up. He'll read shorter works (he read Ben Franklin's Autobiography and Frederick Douglass' Narrative) but when the book is long, like Huck Finn, he listens to it on audio. It is so good we have those alternatives!
My 19 year old has shift work, so we may or may not see him at different points of the day. My married daughter lives near us and is currently working as a substitute teacher at a nearby middle school. Sometimes she and her husband pop in for a visit. With the kids help somehow lunch and dinner happen. We don't have set chores but as help is needed they pitch in, and somehow, in some very unsystematic way, we all manage to function! My 16 year old has just taken up playing the bass. He's also a video game enthusiast. My 13 year old is becoming pretty good at games too! Sometimes we break out a board game. Big Boggle is the current favorite.
I never know when my husband will get home. He's hardly ever home for dinner. He usually gets back between 8 and 10 p.m.
We always pray again together at night. Often our 22 year old son in Boston calls in the evening to fill us in on his very interesting escapades. At night I am usually the first to go to bed. I try to remember (but often don't) to take the ipod/ipads away from the high school teens. We've had issues with staying up late and not being able to function in the morning.
So that's what our days look like right now. We really leaned towards unschooling in the younger years but about 7th grade or so we start moving into more formal studies. I am still in shock that my youngest child is now a teen!!! Where did the time go?
Right now it is 4:30 on Friday. Today, the kids:
Woke at 9, prayed, ate French toast for breakfast, did some Latin copy work, did some science homework, showered, went to Mass at noon, ate at Chipotle for lunch, spent 1:30 - 3:15 p.m. studying Latin with a Latin teacher, came home and right now the 16 year old is out running with his physical trainer and the 13 year old is up in her room reading.
Monday, January 5, 2015
That old tension
between delight directed learning and needing structure to function well physically and emotionally is rearing its ugly head once again!
Here it is deep dark winter and idleness around here leads to depression, bad sleeping habits and general discontent. And coming off the holidays we have had weeks now of being off kilter in terms of daily habits and how we are occupying our time. Today is the day to painfully reassert some healthy rhythm and routine back into our lives. It's gonna hurt though and all of us will be grumpy and resistant at first. I just need to keep the bigger picture in mind as we move through this day and the next few weeks.
Ever since Super Smash Bros got released Seano has been on a drunken rampage with it. Time to get back on the wagon. He's got to attend to his math, Physics and Lit classes. We also are going to crank up Latin intensely because we are aiming to take the National Latin Exam in February. He also needs to work on his driver's ed, look for a part time job, exercise more, learn to play the bass. So time spent on SSB is going to be very much curtailed for him. He's got to be super conscientious about sleep, eating and exercise habits because he wants to wean off his meds. We visit the doctor this week to start that process.
Becky is kind of dreading the next couple of months. She doesn't have her theater friends to hang out with during countless rehearsals. She wants to volunteer to help out with the shows they will present between now and the summer, but it won't be the same as actually being in a show. She also doesn't have her weekly babysitting job anymore; the mom's college class schedule changed significantly and so they don't need Becky anymore. That bummed her out. Plus Becky has been having terrible sleeping problems. She needs more stuff to do. I am not sure how we'll answer this problem but we'll come up with something.
Anyway, I hope to gently launch into things today. It will be hard but good for us.
Here it is deep dark winter and idleness around here leads to depression, bad sleeping habits and general discontent. And coming off the holidays we have had weeks now of being off kilter in terms of daily habits and how we are occupying our time. Today is the day to painfully reassert some healthy rhythm and routine back into our lives. It's gonna hurt though and all of us will be grumpy and resistant at first. I just need to keep the bigger picture in mind as we move through this day and the next few weeks.
Ever since Super Smash Bros got released Seano has been on a drunken rampage with it. Time to get back on the wagon. He's got to attend to his math, Physics and Lit classes. We also are going to crank up Latin intensely because we are aiming to take the National Latin Exam in February. He also needs to work on his driver's ed, look for a part time job, exercise more, learn to play the bass. So time spent on SSB is going to be very much curtailed for him. He's got to be super conscientious about sleep, eating and exercise habits because he wants to wean off his meds. We visit the doctor this week to start that process.
Becky is kind of dreading the next couple of months. She doesn't have her theater friends to hang out with during countless rehearsals. She wants to volunteer to help out with the shows they will present between now and the summer, but it won't be the same as actually being in a show. She also doesn't have her weekly babysitting job anymore; the mom's college class schedule changed significantly and so they don't need Becky anymore. That bummed her out. Plus Becky has been having terrible sleeping problems. She needs more stuff to do. I am not sure how we'll answer this problem but we'll come up with something.
Anyway, I hope to gently launch into things today. It will be hard but good for us.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
New Year's Resolutions!
I have two major resolutions from which I hope will naturally unfold good habits I'd like to obtain this year.
1. Model - that is my companion word for the year. I want to keep in mind that I am modeling how to live to my kids. If I am irritated and snappish - then I am modeling bad behavior. If I sit in front of the computer for long periods of time ignoring my responsibilities, then I am modeling that behavior. I need to live more intentionally or 'mindfully' (as it has become more fashionable to say now). I hope to do this by realizing my actions are witnessed by others, namely my kids, and so I need to remember that and change accordingly.
2. I am reducing my time on facebook and my time reading blogs to only three days a week: Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. This means I will be on line very minimally four days a week (I do need to check email and go to some sites for homeschooling, etc, so I can't go cold turkey off of everything!). That is going to free up a whole lot of time which I plan to spend in wise ways, God help me!
From this I do hope I'll be:
More present to my kids and husband,
More focused on my wifely job of cooking healthy, delicious foods and keeping the house orderly, cozy and pretty,
Able to read more. I still plan to do my Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
More likely to be physically active. I have to do something to keep myself from getting on line!
I also hope I'll get more established in things like regular prayer and remembering those less fortunate.
Happy New Year!
I did the Patron Saint Generator and got St. Gianna Beretta Molla! I am pretty psyched about that! St. Gianna, pray for me!
If you want your own patron saint for the new year, here ya go!
1. Model - that is my companion word for the year. I want to keep in mind that I am modeling how to live to my kids. If I am irritated and snappish - then I am modeling bad behavior. If I sit in front of the computer for long periods of time ignoring my responsibilities, then I am modeling that behavior. I need to live more intentionally or 'mindfully' (as it has become more fashionable to say now). I hope to do this by realizing my actions are witnessed by others, namely my kids, and so I need to remember that and change accordingly.
2. I am reducing my time on facebook and my time reading blogs to only three days a week: Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. This means I will be on line very minimally four days a week (I do need to check email and go to some sites for homeschooling, etc, so I can't go cold turkey off of everything!). That is going to free up a whole lot of time which I plan to spend in wise ways, God help me!
From this I do hope I'll be:
More present to my kids and husband,
More focused on my wifely job of cooking healthy, delicious foods and keeping the house orderly, cozy and pretty,
Able to read more. I still plan to do my Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
More likely to be physically active. I have to do something to keep myself from getting on line!
I also hope I'll get more established in things like regular prayer and remembering those less fortunate.
Happy New Year!
I did the Patron Saint Generator and got St. Gianna Beretta Molla! I am pretty psyched about that! St. Gianna, pray for me!
If you want your own patron saint for the new year, here ya go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)