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Flower

Just a Reminder…

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on June 25th, 2010

…that i do post some things on my blogspot blog that i don’t copy here. Until I figure out how well I like this new format, that one is my main blog, and I’m only double-posting some homeschool-y stuff here.

Quirks and Strawberries and Deep Thoughts on Schooling

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on June 17th, 2010

Notes: (1) I fixed the comment settings to allow non-HSB commenters. Also, I think I eliminated the captcha and set moderation to kick in only the first time you comment. Or maybe it was moderation that was eliminated and captcha that is only there the first time you comment. This was a few days ago and I can’t remember back that far :-) .  (2) This is a duplicate of the identically-titled post on The Good, The Bad, & the Other Stuff, so if you already read it there, you can skip it here. (Unless you want to read it all over again because it is just that good.)

I have this little quirk about things having to “go together.” Like, you shouldn’t order the Asian chicken salad with the Mediterranean veggie sandwich. Asian and Mediterranean don’t go together. Even if you like the Asian a little bit better, you need to get the Greek salad with your Mediterranean sandwich.

You shouldn’t serve tacos for Sunday dinner. Tacos are casual, and Sunday dinner should be… nice. And you shouldn’t wear a nice blouse with blue jeans, either. T-shirts go with blue jeans.

And of course, you should never read a book that takes place in 19th-century England when you are studying the Vietnam War, or take a trip to the planetarium even though you are studying animal science. You should wait until you are doing astronomy, so it all goes together. It only makes sense. Everything has to make logical sense.

And red tea kettles do not belong in earth-toned kitchens. (Neither, for that matter, do black appliances.) This drives me crazy.

Sometimes it’s a harmless little quirk, this pursuit of ultimate consistency, this need to have everything fit into its own little box… but sometimes it becomes an obsession. Sometimes it factors too strongly into my thinking and makes things more complicated than they need to be.

Renegade strawberry plants should not be allowed to grow in a flower garden. They’d be out of place. They wouldn’t fit in. How could that be a good thing? Strawberries and flowers don’t go together: the former are for eating and the latter are for looking at. Two different worlds.

And homeschool families should not send their kids to high school. That doesn’t go together. Then you don’t fit in with the homeschool community, and you don’t fit in with the school families. Too hard.

Especially, white middle-class homeschool families living on 3 acres in semi-rural suburbia should not truck their kids into the city to a reduced-tuition urban school. What sense does that make? Even if they like the school, how do those things belong together? Two. Different. Worlds.

 

Never mind that we’ve already done it for years. It still feels like starting over, and it still feels uncomfortable.

 

 

 

 

Maybe we should just do what’s comfortable, what’s logical, what’s sensible. Stay firmly entrenched in the realm of homeschooling, or at least go with the very-homeschool-friendly, nearby, suburban, conservative, homogenous school.

Because everyone knows that strawberries don’t grow in flower gardens.

Weekly WrapUp: In Which Our Education is Rather Smoky

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on June 6th, 2010

 Blogger isn’t letting me in at the moment, so I guess I’m posting this here now and copying there later. I knew there was a reason I’m still here. :-)   

    

How about a Three-Week WrapUp? That’s about how long it’s been. I should have posted this last week. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Oh and well.      

There hasn’t been a whole lot of “school” going on here lately. While a few local schools got out this past week and the rest continue through this coming week, we cut out on May 19 and have already been on “summer vacation” and back. Summer vacation before Memorial Day, because… well, Just Because We Could.      

But just because we took time off school doesn’t mean there wasn’t any ejamacayshun going on.      

We ejamacayted ourselves on the road…        

LITERATURE    

We love Focus on the Family Radio Theater!

 

MATH, LOGIC, LANGUAGE ARTS    

ART APPRECIATION: FOLK ART  

Artisan Center, Berea KY off I-75

 

…and at our destination.    

U.S. GEOGRAPHY     

EARTH SCIENCE   

Tuckaleechee Caverns, Townsend TN

 

This was a great place to be on our lone drizzly day

 

HISTORY

Mill at Cades Cove

 

Ogle Cabin, Roaring Forks Loop, GSMNP

 

 NATURE STUDIES

Along Newfound Gap Road, GSMNP

 

"Chimney Tops", GSMNP

 

This guy (?) liked to hang out by our front door

 

Part of a series of pics entitled 'Butterflies on Bear Poop', taken in the Park. I spared you the graphic ones.

 

 ANIMAL BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE  

Coyote, Cades Cove

 

Bear cub, Cades Cove

 

This guy came to visit us almost every night. The kids named him Gregory.

 

 REGIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES

  

Hillbilly Golf, Gatlinburg

 

Hillbilly Golf

 

More Hillbilly Golf. Cheapest fun in Gatlinburg!

 

 MUSIC
(cross-reference under ‘Regional Cultural Studies”)

Pre-show at the Dixie Stampede

 

We got lucky. Yes, it's Dolly, live and in person, if only briefly. She made a surprise appearance and did one song.

 

 INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES

  

Salt & Pepper Shaker Museum, Gatlinburg, with over 20,000 shaker sets

 

     

P. E.    

Picnic Area, GSMNP

 

Picnic Area, GSMNP

 

Hiking along the Appalachian Trail, GSMNP

 

Picnic Area, Gatlinburg, just outside the Park

 

Pigeon River, Hartford TN

 

 FIRST AID

You have to be pretty talented to get smacked in the face by the T-bar end of your OWN paddle. I had help from a nasty rock.

 

             

And probably best of all,        

RECESS    

Over the mountains through steep hairpin turns, to our lovely cabin we go... (Bluff Mtn, Wears Valley TN)

 

 

View from the deck

 

That was called, “Posting vacation pictures under the thinly veiled guise of a Weekly WrapUp.” I am clever like that.    

When we got home, there was a garden to put in, so we did that. Log under “Nutritional Studies” and/or “Home Ec”.        

Now we’re on a relaxed “summer school” schedule, which for the time being consists of a little math and scrapbooking/ power-pointing our trip. (That’s language arts, layout/design, and computer skills, you know.) Although I must confess that after all that fun stuff, pulling out the math books this past Wednesday just seemed sort of wrong.        

You can read more WrapUps here. (But they probably won’t be like this one.)

Should I Blog It Here or There? Should I Blog It Anywhere?

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on June 4th, 2010

Well. Life just gets more and more complicated. I try to quit HSB and try my hand at Blogger, and what does HSB do? Goes and upgrades to an entirely new, very user-friendly platform with all sorts of very cool bells and whistles including a pseudo-facebook feature. Now how am I supposed to leave?

Ironically, when many HSB users were jumping ship to Blogger, I stayed. And at a time when many Blogger users have been jumping to WordPress, I’ve finally jumped to Blogger…  but now HSB itself has jumped to WordPress. Is that fair? And if Blogger was a step or two above HSB, and WordPress was a step or two above Blogger, then where on the scale does this new HSB/Wordpress hybrid fall? It’s all so… confusing. (Not really. I’m being melodramatic.)

I haven’t double-posted here for a while, because when the changes came through I was too darn busy to deal with it, so I’ve just been doing everything at my Blogger blog. Not that it’s been a whole lot.

At any rate, I’m still learning Blogger, and now I have to decide whether I want to learn this new HSB, and if so, whether I will continue to learn both or just quit Blogger while I’m still young at it. (And as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I may end up quitting blogging altogether for a season.) Decisions, decisions.

Speaking of decisions, I wrote about a big one at my other blog. I suppose I’ll end up copying that post here, but if you’re curious, you can go there.

That’s my ramble for the day. Oh, and thanks to ComfyDenim for the inspiration for the title of this post.

(A-HA! I cannot find a button with which to change my font. And just when I was thinking this really is better than Blogger. Strike one.)

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Have Our Heads Examined and Do Other Interesting Things

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on May 10th, 2010

"I am happy to report that I never did gallavant about town wearing the Sticker-Laden Hoodie of Dorkdom. Success again."



Two things by way of introduction: (1) Since I, for no apparent reason, failed to post a WrapUp last week, this one will have to cover the last two weeks. (2) In a desperate and perhaps futile attempt to make my WrapUp somewhat interesting, I am going to post it not in Day-by-Day form, nor in Subject-by-Subject form, but in Award-by-Award form. I suppose you are wondering what that means. I suppose you will have to read on to find out.

*Just to get it out of the way, I’ll start with the dubious Stuff That Interrupted Our Educational Endeavors Award: There was a lot of competition here, but First Prize definitely has to go to Jury Duty, which kinda sorta defined the week before last. Although I ended up being gone only one day, I’d had to plan for two, so jury duty consumed one entire day and somewhat discombobulated another. (I love that word and use it often. No, not "another"; the word before it.)

This category also has a couple Honorable Mentions, the most interesting of which would be Going to Get Our Heads Examined. Because this is far too complicated to explain here, I’ll just suffice it to say that Spaz and I went in on two separate afternoons to do our initial assessments for neurofeedback brain training. If you don’t know what that is, you can read about it here or on countless other websites. I went to a seminar on it and did some web research and I am pretty sold. Spaz is going to start the program this coming week, and I may do it when he is finished.

The other Honorable Mention in this category would go to Visiting Another School, which Spaz did just this past Friday. We’re still in the process of deciding whether he’ll stay home next year or go to high school, and school visits are part of the exploration process. This time he visited the small, income-based-tuition Christian school where Biz & Cheez spent their high school years. He felt comfortable there, which helps us to consider it as a viable option. I could write several blog posts’ worth about this whole big decision, although I’m sure I won’t.


And now some awards for the Educational Endeavors themselves, because we really did have some…

*The Is This Really History? Award: We read about the Israeli wars and the oil embargo, terrorist attacks in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the deposing of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent rule of the Ayatollah. All of these things happened during my lifetime, and some of them I remember quite clearly. It feels odd to call such things "history". If I remember them, shouldn’t they be called "current events"? Wasn’t 1980 just a few years ago?

*The That Must Be A Really Good Book Award: I love it when "I have to read how many chapters today?" turns into "Hey Mom, I finished that book already!" Last Tuesday I returned from the library and handed the kids The Breadwinner, a story about an Afghani family living under the Taliban, and told them they’d have to share it. Although written at about a 4th- or 5th-grade level, it seemed a worthy book for Spaz to read as well as Fuzz. Initially, they both grumbled about having to read it. But Spaz read it straight through that night in bed, and Fuzz had finished it by the following evening. So much for them having a week’s worth of reading. (Here I would say, "End of story" –except that I’ve ordered the sequels.)

*The Pleasant Surprise Award: Spaz’ writing assignments get the prize here. When his writing class ended in March, no small amount of dread accompanied my decision to revert back to the old Mom-makes-up-history-based-writing-assignments method. However, it has gone much better than I had anticipated. Using outlines from Story of the World, principles from IEW, and guidelines and comments from Yours Truly, he’s written some pretty good stuff with minimal frustration. The week before last he finished up a 1-page assignment about Apartheid in South Africa and this past week he began writing about Iran and the Ayatollah.

*The Wow, It Works! Award: I mentioned last time that I instituted a credit/demerit system for being on time and staying on task and that in conjunction with that, I’ve been a bit less relaxed and more deliberate with our schedule. This has really seemed to make a positive difference for us. Hooray, I’m doing something right!!! I feel so… successful.

(Oh, side note– I have moved from the stickers-on-my-hoodie method of tracking credits to the less-risky rubber-bands-on-my-wrist method. I am happy to report that I never did gallavant about town wearing the Sticker-Laden Hoodie of Dorkdom. Success again. I have gallavanted about town with a multitude of rubber bands on each wrist, but I actually think that makes me look kind of, you know, hip. It’s, like, modern jewelry. Or maybe it just makes me look stupid, I don’t know.)

*The Most Improved Award: Spaz, who has supposedly been teaching himself to play guitar via a DVD, made more progress in the past two weeks than he did in the three months before that. This might be because we finally jumped from playing one string at a time, which is what the DVD initially teaches, to learning chords. It might also be because I decided to sit with him and MAKE him practice them over and over again. And the rubber band thing helped, too. He said so.

*The Pluggin’ Away Award goes to Fuzz, because it isn’t fair that Spaz gets all the press. Good ol’ Fuzz meets and exceeds expectations pretty consistently, and that’s worthy of mention.

*The Outdoor Chalkboard Award: Last Tuesday was a beautiful warm day, so Fuzz and I sat on the porch steps to read about amphibians. I was trying to teach her to take notes (something we’ve rather neglected with our relaxed approach to learning), so I had her fetch some sidewalk chalk and I used the front walk as a chalkboard. Until the rain washed it away a few days later, we were able to read about the metamorphosis of toads every time we walked past our full-length glass front doors.

*The Normally Abnormal Award goes to our Fridays. With my jury duty on one and Spaz’ school visit on the other, we did not have normal school days on either Friday, which is normal. Two weeks ago we actually had a normal school day on Friday which, considering that it was the only "normal" Friday of this entire January-through-May term, was quite abnormal. Abnormal Fridays seem much more normal. On my jury duty day, the kids did independent school work and then hung out with Hubz at home and at the park. On Spaz’ school visit day, Fuzz and I reverted to the science-and-art format we followed when Spaz had his Friday classes. We read from CKEB about reptiles in general and turtles in specific, and then we drew frogs from our nature drawing book. And we ate doughnuts.

*Last of all, the Anticipation Award: That would go to our upcoming 6-day vacation to the Smoky Mountains, for which we’re cutting our school year short by several weeks. (Most local schools don’t get out until June 11, but we’ll end our school year as we know it in a little over a week. We do a little summer school, but it isn’t nearly the same.) Meanwhile, we are really trying to make the most of what little time we have left. And by "we are," I of course mean "I am."

That’s a Wrap, folks. You can read more WrapUps here.

Juries and Dinosaurs and Profoundly Significant Blog Questions

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on May 1st, 2010

 Jury duty and dinosaur battles. You can read about them here at my other blog, because, even as I realize that I really actually like this blog, I am trying to get used to using the new one. And while I’m not ready to abandon this one, it seems a little silly to double-post everything here. I will probably just double-post homeschooling stuff. Or not. I don’t know. I am finding to my surprise, that in some ways, I like HSB better. And now they are supposedly going to make all these improvements and link up with WordPress and all that. I’m not sure whether I will switch entirely, not switch at all, or continue to keep both blogs open. And if I choose the latter, will I double-post everything, or will I use that blog for some things and this blog for others? And then sometimes I’m not sure I will even continue blogging at all…

Put the new blog on your reader if you haven’t already. Meanwhile, you guys need to give me some feedback. Blogspot friends previously at HSB– which do you like better, and why? Does my switch to Blogger make our bloggy friendship easier for you? HSB friends– does my switch to Blogger make things harder for you? Can you still keep up okay? What about commenting? Do you want me to stay here? Do you feel abandoned? Does it really matter?

It’s all so complicated. 

Weekly WrapUp: In Which We Go to the Other

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on April 25th, 2010

My WrapUp is officially posted at my Blogger blog this week but has been copied below.

For the sake of expediency, today’s Wrap-Up is going to be bullet points. Short ones. You laugh, I know. 

The highlight of our school week just past:

*We made a family visit (our second) to the Henry Ford Museum, which you probably think is a museum dedicated to the history of the automobile, but is actually a museum dedicated to the spirit of American innovation, ingenuity, and freedom. It does have a really big section on automobiles, though. Hubz the Morning Person insisted we leave before 7 am. I was annoyed about this, but later I was glad. Our 5-hour round trip involved several cups of coffee, a great many Mad-Libs, and a stop at Smacker Barrel on the way home.

How was that for a reasonably short bullet point? I know, I know– you want to hear about the 5-1/2 hours we spent in the museum. The problem is that I could not even begin to describe this place if I am to finish this post in a reasonable amount of time (not that I ever do anyway). I will just say that it is well worth the visit, and here are a few reasons why: Several Presidential limousines, including the in which JFK was riding when he was assassinated. The chair in which Lincoln sat when he was assassinated. The bus on which Rosa Parks took her famous stand. The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. The one and only Dymaxion House. Are you impressed yet? The plane Richard Byrd flew to the North Pole. The first successful helicopter. Humungous steam engines– the ones that pull trains and the ones that power factories.

With all that, the kids’ favorite exhibits seemed to be the K’Nex design-your-own-car station, the poseable crash dummy, and the be-on-MTV exhibit. Although Fuzz did list the 1950′s diner as her absolute favorite.

Now that the Henry Ford Museum has managed, not surprisingly, to hijack my WrapUp, here are a few other mildly interesting occurances and tidbits from our week:

*American history conquered for the moment, we turned our attention back to late 20th-century world history, specifically that of Africa. We read from Story of the World.  We revisited a map we’d made last year featuring the continent with its European Colonial borders and an overlay showing the present-day country borders, and the kids labeled each country with the year it gained independence. I found a youtube video of Nelson Mandela’s inauguration speech and played part of it. Both kids’ literature focused on South Africa and apartheid as well.

*Spaz wrote about apartheid and Fuzz about the Hutus & Tutsis in Rwanda, using the outlines from Story of the World Activity Book. I don’t always like the way those outlines are done, but this week I was very glad to have them. They were helpful. So were the IEW principles we learned last year, which I always incorporate into assignments like these.

*Fuzz and I worked at the library’s used book sale– she because she really really wanted to, and I because I could neither refuse such a desire nor be outdone by an 11-year-old. It was not a highly exciting endeavor, but it felt good to do something different. Needless to say, we came home with a stack of books. (Yes, we paid for them, same as anyone else.)

*I prepped one of my square-foot-garden boxes and got my cold weather veggies planted! This really has little to do with "school" as the kids did not even help me. They are "discouraged" by gardening, with good reason. My thumbs are pretty brown, and the last couple years I haven’t even made much of an effort. However, I am back at it with renewed determination and hope (or would that be delusions?). The fact that I actually remembered to get cold-weather stuff in while it is yet cold is a first, so I am somewhat encouraged. That’s why I had to mention this here even though the kids were not very involved. (I say "not very" because one of them watched me for about three minutes and even put in a few seeds.)

*We watched a History Channel show about how the states got their boundaries. It was hugely interesting, totally unplanned, and of course highly educational, so it merits a mention here. Of course, the show started with the most interesting state of all.

*Frustrated with dawdling students (singular, usually) sabotaging our day, I decided to crack down and be a little stricter with the schedule. I’m not a big fan of strict schedules in homeschooling, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. For example, it used to be that if someone hadn’t finished his math in the ample time allotted, that would push back morning break time, which would push back our history-together time, and so would go the day. Now, break times are when they are, and they’re over when they’re over. If the major things (math, writing, piano practice) aren’t finished on time, their completion spills over into break time and break time is thereby shortened or even eliminated. And if they still aren’t finished by the end of break time, they need to be revisited later. This has worked pretty well.



*In conjunction with the above, I began a new credit/demerit system to replace our old one. I know, I know, but some kids need them, and Spaz is one of those kids. Without going into a great deal of deal, I will mention that at the moment, my method of keeping track of things involves removable vinyl stickers on my zip hoodie. It beats having to keep track of a piece of paper or run to a chart all the time, as the hoodie is always with me. I couldn’t find enough rubber bands around the house to do the rubber-bands-on-wrists method, so this works for now. The downside is the distinct and highly likely possibility that one of these days I will leave the house on an errand and forget that I have stickers all over my hoodie.

I’ll leave you to contemplate that. More WrapUps here.

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Go to One and Not the Other

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on April 18th, 2010

Double-posting again. You can read my wrap-up below or here at my new blog.
This post was supposed to be entitled, In Which We Go to the Ford Museum Times Two. However, we were flexible and went to only one Ford Museum this week. We’re heading to the other one bright and early tomorrow, so I need to keep this short and sweet. (That is a really nice thought, albeit an unrealistic one.)
Yes, there are two Ford Museums in Michigan. It really isn’t all that confusing; just stay with me. The big-and-famous Ford museum is the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn (near Detroit, about 2-1/2 hours from us). We’ve been there once before, six years ago, and the timing is right for us to go again. Why? Because among the many fascinating things we’ll see there are the limo in which JFK was riding when he was assassinated and the bus on which Rosa Parks made her famous stand. If you’ve been reading my wrap-ups all along, you’ll know that the kids and I studied both of these events fairly recently. How could we not go see these things?
The other Ford Museum is the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, a mere 20 minutes away. While not nearly as large, exciting, or fun as The Henry, The Gerald does have some things relevant to what we’ve studied over the past few months and weeks– namely, a temporary exhibit on the Cold War, a small display about the Vietnam War, and a Watergate room. These, too, we had to see; thus saith the Mom.
So I’d planned field trips to both of these places for this back-to-school-after-spring-break week. Not because we needed to ease in with a not-so-normal week (although that was a really nice bonus), but because that’s really how the timing worked out.
Except that it didn’t, exactly. We did, in fact, take two field trips; however, we didn’t quite follow the plan. Read on…
Monday being not just Monday, which is bad enough in itself, but also our first “school day” in ten days, I quite understandably approached it with much fear and trepidation. I punctuated our morning with such cheers as, “Hooray, hooray, it’s school again today!” and, “Yippeee!!! We get to do school again today!!! Oh, happy day!!!”
It didn’t work. Oh, the kids were fine. We did Monday Lite as usual, and other than the usual dawdling issues with Sapz, their work and attitudes were great. The pep talks were for me. I think I finally acclimated to the day around dinner time.
Meanwhile, Hubz was busy putting out his back while lifting heavy bundles. Since our HFM field trip was planned for Tuesday, and since it was going to be a rare family field trip, meaning Hubz was going with us, this was sort of a problem. We decided to postpone the trip to Thursday and have the kids & I do our Gerald trip on Tuesday instead.
So Tuesday we did math and piano practice and then headed to The Gerald. (Nobody calls it that, by the way. I am just differentiating and trying to be a little funny at the same time. You may pretend to be humored.) Unlike the Henry trip, this was going to be an “academic” field trip rather than a “fun” field trip. In an uncharacteristically schoolish move, I actually armed the kids with clipboards, complete with pencils on strings and research worksheets downloaded from the museum’s websites. They were not thrilled, but were somewhat placated by the premise that the worksheets, if done neatly and well, could afterward be redeemed for menu items at Snake ‘n’ Spake. I figured I’d better make it a little fun.
Fuzz dutifully completed her research sheets on Watergate and Cold War Diplomacy and even did the optional cartoon analysis sheet. (I figured I should throw a somewhat fun one in there.) I loved seeing her sitting cross-legged on the floor, brow furrowed in concentration, busily making her notes. Spaz, meanwhile, dawdled and complained and even tossed his clipboard on the floor at one point, but managed to get the job done. Although I’m not normally a big fan of worksheets, these were good ones. They forced the kids to investigate and find information and process and record it. I really think that those investigations and worksheets were the best thing we did all week. I also think that I am a pretty clever and nice mom for coming up with the idea to redeem the worksheets for treats afterwards.
Oh, and an unexpected bonus: the clipboards tipped off the clerk at the admission desk that we might be here for “school purposes,” and so she let the kids in free. Can’t argue with that.
Wednesday was a pretty normal school day– the only one we had all week, in fact. And like the days before it, it was on the cold side. Friday would also be cold. In fact, the only day that wasn’t going to be cold was Thursday. You know, Henry day. Thursday was going to be 80 degrees out, and we were going to be inside a museum all day. Hubz, who needed to do some yard projects, grumbled about this a little at dinner Wednesday night.
 “I bet,” said I to Hubz, “that if I bribe Fuzz with the promise of a zoo trip tomorrow, she won’t throw a fit about postponing the Henry trip yet again.” Fuzz, who was sitting between us, gave enthusiastic affirmation. She’d been clamoring for a trip to the zoo. Spaz was okay with this as well. And so we changed plans again.
After basic school stuff was done Thursday , Fuzz and I headed for the zoo. (Spaz had decided to opt out, and Hubz had promptly  conscripted him to yard project duty.) The zoo is really not a big thrill for me, as I think I have been to the zoo enough several lifetimes’ worth in the past 22 years. To fend off boredom, I forced myself to take pictures at different manual and semi-manual camera settings. This way I got to be a good mom and do something slightly enriching all at the same time.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Spaz and Hubz were busy at the pond fixing a dam leak. Thanks to the resident muskrats and recent heavy rains, the dam thing was in bad shape, causing the pond to flow out into the creek more than it should. The dam project took them all afternoon and into the evening, but they managed to get it built back up. Spaz, who does not normally count diligence and hard work among his traits, really rose to the occasion and exhibited a great deal of both. He even kept Hubz going when Hubz was ready to call it a day, and they worked til the job was done. Hubz says he was the best dam helper he could have asked for. I think Spaz was pretty proud of his work. I love that homeschooling allows him to do things like that. (And I love feeling like I am getting away with something here. ;-)
Friday brought yet another adventure, as Spaz spent part of the day with his friend at one of the local Christian schools, which was running a “Bring a Homeschool Friend to School Day.” Great marketing ploy, eh?  Since it is one of the schools we are considering for him for next year, I stayed for a while as well, touring the school and talking with the principal. Insane price tag aside, I’m very comfortable with it, but I think the cost will be prohibitive. I did find it interesting that, although the school doesn’t have a dress code apart from requiring neatness and modesty, it does have a “hair code” for boys. Spaz’ is definitely too long.
Back home, Fuzz and I read about mollusks, made cards for a mollusk-matching game, and played the game. Then we picked up Spaz and donuts, ate the donuts, and worked on her quilting squares for a girl’s club project.
That was our week. You can read about other people’s weeks here. (Have I mentioned that I should get some sort of a creativity award for that fabulously innovative ending?)

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Break and So Does the Refrigerator

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on April 11th, 2010

Two weeks now, and I still haven’t posted anything on my new blog. (That’s why you haven’t gotten a link to it yet. It would be pointless.) It’s like I’m afraid of it or something. This Think Too Much stuff is a serious illness, I tell you.
Although, truth be told, at the moment it’s more than Think Too Much that is holding me back. It’s Can’t Get Enthused About Anything. Not even blogging; not even a new blog. So here I am, still posting here and not there, still posting nothing but Wrap-Ups. And I only do that because it’s sort of an obligation I’ve set up for myself.
But it’s time to just jump in, you think? Even though I don’t feel very enthused. Even though the header isn’t the way I want it and this and that isn’t the way I want it. We’ll fix things as we go along, eh?– and maybe we’ll pick up a little enthusiasm while we’re at it.
I’m not yet ready to abandon this blog, so I’ll be double-posting today. You can read my Wrap-Up here, or you can go read it there. (I just gave you the link, in case you didn’t notice.) And you can comment either place.
  
There was no schoolwork to speak of at our house this past week, because I decided that we’d take a Spring Break along with the rest of West Michigan. I hadn’t been certain that we’d take the whole week off; I’d thought maybe we’d do a few “light days” of school and then take Thursday and Friday off, or some such mean-homeschool-mom thing. We’re thinking about taking an out-of-state vacation in May, Just Because We Can– that is, IF I can get myself enthused about planning it and IF we can justify spending the money, both of which are big ifs at this point. So I wasn’t sure we should take a week off in April, even though I have been More Than Ready For a Break for some time now.
 
Then we learned, barely a week ahead of time, that the mom in charge of the teeny little girl’s club Fuzz and I belong to (note: it’s the club that’s teeny, not the girls) had obtained use of a cottage for a couple days of spring break week and was planning a little retreat for us. So that settled it; we were having Spring Break. Can’t say I was too disappointed about that.
 
The retreat was Tuesday through Thursday, so I, Compulsive Homeschool Mother that I am, had told the kids we’d do math and a little history on Monday and then declare Spring Break. Fuzz, however, was invited to spend Sunday night at Grandma’s with her cousins and go to the annual Butterflies Are Blooming exhibit at our local botanical gardens on Monday. I, Impulsive and Flexible Homeschool Mother that I am, said of course. We can’t let schoolwork get in the way of field trips and relationships, now, can we? So Spaz did math and some leftover work from the previous week, and no one did history. I’m rather surprised that Spaz didn’t pull the “Fuzz doesn’t have to do school today and I shouldn’t either” card, but he didn’t. I suppose he figured that since he was getting rid of both me and schoolwork for a few days, he could put up with a little algebra. (Besides, he doesn’t want to have a lot of math left to do over the summer.)
 
Tuesday morning we dropped Spaz off at his friend’s house, picked up our own friends, and headed for points north. 
 
At the retreat…
 
*The five girls (ages 11-15) crammed into the upstairs loft room, leaving two bedrooms for the 3 moms. My friend and I shared a room (but not a bed, thanks goodness) and left the other room for the mom who likes to sleep with the room temp at 55 degrees.
 
*A lot of giggling came from that upstairs room.
 
*It rained most of the time and snowed briefly. (This is typical spring break weather here. A few years ago we had a blizzard during spring break week.)
 
*We climbed dunes at Lake Michigan. Well, the five girls and I did; the other two moms opted out for physical reasons. At nearly 45, I am the junior mom by 4 years and felt up to the challenge. I congratulated myself on my energetic youthfulness as I ran up and down the first dune with the girls, then wheezed and panted for the next ten minutes. But hey, I did it.
 
*We all walked the wet pier “at our own risk” and reached the lighthouse.
 
*We walked to downtown Ludington and the girls bought ice cream cones.
 
*We forgot the chicken and so had sliced-up hotdogs with our fried potatoes and green beans the first night. The second night, we made hobo dinners.
 
*For lack of a campfire (it was WET out), we cooked our hobo dinners and banana boats in the oven and our s’mores on the stovetop. No one felt terribly deprived.
 
*The girls made bacon-egg-&-cheese sandwiches for one breakfast and pancakes & sausage for the other. We made pizza sandwiches for lunch.
 
*I drank lots of coffee from the beloved thermal-carafe coffee maker I’d brought along, because I am spoiled and won’t drink coffee that’s been sitting on a burner. We used the cottage’s coffee maker for hot water for tea and hot chocolate.
 
*We had devotions multiple times. I guess that’s part-and-parcel of a retreat.
 
*I barely touched my laptop (which I’d brought because I couldn’t imagine spending two-and-a-half days without it) but spent lots of time with my head in my puzzle book.

*Fuzz started a 500-hundred piece puzzle, and I, Good Mom that I am, tore myself away from my puzzle book and sat down to do it with her. After twenty minutes or so, she wandered off, while I, Compulsive Puzzle Finisher that I am, continued to work on it… and work on it… She did come back to check my progress every so often, as did everyone else. There were many oohs and ahs when it was finished. Meanwhile the other moms had done productive things like knitting, sewing, and reading.
 
*Fuzz and I played several games of Set (she always beats me; I am too analytical to be any good at Set) and some of the others played Blokus. Since it is a 4-person game and there were four others who -wanted to play, I, Self-Sacrificing Person that I am, opted to stifle the urge to declare my affinity for Blokus and pretended to be more interested in my the puzzle.
 
*Someone, perhaps two someones, replaced the roll of toilet paper twice. (Eight females, one bathroom– you know how that goes.) Both times I, Compulsive Toilet Paper Correcter that I am, had to re-do it so it would hang the RIGHT way. I began to question my involvement with these people who obviously do not know that toilet paper should hang over the TOP of the roll. Sheesh.
 
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
 
*The refrigerator died shortly after I left. Oh. Yes. It. Did. Hubz, having determined that it was beyond repair, broke the news to me by calling on his way to the appliance store to ask what I wanted in a new refrigerator. Then he picked it out all by himself.
 
*Hubz threw out all the food that was in the old frig, except for a few pieces of old-ish fruit that probably weren’t worth saving. Everything else got pitched, even the ketchup and mustard and butter. He did not think to put anything in a cooler, not even the stuff I had just bought the day before I left. He can be a little rash when frustrated. I, having at long last learned to keep my mouth shut when prudent (and actually remembering that principle on this occasion), did not make a great deal of comment on this. In his defense, he did put some of the freezer stuff into the garage freezer, including the box of ice cream drumsticks. Priorities, you know.
 
*Spaz called his youth leader and asked if she would make him a lunch for their group outing Wednesday since there was no food in our refrigerator. I do hope he explained a bit.
 
*Spaz went bowling with his youth group, after which it stopped raining long enough for them to head out to the beach as planned. Spaz, being Spaz, ended up in the water with his clothes on. No one was surprised by this.
 
*Hubz drank lots of coffee from the beloved thermal-carafe coffee maker that remained at home, since I had taken the spare. Yes, we have two identical thermal-carafe coffee makers, and we bought them both ourselves. I know that is a little scary. (I enjoyed getting to use the lesser-used one that does not have sticky buttons.)
 
When I got home from the retreat on Thursday afternoon, we picked up our new May vacation refrigerator and got it up and running. Friday, Hubz made a trip to Aldi, his Second Favorite Store in the Whole World Barely Behind Menard’s, to “replenish” the fridge. He bought cheese and more ice cream treats. Period. *Sigh*He and I each made another grocery run Saturday afternoon, and yet another Saturday evening. It’s amazing how much was in our fridge that I took for granted, only remembering it when I went to use it and it wasn’t there. I think we might be set now, though.
 
That was our exciting week. Next week it’s back to math and writing and… and a couple field trips to spice things up a little. But you’ll have wait til next time to hear about those. Meanwhile, you know the routine.

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which Stuff Conspires and Other Stuff Transpires

Posted by Bethany @ 40winkzzz on April 3rd, 2010

A few housekeeping notes before I begin:
(1) You’ll notice I changed the name of this blog. I felt like it. And that might be kind of dumb, considering that…
(2) I have finally opened my Blogger blog. Why I’m posting this here instead of there is anyone’s guess. I guess I’m wanting my first post there to be… you know… worthy of the honor of being first… or something. *Sigh* But I have the blog. That’s a good first step.
Anyway…
 

This week seemed to be full of Stuff That Was Conspiring to Keep Our Studies From Transpiring. To wit:
*A really interesting show about the Mayans on the History Channel Monday night, which I let Spaz stay up late to watch. I should have made him go to bed at ten to increase our chances of having a timely start to our day on Monday, but I do so hate to let school get in the way of learning.
*A sudden loss of internet Tuesday morning, which Hubz said must be taken care of RIGHT NOW because he had a business to run. Because I hadn’t yet prepared for our schoolday –the math problems were not assigned and the lists were not made– our morning slowly unraveled while I spent an hour on the phone with the nice computerized voice from cable company, being walked through the same sorts of things over and over again, only to find in the end that it was a router issue and not a cable-company issue. To say I was not happy would be a vast understatement. (Oh, and then when we finally got things settled and were into the flow of our school day, the electric company guys trimming trees across the street shut our power off for 15 minutes.)
*Really nice, warm weather, perfect for shooting hoops and riding bikes to the park, especially on Wednesday & Thursday. That isn’t a complaint.
*A slow work week for Hubz, which meant he was in the house a lot. While I do like it that his full-time workplace is his shop 30 feet from our house, I don’t like it when he is in and out of the house a lot during our school week– especially when he’s more in than out. Even his mere presence is a huge distraction, but what’s worse is that his presence isn’t usually mere. That is a complaint.
*An open house Thursday morning for a local homeschool organization that offers high-school-level classes. Fuzz stayed home and schooled herself while Spaz and I went to the open house and then (just between him and me and the world wide web) snuck a late breakfast at Stake & Snake or whatever you might want to call it.
*Jury selection for me, my first ever, on Friday morning. Both kids schooled themselves at home with the help of the Almighty Lists, while I sat in a courtroom half an hour away wishing they could be with me learning all about our judicial process. Despite some initial trepidation, I really found it quite an interesting experience. I’ll have to return at the end of the month for actual jury duty, as I was selected for two back-to-back 1-day trials. (One is a receiving-&-concealing case, the other a drunk-driving trial. I get a little nervous just thinking about it. Let’s talk about something else now.)
So it was not, as you can see, a very normal week. We did, nonetheless, manage to do a pretty full week of school. Studies Transpired and hopefully Inspired while we Perspired in the face of the Stuff That Conspired….
Oh, wait, that’s probably supposed to be “persevered in the face of….”
Anyway, we did stuff, but most of it was nothing to write home about. I’ll just tell you about the history stuff, because history is cool. (Although I’m not sure it should really be called history any more when we are talking about events that happened during my lifetime. It makes me feel old.)
We really didn’t do any history together this week, which is unusual at our house but not unheard of. If we spend more than a week on a particular event or era, the subsequent weeks usually consist mostly of independent reading. That was the case this week. So instead of the kids sitting on the sofa pestering each other with their feet while I interrupt every other paragraph to tell them to knock it off, they instead curled up on different sofas, one upstairs and one down (AND DIDN’T EVEN FIGHT OVER WHO GOT WHICH), to read their respective books while I checked email  got distracted by facebook  did other school stuff at my desk.

*Spaz finished America & Vietnam, along with the “reading worksheets” I’d made for him to fill out with each chapter. The worksheets were nothing too heavy or hairy, just a little something to help him process his reading. I asked him to state the main idea or events of the chapter, tell a few things he’d learned from it, and then give an intelligent thought, question, or opinion about what he’d read. (The word “intelligent” there was intended to preclude such statements such as “I like Ho Ch Minh” and “The Vietnam War was cool,” but of course he had to try those out anyway. I knew he would.)
*I did not finish America & Vietnam; in fact, I didn’t read it at all this week. Bad me. Now my kid knows more about the Vietnam War than I do.
*Fuzz read The Vietnam War, by John Devaney. I thought this book was perfect for her. Although somewhat below her reading level (which I often prefer anyway when it comes to factual books), it provided a good overview with plenty of maps and photographs.
(Both of the above books, by the way, were recommended by BiblioPlan, my primary resource for planning our history studies. While I definitely “jump off” BP rather than follow it, I do use most of the literature suggestions. I thought I would throw that in there since I don’t often post about curriculum.)
*Fuzz colored and labeled a map, both kids put some events of the war on their timelines, and they each copied a quote or two about the Vietnam war that I’d printed off a website.
*Spaz wrote about the Seige of Khe Sanh. Now that his writing class has ended, we are back to history-based writing, at least for now. And perhaps my dread at once again being the Big Bad Writing Meister  to the Kid Who Hates Writing was unfounded, because this went far better than I had anticipated. I gave him four options for a 1-page history-based writing assignment; from those he chose to write a descriptive narrative of a battle or event. The first day he was supposed to make notes, but after half an hour of looking at the ceiling and playing with the cat and doing just about everything except make notes, he asked if he could just write (type, actually) from his head. I reluctantly agreed– and then was astounded to see what he came up with. While it needed some rounding out & polishing (which we worked on the rest of the week), it was an impressive off-the-top-of-your-head first draft. So much for teaching him to write from notes.
And that should have wrapped up our week… except that it didn’t. Because there was That Thing That Happened Friday Afternoon which I really ought to tell you about.
And I might. Just not in this post.
I know, you hate it when I say that, because usually when I say I’m going to post something later, I don’t. I know that. That’s why I said I “might”.
While you’re waiting (and hopefully not holding your breath in anticipation)… yeah, you know the routine… “You can go read more Wrap-Ups here.”
 
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