I am moving my blog once again. I don't want to get into the reasons why, but the decision is made. i do hope that you will visit me at my new blog. It still needs a bit of work, but most of my stuff from here has been transferred. The comments, unfortunately have not, so i hope you will leave lots of new ones at my new site!

Here it is: Lapazfarm

Please come see me there!

You know you're a homeschooler when you travel to Miami for a wedding and you...

a. Hit Miami Beach to get a tan and people watch

b. Hit the clothing stores for the latest in hot designer fashions

c. Hit the nightclubs to salsa dance the night away

d. Hit the amazingly huge educational supply store to stock up on all the goodies you've been hearing about!

Answer:

I am hopeless...absolutely hopeless.

In the first week of March your son hands you this offering of love...

The Iditarod has begun! Who are you pulling for?

We have our favorites for many reasons (some better than others) and here they are:

Jeff King and Martin Buser. These guys we have followed for awhile and are always on our favorites list. Superboy keeps an 8X10 of Buser and his dog  K2 in his notebook. Now that the race has begun, the picture is up on the wall.

Lori Townsend: We chose to pull for her because one of her lead dogs looks just like our dog, Cassie. Plus, she is from Willow where we spent a summer, so it's our Alaska "hometown".

David Sawatsky: We like the looks of his dogs, especially one called "Darth". Gotta love a dog named Darth...

It should be an exciting race, whoever wins.

Here finally are some pictures of the Roman projects I mentioned in an earlier post.

The first is a cross section of a Roman road, showing how it was constructed. I am so proud of this, not because of the quality of the work so much as that it was done completely  independantly and he had so much fun doing it. I wasn't even home at the time!

The next is a model of a Roman Aqueduct. Superboy made it of clay, then mounted it on a canvas background on which he painted background scenery. I love the detail on the bricks and the arches.It cracked a bit as it dried, but I told him that's OK, it just makes it look more authentic!

The third is his Eggshell Mosaic. I think it turned out super!

Lots of fun! Lots of learning getting done!

Decided to bag school today and soak up some sun. Threw a couple of horses in the trailer and headed to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for Superboy's first real trail ride. (this picture is Superboy riding at home, not at the Park)

It brings me unspeakable joy to be able to share my love of horses, nature, and our National Parks with my children. Lest you think we did not learn anything this day...

Lessons learned:

1. Things don't always go as planned, but that's OK: the horse I originally was going to take refused to get in trailer. So I took another one.
2. You are stronger than you think, and braver, too: when Superboy's horse, Tommy, freaked out because of a couple of  mules running around loose, he was able to stop the horse, get off, walk the horse until calm, then GET BACK ON!!!! BRAVO!!
3. Sometimes, you've got to let go and trust someone else to take the lead: The best way to get through that tricky patch of loose rocks is to loosen the reins and let the horse pick his own route.
4. Sometimes strength is not what works: Tommy did not want to leave the park. Despite all our pushing and shoving and cajoling he would not get into trailer. But a cookie did the trick!

I'd say these were lessons worth learning. we may do it again next Monday. After all, sometimes you've got to let go and trust someone else to take the lead.

Not to worry, folks, we are back in the fun!

After a brief spell of the doldrums, we are back to our more typical fun-lovin' selves. Roman architecture has proved to be entertaining. We have tackled some pretty cool projects which I will post pictures of as soon as they are done.

First off, I had to have an appointment out of town for a day so I left Superboy with big sis and a LIST. Time to test those independant learning skills...

Here is the list:

1. Visit this website and look at the pictures of ancient Roman Aqueducts and read about them. Pretty cool, eh?
2. Visit this Nova website and read the Roman Aqueduct Manual.
3. Same website, play the Construct an Aqueduct Game
4. Roman roads-use this website to complete the worksheet on Roman Roads. (I had printed the worksheet up for him the night before).
5. Use a cardboard box, sand, glue, gravel, and whatever else you need to build a model of a roman road. Be sure to show all the layers. Have fun!

I thought it would cover most of the day. He was done before lunch! He had loads of fun and all without my help at all. Hooray for independance!

Next, he built a clay model of a Roman aqueduct, using illustrations from David Macauley's book, City.  It is going to be awesome when it is finished. He really put alot of work and detail into it.

Last, we started the Art Attack project called Eggshell Mosaic (you know, all those Roman mosaics). He is doing a picture of a dragon, of course! It has turned out to take alot longer than the afternoon I had planned and he will have to finish it up next week, but it looks so cool! The eggshells really do look like old tile!

We have 2 "school days" left until lent-should be just enough time to finish it up and move on.

Woo Hoo! I love homeschooling again!

Lent is fast approaching and I feel the need to plan something. I don't want it to be a total departure from our World Architecture studies, but I do want it to be special in its own way. So here's what I've got so far. As always, I am open to suggestions for websites and activities, but I don't want to buy any more books right now.

Sacred Architecture and Symbols of the Church:

1. Gothic Cathedral: Using the David Macauley book, Cathedral, as a spine we will explore the architectural elements of the time, including the gothic arch, vaults, flying buttress, gargoyles, and the cruciform floor plan (and its parts). We will also make our own gargoyles. From that we move on to...
2. Stained glass: we will take a look at designs and symbols in stained glass work as well as how it is constructed and installed and learn the geometry of the famous rose windows.We will study stained glass as an art form and as a means of communicating the faith. We will make our own stained glass windows, both using the tissue paper method, and then using the real thing (luckily, my Mom does this for a living, so it just means a trip to grandma's shop).
3. Our Church: we will study the history of our own hometown church, and then do a study of the stained glass windows there, looking for the symbols and stories we have learned from our glass study. We will either sketch or photograph each window and then write about the symbols and pictures in them. We will also find and identify symbols throughout the church building.
4. We are lucky to be attending Superboy's Godfather's wedding (Superboy is in the wedding party) in Miami, Fl next month, so we will get a chance to check out the architecture of various churches there.
5. Illuminated Manuscripts:  If we have time I'll adapt these lesson plans from the Getty Museum on Illuminated Manuscripts. There are some well-thought-out lessons, and some beautiful images at the site, including the ability to page through some lovely illuminated books. If we can't fit it into our Lenten study, we will fit it in somewhere else for sure!

Throughout the study we will be referring to the lovely book The Symbols of the Church by Maurice Dilasser which is just packed full of incredible pictures and information.

In addition, we have begun our wonderful new religion book-St. Patricks Summer, which we will read  and follow rabbit trails from. We read the first chapter this week (on St Patrick and the Shamrock) and it led to a a wonderful morning spent sketching and doing watercolors of clover leaves picked from the yard and discussing the Blessed Trinity.

We will continue to read our Saint of the day from Catholic Culture and any that strike Superboy's fancy will be added to his timeline or religion notebook.

JBug will be working alongside us as always. She will enjoy the stained glass crafts and will be watching the video of David Macauley's Cathedral. I will make her a rose window puzzle to put together and we will build cathedrals out of legos. For religion she will be focusing on learning the Hail Mary and doing her "Going to Church" coloring book. At our church we will take digital photos and she will be making a little picture book of our church and learning the names of the different things in church, such as altar, baptismal font, confessional, etc.

That's all I can think of now. I'll think on it some more and update as I think of things. Anyone with comments or suggestions, feel free to add them here!

I've been reading alot of blogs lately that discuss the reasons why we blog. Thought I'd go ahead and put in my 2 bits...

Blogging for me started out as a an attempt to hold myself a bit more accountable for what I do in our homeschool. At the time I started I was not as confident about our methods, materials, schedule, etc, and thought if I write it all out in public for the world to see, it would inspire me to do my very best. And it did help.

I am beyond that stage now, thankfully, having gained much confidence over time and trial and error, and yet I keep blogging. Why blog now?

I think now it is my attempt to connect with the outside world a bit. I used to be a school teacher. I connected with the world all day (for way too many hours) and I am glad to be done with that life. But as a homeschooling mom, surrounded by my dear children, books, a computer, and craft projects all day, it can be a bit lonely at times. I wouldn't trade the life for anything, and certainly hope never to go back to teaching public school, but there is one thing I miss, and that is the professional comraderie between peers that I had with my fellow teachers. That sense of shared mission, shared struggles and triumphs, shared coffee breaks and chats around the copy machine. I think that is what I am trying to get back with my blogging, and by visiting the blogs of other homeschooling moms. I want to tell someone (other than my husband) about lesson plans that worked out great, or not, about books that inspire, about all the daily doings of homeschooling. I want to mine ideas from others and share in their ups and downs, get a glimpse of what life is like in other homeschools.I want conversation and batting ideas back-and-forth, and I want it to be with someone who understands, has been there, and is at least a bit like me.Blogging gives me a bit of that.

 I think blogging is the homeschool version of the teacher's lounge. Yea. That's what it is.

Yep. It's so predictable. I have got the blahs big time. So do dc. I know it is just this time of year that does it to me (every year-can I BE any more predictable!?!) but knowing the cause and being able to cure it are two different things. In my defense, there are a few mitigating factors:

1. Throw an infant and toddler into the mix 3 random days of the week, as dd cannot yet afford daycare for my grandsons. She does shift work and it is never the same. Except the time...6am. Need I say more?
2. Both said grandsons having RSV and needing regular nebulizer treatments, tylenol, noses wiped with staggering frequency... Hmmm, can we say "cranky" (I mean me, not the kids, they take it in stride).
3. Coming off two very excellent unit studies in a row-Christmas and Pirates. It's a hard act to follow. World Architecture is our focus right now, and it is going well, but just hasn't quite jelled into a cohesive unit yet (see mitigating factors 1 and 2).
4. The weather pretty much stinks, as usual this time of year, but is unusually stinky this year. Snow one day, 55 degrees the next. Then back to 18 degrees again. Good grief.
5. Husband working night shift (also on random days). Try keeping this mob quiet all day so dh can sleep, while simultaneously trying to homeschool and care for aforementioned grandsons.
6. Do I really NEED another?

So... what is the cure? I'm not sure, but I believe I have found a temporary fix. We are taking what we call a "sanity day." A day when we just read or play or watch DVDs and refuse to feel guilty about it because fighting it is futile anyway. If the weather were better we would be at the park right now.

School is just a bust today, and the weather (see #4) so in order to make lemonade out of these lemons this morning I ditched (pitched) school and suggested ds read his latest library find-some sort of medieval knight thing as usual-while I cared for attached-at-the-hip baby. After awhile, ds pipes up from behind his novel, "I LIKE this day!"

I must be on the right track.

It wasn't much, but we'll take it! (though these two girls thought it put a real crimp in their style!)

We are supposed to get a little more in the next day or so. I hope so. This year has been a real bummer as far as snow is concerned. It has only snowed twice and both time just a dusting and gone by noon.

What is it about waking up to newly fallen snow that never fails to bring a smile to your face? Is it the purity of the whiteness, or the hushed noise level? Is it just that it happens so seldom here and thus is such a rare surprise? I don't know, but it sure seems to affect everyone in my family this way. Do folks in snowier areas feel this way, too? Does the dreamy feeling last as long as the snow lasts? If so, then I'm headed for Alaska.

This is the cover. superboy designed and made his own Jolly Roger. The notebook itself is just a file folder  covered in black construction paper.

Inside the fron tcover is glued the treasure map. This was so much fun to make. To the right is Scurvy Dog's Journal, printed on parchment paper, hole punched and threaded with black cord. He wanted the journal to be removable (to show it off!), so this is why we bound it seperately. It ended up being 8 pages (not including cover and map) of the best writing Superboy has ever done. I think he has a right to be proud of it!

We added the "Articles of Conduct"(with signatures of all the pirates) into the journal, as well as his map of the Carribean islands.

If you move the journal aside, you can see that attached to the back cover are several pages of his work, including these pictures of his pirate ships, the Cutlass (a sloop) and the Hangman's Noose (a Brigandtine).

Here you can see additional pages attached to the back cover. You can just lift them to see them all-maybe 10 or 12 different activities he did, including his report on scurvy and some news articles about modern-day pirates off the coast of Africa. This is a picture of a ship with the parts all labeled.

If you lift all the pages you see glued to the inside back cover a wanted poster Superboy printed up after doing a fun online pirate activity. He added his pirate name and the name of his ship.

This is a puzzle we made, put together and then glued to the outside back cover.

That's it! Every notebook we make is different, depending on the materials Superboy has produced, and how we decide is the best way to display them. This was by far the most fun and most productive time we've ever had homeschooling. I hope we can come close again!

If you want to see pics of our other notebooks, you can see them at my old blog.

Christmas notebook

More Christmas Notebook

Dragon Notebook and here

Here is the final chapter of the Journal of Captain Scurvy Dog. We have had so much fun doing this pirate unit. I hope our readers have enjoyed it too.

then you don't have hundreds of them flying around your schoolroom every day, even though you've sucked them up with the shop vac so many times you are now the shop vac ninja.

Oh, and this picture doesn't do justice to the scope of the infestation. Picture it worse. MUCH WORSE. I sucked up hundreds (yes, really) of them-every one I could see- not ten minutes before this picture was taken. Looked up and there they were again.

Anyway, here is little ditty I found that I thought appropriate:

Ladybugs Fly

(to the tune of "Three Blind Mice")

Fly, fly, fly.
Ladybugs fly.
Fly over here.
Fly over there.
They fly up high and they fly down low.
Around and around and around they go.
They fly fast, and they fly-fly slow.
Oh, ladybugs fly.

Yep. And they crawl in your hair and up your nose and they stink.

Not very ladylike if you ask me.

Fly away home!

The pirate study is rapidly coming to a close and I've been thinking for a week or so about what to do next. I've got lots of ideas, but...

How on earth do we follow what has been the most successful 3 weeks of homeschooling we've ever had?

I feel enormous pressure (entirely self-generated) to continue this amazing run of wonderful, enthusiastic, productive days with more of the same. Can we do it? Should I even try or was this just a fluke that will become a happy memory of what our homeschooling could be and yet will never be again despite all our best efforts?

Maybe I should just forget it and go back to default mode which for us means no unifying theme, just  the regular day-to-day stuff. It may not be exciting, but it's pleasant enough. At least I know he doesn't hate it.

This is what success breeds in me- fear of failure. Pretty pathetic, eh?

"Oh, come on, Theresa," I told myself. "At least give it a shot."

So, I made a list of  a dozen or so "topics" that I thought Superboy might like to delve into next. I thought really hard about the things that I knew interest him and put them on the list. I also came up with some ideas that I thought were unusual enough to spark curiosity. I showed the list to Superboy. You guessed it. Blank stare.

Back to the drawing board.

(He did seem interested in the Olympics, which I had as a choice, until I thought about it and remembered that we don't have TV so that really makes it hard to watch the Olympics. So that's out.)

Then I came up with World Architecture. He seems enthused. Not as enthused as he was about pirates, but, hey, who would be? I'll take what I can get.

So, that's what were off to next. I guess...

Here is the next entry in the journal of Captain Scurvy Dog:

22nd of May,

We gave the Brigand a bit of time to get out of the busy port, then set sail after her.

We hoisted our British flag to get close in but her Captain seemed to know the trick because once we got into firing range I could see that her guns were at the ready. She fired a warning shot across our bow, but I paid no heed. We were going to take that Brig no matter what. I returned the warning shot into her belly!  The battle was fierce and bloody. I lost five men, but they lost many more. We knew we had to board her quickly and repair that hole in her belly before she sank. I wanted to keep that ship for meself. When searching the hold, we found a cooper and a carpenter from the brig’s crew who were already working to repair the hole. Once I strapped them to the mast of the quickly sinking ship, they had the good sense to offer to join us rather than die. Then I sent them back to their repair work. Seeing what happened to their mates, the rest of the brig’s crew, what was left of them, joined us as well.

Now we have two fine ships. I have renamed the brigand The Hangman’s Noose and taken her as me flagship. The battle was a fine distraction and I am no longer concerned with mutiny. I am certain me men would follow me to the end of the world. Let’s just hope crewman Wright will figure out the clues to the location of the island.

Here is a re-posting of Scurvy Dog's Journal, in it's entirety (so far):

I am re-starting my blog at this site because I was having so much trouble with the one at blogspot. Here's hoping this one works out better.