::: the freedom on homeschooling :::

freedom

A cute article about "freedom" from homeschooling. Thanks for sharing it with me, Mrs. Chaser. I knew I had a good reason. :-)

You homeschool your kids? You must be a saint. Think of the freedom you’d have if you sent your kids to school. You’d be free to get up at 6 am to drag them out of their warm beds, so they can get ready to go out into the cold to wait for the bus. You’d be free to mediate the fighting over the bathroom (“No fair! I have to leave first! Make her get out!”). You’d be free... .. to make sure each one takes the right lunch. ...to figure out who left their lunch on the counter. ...to send the right permission slips with the right child. ...to make sure each one has the right books in the right backpack. And if there’s no bus for your neighborhood, you’d be free to drive the kids to school, along with someone’s else’s kids, if you carpool.... Which would leave you free to sit in their driveway honking the horn, shivering and waiting, while your kids fight in the back seat because no one wants to sit next to the kid you’re waiting for. Of course, if you sent your kids to school, now your real freedom would begin, because once the kids are actually in the school building, you’d be free to do what you wanted for an entire six hours: To clean the whole house all on your own, with no help from the kids. To watch “Regis and Kelly” or “The View” (didn’t you love the time the ladies on “The View” interviewed that famous actor, and to impress them he pulled off their shoes and juggled them? What a great show....). To go shopping, though you can’t buy the kids clothes unless they’re with, because you don’t know what’s “in”, and they can’t wear anything to school that’s not “in”. Cardamom Publishers Home Page The Imperfect Homeschooler Text Box: Though But still, you’d have the freedom to do what you want, uninterrupted..... Except, of course, for when the phone rings, and you answer it in case it’s the school nurse calling to say one of your kids got sick at school....(but of course it’s a siding salesperson). Or when you need to run back to school at 11 am because you’re one of the Volunteer Computer Moms (at a school which is already costing you $3000 a year in property taxes), or you’re a Field Trip Chaperone, or a Library Mom, or a Room Mom, or an Art Mom, or a Lunchroom Mom. But still, you’d have freedom for a little while, until it’s time to meet the bus or pick up the kids. Then you’d have to make them all sit down and do homework (even though you feel like a meanie because they just spent all day at school), And listen to them fight because they’re overtired and cranky, And comfort the one who’s crying because “I still don’t get what I’m supposed to do!”, and you’re not much help because you don’t see the point of the assignment, either, And rush them through dinner, because it’s almost time to take one to soccer practice, and another to gymnastics, or to Scouts, or to dance class. And by the time you drop off the last one, the first one will be ready to be picked up, and so you retrace your route, and then head home, where everyone collapses.... For a few minutes, but then it’s time to make them finish the unfinished homework, and take their baths, and lay out the clothes for tomorrow, and get to bed on time, so they won’t give you so much trouble about waking them up at 6 am and dragging them out of their warm beds, so they can get ready to go out into the cold to wait for the bus...... Homeschool your kids? You must be a saint. Think of the freedom you’d have if you sent your kids to school. © 2004 Barbara Frank

The United States Mint's Site for Kids

The United States Mint's Site for Kids

This is the U.S. Mint's site for kids. It has a course on coin collecting and lesson plans for teachers. The site states that coins are History In your Pocket, thus the Hip Site for Kids.

::: edison's coin collection :::

Edison has started a collection of state quarters. Since he's been riding to the bakery a few times a week, he has been asking them to trade him for state quarters. Today he created a chart of state quarters to keep track of the ones he has, from which mint they come, and which ones he still needs. He also started collecting pennies and hopes to collect $100 worth, $50 of which he plans to donate to Bard's China trip.

::: bard's fundraising letter/commas/proofreading :::

Bard began her fundraising letter yesterday and has been working on the rough and final drafts today. She wrote the rough draft, edited for clarity and interest and then edited again for punctuation. We discussed using commas properly per Punctuation Made Easy. We also used this book to discuss correct proofreading symbols. She's doing the dishes now, but when she's done she'll read the proofreading symbols I used on her letter and correct the mistakes.

Kevin's Playroom

Kevin's Playroom

This site has a ton of links for education, ranging in information about subjects from drama to math.

CNN.com - Put your feet up, It's time for school - Aug 13th, 2004

Put Your Feet Up, It's Time for School

This is a fair and encouraging article on home learning, though there's still the banal argument of socialization. Do these experts really believe that socializing only takes place in a classroom of 20-30 children of the same age and neighborhoods and one or two teachers? My children have relationships with people of many ages, belief systems, backgrounds and cultures. Just last night, we met with the arts council meeting, which was made up of an adult male actor, a middle-aged married couple, an elderly couple who is very active in the historic preservation of our community, a Christian author, a health food store employee and our homeschooling family. That's pretty diverse! And if my children were in school, they'd probably miss opportunities such as these because they'd be home doing homework or involved in extra-curricular activities in the evenings. We're able to take advantage of so many diverse learning opportunities because we can explore ideas and environments whenever we wish.

I think the last line in the article sums up my whole philosophy of learning at home.

"If you know how to learn," she says, "and you know your kids, you know how to teach your kids."

::: arts council and upcoming activities :::

Bard, Edison, Monet and I went to the local arts council meeting tonight at a nearby restaurant. There were a handful of people there, and I think the group needs some fresh blood. It seems that those who are interested in art are actually busy being *artists* so it's difficult for them to find the time to attend meetings. Hopefully, some organization can come of it, and we can help with that.

They did discuss the possibility of a theater group, which would be cool, and they have a couple of other things planned. like a trip to the art museum. I think we'll plan to participate. Also, I volunteered to host the gathering at my house in October, the third Wednesday. I also have a PartyLite party scheduled for sometime in there, I think the second or third week in October, as well as our upcoming family gathering.

I mailed my homeschool notification today by certified mail. Hope this comes out well. It's the first time I've notified in years. I hope to ask to assess my own children, as per the state regs which indicate that the children can be assessed by a "mutually agreed upon" person between the parents and the superintendent. If not, I do have a friend who has volunteered to do the assessment, since she is a certified teacher and a former homeschooling parent.

I also mailed my application for the local homeschool support group. We'll see how that turns out. I mailed the registration for Mrs. Lake's group, too, and I hope to help her with some of the field trips she's planning. Could be very cool.

I also hope to plan a field trip for our own family to the Shakespearean Theatre in Cincinnati. We could hit the aquarium, zoo, etc, while we're there. Could be fun.

Now, it's time to finish our Phase Ten game.

::: bard's sponsorship :::

Bard began writing her sponsorship request letters for her trip to China. She has really, really talked herself into believing that she won't be able to go. I'm very hesitant to send out the letters or to prod her into sending them. I've made it clear that the whole thing is in her hands. Hopefully, she'll finish the letter today and get it sent out so that I won't have to worry about it.

Edison went to Penny's to do some work and then rode to the bakery. In the evening, he went to the neighbor's house, too.

I finished my notification letter (did I already write that?) and will send it today. I also hope to order the Little House and Anne of Green Gables curricula today.

We watched The Secret Window last night. I hated it. After 15 years of trying to detox myself from Stephen King-like thoughts, they all came flooding right back. I had to sleep with my back against Bohemian because I was frightened like a child. :-/

::: our sponsored child/letter writing :::

We sponsor a child from Brazil through Compassion International. We started this sponsorship because Edison heard a membership drive on our local Christian radio station and really wanted to be a part of it, so we looked into it. I allowed Edison to search through the children on the website and choose someone to whom he'd like to write, and he chose Diego.

Diego is close to Edison's age and has very similar interests, including soccer and music. It seemed like a good match.

We've now been writing to Diego for about two years. It's a little frustrating, because the lag time is so long. Today, we received a letter dated June 29th, and Diego talked about Christmas! Since I write to him often, it's hard to tell what letter he's responding to.

Today, each of us wrote a letter in response to Diego's most recent correspondence. Monet didn't really want to do it, but I gave him four questions to write about, and he did it. We talked about Brazil, looked up a few facts about their language, culture and customs, and looked at a globe to find where we are in relation to Brazil.

I worked with Edison on spelling, paragraphs and punctuation. I found a very helpful book at Wal*Mart called Punctuation Made Easy. I can't seem to find a link for it, but it's a very helpful book geared towards children that explores the different types of punctuation and their proper usages.

I also found a website called Punctuation Made Simple which gives a basic overview of colons, semicolons, commas, dashes and apostrophes.

Anyway, because Edison was anxious to go for a bike ride to the bakery, he was happy to do his letter and get it done. When he finished, he was actually proud of his letter and the fact that he wrote 88 words!

I think part of this pride comes from something that happened yesterday when we were with The Chasers. He and Josh are very good friends, have been since they were babies, and if Edison were going to write a letter to someone, it would be Josh. Edison came to me while at Josh's house and held out three letters, written on his Superman stationery. He told me to read them in the correct order, which I did. I wouldn't have needed him to tell me which was the first and which was the last because of the marked improvement in his spelling and his handwriting! I think the pride of seeing his own improvement spurred him on when writing to Diego.

I would like to get back into the habit we had formed last year, which was to write a letter every Sunday. I think it really reinforces handwriting, grammar and communication skills, as well as helps them to keep in touch with friends and relatives. It's always fun to receive a letter in the mail, and the best way to get one is to give one!

::: baseball with the chasers :::

We're heading out to a baseball game today with The Chasers. Just as I suspected, Edison got up early and is out taking care of the chickens, goats, rabbits, dogs and cats. Good for you, Edison!

Photos forthcoming.

::: phase ten :::

We spent the evening playing Phase 10. Edison kept score, which was helpful in practicing his addition, carrying, etc. Monet was able to practice sorting, waiting his turn, counting on, making runs, making pairs, and counting by 5's, 10's and 25's. Sweetheart drew pictures. Bard drew pictures, practiced neat handwriting.

::: today's reading list :::

Edison recently finished:

• Jedi Under Seige
• Shadow Academy
• Lost Ones
• Lightsabers
• Shards of Alderaan
• (all by by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta)
• Coin Magic by Klutz

He is currently reading Diversity Alliance by the same authors.

Bard recently read:

• The Moon by Night by Madeleine L'Engle
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• The Whisper of Glocken by Carol Kendall
• M.C. Higgens the Great by Virginia Hamilton

She is currently re-reading There's a Girl in My Hammerlock by Jerry Spinelli and Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

Monet recently read:

• The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble
• Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osbourne
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by
• Favourite Woodland Tales: A Collection
• Oh Say Can You Say by Dr. Seuss
• Eloise in Moscow by Kay Thompson
• Bible Tails Picture Book for Children by The Donut Man

Sweetheart and I are currently reading Meet Felicity from the American Girl Series.

::: saturday and sunday :::

On Saturday, Bohemian and I picked up a free refrigerator that was listed on our local Freecycle list. Today, my dad cleaned it and we plugged it in. It will serve as a second fridge.

Bard and I had a great discussion about what she wants to be when she grows up. We discussed M. Night Shyamalan and how his entire family is comprised of doctors, but at around the age of 11, he decided he wanted to be a filmmaker. Bard says she'd like to be either a filmmaker, a writer, a singer or an actor. She feels those things are too banal for a teen, though, so she's not sure she wants to pursue any of them seriously.

Edison rode to Penny's house and did a bit of work for them. He rode to the bakery, too, and bought himself a donut. He's been thrilled to have this measure of freedom. The freedom does come with a bit of a price, though. When Bohemian and I came home from our trip to pick up the fridge and our fruitless yard-sale outing, it was after noon. Edison was just taking care of the chickens and goats. This has been an ongoing problem, and I actually had to call him home from a friend's house last week because he said he'd done the chores and hadn't. So, when it was time for him to ask if he could ride to Penny's, I told him that he would first have to write up and sign a contract stating that he would complete his animal chores each morning before 9:00 AM. Every word had to be spelled correctly and the punctuation had to be correct. Sure enough, he produced the signed document, and I told him he could go on his outing. This morning, his chores were done by 9:30. I let him know that this wasn't in accordance with the contract. The solution was that he would purchase an alarm clock.

We watched The King and I. We've been on a bit of a Rodgers and Hammerstein kick. When Monet asked if they could watch it, I said that it was a bit complicated and I wasn't sure if he would understand it. He then continued to tell me the entire story, punctuated by agreements from Sweetheart. When I asked him how he knew this, he said it was from The Sound of Movies, which is a documentary about Rodgers and Hammerstein that we watched a couple of months ago. Good retention!

This is how we spent today, Sunday:

Breakfast as a family. Edison set the table. Yogurt pancakes (flipped by Bohemian), hash browns and sausage.
Bard and I discussed the upcoming school year and discussed the possibility of using some of Cadron Creek's curricula. Bard tended toward Where the Brook and River Meet.
I finished True to Form by Elizabeth Berg. Bard and I discussed it a bit and thought it might be a good book about which to do a reading discussion.
Monet read Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osbourne.
Bard and Monet played with (and then fought over) Robotics.
I made potato chips while we played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. The kids took turns reading the cards aloud. Bard won. Bohemian and I came in second, and Monet and Edison came in third.
I finished my notification letter, which I hope to mail out tomorrow by certified mail.
I joined an e-mail list for Where the Brook and River Meet.

Tomorrow, we will go visit with The Chasers (friends of ours who homeschool. Mrs. Chaser is really one of my best friends. It's so good to have a kindred spirit!) for grilling and a baseball game.

Rainbow Resource Center

Rainbow Resource Center

I just discovered Rainbow Resource Center. I am STUNNED by the massiveness of this catalog! It must have just about everything a person would ever need or want to educate their children. With a resource like this, it would be very easy to get overwhelmed!

::: houdin's magic :::

(I believe this is where I changed from calling Houdin "Edison" 9/22/09) I took Houdin to the magic shop today. He's been doing magic tricks in front of the local bakery for money in his hat. Busking, which a neighbor believes is illegal. The owner of the bakery said it was fine, that they like Houdin's company, and he folds bakery boxes for them when there's no customers. Last time I was in there, the girl at the register told me what a bright kid Houdin is. Anyway, since he's been doing it, he's made $34. He used that money to buy more magic tricks. I'm thinking of looking into a magicians group for him. I should also take a photo of him doing his stuff, since his great grandpa's a magician, too, and doesn't live very close, in addition to being a paraplegic.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival

Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival

Cadron Creek

living history unit studies home school curriculum catalogs

I mentioned this company in a previous blog entry, but I think it deserves its own entry. I'm going to look more into this and will report as I find out more.

This company publishes literature based unit studies for Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

From the website:

CATALOG OF RESOURCES

American Dictionary of the English Languages 1828
Biblical Holidays
50 Veteran Homeschoolers Share Things We Wish We'd Known
Mommy Diagnostics
Woe is I
The Prairie Primer
Laura Ingalls Wilder Country
Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook
Historical Time Table
The Little House Cookbook
The World of Little House
My Little House Crafts Book
Spelling Power
Where the Brook and River Meet
Anne's Anthology
The Annotated Anne of Green Gables
Writers Inc.
The Green Gables Letters
Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confused?
Laurel's Kitchen Caring
What in the World's Going on Here?
At Her Majesty's Request
Heroes of the Faith
Further Up and Further In
Surprised by Joy
Of Other Worlds
Poems
Companion to Narnia
More True Tales; Ancient Civilizations and the Bible
Save on Basic History Pack (Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confused?, What in the World is Going on Here Vol 1& 2)
Save on Anne's Pack (Where the Brook and River Meet, Annotated Anne of Green Gables, Anne's Anthology)
Save on Further Up and Further In Basic Pack (Further Up and Further In, Surprised By Joy, Poems by C. S. Lewis, and Of Other Worlds.)

::: sweetheart and american girl/prairie primer/where the brook and river meet :::

Last night, I started reading The American Girl series to Sweetheart. We're starting with Meet Felicity. This was what I used as our primary history jumping point when Bard was in elementary school. I have a lot of materials that were made available by the company before they were purchased by Mattel. They really had an excellent program for teaching young girls history, and I think they fostered a great amount of historical fiction and interest in history that seems very popular today. They did away with many of the programs and incentives they'd originally implemented, but I'm sure a lot of the stuff is still available through eBay or Abebooks or whatever. Now, however, the emphasis seems to be on the dolls. Too bad. It really was a great thing.

I also hope to start using the Little House books. There is now a Prairie Primer, which I'm not sure I'll use but will look into. I had, at one time, hoped to write a curriculum based on the Little House books. There's such a wealth of historical information and jumping-off points in those books!

While looking for the Prairie Primer, I see there is also a study on the victorian era called Where the Brook and River Meet. This may be something I look into for Bard. My problem is that EVERYTHING looks good, and I have things now that I have never used, probably never will. :-/ I have great aspirations and I get very hopeful thinking about the wonderful things I could do with my children. Yet, here I am typing about them. To do them, I often end up frustrated...

Believe it or not, Cadron Creek, which publishes the two above mentioned resources, also publishes Further Up and Further In.

From the website:

Step through the wardrobe into an exciting study in the land of Narnia. Further Up and Further In will take you through the seven Narnian adventures as well as the more down to earth (or out of this world, whichever perspective you
prefer) sbjects of Bible study, English/literature, history/social studies, science, geography, cooking, and art. Further Up and Further In has 28 units. This study will take about a year with each unit lasting about one week. The extra eight weeks allowed in the study will be spent on activities that require
additional time to complete or on supplemental activities that the instructor will determine. This curriculum is so rich in ideas to explore that it will truly take a year to complete!

I think I may be in trouble...

::: monet's day out :::

I've been hoping to do a day with Monet for a week or so now, and today was the day. Bard is with a friend, so I left Edison in charge of housecleaning and cooking.

Monet chose Pizza Hut for lunch. We chose the lunch buffet and Monet reminded me of his birthday, how he chose Pizza Hut for his special birthday lunch, and how he chose "except" as one of the words to spell in our hangman game.

Today, he chose iced tea for his drink. It wasn't sweetened or flavored, so he put ten packets of sugar and three lemon slices in the tea. We had a nice lunch. I enjoyed his company.

After lunch, we headed to Wal*Mart to look for a punching bag, punching toy or boxing gloves. A few days ago, when friends were visiting, he had really lost his temper and gotten into trouble for it, so we listed some things that he could do to help control his temper. The punching bags and boxing gloves were two of the things.

In the store, he helped me gather the groceries I needed. I find that if I give him a list and some responsibilities, he's much more well-behaved. Today, he pushed the cart and did a fine job, better than some of the adults were doing who weren't looking as they pushed their carts out into the main aisle without even looking.

Our Kids' Bathroom Fish died a few days ago, so I told Monet that we had to choose a new fish. He asked if he could pick it out, and then asked if he could get a fish for his own room. I told him he could. We found a Beta tank that has two compartments so that you can keep two male betas without them killing each other. Apparently, it causes them to display their fins more to see another beta. Monet chose a blue and white beta and a red one, even asking the employee for one of the betas in the tank himself. He chose the rocks himself, too. He also chose a notebook to write things in when he's angry, calling it his Mad Book.

After Wal*Mart, we headed to the new local art gallery. It's in a big historic house, so when we parked and walked up the sidewalk towards it, Monet asked where we were going. I told him that I had always liked the house, thought it looked friendly, and figured we'd just go knock on the door and ask them if they had a cup of tea. :-) As we approached the door, he saw paintings in the window and decided it must be an art gallery. He was convinced when he saw the sign that said Art Gallery. :-)

Once inside, we told the attendant that Monet is an artist. She was very encouraging and impressed, and invited Monet to bring in some of his artwork for display and/or sale. I'm hoping to commission him to do a few paintings and then take them in. I think he'd like that. :-)

I have to make this quick, because Baby's not very happy.

After the gallery, we stopped for a drink (Monet paid and counted out the money for the drinks). On our way home, we stopped at the greenhouse, where Monet used the digital camera to take photos of the plants, flowers and miniature gardens. We bought two hanging baskets of everbearing strawberries and a hanging basket of nasturtiums, along with a few herbs, all at half-price. We then drove past the truck patch where they have a bunch of ponies and donkeys, and talked about the difference between ponies, horses, donkeys and mules. Monet asked if donkeys could be ridden and decided that, yes, you can ride a donkey because Mary and Jesus both did. :-) He also said he'd not like to have a donkey, because they're too loud.

We had many conversations, but I can't remember them now. I'll try to remember and write them down later.

When we got home, we repotted the herbs, Monet watered them, and then he spent the afternoon making artwork. Sweetheart made artwork, too, with the stencils I bought for her.

We rounded out the evening with a batch of pizza bagels and a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Baby can't take anymore. More later....

Photos here.

::: outing with monet :::

Monet and I are going for an outing today. I'm planning to take him to lunch, go for a walk, check out the art gallery and go to Wal*Mart to look for a punching bag or other way to let him vent his anger. More as it happens!

Sweetheart's Name

Sweetheart has been spending the morning writing her name and drawing pictures. She's also practicing making hearts and stars using a stencil. I think I'll pick up some more stencils while I'm out today.

::: monet's planets :::

Monet came into the Creative Room today and asked me if there were beings living on Mars. We checked the web and found a site called StarChild that gives a basic introduction to each of the planets and our solar system. It also provides a few simple activities to reinforce the information gained from the pages.

I also found a great site on Enchanted Learning that gives the relatives size, temperature, orbital velocity, gravitational pull, etc., for each planet.

Monet came up with an idea to label the rooms in our house according to the size of the room=size of the planet. He's making labels out of 5x7 index cards with the name of the planet, a drawing of the planet, and a description of the planet: "Cold Mars," "Icy Pluto," "Watery Earth," etc. He'll then stick each of the cards to the corresponding doors with Handy Tac. :-)

This is what I call taking advantage of a learning opportunity. A child asks a question. You learn the answer together.

::: changeback messages :::

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

The past few days have been very trying and challenging. I've been trying to adjust to some recently discovered behavior issues with one of my kids, and it has not been easy. On Wednesday, I was so intensely depressed that I had no will to even attempt to deal with my family in a fair or rational way. I was just angry. Every call of "MOM!" or request for help was just too much for me to handle. Everything I'd ever done, any decision I'd ever made about family, childrearing, love...it was all futile. There was no point to anything.

Edison, my 13 year old son, bore the brunt of my anger, even though he wasn't the main source of my frustration. He and I have been butting heads since he was two, and I have journal entries to prove it. Something just got into that boy's system and has never found its way back out. He's argumentative, independent, headstrong, persistent and his mood changes very easily depending on his surroundings.

He's a lot like me.

So we went head-to-head about his argumentativeness, his sloppiness, his rudeness, his criticism of his siblings. I was ruthless. He was ruthless right back.

The thing is, this is just the type of behavior I've been trying to address. Not that I've been trying to address it so much in Edison, though that seems to come as a side effect of my own changes. I've really been trying to address behavior problems in me.

Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives. ~Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969

Raised an adopted only child in a very, incredibly dysfunctional household, I got some pretty screwed up signals from my parents. My dad was, and still is, a manipulative liar. My mom was simply out of control. She didn't know how to handle me, and decided that the authoritarian, belittling, beat-the-tar-out-of-the-child approach was what would whip me into shape.

I inherited the best of both parenting worlds.

Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

This is absolutely, amazingly appalling to me, given that by the age of 12 I had begun planning my post-childhood life, and it did NOT include repeating with my children anything my mother had ever done to me. At that age, I didn't see the manipulation and lying that my dad practiced regularly. I simply saw that he was my savior. He rescued me from bedtime, from discipline, from having to face my mother.

When he was around.

And he wasn't around often. Birthday parties, friends' visits (which were limited, as my mom hated most people and criticized all of my friends), family dinners, you name it. My dad wasn't there. He didn't attend my track meets, dance recitals, school functions or softball games. He just made sure that when he was around, he was the ultimate "good guy."

My parents were not very social, didn't belong to clubs or groups or organizations. My mom had very few friends, and my dad didn't have many good ones. They weren't Christians, so they didn't belong to a church. They simply stumbled along in their child-raising life. I was there to stumble along with them.

When I moved out, my mother carried out the threat she'd screamed many times all through my life. She divorced my dad, and told me that she no longer had a daughter.

So, coming into motherhood, I was ill-equipped. As a daughter, I had been bullied, threatened, beaten, manipulated, lied to, distracted, rewarded, screamed at, hated, argued with, applauded, slapped, shaken, frightened and frustrated. As a mother, I was determined to be better.

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories. ~John Wilmot

I read every parenting book I could find. Since I was a Christian, I read a lot of books that approached child-rearing from a "Christian" perspective. Most of those books included some kind of physical or emotional punishment. Spanking, time-out, ignoring the child when they displayed bad behavior, etc. I had been insistent with my husband Bohemian that I would never spank our children. The system I liked best was natural consequences. We spent many conversations discussing this, him telling me that this sounded good in theory, but how would it work in this situation, that situation, and what if it didn't work at all? I stood firm. Until my daughter was born.

Theoretical parenting, or theoretical anything for that matter, is not nearly as difficult as hands-on. I have never done anything in my life as difficult as being a parent. With Bard, I worked very hard to change my ways. I would be positive. I would not allow certain television shows to be viewed. I would bake more, cook at home more, speak positive words more. I would be firm, but fair. I would be consistent, but caring. Bard responded to this so well. But the hardest was yet to come. Bard was actually a fairly easy child to raise, and we raised her by the James Dobson method. Discipline immediately, consistently, lovingly, and informatively.

But, as I said, Bard was easy.

Boy, n.: a noise with dirt on it. ~Not Your Average Dictionary

When Edison was born, I was confused. I had been confused about how he was conceived, I was confused about when we should tell people that I was pregnant only six months after my first child had been born, and I was confused about when he should be born. The issues have changed, but the confusion has not diminished. With Edison, the parenting books flew out the window, and the discipline became much more serious. He was headstrong, to say the least. Some of his first words were "shubbup!" (shut up) and "goway!" (go away). Some of the things he would do would just break my heart. Some of the things he would do would just melt it. So I plugged away, disciplining, caring, trying to be consistent, trying to be fair, and most often, doing all right. Then along came Monet.

Around the time that I had Monet, I joined a feminist mothers at home e-mail list which had influenced my decision to become an attached parent. Monet was with me all the time. He was either attached at the breast or slung from my hip. I taught him sign language to give him a communication advantage. I tried not to spank, but instead ignored bad behavior and rewarded good behavior. Monet, in his effort to be heard, just made the bad behavior louder. And louder. And I became more and more frustrated, and less and less of a person.

Around this time, Bard and Edison discovered a new, entertaining pasttime. Sibling rivalry. This, I believe, was the beginning of my parental breakdown. Up until this time, I thought I was at least a decent parent. By the time Monet had grown old enough to join in with the sibling battles, I had begun reverting to my old parenting tactics, the ones I had learned as a child. Bullying, spanking, anger, belittling, sarcasm...even a few occassions of slapping. The worst one, I think, was screaming. The older my children got, the more they fought with each other...and the more I hated myself.

Because the rule for me had been to always be fair, but the only way I would ever have been able to accomplish that was to be everwhere at all times or to install a million dollar security system in my home. There was no way I could be fair, and to me, that just didn't seem fair. There was only one thing I could do...stop having children.

Now the thing about having a baby - and I can't be the first person to have noticed this - is that thereafter you have it. ~Jean Kerr

And then Sweetheart was born.

While Monet had been a planned pregnancy, Sweetheart was a total surprise. Through the whole of my pregnancy, I worried that she would be another boy. It was because my boys were boys that I was having such a hard time. Girls were, in my very simple opinion from my limited experience, easier than boys. I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was when the midwife called to me to look at my baby's face, to see those rosebud lips and to just know. Sweetheart was a girl.

With Sweetheart, I was walking the line between being an attached parent and a conservative Christian parent. There were a lot of changes going on in my life...buying land, selling a house, moving into a tiny cabin, bringing my dad along with me even though I didn't really want to, but felt too guilty and indebted to say "no," and then, later, building our own home, which took the other part of the time that was left when I wasn't trying to keep a 16x24 foot cabin clean while seven people were living there. The one thing I most desperately did NOT need was another child. And that is precisely when I found out that I was pregnant with Baby. It was the worst pregnancy I could have had, from the horrible vomiting, to the kidney stones, to the flu, to my dad having an incapacitating back injury and, consequently, a nasty bicycle accident. I was so not ready to have another child.

And here's where I need to clarify. It's not the child that's the problem. No, not at all. It's totally and completely ME. I don't know how to care for my children. No, it's not like I can't feed them or clothe them. It's just that I haven't learned to talk to them.

But recently, I've been learning to do just that.

I picked up a book that I had tried to read several years ago, a book called How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk. I had originally glanced through the cartoons, and then I tossed it aside, maybe even gave it away, because it sounded like a bunch of psychobabble. But this time, I read it. And here it was. Me. Right there on the "don't do it this way" illustration. Again and again and again, I recognized myself. I was amazed. Because, before, when I would read How To books on raising children, I would feel so inadequate because it never told you what to do if you'd already screwed up beyond belief. But this one does. It shows you what you've been doing wrong, and how to do it right.

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while. ~Josh Billings

In reading this book, I also saw a lot of my childhood, a lot of the things I remember hating about how I was talked to. There was no compassion, no understanding. It was all authority, all "you will do it MY way, you bleeping brat!" I think, to give my mother some understanding, she was just too, too tired to try to talk to me. I was difficult. My father was difficult. She had already lived through a lot of difficulty.
So now, here I am, faced with a new way to deal with children. Listen to them. Be compassionate. But be firm. Be kind. Be empathetic. Oh, Lord! Doesn't that sound like...like...
...like what Jesus would do?
So here I am, trying to be more like Jesus, and along comes this issue with one of my children, an issue that just smacks me right in the face. It was embarrassing, deceptive, troubling behavior. What was I going to do with it?
And the first thing that came out was this: change back. What you're doing doesn't work. What you're doing is wrong, it's bad, it's damaging. Change back. You're giving them too much leeway. You're giving them too much control. Change back.

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

And then comes my mother-in-law in her infinite wisdom, listening to me cry about my fears and my humiliations, hearing me insist that I'm doing it all wrong, just when I thought I was doing it right. I tell her how my son has done this unspeakable thing, has done it and another parent had to tell me about it. Another parent whom I fear, who intimidates me, and she tells me these things. My mother in law tells me these two things. First she says, you're humble. Of course you're humble in front of someone who intimidates you. Why be humbled in the presence of someone who doesn't count? Secondly, she tells me that I'm getting changeback messages, and that I need to refuse to accept them. Changeback messages, I say? What are those? She gives me a brief explanation. It's in all the twelve step programs, she tells me. You do something good in life, and someone comes along and tells you that you're doing it wrong. They want you to change back. The husband quits drinking, and the wife, who has nagged him for years to quit drinking, buys him some beer, justifies it. "It's the only pleasure he really has." Why? Because she feels guilt, she feels uncomfortable with his change. She had grown accustomed to his story, to who he is. So she "tells" him to change back. Satan, my mother in law tells me, is giving me a serious changeback message. You're doing something right, she says. Keep it up.

The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard. ~Sloan Wilson

I let my boys ride their bikes on the road. My dad wouldn't let me do that. He was afraid. He was afraid, I'm sure, of losing me. Somehow, though, he lost me, but in a different way. He lost me, he lost my mom, and now, he's losing his grandkids.

My son didn't do what he did because I let him ride his bike on the road. He didn't do what he did because I started talking to him like a human being and stopped talking to him like the control freak that I am. He did what he did because he has free will. He did what he did because he's a human boy, with ideas, thoughts, worries, needs, emotions, fears. My son needs my support. He also needs freedom. These are two things I never had.

I will not change back.

::: july was national ice cream month :::

July was National Ice Cream Month, so we focused on ice cream a lot. We read about ice cream, bought a hand-crank ice cream freezer, tried several ice cream recipes, talked about ice and salt and why ice with salt is colder than just ice, and Bard read the entire Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Book. To do a unit study on ice cream, check out these links:

A How To Make Ice Cream report
Ice Cream Analogies (requires a PDF reader)
Ice Cream Flavor survey and Ice Cream bar graph
Ice Cream Facts and Trivia at makeicecream.com
Here's a site that tells you what kind of person you are based on your favorite ice cream flavor. My favorite is Breyers Butter Pecan. :-)
And then, of course, there's A-Z Home's Cool's ice cream page. It includes a really promising looking link to an activity called Ice Cream and Algorithms which I haven't yet done but would really like to do.

::: a bit of learning :::

While I was doing reading e-mail, Monet saw that a friend is going to Arizona and asked where Arizona is. We did a mini USA geography session, talking about the places we've been.

He also brushed his teeth, and I told him that you should sing "Happy Birthday" twice while brushing your teeth to make sure you get all the germs. In your head, of course. So I demonstrated. :-)

::: star wars galactic battlegrounds: an interview with monet :::

Tyler: We're here with Monet who has been spending a lot of time playing the computer game, Galactic Battlegrounds. We're going to get the inside scoop on this game and what Monet likes about it. Monet,tell us a little bit about the game.

Monet: It's really fun. You get to build an army. If you're really good, the funner it is. If you're really bad at it...I'm not too bad and not too good, just in the middle. First, you have to put in your name for your file. And then, you go to Basic Training. The first one, it shows you how to move from place to place. You have markers, so you sideclick on the markers and then you keep on going and you meet Chewy's dad (I don't know his name), then there's Gondarks, these little monkeys, but they have red hair and they're much more dangerous than monkeys. I mean, gorillas.

Tyler: Is this all in Basic Training?

Monet: Yes.

Tyler: What do the monkey-like things do?

Monet: They try to destroy your camp.

Tyler: That doesn't sound very nice.

Monet: No, it doesn't.

Tyler: Tell me more about Basic Training.

Monet: Well, there are a couple more Basic Training things to do. There are, like, nine things to do. I don't know really what the next one is, but I'll tell you some more. There is Jedi and Ally.

Tyler: What do you do with those?

Monet: You trade this carbon and ore...

Tyler: What do you trade the carbon and ore for?

Monet: There's a "sell and buy." If you buy, they give it to you.

Tyler: So you're trying to get the carbon and ore?

Monet: Yes.

Tyler: What do you trade to GET the carbon and ore?

Monet: Hmm?

Tyler: What do you have that they want?

Monet: Oh! You can give them anything. You can give them food, carbon...

Tyler: I thought you were trying to GET the carbon.

Monet: Yeah, you can trade the carbon...you don't have to give them anything. If you can't push the buy button anymore, you have to sell some of your stuff that you have a lot of. And that's how you get a lot of buildings.

Tyler: Okay, so what you're saying is that you can sell, not trade, your things for money. And then you can use the...

Monet: There's no such thing as money.

Tyler: So what do you get when you sell your stuff?

Monet: Nothing. You're the only one who can sell and buy.

Tyler: So if you're the only one who can sell and buy, who is buying from you and selling to you?

Monet: No one is selling to me.

Tyler: How can you buy something if no one is selling anything?

Monet: They don't have to be selling anything.

Tyler: Then how can you buy it?

Monet: Okay, you have a spaceport. And then, you click on the spaceport and then there is a buy sign and a sell sign, and next to the sell sign are all these items that you can sell to the other allies.

Tyler: OH! So you CAN sell to someone else. The Allies!

Monet: Yeah. And then, there's a "buy" sign. You can buy from the Allies, because THEY have a spaceport. And if they don't have a spaceport and you don't know that, there's a black space around. That's why you have a scout.

Tyler: Wait a minute. You didn't mention a scout before. What's a scout?

Monet: A scout is supposed to scout out the area, the map for you.

Tyler: Why?

Monet: Because you need to know where your allies are and where your enemies are.

Tyler: What's an ally?

Monet: An ally is what you trade with and saves your life.

Tyler: So an ally is a good guy. He's on your side.

Monet: Yes.

Tyler: What's an enemy?

Monet: An enemy is what kills you and you can give stuff to them, but you don't want to.

Tyler: Do the enemies try to take your stuff?

Monet: No. They try to blow it up.

Tyler: That's not very nice.

Monet: That's why they call them enemies.

Tyler: Let's go back to Basic Training. What else can you do there?
Monet: There are a whole bunch of things, but some of them, I forget. The second one I know, it's how to collect stuff and defeat the Gondarks.

Tyler: What kind of stuff?

Monet: Food. Carbon. Nova Crystal. Ore.

Tyler. What is carbon for?

Monet: Carbon is pretty much for getting warriors. Tech level three needs 500 food and 200 Nova Crystals. Tech level two needs 200 Nova Crystals. Then there's Tech Level Four, that's the highest level. There's a Tech Level One, but you don't need anything. That's what you start off with. A lot of times I've gotten to Tech Level Four.

Tyler: Sounds interesting. Would you say that there is anything about your game that involves learning?

Monet: Yes. About Star Wars. You get to find all of these creatures, like rancors, and these fish creatures, goober fish, and on every planet, there's probably a creature. Tattoine, there's a bunch. Yavin Four...do you know how to spell Tattoine?

Tyler: I think so.

Monet: It's "oo."

Tyler: Oh. Okay. So it's Tattooine?

Monet: No. No it's not "tattooine." There's no "i" and there's no other "t."

Tyler: Okay, so it's Tatoone.

Monet: Well, that's how I think it is. I think there' s a W.

Tyler: Anything else you want to say about it?

Monet: You can do standard games, you can do episodes. You can do Darth Vader, Princess Leia and Chewbacca.

Tyler: Cool! Okay, that's all the time we have for today. Thanks for your time, Monet!

Monet: You're welcome.

::: sweetheart's room :::

Yesterday Bohemian put a few more coats of paint on Sweetheart's twin beds that I found at a secondhand furniture store. After he was finished, I dragged him into town to peruse the very coolest shop in the county. My friend Stefanie has the shop I only need to dream of owning, and I think she's the only one who could pull of such a totally hip place. Stefanie finds stuff, either in salvage yards, yard sales, resale shops, whatever, and spruces them up and makes groupings that are SO cool. I bought a hot pink plant stand, a little end table full of drawers and two matching tables for the feet of Sweetheart and Baby's beds. I stole a lot of inspiration, too. :-)

Bohemian perused the music store while I was salivating at Stefanie's place. He really wants a nice acoustic guitar or a new pickup for the guitar he has. I'd love to find a way to get these things for him. I'll have to think on it. I suppose the best way would be to stop spending money on other things. :-/

Before I came up with that revelation, I also stopped at the store and bought a quilt for Sweetheart's bed, not a pricey one, just a Wal*Mart one. I picked up some greenery for the kitchen, too.

When we got home, I dry-brushed a cream color on top of the pink on the headboard and footboards, and some pink and cream on the end tables I got from Stefanie's. Bard used Handi-Tack to stick five little vintage dollies on the top shelf of Sweetheart's very cute Ethan Allen dresser/hutch that I found at a different used furniture place.

The final product (which actually isn't quite done yet) is so cute. I still need to find some vintage or vintage-style curtains, a few little rag rugs, and some artwork for the walls. There was a way cute vanity at Stefanie's that would fit in Sweetheart's room, too. It has a huge vintage mirror on the back. I'm not sure if I'll get it, but it's definitely appropriate.

We've been playing a lot of Phase 10 as a family, and on Friday night, we played Scatagories. Monet, who is 9, really likes to play and we let him look at the clues before we start the timer so he can get a head start. Bard is the one who really loves to play. :-) Edison isn't into it at all.

But Edison has been very into magic tricks. He, Monet and Sweetheart put on a show for us on Friday night, complete with dancing, magic tricks, juggling and public speaking. :-) It was a lot of fun.

Edison and Monet have been spending a lot of time playing Star Wars Gallactic Battlegrounds. Monet thinks it's a good game to play. Find out more on the next post. Also, they've been spending a lot of time playing Uno, and even including Sweetheart.

Until next time!

::: volunteering :::

Our children belong to a local Roots & Shoots group. From the website:

Roots & Shoots® engages and inspires youth through community service and service learning. Founded by Dr. Jane Goodall, this global program emphasizes the principle that knowledge leads to compassion, which inspires action. All Roots & Shoots groups show care and concern in three areas: the human community, animals, and the environment.

Through that group, the kids have been able to do some interesting things and have had great opportunities to serve the community. Last night, they were able to serve again.

Georgia, the group leader, called us this week letting us know that she'd received a call from the local Humane Society, which is fairly new and still trying to raise money for a building. The Humane Society is having a yard sale at the fairgrounds today and they needed help setting up their things. Edison was able to do a lot of heavy lifting and general gophering. Bard was able to do organizing and pricing. I was able to do general organizing. I think it was an excellent opportunity to see what people get rid of, as well as see how many great clothes are available for a very inexpensive price! All of the clothing was priced at a quarter a piece. I was able to pick up some dresses for Sweetheart, as well as some Cat's Meow houses for above my kitchen doors. It was also a great opportunity to get to know some other people from the community.

Speaking of which, I was able to get a contact for one of the local 4H groups, which is made up entirely of homeschoolers. I asked Bard if she'd like to participate, and she seemed hopeful. Also, Georgia let me know that a local man is working on starting a theatre group here in our town! I'm excited about that, and I'm sure the kids will be, too. I hope to contact this man today, as well as the 4H lady.

I've been reading How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk and have been getting a lot out of it. I've been using some of the skills I'm learning, and they seem to work. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the book and hope to get Bohemian to read it, too. I may even have Bard read it. It's a helpful way to communicate, though some of it feels forced. We'll see how it works.

Monet is in the kitchen making smoothies. We didn't have the standard frozen blueberries, but we did have frozen grapes, so he decided to try that instead. They turned out really well! I'm enjoying a tasty frozen beverage right now. :-)

::: frustrated :::

Today, I'm feeling frustrated. Nothing has worked out for me on the educational level today. My plan: get the children started on their Switched On Schoolhouse subjects, do a reading lesson with Sweetheart, have Bard and Edison make banana muffins, and finish the laundry. I don't think those are very lofty goals, but none of them have worked. First, I can't get Switched On Schoolhouse installed on either of the older kids' computers. Their systems are apparently too old. Secondly, Sweetheart is in a silly mood and doesn't want to do her reading lessons. Since I've been reading a discussion on coercion and how it "damages" children's reading, I've been thinking about how this philosophy works with producing children who are not completely and totally self-absorbed. Finally, I had Bard look up a recipe for banana sour cream bread to make with all of our very ripe bananas. One little problem. No eggs. This is frustrating, because we have a TON of chickens and have been feeding them a TON of chicken feed! But they apparently either haven't been laying, or someone else has been taking our eggs. :-/ So, no sour cream banana bread until I get to the store.

Some days, I feel like I spend just about the entire day running around. For example, I need to go to the store today because we're out of salt, mayonnaise, and now, apparently, I need eggs. I also need milk from Ralph's, which means I have to drive out of my way to get the milk. It's not that far from the store, and I should be very glad to be able to have access to raw milk, but I still feel like I'm running more than necessary.

And even though I've made smoothies, prepared the ingredients for banana sour cream bread, AND filled the crock pot with veggie soup, I feel like I haven't accomplished anything, and I have eaten nothing more than a S'mores Luna Bar!

Sigh.

Some days are just like this.

 

::: a room for sweetheart :::

Yesterday, Bohemian and I got up early (early for us on a Saturday, anyway) and went to breakfast. The goal was to hit the used furniture store in a neighboring town and to hit a couple of yard sales that started Saturday morning. Also, Bard and I had seen a used four-string electric bass that Bohemian had wanted to check out.

After breakfast, we headed toward where I thought the furniture store would be, but I hadn't been there so I was counting on seeing a sign, but as we approached the center of town, we still hadn't seen the store. We stopped at the general store and asked an Amish teenager there, but he didn't know of anywhere. I went inside and asked the Amish cashier , but she didn't know of the place, either. I was about to give up, but an Amish customer knew right where it was, just a mile up the road on the main state route! I thought it was funny that the other two locals didn't know it, but I was glad that we were able to get directions.

The sign outside the shop said "Quality Used Furniture," and it was, indeed. Many of the items in there would have been considered antiques, and her prices were that of an antique store, too. Since I was there looking for a bargain, I was a bit disappointed. There were some great things there, but the prices were so strange. A single bookcase could be $195, while a whole bedroom suite was $350. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason.

And then, as I turned down the last aisle, there it was. The sweetest chest of drawers with a hutch on the top. It was painted a cheery yellow, looked to be original paint and original knobs, and had white beadboard behind the hutch. The hutch had two cupboard doors and a shelf, and inside the cupboard doors were another shelf and a mirror on the door. Perfect for Sweetheart's room! It was a vintage Ethan Allen piece, and it was marked...$85! There was a sign above it that said "All hutches 15% off" and since this looked like a hutch as much as it looked like a chest or drawers, I asked. "Sure, I'll give you 15% off of that," the Amish woman said.

I wrote my check while Bohemian prepared to load the piece into the Jeep. He took out each of the mortised drawers and carried the HEAVY thing, which was in two pieces, out to the vehicle. I was already putting it into her room and decorating it with goodies in my mind before we even got it home!

But before we went home, we headed to the yard sales. At the second sale, I found five gorgeous little vintage dolls decked-out in crocheted dresses and hats. Mentally, I lined them up on top of Sweetheart's new hutch. I also found sweet hand-embroidered tea towels, a set of hand-embroidered "his" and "hers" pillowcases, two nice rag rugs in good colors, and a green bowl from a Prak-T-Kal vaporizer.

Saturday evening, we primed and painted Sweetheart's floor, a sweet, light pink called "Kissed by Juliet." Tonight, we primed the two twin beds I found at a different used furniture store and a long pegged shelf we've had for ages. They'll be painted pink and then cream and rubbed through to give an antiqued look.

I'm already mentally shopping for bedding at Target. :-)

 

::: a day with bard :::

Today seemed like a good day to go yard-salin'. So I woke Bard, got dressed, said goodbye to my dad and the kids, and headed off to find some bargains.

My main goals were to look for a sofa, some end tables, a couple of night stands, some bookcases and a set of beds for Sweetheart and Baby.

The first stop was a Mennonite woman's home who homeschools. She had a lot of boxed curricula and I wasn't really interested in most of it. I did, however, find some good dress-up clothes and a train set which I think is called a Whittle Train or something like that. The tracks are a base that are in the shapes of large squares that hook together like puzzle pieces. There are also little pieces that are used to create little shops and buildings. Cute!

The other thing I found was something called Learning Seeds, which is a file box filled with all kinds of activity cards in different subject areas. The goal is to provide a springboard for learning when children can't think of anything to do, so that they can turn to this creative outlet as opposed to turning on the TV. I haven't given this a very in-depth look, but I'm going to check it out further. I do know that I found a source for it online, and while I paid $4.00 for a brand new box, the site lists the price at $39.95!

Bard found six hockey pucks, which they'll use for ice hockey this winter. Up until now, they've been using a street hockey ball. The woman who was having this sale forgot to ring up my Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing book by Sheila Kipley, so she gave it to me for free. :-)

I found an unused Wilson's black leather vest, with tags, for $2.00. A perfect accessory for Edison's magic shows. I need to find him a nice top hat and a pair of black dress pants.

Bard and I spent a lot of time laughing about Homestar Runner today. I have to admit that I now think it's pretty funny. I had to swallow my pride and admit that to Bard, which was good, because we then spent the rest of the afternoon making silly Homestar Runner references and cracking ourselves up.

I couldn't find any beds or other furniture at any of the sales, so I headed for one of the local used furniture stores, where I found a set of twin beds for Sweetheart and Baby. They'll need to be sanded, painted and gussied up, but they'll be really fun when they're done. We decided to spend this weekend finishing up Sweetheart's bedroom, which means painting the floor and possibly creating a fun pattern with the paint. I'll try to post photos.

Bard was a joy with whom to share a day. She's clever, witty, and just generally funny. I'm really glad we got to spend the time together. We talked about books, what makes a book a classic, why some classics are so stupid (she recently read Catcher in the Rye and hated it) and whether or not her favorite books will be stupid when she's an adult.

Tonight, we filled the cracks in Sweetheart's floor and will prime and paint it in the morning, after I hit a couple more yard sales. The kids watched South Pacific on DVD and then watched a bunch of Homestar Runner shorts. Monet, of course, made a book of drawings of all of the characters. He's a very motivated artist! I'd love to get him plugged into a good class, if I could find a good teacher who would be willing to come to our home and wouldn't charge an arm and a leg. I know it's worth it, but I don't have it!

Tonight, Bohemian is teaching Bard and Edison how to play an electric bass. Edison started fiddle lessons about a year ago, but his teacher, who was also homeschooled, went to college at age 16, so we kinda lost out. Bummer. Bard seems to be picking up the bass very well, and has learned to tune using harmonics, which Bohemian taught using a short physics lesson. They're using a video called Ultimate Beginner's Series: Bass Basics. Bohemian is going through it with them step by step. They all seem to be enjoying it. :-)

I was able to contact a few local homeschoolers and find out about a support group here. There will be an informational meeting in about two weeks, and I think I'll attend, since it sounds like there are about 60 families who belong. I've been e-mailing with these ladies and hope to make some contacts that will lead to new friendships for the kids and me!

For now, I think it's time for bed. I'm hoping to get up early tomorrow morning, get breakfast down the street, and head for a couple more sales.

Thanks for a fun day, Bard!

::: animated atlas: growth of a nation :::

Animated Atlas: Growth of a Nation

This is a very cool animated and sound-enhanced site, an excellent tool for learning the history and geography of the United States.

From the website:

This ten minute presentation illustrates the growth of the United States from the original thirteen states in 1789.

::: what a trip, plus the nickel puzzle :::

Tonight we began discussing what we will do with the balance of our summer. I feel funny saying that, because with all of the rain we've had, it doesn't seem like summer has been here very long at all.

But it has, and now we are faced with making the most of it.

Because we've spent so much of our time working on the house, there hasn't been a lot of recreational time. Our down-time has consisted mostly of watching videos or actually eating dinner. Pretty sedate.

So tonight we started discussing options for making the summer a bit more active. The options ranged from going to the Indiana Dunes to heading to the local water parks. We'd particularly like to become more involved in biking on Rail Trails, something we did fairly often before the beginning of The House. Bohemian and I have both put on weight since we've moved here, which is a surprise, because I really thought a move to the country would solve our weight problems. Actually, we seem to drive more now, eat more (those doggone Amish cooks) and are less active. Plus, Bohemian has a desk job and spends about three hours a day commuting, not to mention all of the time he spends in his car for work-related errands. Very sedate.

In other news, I've been working on my notification letter for this year. I think I have it finished, but I'm nervous about sending it because I gave exactly what the Ohio regulations ask for, but I think it's less than the district wants, and since this is a new district for us, I'm not sure how homeschool-friendly they are. Also, the district instructs us to send notifications to a liason that "handles" homeschooling notifications, though regs say we only have to send them to the super. I suppose I'll send it in, and if it's inadequate to them, I'll contact the homeschool list I'm on and see what I should do.

And in still other news, we've been watching a lot of musicals lately. June 28th was the birthdate of Richard Charles Rodgers', of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame. We rented The Sound of Movies from Netflix, followed by Oklahoma!, both the 1999 stage play and the original movie. The Light Opera is performing South Pacific this month and next, so I hope to take one or several of the kids to see that. I just wish it weren't so expensive! We also watched Pirates of Penzance and Funny Girl. Oklahoma! has been the most popular so far, and everyone seems to agree that they like the stage production best. Do you have a favorite musical that's suitable for families? Post it in the comments. I'd love to hear about it.

Yesterday, we went to see a friend of ours playing music on the lawn of the Arts Center. We took a picnic and hung out for a while, followed it with a trip to the bookstore, then lunch at Subway, and, finally, a trip to Wal*Mart, where Bard helped Monet pick a few goodies with his "good job" change. I also picked up some more loot for the Quiet Time Box--a couple more Bionicles and Magnetix and a Hot Wheels car that has magnetic wheels.

Today, Monet was preparing a stage play of his own. He created puppets out of paper lunchbags, construction paper and yarn. He gave each a name and personality and wrote a script on the computer, asking Bard for spelling help. We had a bit of a meltdown because he couldn't figure out the logistics for the actual performance location, but he finally settled on using the porch.

Bard just finished the book The Westing Game and insists that it's a really great book, so I'm reading it now. So far, she's right. It's holding my interest, though by the end of the third chapter, I've figured out the first set of clues.

Edison and I went out to run errands today. We had to buy chicken feed, pay a bill and pick up some groceries. While we were at the store, he weighed the grapes that I bought, determined the total weight, divided it to determine the average weight per bunch, and determined the price per bunch based on the average weight of each bunch. He also calculated sale prices when we went to a local gift shop that's going out of business, determining the final price based on the original price and deducting the percentage off.

Bard and Edison have both been reading Math for Smarty Pants and The I Hate Mathematics Book. Bard presented me with the following riddle. I got it right...can you?

You're at a carnival game booth.  The sign says "Pay a nickel to win a quarter!  Increase your 5 cents by 500 percent!"  At the booth you see three full sacks labeled as follows:

Quarters

Nickels

Quarters and Nickels

The carnie explains that the bags are indeed full of coins and explains the game with the following rhyme.

One sack has quarters; another has nickels;
The third sack, however, is really a tickle.
It's a mixture of both, a fair share of each;
finding which sack is which is within your reach.

The carnie also gives you these two clues:  First of all, every sack is labeled wrong.  Second, he'll reach into one sack and pull out a coin for you to see.

 Which sack would you have him pull from?

::: books: the best bad investment? :::

Used bookstores. I've known them intimately since I was a child. Imagine the excitement I felt finding this measure of financial freedom, discovering a way to sell something I no longer wanted to own something I really did want. On a regular basis, I would gather all of the books with which I could bear to part, wait for a family trip to the plaza where the used book store was waiting just for me, and sell my wares. I could sell a boring Nancy Drew and find an exciting Black Stallion, sell a ho-hum Hardy Boys Mystery and stumble upon The Black Stallion Returns. I could meet new books, consume them, build a relationship with them, and determine whether I wanted to continue that relationship, or if I just wanted to use it to acquire a new one.

Some would say that a used book store is just a paperback library. I suppose there's some validity to that. But there's something--something not-quite-explainable--that's different. The mystery of the hunt, the thrill of the find. And, too, the pressure is gone. I can take a book home, find that the relationship is too precious, and choose to keep that book! Mine! As a child, I would read each book carefully, never bending the cover, breaking the spine or dog-earing the pages, because the trade-in value would go down with every bend, break and dog-ear.

Library books...well, it just wasn't the same.

I hadn't been to a good used bookstore nearby since my childhood. There's an antique store with a fairly good selection, but it's not a used bookstore. There had been a pretty decent used bookstore downtown here, but from what the owners say, they were "chased out" by the conservative members of this community and simply couldn't make a living. Apparently the "conservative" contingent didn't like the Tarot, Gender Studies and Astrological selections. I don't know. I'm from the "conservative" contingent, I suppose, but I shopped there often and knew the owners by name. Ah, well.

Recently, I discovered another used bookstore while taking my kids into the "bigger" city (still small town) for the rehearsals for their roles in a musical there. Being a small town, everything closes by 5:00. But Books In Stock is open until 9:00, so I found it by necessity, the necessity of not spending another minute at Wal*Mart or McDonald's.

One step inside, and I was hooked. Hooked! It smells like my childhood! Like Black Stallion, Black Stallion Returns, The Secret in Miranda's Closet, The Red Badge of Courage, A Wrinkle in Time! Deep brown, worn-soft shelves are packed with paperbacks, hardbacks, books on CD and on cassette, categories indicated by hand-written signs suspended above each of the aisles. The bookcase ends hold photos of people traveling all over the world representing the store by sporting a shop t-shirt. "Books in Stock is known is Holland!" or "Books in Stock is known in Portugal!"

I wander from shelf to shelf, looking for old friends, new friends, maybe even avoiding a few enemies. It's a stroll through time. Look! There's Richard Bach! Oh, and the treasure of seeing Steven Cosgrove and Robin James in the children's section. Peace Like a River beckons from the fiction section, and I argue with myself--I should own it, even though I read and re-read the library copy. Yes! A bunch of Magic Treehouse books for Monet who has been devouring them like candy!  And Bruce Coville and Diana Wynne-Jones books for Bard. There are loads of Dorling-Kindersley books, most for under $5. All of the paperbacks are half-priced or the prices are marked with pencil on the inside.

Still, I'm able to accumulate quite a bill, though not as high as any I've had at Border's or the local independent bookstore. Here I am again, I think, buying books when I have no money. Books or food? Well, beans and rice are pretty tasty.

Just out of curiosity, I grab a trade-in form at the counter. I've come to a place in my life that I really don't want to part with any of the books I own, though we have way, way, way too many books (Can one have "too many" books? Isn't that like having "too many" flowers or "too many" children?) Most of the storage facility we used while we were living in the cabin was filled with books, in addition to the ones that overflowed from the shelves at the cabin. Most of my storage problems now are from not having enough bookshelves. I use books as bookshelves. We have books stacked in bedrooms, the Creative Room, the fruit cellar, the laundry room, the kitchen. I like them. I adore almost every one of them. And if I don't like them, other people probably wouldn't either, so why get rid of them?

But Bard gets hold of the trade-in rules, and now she's going through her books, weeding out duplicates (She informs me that we have 65 copies of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) and counting the benefits and costs of trading in books she hasn't read in years. I see myself sitting there on her bedroom floor, evaluating each book, weighing its worth, dreaming of its value in trade, deciding in advance what books she'll be seeking.

In the end, I sort through some of mine, too. I toss in a book about the evils of Hallowe'en and its foundation in witchcraft and druidism, a book someone gave me on how to love my husband, and a Spanish copy of Your Fertility Signals, given to me by the author (a great book! I just don't know anyone who speaks Spanish and I have three copies of the English version already).

I let Bard handle the transaction. She writes her name and indicates that we'd like any unwanted books back. If we're staying for a while, the clerk informs us, she'll have our trade credit amount ready for us before we leave.

Of course we're staying for a while!

I find the I Hate Mathematics and Math for Smarty Pants books, the Book of Facts and Comparisons, Talk So Your Kids Will Listen and Listen So Your Kids Will Talk, several books in the Something Queer series (books I used to read while waiting in the doc's office as a kid, and whose star, Fletcher, could be our basset/beagle, Snoopy), a book of must-know magic tricks for Edison, and a few more Magic Treehouse books for Monet. Bard found a stack of her own.

I figured we'd been there long enough when I nursed The Baby to sleep, we'd borrowed the bathroom key four times, and Sweetheart had finished looking at every Golden Book on the rack. I had already tallied our total...over $50.00. But our trade-ins would take a big hunk out of that. Oh, the wonder of a used book store!

At the counter, after three of us have wrestled our stack onto the countertop, the clerk pushes my trade credit slip towards me. She points to the "fiction" total. $2.49! And for the nonfiction, a whopping $4.49. What??? I look towards the door where they have placed my bag of unwanted books. It's almost full, including The Davinci Code given to me by my brother-in-law and Making Your Children Mind without Losing Yours, which I bought there last week and disliked within the first chapter! I was banking on that one! I looked at my huge stack of potential purchases and told the clerk, in a mournful tone, that I'd like a few minutes alone. Bard and I took ten minutes to sort, to set aside the poor souls that couldn't come home with us, to think and rethink our choices, and, finally, to call the clerk back over.

My final total came to $35.64. I picked up the bag of books Iwe had brought for trade, the rejects that weren't wanted by the bookstore, and I felt depressed. How much had I paid for these books new? And now they weren't even worth a dollar at the used bookstore? Some of them I'd never even read! Excellent condition! I read the sign posted above the counter, the sign that read my mind. "Why Didn't We Want Your Books?" with several reasons listed. I deduced that "my" reason was "deemed not saleable." The clerk offered to dispose of the books for me. No, I thought. I'll take them home and give them a proper burial. Deep on a back of a bookshelf.

I'll probably try again next week.  If I can afford it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go reheat my beans and rice.

::: at the end of the day, i wonder... :::

Sometimes when I get to the end of a day, I wonder if I actually did anything. Today is one of those days.

I got up earlier than I usually do because we were supposed to have guests, a woman I've never met from a homeschooling list to which I belong. She and a friend were going to be out my way, and I have a sewing machine she was going to teach me how to use (That's right. I actually can't sew. Think "We're the Homeschool Moms who Can't Do Everything" sung to the tune of "We're the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything") or at least teach me how to use the old Kenmore sewing machine my mother-in-law bought me at a yard sale. So I woke up early, took a shower, cleaned my room, and was on my way to clean up the rest of the house a bit when our would-be guest called to say she wouldn't be coming. I guess at that point, I went into relax mode.

But not really. I made lunch for the kids. Bard requested fried burritos, which is a new specialty of mine. It's actually very simple. Taco meat, cheese, flour tortillas and oil. Fill the flour tortilla with meat and cheese (you can add mexican rice and/or refried beans, too) and then fry it on one side in medium-hot oil until it's golden brown and then turn it over and do the same on the other side. Drain on a paper towel. I put sour cream sauce, lettuce, sour cream and homemade salsa on the top. Yum.

We spent some time giving each other quizzes from American Girl's The Quiz Book. One quiz asks you how well you know your parents, so I let each of the kids take a shot at seeing how well they knew me. I was surprised to find out that none of them knew who my best friend was (my husband...although they guessed Tina, who's my second-best friend) and my sons didn't know my middle name. I was also surprised to find out that I didn't even know the answer to some of them, like my favorite vacation spot (Vacation??? Who takes vacations?) or my favorite actor (I guess Hugh Grant is the best I could come up with).

We bought a hand-crank ice cream freezer a couple of weeks ago, so we've been experimenting with different ice cream recipes. We get whole, raw milk from a local farmer and have been skimming the cream off the top. Tonight we made banana ice cream using eggs, so it was like a cooked custard. It seemed to take a long time to freeze, and then when we packed it, it didn't freeze as well as I'd hoped. Darn. So now it's in the freezer where I hope it will harden better than it was doing in the ice cream freezer.

Sweetheart and I have been working on her reading lessons. I didn't start them last year like I had intended because she just wasn't ready. Now she's ready and she's doing very well. I really like the resource we use, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, because the lessons are short and teach the alphabet by phonics instead of by the names of the letters. She's moving right along, even with the letter writing, and each lesson takes us about 15 minutes. I used this book with my oldest, Bard, who didn't even need to finish it all and now reads constantly. I tried it with the next child, Edison, but now I realize that he just wasn't ready to read. I'll have to post that story later. I didn't even get around to starting the book with Monet because he was just naturally interested in reading, though he didn't start to read well independently until this year, and he's 9, which I think is totally normal and acceptable.

So, what did I accomplish today? I set up a playdate for Monet, I did a reading lesson with Sweetheart, I did quizzes with all of the kids, I made lunch, I made ice cream, and I went to the store. :-/ Oh, and I got my room clean. Mostly. And bickered with Edison about what he and I consider a "clean room" and how our definitions differ.

Oh, yeah. And I sent an e-mail to Strong Bad. My kids are WAY too big into Homestar Runner, so I sent an e-mail saying,

Dear Strong Bad,
 
My kids love you. Do you have any suggestions to remedy this?
 
Sincerely (No, I really am sincere about this),
My kids' mom

We'll see if I get an answer. :-)

 

::: top ten things not to say :::

 Top 10 Things NOT to say when asked "What?! No school today?"

• 10. Well normally yes, but this time of year I need help with the plantin' and plowin'.
• 9. Goodness, no!!! I graduated 18 years ago, but thanks for the compliment!
• 8. No, we homeschool. We're just out to pick up a bag of pork rinds and some Mountain Dew, then we gotta hurry home to catch our soaps.
• 7. What?! Where did you guys come from?! Oh my gosh! I thought I told you kids to stay at school! I'm sorry. This happens all the time. (sigh)
• 6. There isn't? Why, you'd think we would have seen more kids out then, don't you?
• 5. We're on a field trip studying human nature's intrusive and assumptive tactics of displaying ignorance and implied superiority. Thanks for the peek!
• 4. On our planet we have different methods of education. (Shhh! No, I didn't give it away... keep your antennae down!)
• 3. Oh my goodness! I thought that today was Saturday...come on kids, hurry!
• 2. Noooooope.Me 'n Bubba jes' learns 'em at home. Werks reel good!

 
And the number one answer we should NEVER give to the question: "What? No school today?"

• 1. "What? No Bingo today?"

::: home eating a threat to public kitchens? :::

Homeschool Position Papers Page: Home Eating a Threat to Public Kitchens? by Angela Paul

Home Eating a Threat to Public Kitchens?

State Allows Growing Trend of Eating at Home
A Parody by Angela Paul

April 13, 2099

Reunited Press


After much heated debate on the house floor, legislation was passed today to allow a growing number of families to cook meals for their families in their homes. The children must have annual physical examinations to assure proper growth and weight gain. Attempts to require weekly meal plans and monthly kitchen inspections were voted down.



A spokesperson from the National Association of Nutritionists (NANs) condemns this decision. "These children are being denied the rich socialization and diversity that is an essential part of the eating process. Without the proper nutritional background, it is impossible for the average person to feed their own children. We, as child advocates, see this as a step backwards and speak out for the sake of the children who cannot speak for themselves."


Homecooking parents say the benefits of eating at home include increased family unity and the ability to tailor a diet to a particular need. Elizabeth Crocker, a home cook, states, "We started cooking and eating at home when we realized that my son had a severe allergy to eggs. The public kitchens required him to take numerous medications that had serious side effects in order to counteract his allergy. We found that eliminating eggs was a simpler method and our son has thrived since we began doing so."


After this experience, the Crockers decided to home cook for all of their children, and converted their media room into a kitchen. Elizabeth says, "We have experienced so much closeness as we have explored recipes and spent time cooking together and eating together. We have a dining circle with other families where we sometimes share ideas and meals together."


The Crocker children have done well physically under their mother's care, weighing in at optimum weights for their ages and having health records far above average. It should be noted that Mrs. Crocker, while not a professional nutritionist, has a family history rich with nutritionists and home economists. "Surely the success of the Crocker children is due to the background of their mother," responded the spokesman from NANs. "The results they have achieved should not be viewed as normative." Mrs. Crocker counters that her background was actually a hindrance to the nutritional principles she follows. "Our paternal great-grandmother was a home economist, but she prepared most meal from pre-made mixes. In our homecooking we try not to duplicate public-kitchen meals, but to tailor our meals to the needs and preferences of our children."


In a related issue, legislation is in committee that would provide oversight for the emerging homecooking movement. Says the Home Eating Legal Defense Association (HELDA): "We want to provide umbrella kitchens to aid parents in the complicated tasks of feeding their children. Many families lack the expertise of the Crocker family, yet desire to eat at home. As we have seen, the umbrella kitchens meet the needs of all concerned. We are happy to provide this service."

Copyright © Angela Paul, 1999 - 2008. Used with permission.

::: assess your child's reading level :::

Reading Level Assessment - A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling - 06/08/99

This page features a decoding exercise that you can do with your child to evaluate the child's reading level. Sometimes it's just nice to know. I was amazed to see how well my children did on the evaluation. It's nice to know when you're doing something right!

::: the greatest invention :::

Right now, I'm enjoying one of the greatest inventions ever.
 
Quiet Time.
 
I don't know why it took me this long to discover it, but I'm glad it didn't take me longer.
 
Like most great inventions, Quiet Time sprang from necessity. I find myself exhausted around 3:00 PM and absolutely NEED to rest. My mother-in-law says that I need glasses. My friend Penny says I need a nap. Naps are cheaper. I chose naps.
 
So, I decided that it was time for me to schedule an afternoon nap. This might sound simple for some people, but somehow, in my family, naps elude me.
 
Yes, I have to admit, there was a time that I had an aversion to napping, and I'm not just talking about when I was five and my mom would hang heavy blankets over the windows to block out any hope of natural light finding its way through. This fake night would not work for me, and I would lay there fighting against its insincerity.
 
That may have been the start of my aversion to naps, but even as an adult, I've been prejudiced against nappers. My philosophy has always been "What?? Take a nap? Do you have any IDEA what I could be missing???" And anyone who naps in my presence must not realize the value of my time. Who in their right mind would nap instead of partaking in my witty conversation and unending sea of knowledge, not to mention my sweet personality and deep brown eyes?
 
The answer, of course, is my husband.
 
For the first year that we were married, I think we argued more about sleeping that anything else. I could wager that we argued more about sleeping that any couple on the face of the earth...argues...about anything. He would come home from a long day at work carrying houses for other people, smelling like a hamster, and the first thing he'd want to do was to crash on the floor, dead asleep. This only further instilled in me the prejudice that nappers are losers.
 
And then I had a child. Naps certainly became necessary. But for them, not me. I still had too much to do, in spite of my mother-in-law's advice to "sleep when the baby sleeps." Give me abreak! Can you see my pile of laundry? Or the list of phone calls I have to make? Or the stack of bills on my kitchen table? Let the kid nap! I'm gonna seize the moment!
 
Yet with each child came a greater possibility that naps weren't such a bad idea. Still, I harbored this prejudice. Actually, I didn't even realize that I had such a prejudice, until I read Change Your Life Without Getting Out of Bed by Sark. It was then that I realized how important sleep was. It was then that I realized that I have a prejudice against napping. It was then that I laid off my husband about his napping. But I didn't take to cuddling up for a noontime siesta myself.
 
And then I turned 35.
 
I don't know if that's what did it, or if it was the comfort of a new house and the contentment that came along with it, or if it's just, very simply, exhaustion, but I finally decided that it was time to break down and become......a Napper.
 
A lot of it, too, had to do with Penny's advice. She insisted that it was very important for me to nap. And I could take this advice from Penny, because she's one of the coolest people I know.
 
But how to get the kids to fall for this whole napping thing?
 
Ironically, most of my kids are too old for naps (what does that say about me?) so the only Nappers in the house are the baby and I. The other four actually need something to do to occupy their time while I nap, and so I created The Quiet Time Box.
 
The Quiet Time Box started out as a small basket with some coloring books and a box of Magnetix and a couple of other small things that could ONLY be played with during Quiet Time. It outgrew that basket and overflowed into a storage box when I discovered the wonder of the toy aisle at The Dollar Store. And now, since it houses Bionicles, Magnetix, two sets of giant playing cards, various coloring books and Mad Libs, a magnetic dartboard (and each child has a nail on the back of his door), The Dollar Store equivalent of My Pretty Pony,  Mega Blox knights, play dough, small craft kits, and whatever else I can find that doesn't cost more than $5 and preferably costs $1 or less.
 
Normally, during quiet time, I can let each child choose three things from The Quiet Time Box, I set the alarm for an hour or an hour and a half, depending on my level of exhaustion, I turn off the phone,  and send each of the kids to their own room.
 
The Rules:
 
No Trading.
Your door must stay closed.
No leaving your room, except to go to the bathroom.
No yelling to each other through the closed doors.
No asking when quiet time will be over.
 
The last one doesn't seem to be an issue most times. Actually, what usually happens is that I announce that Quiet Time is over, and it takes each child ten minutes or more to "finish" their Quiet Time.
 
The rules for myself are:
 
No doing laundry or other housecleaning.
No telephone calls or bills.
No e-mail.
TAKE A NAP.
 
Of course, as you can see, I have this weakness for Blogging, so while I'm not actually breaking a rule, I'm not napping, either.
 
I guess I haven't overcome that prejudice completely. ;-)
 
 
 

::: fowl words, a spelling game :::

Fowl Words

We've found a cool spelling practice game that everyone in the family enjoys playing. Fowl Words is a game that features a bunch of chickens on their nests. Each wears a letter. By using all of the letters, the player is to make as many words as possible. The player earns points for each word and can advance to the next level by aquiring their goal.

::: finally in the new house :::

After a long hiatis, I was able to recover access to my blog. So, here I am. :-)
 
We are now in the new house. Amazing. At last writing, we had just broken ground, and I don't think our basement foundation had even been begun at that point. And now we're here, in this house, with all of its necessary maintenance, cleaning, and, most of all, house payments. We've never in our lives had a house payment. It's been over 15 years since I've had to pay rent! When that house payment statement comes, it's a shock. I still can't believe I write a check that big every month.
 
The lessons that building a house taught the family were and continue to be priceless. Many phases of the housebuilding, from the groundbreaking to the final coat of paint, were very hands-on. On any given day on the job site, you could see one of the kids helping out or showing magic tricks or climbing around on the roof. It was an exciting and amazing process. 
  
 

 
We're still not done, even though we've been moved in since Christmas Eve, which was completely by accident. That's a completely different story.
 
Bohemian's on the phone,  so I'm going to come back to this later!