HomeSchooling
That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not alone and isolated from anyone. You belong. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
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now starring …
Do you remember a boy named Bergen who was painfully shy in public? This kid who doesn’t even desire to read his poetry out loud to his classmates at the safety of his friend’s dining room table? Yes. That fella. Imagine this. Our co-op has been working on a simple play entitled How Birds Fly for the past term. At the beginning of the theatre class I asked all of the kids questions to gage their comfort level in being on stage for the performance. Every child except Bergen wanted a role – some wanted only minor speaking parts – but everyone wanted to participate on stage. I allowed the…
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…. after Wildwood
Recently my friend Kristie told me that she thought the inspiration for our homeschool name of Wildwood was from Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. She shared a quote from the novel that had led her to believe it was a perfect fit. After I read the quote – I saw that it was, indeed, a perfect fit. And so now, although the name Wildwood wasn’t inspired by this particular quote but was instead inspired from the Wildwood Chronicles, this quote will be added to our official school quotes and will inspire us in the future. We chose the name Wildwood because in the novel series Wildwood is this…
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Kids in the Kitchen: A Regular Plan
After London spent a day planning and creating all three meals for our family recently the other kids wanted to take a more active role in food preparation too. So I made a plan. I do love a plan. For now it’s primarily a plan for London, Mosely and Bergen since they can work more independently, but we’ll add in Piper and Otto as time allows. When I’m doing my weekly meal planning, usually Saturday sometime, I have the kids each choose a meal and a menu for one day the following week. To inspire them (and me) I check out cookbooks from the library and also use our own…
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Happy Birthday Laura Ingalls
Somehow, despite our entire school year’s focus on Laura Ingalls Wilder, her birthday surprised us this year. Last week, the girls were at a birthday party for their friend when I realized that it wasn’t just our sweet friend Kate’s birthday – but it was Laura’s birthday too! Of course, it was too late that day to celebrate our pioneer girl. A few days after that I gathered my class, also known as my children, into a huddle of sorts at the kitchen table. (Actually – we often form a huddle of sorts when we gather.) I told them the plan. Each child had two tasks to celebrate Laura Ingalls.…
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about cooking and serving.
London received a stand alone dry erase easel/chalkboard do-dad from her grandparents for Christmas this year. She loves that thing. Frequent to-do lists appear there. Stuffed animals’ names get put on long lists and directions for games the kids are playing show up frequently. Every night there are messages on the board for me or for Kevin. They usually involve questions about the food being served the next day at our home or requests for screen time or money making opportunities. One day last week the request was, “Can I prepare all the meals one day next week?” That wasn’t a request I really wanted to deny. Can you blame…
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Prairie Primer: The Long Winter
Finishing Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter the same week as our state’s only snow fall was fortuitous. (Yes, I looked up both the spelling and the definition – just to be certain.) When we finish each of the books we celebrate in some Laura Ingalls-ish manner. (Gold Rush party. Venison dinner. Native American Festival.) Last night we had an Ingalls evening here at the house. We kept our heat turned on (who wants to be that hardcore this winter?). We brought all kinds of hand crafts into the living room. Turned off the lights. Sat by the fake flickering flame of our electric “wood” stove and the glow of…
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Timeline: A Game Review
It was definitely good salesmanship that convinced me to purchase the Timeline game. We were shopping before Christmas in our favorite toy store – Dancing Bear Toy Store – in our favorite North Carolina town – Hendersonville. I had already chosen this year’s family game – Bananagrams. I had secretly handed the helpful employee the game without the kids seeing our exchange. (This store makes it so easy to shop for gifts for your kids with your kids. They’ll take your purchases and even wrap them for you (for no charge) while you’re all right there at the store and your kids are absolutely none the wiser. It’s genius.) My…
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Field Trip: Native American Festival
Last weekend we attended a Native American Festival at a nearby historic mill. It was a great experience for us to connect a few of the things we’ve been reading about in our Little House series The kids had read that Laura and Mary had received horehound candy as a treat once so when we saw horehound sticks for sale for a quarter we figured it was the perfect opportunity to try this old-fashioned candy. They liked it so much that Bergen spent another quarter of his own money to buy a stick for later. We munched on traditional fry bread, watched dancing and listened to drums playing. We walked…
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Coffee grounds and art.
Coffee. It’s for breakfast. It’s for afternoons. It’s for art. Talk about a simple, recycled art idea. I saw this idea on a homeschool forum I visit and I tried it out right away. We added various levels of coffee grounds to each tiny container to vary the levels of darkness. The kids drew their ideas first with sharpies on watercolor paper (which helped soak up the coffee and was thicker than regular paper). And then they mixed and painted. I think the results from the leftover coffee are fabulous art.
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Prairie Primer: Laura’s Lunch
I cannot believe how quickly it seems we are flying through these lovely Little House novels. I’m pretty much in love with that part of every school day. The illustrations by Garth Williams are classic and perfectly simple. They fit my image of Laura Ingalls somehow. I love the sky blue books themselves, the very same copies my momma and daddy read at night to us at our house in Gloucester, sitting on that wooden This End Up style furniture with its hard edges and scrunchy but practical striped sofa cushions. My heart about bursts as the kids draw in their breaths wondering if Pa will make it home through…
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activities overloaded: making time for nothing
I am becoming more and more convinced that people are all overscheduled and overbooked and over committed. This is not just a cry to simplify your life or downsize or do less. I’m not promoting laziness and lack of commitment or poor follow through. But, as a culture, it seems as if we’re moving from one activity to the next with no time to eat (hello fast food tossed down en route) and no time to converse about any topic except where we need to be in the next ten minutes. We need rest. We need down time. We need relaxation. Sure – all of that is true. But I…
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Prairie Primer – Beads
We’re near completion of book two in our Little House on the Prairie series. Our history study through this book has focused on the Osage Indians. The curriculum is full of great suggestions and good ideas for extra activities to enhance this unit of study. Five years ago I would have felt the pressure to cram all of the suggestions into our days. Currently that tug is no longer strong against me. When I saw the suggestion of creating beads for Native American-esque necklaces and belts I almost skipped right over it. But then I thought of my ones. And how each one of them love to do bead work.…
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better days.
Monday was not a stellar homeschool day. I had a schedule. (I’ve always had a schedule, but this year I have a planner – a spiral bound, blank squares across a page – kind of planner.) And I stuck to the schedule. At all cost. We didn’t finish school until four p.m. I made certain every tiny pencil-drawn square on my planner was checked off. We accomplished every goal – lofty or minute – which I had previously planned. All math. All writing. All science. All narrations. And no one in our house had a really great day. When I was vacuuming up the school room from the mess my…
