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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tuesday.
Days have been too busy to have very much sit-down writing time for me. With homeschool (and maybe all school) you not only have to fight against spring fever, you have to fight against fall fever. I think fall fever is harder to beat than spring fever. (But that’s probably only because right now it’s fall (ish) and so whatever struggle I find myself in at the moment feels like the hardest one – you know?) I want to be outside all day long – but I don’t want to be doing school all day long. Some days we compromise – we do school outside. Today we sat at the…
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poetry and tea.
Last week I borrowed a homeschooling idea from a friend. Because that’s what we all do – right? Earlier in the week, I invited the kids to meet me on Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. at our kitchen table. They were invited to bring a stuffed friend, a happy heart and a poem to share. I wrote it on our family menu board. The Poet Tea. And then it was three o’clock and the table was set and the desserts were stacked on the high platter. The poetry books covered the table. Heavy on the Shel Silverstein. We all tried chamomile lavender tea with a dash of maple syrup. (The…
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school words from a wilde fox.
We are working on our math and Otto looks up at me, surprise in his bright blue eyes, “Mom. I actually like school.” I grin at this last scholar of mine and pat his growing little man back. We move on to a new-to-us program called Draw-Write-Now that I am thoroughly enjoying. Otto has learned to take special pride in his writing this year and I have been pleased to see how neat and tidy his first grade work has become. “Son, I love your penmanship,” I tell him as his pencil writes the sentence about the Cherokee tribe. “My penmanship?” he asks, perplexed. “You must mean my pencilmanship.”
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Gleaning With The Society of St. Andrew
We have spent past seasons of our lives sustained by the support of generous friends and family. We are currently in a season of community care and absolute dependence on God for our daily bread. Certain types of suffering bring particular scripture closer and more vividly to mind. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable…
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A Book List: Grades 5 to 8
My friend Greta was asking me the other day which books I thought she should be certain her daughters read. I started making a list right there in my head for her. At first it was a girls only kind of list, since we were at our Girls Book Club and all. And I guess you can still call this A Book List For Girls if you want. But I think most books that are great for girls to read around middle school can often be great for boys to read around that same age. And I think lots of novels that I want my middle school sons to…
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On the Road: George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Back in July we had the privilege of scooting up to Washington DC after our annual July Fourth pilgrimage. Mainly we wanted to visit my brother and his family. One day there, however, we grabbed my sister-in-law and we all hopped right off to Mount Vernon, home place of the first president. (And conveniently close to my brother’s home.) I had the privilege of reviewing the visit for Kidding Around Greenville and they recently shared the post on their website. I thought about just linking up that post only, but frankly, I wanted to share lots more pictures than they had space for so I am going to include the…
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use our school plans. seriously.
I’ve decided to try the whole “balanced schedule” “year round school” adventure this go round. We started a few weeks ago, actually. (The kids and I called the first days our soft launch. Just a little testing of the waters.) As I was prepping for the year I kept running into the same problem I have run into in previous years. I could not find a planner that truly suited me. I used this one two years ago. It was pretty encouraging but I wasted two pages every single week because of the extra items they put in that I never used or found helpful. I couldn’t stand to waste…
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too much knowledge.
Maybe this kid knows too much. At bedtime – of course at bedtime, it’s always at bedtime – Bergen Hawkeye comes shooting down the stairs. (You can never say that boy walks down the stairs. He just doesn’t.) He sails into the living room and exhales. “Mom!” he has that look in his eyes. “There’s a cockroach in the girls’ room!” Ugh – gross. A cockroach! What in the world. “Son,” I give him a certain look in my own eyes. “Go kill it. Just kill it please.” “Mom,” he grins. “That might be hard. It takes six pounds of pressure exerted on a cockroach to kill him.”
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weighing in on year-round school. and changing up its name.
I’m thinking about school for next year. Because I’m kind of over thinking about school for this year. I have been entertaining thoughts about year-round school. This article really spoke my language about why I think the schedule could fit our family. I love the idea of more frequent breaks instead of drudging through until summer for this giant long break where we forget everything anyway. Then we begin again in fall with all this renewed vigor only to review every math lesson we already learned but forgot from lack of use and then our enthusiasm quickly fizzles out just as the more difficult subjects arrive on the scene. I…
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rainy poetry lessons
Each week for the past three years I’ve had this sweet opportunity to teach a bunch of kids that I love a little bit about something else that I love – words. Once upon a time, when I was a full time teacher in a different capacity, and I taught students at a traditional school, a fellow English teacher gave me this advice: Write when your students write. Try to do the assignment you have given them. This little exercise helps to challenge me to be a better writer and it gives me a heap of sympathy at how difficult it can be to turn thoughts into words on a…
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“regular”
I feel like I might have forgotten how to write about regular life. I certainly have forgotten how to live regular life. But the funny thing about life is … normal wants to take over. You know what I mean? And while there is no normal that I prefer right now, I know my children deeply need a type of normal and I guess maybe I do too. So we’ve done some of our normal activities. Because we have to. And tonight I am going to try to write about that. Because I need to. We visit the library frequently. I mean – I have to in order to try…
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Don’t Homeschool at Home Only
You know what’s cool about homeschool? (Eating breakfast at 10 a.m. Not packing lunches. Reading a funny novel out loud together with your kids. Watching your daughter develop good writing habits. Wearing your pajamas to math class. Allowing your fourth grader to have the opportunity to give art lessons to his younger siblings.) Wait. That wasn’t where this post was supposed to go. I’m going to start again. You know what’s great about homeschool? You don’t have to always do school at home! The staff here at Wildwood loves irony like that. Sure, we are home probably more than we are not. But it’s fun to take school on the…
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Narnian Meals Morning and Night
This year we are reading our way through The Chronicles of Narnia. We are using a curriculum from the same Cadron Creek company that published our last year’s choice – Prairie Primer. It’s been a completely different journey thus far. For a lot of reasons I guess. I really like Narnia. I’m a fan of C.S. Lewis for certain. I have a confession to make, however. I have never actually read the entire series completely before. Not ever. I’ve read the first three or four books – some as a kid and some as a teacher – but never have I completed the entire series. Therefore – the incredible affection I…
