Changes ...

We've made some changes around here in the past few weeks. While I am fighting this illness that grabs hold of me every couple of months, I needed my oldest daughter to be able to continue her work on her own - something she is quite capable of, and willing to do. So I purchased My Father's World: Creation to the Greeks for her, and she is loving it. It is for grades 4-8, so I look at it as a middle ground between the Dialectic level work she was doing with Tapestry of Grace (which required too much from me) and the grammar level of SL Core 1. My 9 yo son is working his way through The Mystery of History, Volume 1, and my little ones will still do SL. When we do get together as a group, we still do SOTW, and the activity pages, as well as CHOW. But the pressure is off to make sure the group is all together every day. My 10 yo is loving MFW, and she loves the freedom of getting up early, beginning her work, checking off all the things she has completed. She is very much the independent learner.



So since this blog is to serve as my "diary" of our homeschooling journey, I should take a moment to jot down where we are for the new school year.



Oldest Twin, 10, 6th Grade

My Father's World: Creation to the Greeks (history, geography, theology, music and art history, art applied, literature)

Rod & Staff: Grammar, Spelling, Science 6

Life of Fred: Fractions

Rod & Staff Mathematics 7

Lively Latin

Latina Christiana

Ludere Latin

Literature from MFW, SL Core 4 (readers and read-alouds we did not get to)

Shakespeare and Plutarch, one per month from each



Younger Twin, 9, 4th grade

Mystery of History, Volume 1

Our Young Folks' Josephus

SOTW, Volume 1

Studying God's Word, Book E

Rod & Staff: Grammar, Spelling

Singapore Math 3B with all the supplemental workbooks

Saxon 65

History of Medicine, supplemental science encyclopedias and lit.

Lit. from Ambleside On-line, Years 1-5 (anything we missed)

Shakespeare and Plutarch, one per month from each



*They are both still working on an independent lap-book project of the United States Presidents.



Assigning a grade level has been a difficult thing to determine. The 10 yo just took the 5th grade CAT, and the 9 yo took the 3rd grade one. I only gave them those levels because I did not want to be forced to give them the higher levels at a mandated time in the future (every two years is required here) just because the school district expected it. In other words, if I gave my 9 yo the 5th grade test this year (which he could have taken with ease), then he would have to take the 7th grade test at the age of 11. I do not want that, because who knows if he will continue to be as advanced in his work as the work gets progressively harder? I am calling my 10 yo a sixth grader only because she just took the 5th grade test. And it provides some structure for me as I plan out the higher grades.





I am looking to add a writing program to our studies. My dilemma is I really enjoy R&S Grammar. Most of the writing programs that teach the progymnasmata have their own grammar programs scheduled, or incorporate grammar. I did use Imitations in Writing one year, and my daughter enjoyed it. I may choose that again for her, and allow her to continue with R&S. As for my son, I think Writing Tales is looking promising. Working within the framework of the LCC for him is the best approach. The structure of Writing Tales, as far as I can tell from the samples, seems to fit that very nicely.



Well, I've updated, droned on for a bit, and now it is time to do some actual work. So, adieu for now.

It's Been Awhile ...

It's been a while since I posted. I have not been in a posting mood. And I question my reasoning for keeping this blog. The blogs I enjoy reading are those through which the blogger shares glimpses of her life. I am not good at sharing - it makes me feel exposed, vulnerable, and ashamed. Those are not good things to feel. So, while I enjoy detailing our home-schooling journey, I am finding it difficult to straddle the line demarcating home-schooling from intimate life details. Because, as any true home-schooler knows, that line is fine, and the two spheres often overlap, and blur. My life is home-schooling. All that happens happens in the context of my obligation and responsibility to my kids, whom I home-school. Still with me?



So, as I continue to ponder my thoughts - which are, as usual, deep and dark - I ... well, that is it. I will continue to ponder, and question, and ultimately decide if I have what it takes to be a blogger in the blogging world. 'Cause, right now, I don't think so.

Weekly Report, Winter Term 2009 Week 2

Another week, come and gone. It was a hard week. It lacked flow. The whole Tapestry/Sonlight meshing that looked so great on paper just sucked the life out of me. Three days in and I chucked the schedule. Instead, I just began with Sonlight, and added from my home library so there was something age-appropriate for all. And we just read - every day, for two hours straight, we sat on the couch and read. Charlotte's Web, Hero Tales, Child's History of the World, Story of the World - no concerns over properly fitting the chapters to correspond to one another. We colored some maps and reviewed our US Geography. We also enjoyed The Bard of Avon, and some videos on United Streaming about early Egyptian life along the Nile River. My 9 yo son made up a skit - he names each US President, and does a bit about something "significant" that happened during his time in office. Now, "significant" is a loose term when it comes to this particular child - his favorite book on the Presidents is "Don't Know Much About the Presidents" . (I believe that is the title, anyway.) His performance was actually quite humorous, especially when he has William Henry Harrison delivering a speech while uncontrollably sneezing and coughing, and Ulysses S. Grant turning his pockets inside out while declaring, "I could have sworn I had twenty dollars in there."



In grammar, we learned how to diagram predicate nominatives, and how to properly use lay/lie & raise/rise. The younger twin polished off Doctor Doolittle in two days(loved it), completed a summary of each chapter, and parlayed it into a book report - all without any complaints! This was an amazing feat for this child. The older twin is working her way through The Golden Goblet. She did another Lively Latin lesson, took a test in Rod & Staff Math 7, and is now working her way through Life of Fred: Fractions by herself. She has always "hated" math, in her words, so I have high hopes for Fred. Don't let me down, boy!



I made the switch to Singapore for the younger twin. And I started him in book 3B. I felt there was some stuff in there that just had not been covered by Saxon. He did all of Ch. 1 in the text, WB, Challenging Word Problems, and Intensive Practice. Having a write-in book for this child has made a world of difference. And he is very much a mental math kid to begin with. It will be a challenge to get him to show his work.



Little Bear is doing so well with her 2nd grade work. Rod & Staff Spelling has been a wonderful addition to her written work. She loves it. She loves all workbooks - ETC, Wordly Wise, Spelling, copywork ... The more, the better. And she is loving the addition of the Story of the World activity pages. She just loves school.



Rocky listened in when he wanted to, continues to announce multiplication facts he has just figured out for himself, and keeps us safe from the dragons and demons that are in our midst. I took all five kids to the dentist yesterday, and he was so wonderful. He has really matured this year. There are times when I really question myself, my parenting, my children's "normalcy" & appropriateness. But, he was just so amiable with the staff, and allowed them to take x-rays, and even did a fluoride treatment. I guess, when my older children went through all this, I did not pay much attention because there was always someone younger to fret over. But, with my littlest guy, he just seems so little. Everything he does seems so ... big to me - too big for such a little guy. Interesting, huh? Yup, that is some insight into how my brain is operating these days.



As for my Prince, he has been working at a ski shop, and started his senior year of studies. He is studying for his permit, and conquering the mountain of work that is required of him in Anatomy & Physiology. He is doing Life of Fred: Statistics, but, so far, I am not particularly enthusiastic about this course. I think it leaves out too much in the way of explanation. I can better judge it as we get further along.



So, that's about it. Other than trying desperately to keep warm, life here is plodding along. Hope the week went well for all. Thanks for reading this far!

A New Year, A New School Term Begins ...

Today was the start of our Winter Term. Since we homeschool year round, I have scheduled three 12-week terms, with one week off each month, and plenty of days available for ... whatever. I finally decided to use Tapestry of Grace, Year 1 with my 10 yo and SL Core 1 with my 5 & 7 yo, and allow my 9 yo to sort of glide between the two as the assignments fit. TOG is the challenge my 10 yo needs and wants, and I did not want to deprive my little ones of SL. The years I spent doing SL Cores 1 & 2 with my now 10 & 9 yo were the happiest, smoothest days of our homeschooling journey. Combining the two programs was not that difficult, and was just the intellectual exercise my brain had been craving.

It may be hard to imagine it - five kids, a house to keep up, piles of laundry, extra-curricular activities, complete and total responsibility for their education resting on your shoulders - and yet, you are bored. There are days when I look around and wonder, Isn't there anything I could be doing right now? But it really isn't just anything that I am searching for - it is something to challenge me intellectually, that requires a bit of creativity, that will cause me to feel a sense of physical exhaustion afterwards. Tweaking our schedules, finding creative approaches to our studies helps to keep things interesting around here. But there needs to be more than academics to make our lives interesting. My challenge in the new year is to find affordable, interesting things we can do with some sort of regularity to spice things up. My tendency is to become complacent in my home life, satisfying the introvert in me. And when the weather is so cold my fingers refuse to dance for the keyboard, it is even harder to motivate me to venture beyond these walls.

Speaking of cold, does anyone else have a desire to seek out Al Gore in his McMansion, with his "borrowed" carbon footprint, and strip him of his Nobel Peace Prize? Just wondering ...

Something's Still Missing ...

Perhaps I misspoke when I attributed my funk to simply not celebrating the season in the right manner. Perhaps I am going through some existential crisis, one more penetrating than in years past. For this one did not simply descend upon me in the post-celebration hours, after the wrapping on the last present had been torn open and the requisite, "Ooh" 's has been spoken. Rather this one has been lingering for well over a month now - a deep, persistent, dark mood, in which thoughts concerning aging parents, children growing both up and away from me, a world that confounds me at times, and other meandering thoughts pervade my stream of consciousness. The therapist in me might attribute it to a depression of sorts, but the realist in me eschews such labels. For my thoughts, while dark, are actually valid concerns, not at all outlandish or unrealistic. This season of celebration and joy has compounded the problem, as I no longer wish to defend the "Christ" in Christmas as belonging to the actual Christ. The commercialism of the holiday, and reading about the actual pagan roots of the celebration, have all but depleted me of any desire to do battle with secular critics who want the world to simply be about their here and now. Let them have their belief system - or their non-belief system. I have discovered how truly unfulfilling a faith centered around a single day of celebration can be. I need more - I know there can be more. A feeling of being uplifted by the spirit of faith can transcend the emptiness that fills the air, as the last carols of the season fade into the distance, and the last ribbon from the final gift is undone and discarded.



I reached for a book from my shelves this afternoon, looking to immerse myself in a piece of literature, a joy I have not indulged in for many weeks now. The book that my fingers came to rest upon was Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. I have only discovered Lewis in my adulthood, another unfortunate failure of my education. By the first few paragraphs of the preface, I knew I was being led to this book, much as we need to hear from a friend when we are down, or receive a bit of welcome news just at the moment all looks so terribly bleak.

'...be assured that God is well aware of "what a wretched machine

you are trying to drive", and asks only that

you "keep on, doing the best you can" ' ...

Something's Been Missing ...

And, although I could not put my finger on it, it had left enough of a void so as to dampen my Christmas spirit. But today... today I found it - THE MUSIC!!! I had not been filling the house with Christmas tunes. The stereo had been moved to the lower level, and we have been congregating near the space heater. (Electric heat - blah!!!). While perusing blogs, I was led to some YOUtube videos featuring Christmas music - and they were inspirational. Young or old, inner city kids or some prep school group, A Capella or the full-frontal assault of Trans-Siberian Orchestra - it is just so beautiful. My new favorite? Straight No Chaser. Wonderful, just wonderful. So it wasn't an existential crisis about the true meaning of Christmas being thwarted by modern-day, humanism-induced, societal pressure to promote the merits of commercialism, devoid of any spiritual significance. Boy, that's a relief. Now, go listen to something that lifts your soul to the Heavens and allows it to fly. Merry Christmas!

A Moment, Please ...

Can I just say .... Core 5 ... Ambleside Online ... combine them all ...keep them separate ... change math curriculum ... World Geography ... World Cultures ... Human Anatomy & Physiology ... multi-level ....individual plans ... free resources ... save my sanity ... buy the IGs ...ring Christmas bells ...

AHGGGGGGGG!!!

That is all.