Book things.

A new book for children on global warming and surprise! The global warming deniers have issues with it. That darn science! It’s always foiling our plans to live hyper-consumptive lives.

And pledge to read the Story of Ferdinand today. You can also listen to the story online, read by Maya Angelou and others. It’s a wonderful book about nonviolence and peaceful resolutions.

Back in Black.

Well, I’m wearing blue actually.

I have not had teh internet in a week and I was really going out of my stinkin’ head. No email! I had TONS of fun sifting through 300 emails when I finally regained service tonight. Stupid DSL.

We’ve been homeschooling for two weeks. It still feels strange. I feel like A should be in school with other kids, eating greasy lunchfood in a cafeteria. I really hope this starts to feel like normal soon.

I’ve learned a few things so far.

1. It doesn’t matter how many good books the library has on butterflies, you can’t read them all, so don’t check them all out and lug them all to the car, just to return them unread 2 weeks later. Share with the other patrons, mama.
2.  You should not do school at the same table where you eat dinner. It makes a big mess that you won’t want to clean up at 5:30. We moved our eating table into the formal dining room (formally the office, and the desk is now in the parlor…). We are actively scouring Goodwills for a round dining room table that isn’t too big and costs less than $30.
3. You can’t possibly spend the same amount of time cleaning as you did before school started. I knew I was not schooling from September to June and then taking off 3 months. So it came down to either three months on, one month off or 3 weeks on, 1 week off. My need for a clean house tipped the scales in favor of the latter. Whatever doesn’t get checked off my daily list can get done in the fourth week. I also think the regular breaks will be great for avoiding burnout but they won’t be so long that it is difficult to get back into the swing of things.
4. It’s okay to assign homework. A is a bit of a dawdler. Always has been. From now on, I am setting the timer. I will give her more than ample time to do her work. When the timer goes off, the work gets put away and she can finish it with her dad later that night. One hour for first grade math (which thus far has been painfully easy for her) is plenty. Twenty minutes for a 2-page worksheet in handwriting? Plenty of time.

We’ve been reading a lot of Bible stories this week. I’ve put it into the history section. (It was written long ago, after all.) That’s felt a bit strange for me as someone who doesn’t read much of the Bible. When I do read it, I interpret it figuratively. That being said, I do think it is important to read the Bible. It will be difficult to understand Shakepeare, Victorian poetry, or even Laura Ingalls Widler and C.S. Lewis if you aren’t Bible literate. Whether you believe in it or not, if you live in a culture saturated by Judeo-Christianity, you are well-served if you know the basic plot of the Bible.

However, it irks me that all of the women in the Bible are made out to be coniving whores whose goal in life is to seduce and decieve. (Except those who are only ever meek and obedient to their husbands. They’re okay.) So I sought out some books that focused major Biblical women and spoke of them in a postive way.  My favorite find is Daughters of Fire. I greatly appreciated Fran Manushkin’s treatment of that most infamous woman: Eve. Rather than exaggerate her greed or her foolishness, Manushkin paints Eve as a gentle, trusting (too trusting!) woman who delighted in all of God’s creation and thirsted for knowledge of her environment. The author also gives Adam his share of the blame. Eve may have offered him the apple, but he ate it of his own free will.

On book ordering.

I should really have done it sooner!

I bought a lot of my books on Ebay at a great discount. But a few got away from me and I won’t have our history text until September 10 (or so Amazon says) and I am still waiting for our Saxon math workbook to arrive. (UPS tracking says it will be here tomorrow.)

So today was simple: reviewing the short vowel sounds and a little handwriting.  Then we read about classification of the natural world and moved onto to our worm unit. We read the page in Usborne, and then a couple of books. Tonight we are going on out with flashlights to hunt down some worms for our “farm.”

[Don't worry, no worms will be harmed in the making of this project. After a few days, they will go a good home, otherwise known as our compost pile.]

A begged to do some yoga, so we filled in nap time with exercise, 2 picture books, and a few quick computer games.

I am really pleased that Em, at the ripe old age of 3, is interested in everything that we do and is easy to satisfy.

Now El? Not so much. And her new trick is climbing up onto the entertainments center. At 15 months! We’ve always called her “the little monkey” but she is taking things to a whole new level. And I don’t like it!

Beginning in earnest.

Is it really the end of August? Unbelievable.

Our homeschooling adventure will officially begin on Tuesday.

I considered starting a little sooner, but with all of the neighbor kids still running around, I didn’t see the point of trying to keep A interested in reading or listening when all she would really want to be doing is riding her bike.

I am anxious, but also excited. I want to give her as woman-centric an education as I possibly can. Which doesn’t mean excluding great men (and there are many) from her education, for the record. Compared to public, or even private, education, if I divide up authors 50/50 or even 60/40 (in favor of men), that would be phenomenal. Who says history should be all wars and victories? And of course, there are a great many female scientists to cover. (I really love this book for young girls.) I am also looking forward to focusing on peace and simplicity as a lifestyle. (There are great resources here.)

I purchased all of our books already and put several on hold at the library. Hopefully, they will be ready for us soon.
We are using these:

Plus, math, handwriting, spelling, and the other usual subjects.

The first two weeks, we are learning about earthworms, which will coincide nicely with me trying to get my compost pile to do something. Like decay and turn into compost already.

I am in the process of deciding which activities are worthwhile at this point. She had the choice between ballet and gymnastics. Both meet once a week. She chose gymnastics, but wants to do ballet eventually. Right now, all she wants to do is learn how to cartwheel and do flips.

I am also thinking about the Girl Scouts. At first I was hesitant to consider the Girl Scouts.

I was a brownie for all of two meeting as a young, eager, but somewhat shy first grader. I remember singing Sally the Camel. I also remember the troop leader refusing to allow me to use the bathroom and the humiliation that resulted when I just couldn’t hold it anymore and peed my pants.

I also thought that Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts were interchangeable aside from gender. I swore I would never let my kids be in such a homophobic and exclusive organization. But then I read this and I fell in love with the Girl Scouts organization more than I ever thought possible.

We are hoping to start piano lessons this fall as well. We just need the piano!

I know my regular readers don’t come here to experience me droning on about education and homeschooling, so I am thinking about a second blog. Still undecided.

I still can’t believe it is nearly September.