You gotta see this

That is an insect. I know it doesn't look like one, in fact I wouldn't have thought it if I hadn't seen it moving. But it is a larva (caterpillar).

We had stopped to get gas and Hubby told us all to come look at an insect he found on the outside of the car. While we aren't doing entomology with 4-H we still are interested in the curious insects that we see fairly often. We managed to capture it and then took it over to the forestry service because one of the men who led our entomology group works there.

He is a real entomologist. I am going to call him Mr Picante.

Anyway, Mr Picante was very interested in the insect. He said it was a Monkey Slug which will turn into a hag moth. He had not actually seen a live one before because they are fairly little (about the size of a nickle) and not something that you would typically notice.

He asked what we were going to do with it and really we had no idea. He said he would be interested in watching it go into a cocoon and then turn into a hag moth so we left it with him. He said he would email us pictures and keep us updated. He said that since it wasn't on a plant it may be very close to making a cocoon and he was right. Two days later the monkey slug made a cocoon, some of the "appendages" were broken off and then stuck to the cocoon by the larva as a camouflage.

I wouldn't want to touch it. It looks fungus-like to me.

Then the next day, hubby brought us a present.




This thing.




Ewww.



It is huge but maybe you can't tell because the picture is small.



Let me show you a larger picture.




That is a penny to give you an idea of the size. It is huge.

Thanks to our friends at the forestry service it was narrowed down to a Hurcules Beetle or a Rinocerous Beetle.

We are going to try to raise it to see what it grows up to be. Then again, if it doesn't live, we aren't really attached to it so we won't be sad.

'Cause we are still kind-of creeped out.

just treading water

Honestly things are better than they were but it has been an incredibly hard couple of months. My father-in-law recently went in the hospital for pneumonia and the kids were pretty sure he was going to die which is understandable after what they have gone through. He is out of the hospital now but still hasn't completely recovered.

We are trying to get back to normal, trying to do normal stuff, but it is still different.

We have been doing kickball and softball - which is great. Some of the homeschool moms are very athletic and are taking it upon themselves to teach the kids the basics. It is very laid back and relaxed and fun, even Mr Negativity loves it - and he can almost always find something to complain about.

Next week is the last week though so it is nearly over.

We had a co-op meeting and I am excited that it will be starting back up in the fall. We are all looking forward to it because we really enjoy co-op.

And we may be getting a good friend to join us, if she can just convince herself that she can homeschool.

On Death and Dying – again

I just . . . .

 

I don’t know what to say other than please pray for my family.  My husband’s mother unexpectedly passed away today and we are just stunned. We knew she wasn’t extremely healthy but no way did we think she was this sick.

 

My heart is breaking for my husband and his dad as well as my kids.

 

My kids have lost 2 grandparents in barely a month – my husband and I have each lost a parent. 

 

I just don’t know.

When your heart is breaking for your child

Junior had a meeting today with the local public school speech therapist. He has a problem with articulation – he has had it for years and in fact has been tested before. It wasn’t bad enough for therapy and he would grow out of it according to the previous speech therapist.

 

(insert snarky comment here)

 

I have been trying to work with him but to be honest, I don’t really know what I am doing. I think if he had gotten the therapy when he was tested, he wouldn’t have a habit of saying the words wrong. It doesn’t help that I feel responsible too, should I have taken him elsewhere and gotten a second opinion?

 

Anyway,  we did an initial assessment to see if he did have articulation issues or I was a paranoid, over-protective mama.

 

Well, I may be a paranoid, overprotective mama but he does have articulation issues.

 

So after that he got a treat (he was very nervous about the whole thing) and then we came home to do more schooling. We were working on reading and sounding out and the word was “last.” He would say “l-a-s-t; l-a-s-t; wask.” We spent some time trying to get him to say “last” instead of “wask” when he knows all the sounds, he just can’t put them together right in a word.

 

Suddenly he burst into tears and said “This is just how God made me and I can’t fix it!” Y’all, my heart broke. He thought he was the only kid in the world to need speech therapy.  He was absolutely amazed to find out that his dad,  uncle and a cousin all had speech therapy. He said “why didn’t you tell me?”

 

I thought he knew.

 

So now we wait until he can have the real testing done again. After which the speech therapist is going to give me ways I can work with him over the summer  - his test isn’t going to be until May and so he won’t be doing formal therapy until next year. But I think he is feeling better about the whole thing.

On death and dying

We buried my dad today.

 

To be honest, it was both expected and unexpected. He had end stage cancer but we really thought we had a few more weeks or even months.

 

For his sake I am so very, very glad that he is no longer in pain and has energy again.

 

For his sake I am glad that he is in heaven with his precious savoir.

 

For our sake, I miss him. I wanted him to meet his other grandchildren who are yet to be born. I wanted him to dance with my mother at my daughter’s wedding. I wanted him to call me up a few more hundred times to just say “hi.”

 

But I would not have asked him to live one more hour in pain.

 

Posting may be somewhat sparse in the next few weeks but I will be back soon-ish.

The Long Winter

Typically it doesn’t get that cold in East Texas – or at least not the northern idea of cold. We might have 5 nights a year that it gets below freezing but then it pops back up above freezing in the daytime.

 

It doesn’t snow here. Almost never.

 

This year I was inspired by our first cold snap – actually a freakish cold snap for us, it stayed below freezing in the day time for a few days – to read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. If you aren’t familiar with the book, it is one of her longer books in the series and describes the winter of 1880-1881 that seems to be one of the worst winters recorded in history.

 

This has been a good year for us to read it too, we are on our third snowfall this year. I know that may not sound impressive to some but let me put it this way, in 15 years of living here I have seen 6 snowfalls and 3 have been this year.

 

Today with the snow falling again, we are going to read more of The Long Winter. It seems appropriate.

Beethoven Lives Upstairs - Live Performance

I have long been a fan of the Classical Kids series of cds and books that introduce kids to classical composers in a fun way. It is partly because of this series that my 6 year old says his favorite composer is Tchaikovsky.

When I saw that the East Texas Symphony Orchestra would be performing Beethoven Lives Upstairs in Tyler, I thought we just had to go. I even called and found out that if I got a group of 20 or more together, we could go at a much reduced price. The only problem, this was on Tuesday and the performance was Saturday. We did manage to get the discounted rate, and I was supposed to get there a bit early so I could pass out the tickets to our group.

Except that I was running a bit late. And I went to the wrong place.

The performance? It was wonderful. Seeing it live was so much better. Plus afterwords they had a "meet the instruments" with some of the musicians. My son was thrilled when someone from the woodwinds played part of the Star Wars theme. My daughter was excited to recognize some of the animals from Peter and the Wolf. The friend she invited along kept saying that her big sister would love it, and she wanted to go meet the woodwinds because that was her favorite orchestra section.

If you have a chance to see any of the Classical Kids concerts, I would highly recommend them. If not, the cds are pretty good too.

Literature with Charlotte Bronte

I am a huge bibliophile, I always have been. I read classics for fun and now I am passing on that love to my 10 year old.

Daisy and I are reading for fun Jane Eyre. Ok, I am reading it to her because frankly, it isn't an easy book to read. Even with her just listening I sometimes find myself wondering if she is following the story and then she asks a question or laughs at a funny part. So she is following it, she is even enjoying it. She is wanting to know the solution to the mysteries - why Mr Rochester is keeping Grace Poole in the house, and why Mason wanted to talk to Mrs. Poole - but she doesn't want me to give away any of the plot.

She wants to know if Mr Rochester will choose Blanche or Jane to marry but she is eagerly anticipating the next chapter.

I can't wait until she finds out the answer to the mystery and then I can show her how much richer the hints are that Mr Rochester gives to Jane about what the "error" he made in his youth.

I think each time I read it, I enjoy it more than the previous times. If you haven't read Jane Eyre, you really should because it is very worthy of being called a classic.

New Year

I am so looking forward to schooling in the new year. I have been finally feeling better with my new diet (gluten-free dairy-free). The kids have been doing well on it and it is giving us the opportunity to learn so much new about cooking and the science of cooking.

We were sick so much in the fall that we didn't get as much as accomplished as I hoped but the new year is full of possibilities.

Have a Happy New Year!

homeschooling according to their bent

While teaching my daughter is not always easy, I understand her. I know when she is not doing something because she has decided it is too hard. I can tell when her frustration level is about to reach tears. I understand her and while my response may also carry vast amounts tiny bits of frustration, I know what makes her tick.

My son is weird is very different. I am learning him, I am figuring out what works for him but it makes absolutely no sense. None.

I am using hooked on phonics with him and we are going over letter names and sounds but we are not using the program the way it is designed to be used. Hooked on Phonics is great for visual & auditory learners but not for kinesthetic learners. On a scale of 1-10 for kinesthetic learners, Junior would hit about 500. Or maybe 572.

So yesterday we took the cards apart and I laid out 3 rows of 3 cards and played a game with Junior. He had to pick the card that went with the letter or sound and when he did so correctly, it was swapped for a new card.

HE LOVED IT ! !

The correct regular way, was boring to him and there wasn't enough movement. With the game he was moving all around, fell off the bed twice, and had a great time.

He called it easy.

With Junior there are 3 ways to teach him: 1)Invest in a ton of duct tape and super glue - not really worth it 2) Medicate him - Ummmm no, I am not going to do that 3) Work with his busyness, allow him to learn the way God designed him to learn.

I chose to teach both my children the way they learn best - even if it makes no sense to me and even if that includes them falling off the bed.

Check out other Thirsty Thursday thoughts at Five J's

Wizard of Oz

We have been reading Wizard of Oz as part of our literature and the kids love it. If you have never read the book, it is vastly different from the movie. Not only are there things that have been left out - such as in the book they cross a river and the scarecrow is almost left - but there are things changed and things added - Dorothy doesn't run away in the book and there is no Elmira Gulch.

In some ways, it is almost like a completely different story.

Daisy had a vague memory of seeing the movie but Junior didn't remember seeing it at all but luckily it came on TV on Sunday. I have to admit, watching Junior watch it is almost as entertaining as the movie itself.

He will sit mostly still for tv or a movie but is in constant motion when listening to me read. In fact, I would think that he is not listening at all except his narrations are very in-depth. Today I asked him to tell his dad how the poppy field escape is different.

Here is a summation: They tried to run across the flowers but they couldn't and the tin woodman and the scare crow carried Dorothy and the dog but couldn't carry the lion because he is so big and so they were going to leave the lion and they saw a wildcat chasing a queen mouse and the tine woodman took his ax and cut off the woldcat's head and the queen mouse thanked him and and more mice thanked him and asked if they could do anything to help the tin woodman and the tin woodman told them to help with his friend the lion and they didn't want to but the tin woodman said the lion was a coward and so the woodman built a cart and the mice pulled the cart and they had to work very hard to get the lion on the cart and then the mice pulled and the woodman and the scarecrow pushed and they were able to get the lion out of the poisonous flowers and the lion woke up and they told him that the little mice had saved him. and yes I am pretty sure there was not a comma or period in his entire narration.

Through the entire narration he was spinning and bouncing and moving much like he was during the reading. Hubby asked him if he could tell the story without moving so much and he said "let Daisy tell you."

Considering I was expecting something more like "the mice helped them" I was very impressed. Hubby was impressed as well at how long the narration went on, even if he understood very little of it because of all the movement.

He learns best while he moves and trying to keep him still ensures that he will learn nothing. It is so difficult for me to understand why or how but if he has to be still, then all of his attention is on trying to stay still and he has none left for anything else. My rule for him is that he can squirm and wiggle or play with blocks but he must do it quietly.

Well, and that I don't want to be kicked in the head during a headstand on the bed.

We are also reading Treasure Island, Redwall, The Phantom Toll Booth and The Borrowers.

While we were at the library, Junior found The Phantom Toll Booth and told another homeschool mom that it is a good book (although I don't think he is getting as much out of it as Daisy.) I love it when they get excited about what we are reading.

More murderers of imagination

Check out Thirsty Thursday for ideas on educating your children.

I guess I may have made it sound like my children were paragons of imagination and all because they aren't in school. That they spend all their free time building forts and playing pirates and knights and . . . etc.

Not so much. They do play that way some, but not as much as I would like. Not as much as I did. I spent most of my free time either reading or "imaginative play" - which means I had no one to play with except lizards who didn't follow the rules of the games very well. The reading gave me ideas of what to play, and which character I wanted to be.

That my kids don't do that is not the fault of the school system because they have never gone to public school. The school system is not the only imagination killer.

I wish.

Another is tv and video games. (gasp!) I know! Now I am stepping on toes including my own.

I really don't like how much tv and video games my kids watch but since Hubby is also a fan of the one-eyed monster, it is difficult to reduce their tv time much more. The rule is no tv before 3, which still sounds like a lot but we frequently aren't home after 3. And sometimes they don't get to turn the TV on at 3 anyway because I won't let them.

In the time that we have had this rule (about 1 1/2 years) I have seen their creativity grow. It still isn't where I want it, but it is improving. I have seen forts, board games, card games and the like. I haven't seen pirates because Daisy declares "pirates are for boys" - boy was she shocked when I told her there were girl pirates.

We read living books all the time - right now we are reading Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Perloo. There has got to be some imagination fodder in those, right? They just haven't made the leap from the books to play.

How do you foster your kids creativity?

It's the most wonderful time of the year

I am sure you have seen the commercial,

There are some that hate it, some that love it . . . .

I admit, it makes me a bit sad. I love back to school shopping and all that stuff but the idea that our kids make us so miserable that we look forward to sending them back to school . . . .

The problem isn't really with our kids, it is what we have done to them.

When I was younger, I had a room-mate that worked at a bank as a teller. One day they were robbed by an older man who looked like he had a gun in his pocket. He was caught within a few blocks (if I remember right) and while he had the money, he didn't have a gun but a donut in his pocket. He had gone to jail originally when he was a young man (late teens early 20s) and he had gotten out for the first time in his 50's or 60's. He had spent his entire adult life in an institution and didn't know how to function in the outside world. So he robbed a bank.

What does this have to do with our kids?

Think about their days, early they get up and get dressed for school. They spend over 6 hours at school with their entire day planned out for them - sometimes even down to when they go to the bathroom. Then when they get home - if they are lucky they stay home and get to be kids for awhile but they have homework and they have other activities like sports, 4-H, church, etc. And home in time to finish homework and fall into bed.

Their entire day is planned out for them or at least the vast majority of the day. Five days a week. for 9 months out of the year.

And then comes summer where we expect the kids to know how to entertain themselves. And siblings who really don't spend very much time together during the school year except in the car are expected to be friends and get along.

They might even be told to turn off the video game and go outside to play because it is summer and that is what you should do during summer.

Only they don't know how to come up with something to play because that isn't how they are taught to be creative during the school year.

So before long, mom is tired of the "I'm bored"s. And that is why she is so glad to ship them back off to school so she doesn't have to entertain them.

But it is just sad.

WFMW - planner

I make my own planner - because I do things the hard way.

And then because I haven't yet found the planner design that works for me, I keep changing the planner style. So if I print out 32 weeks worth of one design and then decide on week 3 that I hate that design - I get irritated with myself. Don't ask how I know.

So this year I made my planner and I picked a few different designs for the weeks and printed out about 4 of each. I printed out almost everything else I wanted in the planner and took it to my local copy shop. I had them put a spiral binding on it and so I can use it that way for the next few weeks.

I also did one for Daisy but she only has 2 styles of weekly pages.

So I can use the planner and try out the different styles of pages until I find the one I really like. I can then print those off and have the holes put in it and add it to my planner.

This gives me the planner that really works for me instead of one that I make do with.

Art or something like it

Art is typically one of the first things to go because . . . well, it makes a mess. And I have been lax in doing it, partially because Junior treats art as most dreaded torture.

How can kiddie art be torture? Well, I suspect in the nursery at church and mothers-day-out some well meaning little girls told him he was doing it wrong. I don't know this for a fact, but I do have a little girl and I know how they can be.

Plus, I know most of the pictures brought home by him, were not in fact done by him. I would gush over a picture he brought home and he would say "Oh, G (or S or another girl) colored it for me." *

sigh

So when I saw this idea at Deep, Space Sparkle I thought we should try it.

It is supposed to be a lesson in symmetry (which I did go over with Daisy). For Junior, it was a lesson in self confidence.

This is the first picture he has ever done (by himself), that he is proud of.



I know. You are thinking "what the heck is that!?" To be honest, I don't really see what it is either but with all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that went into producing it, he is proud.

See Daisy and I kept encouraging him. We even went so far as to say he was the only one who made something that looked like an alien. Daisy's resembled an insect and mine . . . a person with really bad hair. I googled E.T. to show him how his kind-of resembled E.T. (like a bust of E.T.).

We drug him, kicking and screaming (almost) along every step of the project.

But now he wants it to hang on his wall.

So you can see his vision, here is his picture with the parts labeled. I don't know what the big blob at the bottom is, he hasn't said and I couldn't even guess.


The top arrow points at the teeth.

The left arrow points at one of the eyes (the other is on the opposite side)

And the right arrow points to the nose.

I don't "see" it either but I also don't get Picasso.




* I don't resent these little girls, I just know that sometimes they can get too caught up in "doing it right."

A lot of action here

It may look like I have been a very, very busy mom to have gone from 7 posts to 30 but I went and pulled a bunch from my main blog and put them up over here.

And I imported them.

So really the whole process took maybe 30 minutes (and it wouldn't have taken that long except the export/import thingy takes all the posts (200+) and moves them and I didn't want the non-homeschool ones here so I had to go through and get rid of those and then publish the ones I kept.

And yes I know that was a run-on sentence but that is how I felt about the project.

But now I have them moved (Yeah me!) so I can focus on something else.

One thing that is cool is that it also moves the comments, which explains how I have posts and comments from before this blog was started.

Our Curriculum for this year

Kris at Weird, Unsocialized, Homeschoolers is doing a Share your Curriculum Edition of the Weekly Wrap-up. This is my first time doing Weekly Wrap-up and I am pretty excited about it.

I don't have the curriculum for this year 100% ironed out yet, but I do know what some of it is going to be.

Right now what we are thinking is

• Math on the Level


• Janice Van Cleve books for science although I am not sure which


• Handbook of Nature Study


• Bible study we are just using the Bible and one of those lists of the Harmony of the Gospels


• Tatras for our phonics


• We are thinking of Story of the World for History


• Literature will be various books throughout the year. Right now we are going through Treasure Island and Wizard of Oz. After that, I don't know exactly.

We might be adding or changing, I am not 100% sure. We will also be participating in our local co-op which meets every other week.

Without a plan(er)

I am a genius at making lists and charts to keep me organized. Unfortunately, I am also a perfectionist and so I tend to get the chart or whatever the way I want it, and then keep tweaking it. Ad Nauseum.

Last year I made myself a lovely planner. It was basically everything I could possibly need.

After about 6 weeks, I stopped using it because the lesson plan pages didn't work as well as I thought they would. I don't remember now what was wrong with them, I think maybe schedule envy - you know when you see someone else's schedule system and suddenly yours is . . . lacking.

Anyway, I am trying to make my planner for the upcoming year. Why can't I use a ready made one? Because that would be entirely too simple. I apparently can't do simple.

This year though, I am making a mini version (only 6 weeks or so of weekly scheduling but with the calendars and such) and I will see how it works in the light school that we are doing now.

Right now, we are doing math and reading. Partially to keep them from forgetting anything, and to make some progress but also to keep us in the habit of schooling. It is so stinking hot outside now that we might as well do school in the heat of the day.

Plus this lets me try out my planner. My planner comes from various sources, some from Donna Young, some from the Tanglewood and some from the Old Schoolhouse Planner. Most of them I almost liked but ended up retyping so I could customize. Now obviously I can't share the pages I didn't retype and customize but I will try to give you an idea of where I got various things.

After I get the planner designed, I am going to print out a good portion of it (except for the weekly pages and just a few of those) and then take it and have it spiral bound. Taking the spiral out and having the new pages added won't be a big deal once I get the pages I will use.

I also made Daisy her own so she can check off what she has done each day and can keep track herself. With hers, we are also doing the small version with two completely different weekly pages so she can see what works for her.

I will try to keep you updated on how it goes.

Math on the Level

After a year of Saxon - which I hated, ok maybe not but if we did it all we would hate it - I thought I would try something else. Actually a month ago I was going to do Saxon again.

Instead I found Math on the Level. First I had gotten one of their 9's Down Math facts ebooks (also available in print).

Daisy is a bit shaky on her math facts - like her mom did for years, she counts with her fingers - and this offers drills but in an unusual way. The first worksheet is full of problems 9+1, 9+0 and 9+9 and your child does this one daily until he/she can do the whole worksheet in a short amount of time, and then moves to the next one that adds 9+8 to the mix. By the time your child gets to the smaller numbers (and easier) they have had alot of practice with the larger numbers. Most books start out with 1's and then 2's and so on and have very little (comparative) practice with the larger ones. They offer 9's down addition, subtraction, multiplication and division each separate if you do the ebook version where you just print out the worksheets you need.

So after thinking about it some more I ordered the Starter pack with the Math on the Level. In some ways, this will be more challenging than Saxon because I actually have to teach it instead of just reading the book and pointing out the math problems in the book. Yet in others it will be much easier to do.

Today for instance - the first day we have used it - we discussed Roman numerals. I first made up a story about how Roman numerals were invented - to rivaling farmers with the same names as my kids, fighting over who had more sheep. There were hand motions involved and so I think it will make V, X, and L easier to remember. Then we discussed the other numbers and some mnemonic devices to help remember the larger ones - we settled on "Learning Causes Dad Migranes", or maybe it was "Lucky Cat Dines on Mice." Anyway, it was actually fun. We didn't spend very long with it and will do some more with it tomorrow.

Then to keep it in her mind, I put it on her 5-A-Day sheet.

What is a 5-A-Day? Well it is 5 math problems on different things to see if she remembers how to do a math concept. That way I can know if she "gets it" or if she has forgotten it. If she misses Roman numerals for a few days I know she needs it reviewed or retaught.

Since this is the first day we have actually used it, I will review the curriculum again for you after we have used it more.

What we think we know

Ok, I really love these TED talks. What is TED? According to their website

TED started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

The talks on their website (and on youtube) are short 10-15 minute things and are usually something that will make you think but not something boring. Here is one I just listened to What we think we know where he asks 4 questions that most people think they know the answer to, but might completely be wrong.