Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Have Good Intentions and Not Much Else (Except Rain)

"Some people converse with their kids; I do cryptograms and coded crosswords with mine. Works for me. Conversation is over-rated anyway."

I am getting pretty good at this Tri-Weekly WrapUp stuff. I live such an exciting life these days that Weekly just wouldn't cut it.


Notta lotta school going on these days. Some years we do some "summer school" and some years we don't. I guess this year we aren't. I had good intentions of at least doing math a few days per week, but we all know which road is paved with those. Good intentions, I mean. Or math books. Yes, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the road to hell is paved with math books.

Ha. A stream-of-thought WrapUp. I like it. My brain has been wound way too tight lately, so I am just going to let it unwind and see what comes out. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Anyway. The plan was to get through chapter 12 in Spaz' Algebra book during the three weeks between Memorial Day and camp. Didn't happen. We made it through about three lessons and, for the first time ever, I suddenly felt as though Algebra was kicking my butt. So I made an executive decision that June and Quadratic Equations don't go together. Maybe they'll seem a little more comprehensible in August. Fuzz' math was going fine, but still. Maybe it was the whole vacation-at-the-end-of-May thing that did it, but summer math was just seeming like a big no-go. So I declared an End To All Things Mathematical and that was that.

We did manage to get the kids' vacation power points and scrapbook pages finished. I never did do mine. Funny how it's easier for me to "make" them do their things than it is to make me do my things. Even funnish sorts of things.

That's that on the school front. I haven't even been requiring much independent reading. I know, bad mom. Fuzz has been reading a lot anyway, and Spaz has done a fair amount as well, though not as much as I'd like.

So what have we been doing? Well, here's a partial list of all our highly interesting activities. Try not to fall asleep...

Gardening. I've never been great at veggie gardening and had practically given up on it the past couple years, but this year I tackled it once again with renewed vigor and determination, not to mention more space and a greater variety of crops. As it turns out, I picked a great year to do so. With all the rain, everything is growing splendidly. It has really been encouraging and fun. I haven't made the kids help me as I did with previous attempts, but I think they are learning by osmosis. :-)

Weeding. Weeds are not a big problem in the veggie garden, but they are in my flower garden and in the landscaped rock areas around the house. I'm not terribly fond of the rock areas (they were here when we bought the house), but keeping them weed-free does make a great summer chore for kids, and of course that's a good thing. Otherwise I'd have to think up other things for them to do. ;-) Previously I've just assigned weeding on an ad-lib basis, but I've always had this idea of dividing up the various rock areas between the kids and making them responsible for their own sections all summer. I finally did that for this summer (now that we are down to only two kids; go figure). Instead of "chores" they are "responsibilities"-- and there is money involved. They get a certain amount for the initial weeding (determined according to the size and difficulty of the section) and will get a small weekly "maintenance fee" for keeping up on them. So far it's working pretty well.

Neurofeedback Brain Wave Training for Spaz. I've mentioned this before. Having to drive into town three days a week for this keeps life from getting too boring. While he does the program, Fuzz and I either run errands or sit in the waiting room working (playing) in our puzzle books. She's decided she finds my variety puzzle book more interesting than her sudoku, so it's starting to become something we do together. I actually don't mind this too much. Some people converse with their kids; I do cryptograms and coded crosswords with mine. Works for me. Conversation is over-rated anyway.

Bike riding. Well, okay... Fuzz and I did this once. But we have good intentions to start doing it regularly.

Piano. Spaz has just been doing his own thing on piano since I cut him loose from lessons last fall, but he agreed to undergo some "mentoring" this summer if I'd take him back to his old teacher, a fun guy who really teaches according to Spaz' bent. Fuzz is going too, even though she's done well with her new teacher. (We switched mostly for convenience; the old teacher is a 35-mile round trip whereas the new one is just down the road.).

I just realized I'm not doing stream-of-thought anymore. Drat. It was more fun that way. Anyway....

Softball & Soccer for Spaz. Both are casual, just-for-fun homeschool games. Both also meet on Thursdays- one in the morning and one at night, with piano in between. Thursdays are a little busy.

Watching World Cup Soccer. I never think to turn this on myself, but Spaz does, and then I often end up watching as well. Beats cleaning the house.


Socializing. I know; homeschoolers aren't supposed to do that. Oh well. Some of our socialization has even been with other homeschoolers.

Partying. (Okay, now we are really getting into dangerous territory. See what socializing can lead into?) Ever since the party we threw in May for Spaz' "Friday School" classmates, Fuzz had been hankering to have a party of her own. She gets competitive with Spaz like that. So we threw a party for the little girls' club she belonged to this past year. (It's the club that's little, not the girls.) We also went --all of us-- to yet another Friday School party thrown by another classmate. That makes 5 or 6 parties for that bunch since fall, with another coming up next month. So much for that unsocialized homeschooler thing.

Oh, and it rained. And it rained again, and then it rained again, and... well, you get the picture. 

That pretty well wraps up the first two weeks of the three-week wrap. (I'm sure we did other stuff, too, but you get the picture.) This week just past was a little different, since Spaz was at camp. No neurofeedback, no soccer and softball, no piano. And I totally forgot to watch any World Cup, but Fuzz and I did watch all three LOTR movies. That's way better than watching soccer any day.

It rained last week, too, though camp went well regardless. Camp even survived a big thunderstorm which knocked out their power for 22 hours. Here at home, we lost ours for only 15, though it was supposed to be 36-plus. Because we have a well, no power means no water, either. Of course it would just happen that I went to bed the previous night with a pile of dirty dishes on the counter, so of course i then had to look at those stinkin' dishes all day long. Funny how I never want to wash dishes... until I can't. Also funny how I finally capitulated to the electric company's prediction of a 36-plus-hour outage and hauled the entire contents of our frig & freezer to church and loaded it in theirs.... and then on my way home, Hubz called to say the power was back on.

Well. Are you still awake? Really? I'm impressed. Now you can go read more Wrap-Ups here.

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Quirks and Strawberries and Deep Thoughts on Schooling

I have this little quirk about things having to “go together.” Like, you shouldn’t order the Asian chicken salad with the Mediterranean veggie sandwich. Asian and Mediterranean don’t go together. Even if you like the Asian a little bit better, you need to get the Greek salad with your Mediterranean sandwich.

You shouldn’t serve tacos for Sunday dinner. Tacos are casual, and Sunday dinner should be… nice. And you shouldn’t wear a nice blouse with blue jeans, either. T-shirts go with blue jeans.

And of course, you should never read a book that takes place in 19th-century England when you are studying the Vietnam War, or take a trip to the planetarium even though you are studying animal science. You should wait until you are doing astronomy, so it all goes together. It only makes sense. Everything has to make logical sense.

And red tea kettles do not belong in earth-toned kitchens. (Neither, for that matter, do black appliances.) This drives me crazy.

Sometimes it’s a harmless little quirk, this pursuit of ultimate consistency, this need to have everything fit into its own little box… but sometimes it becomes an obsession. Sometimes it factors too strongly into my thinking and makes things more complicated than they need to be.

Renegade strawberry plants should not be allowed to grow in a flower garden. They’d be out of place. They wouldn’t fit in. How could that be a good thing? Strawberries and flowers don’t go together: the former are for eating and the latter are for looking at. Two different worlds.

And homeschool families should not send their kids to high school. That doesn’t go together. Then you don’t fit in with the homeschool community, and you don’t fit in with the school families. Too hard.

Especially, white middle-class homeschool families living on 3 acres in semi-rural suburbia should not truck their kids into the city to a reduced-tuition urban school. What sense does that make? Even if they like the school, how do those things belong together? Two. Different. Worlds.

Never mind that we’ve already done it for years. It still feels like starting over, and it still feels uncomfortable.

Maybe we should just do what’s comfortable, what’s logical, what’s sensible. Stay firmly entrenched in the realm of homeschooling, or at least go with the very-homeschool-friendly, nearby, suburban, conservative, homogenous school.

Because everyone knows that strawberries don’t grow in flower gardens.

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Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Try to Make Vacation Sound Like Education

Blogger wasn't letting me in yesterday (Bad Blogger! Bad, Bad Blogger!), so I had to post this on my HSB blog. It took me like five stinkin' hours because I am still trying to figure out the new system over there.

Anyway... So yeah, it's late. But this time it actually isn't entirely my fault.

How about a Three-Week WrapUp? That’s about how long it’s been. I should have posted this last week. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Oh and well.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of “school” going on here lately. While a few local schools got out this past week and the rest continue through this coming week, we cut out on May 19 and have already been on “summer vacation” and back. Summer vacation before Memorial Day, because… well, Just Because We Could.

But just because we took time off school doesn’t mean there wasn’t any ejamacayshun going on. Or should I say, ejavacayshun?

We ejavacayted ourselves on the road…

LITERATURE

We never take a road trip without audio dramas, and we love Focus on the Family Radio Theater!

MATH, LOGIC, LANGUAGE ARTS
Good car stuff

ART APPRECIATION: FOLK ART

Artisan Center, Berea KY off I-75

...and we ejavacayted ourselves at our destination.

U.S. GEOGRAPHY

 

EARTH SCIENCE

Tuckaleechee Caverns, Townsend TN

This was a great place to be on our lone drizzly day

 

HISTORY

Mill at Cades Cove

Ogle Cabin, Roaring Forks Loop, GSMNP

 

NATURE STUDIES

Along Newfound Gap Road, GSMNP

"Chimney Tops" as seen from Newfound Gap Rd, GSMNP


This guy (?) liked to hang out by our front door

Part of a series of pics entitled 'Butterflies on Bear Poop', taken in the Park. I spared you the graphic ones with the huge lumps.

 

ANIMAL BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE

Coyote, Cades Cove

Bear cub, Cades Cove

This guy came to visit us almost every night. The kids named him Gregory. BAD Gregory!

 

REGIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES

Taken from the tram up the hillside at Hillbilly Golf, Gatlinburg

More Hillbilly Golf. Cheapest fun in Gatlinburg!

 
Even more Hillbilly Golf. Where else can you play in a setting like this?

MUSIC
(cross-reference under 'Regional Cultural Studies")

Pre-show at the Dixie Stampede- our lone "touristy" splurge

We got lucky. Yes, it's Dolly, live and in person, if only briefly. She made a surprise appearance and did one song.

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES

Salt & Pepper Shaker Museum, Gatlinburg, with over 20,000 shaker sets

P. E.

Picnic Area near Cades Cove, GSMNP

Picnic Area near Cades Cove, GSMNP

Hiking along the Appalachian Trail, GSMNP

Picnic Area, Gatlinburg, just outside the Park

Pigeon River, Hartford TN

FIRST AID

You have to be pretty talented to get smacked in the face by the T-bar end of your OWN paddle. I had help from a nasty rock.

And probably best of all,

RECESS!!!

Over the mountains through steep hairpin turns, to our lovely cabin we go... (Bluff Mtn, Wears Valley TN)

Breathtaking ...Why we chose this cabin

View from the deck

That was called, “Posting vacation pictures under the thinly veiled guise of a Weekly WrapUp.” I am clever like that.

When we got home, there was a garden to put in, so the kids & I did that. Log under "Nutritional Studies" and/or "Home Ec".

Now we’re on a relaxed “summer school” schedule, which for the time being consists of a little math and scrapbooking/ power-pointing our trip. (That’s language arts, layout/design, and computer skills, you know.) Although I must confess that after all that fun stuff, pulling out the math books this past Wednesday just seemed sort of wrong.

You can read more WrapUps here. (But they probably won’t be like this one.)

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To Send or Not to Send (and I'm Not Talking About E-Mail)

We've been... (Wait. Is there a rule against beginning a blog post with a contraction? No? Okay, I didn't think so. Sorry; carry on.)

We've been undergoing the agonizing process of deciding whether to send Spaz to high school next year (as we did with his older sibs) or to homeschool him for high school. After more than a year of thinking and avoiding and contemplating and processing and PRAYING and thinking and avoiding some more, it's time to actually make the decision.

Okay, I know. It's well past time to have made the decision. We're very good at trying to prolong the inevitable. Why make a difficult decision in a timely manner when you can put it off until the very last minute? Procrastinating on such things keeps life interesting and stressful. You ought to try it.

Being a Person Who Thinks Too Much, I have long been compiling a mental list of Relevant Factors We Ought to Consider. And I have indeed been mentally considering said factors. Being a Person Who Likes to Have Everything on Paper or Screen, I have long intended to type out said mental list. Being a Person Who Procrastinates, I did this on the day that was my self-imposed deadline for making our decision. Being a Person Who Is Compulsively Persnickety About the Structure and Order of Any Written Material Including Lists, it took me forever to (being a Person Who Does Not Dangle Participles, I did not just almost write that) I spent a couple hours typing out said list.

And being a Person Who Ought to Write More Blog Posts, I have decided to turn my list into one and share it with you, for whatever it's worth.

Keep in mind that this is my kid and my family and my situation. "Your experience may vary." (Or, "Don't try this at home." Or something like that.)

Oh, one more thing- although we've considered both public school (for about two minutes) and charter school (for a little longer than two minutes), our decision has come down to homeschool or Christian school. Since this is West Michigan, we have approximately 73,000,000 Christian high schools within a 25-mile radius, but we've narrowed our choices to two: the reduced-tuition, socio-economically-diverse, becoming-college-prep urban Christian school that Biz & Cheez attended, and the full-tuition, very-homeschool-friendly, conservative, Classically-bent suburban Christian school that two of his friends attend.

That said, here's my banged-out, not-necessarily-comprehensive "list", just the way I typed it out for Hubz & myself. (Well, except for the blog names.) You'll be happy to note that it contains far fewer Randomly-Capitalized-and/or-Hyphenated Words than did this introduction.

Things to consider:

CHARACTER, FAITH, DISCIPLINE, ETC:


How would each option-- homeschool or Christian high school-- be likely to influence his spiritual and personal growth?


Is it time for a new “stage” in his life? Is it time to “release” him?


*Going to school would be another step away from us and toward independence. It would be an intermediate stage between homeschool and college /adult life.


*Our own personal limitations don’t allow us to be “everything” to our kids, esp as they get older. It may be time to enlist the help of “the village” to nurture faith & world view & leadership skills & discipline in ways that we can’t or don’t, and to release him to be more influenced by other (hopefully godly) adults as well as peers.


*He needs at his age to have other godly people speaking into his life besides just parents & grandparents. Do church/youth group and homeschool activities/classes provide enough of that? Would school provide too much?


*School provides more opportunities for both negative AND positive peer influence on his faith & character.


*Going to school, even Christian school, would provide an opportunity for him to be a little more “in the world” and deal with a few more issues of life while he is still under our guidance.


*At TPH, he is likely to be exposed to questionable views & media that one or both of us might feel is bad for him. Are we as parents equipped to deal with this and guide him in the right direction w/o alienating him or causing strife?


*Going to school would be a broadening experience-- for better or for worse?


*God has a call on his life, although we don’t know exactly what that is. Would one environment --homeschool or Christian school-- better equip him than the other to grow into that call?



PERSONAL, SOCIAL, & OTHER FACTORS :


*Going to school may leave less time and energy for pursuing his music.


*Does our family “fit in” at TPH? I've often felt like we don't. We aren’t urban, globally minded, or committed to diversity. Would we fit in at FCS? We don’t quite fit the conservative stereotype. At either place, would we feel at home? AND… does this really matter?


*Going to school would wrench him away from the homeschool friendships he’s formed, but he’d be likely to form other friendships that are just as good for him. This worked out fine with Biz & Cheez.



FAMILY:


How would each option impact our family?


*Would going to school pull him away from family? Would a little bit of pulling away actually be healthy for him & us? Is his relationship w/us strong enough to prevent pulling away to an unhealthy degree?


*If he goes to school, we would “lose” a certain dynamic & togetherness that we seem to finally have achieved as a family. But might this be OK? How much would we really be losing? Would we really lose it, or would it just change? Family life does go through different stages.


*If he goes to school, “what other parents do” would become much more important.


*If he goes to school, esp TPH, we’d be doing that “living in two worlds” thing. This felt very difficult to me with the other two. It was hard for me to “embrace” school & be involved, and I felt like the kid in school was more “separate” from our family.


*If he goes to school, Fuzz would get a lot of 1-on-1 time and might blossom better out of his shadow.


*Am I going to pursue a career or at least have some sort of paying job? If so, do I really want to commit to at least 4 more years of homeschooling?


*Spaz & Fuzz will be in high school together for a year or possibly two. We have to consider what we will do with her. Might we end up with kids in two different schools?


*Is homeschooling high school going to cause too much stress for Mom? I would have to be teacher, administrator, and guidance counselor!


*Will there be more tension in the home with him staying home or with him being in school?


*Would his relationship with Mom be better if I am only his mom and not his “schoolmaster”, too?




ACADEMICS/COLLEGE PREP:


Which option-- homeschool or high school-- is more likely to (a) prepare him for college and (b) foster a desire to go to college?


*Would I, with the help of outside &/or online classes and good resources, be able to give him a good high school education that will prepare him for college?


*Would I be good about “making” him do hard things in the classes I am in charge of? (He would always have outside classes in some subjects.)


*Is it true, as some claim, that the customized education and potential for independence provided by homeschooling is better preparation for college than conventional high school is?


*Is his lack of motivation & self-management going to be a bigger problem with school or with homeschooling?


* Would the rigors of high school academics be more likely to “burn him out” or “spur him on”?


*Would I do a good job with college admissions prep -- ACT, AP classes, dual enrollment, transcripts, etc?

And now, being a Person Who Ought to Go to Bed Soon, I am ending this post without much of a proper conclusion, except to say this: We did actually make the decision. Now we're giving ourselves that 3-day "buyer's remorse" period, also known as the Waffle Period or the Second-Guess Period. Okay, so it might be more like 5 days. Because we're very indecisive like that. Or wait-- maybe we're not. I don't know. At the very least, we tend to be kinda sorta tentative. I think.

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Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Manage to Get Some School Done In Spite of the Busyness of the Week

Forgot my Midweek Musings, of course. But hey, I managed to do it for a grand total of one consecutive week before missing! That's actually one time more than most of the things I think of posting.

As for Weekly WrapUp, I'm not even going to try to post anything even vaguely resembling a "normal" one. All you get is this...

Our week included:

*Spaz' first neurofeedback session... and his second, and his third... all of which required me to sit for an hour in a waiting room listening to "easy listening" music which has now been running non-stop through my brain all weekend. Ho-nes-teee is SUCH a lonely wo-ord / Ev-ry-one is soo untru-ue... There, now it will run through yours, too. You're welcome.

*An interview (at my request) with the principal of Biz & Cheez' alma mater, which may become Spaz' high school as well. The appointment was supposed to last 30 to 40 minutes, but we had such a good time talking that it ended up being two hours.

*Normal extra-curriculars --except soccer, which was rained out. Spaz was disappointed, but I was not. See above; it was nice to actually have an afternoon at home.

*Two math meltdowns by Fuzz.

*The crumbling of Communism. Well, I mean, we studied that.

*The conclusion, after four years, of four HUNDRED years of U.S. and world history. Yes, I know we are supposed to cover the entire gamut of world history, ancient to modern, in four years. We did that in six. We've taken our time with early modern and modern; there are just too many good books to read and I refused to rush through it.

*Seven surprisingly splendid summaries from Spaz, which superbly surpassed my satisfaction. I had him read a book called 1989: the Year the World Changed and write a 1/3-to-1/2-page summary of each chapter. (He'll finish this coming week.) The resulting mini-essays needed little-to-no editing, and they were --get this-- commited without any wailing or gnashing.

*Some other school stuff. By the way, we're wrapping up three to four weeks ahead of the local schools. Part of homeschooling is that lovely feeling of getting away with something.

*Printing up trail maps for the Smokies and going over them with Biz, who has been there several times.

*Sifitng through review after review after review online, trying to determine which vacation activities would be most worthwhile. (Some reviews required sifting through error after error, which didn't faze me for the most part. However, I'm not really sure I want to go to the place that is "defiantly recommended.")

*Gardening. I think I might just dig up all my established plants, start a garden elsewhere, and let the dandelions take over my existing flower bed. It might be easier than trying to eradicate said dandelions. On the positive side, the veggie gardening seems to be coming along well so far. Given my notorious brown thumb, that is a very pleasant surprise.

*Hosting a "reunion" party for Spaz and nine of his Friday school classmates. We set up several outdoor games, which were for the most part neglected in favor of playing Capture the Flag. That's okay, though. Besides, they used the Corn Toss bags for flags, so it's all good.

*Hosting a birthday party for my mom. Having two parties in one weekend actually works out pretty well, as much of the prep for the first carries over into the second. Like the other party, this one involved many noisy young people; thankfully, both also involved beautiful days, which kept much of the activity outside. (Although I did find out later on Facebook that one of the teenage-cousin activities involved my nieces hiding in our shower and throwing our dirty laundry around while my son chased them with a spray bottle. Nice.)

That was our busy, busy week. Whose crazy idea was it to plan a vacation during such a busy month, anyway? Oh yeah-- mine. And whose idea was it to start neurofeedback three times a week in that same month? Mine again. And who wanted to host two parties that month as well? Me. So I really can't complain about the busyness.

Coming up: an even busier week.

For more of this week's WrapUps, go here.

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Have Our Heads Examined and Do Other Interesting Things

"I am happy to report that I never did gallavant about town wearing the Sticker-Laden Hoodie of Dorkdom. Success again."

Two things by way of introduction: (1) Since I, for no apparent reason, failed to post a WrapUp last week, this one will have to cover the last two weeks. (2) In a desperate and perhaps futile attempt to make my WrapUp somewhat interesting, I am going to post it not in Day-by-Day form, nor in Subject-by-Subject form, but in Award-by-Award form. I suppose you are wondering what that means. I suppose you will have to read on to find out.

*Just to get it out of the way, I'll start with the dubious Stuff That Interrupted Our Educational Endeavors Award: There was a lot of competition here, but First Prize definitely has to go to Jury Duty, which kinda sorta defined the week before last. Although I ended up being gone only one day, I'd had to plan for two, so jury duty consumed one entire day and somewhat discombobulated another. (I love that word and use it often. No, not "another"; the word before it.)

This category also has a couple Honorable Mentions, the most interesting of which would be Going to Get Our Heads Examined. Because this is far too complicated to explain here, it'll suffice to say that Spaz and I went in on two separate afternoons to do our initial assessments for neurofeedback brain training. If you don't know what that is, you can read about it here or on countless other websites. I went to a seminar and did some web research, and I am pretty sold on it as a possible remedy for ADD-type issues. Spaz starts the program this coming week, and I may do it later.

The other Honorable Mention in this category would go to Visiting Another School. We're still in the process of deciding whether Spaz will stay home next year or go to high school, and school visits are part of the exploration process. Friday he visited the small, socio-economically diverse, income-based-tuition Christian school where Biz & Cheez spent their high school years. He felt comfortable there, which renders it a viable option. I could write several blog posts' worth about this whole big decision, although I'm sure I won't.


And now some awards for the Educational Endeavors themselves, because we really did have some...

*The Is This Really History? Award: We read about the Israeli wars and the oil embargo, terrorist attacks in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the deposing of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent rule of the Ayatollah. All of these things happened during my lifetime, and some of them I remember quite clearly. It feels odd to call such things "history". If I remember them, shouldn't they be called "current events"? Wasn't 1980 just a few years ago?

*The That Must Be A Really Good Book Award: I love it when "I have to read how many chapters today?" turns into "Hey Mom, I finished that book already!" Last Tuesday I returned from the library and handed the kids The Breadwinner, telling them they'd have to share it. Although written at about a 4th- or 5th-grade level, this story about an Afghani family living under the Taliban seemed a worthy book for Spaz to read as well as Fuzz. Initially they both grumbled about having to read it. But Spaz read it straight through that night in bed, and Fuzz had finished it by the following evening. So much for them having a week's worth of reading. (Here I would say, "End of story" --except that I've ordered the sequels.)

*The Pleasant Surprise Award: Spaz' writing assignments get the prize here. When his writing class ended in March, no small amount of dread accompanied my decision to revert back to the old Mom-makes-up-history-based-writing-assignments method. However, it has gone much better than I had anticipated. Using outlines from Story of the World, principles from IEW, and guidelines and comments from Yours Truly, he's written some pretty good stuff with minimal frustration. The week before last he finished up a 1-page assignment about Apartheid in South Africa and this past week he began writing about Iran and the Ayatollah.

*The Wow, It Works! Award: I mentioned last time that I instituted a credit/demerit system for being on time and staying on task and that in conjunction with that, I've been a bit less relaxed and more deliberate with our schedule. This has really seemed to make a positive difference for us. Hooray, I'm doing something right!!! I feel so... successful.

(Oh, side note-- I have moved from the stickers-on-my-hoodie method of tracking credits to the less-risky rubber-bands-on-my-wrist method. I am happy to report that I never did gallavant about town wearing the Sticker-Laden Hoodie of Dorkdom. Success again. I have gallavanted about town with a multitude of rubber bands on each wrist, but I actually think that makes me look kind of, you know, hip. It's, like, modern jewelry. Or maybe it just makes me look stupid, I don't know.)

*The Most Improved Award: Spaz, who has supposedly been teaching himself to play guitar via a DVD, made more progress in the past two weeks than he did in the three months before that. This might be because we finally jumped from playing one string at a time, as the DVD initially teaches, to learning chords. It might also be because I decided to sit with him and MAKE him practice them over and over again. (And the rubber band thing helps, too. He said so. Especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when American Idol viewing is at stake.) 

*The Pluggin' Away Award goes to Fuzz, because it isn't fair that Spaz gets all the press. Good ol' Fuzz meets and exceeds expectations pretty consistently, and that's worthy of mention.

*The Outdoor Chalkboard Award: Last Tuesday was a beautiful warm day, so Fuzz and I sat on the porch steps to read about amphibians. I was trying to teach her to take notes (something we've rather neglected with our relaxed approach to learning), so I had her fetch some sidewalk chalk and I used the front walk as a chalkboard. Until the rain washed it away a few days later, we were able to read about the metamorphosis of toads every time we walked past our full-length glass front doors.

*The Normally Abnormal Award goes to our Fridays. With my jury duty on one and Spaz' school visit on the other, we did not have normal school days on either Friday, which is normal. Two weeks ago we actually had a normal school day on Friday which, considering that it was the only "normal" Friday of this entire January-through-May term, was quite abnormal. Abnormal Fridays seem much more normal. On my jury duty day, the kids did independent school work and then hung out with Hubz at home and at the park. On Spaz' school visit day, Fuzz and I reverted to the science-and-art format we followed when Spaz had his Friday classes. We read from CKEB about reptiles in general and turtles in specific, and then we drew frogs from our nature drawing book. And we ate doughnuts.

*Last of all, the Anticipation Award: That would go to our upcoming 6-day vacation to the Smoky Mountains, for which we're cutting our school year short by several weeks. (Whereas most local schools get out June 11, we'll end our "regular" school year in just over a week. We do a little summer school, but it isn't nearly the same.) Meanwhile, we are really trying to make the most of what little time we have left. And by "we are," I of course mean "I am."

That's a Wrap, folks. You can read more WrapUps here.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Some Kids Never Grow Up

Here's what my 11- and 14-year-olds were doing during their breaks today.

Just think about all the fun they'd miss out on if they went to school.

Weekly WrapUp: In Which We Go to the Other

(For some reason, I can't seem to grab the WrapUp button today. You'll have to do without it. Sometimes I like HSB better. This is one of those times.)

For the sake of expediency, today's Wrap-Up is going to be bullet points. Short ones. You laugh, I know. 

The highlight of our school week just past:

*We made a family visit (our second) to the Henry Ford Museum, which you probably think is a museum dedicated to the history of the automobile, but is actually a museum dedicated to the spirit of American innovation, ingenuity, and freedom. It does have a really big section on automobiles, though. Hubz the Morning Person insisted we leave before 7 am. I was annoyed about this, but later I was glad. Our 5-hour round trip involved several cups of coffee, a great many Mad-Libs, and a stop at Smacker Barrel on the way home.

How was that for a reasonably short bullet point? I know, I know-- you want to hear about the 5-1/2 hours we spent in the museum. The problem is that I could not even begin to describe this place if I am to finish this post in a reasonable amount of time (not that I ever do anyway). I will just say that it is well worth the visit, and here are a few reasons why: Several Presidential limousines, including the in which JFK was riding when he was assassinated. The chair in which Lincoln sat when he was assassinated. The bus on which Rosa Parks took her famous stand. The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. The one and only Dymaxion House. Are you impressed yet? The plane Richard Byrd flew to the North Pole. The first successful helicopter. Humungous steam engines-- the ones that pull trains and the ones that power factories...

With all that, the kids' favorite exhibits seemed to be the K'Nex design-your-own-car station, the poseable crash dummy, and the be-on-MTV exhibit. Although Fuzz did list the 1950's diner as her absolute favorite.

Now that the Henry Ford Museum has managed, not surprisingly, to hijack my WrapUp, here are a few other mildly interesting occurances and tidbits from our week:

*American history conquered for the moment, we turned our attention back to late 20th-century world history, specifically that of Africa. We read from Story of the World.  We revisited a map we'd made last year featuring the continent with its European Colonial borders and an overlay showing the present-day country borders, and the kids labeled each country with the year it gained independence. I found a youtube video of Nelson Mandela's inauguration speech and played part of it. Both kids' literature focused on South Africa and apartheid as well.

*Spaz wrote about apartheid and Fuzz about the Hutus & Tutsis in Rwanda, using the outlines from Story of the World Activity Book. I don't always like the way those outlines are done, but this week I was very glad to have them. They were helpful. So were the IEW principles we learned last year, which I always incorporate into assignments like these.

*Fuzz and I worked at the library's used book sale-- she because she really really wanted to, and I because I could neither refuse such a desire nor be outdone by an 11-year-old. It was not a highly exciting endeavor, but it felt good to do something different. Needless to say, we came home with a stack of books. (Yes, we paid for them, same as anyone else.)

*I prepped one of my square-foot-garden boxes and got my cold weather veggies planted! This really has little to do with "school" as the kids did not even help me. They are "discouraged" by gardening, with good reason. My thumbs are pretty brown, and the last couple years I haven't even made much of an effort. However, I am back at it with renewed determination and hope (or would that be delusions?). The fact that I actually remembered to get cold-weather stuff in while it is yet cold is a first, so I am somewhat encouraged. That's why I had to mention this here even though the kids were not very involved. (I say "not very" because one of them watched me for about three minutes and even put in a few seeds.)

*We watched a History Channel show about how the states got their boundaries. It was hugely interesting, totally unplanned, and of course highly educational, so it merits a mention here. Of course, the show started with the most interesting state of all.

*Frustrated with dawdling students (singular, usually) sabotaging our day, I decided to crack down and be a little stricter with the schedule. I'm not a big fan of strict schedules in homeschooling, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. For example, it used to be that if someone hadn't finished his math in the ample time allotted, that would push back morning break time, which would push back our history-together time, and so would go the day. Now, break times are when they are, and they're over when they're over. If the major things (math, writing, piano practice) aren't finished on time, their completion spills over into break time and break time is thereby shortened or even eliminated. And if they still aren't finished by the end of break time, they need to be revisited later. This has worked pretty well.

*In conjunction with the above, I began a new credit/demerit system to replace our old one. I know, I know, but some kids need them, and Spaz is one of those kids. Without going into a great deal of deal, I will mention that at the moment, my method of keeping track of things involves removable vinyl stickers on my zip hoodie. It beats having to keep track of a piece of paper or run to a chart all the time, as the hoodie is always with me. I couldn't find enough rubber bands around the house to do the rubber-bands-on-wrists method, so this works for now. The downside is the distinct and highly likely possibility that one of these days I will leave the house on an errand and forget that I have stickers all over my hoodie.

I'll leave you to contemplate that. More WrapUps here.

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Go to One and Not the Other

This post was supposed to be entitled, In Which We Go to the Ford Museum Times Two. However, we were flexible and went to only one Ford Museum this week. We’re heading to the other one bright and early tomorrow, so I need to keep this short and sweet. (That is a really nice thought, albeit an unrealistic one.)


Yes, there are two Ford Museums in Michigan. It really isn’t all that confusing; just stay with me. The big-and-famous Ford museum is the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn (near Detroit, about 2-1/2 hours from us). We’ve been there once before, six years ago, and the timing is right for us to go again. Why? Because among the many fascinating things we’ll see there are the limo in which JFK was riding when he was assassinated and the bus on which Rosa Parks made her famous stand. If you’ve been reading my wrap-ups all along, you’ll know that the kids and I studied both of these events fairly recently. How could we not go see these things?


The other Ford Museum is the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, a mere 20 minutes away. While not nearly as large, exciting, or fun as The Henry, The Gerald does have some things relevant to what we’ve studied over the past few months and weeks-- namely, a temporary exhibit on the Cold War, a small display about the Vietnam War, and a Watergate room. These, too, we had to see; thus saith the Mom.


So I’d planned field trips to both of these places for this back-to-school-after-spring-break week. Not because we needed to ease in with a not-so-normal week (although that was a really nice bonus), but because that’s really how the timing worked out.


Except that it didn’t, exactly. We did, in fact, take two field trips; however, we didn’t quite follow the plan. Read on…


Monday being not just Monday, which is bad enough in itself, but also our first “school day” in ten days, I quite understandably approached it with much fear and trepidation. I punctuated our morning with such cheers as, “Hooray, hooray, it’s school again today!” and, “Yippeee!!! We get to do school again today!!! Oh, happy day!!!”


It didn’t work. Oh, the kids were fine. We did Monday Lite as usual, and other than the usual dawdling issues with Spaz, their work and attitudes were great. The pep talks were for me. I think I finally acclimated to the day around dinner time.


Meanwhile, Hubz was busy putting out his back while lifting heavy bundles. Since our HFM field trip was planned for Tuesday, and since it was going to be a rare family field trip, meaning Hubz was going with us, this was sort of a problem. We decided to postpone the trip to Thursday and have the kids & I do our Gerald trip on Tuesday instead.


So Tuesday we did math and piano practice and then headed to The Gerald. (Nobody calls it that, by the way. I am just differentiating and trying to be a little funny at the same time. You may pretend to be humored.) Unlike the Henry trip, this was going to be an “academic” field trip rather than a “fun” field trip. In an uncharacteristically schoolish move, I actually armed the kids with clipboards, complete with pencils on strings and research worksheets downloaded from the museum’s websites. They were not thrilled, but were somewhat placated by the premise that the worksheets, if done neatly and well, could afterward be redeemed for menu items at Snake ‘n’ Spake. I figured I’d better make it a little fun.


Fuzz dutifully completed her research sheets on Watergate and Cold War Diplomacy and even did the optional cartoon analysis sheet. (I figured I should throw a somewhat fun one in there.) I loved seeing her sitting cross-legged on the floor, brow furrowed in concentration, busily making her notes. Spaz, meanwhile, dawdled and complained and even tossed his clipboard on the floor at one point, but managed to get the job done. Although I’m not normally a big fan of worksheets, these were good ones. They forced the kids to investigate and find information and process and record it. I really think that those investigations and worksheets were the best thing we did all week. I also think that I am a pretty clever and nice mom for coming up with the idea to redeem the worksheets for treats afterwards.


Oh, and an unexpected bonus: the clipboards tipped off the clerk at the admission desk that we might be here for “school purposes,” and so she let the kids in free. Can’t argue with that.


Wednesday was a pretty normal school day-- the only one we had all week, in fact. And like the days before it, it was on the cold side. Friday would also be cold. In fact, the only day that wasn’t going to be cold was Thursday. You know, Henry day. Thursday was going to be 80 degrees out, and we were going to be inside a museum all day. Hubz, who needed to do some yard projects, grumbled about this a little at dinner Wednesday night.


“I bet,” said I to Hubz, “that if I bribe Fuzz with the promise of a zoo trip tomorrow, she won’t throw a fit about postponing the Henry trip yet again.” Fuzz, who was sitting between us, gave enthusiastic affirmation. She’d been clamoring for a trip to the zoo. Spaz was okay with this as well. And so we changed plans again.


After basic school stuff was done Thursday, Fuzz and I headed for the zoo. (Spaz had decided to opt out, and Hubz had promptly conscripted him to yard project duty.) The zoo is really not a big thrill for me, as I think I have been to the zoo enough several lifetimes’ worth in the past 22 years. To fend off boredom, I forced myself to take pictures at different manual and semi-manual camera settings. This way I got to be a good mom and do something slightly enriching all at the same time.


Meanwhile back at the ranch, Spaz and Hubz were busy at the pond fixing a dam leak. Thanks to the resident muskrats and recent heavy rains, the dam thing was in bad shape, causing the pond to flow out into the creek more than it should. The dam project took them all afternoon and into the evening, but they managed to get it built back up. Spaz, who does not normally count diligence and hard work among his traits, really rose to the occasion and exhibited a great deal of both. He even kept Hubz going when Hubz was ready to call it a day, and they worked til the job was done. Hubz says he was the best dam helper he could have asked for. I think Spaz was pretty proud of his work. I love that homeschooling allows him to do things like that. (And I'm rather enjoying the feeling of getting away with something here. ;-)

Friday brought yet another adventure, as Spaz spent part of the day with his friend at one of the local Christian schools, which was running a “Bring a Homeschool Friend to School Day.” Great marketing ploy, eh? Since it is one of the schools we are considering for him for next year, I stayed for a while as well, touring the school and talking with the principal. Insane price tag aside, I’m very comfortable with it, but I think the cost will be prohibitive. I did find it interesting that, although the school doesn’t have a dress code apart from requiring neatness and modesty, it does have a “hair code” for boys. Spaz’ is definitely too long.


Back home, Fuzz and I read about mollusks, made cards for a mollusk-matching game, and played the game. Then we picked up Spaz and donuts, ate the donuts, and worked on her quilting squares for a girl’s club project.


That was our week. You can read about other people’s weeks here. (Have I mentioned that I should get some sort of a creativity award for that fabulously innovative ending?)