Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which It is Very Hot and I Cease to Be Forty-Four

Only a two-week WrapUp this time? I seem to be getting somewhat less slothful.

So here's my last two weeks...

It was hot. I was lazy. I hung laundry and watered my veggies. I drove somebody somewhere. I read Tolkien. I carried on an email conversation. I made something resembling supper.

Repeat. Repeat again, and again, and again. Repeat several more times.

The end.

Okay, not quite. There may have been a few other things. Such as...

*I turned 45. I celebrated by unintentionally waking up early, intentionally reading The Fellowship of the Ring in bed while eating chocolate, falling back to sleep, waking up to the phone and realizing I should be leaving to take the kids to my mom's, taking the kids to my mom's, having a nice chat with my mom before leaving kidless, and having a late lunch at Logan's with Hubz. Then I planted my 3rd or 4th batch of carrots, read some more and maybe did some puzzles, felt too blah for much dinner, and read some more until the Return of the Kids. It was not a very exciting birthday, but it was a relaxing one.

*I took Fuzz and my niece (my brother's daughter) to Michigan's Adventure amusement park as a reward for learning all their memory verses in Kids' Club this past year. (Church paid for our tickets.) Since my sister lives five minutes from the park --which is an hour's drive for us-- we invited her and her two girls to meet us. It was a mostly-fun day peppered with a few "moments," which I suppose is inevitable when there are several stubborn female children who want to do different things at the same time. The waterpark portion of the day ended with the four tired girls splashing in one of the wave pools while the newly unencumbered moms made one trip after another down the nearby Snake Pit slides in defiance of our old age.

*Fuzz gave up on The Fellowship of the Ring (which, to my dismay and amusement, she had swiped from me almost as soon as I'd checked it out of the library) after only one-and-a-half chapters and decided to look for something else in the same genre. She settled on Eragon and its sequels and has been reading happily ever since, with short breaks for chores, meals, and sleep.

*We left the kidlets home to fend for themselves one night (it is so nice to be able to do that) and had dinner at the home of some friends.

*We went to fireworks with my parents on July 3 and then had nothing to do on the fourth or fifth. (Hubz hates crowded beaches, we deemed it too hot to watch a parade, our ill-shaded yard gets too hot in July to throw parties, and no one invited us over. Boo-hoo.) I felt down in the dumps about this.

*Hubz redeemed Independence Day for me by deciding to (finally) have my family birthday celebration. When this was announced, I promptly declared it to be my Second Birthday (not the day I turn two, but you know, like Second Breakfast) and dragged a chair out to the shade underneath the willow tree where I spent several hours reading The Two Towers while waiting for the "party" to begin. We were tired of trying to work around the older kids' work schedules and their lack of communication, so we invited my parents over to replace them. Since it was my Second Birthday, I made everyone play Five Crowns, a game which no one except me ever wants to play because it takes too long. I won by two points. 

*I went for my re-certification as an election worker, which basically consists of listening for two hours to an Important Person of the County go through all the how-to's and wherefores of working the election. Now I am all set to work both the primary and general elections this year. It is less interesting than jury duty, but it pays better and it beats settin' home.

*I took Fuzz to the library for her first volunteer stint at the Reading Club help desk. She was so excited she could hardly stand it.

*We picked out a new dishwasher to replace the one we haven't used for eight months because it just kinda quit getting the dishes clean. Although it may well be (as I'm sure Hubz supposes) that Real Women wash dishes by hand anyway, I finally decided I was just plain fed up with being a Real Woman. So was Spaz (and what teenage boy wouldn't be?). Unfortunately, we'll have to be Real Women for a few weeks longer until our friend has time to install the new dishwasher for us. I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

*I managed to finagle an invitation from some Friends With Pool (which are definitely the Best Sorts of friends to have during a scorcher). Of course, the day we went was the day the heat wave broke and it rained. No, it poured. The sun did come out again in the nick of time, but the kids --my kids, anyway-- would have been in the pool regardless.

*Hubz and his sister went three hours north to be with their mom and stepdad since their mom was undergoing surgery. She came through it fine. 

*Spaz went to yet another party for his "Friday School" classmates. We had dawdling issues with chores during the hours prior, so I was a mean mom and made him finish them and go 45 minutes late. (It helped that Hubz wasn't around; he generally chooses mercy over meanness.) For the entire half-hour drive, I resisted my normal tendency to attempt to verbally pound into his head the fact that his lateness was a consequence of his earlier dawdling. He knew it anyway. Yay, me. 

*I picked Spaz up from a post-party sleepover and stood out in the heat at his friend's house watching, not for the first time, three teenagers having an absolute riot horsing around in one of those little pop-up pools that we'd both contemplated and resisted buying for years. Then we said phooey on our well-water worries and went and bought one. Yes, it is a 2-1/2-foot deep pool, and yes, my kids are 11 and 14. They still think it beats the sprinkler-under-trampoline thing with which we've tried to appease them for years. They were and are ecstatic and jumped in shortly after it was filled. (Yes, it was cold. Ask them whether they cared.) I am less than ecstatic, but not the least bit surprised, about the orange-ish water, which turned greeny-orange-ish after we threw in chlorine granules. Oh well. Aesthetics aside, I doubt it'll kill them.

*I finished reading The Return of the King, twelve days after I began the series. That's an average of about a hundred small-print pages per day. Toldja I've been lazy. Waiting for kids at activities and appointments helped a lot, as did First and Second Birthdays. I rarely read for pleasure during the school year, so this was a real treat.

By the way, did you notice? I have managed to write my WrapUp using a unique and beautifully monotonous writing style consisting almost entirely of sentences with Subject Openers. We must be on summer break. Mr. Pudewa would not be proud. If you prefer to read WrapUps with more varied sentence openers, you can probably find some here.


*******************************************************

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.

*******************************************************

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.)

*******************************************************

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.

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?)

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Break and So Does the Refrigerator

It's taken me long enough to make my first post here, you think? It’s like I’ve been afraid of it or something. This Think Too Much stuff is a serious illness, I tell you. And what's worse, it's lately been accompanied by Can’t Get Enthused About Anything. Not exactly a great combination, and certainly not a recipe for productivity.

So it’s time to just jump in. Even though the header isn’t the way I want it and this and that isn’t the way I want it. We’ll fix things as we go along, eh?-- and maybe we’ll pick up a little enthusiasm while we’re at it.

I really did not want my first post here to be a Weekly Wrap-Up. Then again, it's not really a normal Wrap-Up anyway, since it wasn't a normal week. (I know, I know: define "normal". Later.) It's more about coffee makers and refrigerators and puzzles and giggly girls than it is about math or history. So I think we're okay.

There was no schoolwork to speak of at our house this past week, because I decided that we’d take a Spring Break along with the rest of West Michigan. I hadn’t been certain that we’d take the whole week off; I’d thought maybe we’d do a few “light days” of school and then take Thursday and Friday off, or some such mean-homeschool-mom thing. We’re thinking about taking an out-of-state vacation in May, Just Because We Can-- that is, IF I can get myself enthused about planning it and IF we can justify spending the money, both of which are big ifs at this point. So I wasn’t sure we should take a week off in April, even though I have been More Than Ready For a Break for some time now.


Then we learned, barely a week ahead of time, that the mom in charge of the teeny little girl’s club Fuzz and I belong to (note: it’s the club that’s teeny, not the girls) had obtained use of a cottage for a couple days of spring break week and was planning a little retreat for us. So that settled it; we were having Spring Break. Can’t say I was too disappointed about that.


The retreat was Tuesday through Thursday, so I, Compulsive Homeschool Mother that I am, had told the kids we’d do math and a little history on Monday and then declare Spring Break. Fuzz, however, was invited to spend Sunday night at Grandma’s with her cousins and go to the annual Butterflies Are Blooming exhibit at our local botanical gardens on Monday. I, Impulsive and Flexible Homeschool Mother that I am, said of course. We can’t let schoolwork get in the way of field trips and relationships, now, can we? So Spaz did math and some leftover work from the previous week, and no one did history. I’m rather surprised that Spaz didn’t pull the “Fuzz doesn’t have to do school today and I shouldn’t either” card, but he didn’t. I suppose he figured that since he was getting rid of both me and schoolwork for a few days, he could put up with a little algebra. (Besides, he doesn’t want to have a lot of math left to do over the summer.)


Tuesday morning we dropped Spaz off at his friend’s house, picked up our own friends, and headed for points north. 


At the retreat…


*The five girls (ages 11-15) crammed into the upstairs loft room, leaving two bedrooms for the 3 moms. My friend and I shared a room (but not a bed, thanks goodness) and left the other room for the mom who likes to sleep with the room temp at 55 degrees.


*A lot of giggling came from that upstairs room.


*It rained most of the time and snowed briefly. (This is typical spring break weather here. A few years ago we had a blizzard during spring break week.)


*We climbed dunes at Lake Michigan. Well, the five girls and I did; the other two moms opted out for physical reasons. At nearly 45, I am the junior mom by 4 years and felt up to the challenge. I congratulated myself on my energetic youthfulness as I ran up and down the first dune with the girls, then wheezed and panted for the next ten minutes. But hey, I did it.


*We all walked the wet pier “at our own risk” and reached the lighthouse.

*We walked to downtown Ludington and the girls bought ice cream cones.


*We forgot the chicken and so had sliced-up hotdogs with our fried potatoes and green beans the first night. The second night, we made hobo dinners.


*For lack of a campfire (it was WET out), we cooked our hobo dinners and banana boats in the oven and our s’mores on the stovetop. No one felt terribly deprived.

*The girls made bacon-egg-&-cheese sandwiches for one breakfast and pancakes & sausage for the other. We made pizza sandwiches for lunch.


*I drank lots of coffee from the beloved thermal-carafe coffee maker I’d brought along, because I am spoiled and won’t drink coffee that’s been sitting on a burner. We used the cottage’s coffee maker for hot water for tea and hot chocolate.

*We had devotions multiple times. I guess that’s part-and-parcel of a retreat.

*I barely touched my laptop (which I’d brought because I couldn’t imagine spending two-and-a-half days without it) but spent lots of time with my head in my puzzle book.

*Fuzz started a 500-hundred piece puzzle, and I, Good Mom that I am, tore myself away from my puzzle book and sat down to do it with her. After twenty minutes or so, she wandered off, while I, Compulsive Puzzle Finisher that I am, continued to work on it… and work on it… She did come back to check my progress every so often, as did everyone else. There were many oohs and ahs when it was finished. Meanwhile the other moms had done productive things like knitting, sewing, and reading.

*Fuzz and I played several games of Set (she always beats me; I am too analytical to be any good at Set) and some of the others played Blokus. Since it is a 4-person game and there were four others who -wanted to play, I, Self-Sacrificing Person that I am, opted to stifle the urge to declare my affinity for Blokus and pretended to be more interested in my the puzzle.

*Someone, perhaps two someones, replaced the roll of toilet paper twice. (Eight females, one bathroom-- you know how that goes.) Both times I, Compulsive Toilet Paper Correcter that I am, had to re-do it so it would hang the RIGHT way. I began to question my involvement with these people who obviously do not know that toilet paper should hang over the TOP of the roll. Sheesh.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

*The refrigerator died shortly after I left. Oh. Yes. It. Did. Hubz, having determined that it was beyond repair, broke the news to me by calling on his way to the appliance store to ask what I wanted in a new refrigerator. Then he picked it out all by himself.

*Hubz threw out all the food that was in the old frig, except for a few pieces of old-ish fruit that probably weren’t worth saving. Everything else got pitched, even the ketchup and mustard and butter. He did not think to put anything in a cooler, not even the stuff I had just bought the day before I left. He can be a little rash when frustrated. I, having at long last learned to keep my mouth shut when prudent (and actually remembering that principle on this occasion), did not make a great deal of comment on this. In his defense, he did put some of the freezer stuff into the garage freezer, including the box of ice cream drumsticks. Priorities, you know.

*Spaz called his youth leader and asked if she would make him a lunch for their group outing Wednesday since there was no food in our refrigerator. I do hope he explained a bit.

*Spaz went bowling with his youth group, after which it stopped raining long enough for them to head out to the beach as planned. Spaz, being Spaz, ended up in the water with his clothes on. No one was surprised by this.

*Hubz drank lots of coffee from the beloved thermal-carafe coffee maker that remained at home, since I had taken the spare. Yes, we have two identical thermal-carafe coffee makers, and we bought them both ourselves. I know that is a little scary. (I enjoyed getting to use the lesser-used one that does not have sticky buttons.)


When I got home from the retreat on Thursday afternoon, we picked up our new May vacation refrigerator and got it up and running. Friday, Hubz made a trip to Aldi, his Second Favorite Store in the Whole World Barely Behind Menard’s, to “replenish” the fridge. He bought cheese and more ice cream treats. Period. *Sigh*He and I each made another grocery run Saturday afternoon, and yet another Saturday evening. It’s amazing how much was in our fridge that I took for granted, only remembering it when I went to use it and it wasn’t there. I think we might be set now, though.

That was our exciting week. Next week it’s back to math and writing and… and a couple field trips to spice things up a little. But you’ll have wait til next time to hear about those. Meanwhile, you know the routine.