July, 2005

Family — 1 Comment
16
Jul 05

Book recommendation

I NEVER do this, but the girls and I just read the most amazing book. Rainbabies – anyone hear of it? I had picked it up at a thrift store months ago, because the title looked familiar, and the illustrations were BEAUTIFUL, but I couldn’t get the girls to read it with me. They are used to twaddle, and like to read books that they have read before or contain characters they know (like Franklin or something), anyway, as I get deeper and deeper into CM philosophy, I have been gradually sneaking the twaddle out of the house, lol. And also, when I read, I have been picking the books more and more, telling Allison, who can read, that if she wants to read twaddle, she will have to read it to herself. As I tell them, I want to read books I enjoy too!

ANYWAY, tonight I pulled out Rainbabies, and told them that we were going to read it, like it or not. After it was over, Allison looked at me and said, “THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER!” – the only other book she has responded to in that fashion was the Velveteen Rabbit (you’ll note that both of the books that have moved her like that are not the twaddle she claims to enjoy)…and I would have to agree. Meredith didn’t have the same reaction, but that isn’t uncommon..she has the attention-span of a hyper three year old..currently she is enjoying Madeline, and asks me to read one of her books almost every time we sit down to read :-) She recites the lines with me now…. Oh, and after we were done, Allison said she hadn’t wanted to read it before now because she had looked at the pages and saw the ones with fire and thought it was a scary book….time to talk about judging a book by its cover (or illustrations), huh?

anyway, just wanted to share this book recommendation. Truly amazing.

Education — 2 Comments
8
Jul 05

My plan for first grade!

Ok here goes…on paper (SCREEN??) – my plan for first grade! (Allison, not me)

- Phonics/Spelling/Reading – Spell to Write and Read – 4 days a week

- Math – Right Start – gonna finish up level B maybe start on level C (she did about half of level B in kindergarten) – 3-4 days a week with a day of games.

- Handwriting – copywork from AO selections, 3-5 days a week (gonna start a copybook) – I may start her on cursive..I’ve been reading a lot about doing cursive before teaching print, and some of it really makes sense. My only consideration is that Allison already prints, using HWT’s methods, so I don’t want to confuse her. I do think that I will start the other kids out with cursive, when their time comes.

- Foreign Language – Spanish – La Classe Divertida (did I spell that right??), Lyrical Language, and may add in Rosetta Stone. Not sure how I will work it all….Lyrical Language we just do in the car, I would like to do La Classe 3 times a week, If we do Rosetta Stone, I may make it supplementary, if the kids want to do it, they can.

- Science – Classical Home Education’s REAL Science – 2 days a week (I’m thinking) with one day a week dedicated to pure child-led nature study (even though the curriculum is basically nature study)

- Literature – Ambleside Online!

- History – Ambleside Online!

- Geography – Ambleside Online!

- Art Study – Ambleside Online – 1 day a week, although I may sorta start doing Drawing with Children 1 day a week as well.

- Composer Study – Ambleside Online – 1 day a week

- Music – piano lessons 1x a week, practice 4x a week, and Music Ace Software 2x a week.

That’s it! I think.

I do have a plan for Meredith as well. Sorta. (she will be four in Sept) She will sit in on Spanish study (she has already learned a lot from Lyrical Language, and seems to pick it up MUCH quicker than any of us…probably because she is so young), I plan to start teaching her phonograms using the Spell to Write and Read program…just informally, with games, etc. and only if she wants to. She will sit in on the art stuff and the composer stuff, she will continue taking piano, and practicing through the week. I will try to figure out some games to help with her speech problems, and I may introduce Right Start level A when she is 4.5 years old (so that would be in March) but only if she wants to and only if I think she can handle it. I do NOT want to push :-) She will also probably participate in the science (the curriculum is mostly experiments) and nature study (she has her own nature journal), but that will be up to her. And I HOPE to fit in more picture book reading aloud time. Seems like now that Allison has moved up to chapter books, I am more drawn to read those, and Meredith just isn’t ready for that type of sustained attention, so she misses out (Lydia too)…so I am going to try to schedule in a reading aloud time for the younger kids using quality picture books, etc.

I hope to keep Friday free for the most part. In my mind, on Friday we do co-op stuff, I think that the homeschool swim class meets on Friday afternoon, and we make Friday a game day for math and phonics, and Friday would be our nature day as well…..ok, that doesn’t sound like Friday is free at all! I may have to rethink that one, lol.

Family — 1 Comment
7
Jul 05

They really do hear me!!!!

Lydia has been showing some aggressive normal toddler behavior….hitting, balling up her little fists, scratching, pinching, throwing stuff….today at dinner, I handed her some blueberries and she screached, grabbed them, scrunched up her face angrily (actually rather cute), and hurled them across the room. I replied with, “LYDIA, quit being so MEAN!” (yeah, not that nice of a thing to say to a baby, but its been a long day). Meredith looks at me, and in the sweetest voice says, “Mommy, she’s just a baby, and she doesn’t know. Its our job to teach her to be sweet.”

I say that to the kids ALL the time!

Family — 3 Comments
7
Jul 05

hmm, just when you think the tide is turning

This year has been really rough for us. REALLY rough. The roughest year we have faced since Allison was born (although we fared better this year than we did in the past, but that is for another post – just handled everything with grace and dignity and even though things were rough and stressful, I never once felt as though my world/marriage/family was totally falling apart) – just last week I was reflecting on this past year, and thinking about how things seem to be shifting in a positive direction, a VERY positive direction. Many pieces that we’ve been working for over the past 6-7 years are just sorta falling into place and that feels good.

But then today happened.

OK, that was dramatic – today wasn’t THAT horrible…just a blip on the radar, kinda funny actually.

Today……

We have had health insurance for most of our married life, and we hardly ever use it. The occasional check-up, babies, etc. Eric lost his job on June 1, and his insurance went away on the last day of June. He starts his new job July 11, with insurance effective from that date forward. So 10 days without insurance. TODAY Eric puts a fishing hook into his hand and requires medical attention!

Yeah, its funny…and shouldn’t cost us too much out of pocket. We were heading to the ER when we thought to call our family Dr. first. I’m glad we did, as they were able to see him right away and without the expense of an ER visit.

Also today, the outer cover of my tail light was stolen! and the other one was pried loose! This happened at around 2pm in a crowded Target parking lot!! I am so blown away by this!