I am working today. I’ll be thinking of you. Think of me.
I am sure life will be suddenly more colorful at 5 p.m.
Lynn
|
||||
|
I’m not sure what’s up, but this fella crawled around on the wall behind my desk. All. Day.
This is a brick column in my office. It’s been painted. I know, I know. It looks like a misshapen piece of cake with boiled icing, but it’s not. It really is brick. And the paint is not so white. It’s more a linen, sort of off-white color. Maybe it’s the flash. I digress. Yo, ant. What’s up? Are you lost? Exploring? Looking for a place to build? I’m not sure what to do with this ant. I suppose I could scoop it up on a little piece of paper and deliver it outside, but it’s freezing out there. And after watching this little ant all day — all 8 long hours, I feel like we’ve bonded. Yes, the little ant is still crawling around on that great (to him) expanse of white wall. Looking for something. It made me remember a book my children all loved when they were little. Let’s just say that Henry sees one lone ant right before having company over and basically destroys his house trying to get rid of it. It’s a cute book. It may be the reason I let the ant crawl around while I just kept on typing. An other, more relaxing note, I found these the other day. Very current (many November 2008), very new looking…
At 25 cents apiece. I am heading into my snuggly den now to pile on the loveseat in front of the warm heater, with a cup of hot tea, to flip through a couple of these – maybe all of them,while I think of decorating a room in the doll house. Then it’ll be time for more Caddie Woodlawn Lynn “An effort made for the happiness of others lifts above ourselves.” Lydia M. Child
Today was perhaps one of the best field trips of all. A service project in which children from our homeschool group came together to make fleece blankets to donate to organizations where sick or newborn children need an extra bit of care or just something special to hold onto.
“For happiness brings happiness,
“A child’s kiss set on thy singing lips shall make thee glad:
“Sow good services;
sweet remembrances will grow from them.” Mme. de Stael
“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or help one fainting robin
“Service is what life is all about.” Marian Wright Edelman
“If someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen.” Loretta Girzartis
“Compassion is the little light
“After the verb ‘To Love,’ ‘To Help’ is the most beautiful verb in the world.” Bertha Von Suttner
“As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.” Victor Hugo
“He gives double who gives unasked.” Arabian proverb
“Caddie Woodlawn…laid a silver dollar on the counter.” “I want to spend it all, Mr. Adams,” she said, “so you’ll have to tell me when I’ve used it up. I want some hoarhound and peppermint and some pink wintergreens, and then I want three tops in different colors with good strong strings, and will you please tell me how much that is, because if there’s anything left I want to get some more things?”
“The little Hankinsons looked on in amazement. The black mood of despair which had enveloped them all day had turned into wonder, and now wonder was rapidly giving way to incredulous delight. Candy! Tops! No one had ever bought such things for them before.” “Well, young lady,” said Mr. Adams with an amused twinkle in his eye, “now your dollar’s gone, and you didn’t get a thing out of it for yourself.” “Oh, yes, I did, Mr. Adams!” (Conversation between Caddie Woodlawn and Mr. Adams from Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink, Newberry Medal winner.) Is there anything better than giving? Good night. We’ve had a lovely day. I can say that, even though I’m exhausted and my brain hurts. Time for bed, no doubt.
I won’t bore you with more marked-off lesson plans today, though it was fun to share that for a couple of days. It helped me find some of our weak spots, and I hope it helped you as well. Homeschooling is all about learning to live real life, so real life happening shouldn’t scare anyone out of homeschooling. As noted, we are dutifully finishing up The Raft You all know me and my love of the doll house. We’ve been making some sort of doll house souvenir from each book we’ve rowed. It just so happens that the Five In A Row lessons for The Raft included a perfect doll house accessory without me having to come up with anything on my own.
Yes, it’s a raft. Princess of the Universe will likely, at some point, get around to adding information about this to her blog. I’ll be adding this to our doll house blog later. You may want to pop over to Home Made Doll House anyway and see our new doll. She’s most intriguing to the dolls already living in the doll house.
My walk today was nice. The day ended up being a bit warmer than I had anticipated, so my black shawl was all I needed. No coat required.
I love the old trees in our neighborhood. They certainly have personality. The trees look different without their leaves.
Pretty.
I love this tangle of wild roses with only some small rosehips left hanging on.
Goodnight. Lynn I am not sure if this will work properly. It’s a PDF. You can let me know. It worked fine for me on the laptop as a document to print out. I created it for Miss Priss to do a series of quick book reports this year, mostly for grammar and recall. Please feel free to share comments regarding this form. Lynn How does a homeschooling working mom feel after 10 hours of sleep? Better. Yes, I went to bed at 9:30 last night and slept until 7:30 this morning. I feel so much better. Sometimes we ladies run hard at life, getting ourselves all tired out. Last night I had to slip into bed early and give my mind and body the rest it needed. It makes everything clearer the next day! You wanted to see real life, right? I was going to post about yesterday’s lessons last night, but I was just too tired. But here we go! Again, below is everything that was actually put into the planners for Tuesday’s work. So, let me share the occasions that presented themselves on Tuesday. There’s nary a day goes as planned around here. But I think that’s true everywhere and with everything. That’s life, after all! Yesterday brought an unplanned dental visit my way since a filling decided to break in half, hence I spent half the day out, running a few errands while I had the opportunity. My cell phone rang while I was grocery shopping and Princess of the Universe informed me that she had been writing on her blog. I was thrilled!
She had written about the birdfeeders our neighbor showed her how to make. The only problem was she did not have pictures. So I picked up a bag of birdseed and we made more birdfeeders when I got home so she could take pictures and finish up her blog post. I think blogging will stand in for a spelling lesson today. She also got a grammar lesson from this. You can read about how to make the birdfeeders at Macaroni Chronicles.
You know I went right by a Goodwill and found more books, right? I am very excited about the textbook editions of The Scarlet Letter and Hamlet. They have notes and explanations about the text. I’ve been wondering what to start Joseph on as far as literature to finish things up before he graduates in May. I know he won’t jump for joy, but I think Hamlet is in order. We still have not done Shakespeare. Oh, we’ve read some about Shakespeare himself, but have not read one of his plays yet. I happen to have two books in our home library about his place of birth, so I can start to put together a Shakespeare unit study. And that reminds me, I have a book put up also about the countryside of England. That would be a nice one to go along with it – Shakespeare mentioned so many plants and flowers in his writing.
I found a pretty, long sleeping shirt for myself, in an oriental theme. And can you believe I found a dollhouse cupboard for a dollar that Princess of the Universe and I can stain and decorate? The little frame… Well, I just love frames and pictures.
The box full of beautiful stationery actually came from Tuesday Morning and I paid only $1.25 for it. I always buy our Christmas cards from Tuesday Morning. Anyway, the stationery was on clearance and then Tuesday Morning was offereing coupons yesterday to get two clearance items at 50% off the clearance price. Princess of the Universe and I were thinking this will make a great dollhouse closet. Look at the doors! We just need to put shelves in it. Okay. When you glance at how little got marked off the lists, it might appear that we got nothing done, which is why I take a moment every day and write into the planner what actually GOT done. I check off things from the list and never pretend that we did things that we really did not. Joseph and I updated his high school reading list last night. In the last three years, he has read nearly 50 books, all at least 300 pages, many more in the 500+ range. Some even 800 pages. He spent a lot of time reading yesterday, and I will never complain about that. Until you have a child who struggles — really struggles, to read and spell, maybe you just can’t imagine the joy of letting a child do nothing but read all day. Papa Bear played another game of Monopoly with the three youngest last night. I must stop here and make the most of today. We have a lot to do today. The house is cozy and warm. I have a kettle of hot water on the stove for tea. The children are ready for their lessons today. I’m looking forward to a very cold winter walk today. Lynn As promised, I will follow up yesterday’s lesson-planning post with how our day actually progressed. Here’s Monday. (I’m not sure I can do this all week!) Below is what was actually written in the planner to be done and I’ve marked through what’s been accomplished so far, at 8 p.m. I’ve put notes by what will be done before we go to bed. As usual, we have had many occasions, as I call them. Joseph Princess of the Universe Here’s how the day unfolded. I awoke at 7 a.m. and put on water for hot tea. I did some of my morning chores and took a shower and by 9 a.m. I was at my work desk and had called the children to get up. Yes, they are spoiled, I know, but they don’t always sleep so late. The day was windy, which Princess of the Universe noticed immediately upon waking up. She always looks out at the kittens when she gets up. She remembered her kite, because of wind blowing. She dressed herself and took her kite down in preparation for play this afternoon.
On my break we took out a Q&A science book and read a very simple explanation of how kites fly. This was an elementary 2-minute science lesson that will be a foundation for more talk later about airplane flight.
The next thing you know we all hear loud bumping and jumping on the front porch. Oreo the cat has killed a squirrel. Princess of the Universe and I watch for awhile and make a video of this wild-cat-like behavior. Fluffy took the squirrel away from Oreo and then dared anyone to take the squirrel away from her. Fluffy ate the squirrel. Sorry if that’s TMI. If you listen during the video, you will hear Fluffy growling when one of the kittens comes near her. (You can stop my blog music – if it’s playing, at the very bottom of the page.) The squirrel, up close, did look like a rodent.
After that adventure we took out our Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia
Joseph was steadily working on a long math test, having already done his typing, and things seemed to be going as planned, but as usual Princess of the Universe checked PBS at 12:30 to see what was on Reading Rainbow. She ran to get Big Joe! Reading Rainbow was all about Japan today with the story of The Paper Crane (Reading Rainbow Book)
Talk about occasions, right? You’ve probably noticed that Joe did not do his Rosetta Stone Japanese today, but I think the fact that he and Miss Priss watched Reading Rainbow together and talked about Japan is pretty special. I’m okay with trading out the two lessons — for today. After Reading Rainbow, Big Joe goes back to his math. Miss Priss gets on line at the Wisconsin gov website to do a state worksheet. She also prints a map of Wisconsin for her state notebook while there. We learned while reading that the Madison State Capitol is the only capitol building built on an isthmus. So there we go with another rabbit trail. What is an isthmus? That must be discussed further on Tuesday when we read from National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our Fifty States Whew. It’s been a long day already, but I’ve not even had my lunch break yet! For lunch today, instead of walking, I have to go into town and pay a couple of bills. Miss Priss goes with me and we stop by a bakery and get two large chocolate chip cookies. When we arrive home Big Joe is finishing up cleaning the kitchen, which he gets paid to do each week. Miss Priss has him call out spelling words to her while they enjoy their cookies with milk. I go back to my work desk. Later in the day, Miss Priss looked out my office window and noticed a fish in the goldfish pond eating something that looked like another fish. We went out to investigate during my second break of the day. It appeared to be a partially eaten slug (??) but not another fish. Brrrr. It’s cold outside so we head back in. But do goldfish eat slugs? Another rabbit trail that must be followed up this week. I finish up my work at 6:15 p.m. and begin supper. It’s good. Salmon patties, wilted spinach with garlic and olive oil, tabouleh, and bran muffins with dark chocolate chips for dessert.
You’d think the school talk would be over by now, but with Papa Bear home, the talk begins again. Not all of the children like spinach. I have two who love it. Papa Bear and I both love it. It leads to a round-table discussion about whether or not a person can survive on meats alone. I remembered a book I have that talks about Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an Arctic explorer who spent 9 years on a meat-only diet during an 11-1/2-year time period spent in the Arctic. This is certainly another rabbit trail, as I remember Real life stories and Literary Selections Somehow, during the course of the evening, Miss Priss helped me cook supper and Papa Bear played an intense game of monopoly with our three youngest children. No, Miss Priss did not get her formal math lesson today, but she got plenty of real life math today. Also, since Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are heavy math days for us, I don’t worry that she’ll be behind by the end of the week. Usually I would have her just do a review worksheet, but that did not happen today in light of it being such a heavy science/nature day. So there you have it. I have worked eight hours and the children have been learning — all day long. Big Joe has about four hours left before he goes to bed yet, and many nights he works on his book before he goes to bed. He may have more crossed off of his list when I get up in the morning. Have a wonderful evening! Lynn PS — By bedtime we had read two more chapters in Caddie Woodlawn. Then we stepped out into the cold night air to look at the stars. We found the big dipper. We were looking for planets that would be close to the moon, but we never could find the moon. Of course, we did not venture very far out into the cold dark night either, but I think we waited until too late in the evening. A few nights ago I started on a fun project: making homemade Christmas gift tags. I used postal tags, pieces of tissue paper and newspaper, cut-outs from old magazines, bits of old Christmas cards, Mod-Podge — of course, and pretty metallic Prang markers.
One side is decorated. On the other side I am using the metallic markers to write a To: and From: section. Fun stuff. Lynn |
Approaching-50 mother of four. Thrifter. Content with lots of clothes bought for very little money. Loves retro. (That could be styles from the 40s and 50s. And sometimes stuff even older than that. And sometimes stuff from all time, all mixed up together!) Bluffs about decluttering but secretly loves STUFF. Goes through stages. Has standing and staring spells before rearranging the entire home. Just because. Tune in each day to see what new outfit comes home from G.W. Boutique next. (That's Goodwill, by the way.) Oh, and she owns a spoiled beagle named Annie. And this blog.   <div align="center"><a href="http://www.amothersjournal.com" title="A Mother's Journal ~ A Bit of Birdsong"><img src="http://www.innatelygray.com/images/abitofbirdsong_120_200.jpg" alt="A Mother's Journal ~ A Bit of Birdsong" style="border:none;" /></a></div>    
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
 
I would
|
|||
|
Copyright © 2012 A Mother's Journal ~ A Bit of Birdsong - All Rights Reserved
Powered by WordPress & the Atahualpa Theme by BytesForAll. Discuss on our WP Forum |
||||
. The fun never ends.
this week. What an amazing book. 
and Princess of the Universe read about various types of squirrels and that it’s the gray squirrel we have here. We talked about classification of animals including those with spines and different kinds of mammals, including rodents. It was the perfect opportunity, considering our study of animal classification with 
. Even Big Joe stops his math test to watch.
about Wisconsin.
. It’s a two-book set which contains some fascinating old stories and there’s one in there about life with the Eskimos. I think it would be a great story to read as follow-up for 
which we rowed not long ago. In addition, there are probably stories that go along with The Raft that we need to read. I put it on my nearby shelf to remind myself to read from it soon.
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
Recent Thoughts