Thomas Edison « A Mother’s Journal

The First Daffodil

By Lynn, on February 19th, 2011%

Yes, friends, today in The Little Wild Garden.

Low to the ground, head bent down, afraid to look up–knowing it’s not spring yet. Be still my heart, she’s speaking my language!

I was suprised in a way, yes, but in another way not so much. I keep a very sporadic garden journal and we almost always see daffodils in February. It was beautifully warm here today, but windy to the point of being dangerous. There were warnings to be careful of falling debris from dead winter branches and also warnings not to burn anything. It’s windy and dry, a recipe for disaster when it comes to fire.

I noticed some tulips peeking out too, wondering, “Is it time?”

My heart says YES. My head says get back in the ground!

We had a farmer’s market today, a two-hour one. We spent most of the time standing at the tent corners, wondering if the wind would pick the tent up and us too. I’ve probably gained too much weight for the wind to pick me up and carry me away, so that was something to be thankful for today. (Gotta be on the lookout for those silver linings. They are just everywhere!)

On the school front, we had a great co-op on Thursday! It was the next few chapters of Thomas A. Edison. (I’ll post the chapters when I post our lessons for this week.)

The children learned about advertising and how to put together a commercial that would sell a product. What do you want to say? What do you not want to say? Is truth in advertising a good thing? Does it come back to you if you advertise and are not truthful?

It was a lot of fun watching the skits after the commercials were planned out by the teams.

The children also learned about Morse code. They played games and tried to decode words given to them by Morse code tapped out by different methods: instruments, voice, etc. One of the dads had made a telegraph machine for the children to use. There were also some wireless telegraph machines for the children to examine. As always, I learned a lot just by standing on the sidelines!

I’ve worked on some Alice in Wonderland pins for the shop. I’ve made gift tags using my collage work. I just need to get them listed! I keep thinking that I need to begin work in the garden, preparing for spring. So much to do! I’m amazed to think that we are down to less than four months left in the school year! We’ve accomplished a lot and yet have so much more to do before the end of the year!

Heading off to bed. Just wanted to peep in and tell you I did not blow away today. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Thomas Edison Co-op Chapter 7

By Lynn, on February 13th, 2011%

What a special treat when last week one of the moms in our Beyond Five In A Row co-op pulled together a plan for us to do the lessons from chapter 7 in a one-room schoolhouse.

I quickly jumped at the opportunity and said, “count me in,” but then forgot about it since the day this occurred was normally a work day for me. “Miss Leslie,” as the kids call her, was nice enough to call me and ask oh-so-nicely if I was coming to the lessons. Gasp! I was so caught up in my work, I’d totally forgotten and the group had already gathered! Fortunately, I was able to make it in time for nearly all of the lessons.

This was not a regularly scheduled co-op, but Leslie could see the fun of doing chapter seven’s lessons in a one-room schoolhouse, so she made some calls and arranged it.

The schoolhouse we met in is Hughes Academy in Hillsborough, a beautiful old historic town.

The children did several lessons. One was penmanship: copy some Thomas Jefferson quotations in “your best handwriting.”

The next lesson was genious! Miss Leslie split the kids into two groups and gave each group a paper with a list of things to do, and each group had a sort of leader holding the paper and reading. The instructions at the top said to read each item on the list and then perform the activities. If only they had strictly followed the instructions. The last item on the list said to only do items #1 and #2. This list had things on it like do 10 jumping jacks, form a circle, etc. Each group went flying into doing every single thing on the list! It was a real lesson to these kids to read instructions thoroughly!

The next thing was to get a partner and sit back to back, let’s say person A and person B. Person A explained to Person B what to do, with the goal to try and instruct Person B well enough to have them draw a picture of what Person A was holding without having seen it. Only the descriptions of what to do would be used to produce the drawing. Two of the moms demonstrated.

Then the kids had a turn.

Sobering reminder.

The children posed in front of the schoolhouse.

Then we set off to walk 1/2 mile, the distance Thomas Edison walked to school. It was a bit chilly, but mostly a beautiful day for such a walk.

Someone had the novel idea of giving the cameras to the kids and letting them take a picture of all the moms! Why did we not do this before!

We are rarely on this side of the lens.

Week #24 Lessons
02/07/2011 — 02/22/2011
Themes: Music

Practice violin!
Practice violin!
Practice violin!
Violin Lesson
02/09 Beyond FIAR Co-op
02/10 FIAR Art and Music Festival
Math

Honestly, I let Michaela get by with not doing much except focusing on her violin for the week. This was her first violin performance in front of a crowd, and that was our focus for most of the week. Each week when I plan lessons I usually have a theme or two written at the top of the page. This week it was music and math.

It’s Elemental, My Dear

By Lynn, on February 4th, 2011%

Good morning, dear readers! Friday makes me feel sort of partly cloudy and partly sunny. On the sunny side, it always feels good to close up another school week. On the cloudy side, Friday is sort of a long work day for me. On the sunny side, we are entering the weekend and the carpenter will be around more. On the cloudy side, Saturday is another kind of long day. On the sunny side, I work at home, and I love being here for my family and able to answer the door, see what the children are doing, put in a load of clothes on my break, etc. On the cloudy side, my heart longs to just work at what makes me happy. But enough about the weather, already!

I wanted to share with you what a wonderful day we had yesterday at our co-op.

I’ll give you one guess to tell me what we studied yesterday!

Do you know??

Are you there yet??

YES!!! You are right!! It’s the periodic table of elements.

I was so thankful to have the benefit of this co-op yesterday; thankful that we are over the flu and colds around here, thankful for being able to get out and take Michaela to such a class, and thankful for the friendships that I have with the other moms in the group.

The first part of the co-op, the children learned about pollution and buffers. When you think of something to buffer to the effects of pollution, it’s easy to think of manmade barriers. Ahhh, so easy to always think manmade. But the children learned that plants are an excellent buffer. We, of course, learned that it’s best not inflict pollution on our beautiful environment, but plants are amazing in their ability to filter and keep our earth clean.

Next, the children gathered together in another room to learn about the table of elements. Our teacher stayed away from the transitional elements, but focused on columns 1-8, where things are more straightforward.

The children learned about the structure of an atom, starting with the protons, then learning about the layers of electrons that surround, and ending up with learning about the very outer layer and how that the number of electrons in that outer layer will determine what it is attracted to, in order to have 8 electrons and be “happy.”

The children pulled numbers out of a jar and then got a worksheet to correspond with their number. The elements are numbered, you know.

The worksheets were great for helping to cement what the children had learned about electrons and how to determine where they are traveling around the protons.

One of the best things about homeschooling is being able to allow the children to physically move around and learn things with games and interaction. The “deal was sealed” with a game after all the seat- and table-work. Miss Vivian had prepared these wonderful signs that the children donned, allowing them to each represent an element. The strings are for tying yourself to a person in the room who is an element that would have a good number of electrons to help you be “happy.”

This game was done in groups (in case you are wondering why some children seem to be left out), so that everyone got a chance to wear a sign and try pairing up with other elements.

Finally, I love that Michaela is building friendships in our homeschooling adventures. Michaela very much enjoys being with other children, and these co-ops help us to make sure that she gets adequate interation with other children her age. Socialization, perhaps?

Now, I get to catch up on what we’ve been doing.

Week 21 (1/17 – 1/21/2011)

Totally a “sick week.” Three with the flu. But I must say that Michaela was a veritable nurse during all of this. She seemed to really love taking up her brothers’ chores, making tea for everyone, and helping to care for the sick! I know that we learn just as much from life as we do from books.

Week #22 (1/24/2011 – 1/28/2011)

Thomas Edison: Young Inventor chapters 1-4
Talk about art entries for upcoming music and art show
Saxon review of lesson 50
Saxon 51, 52
Math drill sheets
Violin practice daily
Violin lesson
Read about Norman Rockwell and write a short paper
Betsy-Tacy chapters 6, 7
Begin notebook to keep, instead of me doing scrapbooks for the year
Copywork #24, #25
Place Norman Rockwell and Thomas Edison on timeline
Spelling test
Fieldtrip: Bowling
Pilates for PE

I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome.

I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop.

For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool.

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.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884