Alone in the Wilderness

By admin, on March 11th, 2009%

What a busy but satisfying couple of days it’s been.  I’ve been hopping on line barely these last few days.   I checked one of my e-mail accounts, but mostly I’ve been busy here at home off line. 

The first thing I want to tell you about is a DVD we watched as a family for school.  It is so, SO good.  I’m going to watch it again soon to pick up little things I missed the first time around.  It’s called Alone in the Wilderness
and it’s the story of Dick Proenneke who back in the 1960s went into the wilderness of Alaska alone, determined to see if he could stand his own company for a year and to see if he was a match for anything he encountered there.  He tested himself.  He built his own cabin.  He build his own fireplace from rock found on his travels around the Twin Lakes region.  I mean, my goodness, he even carved his own dipping spoon out of wood.  After watching this man work and hearing his thoughts, I believe he could have done anything he set his mind to.  His talent with film is amazing.  We are talking some pretty old footage here, but don’t let that stop you from watching it.  It’s breathtaking.  Every one of my children were glued to it from start to finish.  Even my 20-year-old said, “That helped me.  Thanks for getting that.”  I bought mine at Sam’s Club, but it looks like Amazon has it (linked above and below), and it looks like you can buy it from the website Alone in the Wilderness as well.

Alone in the Wilderness

Oh yeah.  Dick Proenneke ended up staying there for over 30 years. 

This would be a great go-along for Very Last First Time.  Yes, Alone in the Wilderness is Alaska, not Canada, but the “go it alone” theme, plus the ice and the winter animals would be a good tie-in.

Hmmm.   What else has been going on here at my house?  We’re still loving the Workbox System, or our version of it, I should say.  I am still very much excited about ordering Sue’s book. 

I tried to get some better shots of the terrarium, which is doing remarkably well!  The violet in it is about to put out three blooms; blooms that I didn’t even see when I put it in there!

The little Sculpey birdbath is so cute.

Up on the hill in the terrarium, surrounded by rocks, is the violet, taken yesterday.  All the blooms popped up after that picture, and they’re still not fully open.  See the little puppy in the moss?  It’s a very old ceramic puppy I dug up in my front flower garden one year.  Wonder who in this yard’s 100-year history had a puppy like that?

Hmmm.  What else.

I began planting in the vegetable garden this week.  Last fall we raked all of our leaves and put them into the fenced-in garden to cover the soil.  I pulled back the leaves this morning and easily turned over a shovelful of dirt.  Look at the earthworms!  Every shovelful was full of earthworms.  I planted arugula, garlic, mustard greens and some peas.

I raked back leaves to make rows.  We could have more frost before spring really arrives, so we can use the leaves to cover any seedlings up if we need to.

Isn’t this dandelion the most scruptious thing ever?  I see an infusion in my future.  Tomorrow.  There may even be dandelion greens on the horizon.

Have a wonderful evening. 

Lynn

8 comments   Gardening, Very Last First Time

Finishing up Very Last First Time

By Lynn, on October 1st, 2008%

Yesterday we finished up Very Last First Time.  It has been a really good study for us using Five In A Row for our lesson plans and then tying in items of interest that popped up along the way.   In my post a couple of days ago, My Symphony, there’s that line I love, “…await occasions, hurry never.”  I have been amazed again this week at how many appropriate occasions offer themselves to us when we are “rowing” a book.  :)

I was very pleased to see that Monday’s Reading Rainbow would be Dive to the Coral Reefs.  This rich 30-minute episode prompted us to compare what lives in warm tropical waters as compared to the icy waters around Ungava Bay.

Princess of the Universe painted a picture that includes coral reef, a dragonfish, a squid and a blue parrotfish.   She wrote in her nature journal about the parrotfish nibbling on coral and then excreting a trail of sand onto the ocean floor.  Is that what we end up building sand castles with?  Pretty cool.  8)

You know a FIAR book would not be complete to me unless we had a little reminder in the way of a doll house accessory!  I used a little matchbox to recreate Eva’s box that she pulls across the ice.  I looked through some of the little boxes on my sewing/craft desk and found a couple of little card charms that resemble picks or shovels.  A bottle cap makes a great mussel pan. 

I was so thrilled when Princess of the Universe wanted to make her own little sled-box out of paper and tape.  Her box is deeper, which I commented is more like what Eva had.  And Michaela even tore up little pieces of black paper to make mussels for her pan. 

Do you know it just made my heart sing when she said, “Mommy, I love my doll house.” 

As occasion would have it, our little girl doll looks like she could pass for Eva. 

We have enjoyed this book immensely!

Lynn

4 comments   Five In A Row, Homeschooling, The Year of the Doll House, Unit Study, Very Last First Time

Story Starters for Creative Writing

By Lynn, on September 25th, 2008%

As I’ve mentioned before, Story Starters is a resource I am using with Princess of the Universe this year for 5th grade.  I don’t use it every day, but I do pull from it regularly.  Today was a good day to use it.  We are studying Very Last First Time this week and Story Starters happened to have a prompt about a man shipwrecked on an island in cold, Atlantic waters. 

Here is what Michaela wrote:

Striving for food, he desperately wanted sandwiches, meat, and cheese.  Struggling for warmth in the icy climate, he skinned some of the penguins for warmth.  On the cold water, the sun was like a ship not sunk then sinks into darkness.

Waking up cold he burnt some of the wood from his ship to make a fire.  Sitting for hours and his gun beside him, he took the powder out and burnt his gun too.  He frowned, but gazing over a iceberg he grinned.  A ship was in the water.  It had food, water, and warmth.  He went aboard, ate, and drank and got warm.  And lived happily ever after.

We’ve got a few issues to work on in the way of grammar and sentence structure, but not bad for a 10-year-old.  I am not sure about skinning the penguins, but they do look pretty big in the picture.  I imagine you’d be in some legal trouble after you got rescued.  :)

Lynn 

Leave a comment   Homeschooling, Very Last First Time

Ian Wallace

By Lynn, on September 25th, 2008%

I just LOVE it when a FIAR author or illustrator has a website.  Ian Wallace has some fantastic artwork in Very Last First Time.  If only I could fit one of his prints into my budget right now!

http://www.ian-wallace.com/

It’s worth a visit to view his gallery, IMHO.  :)

Lynn

Leave a comment   Five In A Row, Very Last First Time

Very Last First Time

By Lynn, on September 24th, 2008%

Miss Priss and I started rowing Very Last First Time today using Five In A Row. 

It is a very good story, perfect for really stirring the imagination and for making a child wonder where in the world could anyone live to be able to go under the sea?  The story also makes a child want to be brave.  I love that the brave child in the book is a little girl!

Princess of the Universe colored the story disks this morning and we placed them on the appropriate places.  If you want a child well-versed in geography, I highly recommend Five In A Row.  :)

After we read the story, I remembered a picture from an old National Geographic that I cut out when my oldest boys rowed this book years ago. 

As you can see, October 1999, so if you save old National Geos, as we do, look it up! 

I’m looking forward to the new adventures we’ll have when we “row” again tomorrow.

Lynn

2 comments   Five In A Row, Homeschooling, Very Last First Time