Ordinary Time

J. has stated a little project in the back yard that is as much for him as for the children. He is constructing a climbing wall that will go up the side of the playhouse.  The plywood and boards that are waiting in preparation. The cost of lumber has gone down a bit, making this all possible. L., who climbs everything she can, is the most excited and helped out a bit today painting the plywood.  Tomorrow is the day we have set aside to see how many of the apples and peaches we can preserve. We are completely inundated and hate to see any of it go to waste. 

I have five books that I am in the middle of. They are interesting books and mostly well-written, but I am just not getting through them. I'll read a few pages in one before I go to sleep, but that's more because I'm not sure I can fall asleep without reading a few pages first. Most of the spring and summer I have been on a non-fiction jag, doing a lot of reading about the brain, the mind, and emotions. But I think it is now time to take a break and let it all simmer in the background. We took everyone to the library today (because they didn't have enough books to read... this happens every couple of days), and I went and browsed the shelves and brought home some non-serious fiction. I want to not work at reading a book and just enjoy it. I'm hoping these books will do the trick.  What will also help, I think, is that all of my lesson planning for everything is done. That would be three co-op classes, two unit studies, and a new horse class. It was a lot. I will be ...

There are so many things that I just assume people realize, which, as J. is often pointing out to me aren't necessarily as obvious as I think they are. For my own sanity, here are some of the ones I've bumped up against recently. In no particular order, and actually no particular theme. This is a total brain dump. It is also somewhat harsh as I get it out of my system. If you are feeling tender at the moment, you might want to skip this post. Something a child has learned on their own is just as valid something that was taught to them. Possibly even more so. It is traumatic... actually extremely traumatic... for a child to change families, cultures, and languages all in one fell swoop. Three year old (or 18 month olds or two year olds) are not reasonable creatures.  If you are homeschooling, the parent will actually have to pitch-in and do some teaching. There is really no such thing as behind in terms of learning. A child can only do what they are capable of at that moment in ...

This morning R. followed me out to the barn, which she often does, to watch while G. and I turn out horses and muck stalls. R. likes to watch the horses and stay close to me. Today was a little different, though. While I was working in a stall, R. started wandering around looking at the signs we have on the front of each stall. Out of the blue, she announces to me that the sign she was looking at said 'Emmy'. And she was looking at Emmy's stall. She then proceeded to go around and tell me what each of the other signs said.  I was kind of ecstatic on the inside. Why, since she wasn't reading them? Because this is the very first instance I have seen where she has shown that she understands that letters make words and that those words convey meaning. It is the very first instance where she has shown that she understands that letters actually mean something, that reading is something you do with those letters, that you can find information from reading. It is the very first...

K., who spends a significant portion of every day looking at photos and recreating those photos in Legos, ventured out of his Star Wars obsession for a bit today. At one point, as I was continuing to cross things off my to-do list, he comes in to show me this. Any guesses as to what it is? He had been looking at his book of Lego architectural buildings if that helps. Nope? How about this. See the overhang above the river on his building? Yes, it's Fallingwater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I think he did a pretty good job since he didn't have any of the specialized bricks that this version takes. Fallingwater happens to come up in conversation more frequently around here than you would think. It was one of the buildings we learned about last spring, and it really struck everyone's fancy. At some point we'll have to figure out how to take everyone there so they can see it in person.  And because I was actually gearing up to write an education-type post tonight before ...

I'm down to crossing things off from a to-do list one page long, which is a significant improvement over my three page list of a week ago. I have lesson plans (exceedingly detailed, open-and-go, I don't have to think lesson plans) completed not only for our learning at home but for the three year long classes I am teaching at our co-op. I realize that when it comes to writing things such as blog posts, I'm more than happy to bang out something and hit publish, rarely even rereading it. As you probably already figured out by the amount of typos that are left behind. (My children let me know about them, never fear.) But lesson plans? It takes me three drafts. The first to just get my thoughts organized, the second to flesh out those thoughts, and then the third to polish them up, clarify things to myself, and add in anything I've forgotten. That means over the past month, I have written five different curricula three separate times. No wonder I feel as though I haven'...

We made it home about 7pm last night. It was a brutal drive. At least J. and I found it so. The younger six in the back seemed rather impervious to the heat as long as they had a steady supply of snacks. By the time we reached home, J. and I were pretty much done in, between the sweating and the noise from having the windows all the way down. I hadn't planned dinner because I had no idea what time we would hit the house, so after getting home, I headed to the grocery (in the air-conditioned car) and bought supplies to make a chef salad. After too much bad food while traveling, we all needed something fresh and healthy... and that didn't require turning on anything that produced heat.  This morning I hit the ground running because I had scheduled two Girl Scout merit badge sessions for the girls to come out and earn their horse merit badges. We had fun and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, but it was still hot... 92 degrees with 80 % humidity is not my favorite wea...