Bird's-Eye View of the Week: Masterly Inactivity. Doctor's Orders!

If it weren't for the pain, I could get used to this house-bound thing.
   Our school week has been so relaxed. So easy. With my foot in a soft boot, and doctor's orders to stay off it, I am completely excused from spending valuable hours running us from activity to activity. This must be the ultimate Masterly Inactivity that Charlotte Mason advises.
   School takes place entirely from a big easy chair in the living room with sun pouring in from three sides. Hot tea in a Thermos, laptop on the ottoman, stacks of books on the floor and we are ready to go.The only thing to ice the cake would be if I could successfully build a fire.

Master Skylark. Scan for
 download to your device

  Our main focus this week has been making steady progress in the book, Master Skylark,  the tale of a country boy in Shakespeare's time, who runs away from home to London, not to join the circus, but the theater. He discovers, Dorothy-like, that there's no place like Stratford and his dear mother's arms. Along the way he is essentially abducted by Gaston Carew, a "master player" who makes many empty promises to let him go "tomorrow." Except, that day never comes because, in classic Shakespearean double-speak,  it never is Tomorrow, always Today! In fact the book is full of word-play, most of which goes right over Mei's head but nonetheless demonstrates, along with the thickly-spread descriptions of scenery, clothing, and action, the author's intelligent writing. It is another selection by Simply Charlotte Mason for Module 5 that Mei at first protested about because of its high literary style that includes heavy use of the Elizabethan tongue, but now begs to be read from. Fits in nicely with our affinity for Shakespeare and the theater too. (see our theater field trips!)       Available as a download to your device such as a Kindle or smart-phone with reader and appropriate for late-elementary through middle school.

Sample pages from the Atmosphere and Rock Lessons.

    The other subject that is commanding our attention is Science. I just am so pleased with Considering God's Creation .This publication, which has been around since the 90's, uses two books, one for me and one for thee (oops, can't lose that 16th century lingo!). It covers general science from a--Surprise!--creationist point of view following the seven days as laid out in Genesis. There are others that do that too, most notably Apologia's Exploring Creation and 106 Days of Creation. We tried Apologia last year with Day Six, Land Animals, but got so bogged down. There was just TOO MUCH of a good thing as far as we were concerned.
    Considering God's Creation is broken up into lots of short lessons with lots of hands-on stuff.Very easy to adapt to a multi-age setting or a co-op. There are extension ideas given with every lesson for deeper research for older students. The heart of it is the notebook that the student will create from the pages in the Student Book. It's all bound there with the mini-books ready to be filled in. I especially loved the solar system that hangs from a pop-up page! It also brings in other subjects from across the curriculum including Bible, music on a CD, vocabulary, and history lessons. A clever notebook page is entitled Science Detective, a fill-in-the blank form for researching those who have contributed to science in a notable way. Oral review questions and a crossword puzzle complete the units. For under $30, it has got to be the best science deal out there.

But the best part about our week of sofa rest has been seeing Mei involve herself in self-directed projects. She is currently making a 3-story dollhouse out of a large cardboard box. Today she is working out how to build staircases. I am totally uninvolved and she is totally loving it. Never would have happened if I was able to drive us to all the "important" stuff. Maybe I can keep on mastering masterly inactivity when I am more...active!

Cardboard townhouse.
Staircases ready to be installed.

   Have you ever taught more by NOT teaching? I need more ideas! Tell Mother all about it below and then head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and see if anyone else mastered inactivity this week!

 

Considering God's Creation
by Eagle's Wings Ed

Rise and Hobble

Another day, another prop-up

Week 3 of Peg-leg Leslie and the Broken Foot
So my new morning routine is this. cautiously lean out of bed to reach my cane (or crop as Mei, the equestrian calls it), come slowly--and painfully--to my feet. Hobble into the bathroom for a few minutes of wake-up duty. Thump-da-thump to the closet for some old jeans, and a sweatshirt. Got to be comfortable sitting in a chair all day! Re-wrap the injury with a stretched-out Ace bandage given to me at the ER (love, love the edging of sewn-in Velcro for grip!) and strap on the stylish also-Velcroed bootie. Match up the heel height with the most similar thing I have: a navy L.L.Bean felt clog from around 1992 that has the toe area chewed out by the dog. Skip the make-up. Who's gonna see me?
   Take on the most challenging part of the day: descending the stairs. Ours are long and CURVE adding to the excitement. Good foot down, bad foot brought along-side while stepping perpendicular to the riser.This keeps the useless one from flexing, the most agonizing position the appendage can assume. Phone in pocket. Water glasses and yesterday's newspapers left behind. Need the hands for bracing myself! Father R will collect those on the weekend, hopefully before we run out of clean ones.
   Thump-da-thump-da-thump to the kitchen wishing we had a two-bedroom rambler. Nuke tea water, pour into Thermos mug ( saves getting up for the re-heat later), and plop in the easy chair for the rest of the morning, my laptop waiting to take me out into the virtual world, a place I have only been chauffeured to twice in as many weeks.
   The poor dog, whose own morning routine for five years has been to find a toy and be chased around the house in a catch-and-fetch version of Keep-away tries again to engage me, but gives up and lays at my feet again for another long day wondering what he did to deserve my rejection. If only he could read the blog.
 

I Have a Crush on My Math Teacher

After over 10 years of homeschooling, we've made a big change. Father R is taking over the math reins. (I actually love the graininess.)

 I think it could be the start of a beautiful relationship.


Wordless Wednesday

Menu Plan Monday: 5 Dinners-in-1 Hour

   Our menu for the week owes a lot of thanks to 5 Dinners-in-1 Hour, the meal-planning site that provides you with the menu, the grocery list, and all the prep directions to assemble five dinners in--yeah, you guessed it, even though you don't believe it---ONE hour! In fact, several week's worth of dinners at our house owe their thanks to 5 Dinners-in-1Hour. But when I broke my foot on Christmas night, boy was I glad that there were  meals filling the freezer that would not need more for me to do than throw them in a crockpot or oven to finish the job. I was also extremely thankful that Father R had planned to take the time off for the holidays, AND that he enjoys cooking. That allowed the freezer meals to wait to be popped out after he went back to work on Jan.2. And Mei got to play Clara Barton whose home and headquarters she had toured last fall. I think the novelty wore off by the end of the week, but if it gave her an appreciation for the profession, then lesson well-learned. Just wish it hadn't been at my expense.
   So as we enter Week Three of Peg-leg Mom, here's what's on the menu! I wouldn't dream of sharing the recipes; that wouldn't be fair to Michele at 5 Dinners. But you can try out a week's worth free here. I'm not including the weekend meals cuz that's HIS territory!

Dad's Lasagna. And She Helped!

Monday

Slow-Cooked Tangy Beef Sandwiches
Corn on the Cob
Carrots

Tuesday

Asian Chicken Legs
Sugar snap peas
Brown rice

Wednesday

Dad's Lasagna (NOT a 5Dinners1Hour meal. It really is Dad's!)

Green Salad

Thursday

Slow Cooker Almost Tamales

Black beans

Sliced Avocados

Friday

Slow Cooked Tuscan Bean Soup

Green Salad 

Whole Wheat Rolls

Looking forward to a fashionable black-tie party in the neighborhood on Saturday. My long skirt should be able to hide my orthopedic boot!

Check out other menus at Menu Plan Monday! What's cookin' at YOUR house? 

Hoeing a Rough Row

We have been hoeing a rough row the last several years. We are direct casualties of the economic fall-out of  2008, and it has been rocking our boat since then. While I feel the details of this are too personal to share publicly, the result has brought serious struggles to our personal economy, our marriage and family, and even my spiritual life. We have been facing questions daily about our future for over three years now and it is really eating at us. Praise God that Father R followed his wise grandmother's advice and "paid himself first" (not omitting God from that; she was also a believer, but this was just a motto to make a point.) This means saving. Had we been spending as fast as he was making it (like so many were), our lives would have been much more drastically altered already. I'm sure we would have had to sell our home and put me to work, doing what I have no idea. I have been out of anything resembling a paycheck since 1986.
    Of course, this would have meant putting Mei back in the high-pressure, award-seeking government school as from which we had just removed her.
    Mei came home from there after 1st grade. I knew she was struggling. The pressures were already mounting. Missing the bus because she is a slow eater.Cramming addition facts while driving her to school. Dressing in the back seat on the way to ballet, snack in a bag. Spelling homework at 8 in the car on the way home. Writing exercises for someone who still had trouble forming her letters (This was Kindergarten and first grade, remember.)
    And the evidences of it in her behavior: badgered by teachers about her thumb-sucking habit who believed they had her best interest at heart, ("She will be harassed by her peers." She wasn't, only by her instructors.), she took to chewing on her sleeves! When I pointed that out, she was switched to a stress ball. FOR A FIRST-GRADER?? Those things are for powerful, white-collar executives in high-rise offices that are nearing a heart attack!
   Father R and I haven't made any decisions yet, but his current job leaves us with almost no family time from Monday through Friday. He commutes an average of an hour-and-a-half EACH WAY every day (commute times in the Washington, DC area are the highest in the nation. Woo Hoo! We're Number One!!). He leaves before we get up, and is asleep before we fall in bed ourselves because he knows he's going to be up before the sun again in the morning. At least two nights a week, he works late on top of that. So Mei can go more than 48 hours without even having face time with her dad who she adores.  I know there are many, many people in this country that are living like this, so I'm not trying to start a pity party here. But, for us, we keep asking, "Is it worth it? And if not (it's NOT), what choices are we left with?"
   I will leave off here. We know God holds us in His hand as He has always demonstrated. And I know that  He has allowed struggles to bring us back to Him, which this one does. Secretly I get excited at the possibilities that He may be preparing for us at the end of this Valley. But patience and releasing control are not my strong suits. Yet I will trust in the Lord.

   My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.  For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Psalm 2:1-11 NIV
Proverbs 31 Ministries: God Is Waiting