Bird's-Eye View of the Week: Co-ops, Red Tape, and Cicadas

We'll be seeing a LOT of these. Credit www.northjersey.com

The end is in sight! 

We've reached May. AND the sun has been shining as much as two whole days in a row! And I even have turned off the heat (most of the time)! This is sooooo un-Maryland. IOW, it's usually nicer, even hot at times. But, it HAS helped delay the emergence of the 17-Year Cicadas! So, I'll kwitmibitchen.


Some mile-markers this week! After the two straight days of rain and Dad out of town, putting on street clothes and heading to the orthodontist sounded like a party. And turns out, it kind of was! The doc put a 'hold' on rubber bands already after only a couple of months. (Doc: "Wow, her teeth are really responsive!" Me: "So do we get a rebate for less services required?" Doc: "Hahahaha.")

It's Official!

Bigger and better was Mei's American name being officially entered into the government record books. Changing her name was not something we just recently decided on; her American name was chosen before she came home 11 years ago. But just last year, through a fluke, we discovered that the INS never noted it when she arrived in the States, so as far as the US government was concerned, our daughter didn't exist, at least not by what we call her. Tell that to Social Security, however, who gladly issued her an ID card in 2002. Under the American name. Hmmm. Anyway, the event gave us an excuse to eat cake!


Our co-op days are winding down. The Thursday group is finished already and the Friday group has just one more week. On Thursdays, Mei participated in a good introductory writing course similar to IEW. After two years, she has gained a lot of confidence in her writing, but more importantly, in taking constructive criticism. For her, that is H-U-G-E! She will now be equipped to take on the next level offered on Fridays. Thursdays this year also offered art and speech. I was really impressed with how well the kids responded to the speech topic and was glad they had this exposure to something not normally taught to ones so young. Art was taught by yours truly and used the "Meet the Masters" program. I've been dying to write a review of it here; maybe when the chalkdust settles. For now I'll just say that all the kids gave it a thumbs up and so did this teacher!

Board games class for an only child. Perfect!

 Fridays have given Mei exposure to cake decorating, cooperative board games, health, and P.E. Mom has assisted in the cake class (:-D !! ), a sewing class, and her best hour of the week, Study Hall. ("SSShh! I'm trying to write a blog post!")

Both of these co-ops have enriched our studies, but more importantly, our interactions with other Christian parents and kids. It's been especially wonderful for our school-of-one, and I recommend it.

American History Scrapbook

For this final stretch, I've given Mei the option of creating an American History scrapbook to showcase all that she's covered in the last two years, 1600-1800. Basically, it's a ramped up lapbook. She is super-excited to work on it, and I'm going to give her all the time she wants. I was going to write about it here, but it was getting a little long, so I'm detailing that in a separate post.  I'll share my sources and stuff there. Take a look if you want some ideas! 

The end would be NOW if I went by counting school days alone. I was shocked to see we had completed 180 in APRIL! But when you don't take off for Rosh Hashanah, a week for Easter, or Staff Development Days, they stack up. Add in some school on weekends (educational trips), and woah! Nonetheless, we haven't met all our objectives yet, so I'll hide Mei's eyes from this post and keep the cat IN the bag (wink).

How about you?

Got the end in your sights? Done already? Or do you school year-round? Tell Mother All About It!

Linking up with other incredibly gifted and equally humble homeschool bloggers at Hammock Tracks "Homeschool Review", Homegrown Learners "Collage Friday,", iHomeschool Network's "The Homeschool Mother's Journal", and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers "Weekly Wrap-up". Thanks for hosting, ladies!
 

Leave Them Alone: A Moment of Unschooling

 

For The Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson 

Today my little girl amazed me. You'll see why.

This past week I spent the majority of my time working up a PowerPoint presentation on blogging for my local homeschool support group, which required ALL my time to meet the deadline of Thursday night. (I volunteered for the job on Friday last.) I was even editing it one last time while waiting to go on! I was learning PowerPoint on the fly too. Thank goodness I'm a night-owl (or does 1 AM make me an early bird?)

So why am I so amazed at my "little" 12-year-old girl? Because she demonstrated so well how she is maturing. Not by picking up her room without being told (not there yet), or starting a ministry at church (definitely not there yet), but by her ability to work independently. WHAT a blessing! It was maybe only a year ago that I would have had interruption after interruption for one reason or another. ("I can't figure this out! I'm hungry! What do I do next? This makes no sense!" I only have one at home, but it can sound like four.)

But this time---this most-needed, blessed time--I handed her her daily list, and off she went. On one day, around 2  pm, I came down to check on things. I expected to see her watching TV (groan). Instead,  I found her painting at the table. Typically she would have had work left to do, so I was prepared to have to order guide her back to her work, but--ASTONISHMENT--she said she had completed it. AND  rather than watch TV, she decided to paint.

And what was she painting?? A full size copy of a bird from the book I had scheduled her to read!! This was completely her own idea and not one I can remember her choosing to do in forever.  Oh, and did I mention it

was very GOOD??


This last part--the voluntary painting---is what particularly astounded me. If I had scheduled that activity, I'm betting it would have been met with resistance. She has not been known for her inclination toward drawing. So not only had she been trustworthy to complete her assignments unmonitored, she chose something constructive, and she chose something outside her comfort zone. All on her own. She also made herself a healthy snack. Bonus.

My take-away from all this is : 1) that their IS value in unschooling or delight-directed learning, for that was what she was demonstrating, and;  2) my kid will mature, but on GOD's time table, not mine. What I need is patience and acceptance. And plenty of prayer.

Got comments? Got a success story? Tell Mother All About It!

The Blessings of Blogging: Intro

Well, last night was the culmination of two-and-a-half days of exhausting preparation for a presentation to our local support group entitled "The Blessings of Blogging." It was exhausting simply BECAUSE I only had two-and-a-half days to prepare for it, having volunteered at the last minute!! (I guess God's timing keeps Him chuckling...)

But, I'm a Last Minute kind of gal. I guess that's why I would have been good in the advertising industry (my major). I understand  that "I want it yesterday" approach.

Did I mention I created my first-ever Power Point too? Amazing what you can accomplish if you don't sleep!

I entitled it "The Blessings of Blogging" because the more I participate in this form of communication the more I realize how many ways blogging can be a support both for the blog writer and blog reader. And it can be a powerful, but often overlooked tool for our homeschool students.

I figured  why limit my thoughts to the 100+ women in our group, so I'm sharing it here. I'll be breaking it down into several posts so keep on the look-out!

And check out my page at the top, Notable Blogs, with the list of over two dozen great blogs, and blog-creating links for both you and your kids!

Did YOU attend the presentation? If so, thanks!

Got a blog? Got questions? Tell Mother All About It!

Bird's-Eye View of the Week: Spring Half-Break

A delayed wrap-up report....Homeschooling's like that....

A half-break is better than none--for both the student and the teacher!

What dinner for 18 looked like.

Monday, the TEACHER definitely earned a day off after hosting 18 of us for a combo Easter Dinner-Mini Wedding Reception to celebrate the impending nuptials of a fav nephew and his  adorable bride. They had  chosen a family-only ceremony for The Big Day, so this gave us an opp to personally toast them. 

It was sit-down which meant cobbling together a banquet table out of every piece of furniture that had legs, and every piece of fabric that was white, but it was elegant in the end. The most elaborate prep came from the creation of a four-tier  Coconut Cake with Orange Buttercream Filling and Coconut Buttercream Icing.  Basically it tasted like Hawaii, or if you don't get that, a Creamsicle with crumbs.

The bride and groom-to-be's places with veils, bow ties, and Mr. and Mrs. Beanies.

Because I love y'all, I am sharing the recipe from Paula Deen's Easter 2013 magazine, as it will be off the shelves by the time you read this! Click on photo for recipe. Oh, and darling 12 y-o pastry chef, Mei Wei, did much of the cake decorating.

Simply smashing Coconut Cake for the lovebirds!

So how did we spend the rest of the week? We were delighted with a surprise visit by Uncle Robin III and his two boys from NJ. Taking advantage of the flex that homeschooling gives us, we dropped our regular school plans, picked them up at the grandparents' house and Metro-ed it into D.C.  The kids opted for the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.( So not my fav. There is another branch of the museum in VA that I hear holds more promise; go here.) )

To make the most of it, I scoured the 'net for some prep stuff about flight. I must say that the museum's site was a disappointment (government tax dollars at rest?), but I stumbled upon  "Wunderful Homeschool's " blog who are avid flight studiers.They had many links including one to an activity poster published by none other than the Air and Space Museum. Which was not on the A&S's current website. See what I mean by disappointment?  "Wunderful" pointed us to links for understanding the how's of flight, and another that provided many PDF's for different paper planes. So grateful!
   
 Except for the pricey IMAX movie "To Fly" (which is really showing its age), the museum was a bust for us. The exhibit room that would have offered hands-on opps for explaining those "How Things Fly" physics contained mostly broken equipment. Ugh! But the biggest problem was it being spring break. DC is notoriously inundated with kids at this time. Not just local families, but schools from across the nation. 

HOMESCHOOL FAMS, take note! Those cherry blossoms are NOT worth the trouble. Visit DC in the FALL!! The weather is lovely--barring a rare hurricane--and the crowds are manageable. 

left and bottom: Berlin Wall at the Newseum; right clockwise from top: view from Newseum roof, solar planetarium and sculpture at Air & Space Museum

 To save the day, we headed to the Newseum, a museum dedicated to, guess what? The price tag is high, but it keeps the crowds in check. The money we spent on a 25-minute IMAX movie at the A&S museum would have more than covered the admission here. Inside were very moving exhibits dedicated to 9/11, complete with the antenna  that stood atop one of the Towers and the front pages from over a hundred newspapers from around the world from that date; another focusing on the end of Communism with a real section of the Berlin Wall; and news artifacts dating back to pre-printing press on every major historical event you can think of.  An exhibit on JFK is about to be unveiled. Your upper-elementary students + will certainly find something worth remembering.  Bonus: one of the best views of the city I've seen!

I figure that's enough school for one spring half-break, don't you?
  
 If you are planning to come to DC, you might also enjoy our recent visit to the National Gallery of Art.



Got field trip comments? Tell  Mother All About It!

Joining in with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Hammock Tracks, Friendship Friday, and Homegrown Learners Collage Friday. Thanks for hosting, y'all!




  

6 Little (Groups of ) Words

Inspired by Mama Kat's Writing Prompt: List 6 of your favorite quotes.

You may have noticed I homeschool. Homeschooling parents fight a lot of doubt--from without:

                     Is it Legal?  
                     What makes Do you think you can?     
                                   How will they get into college?" 

                           "What about SOCIALIZATION?"


 and from within :


                                                            {What makes me think I can?}
        Will they get into college?         
                                                                    Will I kill them before then?



So any quote that comes with cred can really buoy a homeschool parent's confidence.Below are six  that have sustained me:

1. It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom;without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. - Albert Einstein

2. My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself. -George Bernard Shaw

 

3. I believe it would be much better for everyone if children were given their start in education at home. No one understands a child as well as his mother, and children are so different that they need individual training and study. A teacher with a room full of pupils cannot do this. At home, too, they are in their mother’s care. She can keep them from learning immoral things from other children. -Laura Ingalls Wilder

4.I'm sure the reason such young nitwits are produced in our schools is because they have no contact with anything of any use in everyday life. - Petronius

5.Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. - Edmund Burke

6. Thank goodness I was never sent to school  It would have rubbed off some of the originality.-Beatrix Potter

And because this homeschool teacher is not good at math ;-), I bring you:
 

7.  ¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.--Deuteronomy 11:18-19

Got a quote? Tell Mother All About It!! She can always use more!