They're In!

I registered the boys this morning for school. So it's official.

It was pretty easy and straightforward. Part of me feels better now that I've met someone from the school and part of me just wants to run screaming the other way. As I said, the school is brand new and the plans are just beautiful. Strangely enough they are putting boulders in as decoration and you know the kids are all going to want to climb on them and they won't be allowed to. There is a preschool on-site, so maybe Annika will join the boys over there. (I'm kidding, although she did just dump an entire bottle of laundry soap into the dryer. Any more of that and she'll be off to boarding school.)

The library has it's own building which is fairly big and our school district does still have librarians, which apparently, for our area, is rare. Sam's speech service will be in a little room, one on one, which is nice. Sam will have 33 in his class and Harry only 20. The secretary that I talked to thinks that the kindergarten should be full day so they have more instructional time. Which, obviously, I disagree with.

The classes are all integrated, so 70% of the kids in any one class will be esl. The party line for that is "well, it's the area we live in." Yes, I know that, but it doesn't make me feel better about sending my kids to school.

I was pleased that when I asked to have an appointment with the principal, the answer was, "when would you like to come in? Is tomorrow good for you?" That in itself says a lot.

But, I have to go now, we have a housefull of family to hang out with. I just wanted to update the saga.

A Wrinkle

Or maybe a crease.

I've been intentionally surrounding myself with people that are pro-public school. That way if I start to waver or get worried about something, the automatic answer won't be, "just keep them home." But today I got a call from a friend who homeschools and who, I'm sure won't understand why they are going to school in the fall. I really like this woman--she is incredibly friendly and nice, but I'm afraid that she will try to sway me back to homeschooling. And since I'm already kind of freaked out about everything, I'll just get more worried.

This is actually the opposite problem that I see with people who homeschool--they don't talk to many people about it because they might try to change their mind.

Apparently this post is going nowhere, but if I want to keep being friends with her, how do I do that? Honestly, I know that academically and in just about every other way homeschooling is a thousand times better than regular school, but they are going anyway. It's not something I can explain well (obviously), so I think I'll just have to bow out of this friendship for a while.

I knew this was going to be hard, but why does it keep just getting harder and harder by the day?

Preparation

According to well, everybody, the principal at the new school is the best in the district and maybe on the planet. And he got to pick the best teachers from the existing schools to teach at the new school. Seriously, this guy had better be good or everyone I've talked to this week will have a lot of explaining to do.

So knowing that, I've been asking around to find the best of the best teachers. There is definite consensus for second grade, but not for kindergarten yet. Hopefully that will come, seeing as I'm going in on Wednesday morning to formally register them. I have to take their birth certificates, immunization records, physical forms and dental forms. I'm also planning to take the forms from some tests Harry took last year showing that he reads at a higher level, another set of tests for Sam's reading. I also have to take Sam's IEP for speech so he can continue to receive services.

I'm getting everything organized and planning to play the "I'm-a-homeschool-mom-that's-really-nervous-about-this-and-I-won't-send-my-kids-here-(giving you about $15,000 a year)-unless-I-get-what-I-want" card. I'm a much smarter public-school Mom than I was when Harry started kindergarten.

Crossing the Rubicon

Yesterday we read in Story of the World about Caesar's return to Rome, even though he knew that he would be arrested. Apparently he stopped at the Rubicon River and told his men that once they crossed things would change and asked if they were ready. Of course, Caesar being Caesar went on and crossed the Rubicon. We've been talking about how the phrase, "crossing the Rubicon" has come to mean a decision that can't be undone.

Well, I feel as though I'm probably crossing the Rubicon with my almost certain decision to send the boys to school next year. It's not totally certain until the day school starts (when of course, we'll be on vacation), but I'd say 90%.

I can only explain this decision one way--by talking about the Church Relief Society lessons I've been giving lately, especially the one from the last Sunday on Obedience. There was a phrase in the lesson that said something like, "you ask for the answer, then you follow the answer, what every it may be." I expanded that a little in talking about integrity and the fact that you didn't have to ask, but once you did, you are pretty much obligated to follow the direction.

I asked, thinking I knew the answer. But I still asked one night about whether I should keep the boys home. And the answer was very clear. I need to send them to school. So you see, I asked and I got an answer--not the one I wanted, but an answer nonetheless.

There is a lot going on in my mind right now. I'm trying really hard to be excited and not worry. I'm really trying hard not to focus on the things I had planned for next year and focus instead on preparing them to go to school.

Honestly, I think one of the hardest things for me to accept is that I won't be a teacher any more. I'll still have Annika and Emma home and Sam for part of the day, but I won't have to make the formal plans I've done in the past. I don't need to plan out my day in terms of Math, Reading, Science and History. I won't need to pore through books finding the best way to teach this or that. Being a homeschool mom has allowed me to hold onto some of the more "adult" parts of my identity even while spending the days with my children. And I'll miss that. A lot. I expect that I'll be at loose ends for a while. I'll need to find a new identity that I can live with and be excited about.

This is getting pretty long, but allow me to indulge in this just a bit longer. I think I'll chronicle our lives getting ready to go to school in the next month or so and the first part of the school year in this space and then close it down. This is going to be really hard, wish us all luck please.

notable quotables

(in deference to my kids' love of Jeopardy)

Heard around the house today:

Sam: "It isn't fun, but it sure is easy." About an activity book he was working on--I told him he didn't need to do any of it if it wasn't fun, but he just replied that it was easy. Okay then!

Annika, with great joy and excitement in her voice: "Mama, I'm going to be five too, just like Sam-boy!"

Annika, confused to Harry, "Why do you call Baby Jane, 'Emma'?" Um, I don't know, maybe because it's her name. Oddly enough she said "Emma," not "Enna." She actually used the m sound, the absence of which is driving her speech teacher crazy.

What's the Plan, Stan?

I cleaned up the loft Thursday morning because I couldn't let Marty and Jenny see it in the incredibly messy state it was in. But also because I just couldn't think in there any more. There were books and papers everywhere. It wasn't so much that the room was embarrassing (although it was) it was more that it wasn't functional any longer as a place to learn. And that in itself is embarrassing.

But no more. I cleaned it! I cleaned out the big cabinet, all of the random drawers, my files...everything. It felt so good.

Now that I don't have to think about that anymore, I can move onto other, bigger and more interesting things.

Things like:
1. What books should I have Harry and Sam read next year?
2. What books and activities should I use from the SOTW 2 Activity Book next year?
3. How can I organize a little area for Annika to do "preschool" in?
4. How do I deal with Sam's speech next year--do I need to advocate more for two thirty minute sessions in a week or can he handle one full hour session?
5. I really need to call early intervention for Annika to get her into the preschool speech program as soon as school starts next year.
6. How am I going to be able to teach two very different curricula next year? (Something that causes worry and concern, but that I know will come together.)
7. What composers and artists should I focus on next year and what does that really mean?

So really I'm in a planning mode for next year and it does feel good. I love planning. Now, if I could just stick to the plan for more than a week. That would probably be helpful.

a good start

Mondays tend to be our best day and this was no exception.

This morning we did:
History--discussed the Buddha and Buddhism
Math--more addition and review
Spelling--his final test from last week, still having a hard time with "a" blends
Readings--Farmer Boy, Eldest
Grammar--review of a poem by Christina G. Rosetti

Weekly Planning

I love planning and organizing. Things go smoother in our lives if I've got some idea of what comes next. That doesn't mean I always follow the plan, but thinking ahead is always good. So I created a chart to guide us through our learning week.

Another thing to remember is that we don't do something in each column each week. And a lot of the lessons that we actually do are "read this story" or "do one page." Remember that when you scroll down to the bottom and see a lot of subjects.

I just pencil in the lesson or the pages we're working on. Then after we've done the work I'll write it in the day. I know that doesn't make much sense, but the chart is less for me to plan out which day I'm going to do what and more so I can be aware of what I need to do in order to stay on top of something.

For instance, if we're on math lesson 34, after Harry does page 34a on Monday, I'll write it in, if he doesn't do math again until Thursday, I'll write under Thursday that he did 34 b and d. If it's a reading that we're doing, I'll write the chapter or page numbers in the appropriate days.

I write down Harry's narrations on the back and when the week is over, I file all of the sheets in my "records" notebook.

It's much easier than I'm making it seem. Here's the link to my planning sheet.

Oh, I don't usually use google docs, so if you know how to make the grid lines, please let me know. It's driving me crazy!

Harrius the Mighty, 2008, part one

While Sam is going to be happily painting and drawing and playing with gnomes, Harry is going to work, work, work. Yep, no slacking for him!

This is true, but only to a point. He's going into second grade with a fifth grade reading ability and third grade math ability. He knows more history than most adults (you should see him watching Jeopardy) and he is interested in almost everything. My trouble with him is that we both like to do everything--it's all interesting and there isn't enough time in the day to do as much as we'd like. So my challenge is to simultaneously spur him on to learn all of the interesting things he wants to, but also direct him to the things he needs to know.

I don't think I made a mistake necessarily in his first grade year by expecting so much from him--the grammar and spelling and math, but I do think I could have slowed down a bit and not thought it was so important that he learn it all RIGHT NOW. So, I want him to grow and learn of course, but maybe not quite in the same quick way he has been.

That said, not a whole lot is changing for him this next year.

We'll continue with:
1. Math U See--it's working, it's really working. He'll finish Beta over the summer, I think and start Gamma next year.
2. First Language Lessons--we're still plugging along with that. I think the idea is to do a lesson every day. We do a lesson every few days. I don't think the world will spin off of it's axis.
3. Story of the World, Volume Two--hands down, Harry's favorite part of his school day. And the next volume is about the medieval period. Even I'm excited.

Stuff we won't keep using:
Spelling Workout--I hate, hate, hate it. Total busywork, no connections. It gives a list of ten words to memorize with no real rule introduced. Then you are expected to generalize from those ten words to the rest of the English language. That's fine, Harry's doing well with it. His spelling is very good and he doesn't hate it. But it's just too much busywork and I don't have time in my life for busywork (that may explain my kitchen floors).

New Stuff to Try and Use:
1. Writing with Ease by Susan Wise Bauer. I love SOTW and I'm pretty sure I'll love this one. It's not handwriting, but a guide to begin actual writing. I'm excited to see it and use it.
2. Simply Spelling. Also a new one for me. I need something for spelling and it came down to this one and Spelling Wisdom. This won out because it has a clear plan on how to use it. I like clear plans. They help me when the world does go off of it's axis.

Semi-new Stuff:
1. Literature Pockets. This is mostly for Sam, but Harry will be reading along too, as will Annika, so I'm getting this for all of us. We've used the History Pockets for Ancient History and it's been a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to these.

The List of Maybes:
1. Song School Latin. Harry REALLY wants to learn Latin. In fact when I was talking to Celeste about possibly doing Latin next year, he started jumping for joy. Who am I to deny him his hearts desire. Since I know next to no Latin, I need something to teach it for me. Hence, Song School Latin. I'm hoping it will be a fun and gentle approach. More because I'm worried about it than I think Harry will need it. The biggest problem I have with this is the fact that it's songs. I'm not big into listening to kids sing a lot. I like my own, but I'm afraid it'll be some Latin "Wee Sing" thing. We'll see.
2. Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive. I'm not sure about this. He wants to learn "fancy writing," but he's still improving his regular writing. I'm leaning toward "no" but I might request it, then say "no, thanks."

There are a few other things I'm going to request, but I'm not going to list here because it's late and I don't want to. As I narrow the list down, I'll try to let you know what other supplementary things I'm planning to use and what I'm planning for science.

Sir Sam William the Conqueror 2008

This is what I have planned for Sam's kindergarten year:

Oak Meadow First Grade

Right now I'm planning on using a prepackaged curriculum for Sam. What does that mean, you ask? Well, it means that I get everything in one big box and it tells me what to use when.

For example, it will tell me "on week one, day one, do this math, this reading, this..." The Oak Meadow program covers all of the subjects, so there is very little prep for me. I like that. I do enough prep for a couple of homeschooling families, so I'll be happy to have it taken out of my hands for this.

One of the other cool things about OM is that it's Waldorf-inspired. The company used to say it followed Waldorf teachings, but it doesn't, but it's still flavored with that thinking. Again, you are asking "what in the world does Waldorf mean, isn't that just a big salad?" Well, yes, it is a salad, but I'm not planning to eat Sam's work for the year. It's an idea that everything should be natural and happy and flowy. In Waldorf schools they don't begin teaching reading until 2nd grade, so obviously we aren't Waldorf in that sense, but I like many other things they do. They teach with stories and Sam loves stories. So math is about gnomes who do things like add sticks and rocks. When you learn the alphabet you learn that the shape of the letter is something that looks like it. For instance, a 'g' looks like a goose ducking in the water.

There is also a huge emphasis on the arts. So Sam will be drawing and painting and finger knitting. This is all stuff he loves and he would do anyway, so I'm kind of directing it toward lessons. He's also going to learn the recorder and the piano (if we can ever find a keyboard; don't ask). Those are things Harry's going to learn too.

Since he is already reading, I need to work on that separately, but that's pretty easy. I have about a thousand booklists already, so I'll pick and choose from that.

Sam will still have speech twice a week, but he'll have to get used to another teacher. That's something I'm not looking forward to. But he's growing and I think he can make the transition. It might not be completely painless, but it should be at least bloodless.

So that's the plan. I've already told the school what I want, and they're pretty okay with it all. Now I just have to wait and wait to get the books. That's the hard part!

Thinking Ahead

So this is the time of the year when I need to think about next year. Since we are with a school, we run on their schedule. The year "ends" in early June and "begins" in late August. Right now I'm putting our orders in for September.

The biggest change is that Sam will be in Kindergarten, so I need to think about what to get for him. Should I do the same as I am with Harry or branch out to something different? He's reading on a 1st to 2nd grade level now, but his writing and math aren't quite that high. The curriculum I'm using with Harry is obviously working--he's doing very well according to the testing they do at the school, but they are such different kids.

The other thing I'm thinking about is what worked and didn't work this year for everyone. I started the year out kind of Charlotte Mason inspired. I used ambleside online for a lot of the readings and books that I used. Unfortunately some of the books bombed, one of them was too offensive for me use, and it just didn't work with what I wanted from our homeschool. So we began adding in more grammar and spelling--workbooks and just lessons. Harry (and Sam, when he wanted to listen) learned a lot, but most of it was boring, repetitive work with very little connection to life and to Harry. I'd like to figure out how to best take what I like from Charlotte Mason and ambleside and add it to what I like and need from the more classical approach.

These are the thoughts floating around in my head right now. For next year I'd like to:
1. have a theme for the year, both for the boys individually and for the family.
2. make connections between what they are learning and their lives.
3. get out more and do more "fun stuff." We do quite a bit, but with gas prices so high we've curtailed a lot of our field trips. I'd like to add some of them back in.
4. figure out how to get Annika more involved with our schooling and spend time just with her. I'm thinking about preschool for her next year. She needs other kids and while we've got quite a few here, she needs other two-to-three-year-olds on a regular basis.

So, if anyone has a magic curriculum that will answer all of these things, let me know. In the meantime, I'll post my ideas for next year in the next few days.

Monday--Fighting, Writing

and experimenting...

The day started by arguing with Harry about his attitude. You just know that when I write "attitude" things aren't going real well.

Eventually he came out of his funk and brought me the work he did. Only it was completely a mess, so he had to redo it. I think I told him he could do it later since I wanted the whole morning to end.

I wrangled him out of the playroom to do some math--adding three or four numbers in a line. I told him that it was tower math and to climb the tower, he had to add. He did fine.

Spelling is getting trickier for him, he's still getting the answers right, but he has to think about it more. On the other hand, he gets really excited when the answer is right, so his struggling isn't all a bad thing. He did the section I told him to, then asked if he could do the next one also because it was a crossword puzzle. I of course said, "yes."

We began The Great Avocado Experiment today. We put avocado pits in water, a wet paper towel in a plastic bag, and in some dirt today. The experiment is to see which sprouts first. Hopefully one of them will. We also read some books on seeds and plants and both boys drew a seed and labeled it.

Harry read "The Laconic Answer" to me and we talked about it. I love 50 Famous Stories. I'll be so bummed when we're finished with it.

So that's all of the official school stuff we've done today. Now I'm off to figure out the curriculum for next year. It sounds like way more fun than it really is!

The Time Travelling Roman

by Harry

One day when Harrius the Mighty was fighting the Gauls, he almost lost. There were 100 Romans fighting 200 Gauls. Harrius ordered his legionnaires with javelins to throw their javelins at the remaining Gauls and his horsemen to attack.

Then it was a heroic victory for the Romans!

Harrius rode back into Rome but the only way to ride under Triumphal Arch was to kill 5,000 men. Julius Caesar saluted Harrius the Mighty for this heroic victory. He said, "thank you for saving Rome."

Then Julius Caesar gave Harrius the Mighty the time traveler helmet. Julius Caesar invented the time traveler helmet. He told Harrius the Mighty, "this is a time traveler helmet. Go forward in time, look up some things about legions. Look up some machines besides our flame throwers, ballistas, and onagers. Find out how to build them and what we need. Go get Samus the Conqueror and tell him you're going to go to the future and to hold your hand. Tell him what buttons to push. Harrius the Mighty is going to wear it and Samus the Conqueror will hold his hand."

They got ready and heard a whirring sound then a blasting off sound and in five seconds they landed at the _____ house.

Harrius the Mighty knocked at the door. I answered it and said, "hi Harrius the Mighty and Samus the Conqueror." Harrius the Mighty asked me, "can Sam and I look up some machines, not ballistas, flame throwers, or onagers and find out how to build them?"

I said, "I know how to tell you how to build them. How about you go to our military and you can get the pieces there also. I have a place traveler helmet that takes you places like your time traveler helmet does, except it goes to places in the modern time."

Samus went to the military with Sam and Harrius the Mightly stayed and played Nintendo 64 with me. Then we read Roman books. The reading was for fun.

Sam and Samus the Conqueror came back and told Harrius the Mighty how to build machines. Harrius and Samus have the list of what they need and what they are called. They are tanks, Long-Bow Apaches, and F15 Eagles and F16 Eagles. Those are jets, not eagles.

Harrius the Mighty put the helmet back on. They hld hands and pushed the buttons when they were at the back door. They traded the place traveling helmet for the time traveler helmet and went back to Rome.

Harrius the Mighty and Samus the Conqueror told Julius Caesar what they found. He was happy. They used the modern machines to win every battle. Harrius the Mighty went under the Triumphal Arch and got a huge empire.

The End.

Spring Fever?

I know we all have colds, but not one of us has an actual fever. But it seems like we aren't getting anything done. Well, I take that back. We're getting a lot of things "done," we're just not having any fun doing any of it. In the last week it's been harder and harder to get Harry to "just sit down and do his work!" Sam is thrilled that I'm including him with letter pages to write and numbers to add, Annika is also happy to have some coloring books to color and paper to cut. Emma is happy being held and drolling all over me. But Harry isn't happy.

And I totally understand that. He is a little clone of me in many ways. So much so that sometimes it's scary! I think that right now he's bored. And, honestly, so am I. We go from doing a couple of pages of math to a lesson in his grammar book to a spelling test (which he loves now, go figure) to reading something. It's a lot of going from this to this to this with no connections made at all. I have an idea of how to solve that for next year with different materials, but for now what do I do? It's important what we're working on and I need him to learn spelling and math and grammar along with history and science. And all of those other things that are important.

I think we are going to get more books out for read-alouds. I'll look through them for interesting words and interesting things we can learn more about. We might switch math for a while to another book that's interesting by virtue of the fact that we don't use them all of the time. For science we'll go outside more. We need more play in our day I think. So in general we'll go outside more. That alone can cure most ills. I'm going to listen to my feelings more when I start thinking that we need to do less and be more. Yep, that's a start.

But for today, here's what we worked on:
math--review page
spelling--he got one wrong so he wrote it three times in his spelling notebook
grammar--telling the story of the three little kittens and him telling it back to me
50 Famous Stories--George Washington and his Hatchet
The Winter's Tale--they just love Shakespeare!
We looked up Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Nazareth to talk about how far apart they were (are)
There is something else that I can't think of now, another read-aloud. hmmm. Nope,not coming to me. Maybe later

The thing with Harry is that if I left him alone he probably would learn everything he needs/wants to know. I just don't trust that well enough. But I need to find a way to channel that a little better. Hmm. Lots to think about.

Tuesday

Tonight I have a swimming class at the local college, so everything gets compressed. It all has to be done by about 4--any cleaning, lessons, dinner prep. Otherwise you get a very cranky, somewhat frantic mom trying to leave. But it's worth it--so worth it to go swimming for two hours twice a week. I love it so far. It's hard, but fun.

Anyway, this is what we've done:

Some outside stuff this morning
Harry worked on his math lesson.
A grammar lesson, complete with copywork. We talked about the difference between sit and set.
We read a section of SOTW and answered some review questions. The PBS Nova site has a cool thing to create an aqueduct. That was a lot of fun. Tomorrow we'll make one out of clay (I think).
I still need to do some read-alouds. We went to the library this morning for some books, so while the pizza dough rises next, I'll read to the kids.

That's about it I guess. Pretty typical for a Tuesday seeing that we're out for most of it.

It must be Monday

Today we:

learned some new hand songs--I'm trying to include Annika more than I have been
had scissors practice with Sam and Annika using some cutting pages from Wondertime.com
(Sam gets very upset when he can't do it perfectly the first time)
began lesson 11 in MUS
began lesson 3 in Spelling Workout (which I hate--too much busywork)
read about the Roman gods and worked on the Ancient Rome history pocket
read part of the Armadillo story in Just So Stories
Began The Winter's Tale in our Shakespeare for Children book
Drew five or six new Roman maps
Colored several coloring pages
Ate lunch and snack

I guess that's it. It just seems like more while you are doing it.

Bad Days and Unschooling

Usually I write only about the fun things we do--the good days when everything comes up sunshine and roses. Honestly, though, most of my days are pretty good. Maybe sometimes just sunshine, but no roses, but still that's not bad.

Occasionally we have our days when it rains. And it rains hard. Harry didn't get enough sleep last night, Sam had speech early this morning, Annika's world is destroyed because I wouldn't let her eat all of the lotion in the house. And Emma, well, she's still pretty perfect, sleeping away in her crib looking angelic. (A whole other problem--she's sleeping too much, maybe she's sick.) I didn't sleep well last night because I did something to my right shoulder and now it hurts continually with little spikes of extreme pain. And it is literally raining today. Yeah, not too much sunshine today.

The other thing complicating all of this is that it's Thursday. I actually count on Thursdays to "catch up" from the week. Monday and Thursday are the only two days we don't have a bunch of stuff through the day. So, I use those two days as heavy academic days--there's a list of work to accomplish, and doggoneit, we're going to accomplish it.

So, what do I have with all of these moods and other things happening? A really grumpy family. (Except Sam, surprisingly he's my most even-tempered kid on bad days.) And no one wanting to do this list of work I have planned. Today I decided to have an early quiet time. Since I know that everyone is actually pretty tired, I fed them a pretty good snack at 11 and sent them to separate rooms to read, sleep, or play, their choice, as long as they stay there and are quiet. And I made cookies. Big ones, with lemon in them.

This afternoon, when I get them from quiet time, we'll meet at the kitchen table for some cookies and milk. We'll do some "real work" like spelling and grammar, and we'll read poems, stories, and make a Roman fasces.

I'm hoping that will dispel some of the clouds and bring out the rainbows and roses.

I'm a believer!

I've never been a fan of the form of homeschooling called "unschooling." Child-directed learning seems nice when it comes to figuring out how many legos they need to build a castle, but not so much when it comes to math or reading. (Even though it could be argued that the lego example actually is math.)

It all seems too random--hoping that the child wants to learn what they need to know for the future. Also too easy on my part, no need for planning or organizing when you follow the kids' interest.

But I've been watching my kids in the past week or so learning when I haven't "assigned" much at all. They have played with their legos a lot. They've started to build bigger and more structural things. They have used every blank piece of paper in the house to draw robots. Their robots are amazingly complex creatures with names and histories. Of course the robots all have enemies they fight too. I've watched Harry read every book I checked out of the library the other day, learning even more about Ancient Rome. All of these have been because they were interested in what they are doing and they've been learning from each of these experiences. Oh, this morning Harry learned on his own about negative numbers when he was subtracting stuff on a calculator.

Then I started thinking about colors. Way back when I sat Harry down and told him I was going to teach him the names of the colors. So we looked at books, we made his own little booklet, we had "red" day and "blue" day and even colored our food to match. And still after all of that he continuously mixed up red and green. It drove me nuts--he should know the colors by the time we finished our little unit. I worried that Harry was color blind. Finally I just gave up. And you know what, somehow along the way, he learned all of his colors. I did similar stuff with Sam, but I also just trusted that he would figure out his colors. Annika, well, she's on her own. And you guessed it, she knows her colors. Already.

She also just woke up from her nap, so I'm going to post this and finish my thoughts later.

Harry's Narrations

March 11, 2008

Napoleon:

He was a general of the French Army. The French was at war with almost all the countries around it. Napoleon wanted to get to Italy but first they had to cross the Alps. He sent some men to see if it was possible. Most of them shook their heads. But one said "maybe." Napoleon said, "stop" and led his troops into Italy in four days.

Sword of Damocles:

There was a king who was a tyrant. His name was Damocles. He was so dread of the thought that someone would take his life. Then one day his friend came to him and said, "how happy you should be for all the riches that you have. If I could have your riches and pleasures for one day, I would be happy." Damocles said "okay, you shall have them." So the next day came and he was treated with all the pleasures and riches for one day. The next day the servants treated him like he was their master and gave him food and meat. The he looked at the ceiling and saw a sharp sword hanging by one horse hair could fall at any second. Then Damocles never wanted to trade places with the king for not even a second.

The Really Good Stuff

Well, we're kind of on Spring Break here in the Wonder House. As much as we can be. But I brought everyone together this morning to read and cut out and create. We've
been doing a lot of pompom crafts lately--making caterpillars and chicks and ducks. All very cute. So today we tried our hand at coffee-filter butterflies. I've wanted to make these for a while, but could never bring myself to buy the filters. I sucked it up though and did it. And no one saw me and asked why I was buying the filters. It's like no one cared that I bought them. Shocking--no one but me cared! But I digress...

We of course didn't start our day off with the butterflies. Oh no. First we did the important things like try to figure out how to write big numbers using Roman Numerals and doing spelling crossword puzzles (hey, it's Spring Break!).

Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing! We started Rome! Harry was so excited. We read the chapter from Story of the World about the founding of Rome and then he told the whole thing back to me. He knows his stuff.



I set the table up during Quiet Time:
Cupcakes in the middle, the craft stuff on one side, stickers on the other, and books to read in the front. We read Sun Bread , Toestomper and the Caterpillars, and Spring Acrostics while eating the cupcakes. (By the way, they were cupcakes with a lollipop in the middle. I am now the coolest Mom ever!)



Then I told the boys what acrostics are and we brainstormed for a few minutes about Spring things that they could possibly write their own with. Harry settled on Cows. His poem reads:
Chewing grass
On the hillside
When they have their calves
Spring is here.

Acrostics turned out to be a bit limiting for Sam who wrote a haiku instead:
Caterpillars sit
in the sunshine. The eat on
a branch. Soon they spin.

After that Annika woke up, demolished her cupcake and we made the butterflies.

I'm going to say now, this is why I homeschool. Not every day is a party--most days aren't and there are a few when I think I just don't want to anymore. But thankfully I'm given days when we have cupcakes, write poems, and read stories. I can't imagine missing that. This is all stuff that could be done after school--but it wouldn't. I know myself too well. I homeschool because I'm able to be the Mom I want to be and because I can't do it all. I can't send the kids to school, pick them up, deal with homework and after-school activities and still read the stories, do the projects, and play with the kids. I've tried and it didn't work.

This post is written for the days I just don't think I can do it any more.