Everett's "I am From"

Once Elijah started writing, Everett couldn't help himself.  This is what he concocted.  If you haven't written one for yourself, let this be the challenge!  If a teenage boy decides to write a poem without prompting from a teacher or parent, then it must be worthwhile.

I am From

I am from messy rooms, from original Xbox, and cucumbers.

I am from the previously peach colored haunted house.  I am from the side yard rose garden and mulch laying in the summer.

I am from one present on Christmas Eve, early runs, from 'Rara' and 'Poppop', from 'Lida' and 'Da', and from Apryl and Seth.

I am from the chaotic compassion that welcomes all free animals and staycations on a whim.

From "Be flexible" and "Your skills plus my skills, in the ring, tag team!"

I am from saved by grace and "Hold the Fort".

I'm from Dayton, Alabama, Toledo, from generations of adoption.  From Da Cakes and Grandma Juice.

I am from the bread truck, the runaway nose during the West Fork High School football game, and the runaway mom.

I am from the wall of pictures next to the lost sousaphone, old scrapbooks of 11 year old trips, and priceless home videos.

Sally's 'I Am From'

Over eight years ago, I stumbled upon a poem at Owlhaven's blog.  I *loved* it.  I barely contained my excitement as I meticulously crafted my own version.  The original poem was written by George Ella Lyon.  She is a teacher and writer.  She began making where-I'm-from lists in a composition book, then edited the lists into a poem.  She enjoyed it so much that she decided to use the poem form with other writers.  The reception was spectacular.  Today, her poem is used as a writing prompt all over the world.  I used it as a Mother's Day gift, along with the poems my three sisters wrote.  It was so fabulous to share our poems and laugh over the similarities and differences.

Last week, Sally created her own poem.  She wanted to present a piece of poetry to her Classical Conversations group.  I remembered our poems and thought she might enjoy writing her own.  I found this template to use. Initially, it was a task, but she finally caught on and we had fun.

Here is Sally's poem:

I Am From
by Salomae
inspired by "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon

I am from the long dining room table, hair goo, and Windex.

I am from the gray house with black shutters with window boxes full of flowers.

I am from the sunflowers and watermelon plants in the garden.

I'm from adoption and church, from Apryl and Seth.  I'm from reading before bed and meals at the table and Tuesdays.

I'm from "no singing at the table" and "put your fingers up" and "Holy, Holy, Holy."  I'm from Friday night pizza and movies.

I'm from Addis Ababa and Ethiopia, Africa.  Healthy pancakes and baked oatmeal.

I'm am from cats, dogs, and birds causing chaos.  From one sister and three brothers.

I'm from pictures on the walls and home videos in the cabinet.

Intended Curriculum Outline

My blogging has completely stopped.  I'm writing in my head more these days.  It's easier than trying to sit at the laptop and type.  Unfortunately, the stuff in my head immediately disappears.  Gone and lost forever...kind of like the 6000 pictures Everett deleted from my camera's memory card last week.  He will never live that down.

I'm not posting about that though.  It's something much more mundane that has forced me to log back onto my forgotten blog.  Homeschool notifications.  If you don't homeschool, or don't live in Ohio, then you may just want to tune out.  I suppose someone might be interested in seeing what my children are attempting to learn this year.  My purpose tonight is to share what I've done.  Over the past month I've had about five moms come to me for help with the superintendent notifications.  In Ohio, we are required to notify our school district of our intent to homeschool.  In doing so, we must submit a *brief* outline of the subjects they have listed as required.

I use the template that I found eight years ago.  I plug in the appropriate information and change names and years, then I'm done with all five children in a matter of minutes.  This summer my laptop bit the dust.  All is lost, including the template I used for our outlines.  I've put it off for a few weeks, and finally sat down tonight.  As I completed my outline, I thought I might share what I've done with any moms who need a view of what this 'outline' looks like.

I use this site for the forms I need--the notification form, and the assessment form.  I usually mail everything mid-summer in one big fat, envelope.  I send my assessments from last year along with forms for next year.

Here's my rather simple, yet effective, outline for Everett.  You will notice "Health" isn't filled out.  How to do health class with my ninth grader, we've already done The Talk.  That was interesting.  Seems like after that, being healthy is a daily lesson...please shower...brush your teeth...don't eat a bag of sour patch kids for lunch...

I followed with Josiah's intended plan.  Those two are my bookends, everyone else falls somewhere in between!

2014-2015 Intended Curriculum

Everett

I.                   Language

Latin B-Henle Grammar and First Year Latin

Writing-Persuasive Writing/Short Stories

      The Lost Tools of Writing, Andrew Kern

II.                 Literature

Recommended reading from Lost Tools of Writing

Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde 5000 words writing class

III.              Geography, History, and Government

Current Events program through Classical Conversations

Mock Trial

Model United Nations with Archers

IV.              Mathematics

Saxon Algebra I

V.                Science

Biology I, Apologia Biology and Lab

Discovering Atomos, Jen Greenholt

Origins

Defeating Darwinism, Phillip Johnson

The Soul of Science, Nancy Pearcey

VI.              Health

VII.           Physical Education

HS Boys Cross Country Team

HS Swim Team

VIII.         Fine Arts/Music

Private guitar lessons

IX.              First Aid, Safety, Fire Prevention

Civil Air Patrol monthly safety courses

LifeCare First Aid and CPR training

2014-2015 Intended Curriculum

Josiah

I.                   Language

Latin rules and vocabulary

Song School Latin

Memory Work for Grammar from Cycle 3 Classical Conversations

All About Spelling Level 2

Explode the Code

II.                 Literature

Institute for Excellence in Writing-Geography Based writing lessons

Beautiful Feet Books

All About Reading Level 3

Various appropriate books related to subject matter

III.              Geography, History, and Government

Geography of the United States-120 locations and features

American History and the New World

Memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution and Bill of Rights

IV.              Mathematics

Saxon Math Grade 3

V.                Science

Anatomy, Chemistry, and Origins Memory Work

201 Awesome Experiments, Janice VanCleave

VI.              Health

My Body, Patty Caratello

VII.           Physical Education

Recreational Baseball, Fall Soccer

Presidential Fitness Challenge

VIII.         Fine Arts/Music

Drawing with Children, Mona Brookes

Discovering Great Artists, MaryAnn Kohl

Classical Music for Dummies, David Pogue

IX.              First Aid, Safety, Fire Prevention

Research enabling a 4 minute presentation on each subject

End of the Year Blahs

The end of the year burnout.  Familiar across the board to any and all in the world of schooling.  The weather begins to warm up (we still aren't quite there).  Singing birds and flowers blooming, who feels like doing math? 

It's not only the kids who are ready to be outside.  My toes get itching for some dirt.  I find myself staring outside at my bare garden as one of my children recites their lessons to me.  Half paying attention, both of us yearn to be somewhere else.

No matter the call of the yard, a good mom presses on.  Or she feels a need to press on so as to avoid the neighbors calling the authorities and turning her in for calling it quits in April.  She has to get creative.  It's the end of the year.  My bargaining power has decreased to nothing.  Enticements like, "You can do spelling on the computer!" are met with eye rolling.   

Enter The Mathmallow. 

This would be a huge marshmallow.  It's about the size of a 6 year old's fist.  You probably have some in an opened bag in the far reaches of your cabinet.  That's where I discovered ours.  Remnants from our last fall night of s'mores, long forgotten and getting hard.  These marshmallows have a hard outer shell, and a pretty firm inside too.  In a house where sugar has become forbidden, this rock solid block of sugar is sheer temptation.  Dangling it in front of any child will encourage them to complete their math in record breaking time.  Thus, these sugar boulders are named, "The Mathmallow."  They will make your days much easier.

Also, introduce your youngest students to the rolls of art paper that we never have time to use.  Math drills aren't fun (which is why we need Mathmallows).  If the aforementioned Mathmallow has already been consumed, then doing a math drill on super huge paper with crayons might work.  It does for us.

We have also created an "End of the Year" paper chain.  Instead of the green and reds that accompany such a chain during the Christmas season, this one is made with any old paper that you have around the house.  The kids don't care what it looks like, they just want to rip it apart, piece by piece.  You don't need to care what it looks like, because you want it to be ripped to shreds too.  The daily delight of tearing one chain off is enough to get some of the kids to finish their schoolwork.  Watching the chain shrink each day will help you make it through the rest of the year.  

We press on toward our summer vacation which starts in 27 days. 

But, who's counting?

School

School.

It is with joy and despair that I greet you each fall.

The new books and unsharpened pencils hold a year of promises.  The famliar math and spelling send me into a dark cloud of worry.

Everything I love, I also hate.  The structure of our days is amazing after a summer of, "What will we do todays?"  The structure of our days is an impossible burden when all I want to do is sit in the sun with a book.

I adore the work of teaching our children, for watching them master a new concept is the salary I earn.  All of that teaching, goes without wages as a blank stare meets my eyes after even four or five attempts at explaning factions.  What I'd give for a day at the beach!

Most days though, are bright and I catch glimpses of my eldest helping his brother.  The girls work together and encourage rather than bicker.  Our youngest, instead of hiding in the backyard to fight imaginary foes, comes ready to work with his stack of books.

Most days.

Those other days are laced with sour attitudes, bitter words, and lazy dispositions.  Why, oh why, are those the days that come to my mind when I say the word, "school"?

Spring Break

I started this post ages ago.  After spring break, to be precise.  I am usually careful to document our adventures, local or far flung.  I guess I have a unfounded fear that one day one of the kids will accuse me of never doing anything with them.  Unfounded fear.  So, I'm a picture taker, rarely doing anything with the pictures, but they are proof that we did some crazy things.  And some normal things, like taking a spring break.  Albeit, just down to visit the Grandparents, but we had fun.  The first root beer float of the season, first bonfire, an Easter sunrise service followed by breakfast at church...and the final game of touch football, or any football for that matter, for my father-in-law.  What started out as role of coach and permanent quarterback morphed into broken ribs and months of recovery.  Before you ask, it was not Josiah's fault, though that is a plausible line of thinking.  Evidently, two hand touch can get pretty exciting.  Carried away in the moment, Papop decided to run the ball instead of passing it.  I saw him from the corner of my eye as he flew parallel to the ground still clutching the football.  He landed and didn't get up.  Thankfully, it wasn't worse, but from now on he will be enjoying all football games from the stands. This post's for you Papop!

First Day of School

 I blinked and summer was over.  Another year of school begins.  Our eldest in seventh (gasp) and youngest in Kindergarden (gasp).  I blinked and the kids got much older.

Our first day of school.
Five children to teach. 
And a dog who lined up to have his first day of school picture taken also.

Ancient Romans

You ever happen upon that family who is amazing?  Last year, at the science center, the award winners from local science fairs were on display.  We spent some time wandering through the tri-fold boards and models.  We ooh-ed and ahh-ed quite a bit.  There were two boards that were spectacular.  They happened to be homeschoolers and siblings.  My jaw dropped as I read their reports.

We are not that sort of family.

In our spare time, we catch toads in the backyard and play grappling games on the monkey bars.  Neither activities are condoned, but allowed until someone gets salmonella or breaks a bone.  No one around here is researching solar panels or writing novels.  Everett does do a lot of reading, but I tease him that he "reads a little too much Cheetos and not enough broccoli".  Eli wants to be an inventor. He has many fabulous ideas (like a super hero converting machine that turns you into your favorite super hero), but so far they are all cardboard prototypes.


We aren't one of those Time magazine cover families.  I was thinking about those families and wondering what their lives were like, behind the scenes.  Do parents push their children to do all of the extras or do the kids just take off on their own?  Is this 'enjoyment' of academics genetic?  If so, I will shrug since I don't see Einstein emerging in our five.  They are fantastic, and brilliant in their own ways, but...they want to check the education box for the day and spend the rest of their afternoon playing.

I was thinking about children creating solar powered toys as I showered, wondering how its done--this art of raising up brilliant children.  When I emerged from showering bliss, my children had raided the linen closet.  Much to my delight, they were parading around in togas discussing who they were from the Roman Empire.

I call that 'enjoying academics'.

Super Glue

We ran out of glue during the frenzied science fair preparations. Normally, this wouldn't cause concern, but Everett was mid owl pellet dissection. He let go of one deep sigh and little rodent bones scattered all over the table. He decided to glue them down before Manny investigated the smells and ate Everett's project. I checked the art closet in the school room and couldn't find any glue. So, I did the obvious thing and googled 'homemade glue'.

Brilliant!

I put the concoction in a Tupperware and we used it several times for project boards. I continued to pat myself on the back for this incredible little discovery. Gone are the days of squeezing Elmer's until I was red in the face. Gone are the days of unscrewing lids and using Q-tips to fish dabs of glue out. It was easy to make, easy to apply with a paint brush, and cheap.

Fast forward a few months.

Weird smells are in the hallway. The bathroom, our bedroom, and the schoolroom all meet at this little hall. Our obvious choice for weird smells was the bathroom, but nothing out of the ordinary was wafting from there. I crawled around on the floor sniffing, but couldn't find a spot that reeked. It was at nose level, just in the hall. I finally opened the art closet door and the smell nearly knocked me off my feet. After sifting through several stacks of clearance art pads, paint tubs, and pipe cleaners, I found the culprit.

The Tupperware of 'glue' had burped.

Seth and I had a good laugh and chucked the glue. That night, in bed, we kept smelling that stench. I finally gave up and pulled the entire storage piece out of the closet to find dripping slime pooling on unused bottle of Elmer's. It had fallen behind the rolling organizational bin--forgotten and covered with slime. We found ourselves pulling the contents of the closet out and sorting through things that were goo covered. At midnight. Seth gave me a second "Did you learn a lesson?" and we both thought it was over.

The next day Seth said he thought he smelled 'sourdough' in the basement. When I emptied the laundry chute in the basement I noticed the stench was lingering. I slowly looked up and noticed a dried white substance on the area that would be right below that closet. It was dry, and I knew I had cleaned up the source, so I laughed and shook my head as I started to pick up a stray towel and realized it was GLUED to the basement floor.

That homemade glue is something else.

I Have a Dream

I know our family is in a minority. I'm about to ask a question that only a few will be able to answer. Does anyone else that homeschools their transracial family have a really hard time teaching segregation? I managed to get through the grief and horror of the holocaust with some grace, but segregation stopped me in my tracks. We are moving along through history and stumbled into the 50's and 60's. I usually preview some of the longer books that I let Everett read on his own, but the ones I read aloud I don't read beforehand since I can skip or just close if it turns a corner that I don't want to go. Over a snack last week we were reading about Martin Luther King Jr and I was having a really hard time getting the words out.

The idea of segregation is very far fetched to our children. Almost like, 'Wait this is recent, these are normal people who are treating other normal people like this?' We read several picture books that deal with Jim Crow laws in the south. I was keeping an eye on Sally and skipping some sections that seemed so raw. As I was reading, looking around the table at the kids and their variety of skin tones, I couldn't help but feel like this was a history lesson that they needn't learn so young. I kept cringing at the words, "Whites only" or "Colored". They sounded ugly and confusing. Eli's cheerful take on this was, "Well, if we lived back then we'd just sneak library books for Sally and Jojo since they couldn't get a library card." Hmmm. Except I don't think our family would have existed back then. That thought made me so sad and ashamed.

We ended on a high note with a short video at the end of the week about Martin Luther King Jr's life. With all of my hesitation and worry about giving some kind of residual complex to each of the children about Whites vs. Blacks; the week ended with "one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." Everett turned the TV off and said, rather optimistically, "Yep, that's just like us. Sisters and brothers."

Science Projects

Owl pellet dissection on my table, worms loose on the kitchen counter...it's our first science fair.

Christmas shopping here brought on the ideas, along with the parakeet breeding frenzy that accidentally happened earlier this year.

First Day of School

I have sweaty palms...

butterflies in my belly...

and a dry mouth.

Sitting here waiting...

for the first day of school to begin.

I'm a nervous wreck.

Even when you teach your own children. Even when they are eager to start learning. Even when you have been doing it for years.




They look so eager and innocent, don't they? Give me about two weeks.

Obsession

Ella is constantly capturing small
animalscreatures in the backyard and turning them into pets. Pill bugs, caterpillars (that were eating my roses), and most recently slugs. At Christmas, I bought a butterfly habitat. Incidentally, that was kind of funny. Seth and I were shopping at the Toys-U-Don't Need. I had a list of things the kids thought they might need. I also had a list of things I thought they might need, ie. educational stuff. Like a super cool butterfly habitat. Surprisingly there weren't any on the shelf. Disbelief--but figured I'd order it online for a higher price. Later, Seth saw a man holding one and approached him just as the guy said to his buddy, "Butterfly Habitat, who would want something dumb like that?" Thankfully he put it down and my brave hubby snagged it.

So...we've been eagerly waiting for the right time to order caterpillars. We ordered. They came. Not so thrilling. Little black caterpillars. In a plastic container. Sort of like what Ella does in the backyard everyday. Except I paid for this tub. They ate the gooey food in their container. We waited. Then one day we looked in and they were all suspended from the top. Soon we got to see our first chrysalis.Little more waiting and one butterfly emerged. It was truly very neat. Even for the not-nerdy bunch. This butterfly in the house thing was a dream come true for Ella. Oddly, she's terrified if they fly near her, but in the mesh cage. Heavenly.

Let the obsession begin. Day after day of butterfly viewing. Special chair pulled up to the habitat. Oh, the antics of those butterflies. Endless entertainment!

All good things must come to an end. In butterfly habitat world that would be Release Day.
One by one, all of the butterflies flitted away except one little guy. To Ella's delight we kept him, named him "Flyey" and gave him some more time in the miracle butterfly habitat. A few days later, after having the nectar buffet all to himself, Flyey made his way out into the wild, dangerous world known as Our Backyard.

These are a few of my favorite (homeschool) things

We are (sort of) coming to the beginning of the school year. It's the right time to think about what worked well this year and what needs to change. Recently, a friend emailed me with some questions about homeschooling and that got me thinking. I always enjoy hearing from others who school at home, because their experiences help me to determine what curriculum might work for us. What worked when I had one first grader and two toddlers won't necessarily work with a fourth grader, two second graders, barely kindergarten, and a toddler. Life changes over time! We have used Sonlight, Story of the World, and Tapestry of Grace. I've used exclusively Sonlight and then became crazy brave enough to build my own curriculum. By no means do I have it all figured out, but here are a few things I thought I might share.

Since my list of favorite things has grown I'm going to do a few installments.

Websites and Blogs:
Homeschool Share this is a neat resource for lapbooking--all free.
Dianne Craft I'm always looking for a new way to teach Ella. We haven't been able to discern what happens when she's learning, but traditional methods aren't that great. I bought Right Start Math for everyone a few years ago thinking that was the solution, but it wasn't. Dianne Craft's website has lists of ideas and tips that have helped me understand what I'm doing wrong (ie. Saxon just won't work for her) and how to fix that.
Nature Study I *wish* I could be this habitual about being outdoors.
Art Projects I am far from an artist. I wouldn't hesitate to say that I'm pretty far from creative. When I stumbled onto this website--an art teacher and her projects--I was delighted. It encouraged me to take on several projects that I wouldn't otherwise (paper mache and pastels to begin?).
Practical Pages I *wish* I could be this focused and organized! She uses Charlotte Mason's methods and has all sorts of wonderful downloads that are...well, wonderful. Studies of artists, projects, templates, timelines...all of those things you would like to put together if you were talented and had time. She does!
Homeschool Freebie of the Day Sign up, it's just what it says. FREEBIES. They send out an email at the beginning of the week listing freebies for each day. Audiobooks, e-books, cool websites...the freebies never end!
Spelling City Spelling is so. Boring. I use Spelling Power, but it's nice to have something else for practice. Free, easy to use, my kids think they are playing since they are using the computer...
Vegsource It doesn't make sense, perhaps it's a well hidden homeschool secret. This is a vegetarian website that has a homeschool forum for selling stuff. Used stuff that you buy right from that lady a few states over that used it and liked it but doesn't need it anymore so she's willing to sell it for CHEAP.
Curriculum Sites that I continue to visit (though we are using Tapestry, doesn't mean I stick strictly to their stuff, I *love* Sonlight's book lists...)
Tapestry of Grace
Sonlight
Well Trained Mind
Vision Forum
Veritas Press
Ambleside Online (this is a very cool group, free--seems to be a returning theme--curriculum based on Charlotte Mason's methods).


When the catalogs for these guys come, my boys sit down and circle everything they want.