Homeschool Week in Review (Week 10)

I have no idea where this past week went. The last thing I remember, it was Monday evening. Some weeks are just like that, aren't they?

This year, for the first time, I have scheduled a catch-up day the last Friday of each month. If we've stayed on-track all month, we have that day off. If we're behind where I thought we'd be, we use that day to catch up. Taking one day off doesn't cause us to lose our momentum, and knowing that we can "earn" a three-day weekend has been a powerful motivator for all of us!

So here's what went on in the Button Factory this week--as best as I can remember, anyway!

Bible
We hadn't finished everything I wanted to talk about on last week's topic of Jehovah Shalom, so we carried it over for a second week. Ironically, just as we sat down to begin, I was overcome with one of those Mommy meltdown moments. Do you ever feel that even when they're listening, they're not listening? That's where I was. I would ask one child to look up one verse, and the other to look up a different verse.

Before I finished telling Child 2 what his verse was, Child 1 was asking, "Did you say Ephesians or Ezekial?"
Then Child 2 asked, "What chapter again?"

One-half of a second later, Child 1 needed me to repeat "what chapter? not the verse, just the chapter?"

Child 2 announced, "Got it!" and Child 1 said, "Okay, chapter 5, what verse?"

Child 2 then read his verse:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 

(emphasis added by Child 2 as he read.)

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:12-17

Don't ever let anyone tell you that the Bible doesn't speak to us right where we are, even today! It was a humbling lesson, but... 

The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

Math
My 8th grader had some kind of crazy converting-percentages-to-fractions lessons that I used to know how to do when I was in 8th grade, but I was utterly flummoxed this time around. They weren't normal percentages, for one thing. 50% = 1/2 = 0.5. I get that. But what is the fractional equivalent of 12 1/2%? We figured it out together, but seeing a fraction and a percent together just caused my brain to shut down. My sixth grader is working on bigger multiplication problems: 3-digits times 3-digits. She's pretty free-spirited and it's not easy for her to buckle down and pay attention to details for that long (If you think about it, that's 9 multiplication problems, plus adding.) I feel so sorry for her when she gets 90% of the answer right, but because of one mistake in multiplication or carrying or adding, the answer is wrong.

Grammar
Will finished his unit on nouns and pronouns and moved on to verbs. Katie was also working on nouns and also completed a couple of the first lessons on pronouns.

History
We talked about the events leading up to Egypt's independence from England in 1922.  I'm really excited about what's next, though: Fascism in Italy! Okay, that's probably a weird thing to be excited about, but I can't recall ever formally learning anything about Mussolini. I'll be sure to report back next week on what I learned! ha!

Literature
We're still reading Heroes of Olympus in the evenings. We've started working through some aspects of the adventure genre, mostly dealing with conflict so far. This is a big, complicated book with lots of story lines, so our attempt to identify the "main" conflict in the book almost led us into our own war. Such opinionated children!!

Science (co-op class)
Katie learned about the three different tests for determining the reliability of historical documents. They are, if you are interested, the external test, the internal test and the bibliographic test. I have no idea what Will learned in Physical Science because after helping Katie with General Science for 8,000 hours, I curled up in a corner and rocked myself until dinner time.

IEW (co-op class)
This is still everyone's favorite class. The dress-ups are starting to add up. We now have quality adjectives and the "www.asia" dress-up in addition to strong verbs, quality adverbs, who/which and because clauses. I'm ready to see some sentence openers any minute now.

So that's a quick run-down of Week 10. See you next time!

Whatcha Readin? Week 44

Last night I finished Me Times Three by Alex Witchel. This was a book that came to me randomly at the library. The bright yellow cover caught my eye, and a quick scan of the synopsis and a couple of reviews convinced me it would be worth reading. In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to the fact that one of the positive reviews comes from Sarah Jessica Parker.

On the plus side, it was an easy read. I didn't have to struggle through intense, self-aware writing. And I don't mean to imply that it was badly written; the writing was perfectly...adequate. The writing in Me Times Three neither added to nor distracted from the story. (I find that unsettling.)

Witchel's main character is Sandra, who is engaged to Bucky. Her best friend is Paul, a fabulous, gorgeous gay guy she met in college. (She's in her mid-twenties during the story. Oh, and it's the 1980s.) She learns throughout the book that she doesn't know Bucky like she thought she did, and she also doesn't know Paul like she thought she did. OK, I get it: it's impossible to truly know anyone other than yourself. So why, in the name of all that's literary, wouldn't Witchel write Sandra with some introspective realization at any point in the book?? 

I might have enjoyed this book more if it had done something--anything--really well. I already mentioned the writing, and that lukewarm tone spreads to every aspect of the book. The supporting characters weren't one-dimensional, but they could have been written much better...or left out entirely. The premise was interesting, but also not fully realized.  The emotions rarely rang true. Imagine you found out your boyfriend of nine years has two other fiances. I expected to read epic shock, denial, rage, revenge. I expected to FEEL something, whether it was sympathy, pity or even amusement as Sandra unravels and then begins to pull herself together. 

That said, there was one moment that I thought the author nailed. 

from page 210:

On the strength of this one page, I'm not crossing Alex Witchel off my list just yet. And--bonus!--Kate Vaiden is a real book! I have two books already waiting on my Kindle, but I'm going to make a point to look for Kate Vaiden to read in November.

Anybody out there reading anything great? What should I add to my list?

Homeschool Week in Review: End of the First Nine Weeks

Week Nine! I don't think we've ever made it this far into the year without getting off track at ALL. We are all pretty proud of ourselves! This year has been the most enjoyable and joy-filled of our entire homeschool experience.  You know what I think the difference has been? We have rebuilt trust between the three of us. One of Charlotte Mason's principles deals with creating a secure environment to learn in. "It's good to be me, here with you."

We spent several years in a University Model School, where the kids were in school two days a week and were homeschooled by me the other three days. It's the best of both worlds; you still get the joy of homeschooling, but also the accountability and community. The thing is, it was also the worst of both worlds. I lost the freedom to choose curriculum (which I loved), and we were bound to the school's schedule and pace.  I was stressed out all the time, going at full-tilt and feeling like we never got enough done, not at all the homeschool mom I wanted my kids to remember. Now we're homeschooling on our own, with two academic co-op classes for each child. They're working hard, and seeing their efforts pay off. I really couldn't ask for more than that!

So enough about what I learned this week. :) Here's what the kiddos worked on.

Bible: Our "name of God" this week was Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. We learned that the word "shalom" means much more than our English word "peace."  It denotes not just absence of conflict or inner calm, but also wholeness, completeness, wellness and perfection.   One of my favorite verses from this week's study was Isaiah 26:3:

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind 

is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."

Math: Everybody's still on track and doing well. Will is working on percentages; Katie finished up a couple of days on long division and started a new chapter on telling time. Well, okay, there's probably more to it than that, but after how hard she worked on all that division, I'm glad she gets a little break for a few days. My only complaint is that the Teaching Textbooks guy (we call him Uncle Mike) keeps referring to analog clocks as "old-fashioned" clocks, and Katie finds that hilarious.

Grammar: Will just finished the chapter on nouns and pronouns and will take the test on Monday. Katie is blasting through a chapter on nouns and should also have a test coming up in the next few days.  (Did I mention how happy we are to be right on track?!)

Literature: We had a split focus this week. The kids were working independently to wrap up their biography projects, but we went ahead to the next genre and started an adventure book: the last Percy Jackson book in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series. We've been reading these books as a family for several years, so I'm really happy to be able to incorporate this final book in an official capacity.

History: This is one of my favorite discussion-starting classes. This week we studied Joseph Stalin's rise to power in Russia. Interesting side note: You probably already know that Lenin's body is still on display, more than eighty years after his death, but did you know there is a committee responsible for checking and maintaining the body weekly? And that committee occasionally changes the Commisar's clothes??  In discussing the totalitarian regime that Stalin brought to Russia, we naturally touched on the United States' system. I tried to explain--neutrally--what the various political parties believe in. Imagine my shock when Katie burst out, "Ugh! I hate those guys!" when I was describing the politcal party I align with! When I pointed that out, she stammered and back-pedaled. Oh, well, it's a free country, I guess! :)

I'm going to wrap this up for now, but if I have time this weekend, I'll try to share what  the kids  put together for their biography projects in literature. In the meantime, y'all have a great weekend.

Whatcha Readin? Week 43

Last  week's book was Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I was able to borrow this book from the Amazon Kindle lending library. Several of the books I've read this year have come to me that way, but this one was far and away the best of that group.

The short review: I devoured this one. It was an easy read, but not in a Bridget Jones kind of way. Hyde's writing is straightforward, even when the subject matter is complex. It came across as confidence, actually, that the characters' feelings and backstories could stand on their own, without lyrical prose to describe the "sharp edges of their exquisite pain" or similar Oprah Book Club-esque phrases.

This book had a lot going on.  The primary plotline was about August, a science teacher grieving the death of his son. August is an alcoholic in recovery. He uses his summers off to travel in his RV. This particular summer's journey is especially important, because he is taking his son's ashes to Yellowstone National Park.  As a teacher, August budgets all year to have gas money for his summer travels. When the RV breaks down, the cost of repairs throws his ability to get to Yellowstone into question.

While he waits at the garage, August meets Seth and Henry, the two young sons of the mechanic. He is shocked when the mechanic asks him to take the two boys on his summer trip while he serves a 90-day jail sentence. August plans to say no, then Wes sweetens the deal by saying that the repairs to the RV will be free, whether he takes the boys or not. (No pressure--right??)

Seth is a 12-year-old chatterbox with the cares of the world on his shoulders. Nine-year-old Henry speaks only to Seth, and even him, only rarely.  I don't know which boy broke my heart more: Seth, so eager to see the world but so afraid to ask for what he wants, or Henry, so used to being let down that he has no expectations at all.  August is a decent guy, so of course he gets attached to Seth and Henry, even as he constantly tells himself not to.

They're not far into the trip when they learn that Wes's 90-day sentence for check-kiting is actually a 180-day sentence for his fourth DUI. August struggles to decide what to do about this latest development, while the boys each handle it in their own ways. Meanwhile, August attends AA meetings along their route and calls his sponsor regularly. Seth becomes interested in the program and how it might help his dad.

I don't want to unpack the entire plot here, because the real beauty of this book is the characters. Each one is damaged and hurting, and Hyde writes them with perfect consistency. I cannot recall one false note in any character. And yet, they weren't flat or predictable. (oooh, I so want to tell about two scenes in particular that would illustrate my point, but it would be unkind to spoil that part. I hope you appreciate my restraint!)

I'm headed to the library this afternoon, and if I find another book by Catherine Ryan Hyde, you can bet I'll be checking it out.

Whatcha Readin? Week 42

This week's book was While I Was Gone by Sue Miller. It was chosen as an Oprah Book Club book, but I can't say for sure that I found that to be a selling point. And, just for the record, I read 100% of this one.

The main character is a veterinarian named Jo. She's married to a pastor (although she is not a believer) and has three grown daughters. I kind of hate her. She's restless and easily bored; she's closed off; she's secretive; she's self-absorbed. Miller did a good job writing Jo, I have to give her that. Most of the book is written in a detached style that emphasizes how closed off Jo is from those around her and, often, her own emotions. She describes a trip to the grocery store, a fight with her daughter, sex with her husband and even the murder of her friend in the same flat voice.  In other places, Miller includes some beautiful descriptions and thoughts, but since Jo is the narrator, I found these passages jarring.

Miller writes Jo in a way that you pretty much have to hate, but in writing Daniel, she is generous to a fault. Jo describes her husband with such adoration that it makes half of what she does in the book almost unbelievable. Who treats a man she loves like that?? Did she just think he was a bottomless pit of virtue and forgiveness?

While Jo made me want to tear my hair out, I'm still glad I read this one. In chapter six, Jo unexpectedly attends Daniel's church after the death of one of his congregants. His thoughts on grief and loss and memory resonated with me after the losses my family suffered this past summer.  "Pain," he says, "the pain that seems unbearable at the time, is memory's first imprinting step, the cornerstone of the temple we erect inside us in memory of the dead." and, later, "He gives us memory, too, to change that pain to laughter, to joy. To bring the dead back into our lives. To comfort us."

A little "happy mail"

Last week my daughter and I were visiting my parents, and a dear friend of my mother's wanted to take us to the Esse Purse Museum in downtown Little Rock. I had heard that such a thing existed, but I have to say that it was not at all what I expected. The museum is arranged by decade, from the 1900s through the 1990s, and each case is thoughtfully curated, giving historical context as well as details about why the purses of that decade were a particular size or color or fabric. I'm not much of a purse girl, but it was really surprisingly interesting. And their gift shop! My daughter went crazy at all the coin purses, clutches, handbags and evening bags. I thought it would be fun to snag a purse as a souvenir of our afternoon, but I have much better taste than I realized. Every single purse that I thought I could see myself carrying was at least $200. Do people really pay that kind of money for a bag??

Well, now we're home and I wanted to thank our friend properly for taking us to the museum. (And in Little Rock, that means nothing less than a handwritten thank you note.) Our friend is also a creative-crafty genius, so I wanted to make the card myself. First stop, Pinterest. 

This is what I ended up with. The striped paper is single-sided scrapbook paper, folded in half and cut into a trapezoid shape. I couldn't find a die that I know I have somewhere (grrr! So irritating!) so I drew a shape like this:

by hand and cut it with scissors. Like a caveman. I sliced two small openings along the fold of the red piece and threaded in ribbon for the handle, and added a brad as the purse closure.  Easy! 

Homeschool Week in Review (week 6)

This past week was a little odd, because my husband and my son were out of town. He did all of his work before leaving, so he had a guilt-free week off. And he made the most of it! They went hiking and fishing and, by all accounts, had a wonderful time! They broke the family record for number of fish caught in one day--the biggest one my son caught weighed a whopping 45 pounds!!

(This isn't the 45-pounder; this is the third of five that he caught!)

Back at home, my daughter and I just focused on the three Rs. (This is my favorite homeschool freedom! We do this when we don't want to/can't go full tilt, but we don't want to fall behind, either.)

Math: Katie just wrapped up chapter 3 and took the quiz. She's flying through math this year!

Grammar: She finished the chapter on basic sentence structure and will take the test next week.

Literature: We fell a little behind on her biography. I would have thought she would devour a book about Milton Hershey (See what I did there??) but it hasn't captured her attention. I think I'm going to extend the unit by one week so that we can finish it without being rushed and grumpy.

Science (co-op class): Things are running reasonably smoothly on this front. There's still a lot of intense reading, but I feel like she *understands* what they're learning right now, so that makes a huge difference.

IEW (co-op class): I love this class; it's so enjoyable to help with their assignments but not actually teach the material. They're both becoming strong writers--and they know it! We've had lots of academic struggles over the years, and it does everybody's heart good to excel in this area!

Since we had a lighter workload, we made a point to enjoy our extra time. Katie follows a YouTube channel called Nerdy Nummies and frequently asks to make the recipes. Cooking can be really fun when you have a little extra time! She made hamburger cupcakes and they were DELICIOUS.

Whatcha Readin'? (week 39)

You have probably heard of the equation used for figuring out the socially acceptable age difference of romantic partners:

Younger partner's age must be > 1/2 (older partner's age) + 7.

If younger partner's age is < 1/2 (older partner's age) + 7, then there is a very good chance that the older partner is having a midlife crisis and is making a fool of him/herself.  (I'm looking at you, Tom Cruise.)

I developed the Reader's Corollary this equation. I have to read half the book, plus 7 pages and then I can quit in good conscience. Life is short, and there are more books out there than I can possibly read. Now, that said, I finish the vast majority of books I begin. I'm all about the closure at the end. And that bass. I'm all about that bass, too.

I'm sure you can tell where this is going. I had to break up with a book this week. 

Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison looked promising on GoodReads, but by the end of our first date, I was questioning what I thought I saw in this one to put it on my "To Read" list.

For one thing, it is an epistolary novel, written entirely as journal entries. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? What if I told you every single journal entry could have been written on post-it notes? Chapter 1 was 2 1/2 lines long. Chapter 2 was 3 lines long. 

It gave me the feeling of being on Law Order, when the detectives walk into the crazy conspiracy theorist's secret room and there are notes and newspaper clippings and surveillance photos all over the walls. That is not a feeling I'm comfortable with.

Why Did I Ever was like being dropped into somebody's mental Twitter account. 140 characters that made sense to them at the time, but wasn't necessarily fit for public consumption.  Ironically, as I am writing this--literally, at this very moment--I am beginning to appreciate Mary Robison's point.  

The protagonist has some serious problems that she's dealing with. Her life is in shambles, her adult childrens' lives are in shambles. A few of the longer chapters (e.g., 12 lines) allude to her son having been the recent victim of a violent crime; her daughter is a junkie. As I got closer to the half-the-book-plus-7-pages cutoff, I started to wonder if Money (the protagonist) was a multiple personality or possibly the imagining of the autistic child in St. Elsewhere.  

Why Did I Ever is actually well-written. It's just that it's written in a style I don't personally appreciate. And even that isn't entirely accurate. I found several lines that I thought were just brilliant. In the chapter entitled "Ride Along With You," one Money's coworkers says to her, "I just detest you. To the point that it's almost invigorating."  I loved that sentence. Another example of greatness, from chapter 276: (Why, why, why? Why do some chapters have titles and some have only numbers?)

Anyway, in chapter 276, Money writes, "I think perhaps a syllable maximum should be set for some people and, I'm sorry, but rather a low one."

All in all, I had to break up with Why Did I Ever. There were definitely a couple of interesting things going on, but I just knew that if I stuck with it, I would be sorry. I didn't want to hear about the crime against her son in minimalist prose. There were no signs that anything was going to work out, and there wasn't enough narrative for me to even hope that I was going to understand whatever did happen. And, strangely, I'm sad about it all, just like a real break up.

Homeschool week in review (week 5)

I'm still trying to find the best time to write up our week in review. Yes, I know. Friday seems like the obvious right answer, doesn't it? If only I were EXHAUSTED by the time Friday rolls around. 

Bible: The name of God this week was Qedosh Yisrael, the Holy One of Israel. 

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel 

and say to them: 'Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.'"

Leviticus 19:1-2

Another thing we've been doing in our Bible time is getting to know where things are in the Bible. I made this chart for the kids as kind of a cheat sheet while they learn.

Both kids had a decent grasp on where the "biggies" were located, but I wanted them to be able to flip to, say, 2 Chronicles without having to check the table of contents. We drill these in a couple of different ways. I might call out a book and ask one child if it's in the Old or New Testament. Then I'll ask the other child what category that book is in. They also like me to ask what comes before it and after it.  Sometimes I ask them to name a book of history (or poetry or gospels) and they go back and forth until they can't think of any more. And finally, the good old-fashioned sword drill. Remember those? I try to choose a key verse or passage that sums up that book and have them look it up. For example, I might say to look up Exodus 3:7-10, followed by a brief discussion about how Exodus is the story of God's people's exit from Egypt. Or Proverbs 9:10, with a discussion about what God says is wise.

Math: My younger child is working on division, and my older child is working on converting fractions to decimals.

Grammar: Nouns & pronouns for one, direct and indirect quotations for the other. 

Literature: Everybody is within a few days of finishing their biographies and starting their project for this unit. They're going to be putting together a newspaper based on their subject's life. It will include at least two articles, a cartoon strip depicting an event from the book and a timeline showing significant dates and events in their subject's life. I'm hoping to see some historical context. And dare I hope for evidence that they're really into it? Here's hoping!

History: We read about the Peace of Versailles that ended World War I, including Woodrow Wilson's idea for the League of Nations and the punishment of Germany. We also touched on the emergence of Joseph Stalin as leader of Russia. I'd like to spend a little more time on that topic.

Science (co-op class): Have to brag on my son a little bit here. He had an opportunity to go on a fishing trip with his dad and uncle, but only if he agreed to take his science along so he wouldn't get behind. He actually did the entire week's work before he left! That's a massive jump in maturity and responsibility over what I would have seen even just a year ago.

IEW (co-op class): Their assignment this week was to choose a paragraph out of any book and give it the "IEW treatment." Will, wisely, chose a section about Stalin from Story of the World that can double as his next history summary, and he finished it before he went out of town. Katie chose an exciting excerpt from one of her favorite books. Since she's not going on this trip, she'll finish her assignment on our regularly-scheduled IEW days.

Go in your kitchen and make this now.

The best soup on the planet. This soup is like getting a hug from your grandmother. It's like putting on an old pair of jeans and finding a $20 in the pocket. It's like having your teenager spontaneously say, "I love you, Mom."

I've been on Pinterest for several years now, and I've tried many recipes that were good, but not great and a few that were apparently pinned by people with no taste buds. Believe me when I say that this soup lives up to the hype. It was every bit as delicious as I hoped it would be.  I made it with my daughter, who is learning to cook, so I didn't make any intentional changes to the recipe, but when we got down to the herb part, I didn't have any bay leaves on hand, nor have I ever had herbes de Provence in the spice cabinet. I may get some for next time, but this soup was fantastic without them. I wouldn't recommend omitting the gruyere at serving time, though.

I also didn't have any crusty artisan bread (as pictured) to go with it. Frankly, I'm not sure I'm equipped for that kind of bliss.

Whatcha reading, week 38

Last Friday, I finished The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell. I really enjoyed this one! The story is set in the 1920s, and Rindell does a wonderful job capturing that period. Her writing evokes both the genteel upper-class of society that we imagine and the seedier side of Prohibition: speakeasies and crime.

I was not far into the book when I realized the narrator, Rose, was not quite right. With each passing chapter, she became MORE not quite right, until  I thought I was going to burst in anticipation of finally learning about the situation Rose kept alluding to. Once that was revealed, things got even crazier. I'm not kidding when I say that I was holding my breath through many of the final scenes. It was fascinating to watch everything unfold.

A quick Google search just told me that a movie based on The Other Typist is in the works. You know what they say about the movie vs. the book, but if Hitchcock somehow became available, it just might work.  What I enjoyed most about the book was the incremental revealing of salient details. At various times, I thought I knew about 50% of what was really happening. A couple of chapters later, more would be revealed, and yet I would think I knew less than I did earlier. I heard an expression once: "You think you've discovered all her crazy, then you find out there's a whole underground parking garage of crazy yet to explore." I think that's a fantastic description of The Other Typist.

This would make an excellent book club selection. In fact, within the first few chapters, I was wishing I had a book club to discuss it with. Without spoiling the ending, let's just say there is MUCH to interpret and debate. If anyone here has read The Other Typist, please let me know, because I would love to discuss it with you!

 

Homeschool week in review (week 4)

Bible: This week's Name of God was El Kanna, which means Consuming Fire and Jealous God.

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.  

Deuteronomy 4:24

But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one 

who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire.

Deuteronomy 9:3 

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, 

let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God 

an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 

for our God is a consuming fire.  

Hebrews 12:28-29

Math: Fractions still, and they're going really well. (This is significant, because last year, we just about killed each other trying to teach or learn this same stuff.) We're also beginning to move into decimals, which this book describes in a totally different way than I've ever seen before. I held my breath, but either Will didn't remember having it explained differently last year or this explanation made more sense to him. He was able to sail through it, thank you God.

Grammar: Katie had a test over subjects and predicates and did very well on it. Will started a chapter on nouns, which he could do in his sleep. At least, he could do it in his sleep until we got to plural nouns. He made a noun plural by adding apostrophe-s and I freaked out on him. (Apostrophe-s is one of my biggest grammar pet peeves. You never make a word plural that way! NO WIRE HANGERS!!) I don't know if he thought it was funny or if I scared all the previous pluralizing knowledge right out of him, but next he wanted to "drop the Y and add -ing." That would be strike two for Mom. "I.N.G.??  The plural of city is citing??" Thankfully, next we moved on to collective nouns, which we always think are fun. A pride of lions, a class of students, a murder of crows, what's not to love?

Literature: Everybody is still finishing their biographies, and I'm working on a template for their final projects on these books. I predict Katie will really get into the final project and Will will do the bare minimum, which is a shame, because I think C.S. Lewis (Will's book) could yield a fascinating end product.

History: We talked about Ireland, the IRA, Sein Fein and also India and Mahatma Ghandi. (I was surprised to learn that Ghandi's famous hunger strike lasted only 3 days. Did you know that?)

Science (co-op class): The General Science class was focused on the scientific method. It could have been pretty straightforward, but I'm noticing the textbook repeats itself by restating what it previously said regardless of the wordiness of the section being repeated. Or restated. For clarity. I find that distracting, confusing and irritating.  The other class--Physical Science--was covering air pollution. Also in exhaustive detail.

IEW (co-op class): They each had two paragraphs to write, and they did great work with them. Each paragraph had to contain two clauses, which is a surprisingly sophisticated construction, because a clause has to have a subject and a verb. See what I did there? "Which is a surprisingly sophisticated construction"is a phrase, but "because a clause has to have a subject and a verb" is a clause. Okay, enough nerdy grammar talk. They're using strong verbs and adverbs like old pros. It makes me so proud.

Homeschool week in review (week 3)

Our homeschool year has officially, completely (finally!) launched! It was a good week.

Bible: Our Name of God for this week was Jehovah Nissi, The Lord is my banner. I really got a lot out of this one. In ancient times, a banner was carried into battle. I've always pictured the banner as a fabric flag, but we learned that the banner was much sturdier, made of wood or even metal. At the top, they would mount symbols of their values, much the way the American flag gives us a surge of patriotism. These banners served several purposes: first, to rally the troops in battle, second to guide the troops to safety or a meeting place, and third, as a sign of victory.

Moses built an alter and called it The LORD is my Banner. 

He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. 

The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.

Exodus 17:15-16

Math: Fractions for one, place value for the other. Math is not my dealio.

Grammar: Will is finishing up the first unit of his Grammar and will have his second test on Tuesday. Since Katie started a week later, she's a little past halfway in her first unit.

IEW (co-op class): Both kids' assignments came together fine. Honestly, I wish they were being asked to do a little more, since they're so familiar with IEW. They're doing a who/which clause and an adverb. No sentence starters, no banned words, no strong verbs. I think I'm going to start punching the assignments up a little.

Science (co-op class): Complete opposite of IEW. This class is reeeeeeallllly stretching us. Lots of homework and harder work than any of us are quite used to. They both had a test that went well, but I'm not sure they gained any confidence from that.

Literature: We are reading biographies this month. Both of the kids' books were written by Janet and Geoff Benge, but one is from the series "Christian Heroes: Then & Now" and the other is from "Heroes of History." I think Will is going to have an easier time talking about the character virtues of C.S. Lewis than Katie is with Milton Hershey.

History: We finished learned about PART A and PART B. Will and Katie turned in their first notebook projects. Will filled in a map showing the Central Powers and the Allied Powers in World War 1. Katie did a comic strip showing the life of Phan Boi Chau.

Whatcha reading, week 37

I took a detour last week to read Biblical Womanhood instead of Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen. I think it's kind of interesting that last week, in the midst of some church drama, I was reading Biblical Womanhood and then immediately after that, I read Black and Blue when domestic violence is blowing up all over the headlines.

So, yeah, a book about domestic violence wasn't the cheeriest of topics. Black and Blue is the story of a woman who flees her abusive cop husband with her ten-year-old son.  The book opens as they leave their lives in New York and follows them as they set up a new life in a new place with new identities.  I read this book in one day, but I'm not sure that was because it was inherently riviting. In fact, the story dragged a little in places and dragged a lot in others. Still, I knew the husband was going to turn back up at some point and I wanted to be there when he did. 

Besides Frannie and her son, there were a handful of supporting characters in the story, but they were pretty one deminsional: the new friend, the new boyfriend-who's-not-a-boyfriend.  Beth (the name Frannie assumed) works as a home health aide, and the most interesting relationship she forms is a friendship with the elderly wife of one of her patients. Beth is not able to be completely honest with anyone because of the risk of her husband finding out where she is, but on reflection, I think she's been less-than-honest with herself and her son for so long, that revealing little and misdirecting when she can't avoid revealing has become second nature.

This is the second Anna Quindlen book I've read in the last month. (The other was Every Last One, which was also decidedly dark.) Quindlen has either been in an abusive relationship, is close to someone who has or has done excellent research. She hits all the right notes, from Beth blaming herself for her husband's actions to planting seeds in Beth's upbringing to explain why she was vulnerable to such a relationship. What she does best, however, is subtly portraying Beth's fatalism. Over the years they were married, through his abuse and her decision to stay, something in Beth clearly died. She loves her son deeply, but she's so damaged that when something awful happens to him, the reader is most struck by her inability to fully engage. She is sad, but resigned. Does she think she somehow deserved it? I don't think so, but she's lacking the fight you would normally expect from a mother in that situation.

Up next: The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell. How's this for an opening line: "They said the typewriter would unsex us." Can't wait to watch this one unfold. 

Whatcha readin'? Week 36

I know I said last week that I was going to read Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue next, but thanks to a Kindle sale, I picked up A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans on a whim. I'm glad I did. The church I attended as a child was having a kerfuffle, so I was already thinking about the religious culture I grew up in. A Year of Biblical Womanhood gave me a convenient framework to examine gender roles and expectations.

Rachel Held Evans took one year to focus on what the Bible says about women and to follow it as literally as possible. One month she took on modesty, another month submission, another month homemaking, etc. Some things--like camping in the front yard during her period a la The Red Tent--seemed gimmicky at first, but to her credit, she writes with warmth and humor, so you sense that she is genuinely trying to follow all the Bible's instructions for women. Yes, I rolled my eyes at some of her tasks, but on reflection, I have to say that I respected her for not dismissing any of what she found in the Bible as being optional or "just how things were done at that time." Since she didn't pick and choose, she earned some credibility with me.

My favorite parts of the book were when she sought out people who were already living certain aspects of Biblical womanhood. She spent time with Amish women, corresponded frequently with an Orthodox Jewish woman and even interviewed a polygamous wife. Ahava, the Jewish woman, was absolutely my favorite. Her insights on the Jewish context of the Old Testament were pure gold. I was shocked to learn from Ahava that Jewish men memorize Proverbs 31 to praise their wives. (As opposed to American women who read Proverbs 31 and feel they can never measure up. What?? Proverbs 31 is about recognizing wisdom in action? I always thought of it as a job description!) "Eschet chayil!" means "Woman of Valor!" and it became the author's battle cry throughout the book when she met with success and as encouragement to herself when the project was wearing her down.

The heavier topics that Evans tackled through this project--such as justice, specifically--really caused me to think. I'm going to be mulling over her conclusions, rereading passages of Scripture and maybe seeking out other commentaries. I think that's the real takeaway from this book--we think we know what the Bible says about women; it's certainly been drilled into me since I was very little. But do we really? Or are we relying on the traditions and interpretations that have been passed down? Are we brave enough to find out for ourselves what God's definition of eschet chayil is, without giving ourselves a pass on the parts that are inconvenient or downright hard? I don't think I'll be picking up a headcovering after reading A Year of Biblical Womanhood, but I will definitely be thinking about and looking for answers to many of the questions it raised.

Homeschool Week in Review (week 2)

Phase Three of our homeschool launch is complete.  First the kids started their co-op classes, then we started Will's pre-algebra and grammar, plus Bible and History, which we do as a family. This week, Katie started her math and grammar. By the end of next week, we'll have all kids doing all subjects!

In Bible, we studied the name of Jehovah Rophe, the God who heals. This particular name was challenging for me, because we lost a beloved family member to cancer in June. Some of my favorite verses we looked up were these:

Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1-5)

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Math--everybody's on track and it seems to be going pretty smoothly. Will has already finished his first chapter and did well on the test. (Yay!) 

Grammar--I love grammar; I really do. My kids are reasonably proficient in it, so it's a subject that nobody really minds doing. We're still in the simplistic early days of "simple subject vs. complete subject," but their Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) co-op class gives them practical exercises to apply what they've learned in grammar. The instructions for IEW will say, for example, "add a who/which clause to your rough draft." The nerdy grammarian in me just gets all giddy over things like that.

History--This week we covered the Mexican Revolution & Pancho Villa; Porfirio Diaz and his 30-year presidency, Francisco Madera & Victoriano Huerta (still called the Jackal or the Usurper by modern-day Mexicans!) This all happened immediately prior to the beginning of World War 1, which we'll begin studying next week. Unless I spend a couple more days on the Mexican Revolution--I found it really interesting!

Science--This is a co-op class, and I really want to stay out of it as much as possible, so there probably won't be much to report on this. I think I saw on the syllabuses (syllabi?) that both kids have their first science tests next week.

In preparation for beginning our study of literature next week, everyone chose a biography to read. Katie chose Milton Hershey; Will chose C.S. Lewis; and I chose Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I'm kicking around a couple of ideas on fun projects we might do, either as we read or to wrap up this unit.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

What I've been reading lately...

Back in January, I set a goal to read 52 books in 2014, so I've been reading a lot this year. At first I chose books indiscriminately from all genres. I envisioned reading fiction, nonfiction, biography and history in equal doses. It didn't take long for me to realize that I had seriously romanticized the notion of being a well-rounded reader! Nonfiction and history had fallen off my radar by March or April because, well, I'm doing this for pleasure and it was stressing me out to be falling off-pace because nobody can write nonfiction about, say, WWII in less than eleventy billion pages. The vast majority of my selections are fiction and come from recommendations on GoodReads.com, BookRiot or Amazon. If I read something that is beachy chick-lit,  I try to follow it with something substantive and/or respectable.  All books have to be in the 300-page range, and rereading old favorites is not allowed.  And my last "rule" is that I can abandon a book I hate after I get 50% of it read.

The last book I read was Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I haven't written literary criticism since college (i.e., more than twenty years ago) so my ability to gush about a book and still sound intelligent is long gone. However, if anything were going to convince me to come up with some obscure insight and defend it with high-falutin' language and references to the rest of the text, this would be the book.  It's a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, told from the point of view of the oldest sister. (I realized early in the story that I had confused the story of Cupid and Psyche with the story of Narcissus and Echo.) 

It's hard to read C.S. Lewis and not expect to see Aslan in every shadow, but Till We Have Faces was not written as a Christian retelling of a Greek myth. There is, I think, plenty of symbolism and whatnot to point our eyes toward God, but I think that is the case in almost all good writing. Charlotte Mason, the 19th century English educator whose ideas most influence our homeschooling, asked the following questions to spark her students' thoughts: What does this teach us about God? What does this teach us about mankind? What does this teach us about the world around us? Using these questions as a springboard, I could easily write three A-quality papers about Till We Have Faces, but I'll spare you the academic double-talk.

When I've read C.S. Lewis's theological treatises--back when my brain was still nimble and well-rested--what struck me about his writing style was that he doesn't begin by laying out his premise and then building support for it. He gives a reason, then another reason, then another and THEN says, if A, B and C are true, then we must obviously conclude that X is also true.  Till We Have Faces has a typical story-telling style, but in thinking of what I learned in this book, I see that he used the same inductive process here. He told the story by telling A, B and C so the reader expects him to end with X being true. The twist was that at the end, he revealed that A, B and C were, in fact, NOT true, so X was also not true. I didn't see that coming at all, at it left me wanting to flip immediately back to the start of the book and read it again. I want to tell you the specifics so, so, so badly, but it would be WRONG for me to spoil it. Let's just say that when my yearlong re-reading ban ends, I will be rushing back to Till We Have Faces to see if there were things I should have picked up on.  

Next up on my book list is Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen. (A story of domestic abuse--did I mention that the pendulum tends to swing from one extreme to the other??)

Thanks for reading! If you're reading something fantastic, I would love to hear about it!

Homeschool Week in Review (week 1)

This summer has been tumultuous for my family, with 5 major, life-changing events between June 1 and August 31.  We got through the last heartbreaking event of the summer on August 21, and I had planned to start school after Labor Day so we could enjoy one week of peaceful, relaxing summer. Apparently that was too much to ask. My son announced on Sunday, August 24, that he didn't want to wait until after Labor Day; all his friends were starting school on the 25th. Since I never, ever, ever (EVER) expected my middle schooler to complain that he wasn't getting to start school when everybody else did, I compressed my planning/enjoy the summer week into a planning/enjoy the summer DAY and we started last Tuesday.

(Of course, Life in the Button Factory is never as simple as just starting a school year on 24 hours' notice. My daughter decided that she was fine with waiting until after Labor Day, so we're have two different start dates. I tell you what, I have the lunatics running the asylum here.)

So here's what our first week looked like:
Bible: We are continuing our study from last year on the names of God. This week we learned about God's name Adonai, which means Lord or Master. Adonai has the connotation of being the name a servant would use to address his master. My favorite verse that we found was Luke 1:38, where Mary said to the angel, "I am the Lord's servant. Let it be to me according to your word."
Math: We are using Teaching Textbooks again this year. Will completed his first lessons; Katie will start hers on Tuesday.
Grammar: We are using Growing with Grammar again this year. Just like Math, Will started his lessons, and Katie will start them this week.
History: We read about Puyi, the last Emperor of China, the French colonization of Indochina and Phan Boi Chau, who started the Vietnamese thinking of the possibility of independence.
Science: Will is taking Apologia Physical Science at a local co-op; Katie is taking Apologia General Science at the same co-op.
Institute for Excellence in Writing: they're also taking this class at the co-op. I love this program, but I was really having a hard time teaching it myself. The cobbler's children have no shoes, and all that.
Literature: planning to start our literature studies in the next two weeks.

I plan to post a weekly wrap-up of what we're learning throughout this year. I always seem to lose steam with gradebooks and such, so my hope is that having a narrative-style record of our year is something I can enjoy and stick with.

Menu Plan Monday 8/25/14

Since I haven't blogged in more than two years, I'm going to start slow. You know, like going back to the gym after a long absence. Sharing our menu plan for the week was always an easy way to ease back into blogging and Lord knows I like to talk about food.

Monday--Skillet lasagna. (The kids like it better if it's called lasagna. It's cheese ravioli with meat sauce with mozzerella melted on top. I've had REAL lasagna lessons and have felt guilty about the name of this dish ever since. It's so far from the same thing that I pretty much live in fear that my Italian friend is going to find out and never speak to me again.) 

Tuesday--Beef and broccoli. This one is a crowd-pleaser. The recipe is here. The only change I make is to double the sauce, because the sauce is the boss!

Wednesday--Salmon over pasta. Easy & quick: a thin spread of Grey Poupon over salmon filets, bake it and serve atop fettuccine that you've stirred a little pesto into. 

Thursday--Red beans and rice. I recently had a life-changing epiphany. (Is that redundant? Are all epiphanies, by definition, life-changing?) I've been making red beans & rice wrong for the last twenty years. My cajun friend Robin finally convinced me to put in the time and make them right, from dried beans, soaked overnight and cooked all day. Seriously, they taste like heaven this way. Add some cornbread and some sauteed spinach, and we are all blissed out.

Friday-- Matthew West is doing a concert at our church this Friday, so we won't have time to do our normal homemade pizza & movie thing. Guessing we may grab some restaurant food. We've really been into this place called Cosi lately. 

Saturday--Homemade pizza night, because I forgot about the Matthew West thing while doing the shopping, so we already have all the ingredients. It would be a shame not to use them, right??

Sunday lunch--Chicken broccoli pie. Recipe here. She does individual pockets for her family; I just load it all into a pie plate. I use my grandmother's pie crust recipe instead of using a packaged one. Using a pre-made crust saves a ton of time and mess, but c'mon, this is Sunday lunch we're talking about.

Day One of LOAD

LOAD1, originally uploaded by Wendy.A.

LOAD stands for "Layout a Day" and for the month of February, I am participating in a challenge to create at least one scrapbook page each day.  Each morning I get a prompt via email. Using that as a springboard, I came up with this layout about cooking with my kids.

Just between you and me, I fully expect to tweak this page a little before it goes into an album. It needs a little something-something to make it pop.