August 16, 2011  7:38 a.m.

Remember the movie Out of Africa, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep?  To this day I always feel a special connection to Meryl Streep because she was the speaker at my college graduation.  She began her address to us by singing:

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be,

The future’s not ours to see,

Que sera, sera..

Then she went on to tell us about how she never could have imagined her future when she was our age.  She never guessed that she would be washing Robert Redford’s hair in the African savannah.  It wasn’t a particularly erudite speech for a college graduation.  Rather, she was reminding us, in her movie star way, of the sovereignty of God.  Of how God weaves us into His story in a way that we can never predict, and never fully understand, until all is revealed.

Well, I am happy to say that we are finally out of Africa.  In sixth grade Geography, that is.  We had a particularly trying day yesterday, a day in which too great a percentage of Chips’ work was offloaded until the end of the day.  There are certain things I expect of him to do the first time through his work; I have told him repeatedly, and yet he still claims not to remember.  Again they were not done, and I had to keep at Calvert with him until late in the evening, and I was very unhappy about it (because it was all preventable) and I was unpleasant and the evening was unpleasant. 

I am trying to teach Chips study skills, so that he (and I?) do not have to suffer so much in the grades to come.  I want him to take notes on his reading, gosh darnit, especially on Geography, because Geography is not easy to remember and keep straight in your mind at test time.  Chips has been doing great on his Calvert tests, but Geography weighs him down.  Especially as we have been stuck in the African continent for the past two months (or so it seems).  One can’t help but get all the facts about all those countries confused.  I hate to say it, but with only a few exceptions, those African countries do blur together in one’s mind.  Chips is very happy to be out of Africa and moving on to Asia.  He feels certain that he will be able to keep those countries straightened out in his mind much better.  I hope so.  The fact is, he needs to take notes on his reading, that’s it.  I have been urging him to do this for Geography since January because I could see the difficulties coming.  Fast forward … he still ain’t taking notes, or very (VERY) slim ones at most.  He is able to get away with little to no notes much better with Science and History, but Geography – well, that’s another story.

On a brighter note, we have finally gotten to the point in sixth grade where we are reading The Phantom Tollbooth, and this book is going to last us through the rest of the course.  Hooray!  This is a book I remember enjoying very much as a young person, and Chips is liking it, too.  Lot’s of fun in this story, clever, and lighthearted. 

P.S. Part of the reason our day was so long was that I had a doctor’s appointment.  But that’s a topic for another post.  Nothing serious.

July 17, 2011 10:21 p.m.

For Calvert School’s 3rd grade course, Sweet Girl has been assigned a research report on the history and geography of her local community.  It turns out that there are many resources available to her for this report.  Our little country hamlet is certainly proud of its history!   There are several webpages with the history of our community, there is a local history museum, and our county library has some well written books about the history of our county.  I have to admit, researching for this project has been interesting.

First we printed out some 11 articles from the internet, and Sweet Girl read them all, highlighting the most important details.  Then we made a visit to our local history museum and spoke to the docent there.  She was happy to learn that Sweet Girl would be writing a report, and she asked for a copy of the completed project for displaying in the museum.  We learned about a time capsule that was placed underground in front of the museum in the year 2000 – to be opened in the year 2025! 

Throughout the visit I took several photos of the museum.  Since the visit, Sweet Girl has written part of the first draft (the history part) and this week she will continue on with the geography part of the report.  Calvert provided guidelines to assist her in creating an outline plan of the report.  I can’t believe that Sweet Girl is actually doing a research report. 

Here are the pictures of our visit to the history museum.

First, we set the scene.  This is the front entrance of the museum.

Sweet Girl is taking notes (drawing pictures) after viewing a Union Army uniform from the Civil War.  Don’t ask me why there is a Union Army uniform and not a Confederate Uniform.  That’s a mystery on me.

This was a display of old toys from past residents of our area.

A genuine Edison phonograph – the kind that used wax cylinders.  A far cry from the modern MP3 file.

Sweet Girl writing on a slate typical of the old school house days.

There used to be a train line going through town about 70+ years ago.  Here is the original sign from the depot.  It is hard to believe there was once a train here.

Admiring some artifacts of a former woman’s lifestyle. 

Imagine a washing machine like this in your home!

Thinking about bread making in the old days….

….. and ironing, too.

This museum is pretty “hands on”.  I cannot remember what Sweet Girl was doing here.

Farming tools from “back in the day”.  There on the left is a taxidermy sand hill crane.  We have plenty of them here (live ones, that is), even now, especially at this time of the year.

Sweet Girl was especially interested in the old telephones.  She thought dial phones were pretty neat.  The black one on the extreme bottom, and the beige one on the right, were just like the phones in my house while I was growing up.  Sweet Girl could hardly believe that.

We stayed in this museum until we “closed down the place”.  It was a nice outing and it is not often that only the two of us go somewhere together by ourselves.  Now this week, as we approach lesson 110 in Calvert’s 3rd Grade Course, we will finish up this assignment.  And yes, we will bring a copy to the museum, too.  Sweet Girl will be proud of that!

June 8, 2011 3:20 p.m.

Little by little I have improved each day.  Each day I have more energy and less joint pain.  Today is the best day yet, although I still need to recharge my batteries once or twice a day (usually I can keep going all day long on an “overnight” charge).  Anyway, Fifth Disease really surprised me.  I had scarcely even heard of it before this year, never realizing how insidious, and how commonplace, it is.  Yesterday evening I was able to remove my rings from my left hand (my fingers had swollen up so much that it was impossible).  My knees are still a little stiff, and my fingers and toes are weak and sore to use after awhile, but I am not in any severe pain.  As you see, I can even type!

Anyway, my children have been very helpful, volunteering to serve me in any way they can (even as Chips has been dealing with the rash and swollen feet from this illness, himself).  The other day, Chips just began to straighten out the lower shelves of my pantry.  He did it on his own initiative, without even a suggestion from me, and it made a big difference.  Sweet Girl has cheerfully brewed some iced tea and made some instant pudding.  Chips is really maturing.  This week, when Sweet Girl claimed not to be able to find a library book  anywhere in the house, and after hearing that we would have to pay for the book, Chips went into her room and did a thorough search – enough to recover the book.  He also did not hesitate to telephone his violin teacher after leaving music at her home and request that she mail it to us.  When a friend of mine could not open up a Word file I sent to her, Chips went ahead and converted the file to a different format and sent it back to her.  So you see, Chips is really growing up.

Another word of praise I have is for the Calvert curriculum, once again.  Even when I was fatigued and sore, I was able to continue to homeschool without missing a beat.  I barely even had to think about it.  Chips, as you know, does most of his work independently, but Sweet Girl was able to assist me in teaching her because of the layout of the Calvert Lesson Manual.  All she had to do was look ahead to the next subject, go get the materials, and sit next to me as I did some “recliner homeschooling”.  She could then get the answer keys and wait while I checked over everything.  In this way, we have been able to keep up our normal pace of a lesson a day, with allowances for me to recharge (nap) as needed.  So that has given me real peace of mind.  All it takes is a week like this to make me really appreciate my health, and my kids, all the more.

April 19, 2011 7:04 p.m.

Sorry to leave you hanging, friends, really, I am.  But this past week was anything but typical.  There were so many different things going on; we have been out of our routine, and unfortunately the first thing to go was my bloggy life.  I hope you don’t feel too neglected.

Thank you to Linda, and anybody else who was concerned about our well-being over the past week, especially as my prior post was so foreboding.  Sweet Girl, I am happy and thankful to report, is completely back to her normal healthy self, and has been for several days now.  So much so, that she happily went swimming yesterday for the second time this season.

Besides, that, Monday the 11th was Chips’  11th birthday!  He had a nice, quiet day at home with us.    His birthday was a bit unusual in that the celebrating part of the day was long in coming.  We always wait for Self-Reliant Man to arrive home from work before celebrating anyone’s birthday, however Self-Reliant Man was slow in getting home that day.

It went something like this: in the morning, he drove his silver car to work, except he got a third of the way there and the car started acting up, so he drove back home and instead took his red car to work.  After work, he began the drive home except the red car turned out to have a problem and had to be driven into a side street and parked because it never would have made it all the way home.  This was when history was made, for Self-Reliant Man determined that he would not be able to fix his car on the side of the road and that he would actually need a tow!  This is the first time this has happened in all the near 17 years we have been married, ladies and gentlemen.  Usually Self-Reliant Man is able to fix his car well enough on the fly to get it home, even if it requires a quick trip or two to the auto parts store in the process.  But he knew that type of miracle wasn’t going to happen this time, so Self-Reliant Man called a tow truck.  Did you hear that, everybody?  SELF-RELIANT MAN CALLED A TOW TRUCK!  Whew.  Got that off my chest.  Here is a photo from that eventful evening.

This is the silver car, that could not make it to work in the morning.

And this is the red car that could not make it home in the evening.

These are the two children who are enjoying every minute of the experience, as well as the husband who is not enjoying the experience. 

Any questions?  Yes, we recovered from the history-making day, and yes, Chips eventually had a pleasant evening celebrating his birthday with cake and presents.

Other highlights from the week included…

Another Science Day at our house, this time to learn all about BLOOD!  That is our wonderful teacher holding up a giant model of a red blood cell. 

Here was our first brave participant in the blood typing part of the lesson.  What is your blood type?  Do you know?

Speaking of science, here are Chips’ models of hydrocarbon molecules.  I know I didn’t know what a hydrocarbon molecule was in sixth grade.  But then, there are a lot of things in the Calvert Sixth Grade course that I never had that early in my education.

Finally, best of all, is the next photo…

Here is a peaceful moment of team work between Sweet Girl and Chips, folding the laundry together.  This was too sweet to miss with the camera (although it isn’t that rare, this level of mutual cooperation certainly isn’t an everyday occurrence, you know what I mean?)

So, bloggy friends, things are moving along pretty well at our home.

So far this week, other opportunities have included:

1. Both children did a violin performance for a very elderly woman who is in hospice care, the mother of our neighbor, and the actual owner of the violin that is being loaned to Chips.  I have to say that, although she was largely unable to speak, this lady thoroughly enjoyed the music!

AND

2. Today and tomorrow the children are taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  They actually eagerly anticipate the “Iowas” and consider these days to be “free days”.  Go figure.  I am glad that tests don’t make them nervous.

AND

3. Today we paid a visit to a luthier to have an adjustment made to the violin loaned to us in this post.  Nothing serious, just an error in setup on the part of the violin shop it visited last (way up north of here in Vermont).   This is a man in his seventies, who supports himself staying very busy in his in-home shop where he doctors string instrument such as violas, violins, cellos, and basses.  A neat short documentary about him is here.  It was neat visiting him today, after seeing him in this video. 

Well, I am truly humbled if you made it this far in this post, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

April 2, 2011 10:01 p.m.
In my life this week...
When I have time, I am cutting and pruning vines, cabbage palms, low hanging branches, and tall weeds in various places around our yard.  This is a never ending job, and even though I spend hours doing it, a casual observer cannot tell I have done anything.  However, I mustn’t let that deter me.

In our homeschool this week...
Sweet Girl completed her third test set in Calvert School’s third grade course.  We made the decision to split her test over two days’ time, and it made everything much more relaxed.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...
Monday evening brings a Mom’s meeting with one of my homeschool fellowship groups.  Tuesday brings kickball (P.E.) with the other homeschool fellowship.  Wednesday brings an early morning chapel performance for Chips and his friend, J, at a local Lutheran school.  They will play the same hymns they played at the talent night and dinner theatre.  Then, hopefully, things will slow down toward week’s end.

My favorite thing this week was...
Seeing the children performing their little hearts out at our church dinner theatre last night (April 1st).  It was an entertaining, hunger satisfying, and exciting time for all who were involved.  I hope to post more videos of this event soon.

What's working/not working for us...
My staying off the internet until one o’clock every weekday has been helpful in allowing us to get done with lessons at a reasonable time.  I have also enjoyed, very much, keeping up with Chips’ literature, history, science, and geography reading, even though they are those dread textbooks.  I am particularly enjoying geography, now, as we are doing some in-depth learning of all the eastern hemisphere countries.  Yesterday, I read about Israel. 
Sweet Girl’s social studies textbook is turning out to be a little more enjoyable than I expected it would be.  When I first saw it, I wanted to barf  was dismayed, to say the least, but I guess it is because I had such low expectations of this subject that I am enjoying it all the more.  Strange…
What’s not working is the internet being “down” when we have extended rainstorms, as we did on Wednesday and Thursday.  We went 24 hours without functional internet service, and it put my students behind on the online portion of their work.  Chips is behind by about 7 videos.   I hate having to rely on a robust internet connection for homeschool, especially when we don’t have such a connection!

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
I am always thinking ahead to the day when we start high school.  And as I think, and peruse websites, the Potter’s School Classical Track is becoming more and more attractive to me all the time.  But I still have plenty of time to make this decision.
I also really agreed with this post over at Old Earth Creation Homeschool blog.  We cannot rely on the magic textbook for the high school subjects.  Our students are young enough that they still need more guidance.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...
None other than our son, Chips, in his performance here yesterday evening.  We still cannot believe what we hear and see, and we are so proud of him and his on stage poise and confidence, no matter the size of the crowd.  The Lord has really given him a gift!

March 25, 2011 2:19 p.m.

The weather here has been just exquisite for several days.  We have had all our windows, and even our doors at times, open all day long and into the evening.  We only close them to sleep due to the many noisy dogs in our area.

Our house has a long, cigar-shaped footprint with a screen door, or screen-enclosed area at either end.  So when both ends are open, the afternoon sea breeze that gives Breezy Point its name flows through the entire house.  Yesterday, though, the winds were out of the west, and they were strong.

This is the view through the house, to the other end, looking west through the screen door on the bedroom end of the house.

And this is the view from the breezeway on the other end, looking east.  The house was deliberately positioned east to west to capture the afternoon breezes, and it works well.  Almost too well at times.  I love having the house open.

Here are further images from our lives and lessons…

Sweet Girl starting in on her scrapbooking.

She played ball with me in the front yard.   It was so beautiful.

Netfl*x night here, with new bean bag chairs, designed expressly for kids to “veg” in.

Now this kid knows how to study!

Calvert’s 3rd grade Greek Mythology: I read the story, and Sweet Girl listens.  Except I am not content to simply sit and read.  Rather, I make the story “happen” as I go on the dry- erase board.  Sweet Girl gets a kick out of how I do this.

Happy Spring, everybody!

March 24, 2011 3:57 p.m.

In my life this week...

We had a nice, quiet celebration of Sweet Girl’s 8th birthday on Tuesday.  She doesn’t ever specify what gifts she wants or expects; just trusts us to know what she likes.  We hit on some winners with a scrapbooking kit, a bean bag chair,  and some Polly Pockets.  She was also happy to get a replacement kickball and hula hoop.  It isn’t easy to keep those kinds of toys in good condition for long.

And Spring is in all its glory here these days.  Today, especially, Breezy Point is more like Gusty Point!

In our homeschool this week...

Plugging and chugging along.  Chips turned in his second test set last week and is up to lesson 46.  Sweet Girl is on lesson 55.  We gave her a day off from school for her birthday, of course.  She especially enjoyed her science lesson this week, which involved Oobleck. 

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

We try to schedule a Saturday between birthdays for a family outing for celebrating Chips and Sweet Girl’s birthday.  But birthday plans for our family outing are on hold.  It is a long story, but Chips really needs to learn not to shoot off his mouth.  Character training never stops around here.  Long sigh..  (How to create consequences for one without the other having to pay, too?)

My favorite thing this week was...

Giving a Russian-English New Testament to our violin teacher, who I don’t think has ever read the New Testament.  She seemed to be happy to receive it.

What's working/not working for us...

What’s working for us is when I can manage to stay off the internet until we get through most of our lesson day.  If I get online for anything, anything at all, all order and productivity goes out the window.  Just like speaking on the telephone.  I’ve learned this time and time again.  I just have to live by it now.  So, help me, Lord.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I am thinking that I want to start keeping up with the sixth grade readings in history and geography, now, as well as science and literature.  History is getting more into ancient civilizations, and geography is getting into in-depth covering of all the eastern hemisphere and its individual countries.  I never remember getting any of this in middle school (or, perhaps, I slept through it all) but I am happy to be getting it now.  Having said that, though, as much as I want to do this, it will not be easy because it is all so time consuming.

Photos to share...

Sweet Girl, here, is making a friendship bracelet for her little friend at church.  She pretty much did it with very little support from me.  Just goes to show how “8” she really is!

Chips was a savvy shopper with some of his violin award money.  He found a great indoor flying helicopter for only $26.  This one works particularly well, and has many metal parts.  Air Hogs were cutting it for him anymore (too flimsy).

Here, Sweet Girl can be seen talking to her Mimi while opening her gift.  A lovely set of fresh water pearls!

Who says “School in a Box” is dull?  I’m making Oobleck for my studies in physical science this week.

This is the weirdest stuff, Chips!  Do you remember doing this?  It acts like a solid when you slam something into it, but then things sink if you leave them there for more than a second.  So is it a liquid or a solid?  Hmmmm..  ??

I cannot believe Calvert had Chips balancing chemical equations this week.  I know I never had any of that until high school chemistry.  It was a bit difficult for him to teach it to himself, but once I explained it to him, he understood, and even finds it enjoyable.  I guess I really taught something this week.

New bean bag chairs for all!  I called this a “book nook”, but they prefer to call it a “cozy corner”.  Whatever it’s called, it is a great place to read and write journal entries.

March 10, 2011 8:00 p.m.

It is not that often that an experiment turns out so well, but this week Chips was studying ions, ionic compounds, and molecular compounds, and he needed to do an experiment that demonstrated the conductivity of tap water, distilled water(reverse osmosis, in our case), dry salt, dry sugar, salt water, and sugar water.  Calvert sixth grade science is definitely middle school level, and it is taught in depth (much moreso than when I was in sixth grade).

Self-Reliant Man helped him set the experiment up, and the results were great.  The liquid, in each case, was inserted into the DC series electric circuit using metal “electrodes” of our making (paint can opening pry tools from L*we’s).  The experiment showed that the liquid was not conductive in any form except with salt dissolved in it.

With the salt water in the circuit, the light bulb was illuminated and there was actually a sizzling sound with motion in the water.  Chips loved it.  When we took the experiment apart, we noticed that the electroplated coating on one of our “electrodes” had actually been removed.  That was an unexpected effect that made it all that much more interesting.

Pictures, of course!

Here Chips is testing to see whether dry salt crystals were conductive.  They weren’t.

Yep.  Salt water is definitely conductive!  (but sugar water isn’t).

It is actually sizzling, and the light bulb is lighting, too.  Great experiment!

I think this was one of the best experiments we have ever done in our homeschool.

March 10, 2011 4:41 p.m.

The other day we received back Chips’ first test for Calvert Sixth Grade.  I was very curious how it would turn out because I had taken a more “hands-off” approach this time.  In particular, I had made Chips take more responsibility for knowledge of course content in science, history, reading, and geography.  In the past, I would get very involved in the  preparation for these subjects, making sure I reviewed all the details with him.   But this time, I left it up to him, having required him to take good notes on all his reading along the way.  (I guess I am getting tired…)  Anyway, for science, history, and geography, I have been requiring him to outline all his reading in his spiral-bound notebooks.  He hasn’t always been happy about having to do this (imagine that!) but I stood my ground and kept reminding him that doing these outlines would make test day a slam dunk.

So, as I said, he got his first test set back, and guess what?  He got all “1s” (Calvert’s equivalent of “A”).  I was very proud of him, especially as he was more on his own than he ever had been before.  He really took responsibility for his learning in sixth grade. 

I’ve mentioned in the past how the A.T.S. teachers we have had all through the years have been pretty picky.  They have always held up a very high standard in grading our children’s work.  I have been surprised, wondering how much of the rigor was just talk and how much was reality.  Well, I’m here to tell ya, it is all reality!  I guess the last time Chips had a lenient A.T.S. teacher, it was his very first one – for 2nd grade.  He actually made the honor roll that year.  Never since!  Sweet Girl has never had a lenient A.T.S. teacher. 

When I saw Chips’ test come back, I studied all the markings and comments of this teacher and I am not sure this time.  Maybe this teacher will be a little bit easier?  We shall see.  Time will tell.

February 27, 2011 7:00 p.m.

This is the chair that I never have any time to sit and read in.

This is me sitting and reading in it on this beautiful, paradise-like Sabbath afternoon!

And it isn’t even Mother’s Day.  I am a blessed lady. (note: I am trying to stay ahead of Chips’ Calvert reading).

February 27, 2011 3:23 p.m.

Well the weather around here has grown rapidly warm, so much so that I can’t even imagine the chills that seemed to constantly be part of my life up until a week or so ago.  I feel like we have jumped from winter to late spring, all of a sudden. 

Sweet Girl received her first test set back from Calvert School.   It was her first taste of feedback from her new Calvert A.T.S. teacher for third grade.  It was interesting, for when she sent her first test in to Calvert, she was so excited to “meet” her new teacher.  I found this curious, to think that meeting the new teacher is still such a thrill even when it is through the mail, instead of in person.  I remember well the anticipation of discovering a new teacher when I was in public school .  Well, it turns out that her new Calvert 3rd grade teacher is a true veteran, having been an Advisory Teacher at Calvert for 32 years!  How amazing is that!?  I think what I was doing 32 years ago – let’s see, that was 1979, and I was in high school.  This teacher has served three thousand Calvert students through the years; isn’t that amazing?  I feel very fortunate that Sweet Girl has such a teacher, who has seen so many students’ work through the years and has such a good benchmark for evaluating Sweet Girl’s work.

So, her first set of tests was great.  Sweet Girl got a 1 (Calvert’s equivalent to an A) in Reading, Composition, Spelling, Math, Mythology, and Geography.  She got a 2 in Social Studies.  And she got an “incomplete” in Science.  Here is why that happened.  The first 10 questions on the science test had these directions: “write the letter of each word next to its meaning”.   Then there were several definitions given with blanks next to them, and another column with science terms such as “a. observe, b. conifer, c. inherited trait, d. metamorphosis” etc.  Well, Sweet Girl, instead of writing “d” when she meant metamorphosis, wrote “m” instead (for she was thinking of the first letter in the word rather than the letter besides the word).  This meant that all 10 questions were marked incorrectly.  So the teacher wrote “Retest Required” for science, and did not put a grade to it.  She wrote in her letter “I do not like to give a grade of four (4) on a first test, so I am giving you an incomplete…… send your retest with test 40”.
Anyway, I was thankful that this teacher’s extensive amount of experience gave her the wisdom to handle the situation this way, and it prevented Sweet Girl from experiencing the shock of seeing a 4 on the grade sheet.  It also gave me a chance to explain to Sweet Girl about the way letters appear besides answers  so that she doesn’t misinterpret this on a future test.  It is unclear to me whether her teacher realized how the mistake had been made.

Some homeschool mothers are pretty much against this kind of testing in their homeschools.  Whereas I can understand their point of view (I think) I am glad to have tests with our Calvert courses.  Yes, they can be long, and we do spread it out over several days (in Chips’ case) due to its length, but it does give our children an opportunity to get used to testing and make these kinds of mistakes now, when the stakes are low, before these unforeseeable types of errors are made when they are older and the stakes are high.

November 19, 2010 5:00 p.m.

We are nearing the end of our academic year.  Chips has six more days of Fifth Grade and we will be done until January.  I have to admit, I am so ready for it to end.

It has been a year of much learning, but it has been long.  We have worked really hard in 2010.  I have spent so much time on academics, leaving very little time for much else.  I do love Calvert, but it has been very time consuming this year.

Anybody who has read my blog for awhile has surely noticed a dearth of posts this year.  It couldn’t be helped.  I have had very little spare time.  But….when I look back over this past year, I am sure of a few things. 

• I am sure that there have been very solid academics accomplished in our home. 
• I am sure that our kids have learned much in our scripture and catechism studies.
• I am sure that they have been diligent in their music practice. 
• I am sure that they (and my husband and I) had a great time traveling out West this year. 

Don’t get me wrong; I am thankful for those things.

But when I look around, I am dismayed at all the other things that have gone undone.  I have often looked around the house in frustration over its state of disarray.   I have noticed the stacks of papers piling up on my desk, begging for a little attention (and/or a circular file).  I have seen the weeds in the yard, many more than I could ever pull.  I have seen the piles of books going unread.  I have seen the emails I have not replied to and the stacks of unfolded laundry.  I have bought ingredients to make meals for a lady with cancer, but it has been two weeks and I haven’t been able to get to it.

At times like this, it is impossible for me to not get on a guilt trip.  I see other mothers who have more children than I do, who homeschool them, and who seem to be always serving at church, so much more than I do.  I see other homeschool mothers who are baking more, crafting more, gardening more, reading more, blogging more, socializing more, and I wonder how they can do it all.  Either I am very, very, very inefficient, or surely they are not doing the academics that I am doing (?)    I do not mean to say this in a prideful way, although it probably sounds like I am.  I am just mystified, I guess.  Either I lack the energy, the brainpower, the computer / technological/ digital prowess, the help of extended family, or something else, because by the time I get done with all my have-tos, I have scant pockets of time left to do anything else.  My actual reading of printed material (not blogs and websites) has consisted of about two books for me this year, some read-alouds for the family (although I admit I haven’t even had much time for these), and reading the Calvert Fifth Grade reading books. 

Which leads me to ask a question.  I don’t know what other Calvert moms are doing about literature, but I find that if I don’t actually read the books that Chips is reading for his lessons, then I cannot fully draw out his thoughts and get proper answers from him for the discussion questions.  The answer key provides answers, but I am not equipped to evaluate the answers he does give unless I have actually read the chapters myself.  Does that make sense?  The same thing for American History.  It isn’t always easy for me to keep up with the reading, either.  I am often still trying to read the chapters of the day after dinner.

Another thing is, I try hard to uphold a high standard, not accepting any written work unless I feel it is up to par.  I have even had to reject two or three compositions this year that I felt were not Fifth Grade work (or a reasonable effort).  This is aside from the work that we send in to the ATS teacher.  If we have an outside activity in the afternoon, like chorus, or violin, then we return just in time for me to prepare dinner, and I don’t wrap up the school day until 7 or 8 in the evening (from checking work, evaluating work, having Chips correct and return the work, and in most cases having to go through a second iteration of this before accepting it and calling it quits for the day).   So, there have been days when I have felt resentful – feeling that I am “doing homework in the evening” like a public school  mom, but without having the benefit of the free time in the early part of the day – because I am teaching then, too.  Just being honest, here. 

So, I know there is a greater need for balance in my life right now.  January brings 3rd and 6th grade, and I don’t know if things will become better, or worse.  I know my younger student will still require a lot of supervision and one on one time.  But what about my 6th grader?  Will he get more independent of me this year?  Here’s hoping.  Any feedback I can get from other Calvert Moms would be most appreciated.

Anyway, six more lessons days.  Six more.  Then we will be free until January 4th.  Hopefully it will be a time of refreshment and recharging, as well as a time to regroup and think about what will work for us in 2011.

November 5, 2010 11:51 a.m.

I am happy and proud to announce that yesterday, Sweet Girl completed her Second Grade course of Calvert School.  One way we celebrated was to go out to lunch at a local fast food restaurant of her choice.  The other way we are celebrating is to exhibit all of her art work from Second Grade on the hallway wall, and inviting friends over to see it.

Sweet Girl's Second Grade Art Exhibit

 We completed the year by finishing test lesson 160, and then put it into the mail for her teacher to see.  Sweet Girl also included a thank you and good bye letter to her teacher, and some photos of herself and Chips.  This ATS teacher has been very thorough and very detail-oriented, and provided the challenge that Sweet Girl needed this year.  The Lord has gifted our daughter with a love for writing and literature; Calvert provides plenty of practice with both, and she rose to the task quite well.  Her Calvert teacher had much to say about her compositions and her read-aloud skills this year (Calvert ATS teachers listen to recorded read-aloud messages as part of every test).  We are also blessed because Sweet Girl enjoys, and does well with, mathematics.  I don't suppose it is often that a student enjoys and thrives in both hemispheres: verbal and mathematical, but Sweet Girl seems to.

Having said all that, I am looking ahead to Calvert's Third Grade course, and there will definitely be new challenges there for our daughter.  For me, it takes much physical and spiritual energy to keep an attitude of hard work and diligence alive in our home.  That goes for all of us, and I can see that the upcoming year will demand a lot from us.  I have rearranged all the books Sweet Girl will need for Third Grade, and she is very excited to look through them today.  Although there is excitement at the thought of beginning a new grade, there is also a tinge of sadness within me.  I no longer have a second grader.  Now she is in Third Grade.  That seems so much older to me.  Second Grade is a little girl in my mind, Third Grade is not so little.

Sweet Girls' Third Grade Calvert books . . . .

. . . .all organized and read to go next week!

So, today there is a lull in my workload because Sweet Girl has a day off.  That's why I had time to blog today!!  Chips still has sixteen lesson days remaining this year, and beginning next week, I will be easing our daughter into a few Third Grade lessons to keep her occupied until Chips is finished up, around the first week of December.  She really is happier when she has lessons to do, as long as her brother is doing lessons anyway.

Then it will be "party time" around here until after the New Year rings in.  Another reason why Christmas is the "most wonderful time of the year" at Breezy Point.

October 27, 2010  11:09 p.m.

Sweet Girl is very close to the end of Calvert School Second Grade.  Only a few lessons left to go.  Yesterday, she had to do a science composition.  She was supposed to write about the digestive process, from the point of view of the food that had been eaten.  She was to utilize science terms that she learned for the digestive system.  She really got into this assignment!  She even chose to provide several illustrations.  Anyway, here are the composition and illustrations.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.  My only comment is "Calvert, you asked for it!"


     I am an apple.  One day someone took me off the shelf.  It was a girl.  She bit into me and swallowed. I went down her esophagus.  I fell down into her stomach.  There some acid poured on me.  I did not like that.  Then I saw a cave opening and was pushed in.  I felt myself going in a maze of the small intestines.  Afterwards I didn't feel quite the same.  All the energy I had before was gone.  Suddenly I was moved into the large intestines.  All of a sudden I was covered in brown muck.  The next day I was pushed out of the body and into the toilet.

October 21, 2010 1:54 p.m.


Chips and I had a discussion about political cartoons.  It was part of a recent Calvert Fifth Grade American History lesson to help students to understand, and appreciate, political cartoons.  As a regular reader of God's World News, Chips has been exposed to several political cartoons, so he has the idea down in his mind.

Therefore, he decided to try his hand at creating his own political cartoons, just for fun.

Chips pokes fun at some of the issues of the times.  Here are the results:

Here is the first cartoon, using an airplane as a symbol.  Chips loves airplanes.

And here is his commentary on the economy.  A very simple message.

Just goes to show the impact, upon children, of the Information Age.  There is no way that I would have understood the concept of political cartoons at Chips' age!

September 28, 2010 4:36 p.m.

We are used to evidence of political correctness in our children's textbooks.  Minorities are portrayed in a disproportionately large number, and that's cool with us.  There is also gender bias, and we see this when girls are shown achieving something better than boys nine out of ten times.  The girl is often jumping higher, scoring more goals, winning more trophies, you get the idea.

But we found one yesterday that was worth sharing here.  A problem in Sweet Girl's Math book, which read as follows:

Mrs. Rodriguez knitted 126 baby hats.  Mr. Lake knitted 291 hats.  How many hats did they knit in all?

I'm sorry, but the mental image of a grown man, Mr. Lake, knitting baby hats (and so many more than Mrs. R!) just pinned our Funny Meter.  We all had a big laugh over this one.

Thursday, August 12, 2010 4:50 p.m.
Chips received back his Calvert Fifth Grade test 100, and did well.  The grades were all 1's with a 2+ in geography.  We were very pleased with his scores, but I was mostly happy with one particular composition that Chips had submitted with the test.  The teacher liked it, too.   It is, in my opinion, his best attempt at writing to date.  I have copied it here... what do you think? 


    Chirp!  Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-khhhher!  A bird and a squirrel were the only living things that I could see besides the trees.  I was walking through the woods.  The soft carpet of pine needles crunched as I walked.  It was so peaceful.
    The squirrel started looking at me for nuts.  I took some trail mix out of my pocket.  That cute squirrel looked up at me with shining black eyes.  A nut fell from my hand and then, bird to squirrel, they fought hard for that nut.  The woods were filled with chirping and angry scolding.  All living mammals and birds came out from hiding at the prospect of food.  To settle the commotion, I gave up my idea of delicious trail mix and dumped the whole bag out.  Families of animals, large and small, ran to the pile of nuts and began gobbling it up.  Timid mother deer with wobbling young fawns walked out, and father deer strutted out with dignity.  Little striped chipmunks scampered out from holes, and cardinals, chirping with anger, hopped up and down, around and around, trying to get their share.  The madhouse of animals died away with the nuts being eaten, but a few dried raisins, and some berries remained.   I turned to go, and just when I took my first step away from the berries, I saw a sparkle.  I looked closely, and saw that the sparkling was from a small head from a chickadee that was poking out from the branches of a bush.  It looked up, cocked its head, and hopped into the bush.  I sat on a log to wait.
    A few minutes later, the head appeared again, and the little bird peered around intently.  Its gaze fell upon the berries, and in a moment, it chirped, emerged from the bush, and hopped timidly over to the berries.  It chirped some more, and then more birds came from that bush.  After the berries were gone, the birds flew gracefully away.  I got up, turned, and hurried off toward home.  I needed some food, now that the animals had eaten mine.  The woods returned to peacefulness, and the pine needles crunched some more as I turned away from the scene of a natural wonder.

Thursday, August 5, 2010 4:29 p.m.

Those boxes don't look like much from the outside, but there are a lot of good things inside them.  We don't typically begin a new school year until January.  However, I do order the next year's curricula in July when Calvert is running their discount offers.  This summer's discount was particularly good for us, since for the first time we were able to order a re-use package for our youngest, Sweet Girl.  I think we ended up saving about $330 or so this time around.  The boxes seemed to arrive here only two days after I ordered them.  In other words, we weren't even expecting them yet, and when we returned from errands one day, UPS had come and there they were.

It is always an exciting time when our Calvert boxes arrive, even if we won't use the contents for awhile.  Sweet Girl will be in third grade come 2011.  We really enjoyed Calvert's third grade when Chips completed it, and since then they have actually added a new social studies textbook, entitled Communities.  So the course will not be exactly the same; there will be something fresh and new for us this second time around.  I remember well how Chips enjoyed reading Smiling Hill Farm toward the end of the third grade year.  What a sweet book.

This is my first chance to see the sixth grade package that Chips will be using next winter.  It is one thing seeing it in the catalog, but quite another to actually open and see the contents of the books.  In short, I am blown away by sixth grade!  I don't know if this is because I am amazed that my child has become this "big" already, or because I can't believe how much they pack into their sixth grade course.  Surely not all kids cover this much material in sixth grade??? !!! ???  I know I didn't.  Whatever, it is obvious that he will be learning a ton!  First of all, I cannot believe the amount of social studies that will be covered: two very substantial texts, one for ancient world history, and the other for eastern hemisphere geography.  I never remember learning geography to this level of detail, certainly not eastern hemisphere, and I never had a serious ancient history course until high school.  Secondly, I am amazed by the language arts book.  This will be a serious writing and grammar course for sure.  Finally, the literary selections are truly impressive to me.  The very first reading book will be the unabridged Swiss Family Robinson (which we recently completed as a family read aloud, so I am fully aware of the complexity of its language), then Anne of Green Gables, another substantial work of literature. Next up, Theras and His Town, which I suppose will mesh with the history course, then King Arthur and His Knights (which I never read) so this will be a first for me for sure.  Coming after this is a fun book that I did read as a youngster, The Phantom Tollbooth.  There are also several poetry collections, including Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost anthologies.  There is more that I could say about the sixth grade course, but you get the idea.  I know it will be a productive year!

Having said this, I am mindful of our time schedule and how I will be able to fit it all in. The suggested Calvert schedule says that I should be able to get lessons for both children accomplished between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., give or take.  We do typically start at 9:00 anyway (I can't manage to make it happen earlier) but we have not been able to go more swiftly than the time Calvert suggests because my kids are so challenged by the material.  So I fully expect to need until 2:00 - 2:30 each day.

For those of you readers who don't homeschool, yes, the hours between 9 and 3 are full of work, but then there is no homework to worry about, and no work to do on the weekends!  Now that alone is worth a million bucks.

I know I posted a month or so back about my scheduling approach to teaching two children with Calvert, especially since I do consider Calvert rather teacher/parent intensive (to do it well).  Well, I have had to change our approach recently to keep things efficient, and I hope to post more about that shortly.  For now, we carry on through the summer.... Chips on lesson 106 and Sweet Girl on lesson 117.  Might as well.  It is truly hot, hot, HOT outside!