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.

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 16, 2011 4:25 p.m.

Today our homeschool group did this activity for the first time – Letterboxing.  I’d say everybody in our group had never done this before.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and around 80 degrees, and a perfect setting to search for letterboxes.

There were two such boxes in this county park we visited, and we broke into four groups to accomplish the task.

For those unfamiliar with the idea, letterboxing is like geocaching or orienteering, except without the compass and the technology.  Instead of using a GPS device, you follow the clues provided to find a letterbox.  Then you stamp the book inside the letterbox and write in the date and your trail name.  Similarly, you use the letterbox stamp to stamp your own notebook that you keep just for this activity.   You can note the date and the location in your notebook as a remembrance of the day.  This is a neat activity to do as a family, especially when you are on vacation.  The location of a letterbox near you,  and the clues to find it, can be found at this website and this one.

Here are some of the highlights:

Receiving instructions before beginning.

Starting down a trail after the first letterbox.

Can you see where the first letterbox is hidden in this photo?

Retrieving the first letterbox.

Everybody stamp the book!

At another part of the park, finding the second letterbox.

Stamping away.

A final group photo.

If you are interested in trying letterboxing, or want to find where a letterbox is hidden near you, investigate these two websites:  www.letterboxing.org  and www.atlasquest.com . 

It may just become our newest free hobby!

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).