You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2010.
There are many lessons in our homeschool. If only I had known I’d be learning most of them.
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He’s a great teacher. Persistent. Oh. So. Persistent. Determined. That, too. Committed. Passionate. A born natural, as it were.
I set out three small, tidy goals for myself at the beginning of the year. I am happy to inform you that my January portions were fulfilled.
There were 3 themes: books, connection, and socks.
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Connection: One set of grandparents phoned. One letter written to the other side.
One precious letter received in reply. A story of learning to knit nearly 60 years ago. Glimpses into a life lived today. Precious.
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Socks: Waffle Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks by Schurch. His third pair in this pattern. What can I say, he likes them. And the little prompting of having something interesting to do every 4 rounds, that little spur to do ‘just one more repetition’ before setting them down makes them go along at a good speed.
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Books: I had two books unfinished at the beginning of the year and I allowed myself to count finishing both as one book. This is part of my new philosophy of being as compassionate to myself as I am to others.
Acacia is more political and mythological than the fantasy genre would lead you to expect. A dark book in many ways, stuffed with interesting, complex characters, and always the plot was doing unexpected things – recommended.
Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England checks off the first of 6 biographies I plan to read as part of this goal. A good bio, though like many from this time period a paucity of sources makes this more of a textbook on larger events than a riotous look at a personal journey. Still – recommended, especially for those of you who like medieval history.
I had started reading a bio of Wellington, but it’s dry and 98 pages in I think I’m putting it aside. Our small library doesn’t have the best selection of modern biographies with that indefinably more interesting approach to the genre which I prefer. I just started Wicked this afternoon, something everyone else has read. So far, intriguing.
I am finally posting this after signing up to be one of the five over at Quixotic Pixels. Why has it taken so long? Forgetfulness mixed with shyness. That old backstabbing voice, “Who am I to think you’ll like what I do enough to want some of it?”
Onward, without fear or recriminations!
Here’s how it works:
The first five people to leave a comment on this post will get something from me.
But in return, you have to do the same thing on your blog and make something for five other people. The details are as follows, and if you want to play, copy the following onto your blog and leave me a post:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It’ll be done this year (2010).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something strange.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.
7. Send your mailing address – after I contact you.
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“Spelling is a lowly servant. It obediently follows on the coattails of the finer subjects. That’s OK. There is no reason to make Spelling sit on a higher seat of priority. It’s perfectly content to take such a humble position in the curriculum.”
Karen Andreola
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Is there something that would better serve you if you nudged it back to its rightful place in your priorities?
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Not so much the sinuous beauty of air and solids that constitutes lace but the bouncy eccentricities of egg cartons.
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Pattern: Meandering Vines Stole
Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts, grape
The front reminds me of underwater ridges in sand.
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“Mom, I’m sorry.” The eyes in the rear-view window were large and soft and full of contrition. “I’m sorry that I freaked out so much about homeschooling. Can you forgive me?”
I made eye-contact for a minute and then said, “I always forgive you. Even when you’re shouting at me, in that very minute I’m forgiving you. I’m hurt and yet I’m forgiving you. Always.”
Small sigh from the back seat. The traffic moves and sifts through holes.
“You know, Matthias, it’s not always my job to have you do what’s easy. Right? Homeschooling is about building a better you. It’s not always about easy. Imagine if you tried to sharpen a sword with butter. Not going to work. To sharpen the edge you need something hard, something tough.”
A soft, listening silence from the back seat.
“Not always, though. You’d rub it away to a stub. And sometimes you do oil the blade. But sharpening doesn’t happen with a sword and a stick of butter.”
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too.”
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There will be yet more fights. There will be yet more metaphors, analogies, and teaching stories.
Never straight. Never simple.
Always this boy. Always this love.
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“The real news of our lives is not in newspapers. We must chronicle our own adventures and achievements, our brilliant observations and our comic relief, our best friends and our greatest embarrassments.”
Woods and Dinino, Visual Chronicles
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What’s your news? Where do you record it?
Both children spontaneously started projects involving paper this week.
Matthias isn’t a project kid and so I’ve treasured the process and the product. The look of concentration. The hours of detailed creation. The bright, colourful cards so large.
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Pokemon cards, about 9 x 12″
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He usually listens to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows while doing these. The double combo of prolonged art involving fine-motor skills and an audiobook is just proving that no matter what you knew about your kids yesterday, you never know what surprises hide inside them today.
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Sandra’s project involves making paper models of molecules, complete with hole-punched circles for neutrons and protons and small pencil dots for electrons. My father has just begun teaching chemistry to her and another girl her age. He’s using Real Science for Kids. I’m so grateful that he’s doing this – he’s Sandra’s best friend, he’s wise and thoughtful, and he’s a trained scientist with time to do this right.
I often read about other homeschooled kids doing incredible things spontaneously. It seems like my kids lack creativity and gumption by comparison. These sorts of perfect moments, the kinds we love to share with outsiders, happen pretty rarely around here. So I treasure them and document them when they do pop up.
Don’t feel, as I often do, the urge to compare your house with mine. Right now, for instance, it’s 9 am and Matthias is in bed in a state of shock that it is Monday and not Sunday as he supposed and is moaning whenever I mention coming down and listening to our chapter book while eating breakfast. I have no idea what Sandra is up to, having woken her quite late today and left her smiling fuzzily through sleepy eyes.
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One of my favourite gifts to give this year. For months it filled us with anticipation, knowing just how gratefully and gleefully it would be received. My sister lives on a student budget and has just gotten into knitting. This means that she’s constantly running out of yarn to knit.
Rainer and I hand-dyed 800g of worsted weight yarn for her. We mixed burgundy with brown, made it pretty concentrated, and didn’t stir much. We hoped for a yarn that was richly coloured and semi-solid, something that would complement her colouring and look good as a sweater. It looked so very, very dark when wet in the pot that I panicked a bit. It dried up nicely, though, and so I found paper to compliment it and made my own labels.
Katie’s got a sweater already picked out: the sleek hoodie Katje.
Rudra is a Hindu god associated with the colour red.
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Rainer skating on his masterpiece.
We donated our wooden play structure to a shelter this summer and he instantly noticed that this would enlarge the available yard space for the rink. (He is currently of the opinion that we could wrap the whole yard in rink, even the 1.5m wide strip of yard on the north side of the house. He says, “We’d just need to cover the side walk with carpeting…it’d be safe…the postal carrier would still deliver the mail…”)
The little islands of snow around trees are wonderful – they provide little paths for wandering if you’re in a meandering mood when skating and when we’re playing tag…oh, the perfect getaway dodges.
It was so wonderful we had to light it with overhead strings of coloured lights. It’s like our own little festival every night.
We have very little space to put the snow, though. Think about it – we shovel our yard as well as our walkways and stairs.
