I am stunned

I was just looking at the homework section in Yahoo Answers. Somebody needed help with their 3rd grader's homework assignment: name 3 countries in North America other than Canada, US and Mexico.

I was shocked. There are many, many people apparently who do not know that there are more countries than just the three named. However, I'm absolutely stunned at the number of people who, instead of thinking perhaps they didn't have correct information and look things up quickly on the net to see if they were right or wrong, are not only saying that there aren't any other countries in North America, but are actually criticizing the school/teacher for thinking that there are other countries! HOLY COW.

Wow, you know? It makes the whole anti-homeschooling thing really understandable. People are absolutely convinced that they are correct and are willing to judge even if they don't have all their facts straight.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith

I just learned that these two actors homeschool their kids! Not in a modern manner--they've hired tutors, naturally, which is a traditional form of home education for those who can afford it--but they've done some interviews and I found this one quote from Jada just wonderful:

We don't want our kids to memorise. We want them to learn.

And now I've lost the site I got it from... Ah well! Here's another one, with Reader's Digest talking to Will:

http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=31133&pageIndex=1

Wind

There's something about the wind and weather changes that seems to affect us all so horribly. Everybody was testy today. The 12yo and dd had a big blow up. I feel so horribly stressed and am so glad the day is done--well, sort of. Still have to do supper and all that. But back to my point: I have noticed that drastic weather changes and especially wind changes seem to do horrible things to us! I'd love to hear from others who may experience the same thing.

As for homeschooling and Montessori... I created a paper version of the checkerboard since I can't find my materials. The 12yo doesn't really need nor want to use a huge full version, but the smaller version will help him remember what to do in his large multiplication.

Homeschooling today was so-so. Two kept themselves busy with work, one worked for a while then resisted everything after that, another made so much noise and was so distracting everybody was being bothered. We went out after lunch--instead of our work period--and things really fell apart. I didn't even get flour, I was feeling so stressed by the time we were done the other shopping. That means I can't make cookies tomorrow for our French club get-together. I'll have to find something else. Oh, I guess I should make it tonight since we won't have time tomorrow! Although tomorrow is Wednesday and often a day of kind of lax work, it won't be tomorrow since the past two days were kind of lax. I'm even going to insist on our after lunch work period, since our club meeting is at 1--we eat lunch at 11 and they're usually done by 11:30-11:45. The oldest can focus on course work for an hour and I think I'll set it up so that the 12yo will do his LA during that time. That means he'll have more time in the morning to work on his science unit lapbook, which could be a messy affair and will be cleaned up before lunch.

It's after 5. I guess I should figure out a supper. lol. I feel like all of my energy is gone. The wind has taken it away...

Computer Problems Solved!

We had been going through all kinds of ideas and computer setups and were quite convinced we were getting ourselves a new computer for Christmas. We had all kinds of little blocks put in our way to actually getting a computer. This week, the computer did it's regular erratic crashing and dh really paid attention to the fan kicking in higher just before it crashed. He asked, "What if it's just overheating?"

I managed to find a fairly good program online--SpeedFan--for free, always nice, and we started monitoring the hard disk, general temperature, fan speed... The main temperature we were looking at tended to stay around 65C. It crashed, we had a look, temp was at 69. Dh tried stuff out and 'forced' it to crash again. It crashed just after it hit 69--so it had probably hit 70. We tweaked the fan to stay higher all the time and it hasn't crashed AT ALL for the remainder of this week. We are so glad!!! We now have an additional fan in there to help keep the temperature down and it's hanging around 51. Very nice. :)

I could go on about homeschooling and Montessori, but it's been a long week--despite it being a short week--and a long day. I'm going to play Sims 2 now. :D

I need to get more sleep!

I decided to have cereal this morning. Filled the bowl with cereal. Added the milk. Went and sat down. After a few bites, I just felt like I couldn't eat anymore, like I was making myself sick by eating more. But I still felt hungry. I couldn't understand it.

But then the memory of what I'd done flashed back at me: I had put regular cow's milk in my cereal and not my rice milk. Ugh.

So, I threw the rest of the cereal away--almost a full bowl--but couldn't eat anything, despite being hungry, because of my unhappy tummy. So I decide to have something to drink. And what do I choose? Cranberry/grape juice. That just caused the milk to start to curdle and create a more acidic environment in my stomach. A minute later, my stomach hurt. I took a couple of Tums to deal with the acid and decided to just stick with water.

Good thing I'm not driving anywhere today!

On another note, went over course change ideas with the 15yo and she's happier with the idea of the extra courses down the road and using the CTS outcomes just for her own personal development--and not going for credit. (Essentially, unschooling those topics--learning as much as she wants, although she does plan on setting some time aside to work on them.) I think it will work much better. She can focus on her core courses in the mornings and then have an hour or so in the afternoon mainly for her own interests or general reviewing. I'm so glad she's just a traditional/basic homeschooler and not signed up for blended or teacher-directed!

Wow, it's already Thursday!

This week has flown by!

It's been a fairly good week. The kids have been working well, we've got some new projects started, the 15yo's making good progress through her stuff, ds has been picking work more and more... It's been good!

But now I'm at a... lost the word. Hm. Anyhow, the 15yo has declared she's rethinking her career choice and going back to what she wanted to do for many, many years before she started watching CSI: become a pediatrician.

So, there's this part of her that has high goals--college is not 'good' enough, has to be university (and all of her interests the past 4 years have been demanding ones: medicine, forensics, law, business) and yet there's this other part of her that begrudges the work she has to do, is envious of her friends in the sports programs in the city where they only take 2 classes each day... How do I help her see that if she has any hope of getting into the programs she's been interested in, she has to work at becoming somebody who wants to excel, regardless of what task is sent her way? How do I help her focus on her education rather than on her schooling? These are the questions that challenge me now. Of course, with her recent admission of a change in career desires, that has changed somewhat the courses she needs to go for. Doesn't affect what she needs to do this year, but she could scrap all the CTS courses, if she wanted to, and just focus on the core courses.

Lost my other thoughts... Have been awake since 4:30, unfortunately. My mind's not working so well this morning.

A Sunday Morning Babble

I get a long weekend this weekend. My bil and sil (niece's parents) have tomorrow off, the two oldest's mom has tomorrow off so I've given them the day off and made plans with a friend for in the a.m. and park day in the p.m., and the 10yo still isn't done moving (afaik) so I don't have her yet. Unless I get a call later today about her coming tomorrow, I just have my kids tomorrow.

I have my vampire lapbook to finish today. I had hoped to work on a faux-quilt multiplication checkerboard (mine doesn't look like that, but I can't find a quilted version online) the 15yo and I had started a year or so ago, but I can't for the life of me find it. WAH!!!! The bulk of it had been finished. :(((( My thread is also missing, but I think I may have lent it to my mother when she borrowed my machine several months ago. But I'm not sure. I want my checkerboard back! And with my thread missing, I can't hem a pair of pants I bought a couple of months ago and still haven't worn because they're about 4 inches too long. *sigh*

I'm trying to think of 'inspirational' things for the kids to work on this week. Dd will probably still keep going with "Around the World", with me adding some, too, and maybe seeing if ds or the 12yo would like to start one--it'd be good to have an English model, too. The 12yo's science unit at the moment is ecosystems, which seems to interest him a bit, so I'd like to incorporate something 'more' than just going through the textbook. We can't do the 'create an ecosystem' activity described in the book because you're supposed to get critters from outside. We could modify it, however. I need to brainstorm ideas that tie in with what he's working on. I guess that means reading through the unit today! A lapbook is always a good idea... He could have a section for 'biotic' and another for 'abiotic' and different sections for the different parts of the unit. I wonder if he'd go for it? He'd definitely do a first one if I said we'll try it out and he gets to decide afterwards if he wants to do other work in the same manner or something similar. This is sounding good!

I need to work out what the 15yo has left to do for coursework she wanted to have done by the end of January and give her a rough idea of the work she has left to do and a general timeline that different sections should be finished by. She was so motivated and excited last year about working hard this year to finish a semester early, but it's just not happening. There have been definite illness issues and just plain tiredness. And I'm probably giving in too much to letting our work times slide a bit. I'm not sure she realizes what exactly is left to be done and how far behind she's getting, which means I need to show her. Her full-year subjects are okay (except maybe math)--it's the ones she said she'd have done for the end of Jan. that aren't. She has other subjects to take on after January!

Ok, done my babble. Moving on to work now.

Mid-November Already

Time is going by so quickly!! It's already Nov. 11, Remembrance Day. We watched the video "Pittance of Time" in honour of the day and all the people who have fought and continue to fight for us. I think of the local soldiers who have been killed the past few years overseas. I never thought about this type of stuff as a kid and wonder what sort of effect those school assemblies actually have on kids!!

As for homeschooling, we had a bit of a slow week, yet it was still better. My work expectations for the 12yo have been clearer, so he's been doing more. I have my planning done and know what's coming next with him. The presentations idea hasn't been happening too much, but part of it is because I'm finding a clash between personality and materials/presentations. Maria Montessori noticed that some children never felt the need to touch any of the materials or sit in on presentations. There just seems to be such an avoidance on his part of working with hands-on things. Which is so ironic because he touches everything else!

With dd, the Around the World work has been keeping in her busy and she's been a little less moody with things. I think she has been craving a little more structure and now getting it, she's a little more relaxed. This is good. She still has choice, but not everything is undecided.

I haven't yet finished my first lapbook. It's taking forever. I'm being a perfectionist about it instead of just putting it together as a model for the kids. Okay, I will finish it this weekend. There. Done.

I still feel a bit like we're behind. Especially with the 15yo. And I'm feeling guilty because I feel like I need to put my foot down more and insist on the work times. Which I will definitely be doing Tues.-Thurs. this week as the two oldest are not here on Monday and we are going to a career fair on Friday, which does count as a school trip and they will have things to do for it, but it means that much less time for the 15yo to work on her math and social studies and all that. Especially her social studies. She wanted to have it all done by the end of January. We're 2 months into the semester with her textbooks and she hasn't even finished the first of six themes. I'm going to have to find a way to speed things up a bit. I had hoped to take a more interesting approach, but it's not working and she'd rather just have it all done. So, I'll help her just get it all done.

Okay, good to have some thoughts out. Now I need to go do some cleaning. :D

Around the World in 80 Days

I was inspired by a local support group's advertised "Around the World in 80 Days" 'workshop' that they are having for member families. We're not participating in that but it got an idea going in my head of starting a binder entitled "Le tour du monde en 80 jours" (French version, naturally). I set up a very simple research form, something like this:

Jour #1
Pays visité (Country visited): _______
Continent: ______________
Population: ____________
Langue(s) parlée(s) (languages spoken): ____________
Informations intéressantes: ________________________
____________________________________________
Carte du pays (et autres images, si désirées) (Map of the country and other images if desired):


I left the bottom half of the sheet blank for images that can be pasted on. I forgot to put Capital and will make sure to add that to the other sheets. I also printed off a map of the world with the countries outlined from here. The idea is that we (whoever wants to participate) adds to the binder a sheet on a country they've learned a little bit about.

When I had discussed the idea of doing a country a day, dd balked. I tried to explain a bit but she had herself imagining some huge thing for every day. That's not my goal for this. It's to have her enjoy exploring the world from home, working on some easy research skills and just enjoy learning something new. Ok, and admittedly, I'm hoping this will be a starting point to some more in-depth geography studies. Once she saw the sheet and saw the map where we put a point for our starting place, she said she could do it, but grumbled a bit. By the time she was done, she was asking for another one! She loves it! (Despite me insisting she write in cursive ;).) And she loved putting a point in the middle of Egypt (the country she had chosen) and joining the lines on the map. Of course, I only had one sheet done up so she couldn't do more today, but I'll have more ready for tomorrow. I'd better: she plans on going to some tropical place tomorrow. ;D

Want a Challenge?

Here's a challenge for you and your kids (don't give any clues to your kids--just let them answer as they think!):

Question: How thick will a folded piece of paper be if you fold it in half 50 times?

Procedure:
Take a piece of paper. Fold it in half.
Continue folding it in half, keeping track of how many times you are folding.

What did you discover while doing this? How close was your estimation?

I'll provide more information in a few days! :D Feel free to share your results and observations in the Comments.

ADDED Nov. 5:
As indicated by someone in the comments, a piece of paper can actually only be folded 8 times--although sometimes you can only reasonably manage 7. Don't tell your kids this! My kids had a great time trying to see just how much they could fold the paper and if the size of paper made a difference. Once they saw how thick 7 or 8 times were, I asked them to think about how thick it would be if, theoretically, you could fold it in half 50 times. (The answer is that it would go past the sun!) You can have older kids work this out by thinking of having sheets of paper and doubling the layers each time. Those who are into exponents can do the 2^50. They can chart how many layers there are at 1 (2^0), then doubled, then doubled again, etc. If they aren't yet at those math skills, you can tell them that doubled 9 times (2^9) is 512, a little more than a pack of copy paper. 10 times is twice that. And so on. We worked out that you would need over 2 quadrillion packs of paper if you were to double the layers each time until you had doubled 50 times. That's over 200 trillion boxes of 10-packs of copypaper. The results thoroughly impressed the kids. And they loved discussing the math involved!

November 1st!

How did November get here so quickly?!

Today was a sort of new start. We had a class meeting this morning and I put in place that we are to have 2 hours of 'learning time' after lunch. Since the oldest has specific subject work to do, the others We only made it to 1.5 hours today, but the internal clocks are still working on the old time. It went over just fine and the kids did really well--especially for a Wednesday! Of course, two of the kids spent their time drawing in the morning, which was quite all right with me because it's something they haven't done in quite a while.

I still find myself dragging what with the time and weather change. I'm tired plus my sinuses are acting up. Then, of course, there are things to keep me busy, like Halloween last night. Didn't do any planning at all for today so had to wing it all--it worked out, though, as the kids kept themselves busy with reasonable activities.

It's 3:40 and I'd rather just go to bed right now. Ds is feeling the effects a lot, too--he unintentionally fell asleep just before lunch while I read to them from a book. He's been super tired all week. Have I already mentioned that I hate time changes??

Our Fairy Princess Whippet

I thought I had a couple from the side and back, but apparently not. I'll have to take some of her later. She looks like a ballerina dog from behind!

An Unschooling Halloween

I'm still suffering from this darned time change, plus it's Halloween. I found a bunch of Halloween stuff for the kids to do, if they so chose (although I did insist that the 12yo read some words to me; dd did everything I printed off!), the 12yo drew for a while, the pianos (full-size electric plus a small lap keyboard) have been played, some have gone outside to play, the 15yo is researching the Salem Witch Trials and witchcraft in general (not writing anything up, just searching and reading). It's only 9am but it feels like 10 and... ugh. I hate time changes!

Have some errands to do today--library and bank--then we'll have a movie and Halloween cookies in the afternoon. Dh is taking our kids trick or treating tonight while I hand out candy with our Fairy Princess Whippet. I'll have to get the picture off of my camera...

This Week is Not Starting Well

With the time change, I've been awake since 4:30, after not having gone to bed until close to 11 last night. So, I'm tired and grumpy but am determined to get us back on track with some routines this week. That can be difficult when I'm tired and grumpy.

To add to it, ds comes down, is all happy because it's not a school day, I say it is, and because he's not had enough sleep, he starts crying. I've sent him back to bed.

May this day improve!!! I hate time changes. :(

It's Sunday

I'm all out of sorts with this time change thing. I heard on the radio the other day that this will be the last time the clocks fall back in October--as of next year, it will be the first Sunday in November. I say scrap the whole Daylight Savings thing to begin with! Saskatchewan has got it right!

As for homeschooling and Montessori... I've been a busy girl today and am wearing down. I've printed off addition facts booklets, prepared math worksheets--some for use with the Bead Frame, started preparing a math test for the 15yo as she's just about done her unit, looked through her social studies stuff to try to speed that up a bit, planned out what I want her to get done this week--using HST and getting the schedule she developed put in, worked out a new schedule for the 12yo--I have been coming across a lot of stuff this weekend about some kids needing solid routines or schedules and have learned over time that when things pop up like that at me, it usually means it's something I should be implementing*. I've also found a bunch of Halloween stuff in French for the kids, put a sheet together for the Guy Fawkes Day poem so the kids can memorize it (I've just been hit with the idea of doing something a little different this week with the 12yo--having him do his spelling by using the poem). Jane talked about her folders and it reminded me of one Montessori mom I know who has folders for her dd's. I'm not sure how Jane's are set up, but the other mom's is per child with certain work to be accomplished for the week. I've set up something similar with two additional folders: an orange one for this week's themes (oh, just remembered, need to get All Souls' Day and All Saints' Day things in there), another one for general things they might be interested in using (there are some maps in there right now). Each child has a colour-coded folder so they see quickly which folder is theirs. I actually have a folder holder thingy (that's specific, isn't it?) that can sit in the middle of the table or something.

I was hoping to work on a Homeschool Control Journal or Manual today but I'm feeling too beat now to be able to think about it clearly. I'm taking FlyLady's Student Control Journal idea and modifying it to suit our homeschool. I'm thinking of things like general routines for everyone to follow--getting your pencil box, books, etc. first thing, group clean-up in the afternoon, weekly schedule for other stuff like cleaning the van--and more specific things like Code of Conduct that they can add to as things come up, specific student schedules, a calendar so we can see what we have planned when, maybe even have a page of homeschool/friend contacts.

Oh, I've got laundry to go put in the dryer. Time to go.

*I recently had the book or recommendation for the book "Bud, Not Buddy" show up in some way or another repeatedly over a couple of months. It was literally in my face at the library one day--on cassette--so I got the hint and took it out. It was an absolutely wonderful story! The kids and I all loved it. Also brought up lots of chances to discuss historical matters--the Depression, how Blacks were treated at that time in the U.S., and more.

Types of Play

One of Jane's comments has got me thinking more, about seeing the children's play as work.

I think there are different types of play that children engage in. There is the type of play where they are alone but somehow building on certain skills or processing what's been going on in their lives. That's a play that is work. You see the skill building or thought process development when they are building something completely new or are trying to figure out how to do something. You see the 'life processing' when, after having seen a burned house, they are playing with a fire truck and reinacting the firefighters putting out a fire. In group play, you see a lot of the negotiation and more of the reliving and processing of life matters--divorce comes into play, fears of being kidnapped come in. All kinds of work being done through play.

There is another sort of play. One where little of that processing work is going on. It can be the above play, but instead of processing life or working out problems, it's simply destructive or lacking any real focus or purpose. It can be play where the child is bored and so needs to keep himself entertained because he doesn't know what else to do. Or the kind where the child is avoiding other stuff, often something she doesn't want to do--usually because she's afraid on some level of what's being asked--but it can be just life in general. The kind where the child is not really engaging in anything. This second type of play is okay--but when it's persistent, especially in the case of avoidance, it needs to be looked at. Mind you, it's doubtful that we would take the first kind of play and encourage a child to do that each day, all day, for 18 years. We would have to wonder just what is going on with this child that this type of play is the only thing he or she can engage in!

This second type of play, the older the child in particular, can be a sign of emotional difficulties. Not knowing how to deal with their emotions, the children escape them by engaging in a safe activity. Nothing safer than laying on the ground, playing with a ball or small hockey stick, rolling a car around on the ground. Or they engage in social play but you see that they are the ones who never bring anything 'real' to the game, which in turn has the others frustrated because the game is meaningful to them. The former bring no challenge to themselves, no pushing forward, no processing of real life. It's escapism.

If you haven't seen this type of play, you may not know what I mean. I see it regularly and know that it's a problem--the longer it continues, the worse it gets--and it almost inevitably bring others into the avoidance. The latter aren't trying to avoid anything, but they get caught up in enabling another's avoidance of their fears.

Most of what children play is beneficial and when it isn't quite challenging enough, they automatically add some other element to it to make it more complicated. But not all kids are able to do this, so all play can not be seen as being the same.

A Dairy Rant

I saw this commercial on tv last night that just ticked me off. It was all gushy and warm about how good milk is for kids and how they 'need' at least two servings a day and blah blah blah.

Well... BS!!!!!!!!!!!! (Those of you who know me know I'd never actually say or type out the words represented by those two letters. :D)

The dairy industry has got some hold on the nutrition people and it just makes me sick. The vegetarians managed to make enough of a fuss so that the Meat group has long been the Meat and Meat Alternatives group. Well, what about the Dairy and Dairy Alternatives group? Not only are there plenty of vegetarians who do not consume dairy products (primarily vegans), but there are plenty of us who are allergic to dairy products and can not (or should not) be consuming them.

I'm so sick and tired of the ads in magazines for milk and the stupid milk moustache. Milk does NOT do MY body any good!!!! Yeah, right, I'm sure that water retention, at times severe colitis (I was actually worried at one point that I had colon cancer it had gotten so bad--before I realized my dairy allergy (or severe intolerance) had escalated), abdominal cramping, mucousy throat, increased sinus problems and more are all just wonderful for me, aren't they? And when I think of it, a milk allergy probably isn't quite as uncommon as one might think: in the 5 years I've been in this home and run my dayhome, the first girl had a dairy allergy; I suspect my nephew, who came just after, is dairy allergic; the 10yo (who was added after that)'s mom is dairy allergic and she (the 10yo) may very well be, too; the 15yo, her dad and various people on her dad's side are dairy allergic; I'm dairy allergic; I know at least one homeschooling family whose kids are dairy allergic... So, all the kids in my dayhome have been touched by a dairy allergy in some way (or, in my nephew's case, suspected of it).

Oh yeah, and the things about eating yoghurt to lose weight? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I gain two pounds just by having something made with milk. I've been bad and having things with milk in them all week and I gained 4lbs overnight.

And since cow's milk (and goat's milk and whatever else is out there) is milk designed for baby animals, how the heck is it a vital requirement for our children? Sure, it can be helpful, but the ads always make it sound like you've GOT to have dairy. So how come Health Canada does not have alternatives for dairy listed??????? If calcium is so important, how come the dairy industry has this monopoly over calcium consumption? Not that the food groups are terribly detailed about the meat alternatives, but it would be nice to let people know that it doesn't HAVE to be dairy products to get their calcium.

Furthermore, I have a beef about these peanut-free labellings that are popping up everywhere. What about dairy-free? Now, I'm not saying: get rid of the labellings. Peanut allergies are usually much more serious than dairy allergies and the serious peanut allergies are certainly much more common than the serious dairy allergies. My problem is that dairy is in just about EVERYTHING. "Modified milk ingredients." "Skim milk powder." "Something-or-other caseinate." "Whey." Part of me says, "Well, you know, these are all processed foods and you'd be much better off just eating natural foods." But, hey, I'm jealous. People with peanut allergies can go have that Quaker granola bar BUT I CAN'T! I can't eat the M&M's that weren't made in a peanut factory. Heck, I can only buy President's Choice chocolate chips because they are the only ones I've found in regular grocery stores that don't have milk in them. Fortunately, they're the best. But that's not the point. There's so much out there with milk or that says, "May contain traces of milk," which means it usually does, and just a trace is enough to build up in me and make me suffer.

I would have less of a problem with all of this if it were more widely said that milk itself is not necessary, just that milk is a source of calcium and calcium is necessary. But so often, the ads say things like "milk is important" or "you need x servings of milk" or they simply rely on the food guide (darn food guide needs to be changed!) so that they say "recommended".

OMG! I just decided to see what the Canadian dairy sites might have to say for those who are allergic to dairy products. Despite mucous production being a HIGHLY common symptom of a dairy allergy, I found this on one site:

Does Milk Cause Mucous?
This is a common myth. Research shows that milk definitely does not cause the production of mucus. People who believe that milk causes mucus report some symptoms such as difficulty swallowing, thick saliva, more congestion than people who don't believe this myth. Moreover, a recent study show that milk intake is not associated with increased nasal secretions, symptoms of cough or congestion.

How about it's simply that those who are ALLERGIC to milk will report that they feel mucousy? Did they consider that? Or perhaps there are people who simply aren't aware of the mucous production? I know I didn't pay much attention to it until I had gone completely dairy-free for a few months because I was nursing and my ds was reacting (although now I wonder if he was actually reacting to my reaction or if it was actually his own reaction to dairy). I was enjoying a very good spring and thought it was just seasonal allergies were being good to me that year. I realize now it was probably that I was just less mucousy. When I re-introduced dairy, I became acutely aware of my reactions. Anything with butter is the worst--immediate, thick mucous. A shortbread cookie plugged my throat and nasal passage so badly once that I almost couldn't breathe. I guess they are essentially saying that it's only my imagination or that I brought it upon myself? I resent that! I only believed the mucous link AFTER it happened to me! And I say this now as a mucousy person who has had too much dairy today!

I've come to the end of my rant. I know this will accomplish little but to release some steam. And perhaps be another reminder to myself to eat more natural foods because then I don't have to worry about the dairy in them.

---

So... how was your day? ;) Mine was good. The Halloween party went great. I've had so much sugar and dairy and just plain food I have no appetite now but am horribly thirsty. Yes, this is a strange way to end a post, but it's Friday evening. I'm probably a little loopy. Oh, and a little tidbit: the 10yo won't be coming for at least another week as her mom isn't done moving everything over and getting everything set up. Trying to do all that in one week while working is practically impossible. But she is still coming!

Halloween Party Today!

I'm having my homeschool Halloween party today. If everybody can make it, we'll be 27 people. I've never had that many people in the house so it'll be interesting to see how we all fit. It's a good age mix and we've got a scavenger hunt in the neighbourhood planned plus probably put on a video after that since it doesn't look like it's going to be super warm today to be able to spend more time outside.

Unfortunately, it looks like Jane's got kids who may be too sick to come. :( I was hoping to watch Sam in action. :D He looks like such a character in her photos on her blog. [See blog link to the right.]

So, what do the kids and I have to do this morning in preparation?

• Cleaning/organizing: put some stuff in the basement to make more room, dust, vacuum, make sure the main bathroom is clean, sweep and wash the kitchen floor, cover up the school shelves with sheets so the materials don't get touched, move the kitchen table, bring chairs into the living room. Make signs for the upstairs doors: Bathroom and Do Not Enter.
• Decorate!
• Food preparation: I have another loaf of green bread to make, sandwiches to make and punch to prepare. Shoot, I forgot to make ice cubes last night. Should do that asap. Oh, another shoot--we forgot to make our ice hand to put in the punch. I don't think it'd be ready in time if I prepared it now. :( Oh, I also don't have any new gloves to use. Shoot.

That's not too bad.

On a totally different note, I started working out presentation plans for the 12yo for math. It feels so good knowing what I'm going to direct him to do, and it's broken down into individual lessons. This isn't a week plan, but kind of a unit plan, in the order I will present it to him. Since he doesn't turn to materials on his own and work on his own, I'm going to prepare worksheets for him to accompany each presentation. I just need to keep going with that planning throughout the weekend for next week. I feel like I'm returning to Montessori--not sure how I completely strayed, but I did.

What's on my plan some of you may be asking? Well, it's upstairs at the moment and everybody's asleep still, so I'll try to do this just by memory:

Addition:

facts--done with facts booklets and/or worksheets
-bead bars
-Strip Board
-the addition charts, in order (you can see an image here)

larger operations--to be done concurrently with facts practice
-Golden Beads (incorporating place value work--this seems to be a difficult area for him and he needs a little lesson to see what it means when a workbook or textbook asks "2 hundred more", "4 tens more")
-forgot to add this one last night: Snake Game
-Dot Game
-Bead Frame (mine is just a regular abacus--doesn't look like this one!)
-Decimal Fraction board
-word problems

related items
-algebra (a+a+a; a+b+a+c; 1 + a = 4; etc.)
-perimeter of triangles, quadrilaterals, irregular shapes
-patterns: 1, 4, 7, ...
-binary

Oh, it's already time for me to get myself going. I think that was the extent of my plan. There were little additional details here and there, but can't remember them. And, to be honest, this plan is really applicable to dd and ds and the 10yo (coming back Monday! yay!) But somehow laying it out like this lets me see the whole picture and I can now work my way down through the details.

Work Today!

We've barely done anything all week. I read Jane's account of her kids keeping happily busy and wish this bunch would do that! The 12yo always turns towards play and pulls everybody else in with him. Dd and ds were total, happily busy, unschoolers this summer. It all changed when the two oldest came back for school.

Anyhow, because we've barely done anything and the two oldest are getting severely behind--especially the 15yo, although I think we could scrap a lot of the social studies assignments and go through everything very quickly--we need to do SOMETHING today. Tomorrow is scrapped--Halloween party preparation in the morning and then the party in the afternoon. I know that we are 'restarting' school on Monday with the 10yo coming back--yay!--but I just have to get rid of my guilt. hehe

So, today, they each need to do at least 10 minutes worth for each year they've been in school. So, dd in grade 4 has to do at least 40 minutes. The 12yo, in grade 7, needs to do 70 minutes. The thing with that is that 70 minutes of work will undoubtedly stretch out the full 3 hours of the morning. Ds only needs to do 10, but he's got back into his subtraction workbook and will undoubtedly be spending at least 30 minutes. So, expectations for work, but nothing unmanageable.

As for my work: I need to work tonight on getting presentation plans ready for next week. I wasn't sufficiently ready for this week and while I used some on Monday, I think I would have flopped later in the week. So, I want to get going on this tonight and through the weekend so I'm well prepared for next week.

Must eat breakfast now!

They're all getting sick again...

With our Halloween party coming up on Friday and the requirements for that, the excitement about the 10yo returning and now illness creeping in again, I'm going to be super gentle on myself and the kids today and tomorrow! Lots of group stuff together. We might even be able to finish reading "Among the Barons". If you aren't familiar with the "Shadow Children" series, check them out at your library. The first is "Among the Hidden".