The Last Two Weeks

So apparently keeping up a blog in a timely manner is not one of my strengths.... but I'm getting to it now!  The last couple of weeks have felt a bit strange because we've had some wonderful non-usual events in them! They've been wonderful, but they have meant that we've not gotten as much of our planned curriculum done...and I'm having doubts about my curriculum-led plan anyway but that's another story.  Anyway,  two Mondays ago we went to the Boston Science Museum with our friends Caitlin and family.  It was a lot of fun!  We saw the lightening show again, spent some time in the discovery room, and generally had a great time!  River especially loved the dress up/free play in the costume and habitat area and both kids played really well with others for over an hour.  The staff-led activity was archeology and hearing River say "Sarcophagus" was definitely a highlight. The fact that she later got it confused with "esophagus" when putting together a 3D human body puzzle was also cute.  It was a nice day too because it reminded me that even on a "non school" day, what they are learning at home can be reinforced in other places...which I know is obvious but it was nice nevertheless!

On Friday we went to our first family musical: Beauty and the Beast Jr.  The kids loved it, although River was distressed when people started clapping after the first scene.  "It's not over yet" she shouted! Darik brought that dress back from Afghanistan.

Rigel has a re-kindled interest in puzzles and he does one every night while listening to our story, which has been "Little House in the Big Woods". We just finished tonight!

We also made applesauce, which the kids loved making and we all loved eating!

Last Sunday Darik performed selections from "Children of Eden" at a local festival.  We had a chance to see some of the largest pumpkins in the state, with the biggest over 1,400 pounds.  River had to add her flair for the dramatic....

Rigel was desperate for an action shot!

Darik exhibited his carving skills making this pelican from the St. Paul's crest.  Isn't he talented!

River made this pumpkin...one of her very first drawings that actually looks like what she says it is!

Off to homeschool gymnastics...in costume!

And the cookie making business continues.  Rigel made more than $50 last Wednesday and has orders for $42 more this Wednesday. He had to buy his own ingredients this week for $16 but he'll still be making plenty of profit!

Leaf play!

And finally, River made this "car seat for a puppy" today at Emerson...she was so proud!

Oh, Rigel made this the other night....we went to his room late at night and found this note.  Basically he had snuck downstairs and saw that we were eating flan and berries and he wanted some.  So he wrote this note requesting that we give him some and left it next to a bowl he'd made in his room.

And Rigel discovered "Robo Rally" in the game closet and was desperate to play it.  He and Darik did and he loved it.  Guess who will enjoy Robo Turtles for Christmas?

So it is late, so my thoughts on curriculum and balance and homeschool goals will have to wait for another time (perhaps weeks given my blog record).  For now though, homeschooling is going well, it is, I just feel like we are doing a lot of great skill building but not kindling a love of learning.  I want Rigel to be skilled but I want him to inquisitive and interested in the world too.  I don't want to kill that or fail to take this opportunity to kindle it.  So I have some thinking to do.  But for now, we are doing well and tomorrow will enjoy a day at the Massabesic Audubon Center, followed by some school and then cookie selling.  Thursday we may go for a walk at the concord Audubon with other homeschoolers, and then Friday we head to mom's after Honeybee homeschool....life is definitely not boring.

The Cookie Business Begins!

Last Saturday while celebrating Darik's birthday, Rigel got the idea to open a cookie business at St. Paul's.  Before long the ideas were racing and he was thinking about all the ways he could expand his business from selling to parents over parent's weekend to selling to the boys in the dorm to setting up a stand at on-campus games and events.  We discussed his ideas (which he dreamed about that first night after staying up making an order sheet) and decided to start small and sell to the boys in the dorm.  In-House Advisee dinner on Monday gave Rigel a good chance to give his marketing speech to Darik's advisees and between them, Titi Lisanne and the Abuelos, he soon had orders for 50 cookies!  That's $16 dollars and yes, he was one very excited boy!

I wanted to support him in this project but not take over, so on Tuesday we had "project time".  He got out the recipe, read it to me, told me what ingredients to get out, and then started to cook.  I helped him when he explicitly asked and gave him pointers on how to do things like measure flour and explained what "creaming" means, but it really was his project and his work!  By evening 4 beautiful trays of cookies were ready to be bagged.  He is charging $1 for 3 cookies or 50 cents for 1.

Tonight Darik is on dorm duty and Rigel loaded up his tray with ordered bags of cookies, bringing the extras and an order form for next week.  It worked!  He sold all of his cookies and several students made orders for next Wednesday, with several paying in advance.  He made $21!  That's more than I've made in a long time!  Seriously, he did very very well and I'm proud of him.  Over the course of the night he went from being nervous to say anything to any student who hadn't already ordered to boldly knocking on doors of unknown students and asking them if they would like to buy a bag.  When he sold out he came home for a much needed night of sleep, but not before counting his money (of course).  I discussed with him the importance of setting aside some money to give away.  He wasn't thrilled by the idea, but agreed that he could set aside $1 for every $10 that he earns.  It's important to me that if he is going to be earning actual amounts of money that he get into the habit of being generous and thinking of others too.

** Update** Rigel has almost $50 of cookie orders for next week!  That's 2 1/2 batches of cookies...we are going to have to figure out whether he can even do that. I guess someone will be making cookie dough this weekend....

And so there you have it.  We didn't do "official" reading or math or writing or spelling today due to a wonderful outing to the Massabesic Audubon Center, Lego Club, and Soccer, but we did learn about: Sargon and the unification of Mesopotamia (thank you SOTW), why leaves change colors in the fall due to the decline of chlorophyll (thank you Ms Kim), and Rigel did get to work on confidence, social skills and basic math through his business. So, all in all, it was a good day!

I continue to feel a bit behind though as I had planned on spending the month of October really trying to apply the ideas in Lori Pickert's "Project Based Homeschooling" book.  I even signed up for and paid to be in an online class that she is leading but this far her almost daily group e-mails are sitting unread in my inbox, I'm only partially through the book, and I feel like I'm not really doing it at all as I'm still largely tied up in my pre-planned curriculums and our outings.  I do feel that Rigel's cookie business is a project though so while I'm not journaling this process (other than this blog) I am trying to serve as a mentor for him while letting him own the process.  I guess there is still quite a bit of October left to get caught up but for now I'm trying to at least keep those ideas from the book that I remember from my first reading in mind.

Mummy Time!

I'd say today was a success!  The kids really enjoyed mummifying the chicken...well starting the process anyway.  I think the gross part is yet to come.  For today though, it was fun to stir things and play with a chicken.

We also read "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" again as part of our very loose and extended FIAR study.  We had a taste test of the 4 different kinds of apples that we picked last Thursday.  Rigel loved the Macoun and the Gala, River loved the Gala, and Darik and I both like Macs.  It was fun!

If

Another week begins today.  Right now it's raining outside and my pajama-wearing little ones are playing in Rigel's room. They must know that I'm awake and no one has eaten breakfast, but their sounds of cooperation and fun are too precious to interrupt.  Even as I strive to balance the academics, the project-based stuff, wanting to get outside more, and the probably too-many activities we are involved in this month, I know that what is happening in Rigel's room is better than rushing to start our next lesson.

And today may be a day without formal lessons...  today we are playing "catch up".  Last week we had 4 "school" days, but somehow we didn't get to the fun activities that we wanted to do to go along with our lessons.  So today, we are doing it!  We are mummifying that chicken!  The salt, baking powder and baking soda are purchased and I have rubbing alcohol to cleanse the bird.  So sometime, in a while, when the games in Rigel's room stop, we'll get dressed, have some food, and mummify that chicken.  And then maybe we'll have an apple taste test and make some applesauce from the apples we picked last week.  I'll read a few stories, and then after lunch we can pick up some books from the library.  Maybe we'll go for a walk in the rain?  Or not, I'm not sure.

I do know that ultimately one of the most important things to me in homeschooling this year is to help my kids, but especially Rigel, build his character and resilience.  That might happen through the process of academics, but books and studies are not the only way.  I have long- loved the poem IF by Rudyard Kipling.  So today I challenge myself to work on living the "IF" poem myself and trying to focus more on living and modeling and discussing a principled and loving life to my little ones.  That's enough for today.

IF 

By 

Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Starting October

We've been homeschooling for about a month ago.  Our calendar says we've had 12 days of school, but counting field trips we are up to 20ish...so a month.  All in all it has gone well.  That said, there are days, like today, when I wonder what I'm doing and wouldn't he be better off with someone who wasn't just on the verge of loosing her patience!  Some days we seem to get so much done in such a short time, and some days it feels like we've been doing school forever and have yet to finish 2 subjects.  I feel tied to curriculum that I've chosen and that I like, but I feel like I'm not leaving enough time for the "fun" stuff...the history and science projects that I'd like to do.  Rigel makes it harder too because I'll have a great project planned (mummifying a chicken anyone?) and Rigel will say he doesn't want to do it because it will take time away from what he wants to do.  He wants time to play with dad and make things and I want that too!  And it's not like we are doing so much school that there isn't time for this, he has lots of free time!  It's just a balancing act that I have yet to master!

I am supposed to be taking an online class to go with Lori Pickert's "Project-based homeschooling" book, but frankly I've barely read the assignment.  It is supposed to be about improving our journaling of our children's learning and how they do it best.  Her example has lovely post it notes and pictures of their daily activities...I can't manage to update this blog more than once a week.  I guess I need to step back and work on just noticing more what works and what doesn't work so well in my homeschooling with Rigel. Ultimately I'd like to do a lot more Rigel-driven projects, I really do.  I don't want to just try to pour knowledge into his mind, I want to ignite a love of learning!  That's one of the main reasons he is home this year.  That said, the other main reason is because I want to help him develop his basic skills, primarily reading, to a much more independent level so that when he returns to school he can handle working more independently.  I really do think we are going to get there, but I think a large part of how we are going to do it is using the curriculum that I've purchased.  It's good stuff in there and so I want to do it... It just all takes time and somehow the "academic" stuff seems to take too long and the self-driven stuff doesn't seem to fit in.  I'll work on it!

This past week has had some high points though including climbing Mt. Kearsarge, Rigel finally getting to make his own bow thanks to Darik's help, playing soccer on the rec team, and starting percussion and lego classes.  Mom came to visit too and we had a really special time going to the Boston Science museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls.


OK, now onto the pictures...


Rigel is beginning to read more to himself in bed....now to get him to go to sleep!

He LOVED this kit.

Mom's mom made mom this dress when she was a little girl.  While my Grandma has passed away, I'm sure she would have loved to see this special moment.

Climbing Mt. Kearsarge

Learning the concept of "squaring" a number pyramid style!

Rigel with his handmade bow...

And River with hers.  She is not Katniss yet!

Rigel at his soccer practice tonight.  He's had 5 practices with this group this year and it has been great!  I doubt high level soccer is in his future, but he plays with heart and compassion and that is more than good enough for me!

Meanwhile on the sidelines....

Back in the game!

Mommy, take a picture of me doing this!

Rigel's team photo.