I thought it would be fun, perhaps enlightening, to keep a record of what we learned, or at least explored, each week in our homeschool, especially since I sometimes get discouraged and wonder whether or not we’re making any educational progress at all. As I waffle back and forth from strict and rigorous requirements in a classical education mode to a more laissez-faire unschooling approach, I’m thinking that it would be helpful to write down at least some of what we do around here, educationally speaking, helpful to me and maybe to you all, too. We are learning, just not always in a traditional way and not always exactly what I want the urchins to be learning.

Monday:
Z-baby (7) did her regular schoolwork with her older sister. Her math, reading, language lesson and writing practice take about an hour when she does them with Dancer Daughter. It was taking all day when I was trying to do it with her between distractions (for me) and stalling (on her part). She also watched the Kit Kitteredge (American Girl) movie again; I suppose she’s getting some feel for the period of history that we keep hearing is returning: the Great Depression.
Betsy-Bee (10) did little or no schoolwork today. She listened to Narnia stories in her bedroom and re-arranged her room. She likes to clean and re-arrange almost weekly. She’s reading Garfield cartoon books right now.
Karate Kid (12) did a Saxon math lesson and watched a math video about pi with his dad. He practiced drawing, too.
Both Bee and Brown Bear Daughter (14) went to dance this afternoon.

Tuesday:
We read a Psalm from the Bible, prayed together, and then I read them Young Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott.
Z-baby again did her regular work with Dancer Daughter. I heard them reading from Story of the World about the Rus. I asked Z-baby to tell me later what they read about in their history book, and she said, “We read about the Rocks or the Rus and how they tried to conquer Constantinople.”
“Did they?”
“No, because the Constantinoples had something like sea fire, and it would burn on the water. It burned their ships and they had to go home.”
(She can remember and pronounce Constantinople, but not Rus?)
Z-baby and I also read a few poems from Jon Scieszka’s Science Verse. The evolution poem was rather stupid, even for true believers, (Grandpa was an ape?), but I liked the Gobblegooky poem, a take off on Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.

‘Twas fructose and the vitamins
Did zinc and dye (red #8)
All poly were the thiamins
And the carbohydrate.

After science poems, Z-baby listened to Prince Caspian on CD. She also asked me to read The Buck Stops Here by Alice Provenson in an effort to stall before going to bed. We talked about some of the presidents as we went along, particularly which ones were assassinated.

Betsy-Bee did her DailyGram and read a chapter of Caddie Woodlawn. She can’t find her math book (Saxon 5/4). I can’t find it either. She also started Book 3 in Mindy Withrow’s history series, Courage and Conviction: Stories of the Reformation. She’s visiting Narnia again in her bedroom after the schoolwork is finished. We finally found the math book, too late to do math today.

Karate Kid did half a math lesson before he went to his canoeing class. I must say that the canoeing class has been good for my now 12 year old Boy Explorer. One week they walked through the sewers with flashlights and found? Better them than me. He finished the math lesson and did a simple worksheet/map exercise for history.

Brown Bear Daughter is reading Mere Christianity for her English/worldview class. She’s also trying to cram Algebra 1 into about three months so that she can test out of it and biology, the science class she’s been in all year. The public school she wants to attend next year won’t take her word, or mine, that she’s completed either course, so she has to take a test. She’s adamantly opposed to taking biology again next year which she would have to do if she doesn’t pass the tests. The next course in their sequence is physics, and they won’t let her take that class unless she’s finished Algebra 1 and taking geometry. Ah, what a tangled web we weave when first we decide to enter the public school system.
Under protest (hers), BB Daughter and I listened to Exploring Music on NPR on the way home from dance. The program was about Beethoven and tempo. She said it only reinforced her distaste for classical music.

Wednesday:
Karate Kid has a test in his math class today. He thinks he’s ready to ace it.
Z-baby did her regular schoolwork, and then listened to still more Chronicles of Narnia.
Betsy-Bee did her math lesson and her daily-gram, but not much else as far as assigned school work. She’s been re-reading Utterly Me, Clarice Bean by Lauren Childs. She spent a couple of hours working on a story called She’s Gone, but she won’t show it to anyone until it’s done.
Brown Bear Daughter is working on her solo for dance, and she has biology homework to complete. She only has two more co-op classes of biology lab, so she’s working hard to complete her Apologia Biology textbook.

Thursday
Ummmm . . . I forgot to keep a record, and I don’t really remember what we we did other than regular school stuff: math and grammar.

Friday
We have co-op on Friday mornings.
Z-baby is taking three classes at co-op: Seven Continents, Feather Files (a class about birds), and P.E.
Betsy-Bee is taking a writing class, an assorted topics in science class, and cooking.
Karate Kid takes Apologia General Science lab, a class on the stock market and how it works, robotics, and geography.
Brown Bear Daughter is studying Apologia Biology, Spanish 1, Study Skills, and Starting Points Literary Analysis and Worldview.

Have I made us sound as if we’re getting more done than we really are? I actually worry that my younger set of four urchins are learning to slack off and get by with the least possible amount of effort. But then again maybe I expect too much.

The continuing trials and second-guessings of a homeschool mom. To be continued . . . .

I’m celebrating pumpkins this week, or probably for the rest of the month, maybe even in November. Why not?

If you’d like to celebrate with me, here are some pumpkin suggestions for reading, eating , creating, and just goofing around. Have a pumpkin and enjoy!

Have pumpkin-themed fun:
1.
2. TenThingsFarm growing a pumpkin
3. Make a paper bag pumpkin.
4.
5. How to carve a pumpkin bowl.
6.
7.
8. How to pick the perfect pumpkin.
9.
10. Soda bottle jack-o-lantern.
11. Pumpkin paper plate pouch.
12. CD Pumpkin.
13. Pumpkin carving patterns.

14. Pumpkin poems and songs.
15. How to grow a giant pumpkin.
16. Knit a pumpkin hat.
17.
18. Pumpkin Bouquets.
19. 3 Dimensional Pumpkin Card.
20.
21. Extreme Pumpkins!
22. Make some Pumpkin Pie Play Dough.
23. Play “drop the clothespin into the pumpkin.”
24. Pumpkin topiary trompe l’oeil.
25. Make a pumpkin from a flat basketball.
26.
27. Make a cinnamon-pumpkin air freshener.

Read a pumpkin book:
28. Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman. A witch wants to bake a pumpkin pie, but the pumpkin is stuck on the vine. Who will help her?
29. Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell. Tim carves a pumpkin which eventually rots and turns into compost, and then more pumpkins grow, and the cycle starts all over.
30. Oh My, Pumpkin Pie! by Charles Ghigna, illus. by Kenneth Spengler. A step into Reading rhyming book.
31. How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara, illus. by G. Brian Karas. Mr. Tiffin’s class counts the seeds in three pumpkins of varying sizes. Math and pumpkins go together in a story.
32. Pumpkins by Ken Robbins. An autumn book of photographs with an emphasis on pumpkins.
33. Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper and Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story by Helen Cooper. Cat, Squirrel, and Duck work together to make their famous pumpkin soup.
34. Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington. Jamie grows a pumpkin in beautiful colored pencil illustrations.
35. Pumpkins: A Story for a Field by Mary Lynn Ray. A man saves a field from developers by planting it with pumpkins.
36. A story of reading Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson to some of Katrina’s youngest victims.
37. The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. Just as a farmer grows a pumpkin, God grows us into a beautiful sight.
38. From Seed to Pumpkin by Jan Kottke.
39. Pumpkin Moonshine by Tasha Tudor. Classic Tasha Tudor tale of how Sylvie Ann sets out to make a pumpkin moonshine.
40. The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Stephen Kroll. Two mice work together to win the Biggest Pumpkin competition.
41. From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. A Let’s Read and Find Out science book.
41. Grandma’s Smile by Elaine Moore. Kim and her grandma carve a pumpkin.
42. The Great Pumpkin Switch by Megan McDonald. Grampa and his friend Otto accidentally smash a prize pumpkin.
43. The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King. Photgraphs of pumpkins growing accompany text about how pumpkins are grown, marketed and enjoyed.
44. Mousekin’s Golden House by Edna Miller. Classic story of a white-foot mouse who finds a wonderful house abandoned in the forest.
45. Mrs. McMurphy’s Pumpkin by Rick Walton. A pumpkin jack-o-lantern threatens to eat Mrs. McMurphy up, but she just says, “We’ll see about that.”
46. Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo. Peter the Tiger picks a perfect pumpkin.
47. The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis. A runaway pumpkin creates havoc on the farm. Lesson plan.
48. Pumpkin Town! Or, Nothing Is Better and Worse Than Pumpkins by Katie McKay. Pumpkin vines overrun the town, and the pumpkin farmer’s five sons must come up with a solution for too much of a good thing. Lesson plan.
49. The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons. Out of print, but worth a search.
50. This Is NOT a Pumpkin by Bob Staake. If it’s not a pumpkin, what could it be? A board book for the youngest listeners.
51. The Great Little Pumpkin Cookbook by Michael Krondl.
52. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz.
53. Patty’s Pumpkin Patch by Teri Sloat. Patty grows pumpkins on her farm.
54. The Pumpkin Blanket by Deborah Zagwyn. A girl gives up her special blanket to keep the frost off the pumpkin plants.
55. Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night by Anne Rockwell.
56. Pumpkin Hill by Elizabeth Spurr. It starts with one pumpkins, but soon the pumpkin vines have taken over the town.
57. The Pumpkin Runner by Marsha Arnold. An Australian rancher uses pumpkin as fuel to help win a 500 mile foot race.
58. The Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin by Stan and Jan Berenstain.
59. Somethin’ Pumpkin by Scott Allen: Lesson Plan.
60. For older readers (middle grades through young adult): Jen Robinson’s review of Me and the Pumpkin Queen by Marlane Robinson.
Another book review: Squashed by Joan Bauer.

Make something yummy to eat from pumpkin:

61.
62.
63. And here are Poohsticks Pumpkin Buttermilk pancakes.
64.
65.
66. Make some pumpkin bread to give away or enjoy yourself.
67. Brenda’s Pumpkin and Cranberry Bread recipes.
68. Pumpkin Gingerbread at Poohsticks.
69. Preparing fresh pumpkin from seed to pie.
70.
71.
72.
73. Lots of pumpkin recipes.
74.
75.
76. Impossible Pumpkin Pie. I like baking mix-based pies, but I’ve only made quiche-type pies this way. I never thought of a sweet pie made with an “impossible” crust. On 10/20/2008 the little girls and I made this pie, and it was good. However, I probably should have cooked it a little longer than the fifty minute minimum called for in the recipe.
77.
78. Pumpkin Biscotti.
79. Harvest Pumpkin Spice Bars.
80.
81. Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cake.
82.
83. The Pioneer Woman’s pumpkin butter.
84.
85. Pumpkin spice cream cheese spread.
86. Pumpkin banana pudding.
87. Pumpkin scones.
88.
89.

More punkin stuff for fun and learning:
90. Listen to Andy Griffith tell about the fight in the cow pasture over the little orange punkin and about how he dropped his Big Orange drink.
91.
92.
93. Paint a pumpkin. I mean, paint a picture of a pumpkin.
94.

O.K., I’m running out of steam, so I’m leaving the last six slots for you. If you have a favorite pumpkin recipe, or book, or craft (easy, I’m craft-impaired) or lesson or anything, that has not already made this list, leave a comment, and I’ll link here later. In the meantime, visit a pumpkin patch, or carve a pumpkin, or eat something pumpkin, or read about pumpkins, or . . . thank the Lord for pumpkins!

95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.

We started back to school this week, what Melissa would call “high-tide homeschooling.” At least we tried. I had to be gone a lot taking my parents to doctor’s appointments, visiting the hospital, and running errands. So the urchins were on their own some of the time. They did quite well, considering.

History:

The Story of the World, Vol. 1 by Susan Wise Bauer: The Library of Nineveh, Nebuchadnezzar’s Madness, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon read to Betsy-bee and Z-baby.

Karate Kid and I read about Pericles, Phidias the Sculptor, Herodotus, the Father of History, and Thucydides, the historian of the Peloponnesion War. Then we began reading about Alcibiades, the archetype of a teenaged rebel, except that I don’t think he was nearly that young. (We’re reading Greenleaf’s Famous Men of Ancient Greece.)

Brown Bear Daughter is working in the history/literature curriculum, Ancient History: A Literature Approach by Rea Berg (Beautiful Feet). She’s studying the Greeks right now just as Karate Kid is. We also used Michael Macrone’s book, It’s Greek to Me! as a reference, and I read Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney, the story of a girl living during the time leading up to the Trojan War, review pending.

Language:

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise. With Betsy-Bee, age 8, and Z-baby, age 6, I reviewed the five poems we learned last semester, started learning a new poem, Dancing by Eleanor Farjeon, and discussed nouns, pronouns, and initials.

Betsy-Bee and Karate Kid did Dailygrams each day.

Math:
The older students use Saxon math, and the younger two use Miquon. We follow the philosophy of “slow and steady” in math, just making sure we do a lesson or a page or two each day, rain or shine.

Books read to and with Z-baby, age 6, this week:

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss.

Several Berenstain Bear books.

Science:

Brown Bear Daughter is working in Apologia General Science, and the rest of us are reading about the human body. This week we talked about eating and digestion. Z-baby is taking a class at our homeschool co-op called The Human Body, and the others are just reading and discussing. We’ll start reading from our book I Am Joe’s Body again if we ever figure out where we put it before Christmas. The book, based on a Reader’s Digest series, has a bit of evolutionary nonsense in it, but I just skip those parts.

The bane of my life: misplaced books and lost learning tools (pencils, pens, scissors, tape, stapler, hole punch, etc.)

The joy of my homeschool life: children who come together and do school and learn whether I can be here or not.