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What Karate Kid Read

Dec30

I’ve been a bit concerned and saddened by Karate’s Kid’s lack of interest in reading since he turned twelve going on eighteen (last March). I’m not sure he read much of anything this past summer. And he used to read a lot. So I decided to do two things:

First, I assigned him one book per week to read for school. He was required to read the book I picked out whether he liked it or not because he’s been discarding everything I suggest, no matter what it is, after a page or two, with the words, “That’s boring!”

Second, I decided to keep a list of all the books he did read this fall. Maybe I just didn’t notice what he was reading last summer because he wasn’t reading the books I suggested to him. However, I really don’t think he read much at all. Most of the books on this list were assigned for school. He only had to read them and talk to me about them, no written book reports. He did write or dictate to me a few comments about some of them, and I have included those in this post, in italics. A couple of the books on the list he picked up on his own and read. I don’t really like having to require kids to read. I want them to love reading for themselves. However, in this particular case, maybe it was a good idea.

A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh “is narrated by a girl named Mall Percival, and is about a sickness called The Black Death. The Black Death is also known as The Bubonic Plague, and it spread across Europe very quickly. The plague was spread by rats that had fleas. Those fleas had the disease, and since not every home was very clean, there were rats. And if there were rats, there were fleas. In this book, Mall tells the story of her town, Eyam, and how they fought through the plague. It all started with a tailor, and a new dress. A lot of people die in this book, but that just shows how horrible the plague was.”

Code Orange by Caroline Cooney. It had a good ending. I would like to read more books by Caroline Cooney. Code Orange was a pretty good book. I especially liked the part where the main guy was in the basement with the terrorist guy.

The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente. I did not like this book very much. It just wasn’t my kind of book.

Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta. This book is about a town named Moundville, eventually called ‘Mudville’, because of the rain. It rained for 22 years, straight. As you can imagine, it was muddy. The main characters are two boys named Roy and Sturgis. Roy’s father was the last person in that town ever to hit a baseball. It was in the middle of a baseball between Moundville and Sinister Band, their rivals. Moundville always lost to them, but this year that changed. Moundville’s star all-around player, Bobby Fitz, had pulled some muscles in the first inning. But there was still hope for Moundville. In the distance, there were dark clouds.The Moundville coach thought that if they could hold off the game until it rained, then they could reschedule until their star player was better. Little did he know that it would rain for a long time.
I really liked this book; I really like baseball too. I hope that from reading this you will have the urge to get this book. When my mom gave it to me, I didn’t think I would like it very well, but I did. Mudville is a great book for all ages.

The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz. was about the Schneider/Flint family, nine individuals from that family who all had something to do with baseball. It was sort of a series of short stories all tied together by baseball and by the family connection.

The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman. This one was just weird. It was cool how they found a way for each person’s “talent” to be used.

Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Venuti. This book was also very weird and funny. I’m glad authors write books that are just fun and don’t have lots of descriptions. I don’t like having to read in-depth description that takes up a lot of space and is kind of pointless for me.

Gone From These Woods by Donna Seagraves. This book was about a kid named Daniel who accidentally kills his uncle while hunting in the woods. Daniel’s dad is a drunken dude. The book was OK, but most of it wasn’t very happy. I like happy books.

Take the Mummy and Run: The Riot Brothers Are On a Roll by Mary Amato. Seriously silly.

Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford. Newt Newman is a nobody. He has two friends, and no one ever notices him. His older brother is a football star who is injured during a game. I didn’t like the book that much because it’s about something that never really would happen. No ten year old kid would go to school in his Halloween costume for a week.

Diary of a WImpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney. The first book was a lot better than this one.

NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley.

Alibi Junior High by Greg Logstead. This novel had a good story line, but the characters were a bit unbelievable.

Karate Kid’s favorite Cybils nominee: Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Venuti.

He likes funny. Any suggestions for his weekly books for 2010?

The Homeschool Liberation League by Lucy Frank

Dec23

The first day of eighth grade I took the bus to school, walked through the door, turned around, and went home.

From that great beginning line to the kiss at the end, Lucy Frank’s “tribute to the range of learning possibilities available to kids today” is a delight and a keeper. It’s not pro- nor anti-homeschool or public school. It’s not predictable. The main character, Katya, wants to be liberated from the mind-numbing frustration that is Martin Van Buren Middle School. However, later on in the book, Katya’s new homeschooled boyfriend, Milo, is just as desperate to be liberated from the clutches of his controlling, career-conscious dad. And some of Katya’s public school friends can’t understand why she would want to leave school to stay home all day. Others can understand, but don’t want any such education for themselves. Another of Katya’s homeschooled friends enrolls in a private school that’s just right for her.

It’s not about one-size-fits-all. Which is exactly my educational philosophy, I think. This year I have one child enrolled in a special public high school that meets at the local junior college where the students take traditional high school classes along with dual credit college classes. Another child, Betsy Bee, begged me to enroll in her in a public school virtual academy that uses the K12 curriculum, so she’s learning at home, but enrolled in public school. My senior in high school is taking dual credit classes at the junior college and working and preparing to go away to college in the fall of 2010. Then, I have two children, Karate Kid and Z-Baby, who are at home, doing traditional homeschool, whatever that is.

It’s all about choices and trying to fit the educational opportunities to the student. And that’s what I like about Ms. Frank’s little book. She does manage to work some homeschool philosophy into the story (Milo’s dad is particularly articulate on the subject of listening to your children and finding your own educational style although he can’t seem to make that work with Milo), but it’s not preachy or one-sided. The Homeschool Liberation League also takes a few jabs at the problems and idiocies associated with institutional learning, but it’s just as quick to poke fun at pretentious homeschoolers and their “free school” private school counterparts.

And Ms. Frank tells a good story, one that kept me guessing as to what would happen to Katya and to Milo and to their crazy but lovable families. I recommend this one for ages 12 and up; there’s some tame romance stuff, but most of the story is about Katya and her educational adventures. I really enjoyed it.

Review Round-up:
Lazy Gal: “I’m usually not one to be pro-constructivist education (I’m firmly in the ‘you need a good solid background before you Follow Your Bliss’ camp) but this book captures what’s right about homeschooling.”

Jean Little Library: “Finally. Finally!! A story involving homeschoolers who are not members of a cult. Ex-members of a cult. Raised by ex-hippies. Raised by nouveau hippies. Complete social outcasts with no social skills whatsoever. And….it’s a GOOD story on top of that!”

I couldn’t find any other blog reviews. If you’ve read and reviewed this book, please leave me a note, and I’ll link.

Links and Thinks

Jul27

On paying for college, courtesy of Mental Multi-Vitamin.

What do Stephen King and Jerry Jenkins have in common? Well, they are both writers who’ve both sold a lot of books. Other than that, I’m not sure I would ever have thought of them in the same room, but Writer’s Digest did a joint interview with the two best-selling authors, and it’s a good read.

What happens when the doctor becomes the patient? It’s a brief trailer for the new season of House. I was actually afraid after the last episode of last season that the Powers That Be would just end it there. But it looks as if Greg House is not to be written off so easily.

Dutch researchers find that fetuses have memories. “A call to NARAL Pro-Choice America for comment on the implications of the research were [sic] not returned.”

And finally, little did I know that my Top 100 Hymns Project may have revolutionary implications. In Fiji, it’s looking as if the police and the government are afraid an annual hymn-singing contest and Methodist conference may spark a revolution or a change in government or something. If the Methodist choirs can’t sing in Fiji, what’s next?

Public School Hoops

Jul20

I’m talking about the hoops you have to jump through. The public high school that Brown Bear Daughter will be attending in the fall just called, and they want only four things:

1. A copy of her birth certificate.
2. A copy of her Social Security card.
3. Her immunization record.
4. Proof of residency.

Bad, disorganized mother that I am, can you guess which of those things I can actually produce on demand? Well, I do have two of them and half of another. I hope I don’t have as much trouble getting her a Social Security card as I did my oldest son. We practically had to pass an act through Congress to get him a Social Security card a few years ago, soon after 9/11.

Anybody know what hoops I have to jump through to get a Social Security card these days? We’ve always homeschooled, and now I feel as if I’m committing Brown Bear Daughter to an institution; wait, I guess I am.

Adventures in (Homeschool) Education

Jul9

What wonderfully educational activities have my urchins been involved in this week since we’re “out of school” and taking our summer break?

I wish I could say it’s been all cultural enrichment and self-guided educational pursuits here at Semicolon Ranch, but to tell the truth, sometimes they’re all picking at each other and teasing and annoying and driving me straight to the looney bin, wherever that may be. However, whan I stop and think about it, we have managed to do some things that might be considered “educational” in the midst of the summer restlessness and provocations.


1. We’ve been listening to Adventures in Odyssey non-stop for the past two days. I’m rather tired of Mr. Whittaker and Company, but I don’t think the urchins are yet. We’ve managed to visit with Daniel (from the Bible), the founding fathers of the U.S., Abraham Lincoln, and various other historical and Biblical figures and heroes. We’ve also heard stories that illustrate the meaning of becoming a responsible adult, the dangers of lying and cheating, the value of gratitude, and the pitfalls of materialism. I’ve also developed a desire to gag Eugene and make him be quiet.

2. Soap-carving. Engineer Husband was going to let the seven year old carve WOOD with a KNIFE. “Free range children,” he said to me. (Why did I have him read that review?) Anyway, I suggested soap as safer and easier alternative, and the rest is history —and soap flakes, everywhere. They haven’t really carved anything too recognizable, but they have had a blast turning the bars of soap into soap shavings. It’s cheap fun, and we now have a large jar of soap flakes sitting in each of our bathrooms. Oh, and the house smells pretty good.

3. We watched the BBC miniseries of Dickens’ Oliver Twist, starting on Monday night and finishing up on Tuesday. I thought it was a good production, but I’m not sure how true it is to the book since I haven’t read the book in twenty years. Oliver was a little more pugnacious in this version than I remembered him, and Engineer Husband said the whole thing was darker and more violent than he remembered the story to be. However, I think his only standard for comparison is Oliver!, the musical.

4. Z-baby (age 7) made supper with a little help from her older sister (age 14). It was Z-baby’s idea to make supper herself, and she planned the menu: pancakes. I suggested some bacon for the sake of adding a little protein to the meal, and Z-baby agreed.

5. Before Adventures in Odyssey, we were listening to the audiobook version of Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls WIlder. Z-baby, who still can’t read very well, says she’s “obsessed with listening to books.”

6. Brown Bear Daughter is studying for her tests in biology and algebra. She’s trying to test out of those two courses that she took this year at home so that she doesn’t have to repeat them in the public high school she’s planning to attend in the fall. She’ll be my first child to attend public school, and I’m excited/nervous for her.

7. Betsy-Bee read The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom on Monday when she went over to help her grandma with her laundry. Brown Bear Daughter re-read The Black Cauldron by Lloyd ALexander since one of those books that Z-baby was obsessed with last week was The Book of Three on CD.

8. I can’t get Karate Kid (12) to read anything right now for some reason. I think it’s just a phase he’s going through. He wants to socialize (Facebook, telephone, in person), and he needs to work and burn some energy. However, our lawn mower is in the shop. Any suggestions for the reading or the work?

9. We’re still reading a chapter a day, more of less, of The Hobbit. However, the only one who’s still with me is Z-baby. It makes me sad to hear my sweet Karate Kid say that The Hobbit is “boring” (“I’ve already read that book, and I don’t read books over again.”), but I take consolation from this quote courtesy of Palm Tree Pundit.
10. I’m pushing myself through a book about the history of modern Cambodia/Kampuchea, as per this quotation from The Common Room. It’s interesting, but the details about the Communist Party intrigues and the sheer brutality and wickedness of Pol Pot and his cohorts sometimes is overwhelming. I know a lot more about Southeast Asia, particularly Indochina than I ever did before. Who knew that the Vietnamese have a reputation as really bad dancers?

So, maybe we’re not really driving one another to distraction. And maybe we’ll all survive summer break. But I did threaten to start the new school year on July 20th.

John Adams’ Advice to His Children

May19

When I read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams back in February and watched the PBS miniseries based on the book, I copied several passages into my commonplace book for future reference. These are some quotations from Adams’ letters or other writings that reflect his advice to his children.

John adn Abigail had four children who lived to adulthood: one, John Quincy, became president of the United States. The other three lived to experience varying degrees of tragedy in their lives. Abigail, the eldest, nicknamed Nabby, married Colonel William Smith who turned out to be a profligate husband who practically deserted her and their children for long periods of time throughout their marriage. Nabby died of breast cancer at age forty-nine.

Charles Adams was by all accounts a charming and talented young man, but he drank excessively and eventually died an alcoholic. He was married to Col. Smith’s sister, Sally, and the couple had two daughters. He also deserted his family and died at the age of thirty, alone, in New York City.

Thomas Adams, the youngest of the Adams children, became a lawyer, but not a very successful one. Thomas married and had seven children, but he, too, was prone to alcohol abuse. He and his family lived with his father John Adams in John’s old age, and Thomas outlived his father in spite of his alcoholism.

Perhaps John Adams’ children, in light of their sometimes poor decisions in adult life, should have taken his advice more to heart. At any rate, here is some of what Mr. Adams wrote to his children, in case you want to take advantage.

“Daughter! Get you an honest man for a husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the honor and moral character more than all other circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart. An honest, sensible humane man, above all the littleness of vanity and extravagances of imagination, laboring to do good rather than be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity clearly within his means and free from debts and obligations, is really the most respectable man in society, makes himself and all about him most happy.” (John Adams, p. 289)

“Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not. A young man should weigh well his plans. Integrity should be preserved in all events, as essential to his happiness, through every stage of his existence. His first maxim then should be to place his honor out of reach of all men.” (John Adams, p. 415)

To Charles on exercise: “Move or die is the language of our Maker in the constitution of our bodies. When you cannot walk abroad, walk in your room . . . Rise up and then open your windows and walk about your room a few times, then sit down to your books or your pen.” (John Adams, p. 452)

“More depends on little things than is commonly imagined. An Erect figure, a steady countenance, a neat dress, a genteel air, an oratorical period, a resolute, determined spirit, often do more than deep erudition or indefatigable application.” (John Adams, p. 453)

To John Quincy: “Rejoice always in all events, be thankful always for all things is a hard precept for human nature, though in my philosophy and in my religion a perfect duty.”

Education Week: April 20-24, 2009

Apr27

I’m keeping this loose sort of diary of our homeschool in an effort to convince myself that we really, really are learning and growing and educating around here.

Monday

Karate Kid (12) goes over to help his grandmother do laundry on Monday mornings. While he’s there he’s supposed to do his math lesson and read in some book. Instead, he did laundry and watched cartoons. Then, he dawdled all afternoon, and finally, when it was time to go to our co-op end of the school year Spring Showcase, he still hadn’t started his math lesson. So he stayed home and did math.
Betsy-Bee (10), on the other hand, did her math and her grammar and started a new reader, Joan of Arc (Wishbone version). She and I read an introduction to the reformation in Mindy and Brandon Withrow’s Courage and Conviction.
Z-baby (7) did her math and reading and history and science with her sister, Dancer Daughter (19). I miss doing school with Z-baby, but I don’t miss her stubbornness.

This evening I read aloud a little from Oh Ye Jigs and Juleps by Virginia Cary Hudson. If you’re unfamiliar with this little collection of essays, they were supposedly written by ten year old Virginia around the turn of the century. I found a like-new copy at the library book sale on Saturday, and since my paperback copy is falling apart, I snatched it up. LOL funny, and my younger urchins, who have never heard these compositions covering subjects as varied sacraments and gardening and The Great Wall of China were begging me to read more.

Tuesday
Karate Kid did his math lesson in a timely manner and then went to canoeing. Maybe yesterday’s fiasco made him realize that we meant what we said. Later he finished the last study guide for the last module in his General Science book.

Brown Bear Daughter is re-reading one of the Harry Potter books because she says the movie version is due to come out this summer? She spent a lot of time working on her biology.
Betsy-Bee was the one who had a hard time getting her math lesson done today. She wanted to clean her room instead. (She always wants to clean/rearrange her room.)
Z-baby read half of a book to me: He Bear, She Bear by the Berenstains. Her reading is improving, s-l-o-w-l-y.

Wednesday
Today at lunch time, I caught all three girls, Brown Bear, Betsy-Bee, and Z-Baby, sitting in the living room, reading or at least perusing books. Brown Bear Daughter was still working on Harry Potter; Betsy-Bee was looking at several Amelia Bedelia books; and Z-Baby was looking at this series of books. Her grandfather, who died several years ago, bought this set of books by Joy Berry for the children. I hate them. They’re didactic pop psychology, and they’re boring. But the kids have all at one time or another read them voraciously.
Karate Kid has also jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon. The thing is they’re rereading the books. I’m so stubborn that I never read any of them even once. Why would they want to read them all again?
Brown Bear Daughter and I worked through some rate times time equals distance problems in her algebra book. Those kind of problems frustrated her, but I thought they were kind of fun.
I found Karate Kid’s history workbook yesterday! He lost The History of Western Civilization: Middle Ages just before he finished the final lesson and the final exam. Now we can complete the middle ages and move on to explorers, reformers, and renaissance thinkers.

Thursday:
Karate Kid‘s assignments for the morning: do a math lesson, mow the yard, take his last science test, and pick up his bedroom.
Betsy-Bee is supposed to be doing her math lesson, and Brown Bear Daughter is reading Harry Potter instead of working on her essay for her English class.

I read Brer Rabbit in the Briar Patch (Disney version) to Z-Baby after she had finished her regular schoolwork with her sister. They’re reading Ramona the Pest, and in today’s episode Ramona freaked out about having a substitute teacher and hid behind the trash cans. I can picture Z-Baby doing things just like Ramona does in the books.
Karate Kid did his math and science, and mowed the front yard, and cleaned his room so that he could go to drama class. They’re working on musical drama techniques so that they can do a full-fledged musical next school year. When he came home after nine p.m., he watched a math video, this time about trigonometry. Now he says he knows more about trig than I do since I told him that I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew about it.

Friday
This Friday was our last day of homeschool co-op for the school year. We do fourteen weeks in the fall and fourteen weeks in the spring. The kids finished up their classes in style, although two of them still have a little more science to do to finish the textbook for the year.
This afternoon Karate Kid is studying lock-picking. He’s trying to get his sister into her house after she locked the keys inside.

Education Week: April 11-17, 2009

Apr19

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 . . . .

Homeschool Ideas: Spice and Sauce

Jan27

I’m collecting ideas that I want to try to spice up our homeschooling. Cause I’m turning into a boring, grouchy mom-taxi.

The Copy Can from Robin’s Egg Blue. A coffee can full of ideas for copywork sounds like a fun way to practice handwriting.

Think! A Program Designed to Encourage Kids to Think Outside of the Box is a blog where the owner posts a weekly project to encourage kids to think. For instance this week’s idea is: “Place a deck (or more) of cards on the table. Tell your student to build a city. No other instructions.”

The blog Handbook of Nature Study provides a weekly nature study challenge or project. I’d like to see us participate in these projects, too.

Mom’s Marbles has “new ideas every day . . . so mom won’t lose her marbles.” I like this one, too, although it seems more geared toward preschoolers, and I have no more preschoolers anymore. (Boo-hoo!)

I’m going to try to have us participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 13-16, 2009.

Melissa Wiley describes her Parts of Speech car game.

My kids enjoy card games: Set, Alligator, War, and others. Maybe we should play a few more of those.

Do you have any great ideas to spice up my homeschool while we’re all in the doldrums of January (soon February)?