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NPM: Poetry Out Loud

Apr28

The 2008 National Finals for Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest will be held at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC. Semifinal rounds will take place all-day on Monday, April 28 and the Finals will be held in the evening on Tuesday, April 29. Admission is free and open to the public.

You can find out more about Poetry Out Loud and perhaps make plans for your high school or high school student to participate in the contest next year at the Poetry Out Loud website. I think this poetry recitation contest sounds like a lot of fun, and I hope I can get my homeschool co-op to participate.

Homeschool Weekly Report: January 18, 2008

Jan18

Books Read to Z-baby this week:

Puss in Boots, illus. by Paul Galdone.

The Berenstain Bears and the Escape of the Bogg Brothers (By the way, I detest the Berenstain Bears in all their incarnations, but Z-baby is a fan. I usually try to get someone else to read the BB books to her.)

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, illustrated by Lauren Child. I got this new edition, new translation, from the publisher because it was nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. We decided that the book didn’t really qualify for the award since it’s a new translation, not a new work. However, this new edition of Ms. Lindgren’s classic story is worthy of something. The illustrations by Ms. Child make it worth buying for your family library, and of course, the story is worth a re-read. Z-baby is enjoying it a chapter a night.

Other notes from the homeschool front:

We read more about the Peloponnesian War this week: Alcibiades, the Athenian delinquent, and Lysander, the Spartan commander. I didn’t know that the Spartans won that war. Sometimes I think my education was sadly lacking.

We also read about Joe’s stomach and intestines in our book, I Am Joe’s Body. Did you know that most stomach ulcers and stomach aches are actually located in the intestines? Or that depression and stress both cause the digestive system to malfunction, either to slow down to nothing or speed up to handle food inefficiently? Woory and grief really can give you a stomach ache.

And the little girls learned about Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel and about the bull-jumpers of Crete. If you’re an adult and you’re interested in historical fiction about ancient Crete, I suggest two books by Mary Renault: The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea. I’ve read both books more than once and found them to be fascinating, but some adult content is included.

Readers:

Betsy-Bee,age 8, read Clarice Bean Spells Trouble by Lauren Child and wrote her review. She also read the edition of Pippi Longstocking that I referenced above., finished it last night.

Karate Kid, age 10, is reading The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander. It’s a fantasy story based on Greek mythology and history.

Brown Bear Daughter is reading Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney. Ms. Cooney is my new discovery in authors, and I’m busy devouring several of her books. Wrap-up post to come soon.

Weekly Homeschool Report: January 11, 2008

Jan11

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.

Homeschool Weekly Report: December 14, 2007

Dec14

I got this idea from Jessica at Trivium Academy, and she’s taking sign up links in her Mister Linky for those who choose to participate. Go to Trivium Academy for more information and links to other homeschool reporters.

Our homeschooling is at “low tide” this month as Melissa Wiley would say. We’re trying to do math every day, but not much else is scheduled, school-wise. On Wednesday, Eldest Daughter, who was home sick from work, told Karate Kid (10) that instead of doing his math lesson, he could read Hamlet, the entire play. I went along with it, and it ended up with Karate Kid and Brown Bear Daughter (12) on the couch reading the play aloud while Betsty-Bee listened desultorily. They seemed to enjoy the experience, but only made it through about half of the play on Wednesday. Hamlet is a long play. I showed them this rather memorable clip from Gilligan’s island. Warning: It sticks in the memory just like those bad Chirstmas songs. I always find myself humming, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” to the tune of ? whenever I think of Polonius the advice giver.

After they read about half of Hamlet aloud, KK and Brown Bear got tired of Hamlet’s shilly-shallying around, and they decided to memorize and act a scene from Comedy of Errors. We call it the “My Gold, Quoth He” scene.

Books read to Z-baby (6) this week:
Sometimes I’m Really Happy, God by Elspeth Campbell Murphy.

Rumpelstiltskin.

Karate Kid’s been reading Elllie McDoodle and Harry Potter. (Sounds like an intriguing couple, doesn’t it?)

Brown Bear Daughter was deliriously jubilant to receive a copy of Kiki Strike: The Empress’s Tomb by Kirsten Miller in the mail on Thursday. So, she’ll spend Thursday evening and Friday reading that sequel to the first Kiki Strike book, one of her favorites from last year.

We’re reading David Copperfield aloud in the evenings. It’s going slowly, but O.K. Brown Bear Daughter and Karate Kid are following along fairly well, and the little girls are listening because it’s either that or go to bed. And no one in my house ever wants to go to bed. Family aversion to beds. (Except for me, so the bed-hostility gene must be in Engineer Husband’s gene pool.)

Organizer Daughter (age 16) is still having math class this week and next, so she still has math lessons to do. And she and a friend are studying 20th century history with me, so they’re supposed to be reading about and studying the 1920’s in preparation for a test next week. I handed Organizer Daughter a picture book about Charles Lindbergh on Thursday, and she looked at me as if I were crazy. I happen to think picture books are perfectly acceptable for 16 year olds as well as preschoolers and adults.

Z-baby also spent much of the week trying to get someone to play card games with her: War, Alligator, and Match. I figure that’s mildy educational.

On Thursday, Karate Kid, Betsy-Bee, and Z-baby went with their father to the canoeing Christmas party. They all got to ride in a canoe and explore the flora of the local creek environment.

Free Stuff

Nov23

Homeschool E-Store has a bunch of FREE downloads today (11/23) only, including a booklet study of Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas just in time for holiday fun homeschooling. Just click on the banner, and it will take you to the Homeschool E-Store site.

Some other Christmas-y homeschool stuff available for purchase at the Homeschool E-Store:

Our Christmas Journal by Sheri Graham

Christmas Around the World

Christmas Traditions unit study.

Christmas Notebooking Pages.

Symbols of Christmas Lapbook.

Christmas Unit Study by Amanda Bennett.

Yes, I get a small kickback if you purchase using my links. The free stuff is really free, no strings attached. And I’ll probably buy one of the curriculum products above for my children to use this Christmas.

Quaker Elitism: An Oxymoron

Nov7

I started reading the book IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea by Stephen Murdoch, and he mentions Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. in a discussion in the opening chapter of the book of schools requiring IQ testing for preschoolers. I looked at the Sidwell Friends School website and found there this statement:

We seek students who demonstrate the potential to meet high academic and personal standards and contribute to the vitality of the School. As a Quaker school affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends, we are committed to promoting the basic testimonies of Friends (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship) and providing all of our students with opportunities to “let their lives speak” of excellence and caring.

Doesn’t it seem deliciously ironic that a Quaker school, committed to “equality” and “simplicity” would be among the most elite private schools in the nation and would require that preschoolers take an IQ test, not to mention that if they are admitted, their parents pay over $25,000 in tuition per year?

From Wikipedia:

“Friends believe that all people are created equal in the eyes of God. Since all people embody the same divine spark all people deserve equal treatment. Friends were some of the first to value women as important ministers and to campaign for women’s rights; they became leaders in the anti-slavery movement, and were among the first to pioneer humane treatment for the mentally ill and for prisoners.”

It all just sounds a bit contradictory to me. But then I’ve never been a fan of elite private schools, nor have I ever understood all the fuss in the East, particularly Washington D.C., about getting your preschooler into the best private preschools that money and connections and IQ scores can buy.

To each his own, as my mom would say.

Da Vinci: Up Close

Oct28

See Da Vinci’s famous painting up close and in detail. Fascinating.

Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ Goes Online
By COLLEEN BARRY (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
October 27, 2007 11:15 PM EDT
MILAN, Italy –
Can’t get to Milan to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper?” As of Saturday, all you need is an Internet connection. Officials put online an image of the “Last Supper” at 16 billion pixels –1,600 times stronger than the images taken with the typical 10 million pixel digital camera.

The high resolution will allow experts to examine details of the 15th century wall painting that they otherwise could not – including traces of drawings Leonardo put down before painting. The high-resolution allows viewers to look at details as though they were inches from the art work, in contrast to regular photographs, which become grainy as you zoom in, said curator Alberto Artioli.

“You can see how Leonardo made the cups transparent, something you can’t ordinarily see,” said Artioli. “You can also note the state of degradation the painting is in.”

Besides allowing experts and art-lovers to study the masterpiece from home, Artioli said the project provides an historical document of how the painting appears in 2007, which will be valuable to future generations of art historians.

The work, in Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, was restored in a painstaking effort that wrapped up in 1999 – a project aimed at reversing half a millennium of damage to the famed artwork. Leonard painted the “Last Supper” dry, so the painting did not cleave to the surface in the fresco style, meaning it is more delicate and subject to wear.

“Over the years it has been subjected to bombardments; it was used as a stall by Napoleon,” Artioli said. The restoration removed 500 years of dirt while also removing previous restoration works that masked Leonardo’s own work.

Even those who get to Milan have a hard time gaining admission to see the “Last Supper.” Visits have been made more difficult by measures to protect it. Twenty-five visitors are admitted every 15 minutes to see the painting for a total of about 320,000 visitors a year. Visitors must pass through a filtration system to help reduce the work’s exposure to dust and pollutants.

“The demand is three or four times higher, but we can’t accommodate it because of efforts to preserve the painting,” Artioli said.

Balance

Aug20

I got this question a long time ago and tried to answer it to the best of my ability. I wanted to think about it some more before posting, but I thought too long and couldn’t come up with a better answer.

Sometime I would love a glimpse into your daily life…how much time you give to reading and writing AND schooling your own children.

Do your children understand the time Mom gives to books and writing? Mine are 5-11 and I worry they see me staring at a book or screen more than anything else.

I have this theory that it’s important for children to see you doing something you love —for me that’s reading and blogging— at least some of the time. Not that I read and blog just to show my children how important those activities are, but I think for them to develop a love for reading, they need to see me reading. Engineer Husband Husband loves science and math, so as they see him doing science and math, they begin to enjoy those subjects, too.

My theory doesn’t do much to settle the question of how much time to spend on each activity. I spend a lot of time reading, but often I’m reading while sitting on the couch supervising schoolwork. I stop reading my book to read aloud to the urchins or to help with a math problem. Then, I take up where I left off in my book. I read while I eat lunch. I’m writing this post while eating breakfast, and the urchins are also eating breakfast, doing their morning jobs, and listening to Les Miserables. It’s sort of a juggling act, and sometimes I do it better than other times.

I don’t do housework very well, except in spurts of insiration which don’t occur often enough. We get school done, mostly, and I make meals, most days. All that means that I don’t have it all together, but I’m satisfied with the general way things are going. I only have the same worries as the questioner on alternate Mondays.

What To Do

Aug15

What do you do when:

your brain is fried?
your younger set of children are yelling at each other?
your older set of children are insulting one another?
you have stacks of books and papers all over the bedroom?
your carpet hasn’t been vacuumed in three months because there’s no room between the piles to fit the vacuum?
(home)school has been officially in session for three days, and you’re already feeling behind?

Well, I blog, of course. (Now you know why the quality of these posts is sometimes less than stellar.)
Or read.
Or play Multi-8. (I don’t win because I can’t spell when my brain is mush, and that’s the only time I play.)
Or eat chocolate.
Or go buy more curriculum (this afternoon).
I might do all of the above at the same time or in succession. Or I might just go to bed.

It’s not as bad as it sounds. After all, as Scarlett was so fond of saying, “Tomorrow is another day.”