Our kids like fruit–they always have, from that first mashed banana. They each have their favorites (as well as a dislike here or there), although because we buy most of our produce in a basket they’ve had to learn to be flexible sometimes.
One of the house favorites is apple dipped in peanut butter, and lately Silly Boy has gotten quite adept at slicing up an apple to share with Baby Boy. Actually, if you look closely you’ll see that he’s advanced from slicing to dicing. . . 
Recently I joined a group of friends in the adventure of tackling The Well-Educated Mind and the reading lists contained therein. Wheee! I bought this book when it was first published (2003) but I had no reading partners to keep me motivated and I soon gave up. I’ve now read the first 10 chapters of Don Quixote and I have to say–it’s funny. It’s very long, but it is funny.
I’m looking forward to reading some of the great books that I didn’t come across on the road to a B.A. in English. More than that, I’m looking forward to reading them through my own eyes, rather than the eyes of a professor who will mark down papers that don’t reflect his views. I’ve read a few of the books that we will be tackling, but most of them are new to me. As a confirmed bookworm, I’m very excited about this adventure. As a homeschool mom, I’m hoping this adventure will rub off on my children: both encouraging them to read new and harder books, and also better equipping me to talk to them about what they’ve read.
So much for my good intentions: I didn’t get very far on my scrapbook endeavors last summer. I updated our portrait album. I put one year’s worth of pictures into Twirly Girl’s scrapbook (prints that had been laying on my table for a couple years already). I ordered two years’ worth of prints for our family album but only got half of them into an album. I still need to order more of the “new” 12×12 pages from Creative Memories. I added three years of memories to Bouncy Boy’s scrapbook, and then I ordered three years’ worth of prints for Baby Boy’s album. I made a title page and. . .there it sat, from October until last week.
I didn’t have any other pressing projects so I decided I may as well forge ahead before I get any further behind. Baby Boy’s scrapbook is now current through his last birthday. This week I should receive the three years’ worth of prints that I ordered for Boy Genius. Ideally I update the kids’ albums after each birthday, so I do them in calendar order rather than age order and October comes after September. 
My goal is to get back to that ideal by the end of this summer–ie, before it’s Baby Boy’s birthday again. My problem is that I’d rather be sewing, knitting, reading, or maybe even cleaning the house than working on scrapbooks. . .
While some days I wish I could keep my kids in a technology and media free bubble, that’s not 2012 reality. Instead we must monitor their “tech” time, both for content and for amount of time. . .it’s a thankless task for parents, but in today’s world kids need to know how to make good choices in the virtual world as well as the real world.
For some time now the three older kids have had iPods–I gave Drama Boy my old one for the purpose of listening to audio books for school (not its most common use though); Boy Genius and Twirly Girl bought their own. None could connect to the internet, and all were synced with my computer so it was easy to keep an eye on their listening habits. Both home computers are in common rooms of the house (kitchen & family room) so internet usage has also been fairly easy to monitor.
Until last week. Drama Boy decided to spend some of his dishwashing income on an iPad. Gulp! Needless to say that gave us the motivation to install a filter on our home network. We’re still feeling our way on rules and guidelines, but the first one set in place was that the iPad must be left in the kitchen at bedtime. And chores and school take precedence over playing games. We’ve looked at monitoring programs, but I suspect a determined teenager could work around them if he were so inclined. I’m all ears if anyone has a good recommendation though!
As an aside, this year the local public high school provided all students with an iPad. I can’t help but think that this one will be appreciated more, having been earned instead of handed out. . .
There may have been a bit of procrastination, but I think we’ve finally wrapped up our study of Poland. For now. If you’ll bear with me, I’ll give a quick run down of our activities (for my own future reference as much as anything).
Books: As before, we started with the Around the World ebook from Knowledge Quest. Then we started our first historical fiction, The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric Kelly. It was originally published in the 1920s and went a bit over the heads of the younger boys although Twirly Girl enjoyed it. We interspersed that with some dry chapters from a nonfiction book; unfortunately, the two Poland books in our library were both written while Poland was still a communist country. The only other children’s books about Poland I found were set during World War II and after skimming two other titles I decided we would read Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak. Ah. . .at last, a book that had the little boys asking for “one more chapter, please!” 
Web: Our first search was for a youtube clip of the Heynal played at St. Mary’s in Krakow, a trumpet tune which played an important role in The Trumpeter of Krakow. We also listened to the Polish national anthem and spent some time browsing this site for pictures of Voytek/Wojtek the soldier bear.
Other activities: As you may have noticed by now, we don’t tend to do crafts in school. The kids make things as they are inspired; I just buy the materials. We did however spend time labeling maps of Poland; Boy Genius and Twirly Girl also added some Polish dates to their timelines.
Food: I cheated this time. . .my uncle is Polish, so I emailed my aunt for information on food. She typed up information for us, and also sent us an oplatki in the mail–thanks, Aunt Janet. The kids were mostly interested in trying pierogi, which sounded like enough work that I decided to simply serve them with kielbasa and call it lunch. I also set out the sauerkraut, for anyone so inclined to eat it (not me! nor most of the boys). Anyhow Twirly Girl and I had made the pierogi the night before, opting for a kid-friendly potato filling, and then I reheated them by frying in butter.
As human beings, we like to sort, to categorize, to label. We do plenty of this in our own home, and it goes beyond the obvious parents and kids. We have big kids and little boys. Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts. Gentlemen and ladies. High schooler, middle schoolers, elementary students, and a preschooler. Some of the categories shift over time while others remain constant; but my main point is that we use them when they serve a purpose. Who is in charge? Who is old enough to walk downtown alone or watch this movie? Who needs to be at that meeting? Which one should open doors for the other? Who is studying which books?
The school system makes regular use of labels, both to identify groups as well as individuals, but instead I’d like to focus on labels used by homeschoolers. Many of the books that I read before Drama Boy was out of diapers neatly divided homeschoolers into groups based on how they taught: Charlotte Mason. Unit studies. School-at-home. There were others which I’ve forgotten, but by the time he was ready to hold a pencil the “big” one was Classical Education and I was determined to give the kids a classical education come hell or high water.
Now, for a few years we managed to pull off something that was more or less Classical Education. Even though I was still in the midst of childbearing, we did it. It helped that the two older boys are both academic in their own ways and Twirly Girl is generally cooperative. But then the rest of life became far more challenging. . .I had less energy to devote to school, but I still had the same ideals. I started to refer to our homeschool style as relaxed Classical. I know–it sounds so absurd, doesn’t it?
Eventually I came to realize that while Classical Education is a good thing, it is not a good fit for our family. At the same time I started reading more about Unschooling, and found the encouragement I needed to stop letting learning get in the way of life. But while I recognized many of our habits in what I was reading I also realized that this label did not fully fit us either. We’ve chosen to educate our children at home rather than send them to school, and how we accomplish that will vary based on the day or season or child. To that end, Homeschool is the only label we need with regard to our educational endeavors.
You’re probably tired of hearing about my Easter shawl by now, but this week, on the fourth Sunday of Easter, I was finally able to wear it. Words fail to describe this yarn knitted up, but oh is it lovely to wear! I like the pattern even more now that it is blocked as it lays nicely on the shoulders; I would like to knit it again sometime in a different yarn.
If you’ll excuse the windy Wyoming day, here also is a picture of my Easter dress with my new shawl.
I originally made this dress for Easter 2005, when Silly Boy was a newborn. This was back when I was using Wild Ginger software to draft many of my patterns, though all I can remember about this one is that it was a dress with shoulder princess seams. I had inserted invisible zippers into the front seams for nursing access; they opened from the bottom and while this worked, it was clumsy enough that I never wore the dress often. I wore it a handful of times while Silly Boy was a nursling, and once or twice while nursing Baby Boy.
Anyhow, being as the fabric is a swishy silk crepe de chine (fabric.com, probably), it just seemed wrong to leave the dress hanging in the back of my closet. I removed the front zippers and sewed those seams shut. I added waist darts and took in the side seams slightly because I no longer needed the extra ease for nursing. I also removed the sleeves, recut them, and set them again. They had been 3/4 sleeves but were always too snug on the forearm. My last step was to redo the hem, as the added darts had affected the hem. Now. . .finally. . .I have a dress that is worthy of the fabric.
Yesterday was the Fourth Sunday of Easter. That means it was also Good Shepherd Sunday, so named because the Gospel reading is from the 10th chapter of John where we hear Jesus proclaim: I am the good Shepherd. I always look forward to this Sunday in the church year because Shepherd is one of my favorite images of Jesus.
In the introit we confess “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” I would guess that the 23rd is the best known Psalm. It’s commonly used at funerals–for myself, I can’t read it without remembering the year that my grandfather and both great-grandparents died. But it’s also a vivid depiction of a loving God who supplies all our needs.
The hymns are often ones I have sung to my little ones at bedtime. The favorite here is “I am Jesus’ little lamb,” but also sometimes “The King of love my shepherd is” or “Have no fear, little flock.” I love to see their faces when they realize everyone is singing their hymn. It’s also a good reminder to me that as much as I love my babies, God loves them (and me) so very much more.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” –John 10:11 (ESV)
Simul Justis et Pecatur Under Construction Boots on the Ground I shouldn’t be doin’ this Susan’s Pendulum The Elephant’s Child
