Smrt Lernins

Why, why, why do the mommy groups all plan their activities for traditional school hours?

Ok, I understand why it works for them. They can ditch their older children on the public school system and now want to use that time to do their various mommy activities. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to understand that those times are really not the best for their homeschooling friends–or if they understand it in theory, they either don’t understand it in practice or don’t particularly care–and either get miffy about our expressions of scheduling dismay, start the process of subtle exclusion from that social group, or both.

I’d love to attend some local parenting group activities. I really would. I’d love to be more involved in local birth and breastfeeding advocacy organizations. I’d love to go to cloth diapering workshops, play dates for toddlers at various parks, and moms-only coffee at the local coffee shop. Unfortunately, I do not have someone else available to educate my kids for me.

Believe it or not, the flexibility of homeschooling doesn’t mean I can go to some adult- or toddler-geared activity multiple days a week. I know you’re all shocked, but Captain Science has to do his schooling at some point, and that point needs to not be dinner time. Even if we were one of the “done by noon” homeschooling families, we still couldn’t make all these 10am activities for small children, because Captain S is still there. He doesn’t magically disappear during school hours. He can’t stay here alone while I cart Babypie and Tank off to play dates. He can’t go to music time or story time without being the inappropriately old, freakishly tall boy at whom the other parents look askance when he smiles at or talks to their toddlers, and frankly, I don’t want some stranger-danger fearing mama mentally profiling my sweet and innocent 9-year-old son as someone who might in some way be a threat to her baby, simply because he’s friendly and doesn’t have anywhere else to go.

As much as I joke about doing something and “counting” it as a lesson (example: “Going to Costco involves a lot of walking. Totally counting that as P.E. for today!”), we are not a homeschooling family whose educational philosophy is based primarily on getting out of the house and doing stuff. We aren’t unschoolers; We have quite a lot of formal curricula to work through in a week. We also have other lessons and classes, scheduled for, amazingly enough, school hours, and no school bus is going to come to take Captain Science to and fro.

In a perfect world, the “crunchy” mama set would realize that many of their number homeschool, but this world is far from perfect. I’m watching homeschooling slowly, ever so slowly, result in a gradual exclusion from many of my former social groups. Part of it might be natural growth, as our children are taking different paths, but I think that much of it just has to do with the fact that my “free” time is now decidedly less expansive, my entourage size doesn’t change based on school hours (it’s always Smrt Mama + 3), and I can’t meet up with most of my non-homeschooling friends/groups with enough frequency to maintain the friendships/sense of membership.

I feel like I spend so much time talking about exclusion — from the homeschooling world as a whole, due to secularity, from secular homeschooling, due to rigorous classical curricula. This is just one more facet of that. The inconvenience of the rigorous homeschooling schedule can be a stumbling block in maintaining pre-homeschooling friendships and activities.

Captain Science had a great week. Thank goodness, because I was fixin’ to put him out in the yard in a box labeled “free kittens (large).”

He finally, finally passed the Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents bridge to chapter 20 (we won’t even talk about how many tries that took) and then zoomed through chapters 20-24. Even though chapter 24’s work was as long as a bridge and over new concepts, he finished it quickly and completely correct!

Caesar’s English I is also going swimmingly. After finishing the second chapter last week, Captain Science reviewed the materials and then took the cumulative quiz over the materials . 100% — surprising, as he took it in a noisy coffee shop while I was attending a baby-wearing meeting. He’s such a little peach sometimes that it makes those bad weeks much more bearable.

He has also officially completed Grammar Town, though I have to say, bless his heart, we’re having to go back and do review over a few concepts. He missed 10 of the 25 questions of the post-test, due mainly to zooming through without paying attention. He can identify all the relevant parts of speech, phrases, etc. in a sentence, write an example sentence using the required sentences parts, but totally bombed the multiple choice?   Yeah, I’m going to call that an effort issue, not a retention issue. It was hard to keep him focused through his work on Practice Town today, as it has started snowing to beat the band, a rare treat in Georgia. We went through a little review of direct object vs. indirect object vs. subject complement, then he broke down a few example sentences for me (all correct), before I booted him out into the snow, where he is currently leaving giant footprints all over the formerly pristine snowy driveway.

Our mini-co-op is going swimmingly. We added new students to Daddyman’s game class this week and two of the new students (some of my favorites from my writing class last semester) stayed to do Patchfire’s class on the brain and my writing class. We now have an age spread from 9-12 (maybe almost 13?) and an additional girl, which is nice for balance. They came up with their board game ideas, looked at slides of the brain online, and worked on the main conflict from their stories. The dynamic is just perfect now, as the oldest student is genuinely admired and respected by the younger kids, which lets him act as a leader and keep them on track. Love these kids, seriously. Such a wonderful group, every single one of them, from our morning gamers to our afternoon writers.

Science in general is moving in a fun direction. Captain Science’s Thames and Kosmos Physics Workshop came, so he and EG spent Thursday building various machines to test force and weight. Patchfire et al. have prior commitments on Tues/Thurs of next week, so I’ll be managing the brain class and having Cpt. Science catch up on a couple of experiments from the phsyics kit next week — something to do with dropping potatoes and making a sail car? Or maybe sailing a potato car?

The Tank surprised me this week with his ability to write his name, which isn’t exactly short or easy (and we’ve had some arguments over the inclusion of the letter “v” on a few occasions). He wrote it on 10 valentines for his classmates and teachers, with no help and only one or two gentle reminders that his name doesn’t start with “O.” He missed class on Wednesday due to a mild fever the night before (24 hour fever policy? — homeschool doesn’t have that), and when I walked him in, all the little boys in his completely-male (by lack of girl enrollment, not by sex-segregating design) class were sitting at their desks with giant globs of pink play-dough (made by yours truly) and hollered, “You’re here!” His teacher also gave him a huge hug and said, “I’m so glad you made it today!” Queue moderate guilt over not re-enrolling.

Babypie’s newest skill this week is incessant chattering. She talks almost constantly in nonsensical syllables that perfectly mimic the tone and form of our speech.

I stayed busy with both a La Leche League meeting and a baby-wearing social, plus the co-op and science at Patchfire’s. I’ve been under the weather and am dragging, so I’m amazed our week has been this productive. I just want to drink coffee and snuggle under a blanket all day, but that’s not a good way to get homeschooling accomplished, sadly.

It’s currently snowing all fluffy and Yankee-like out there, so I’m going to take some pictures and document this magnificent snowfall. I’m sure I’ve forgotten stuff from the week, but such is the nature of things.

This week seemed to drag and I feel like we accomplished next to nothing. It was Dawdling Week. WeekFail. Apparently this is normal for November, so I won’t wail and tear my hair too much.

Math hit a stumbling block today with dividing fractions using cancellation. The whole “but we’re MULTIPLYING!!!” thing was just too much and broke Captain Science’s brain. It shouldn’t have, but it did. Same thing in grammar — Captain Science forgot how to identify and diagram a direct object. Both issues have, thankfully, been remedied, but it’s been a muddled up, fuddled up sort of week.

In Life of Fred: Fractions, Captain Science covered chapters 25-28.

In grammar, he covered 6.7 (synonyms and antonyms), 6.8 (homonyms), and 6.9 (good vs. well) in Growing With Grammar. Because he had a setback with direct objects, we did some additional diagramming, 3-4 sentences every day this week, so about 15 minutes a day of grammar. In Writing Strands, he continued with building paragraphs. His essay this week was about preferring Babypie to The Tank, as far as siblings go.

History saw the end of our formal lessons about Ancient Greece. We’ll do the Greek pantheon next week, but we finished up topics of math, science, medicine, and Greek home life. Essay topics were influential Greek mathematicians and the difference between childhood in Greece and modern times.

Science was all about color and light, but it was completely hands on, no written materials. He really enjoyed running around with Eclectic Girl doing all the experiments.

Co-op went well. We’re wrapping up poetry and our class decided to name our upcoming book Chairs with Brains. All students have to have their final drafts in to me for publication.

The Tank’s conference was this week. He is adored by his two preK teachers, who love how he says “nuttin” when they ask him what’s bothering him and how excited he gets when he gets leftovers packed for lunch. They aren’t concerned about his speech issues, but offered advice on how to proceed with interventions if we were concerned. He can recognize all his classmates names in writing!

Babypie is trying to talk. She says “hey/hi” and “dada” (only to Officer Daddyman) regularly, and sometimes says “hey there” and something that sounds like “yeah!” She mimics sounds back sometimes, repeating the first sound of her name and Captain Science’s.

This has probably been the week where I’ve most felt like we accomplished nothing. We did no typing, no logic, no music appreciation. We slogged slowly through our materials, sometimes taking all day to get things done. Patchfire assures me this is normal and that November is just the month that makes you want to throw in your towel. I don’t want to quit — it hasn’t even crossed my mind — but I do need to find something to revitalize us. I think it’s good that we’re wrapping up Greece, because I need a change. Rome is nice in the fall, I hear.

Yes, we have successfully survived made it through our fourth week of homeschooling. Twenty days down, 160 days to go!

This week was a little different, because we added a field trip on Friday, thus throwing off our normal history/math/science rotation. On Monday, Captain Science completed a crossword puzzle review on the Mesopotamians (got it all right!) and started reading about the Ancient Egyptians. His supplemental reading this week is Tales of Ancient Egypt, which he needs to finish up today in order to get started on next week’s book. For our second history day this week, we took a field trip on Friday to the Michael C. Carlos Museum to view their Ancient Egypt exhibit. The Carlos Museum once houses the mummified remains of Ramses I, and though the mummy has been returned to Egypt, the small museum’s collection is still impressive. Captain Science’s assignment was to find his favorite three objects and write observations about them, including name, composition, and date. He drew pictures to go along w/ the observations, and next week he will copy those pictures into his binder, color them, and add the observations at the bottom.

The Captain took and passed the “bridge” (review quiz) in Life of Fred: Fractions and passed it on the first attempt. He moved on to chapters six and seven this week, finally getting into the actual fractions portion of the book. This book continues to be an enjoyable way for Captain Science to learn math. He never complains about “working on Fred.”

Captain Science and Eclectic Girl continued working on circuits. They had their most on-task day ever, perhaps motivated by the box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts they were told they could dive into after completing their work. They finished with 15 minutes to spare, a first, and ate two doughnuts a piece. Since both children could be easily blown away by a heavy wind, I don’t think they’ll suffer from this rare bribe. They may be starting their magnetism unit next week!

We had an unpleasant discovery with our writing curriculum. While I realized it wasn’t a strictly secular program (the emphasis on the story of Noah gave that away), I was not prepared for the Bible literalism that was sneaked into one of the lessons, an essay on Gilgamesh. I didn’t even catch it on the first read-through. It wasn’t until I noticed a reference to the “real” story of the Garden of Eden in Captain Science’s essay and reread the source essay that I saw it. Sure enough, the stories of the snake in the garden and Noah’s flood were referred to as the “true” stories that inspired the fictional tale of Gilgamesh. I was already unhappy with the program, with its list of “banned words” and emphasis on -ly adverbs, but the insidious nature of the content means I’m going to have to find another writing program. $50 down the drain, alas, and uncertainty about our curriculum for now, neither of which makes me very happy.

The above incident also made me realize that Captain Science doesn’t know Bible stories. He’s had almost no exposure to them. While I don’t want him to learn Bible stories as fact or within a religious context, it’s important to have a passing familiarity with things like the Garden of Eden, both for cultural reasons and to catch allusions in literature. Luckily, Patchfire found Old Testament for Teens, a book designed to teach “some of the more important aspects of the Old Testament through an educational approach that recognizes that the majority of our cultural and social history has been strongly influenced by interpretations of Biblical episodes.” Hopefully, New Testament for Teens will soon follow.

Grammar progresses well. Captain Science passed his grammar quiz over nouns on Monday and started reading about pronouns on Wednesday. That’s really all I can say about grammar, which is useful, but rarely exciting. I can’t wait to get back to some diagramming again!

Co-op classes went well this week, but the Captain is having a hard time behaving in Officer Daddyman’s martial arts class. It’s hard when your dad is your teacher, but Daddyman is going to have to implement a “three strikes and you’re out policy” to curb the grabbiness that Captain Science and a couple other classmates keep exhibiting. I haven’t heard any complaints about his behavior in other classes, however, and he’s having a great time.

I’m currently looking at adding some logic to our weekly curriculum. Logic Countdown was recommended to me, and after checking out the follow-up Logic Countdown, I’m pretty sure it’s the right program for us.

All in all, another great week here at the McLernins household!

This afternoon, when asked why a certain section of his science work wasn’t finished, Captain Science replied that Eclectic Girl kept taking all the batteries. “We had more than enough,” he said, “but she just kept saying she needed more of them.”

Now we know from whence cometh Eclectic Girl’s powers. She’s battery operated!

Yesterday, we went over to my friend Patchfire’s house house so that Captain Science could have his first physics lab lesson with Patchfire’s daughter, Eclectic Girl. The goal of the day was the figure out how Eclectic Girl and Cpt. Science work together — does one give the other the answers? is one taking the lead in all the experiments? do they squabble when the pressures of labwork are applied? — and to give EG and Cpt. S a feel for what physical labs will be like. And yes, our 4th graders are doing physics.

They wrapped aluminum foil around batteries and lit up lightbulbs. Had this activity happened in a public school classroom, they might have been lucky to have one battery and lightbulb to share between them, and they certainly would have had a stringent set of rules about what was and was not acceptable for the experiment. Patchfire gave them the directions and the supplies (including a large stack of batteries) and set them free with minimal interference — guidance, but no hand-holding. The result was that our somewhat gawky little scientists figured it out in short order, in their own way, in their own time. So refreshing!

Captain Science is currently doing the “homework” Patchfire assigned him, which was to finish the lesson sheets. He’s currently trying to describe in detail how one would go about making a lightbulb light with nothing but aluminum foil, Scotch tape, and a battery.

SCIENCE! ENGERGY! SCIENCE! ENGERY! Snaaaaaaake Eeeeeeeyes…