Mommy Brain

Found this Classic Dames Test at Sweetwater Homeschool:

Myrna Loy

You scored 16% grit, 28% wit, 28% flair, and 42% class!

You are class itself, the calm, confident “perfect woman.” Men turn and look at you admiringly as you walk down the street, and even your rivals have a grudging respect for you. You always know the right thing to say, do and, of course, wear. You can take charge of a situation when things get out of hand, and you’re a great help to your partner even if they don’t immediately see or know it. You are one classy dame. Your screen partners include William Powell and Cary Grant, you little simmerpot, you.

If you take it, be sure and post a comment and let me know how you scored!

I’m not a year-round homeschooler. Well, I guess I am in the sense that the kids are always learning, but we don’t do any formal school during the summer. Lots of playing outside, reading, reading aloud, trips to the library, swimming, etc. Our summer was extremely busy, and now here it is the last day of August, and we’re starting back to “school” on Tuesday.

I promised that I would blog about the H.O.M.E. Program and let you all know how it goes. So here’s a quick list of the pros and cons I’ve run into so far:

Pros:

~ At orientation, the superintendent of the school district that supervises the program spoke to us. Here’s a paraphrase of what he said, “We believe that it is every parent’s right to educate their children in the way they see as best. We believe that you should have access to state funds to accomplish this goal — funds that are paid for by your taxes, whether your children are in school or not. We believe that it is your free speech right to use curriculum from the worldview that your family adheres to. We will do what we can to protect these rights. We are here to give you the resources you need to teach your children and will do so with only the minimum amount of oversight and reporting as required by law.” So many times public school faculty and staff are antagonistic toward homeschoolers. It was very refreshing to meet one who believes in the parent’s right to educate their children.

~ $1200 per student per year for 1st through 8th grades; $600 per student per year for kindergarten. This can be used for curriculum, as well as music lessons, sports lessons, dance, art, etc.

~ Being able to order all of the curriculum and games and multi-media and manipulatives and educational goodies that I wanted instead of having to pick and choose and “get by” due to finances.

~ A weekly group meeting led by a science “geek” who loves to do experiments, build things, and blow things up. Last year the group got together in the evening to look through a high-powered telescope with GPS and digital camera. They were able to see Saturn’s rings! Needless to say, my boys are very excited!

~ Less record keeping during the school year. Yes, you read that right — less! Last year, I kept my own records of the hours we “schooled”, including the subjects. So my records looked like this: date, science - 1 hour, math 1/2 hour, etc. From reading the law, I thought this was what I was required to do, though no one has ever asked to see my records. Well, with this program, all I have to do is go online once a week and log in and indicate that we did our required hours: 10 for kindergarten, 15 for 1st thru 3rd, 20 for 4th and up. I don’t have to say what subjects we studied, just that the kids learned. Not hard to make that many hours, considering I read aloud to the kids for at least an hour a day, and that counts, plus all electives, on top of our “regular” subjects like math and phonics.

Cons:

~ Having to wait for my curriculum. I sent in my requisition forms, which they then fax to the companies. The companies mail the order to them and I have to pick it up. Inconvenient.

~ Detailed Learning Plans for each student. For each subject we are studying, I had to write out what I expect the student to learn during the year. At least I get to decide what they’re learning. It’s just more detailed than anything I’ve done before. Usually I just keep those kinds of “records” in my head! The good thing is I can modify the learning plan during the year if one of the kids is going like gangbusters or wants to veer off to study something different or is going more slowly than I anticipated.

That’s all I can think of for now. We haven’t had our first meeting yet, though I’ve talked to the group teacher and he seems very nice. Our first class is next Thursday, so we’ll see how it goes. So far I am very pleased, and continue to see this program as a blessing.

I love to read about how other homeschooling families schedule their day — or how they don’t! There is such a huge variety of methods and styles, and I get a kick out of seeing how differently people handle this whole education thing. If you’re like me, the rest of this post (where I’ll post our schedule) is for you. If you find that kind of stuff incredibly boring, feel free to skip it!

Our Schedule for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday
(Thursdays are HOME group, shopping, and errands. Natalie is in 3rd grade, Noah in 1st, Jonathan in kindergarten.)

6:15 - Mom up, quiet time
7:00 - kids up, dressed, beds made
7:15 - Daddy leaves for work
7:30 - breakfast, brush teeth, comb hair
8:00 - quick pick-up and chores, Mom does morning housework
9:00 - Prayer and Bible reading
9:30 - Mom & Noah - math, language, reading; Nan - starts seatwork; Jonathan - computer kindergarten game
10:00 - Noah - seatwork; Mom & Nan - math, dictation, writing assignment; Jonathan - “free” computer time
10:30 - snack and break
11:00 - Mom & Jonathan - math and phonics; Nan & Noah - finish seatwork; Josiah - computer time
12:00 - lunch and break
12:45 - Monday: in depth Bible study and History (1st semester) or Science (2nd semester); Tuesday: music and History or Science; Wednesday: poetry and History or Science; Friday: art and History or Science
2:00 - Mom - blogging time and housework; Nan - time on her computer (Spanish, typing, math drills, and blogging for language assignment)
3:45 - Mom - dinner prep; Noah - computer time; TV time for Jonathan and Josiah
4:45 - quick pick-up before dinner
5:00 - Dad home, dinner
5:45 - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday - swimming at the pool; Wednesday - family night at church
6:45 - picture book read-aloud time
7:30 - Jonathan & Josiah to bed; chapter book read-aloud with Nan & Noah
8-ish - Nan & Noah to bed, Mom and Dad time

I’ve also got to figure out a time for Nan’s piano lesson. Maybe skip swimming on Tuesday evenings, or in place of history or science one day a week. I don’t worry about missing these occasionally, because our read-aloud time in the evenings often goes along with whatever we’re studying in these subjects.

Curriculum

Natalie - 3rd grade
Abeka Language 3, EZ Grammar 2/3, Wordly Wise 3000 Book B, Spelling Plus, Complete Writing Lessons for the Primary Grades, Italic Handwriting Book D, Bob Jones Math 3, Switched on Schoolhouse Elementary Spanish, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, John W. Schaum Piano Course Pre-A Book, Essentials of Music Theory Book 1

Noah - 1st grade
Abeka Letters and Sounds 1, Abeka Language 1, Spelling Plus, Italic Handwriting Book B, Bob Jones Math 1

Jonathan - Kindergarten
Abeka Letters and Sounds K5, Italic Handwriting Book A, Bob Jones Math K5

All
Bob Jones Heritage Studies 2 (history), Bob Jones Science 2, Stories of the Great Composers Book 1, Favorite Poems Old and New, Draw Write Now Book 6, Drawing With Children, Quarter Mile Math software for math drills

Noah and Natalie are excited to start and are counting the days. Jonathan is also excited to be a kindergartener. He’s my busy one, so I hope that excitement continues. I’m going to use lots of jumping, moving, wiggling games for his math and phonics to try and harness some of that energy. This one’s going to stretch me, I’m sure!

~ No matter what anyone says, having four children of your own does not in any way make adding two “no big deal”.

~ You cannot successfully feed a 15-month old without a booster seat or high chair that they can be strapped in to.

~ Six kids at the fair, even with three adults, is a crazy idea. Maybe if they were all mine, and therefore spaced out a little more, but I’m not sure. Maybe with one giant stroller — or leashes. (Just kidding; don’t call CPS.)

~ When your almost-six-year-old puts his hands over his ears upon entering the zoo barn, both three-year-olds will be convinced that something very loud and scary is about to happen.

~ One three-year-old will recover very quickly and proceed to stick his hands into every cage whether the animal is friendly or not.

~ The other three-year-old will be impossible to convince that everything is “okay, all the animals are tied up, none are going to do anything remotely scary” and jump at every squawk, bleat and cockle-doodle-do. He will then begin crying inconsolably and Daddy will have to take him outside.

~ There is no way to take children through the animal and arts & crafts barns after they have seen the big “jumpy house” and rock-climbing wall.

~ At least one child will say, “No, I don’t want to try climbing the wall” and then change his mind when the rest of the family is done climbing and bouncing and sliding and ready to move on.

~ At this point, the best idea is to leave this child with Daddy and let him climb the wall. It is also a good idea to leave the child who screams at the mention of visiting any more animals.

~ Patient Papas are worth their weight in gold.

~ So are fair workers who warn you that the piglets are getting their ears “tagged” and the pig barn may be a bit traumatic for the kiddies right now.

~ “Let’s go look at the giant vegetables!” in the Gardening/Cooking/Arts & Crafts barn only works to get them through the door. As soon as they figure out that no one here is named Bob and Larry, they lose interest rapidly.

~ If you get six free helium-filled balloons which you tie to six child-sized wrists, you are lucky to make it home with two of them. The rest “went up to heaven for God”, according to Noah.

~ Six children will sleep very well after spending a few hours at the fair.

I could keep going, but I’m tired. Actually, kidding aside, we had a really good weekend. It was exhausting, yes, but good. And I will now remember to pray for my sister more diligently until her kids are in the “easier” phase mine are in. Easier physically, anyway. My 15-month-old nephew is a live-wire, and the only time he’s not moving is if he’s re-fueling in the high chair or sleeping.

Josiah and Peter, my three-year-old and her three-year-old, had a blast playing together and got along perfectly until this morning, when signs of fatigue and too much togetherness began to set in. Just in time for Mommy and Daddy to come at noon to pick them up.

(Mock ‘n’ Roll was provided to me free of charge by Mind and Media, who received it from the artist for the purpose of being reviewed.)

I love to laugh. I suppose most people would say that, as opposed to “I love to cry”. But I really love to laugh. When I come across a movie or TV show or book that makes me laugh out loud, it’s like I’ve hit the jackpot. And I definitely hit it with Mock ‘n’ Roll.

My husband and I made the mistake of listening to it one night while eating dinner. (The kids had eaten earlier and were playing outside, except for Natalie who listened with us.) I don’t know how many times I almost spewed my food because I was laughing so hard.

Here are a couple examples:

From The Mouse from Disneyland: Parody of The House of the Rising Sun:

We needed a vacation desperately
So we crossed the USA
Then paid that Mouse 200 bucks
To stand in line all day

My sister puked on the teacups
My brother on the Matterhorn
While I got stuck in a Small Small World
Wish that Mouse had never been born

and:

From A Dyslexic Love Song

What a wonderful name
Kathy, Y-H-T-A-K
And as I spoke her name one last time
Kathy died and went to heaven
But then without warning she became gravely ill…

And you have to hear his list of castaways on Gilligan’s PC Island. And the theme from “The Brady Bunch” sung a la Bono from U2. And the piece de resistance, his rendition of Kum Ba Yah. (You can listen to a sample of this on his web site.)

Head on over to Paul Aldrich’s site — just click the graphic on my side bar. You can listen to some samples of his music and buy his CDs and DVDs.

One small disclaimer: this particular CD is probably age-appropriate for middle-school aged kids and up. The list of castaways included “A lesbian…and her wife.” Fortunately, Natalie missed that part and I didn’t have any awkward explaining to do.

Here’s a snippet of a recent article at DesMoinesRegister.com:

Ten-year-old Elisabeth Hunziker trained diligently this past year to show her horse, High Points Primavera, at the Iowa State Fair.

But the young equestrian was disappointed when she learned she had to cancel three of her four shows to return to Council Bluffs in time to begin school on Wednesday .

‘It kind of makes me upset because I don’t get to participate,’ Elisabeth said. ‘I like to celebrate Iowa, and it’s fun.’

Iowa law stipulates that public schools begin classes no earlier than the week in which Sept. 1 falls. But all but 10 of Iowa’s 365 school districts received waivers this year to begin classes earlier than state law allows.

Reason number one-thousand four-hundred …. or is it one-thousand six-hundred? I’ve lost count. Just suffice it to say no one will ever convince me that homeschooling is not the best possible choice for my children. Hat-tip to Mr. O’Donnell for the link.

Stacy at Mind and Media is looking for more reviewers. If you’re interested, scroll down my sidebar and click on the Mind and Media graphic. So far I’ve received three free books and a free CD to review. It’s a great way to feed a book addiction. Her client list is growing, too, with more opportunities to review things like Music CDs, magazine subscriptions, etc.

Spiders

Natalie and Noah walked into a room. It was dark and spooky.
“Spooky, “said Noah.
“Aaah”, Natalie yelled.
“It is just a spider, “ Noah said.
“Yeah, but I don’t like spiders,” she said.
Then Noah saw a shadow. “Ahh,” he yelled.
“It is just a spider,” Natalie said.
“I know that,” he said.
“Boo!” Natalie said.
Noah jumped. “Hey, don’t do that.”
“Boo!” Noah said.
“I knew you were going to do that.”
And then Natalie and Noah said “Ahh!” It was not a spider, it was a snake! When the snake heard the “ahh,” it rushed away.
Natalie said, “Wow, I saw a snake before and didn’t say “ahh.””
“I have seen a snake before, too. That’s funny.”
And everyday they came up to that room and had fun.

The End
By Natalie K.

Missing

Peter loved his bear. He loved it as much as his mom and dad. One day he didn’t know where it was! He had lost it.
“Oh,” he said, “why did I have to lose it?”
He told his mom and dad. They said they saw it when he went to bed and he had it when they left the room.
“But I looked everywhere,” said Peter.
“I’m sorry,” said his mom, “we just don’t know where it is.”
“Let’s go look again,” said his dad. They looked and looked, but they couldn’t find the bear.
Then Peter said, “I think I know where it is.” He looked under his bed.
“There it is!” Peter yelled.
“It must have fallen off your bed when you were sleeping,” his mom said.
“Yeah, but I’m glad I have my bear back!” And he was.
He said, “Thank you, Dad, for helping me find my bear.”

The End
By Natalie K.

For those of you who prefer to go through life slightly (or highly) caffeinated, I found this wonderful video on Cindy Swanson’s site, Notes in the Key of Life. It’s a song called “Taylor, the Latte Boy” by Kristin Chenoweth and it’s hilarious. Ms. Chenoweth is a musical performing artist — she’s currently getting rave review for her performance in Wicked. Her latest CD is a Christian production and this song is found on that album. Funny stuff. And how awesome to see someone with a vibrant Christian faith in the entertainment field!

The nurse called and gave me the “all-clear” on the CAT scan. I didn’t realize how worried I was until I started crying when she told me. I thought I was being all “just trust God” and “be at peace” — guess I was wrong.

We had a great weekend. Well, actually it didn’t start out great — Natalie was throwing up Friday night. I think she ate too much junk food at the VBS end-of-week carnival, and then she informed me that she hardly drank any water at all that day — and it was hot. So I think it was just a combo of being slightly dehydrated and too much sugar. Unfortunately, she had consumed most of it before I got there, so I couldn’t limit her like I normally would. We had a talk about her being old enough to limit herself, but I think the puking episode did more to reinforce that than Mommy’s talk did. She’s a tiny little thing — always in the 25th percentile for her age — so a little sugar goes a long way!

Saturday I went to the stamping party at church. Not many ladies there, lots of people away on end-of-summer vacations. We had thought about going to the lake, but Kevin, God bless him, told me I needed to go have fun with my friends. So I did — not going to argue with that one! It was so much fun, and I saved a ton of money. Everyone brought their stamp collections and a couple of ladies contributed paper and card stock. We all put a buck or two in the pot and then could make as many cards as we could in the time we had. I made eleven — covered all the fall birthdays and anniversaries and three thank-you cards. Can’t beat that price.

Sunday I led the song service at church and then came home, ate lunch, and napped for two hours. I’m always so worn out when it’s my week to lead. Part of it is getting up at 5:30 am to be there at 7 for early practice. I enjoy it, but I’m definitely ready for a break for a few months.

This week is busy — it seems like I’m always saying that! Two appointments today, one tomorrow, one Wednesday. Then throw in grocery shopping, laundry, housework, getting ready to start our homeschool year next week, and the fact that my nephews are coming Friday to stay for the weekend (ages 3 1/2 and 1) and I’m tired already. One day at a time, right?

Jonathan prayed to ask Jesus to be his Savior today!

One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed. Make yourself a solemn promise right now that you’ll never use “emolument” when you mean “tip” and you’ll never say John stopped long enough to perform an act of excretion when you mean John stopped long enough to take a sh*t. If you believe “take a sh*t” would be considered offensive or inappropriate to your audience, feel free to say John stopped long enough to move his bowels (or perhaps John stopped long enough to “push”). I’m not trying to get you to talk dirty, only plain and direct. Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful. If you hesitate and cogitate, you will come up with another word — of course you will, there’s always another word — but it probably won’t be as good as your first one, or as close to what you really mean.

This business of meaning is a very big deal. If you doubt it, think of all the times you’ve heard someone say “I just can’t describe it” or “That isn’t what I mean.” Think of all the times you’ve said those things yourself, usually in a tone of mild or serious frustration. The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?

And more:

In terms of genre, it’s probably fair to assume that you will begin by writing what you love to read — certainly I have recounted my early love affair with the EC horror comics until the tale has gone stale. But I did love them, ditto horror movies like I Married a Monster from Outer Space, and the result was stories like “I Was a Teenage Graverobber.” Even today I’m not above writing slightly more sophisticated versions of that tale; I was built with a love of the night and the unquiet coffin, that’s all. If you disapprove, I can only shrug my shoulders. It’s what I have.

If you happen to be a science fiction fan, it’s natural that you should want to write science fiction (and the more sf you’ve read, the less likely it is that you’ll simply revisit the field’s well-mined conventions, such as space opera and dystopian satire). If you’re a mystery fan, you’ll want to write mysteries, and if you enjoy romances, it’s natural for you to want to write romances of your own. There’s nothing wrong with writing any of these things. What would be very wrong, I think, is to turn away from what you know and like (or love, the way I loved those old ECs and black-and-white horror flicks) in favor of things you believe will impress your friends, relatives, and writing-circle colleagues. What’s equally wrong is the deliberate turning toward some genre or type of fiction in order to make money. It’s morally wonky, for one thing — the job of fiction is to find the truth inside the story’s web of lies, not to commit intellectual dishonesty in the hunt for the buck. Also, brothers and sisters, it doesn’t work.

Still more:

Stylistic imitation is one thing, a perfectly honorable way to get started as a writer (and impossible to avoid, really; some sort of imitation marks each new stage of a writer’s development), but one cannot imitate a writer’s approach to a particular genre, no matter how simple what the writer is doing may seem. You can’t aim a book like a cruise missile, in other words. People who decide to make a fortune writing like John Grisham or Tom Clancy produce nothing but pale imitations, by and large, because vocabulary is not the same things as feeling and plot is light-years from the truth as it is understood by the mind and the heart. When you see a novel with “In the tradition of (John Grisham/Patricia Cornwell/Mary Higgins Clark/Dean Koontz)” on the cover, you know you are looking at one of these overcalculated (and likely boring) imitations.

From On Writing by Stephen King

~ Last night as Noah was enjoying the first bounty from the kids’ veggie garden, Josiah said, “We should’ve planted “chocolate” tomatoes instead of “cherry” tomatoes.”

~ There must’ve been some mass grasshopper hatching (or whatever baby grasshoppers do) recently, as our yard is hopping with them. The boys must’ve caught a dozen or more in just a few minutes yesterday.

~ The mornings have been cooler, making me realize how close autumn is. I know summer’s not over yet, but the chilly floors when I wake tell me it’s soon.

~ Re-working our school schedule to include Jonathan, my kindergartener, I’ve begun to wonder when I will ever clean our house or wash our clothes. I suppose I could give up the hour I carved out for blogging in the afternoon, but a girl’s gotta have something that’s hers — know what I mean?

~ B.J. Hoff has posted Part 4 and Part 5 of her series on point-of-view.

~ I posted some other thoughts On Writing here, this time from Stephen King.

~ I just found out that Jonathan, my 5-year-old, thought Natalie and I didn’t — well, urinate — because we don’t have the same “equipment” he does. ~grin~

~ I went in for my CAT scan and bronchial provocation test on Wednesday. Due to some scheduling mess-up by a nurse, I only had the CAT scan. The other test had to be re-scheduled for next Wednesday. I’m not too concerned about that one — I’ll be very surprised if I have asthma. The one I’m (trying not to be) concerned about is the CAT scan that they did to see if “something” is obstructing my diaphragm. Now I have to wait for the results — probably not till Monday. I always wonder if doctors have any idea what it’s like to be the one waiting.

As I was reading over my last post on movies, I realized I gave the impression that we had some elaborate system for deciding which movies to watch. You know, like “This swear word gets minus 10 points” or “This good moral lesson gets plus 5″. It’s really nothing like that.

Like many of you who commented, we have given up on using the ratings system as any guide to what we will or will not watch. Kind of sad, but I think the ratings system is pretty useless. The ratings seem almost arbitrary. Case in point: we just watched The Clearing with Robert Redford and Willem Dafoe. It was rated “R” for violence, and yet I found it much less violent than War of the Worlds — and that one was rated “PG-13″. And vice versa. There have been many PG-13 movies that deserved an R for sexual innuendo, crudity, and/or nudity. (Starsky and Hutch, for example.)

As for my husband and I, we will watch anything G or PG rated. For R and PG-13, I check a variety of sources before we watch it. Yahoo! Movies has a Movie Mom’s review that will tell you what a movie’s content is. (Search for the movie title, then click on Movie Mom’s Review.) I also use Common Sense Media and Plugged In Online. There are many PG-13- and R-rated movies we avoid, if the rating is due to sexual content. Everyone knows that men are visually-oriented creatures — and women can be, to. No need to add to temptation in this area. We see scantily-clad women too often as it is — at the lake, at Walmart, and, sad to say, at church.

There are also many PG-13- and R-rated movies that we will watch. If the rating is due to action violence or historical content, we don’t have a problem with that. We do avoid anything with gratuitous blood and gore (I’m with you on that one, Ron!). With language, it depends. If every other word is profane, or there are particularly horrible, crude words, I won’t watch it. My hubby isn’t quite as discriminating in this area. But if the language is mild or in the context of the film, I don’t mind it. Let’s face it, we don’t expect an army drill sergeant to say, “Gee, darn” when something goes wrong!

Our kids are allowed to watch G and most PG-rated movies. There are a couple PG titles that my daughter has asked to watch, but after some research I’ve decided the subject matter is too adult for her. She’s only 8, she knows that the time will come that I will allow these movies. As for PG-13, if we think the movie might be okay for the kids, we watch it first. They have watched Spiderman. And I took my boys to see Fantastic Four. My boys would probably be fine watching Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings, but Natalie is more sensitive to “scary” things. I think boys (at least mine) are better at realizing this is just a make-believe world, where Natalie seems to empathize with the characters, and when they’re scared, so is she. There have been a few movies that Kevin has allowed the kids to see that I probably would’ve waited on, mostly due to language or action - such as Jurassic Park, but all in all we are in agreement. And my kids don’t swear, so I think we’re doing okay. At least, I hope so!

Christianity Today has posted an article that includes reader’s e-mails sent in response to this:

“A few weeks ago, our weekly newsletter cited a recent study about the movie-viewing habits of ‘religious’ Americans, noting that when it comes to watching R-rated films, there isn’t much difference between the religious and nonreligious. Interestingly, the same study noted that self-described ‘conservative’ religious people are much more likely to watch violent R-rated movies than ‘liberal’ religious folk.

That newsletter also asked for readers’ thoughts on R-rated movies, including what criteria, if any, you might use in making your choices. We also asked if any particular R-rated movies had affected you powerfully in any particular way. (Not surprisingly, many readers cited The Passion of The Christ in answer to that question.)”

So, what about you? What are your limits when it comes to movie viewing? Do you watch R-rated movies? How do you decide what to let your kids watch? Tell me in a comment, and then click over and read the rest of the article. The wide range of answers is interesting.

I’ll post tomorrow on our movie-viewing “system”.

I guess I’m a “real” blogger now, ’cause today I have been hit by endless comment spam. I keep deleting them, and then more appear. Any ideas on how to prevent them from showing up in the first place?