Three Plus Two

Reggio Reflections

Gae left me a thoughtful comment with lots of good questions the other day regarding my Designs for Living and Learning post, and I tried to provide a briefish answer in the combox with the promise of more in a post, but... none of my comments showed up.  So I thought I would just dispense with the briefish answer and go on to the more complicated one.

Here is what Gae wrote:

This looks like a really interesting book.
Did you find that it actually was a lot different from what you have already implemented with your young ones.
Have you read the Reggio books ( all th ones in your side bar)that seem to be going around?
I am not so sure this is any different from what I already do.
Any insight on this in your own family, please?

(And if you haven't checked out Gae's blog, Cherished Hearts at Home, please do.  It's a good one.)

I'm going to jump to the easy question first. :-)  Yes, I have read all of the Reggio books I have in my sidebar, if not in their entirety at least partially.  I will probably be adding a couple more after I finish them.  I do try to make it a point never to put anything in my sidebar that I haven't read or that my kids haven't read or at least that I don't plan on using.  So if you see a book in my sidebar, you can be pretty sure I've at least read part of it and liked it enough to put it up there. 

I do know that most of these books are difficult to impossible to get in Australia.  In the US they all seem to be expensive and many libraries do not have them.  I have been ordering my books over a period of two or three years, many of them used.  If I could get my hands on only two books, I would recommend Authentic Childhood: Experiencing Reggio Emilia in the Classroom and Working in the Reggio Way: A Beginner's Guide for American Teachers (which isn't up on my sidebar because I only just received it about a week ago.  But I think it's a far better introduction to the Reggio approach than some of the other books in my sidebar.)  Authentic Childhood is a good (and thorough) general introduction, including the educational philosophy that underlies the approach taken by the Reggio schools.  Working in the Reggio Way is a more practical book, including questions to ask about your "practice" (I have to put that in quotes because it seems silly to talk in those terms about learning at home).  Both books are written in a much more down to earth manner than the typical theory-laden Reggio book.  (Sometimes I wonder if they would be easier to read in Italian!) Anyway, I think that Working in the Reggio Way is worth having just for the chapter on projects.  No other book that I've read has explained the Reggio approach to projects quite as well. (And Working... is a lot cheaper.)

The best Internet resource is, of course, Camp Creek.  There's a wealth of information there for homeschoolers, it's all free, and Lori is super helpful if you have any questions.  (She usually has an open thread for questions every weekend.)  So, if you can't find the books, or you don't have money to buy them and your library doesn't have them, it may be just as fruitful to hang out at Camp Creek for a while reading through all the archives.   Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things is also posting all her reading notes.

So that's the easy question.  Now onto the harder question, did you find it was a lot different than what you had already implemented with your young ones?

Hmmm.  Not exactly.  But that is one of the reasons I have found reading about Reggio to be especially fruitful -- because I recognized so much of how my kids actually learn there. 

When I started reading about Reggio, I was trying to jam my family into a Montessori model.  (I wrote about some of my frustrations here.) It wasn't that Montessori was completely at odds with the personalities and learning styles of my children (and me).  I had been led to Montessori in the first place based on the need to allow my children freedom while providing structure, giving them hands on work (especially in reading and math), hoping to improve some attention spans, and encouraging independence.  When Montessori popped up in my radar, I was nearly 20 weeks pregnant with twins.  My other kids were 8, 6, and 2 at the time.  Independence -- skills like pouring, making your own breakfast, vacuuming a carpet with a stick vacuum -- was high on my priority list.  Kids like to be independent, and some of the most valuable lessons I learned from Montessori were about how to encourage independence in daily life with children.

But many of the standard Montessori exercises and materials were not working with my family.  They either didn't hold the kids' interest or I couldn't maintain that kind of environment with that many kids under the age of 3... especially since two of them have affectionately been refered to as "Stuntman" and "Crash."

Anyway, what I was trying to do with my little ones (and to a certain extent, my big ones, too) wasn't working.  So I took stock of what did work and I went looking for some other model to help me gather all the various threads of our learning into a cohesive tapestry.  I could have just decided to focus on what worked without reading anythng, but unfortunately, I tend to be the kind of person who needs to read. In my first stage of learning, I gather up lots of data -- as much as I can -- then I push all the books aside and let the data stew a while.  Then I write about it and try out anything that strikes me as being useful.

So.  Here's what does work around here (in general terms):

• Nature
• Books
• Art
• Pretend play
• Following/developing interests as they arise

My first stop was Waldorf, but I ended up deciding that Waldorf is too scripted for us.  I had seen a brief mention of Reggio Emilia in an online article comparing "alternative" forms of education, so I went there next.

Reading about Reggio was a pleasant surprise because I recognized so much of what actually worked in our house in the pages of the books I read.  So in that sense, no, it is not so different than what I do instinctively with my kids, and what my kids do instinctively.  On the other hand, that's exactly what makes learning about the approach so valuable to me.  Instead of having to alter our personalities to fit the program, I can accept our personalities (including my own) as they are and find suggestions about how to build on that and make our natural learning environment fuller and richer -- not just for the little ones, but for the older kids, too.  Part of what I have gotten from reading about Reggio is just feeling a little more comfortable in my own skin. 

I don't like everything I read about the Reggio approach.  For instance, the literature is avowedly secular, and there is a strain of "all knowledge is subjective, there is no objective knowledge" running through it.  But I guess it's like anything else: I take what I can use and leave the rest.

I'm battling with finishing up here at this vague point just because I'm not sure I will ever get this post published otherwise, and with taking longer by giving you an example of how my reading has helped build upon what I would normally do.

An easy example is our art cabinet.  Art shelves have been a fixture in our house since Gareth was very small.  Even before I read a single piece of educational philosophy -- before homeschooling even crossed our minds --  we instinctively, as parents, supported Gareth's interests by giving him opportunities to play with them (toy garbage trucks, laundry baskets -- as trash cans -- , and a bunch of "stuff" to take to the "dump" in his case as a two and three year old) and provided tools for him to use to express himself -- crayons, markers, paint, glitter glue, collage materials.  Organizing all the "stuff", however, has been a constant learning process, especially as we have added more children.  I would notice that various materials were not being used because either I would forget about them, or the children would forget about them, or maybe they were just buried at the bottom of a bin and hard to get to.  

Reggio schools are known for their ateliers, or studios, in which a huge amount of art supplies are made accesible to children and teachers by storing them in transparent containers arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way.  It's not a new concept in the art world, but it isn't something you see in children's environments all that often.  After thinking about it for a while, I decided that I could use my stock of mason jars to make our materials visible, usable... and also to keep the small stuff away from the baby.  I reorganized our art shelves last November and just did my annual summer clearing out to tidy them up (the batteries in my camera are dead, so I can't take a picture right now), and have in general been very pleased with the results. A bonus has been that the art supplies also become like decorations, enhancing the beauty of the room.  They're much easier to keep neat, too, even with a toddler who has never met a chair he can't use to get what he wants.  The under 3 set seem to recognize that the art supplies are tools, which does not apply to the Montessori materials which often become missiles.  So while we do our share of washing crayon and colored pencil off walls and floors, I do not continually have to pick up an entire shelf of pencils that have been tossed all over the floor and used as bombs.  What I am running into now is that we don't have enough shelf space, so I'm looking at all our walls with a critical eye.

That's just a small example, but it has made a difference in our learning.  Another example: I've been encouraged to keep a learning journal, not exactly along the lines of the project journals Lori describes on Camp Creek, but sort of.  So, for instance, I have an entry on 12/15 that goes like this:

After the boys washed the floor, walls, coffee table, and benches this morning (J&N always on the edge of silliness), E took the canister I was saving for the baby and wanted to make a shaker using buttons, pasta shapes, and tape.  I rescued the tin by providing water bottles, lentils, black-eyed peas + glue and tissue paper.  K, E, J, and N each made a shaker -- much more absorbing and calming than washing the floor... Shakers were interesting, though, and maybe part of E constructing an "alphabet of materials" -- in this case, recycled materials, which has been a theme with E for a long time.  It's often buildings out of cardboard... but I suppose the larger theme is toys.  He usually builds things to play with.  Then the other kids then follow along w/his creativity.

"An alphabet of material -- In the Spirit of the Studio, 'From the Beginning of the Atelier to Materials as Languages', p. 13 - an interview with Giovanni Piazza... "It is through interactions between a child and a material that an alphabet can develop.  As the children use paper, clay, wire, and so on, different alphabets will develop from different materials.  As children use their minds and hands to act on a material using gestures and tools and begin to acquire skills, experience, strategies, and rules, structures are developed within the child that can be considered a sort of alphabet or grammar."

You can see the results of this day's work here if you scroll down through the Christmas stuff.  It's hard to say what I would have done if I hadn't been doing so much reading.  Would I have suggested making the shakers? Maybe.  Would I have connected making shakers to the larger processes of building skill and knowledge Farmerboy (he's E) was working on at the time? Probably not.  In this case, I had also noticed that the kids were doing sort of the same thing when they worked with clay.  They weren't interested in making finished products so much as they were interested in learning how clay worked.  The products they made to express themselves with the clay were only vehicles for the larger process of simply learning how they could express themselves.  

Whew.  You may now be sorry you asked! But I think your questions were important.  It's so easy as a homeschooling mom to be drawn into "what's going around" just because "everybody else is doing it" -- at least it is for me.  So I think it's right to have a healthy skepticism.  And I also think that if you're happy with how the learning is going -- if it works for you and your kids-- then you should do what works and don't worry about the "stuff" that's floating around.

But, if you're curious, I do think it's worthwhile to investigate the Reggio approach.  It isn't anything that you have to adopt wholesale, but the ideas are fertile ones which can be applied in a variety of situations.  And they may make you feel better if you find yourself unable to make your kids stick to plans for long periods of time. ;-)  

  

June Blooms

 

 

Peonies, by Katydid

Violets?, by Katydid

 

(by Katydid)

 

Wood Anemone?, by Katydid

 

Lily of the Valley in the woods, by Katydid

 

Daisies in the garden (by me)

 

Yarrow?

 

Potatoes

 

Mysterious blue flower from the wildflower mix Katydid sowed in the garden

 

More flowers from the wildflower mix

 

Grass in the field

 

Black-eyed susans

 

I thought this was cranesbill, but after googling, I've discovered it isn't.  Any ideas?

Fruit Trees and berry bushes

Gae asked recently about our fruit trees.  I tried to leave a comment but I'm having trouble commenting on my own blog. Gae, I'm working on your Reggio questions in a different post, but since I was out working in the garden today, I thought I would take some pictures and answer your question at the same time.  (The sun was out so I needed to take advantage of it!)

Gae wanted to know if our fruit trees provided enough fruit for our family.  Unfortunately... no.  This is only their fourth season, so the only tree bearing fruit right now is one of our peaches.

 

They're very small right now and will ripen next month. Last year was the first year this tree bore, and I am very happy to see it bearing again. Our other peach bore a few peaches last year, but this year there isn't a single one on it.

It's also become apparent by now that our cherry trees have died (possibly because they've been repeatedly stripped by deer every winter).  Our apple trees are bigger, but it takes 5-7 years for an apple to bear.  So no apples yet.

 

One of our young apples.

Our trees are all semi-dwarf or dwarf varieties.  Some of them are smaller than others.

 

If you look closely you can see that this volunteer squash plant (growing out of a compost top dressing) almost completely dwarfs this dwarf tree.  I think the tree is a pear. It's not supposed to be this small.  I think it's been hit by a few too many late cold snaps and a few too many hungry deer.

On a totally unrelated note, I am going to stop planting winter squash.  The best plants always grow out of the compost.  The others get eaten by cucumber beetles.

Anyway, Gae, if you're looking for a new place, one with mature fruit trees already bearing would be a HUGE plus in my opinion.  I wish the doctor who built this house fifty years ago had planted apples instead of crabapples.  If we ever end up moving away from here, mature fruit trees will be high on my list of what to look for in a new place.  Mature fruit trees and barns.  The house would be optional. ;-)

Berry bushes are a different matter, though.  They bear in a year or two.  We've had the best luck with blackberries.

 

This is one bush, which is also in its fourth season. It is loaded with flowers and berries this year.  It's also propagated at least one more bush which is bearing this year, too.  When we planted it, it was tiny.  Last year, blackberries were selling for $4.95 a half pint.  We paid 4.95 for the bush, and it gave us -- oh, I can't remember how many quarts of berries.  We ate most of them within 30 minutes of picking them.

We also have blueberries, which are doing better this year -- their second season.

 

We fertilize them with pine shavings from the chick brooders because they like an acid soil.  I don't know that we have enough bushes to really be self-sufficient with them... or maybe self-sufficiency is just several years down the road. They're very small bushes right now.

Andy also planted some less common berries this year which are doing much better than say, our grapes and raspberries...

  

These are jostaberry bushes.  Jostaberries are supposed to be high in vitamin C.

 

And these are elderberries.  They have blooms already, so I think we're going to get berries in the first year.  You can make wine out of elderberries, but I believe we'll stick to jam. ;-)

Well, that was probably more than you wanted to know... but I was so excited to see the sun today I couldn't help myself.  Of course it's getting to rain... again... but that brief glimpse of summer was nice.

 :-)

ETA: I totally forgot about the highbush cranberry in the front yard, and after I took these pictures, Andy cut the grass and discovered a seaberry we thought had died.  The seaberry was actually in pretty good shape, so we were pleased.  And we also noticed that the blackberry bush has another new bush on its other side. 

I also have to apologize for the template flipping.  I liked the honeybees, but I couldn't take the small photo size. 

Medical week

Pretty early yesterday morning I knew it was going to be one of those weeks where life revolves around medical needs, but I couldn't have predicted which ones, exactly. Katydid and Farmerboy woke up with stomach aches.  I called Andy and asked him to bring us gingerale at lunchtime. (I thought we could survive until then.) I told Katydid to go back to bed and assigned chicken duty to Gareth.  I did Katydid's chores and read books to the little boys.

Pop did not wake up with a stomachache.  Instead, he apparently woke up with a burning desire to go to the ER.  In the morning, I was called on to stop a game in which he climbed up on top of his dresser - on top! - stood up, and then jumped - as high as he could! - onto his bed. All he needed was to turn a somersault in midair to complete the crazy three year old imitation of an Olympic gymnast. At least he managed to stick the landing.

Then, at lunchtime, as I was sitting down to eat my lunch after doling out cheese quesadillas to every one else, and putting away the gingerale that Andy had so thoughtfully brought for the sick kids (who did NOT throw up, all thanks be to God!!), Pop decided to toss a Mason Jar onto our stone patio to see if it would break. (It did.) I dashed outside to stop the other three boys from walking into the broken glass, barefoot, thoroughly disciplined the offender, and cleaned up the mess, then sat down again to eat.

Not five minutes later Pop started howling. "My toe! My toe!"

Now, I have to back up and tell you that he was standing on the step down from the deck, where we had earlier that day seen a snake.  So what I immediately thought was that he had been bitten by a snake.  A garter snake.  So I wasn't too alarmed, but he was crying like he was in a great deal of pain.  I dropped my fork and ran outside to see what was wrong.

(This is where you should stop reading if you're squeamish.)

Once out there it was obvious he had not been bitten by a snake.  I thought he'd just stubbed his toe.  But on closer examination, the toenail on his big toe looked a little odd. 

It turned out that he had a "splinter" of wood half an inch long and a quarter inch wide jammed underneath his toenail, all the way to the back.

There was no way I could pull it out without putting the poor kid in even more pain that he was in already -- which was considerable -- so I called Andy (who wasn't even back at work yet) -- and sent the kids into emergency mobilization mode, and we headed off to the ER... which was packed... and hoping that Katydid's stomachache did not grow into anything bigger and more messy.  (Thank you, God, it did not!)

Anyway, poor Pop -- they had to numb his entire toe to pull the splinter out, and even that didn't block all the pain, especially since the splinter came out in three or four pieces.  He's none the worse for wear now, but - ugh.

This morning I had my own encounter with needles -- I went in for allergy testing and discovered that I am REALLY ALLERGIC to dust mites and grass pollen, but not to mold as I expected... and oh, yeah MAPLE pollen (and hello, where do I live??) -- but after Pop's ER experience with the numbing needles and the splinter, I was humbled enough to think that an entire tray of needles was so not a big deal.

And tomorrow Katydid has an eye exam.

So I think I meant to be sorting and organizing this week, but um, I'm having a bit of a hard time remembering.

Designs for Living and Learning

"Children are miracles.  Believing that every child is a miracle can transform the way we design for children's care.  When we invite a miracle into our lives, we prepare ourselves and the environment around us.  We may set out flowers or special offerings.  We may cleanse ourselves, the space, or our thoughts of everything but the love inside us. We make it our job to create, with reverence and gratitude, a space that is worthy of a miracle! Action follows thought.  We can choose to change.  We can choose to design spaces for miracles, not minimums."  ~ Anita Rui Olds

My copy of Designs for Living and Learning: Transforming Early Childhood Environments came yesterday, and after flipping through it expectantly, I settled into the rocking chair with Chipmunk and began to read.  The Anita Rui Olds quote prefaces the entire book.  "Wow," I thought. "'We can choose to design spaces for miracles, not minimums.'" 

Olds was talking about institutional childcare environments. But how often does this apply to my home?

The first chapter of the book contains a helpful assessment for current environments to help teachers decide what is working and what they want to change about their space.  Some of the questions they list don't apply to the home environment (one of my strongest first impressions is that the authors continually exhort teachers to make their environments more "homelike", which made me think, hmmm), but others do. 

The first thing they suggest is that you draw a floorplan of your learning space and ask a set of questions about each area.  Since the book is directed at early education environments (and since that is what I'm focused on, too), the questions are asked from the point of view of a 3-6 year old. 

1. I can see who I am and what I like to do here...
2. The natural world can be found here (such as objects from nature, animals, living specimens.)
3. There is something sparkly, shadowy, or wondrous and magical here.
4. My teacher leaves a special object out here every day so I can keep trying to figure out more about its properties and how it works.
5. There are materials here that I can use to make representations from what I understand or imagine.
6. I can feel powerful and be physically active here.
7. I can learn things from different perspectives here, literally and through assuming roles in dramatic play.

Lots of full-color photographs pepper the text for inspiration.

I'm very happy that I finally ordered this book after months of looking at it on Amazon. It's meeting me right where I am, clearing out, organizing, and rethinking our home for the new year.

 

 

On a rainy June day

• I overslept because Andy overslept because he stayed up too late reading Harry Potter.
• I tried to do part of my new T-Tapp video but Chipmunk woke up and instead I tried to do part of the T-Tapp video while holding Chipmunk.
• I had to get several drawings back out of the bin which I was attempting to put away for the year because a child suddenly needed to look at them after not thinking about them for at least 9 or 10 months.
• I cleaned out the dress-up bin, which had somehow also become the repository for all the missing puzzle pieces in the house.
• I provided props for "caving", but I did not paint with anybody today.
• I allowed two three year olds to use heavy utensils to pound Saltines into cracker crumbs.
• I took every. single. book. out of the little boys' room. Because they keep ending up in big piles on the floor.
• I made a strawberry and coconut smoothie with coconut oil because I heard that coconut oil helps you lose weight.
• I also asked Andy to bring home McDonald's. Because I had been holding/rocking Chipmunk for three hours and he showed no signs of letting me put him down. And everyone was hungry.  And there is no such thing as a package of chicken breasts when you buy your meat from local farmers. And we were out of spaghetti, and the person who is supposed to collect the eggs every day hasn't, and now we are "out" of eggs.
• During the three (and a half) hours I was holding Chipmunk, I put in a Home Science Tools order for insect-related "stuff" (including an ant farm, which I am a little anxious about) and a Montessori Services order involving color paddles.  I also ordered a Mass kit, after ignoring the fact that all our statues are missing body parts.
• And I looked at shelves online until my eyes crossed.
• And I studied all Jen's pictures. 
• And I skimmed through The Nature Corner and Where Women Create.  I determined I was born without decorating genes. 
• And I watched the Weather Channel. Until finally the child woke up and allowed me to put him down.  Then I folded two loads of laundry and gave permission for the two "flood monsters" to build a flood out of pillows.  And had a discussion with Andy about whether or not we could handle football season, if Gareth decides he wants to play
• So maybe you are not surprised that I totally forgot about Scouts.

Catching up on Reading Notes

Reading other people's book posts always reminds me that I want to do one of my own. Only I have trouble keeping up with my reading.  Mostly because I'm trying to keep up with my kids' reading. So I don't write anything down.  And then sometimes the books I read all turn into word soup in my brain, kind of like the leftovers in the refrigerator that you have a hard time remembering how old they are? Except, of course, that the word soup never goes bad or gets moldy and will be delicious again whenever you pull it out to have a taste.(Or at least mainly delicious.)  But it still may be impossible to remember when it went in the fridge.

Another challenge to recording my reading of the past few months is that I have been doing a lot of skimming of books intended for Gareth.  I skim a few books or read them in bits and pieces, and then when I want to read a book just for me, I can't remember what I was reading before I started skimming. 

A dilemma.

(If you do a lot of pre-reading for your kids -- to discuss or whatever -- would you consider leaving me a comment telling me how you fit in your own reading, too?)

Reading right now:

A Right to Be Merry

The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education

In The Spirit Of The Studio: Learning From The Atelier Of Reggio Emilia (Early Childhood Education)

My sort of almost reconstructed reading list for the past couple of months:

He Leadeth Me: Excellent book by Walter Ciszek, who spent many years as a prisoner in a Siberian labor camp, about God and suffering. A deceptively easy read -- easy to read, harder to comprehend and put into practice. Recommended by Jen.  I read this one while I was visiting my family in Tennessee.

Letters to a Young Catholic (Art of Mentoring): Another excellent book, but I read it too fast.  Ideally I ought to have read each letter with time in between to savor and think.  Instead I gulped parts of it.  Now I'll have to reread. ;-) Highly recommended!

Saint Monica: C. 332-387 : Model of Christian Mothers: Quick YA read. Food for thought, and I enjoyed it.

Just in Case: This is an introductory book about emergency preparedness for families (including large ones).  It covers building a pantry for a long term food supply, making up evacuation kits, what to do in various kinds of emergency, canning, preserving, and gardening, bread-baking, and yogurt and cheese making (briefly).  I had been looking for a good introduction to emergency preparedness for a while (especially considering that we were extremely lucky in last winter's ice storm; other people we knew were without power for a week).  This book was exactly what I wanted.

Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Pamphlet: Ok, I did read the whole thing, cover to cover, and only a little because Gareth says he thinks being an Eagle Scout would be "neat".  Fascinating stuff here that everyone should probably be familiar with -- what to do if your car stalls in a blizzard (hello), in the desert (you never know), and how to communicate with airplanes that are searching for you.  And lots of other stuff to help you "be prepared".

Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby's First Foods: Great book! Every woman should read it. In a nutshell: Drink whole milk! Eat eggs! Eat real butter! and EAT MORE FISH! (Ok, so even though I'm sitting here with a glass of high fructose corn syrup - er, lemonade -- I AM trying to eat more fish and have also started taking 2 tsp of Nordic Naturals Omega 3 + Vitamin D every day, and I have to tell you, my mood on a daily basis is much improved.)

Partial Reads:

Fahrenheit 451: This is actually my first time through this classic, but I haven't been able to finish it because of how CREEPILY PROPHETIC it is.  I imagine that's not news to anyone who has actually read the book, but honestly, it's the kind of book I am having to put down a lot because Ray Bradbury nailed our present fifty years ago.  Which is a little scary. It's definitely going on Gareth's reading list, maybe when he's just a little older.

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future(Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30): Sally reviewed this book in First Things.  I always enjoy her reviews, and this book sounded like an interesting read, so I picked it up.  Now I have misplaced it, but from what I read I think the author may place a little TOO much blame on digital technologies and a little too LITTLE blame on the school system, considering that the homeschooled kids I know don't fit into his pattern. I'd like to finish the book, though, so I do hope it turns up...

One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America's Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy: This one ended up in the toss-aside pile (which is not very big).  While the authors certainly have a point about how liberal arts in this country isn't REALLY about critically interrogating paradigms (*cough*), after a while it became evident that they have swung in the other direction: anyone who questions any portion of the conservative agenda is termed a "leftist", including people (and books) which I would in no way classify as "leftist".  The lists of liberal arts departments and courses that make up the bulk of the book are probably somewhat useful if you're checking out colleges. 

How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books: This is an Ambleside Online Year 7 selection.  I started reading it in Tennessee to see if I could read any of it aloud to the kids, then put it down.  I think I will pick it up again soon... being on a "finishing" kick lately.

Spring Term, Week 7

Week "7" -- or whatever number it really is, considering the fact that I have lost track -- was very, very busy.  Mostly because we were cleaning, But also because I had to go back to the doctor for my asthma (hopefully coming back under control now!), and there was vision therapy, and a family Scouting project (helping clean up a park), and Andy had a late Friday night meeting, and Saturday we hosted our Little Flowers and Blue Knights group so we could finish putting in the garden we're growing for the Little Sisters of the Poor.  (Andy and I joke that the Sisters' garden will probably do a lot better than ours because they have St. Joseph on their side.  We are having a really bad year in the garden this year, so the Sisters might need that help from St. Joseph!  Hardly anythng we planted from seed has come up.)

I also had to finish up our quarterly reports for the school district, which I did, and write letters of intent to homeschool for three students this year, which I also did, yesterday afternoon.  I keep feeling like there ought to be time to take a breath here. Well, maybe tomorrow.

In lieu of extensive commentary, I'm going to post some photos:

 

The remains of dinosaur building.  We're making dinosaur sculptures using newspaper and masking tape armatures, as demonstrated in Make-a-saurus: My Life With Raptors & Other Dinosaurs.  We checked this book out back when Gareth was obsessed with dinosaurs in 2nd grade.  We were living in St. Louis then, and were happily surprised when we found the book recently in our local library here in New York.  I really should own this book and I don't know why I don't.  It's about how an artist goes about recreating dinosaurs. The second half of the book gives directions on how kids can make their own.  The armature making is a bit too complicated for the younger kids because you have to roll tight tubes for arms, jaws, legs, etc.  But they should be able to do papier mache and paint without much help.

We're keeping the pieces of skeleton in bags at the moment.  Hopefully we'll get to the papier mache part in the next day or so.

  

The other "big" thing around here lately...

 

Eastern Tent Caterpillars.  Of which Pip is king.

 

One of his has even made a coccoon.

 

The thing about Pip and caterpillars is that sometimes he wants to sleep with them.  And sometimes he sleeps with them inadvertently because they crawl out of their container and end up in bed with him.

The boys "helped" Andy build a turkey roost:

 

And, as I mentioned, we hosted our Little Flowers group:

 

This week should be a little quieter... but I think it's going to take me a few days to adjust!

It's football time...

... in upstate New York.  (Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it, Grandma? ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then somebody decided to switch sports.

The wisdom of summer vacation

Well. We spent the whole week excavating the house so we could host our Little Flowers/Blue Knights group here Saturday afternoon. The cleaning was necessary, rewarding... and exhausting.  Having been out of the house so much -- and focused on getting the garden in and keeping chicks and poults alive -- the house had really suffered.  The laundry room, where the bathroom is also located, was particularly bad.  The mail (which we keep there) was overflowing, the laundry was overflowing, the cabinet where we keep all the medicine wouldn't actually close... so I sorted through and threw away (or recycled) all the clutter. I did the same in the learning/dining room.  I worked on putting away the school year, as I do this time of year every year, and as I did, I began looking around with new eyes... which is the primary benefit of doing a huge clean-up, in my opinion. 

Sometimes homeschooling can take over your life.  I mean the "school" part of it can supercede the "home" part of it.  At least this is true for me, and I think it must be true for other people, too.  But when I stop worrying so much about "school" and focus more on "home", I realize that once again I have gotten my priorities a bit mixed up.  It's not that I think the math should take care of itself, or that my kids should give up all their activities (to be honest, we don't do as much outside the house as maybe even most homeschoolers do).  It's just that sometimes -- because I like what I do -- I focus on the whole school/learning thing with the "home" thrown in on the side like a lump of overcooked green beans.  Providing good, homecooked, real food is not a lump of green beans, though, and neither is keeping up those routines which will purge the mail before it falls over in a landslide on your feet.  Keeping home is more like the roast beef of the meal which is life.  It's the base of everything.  Kids can't learn well on a frequent diet of McDonald's.  And constantly tripping over piles is, well, exhausting. 

And on the other hand... a homelearning lifestyle is NOT a lump of overcooked green beans either.  And it shouldn't be.  It takes time and care to nurture and grow.  It takes a great deal of attention.  I am not sending my kids off to school and spending all day cleaning and cooking.  So where's the balance here?  A house with 6 little kids in it, far away from help, a father with a job that takes him out of town or at least out to dinner many, many times each month, a mother who is not all that great at housekeeping in the first place... where's the balance here?

Well, the first thing is that I have to remember it's not going to be perfect, but every time we have to stop and work for days (weeks!) on the house I always vow to at least do "better".  Not perfect, but "better".  And, actually, we have done better, in many ways.  When I only had two kids, the dishes were only done once a day, and not by me.  The floor was in many ways even more dangerous to walk on that it is now. Granted, all the chores (except the dishes) were pretty much up to me because I didn't have old enough helpers, but there was some learning going on for my part.  Now I have 6 kids, and the dishes are done three times a day, the floor in the living areas is picked up at regular intervals, and I am keeping my bedroom marginally clean.  The bathrooms are scheduled to be cleaned on Fridays, and although I let my big kids clean them, they are at least fairly sanitary.  It's an improvement. 

But what has really opened my eyes this year is the necessity of taking regular breaks.  The house needs work, and we can't put it off indefinitely. There are seasons when the practical nature of "real food" takes precedence over math books.  In other words, I'm seeing the wisdom of summer vacation.

Usually I am scared that "something" will happen -- I'll get pregnant, we'll move, everyone will be sick for two months in the fall -- and we'll get "behind".  New York requires me to account for 180 days of attendence, and 900 hours of work. I count half days and add up hours to make our total, which is easier than doing "5 hours a day/180 days".  But still -- there's a little pressure there.  Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that never taking any breaks because of anxiety over what the future will hold is probably not the best way to live a life. The other problem I have had with taking breaks, is that when I let all the schoolish routines go, my kids descend into free-floating, bickering chaos. This has resulted in some hair-tearing on my part.  (As you might imagine.)  So, what to do?

Well, this year I'm trying to get through our busy summer with a little more focus on the foundation of home by making a somewhat gentle schedule.  In the first place, the kids aren't doing math.  Usually I try to keep up math because they forget, but at this point, some of us (ahem) need a little mental health time away from numbers.  So no math, no required school-y work... and our read alouds are going to be fun books.  We all love history, but -- no planned history until August or September.  (The little boys, of course, are always read stacks of picture books of their choosing... which right now happens to be all things dinosaur... and mammoth.)  We are not, however, giving up our studio/project time in the mornings.  Right now I'm aiming for about an hour when I can help build dinosaur sculptures, or help cut wire for spider webs, or whatever needs a grown-up for the doing.  This studio time (really in our dining room or on the back deck) is also a time for Gareth and Katydid to work on merit badges, for Scouts and Pilgrims of the Holy Family respectively.  Katydid is motivated for her work and probably doesn't need a scheduled time -- although it's helpful.  Gareth, on the other hand, wants to work on his Scouting stuff, but isn't always motivated enough to manage his own time. So it's up to me to give him a gentle helping hand. 

After our morning art time, it's outside to collect tent caterpillars, play, and work in the garden. From then on, the plan is to stay outside as much as humanly possible until the first frost... with our regular chore times being maintained, of course, and a bit of extra time for me in the afternoon to work on around-the-house projects.  I'm still thinking about how to work in the food that I want to learn: baking bread and making yogurt and cheese.  And July will bring soccer and camps which will need to be planned for.

It looks like my Sunday morning writing time is at an end.  Time to make some eggs for breakfast, get ready for Mass... and have a day of rest. ;-)