Learning in the Sunshine State

Okay, this post is a shameless request for a vote, but not for me. My niece is 20 years old and the mother of 6 month old twins. Her soon to be husband (they’re getting married Friday) works two jobs and is a terrific new dad. She’s trying to earn extra money in many different ways, without having to put the babies in daycare and go to a job every day. So…

She entered one of her cats in a cute pet contest. She can win a $100 gift card or even $1000 cash. If you’re feeling generous you can vote for Binx here

Ten Things We Love About Homeschooling

It’s the start of the school year for many kids. Some homeschoolers follow a traditional schedule, while others don’t. Since a majority of Americans associate August and September with back to school, this seems to me an appropriate time for this post.

1. no alarm clocks

2. no morning rush

3. tailoring lessons to fit your child

4. making our own schedule

5. reading on the couch (bed, floor, etc.)

6. kitchen science/math

7. more family time

8. park days with homeschooled friends (for moms too)

9. having the library (mostly) to yourself during the day

10. no homework

This is fun. Take a look.

Dr. Horrible

I miss thee, my Mother! Thy image is still
The deepest impressed on my heart.
~Eliza Cook

It’s been less than 12 hours. I miss you so much already.

Lorraine May 1934-2008

Discovery landed safely moments ago. As usual, when the sonic booms sounded our dog went crazy barking, and the cat went flying around the house looking for a safe place to hide.

It’s Earth Day.

Plan or pledge something, anything, to do your part. But don’t just look at Earth Day as a day to plant a tree, clean up a park, or decide to use reusable bags. Make it a day to celebrate your connection to the earth, to nature. Enjoy nature. Respect her. Get your kids outside today, and every day that you possibly can.

Some Earth Day quotes to meditate upon.
“I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.” ~A Chieftan from Nigeria

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” ~John Muir

“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” ~E.B. White

I noticed that you have to go pretty far back to find a homeschool post, and since this is supposed to be my homeschool blog, I thought I’d make today’s ten school related. Official schoolwork is taking a backseat right now, though I hope to get us back into a schedule by next week. In the meantime, learning doesn’t stop.

Ten Ways to Learn Without School

1. Go with Mom and Dad to Mom’s doctor appointment and see her x-rays. (science)

2. Go geocaching with your 4H club. (geography, team work)

3. Read the Harry Potter books now that you’ve seen all the movies (he’s on #3). Talk about the differences. (contemporary literature)

4. Use a search engine to look up (game) values and rarity of certain Pokemon cards. (research skills, a little math)

5. Sign up for the St. Jude’s Math-a-thon fundraiser and enjoy the math CD they send. (math, obviously)

6. Watch any or all of the following shows: How it’s Made, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, Modern Marvels, Beyond Tomorrow, The Most Extreme. (mostly science, a little history)

7. Take care of the house as well as a 10 year old can; fix breakfast and lunch, while mom is recuperating. (home ec., aka life skills, aka making your future wife happy)

8. Draw pictures of Mom’s walking boot and Frankenstein-ish staples. (art)

9. Dig in the backyard for worms and bugs. Use a field guide to identify the bugs. (nature study)

10. Build with Lego. (always educational in a variety of ways)

I usually don’t do memes because, well I don’t know why. I just don’t. This one from Meg seemed easy enough though.

Two names you go by: Kathy, Kat (oh wait, does Mom count?)

Two things you are wearing right now: shorts and a tee shirt

Two of your favorite things to do: spend time with my family, read

Two things you want very badly: a minivan (sad, isn’t it?), a digital SLR camera

Two favorite pets you have had/have: I’ve had cats and/or dogs continuously since I was 7, and all were my favorite. I guess whatever pets I currently have are my favorites. Right now that’s our dog, Dingo and our cat, Simba.

Two people you think will fill this out: I have no idea

Two things you ate today: ruby red grapefruit from the backyard tree, roast chicken

Two people you last talked to today: Bill, Dennis

Two things you’re doing tomorrow: juicing some backyard oranges if my mom brings my juicer back; planning for the upcoming week

Two longest car rides: Florida to Dallas, TX in 1995, New Jersey to Hallandale, Florida when we first moved down here.

Two favorite holidays: Christmas, 4th of July

Two favorite beverages: Alcohol–Irish Cream, Non-alcohol - water

If you want to do this meme, consider yourself tagged. Just leave a comment if you will, so I can read your answers.

It’s been about 15 hours since our printer gave out, and I’ve already needed it about a half dozen times. We can’t complain. It was a cheap Canon i560 and it gave us 4 years of almost daily printing. These days I suppose that’s pretty good. We did a little research and settled on the Canon Pixma iP4500. It has what we need from a home printer, and the price is decent. The problem? No local stores carry it. We found it on sale on Amazon.com, and paid extra for expedited shipping, but even at that we won’t get it until Tuesday. I hope I make it that long.

I finally got new glasses. The ones I had are two years old, and I had them two years too long. I hate them for many reasons, the main one being they’re extremely uncomfortable. Also, I was too cheap to pay for the transition lenses, so I’ve had to carry around sunglass clips for the past two years. I can’t even remember how many pairs of clips I lost. I’ve worn glasses since fifth grade, and this pair ranks in the top 3 of my most hated glasses. So, anyway, it was time for an eye exam and time for new glasses. So far I like the new ones. They’re titanium; nice and light and comfortable. But the best part is I went back to transition lenses. So of course, we haven’t seen the sun since I picked them up at 8 am yesterday. It tried to come out a few times today, but each time I ran outside to test my glasses, it hid behind the clouds. My neighbors probably wonder what I’m doing.

Thirsty Squirrel

Most of the time these guys annoy the hell out of me. They eat all the birdseed, climb up the outside of the screen porch making little claw holes in the screening, and taunt our Sheltie, who continues to try and herd them. It was hard not to feel sorry for the little fella though. Yes, he shamed me into filling the birdbath, but not before I grabbed my camera.

Time to go now. The sun is out. Must find out how dark my glasses will get.

Since we took all but the first week of December off, it made sense to start back on January 2. Bill went back to work and we went back to school. We started a new type of schedule, and began our main focus of the next few months — the American Revolution. School kids start Monday, but we don’t follow a traditional schedule so that doesn’t matter to us.

But then…

Wednesday afternoon the doorbell rang. When I answered, there stood a friend of Dennis’ who lives 2 streets away, AND Dennis’ best friend who had to go to school this year. They go to the same Catholic school, and Best Friend was visiting Neighbor Friend, so they decided to come and see if Dennis was home. No problem. We were done with school for the day anyway.

Thursday, Neighbor Friend called to see if he could come over. We were in the middle of spelling, and still had some reading to do. I caved. There aren’t many kids in this neighborhood, and our homeschool friends are all at least a half hour away. When a kid knocks on the door to play with my kid, it’s hard to say no.

This morning we have P.E., and this afternoon was going to be Art and a read-aloud related to the Revolution. Except now the plans are for Neighbor Friend to have a sleepover. I told his mom I’d call her when we get back, so he can come on over.

So much for new plans. But the beauty of homeschooling is that we can change plans at the last minute. We’re not on anyone’s schedule but our own. So we start next week instead of this week. No matter. In the long run it won’t make a bit of difference whether or not we “did school” three days this week. On the other hand, the memories of playing with friends on Christmas break can last a lifetime.