I've recently discovered Peter Gray's blog, Freedom to Learn, at Psychology Today and have found it excellent reading. In one of his posts, he has asked for stories about self directed learning. One of the topics suggested is learning to read without schooling, and I thought it Eldest's story was an appropriate example.
When Eldest was about 4 years old, she adamantly insisted that she did not want to learn how to read. Ever. I asked her how she would go about living life without learning to read, since there would be times when she would want to seek out information in books. She answered that she would get me or Dh to read to her. I did point out that we wouldn't always be available, but she still insisted she was not going to learn how to read.
Now, one thing I learned fairly quickly with Eldest is that she wasn't the sort you can sit down and "teach" things to. Attempts to do so tended to backfire. (She's better able to tolerate it now that she's older, but it's still far from her ideal way to learn.) She has always had high expectations of herself, and when she couldn't pick things up perfectly the first time she tried, she was by far the hardest on herself than anyone else. One of my biggest challenges as a home schooling parent was to help her accept failure as a path to success, and that it's perfectly normal and acceptable to not get things right the first time. There would be a great deal of anxiety, and she would immediately pull back from the topic, no matter how interesting she found it, or how motivated she started out. I remember having similar feelings (still have them, actually), and I definitely remember the almost physical pain such feelings involved. So the last thing I was going to do was make her learn how to read. Nor was I going to give her a hard time about her proclamations about never learning how. On the contrary, I knew that if she was going to learn how to read, the best thing I could do was just read a lot myself - either to her directly, or for my own pleasure in her vicinity.
Dh and I have always been bibliophiles, and even with all our moves, our homes have been filled with books. It was the natural thing for us to get lots of books for our daughter. One was the set, My First Steps to Reading, which we have since passed on. Each book in the set followed a child who was Little "a" or Little "b" and so on through the alphabet. On the inside covers was an image of all the little letter children in alphabetical order, with a few things near them with names starting with their letters. We'd read these to her, starting out by singing through the alphabet, asking her if she could find the different children (each wore their letter on the front of their shirts), or some other object around them. It was a fun game we had with her.
When Eldest was 5, she was still insisting that she didn't want to learn how to read, but every now and then, I would catch her teaching herself to both read and write. I remember walking into a room and finding her with one of these First Steps books. She was looking at the children in a row on the inside cover, then copying the letters on their shirts on her chalk board. Thankfully, she never noticed me coming into the room, and I immediately backed out. If she had seen me, she would have immediately stopped, and probably wouldn't have tried again for a long time, in the off chance I might walk in unexpectedly. Other times, I would be busy with something or other and she would walk into the room with book, asking me about a specific word. I'd tell her what the word was, she'd thank me and leave. I knew not to try the usual recommended suggestion of asking the child to sound a word out, think it through, etc. If I'd done that, she would have stopped asking for help, and stopped trying to read. She didn't limit herself to children's books, either, and with the exception of some older, more fragile, books, we never restricted her access to any books we had.
By the age of 6, Eldest was fully literate, no longer needing to write out the letters and words to figure them out, and reading well beyond her age level. She was also a voracious reader, diligently working her way through our home library. At age 10, one of her favorite books was a university Sociology textbook we picked up at a garage sale. She rarely needed to ask me how to read a word, or what a word meant. Today, she loves words, and her favorite books include dictionaries, a thesaurus, and Elements of Style.
Youngest is also largely a self taught reader. It took her a bit longer, and she didn't develop an actual love of reading until a year or two ago when, during our weekly library trips, she discovered her love of mythology. She's not the logophile her sister is, but few people are. ;-) Her learning to read was so gradual, I really can't pinpoint any age when she went from being illiterate to literate, nor can I even succinctly explain how she learned to read.
I do, however, remember the day I myself became a reader. We weren't big readers in my own home, though we had many books. My parents didn't have time to sit and read to me, and if they did, it wouldn't have been in English, a language they still are not comfortable reading in. I started school in first grade with absolutely no familial preparation for reading. I remember sitting at my desk holding a book with a line drawing of a young girl. The teacher asked me to read that page. I told her I didn't know how to read. She asked me to say, "Mary."
"Mary," I repeated.
"There," she told me. "You just read that page."
The teacher then continued on with the class, but I remembered looking down at the page in awe. Suddenly, that strange group of lines under the image of a girl was the name, "Mary." Something had clicked in my mind, and it was like a revelation. It wasn't long before I was able to delve into the world of books, and spent much of my school years nose deep into some novel. I actually got into trouble for reading too much, and reading ahead of the class. I didn't care. Once that door in my mind opened, nothing else mattered. Books had become a major part of my world. It saddens me when I think of people who leave school swearing never to read another book again, having been traumatized by being forced to read throughout their school years. Reading, to them, was something painful, and they couldn't wait to get away from doing it. How much better could it have been if, rather than forcing kids to read because it was decided that kids should be reading at specific levels based on their ages, they were allowed to learn to read at their own pace, based on their own initiative and interest.
Sure, they might not all have become bibliophiles, but at least reading wouldn't be something hated, and to be avoided for the rest of their lives!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Friday, April 09, 2010
On the teen front.
You know, I really like having teenagers in the house.
Just a few things that have been going on. On Tuesday, while I took Youngest to her voice lesson, Eldest stayed home and sewed herself a skirt. She had no pattern, though she's planned it out on paper. The sewing machine was giving her troubles, too. For some reason, it would suddenly "burp" at her, and the thread would get all tangled up or break. Then the needle suddenly broke. I guess the "burp" noise was the needle hitting the metal base plate or something. Thankfully, she was almost finished and could hand sew the rest of it. We do have more needles for the machine... somewhere. So she now has a light, flowing summer skirt for herself.
Meanwhile, Youngest has been helping me crochet a huge, ugly blanket to keep in the van. We used up all our cheap, virtually indestructible acrylic yarn. Some of it was left over from projects, others we just never found a use for. It's got at least 10 different colours in it. By the time we were done, it was quite huge. Despite it's incredibly fugliness, both girls love it. Youngest has decided to make another one for herself. She's been slowly buying skeins of Bernat Satin yarn in pairs of colours, without really knowing what she would do with them. She liked the colours. She's made a couple of pairs of slippers, and she and Dh have both made attempts at knitting with them, but that's it. So she's gathered it all up and will be using them to make another blanket for herself. The one she made for herself before used chunky yarn and a cluster stitch. This one will be much simpler. She's working from the middle, out, in rounds until the yarn runs out. Who knows how big it will end up being?
Today, Eldest and I went to the monthly meeting with one of the home school groups we're members of. I've only been to one meeting before, and I can't say I felt very welcome there. I know some of the members in person from park days, but most I meet only through the email list. Today didn't have most of the people who were there last time. The president of the group made it out, which was great. She's such fun. :-D I got to meet someone in person that I'd only spoken to on the phone before, though I realized later that I'd already met her son before.
The meetings usually have specific subjects to discuss, but this one was different. There was a panel of teens, ages 14-18, that were willing to answer questions from the adults in the meeting. The idea was for people to ask questions, then each of the teens, or those the questions were specifically aimed at would provide answers from their own perspectives. Eldest was on the panel, which turned out to be really great for a new person to the group who has recently taken her kids out of school. One of them is less than motivated and, from the situations she described, he's just like Eldest, except that he's dyslexic. I think she came away from the evening feeling more reassured and confident.
The questions they got were interesting. Those that had also gone to public school got a chance to describe their experiences, and the good and bad of both. They were asked what future goals they had, if any (the youngest of them talked about her interests, but had no specific goals yet - and rightfully pointed out that no one can really say what they will, or won't, be doing in 5 or 10 years). The new home schooling mom asked what motivated them, and for advice on the situation with her son. They were asked if they felt home schooling was preparing them for the next stage of their lives, and if there was anything that they would change or do differently if they could. All in all, it was quite interesting. I really enjoyed it.
The teen years are something that have been on my mind a fair bit, recently. No surprise, since I've got two of them, but the thing that comes to mind is that I don't really think of the girls as "teenagers." Eldest may be chronologically a teenager, but as far as I'm concerned, she's an adult. Sure, she might not have a lot of life experience yet, but she has all the capabilities, skills and maturity of an adult. (Actually, more than a lot of adults I've met over the years, but that's something else entirely... *L*) Youngest isn't there quite yet, but she doesn't have far to go.
Whatever roads their lives take them, I have every confidence they're going to do just fine.
Just a few things that have been going on. On Tuesday, while I took Youngest to her voice lesson, Eldest stayed home and sewed herself a skirt. She had no pattern, though she's planned it out on paper. The sewing machine was giving her troubles, too. For some reason, it would suddenly "burp" at her, and the thread would get all tangled up or break. Then the needle suddenly broke. I guess the "burp" noise was the needle hitting the metal base plate or something. Thankfully, she was almost finished and could hand sew the rest of it. We do have more needles for the machine... somewhere. So she now has a light, flowing summer skirt for herself.
Meanwhile, Youngest has been helping me crochet a huge, ugly blanket to keep in the van. We used up all our cheap, virtually indestructible acrylic yarn. Some of it was left over from projects, others we just never found a use for. It's got at least 10 different colours in it. By the time we were done, it was quite huge. Despite it's incredibly fugliness, both girls love it. Youngest has decided to make another one for herself. She's been slowly buying skeins of Bernat Satin yarn in pairs of colours, without really knowing what she would do with them. She liked the colours. She's made a couple of pairs of slippers, and she and Dh have both made attempts at knitting with them, but that's it. So she's gathered it all up and will be using them to make another blanket for herself. The one she made for herself before used chunky yarn and a cluster stitch. This one will be much simpler. She's working from the middle, out, in rounds until the yarn runs out. Who knows how big it will end up being?
Today, Eldest and I went to the monthly meeting with one of the home school groups we're members of. I've only been to one meeting before, and I can't say I felt very welcome there. I know some of the members in person from park days, but most I meet only through the email list. Today didn't have most of the people who were there last time. The president of the group made it out, which was great. She's such fun. :-D I got to meet someone in person that I'd only spoken to on the phone before, though I realized later that I'd already met her son before.
The meetings usually have specific subjects to discuss, but this one was different. There was a panel of teens, ages 14-18, that were willing to answer questions from the adults in the meeting. The idea was for people to ask questions, then each of the teens, or those the questions were specifically aimed at would provide answers from their own perspectives. Eldest was on the panel, which turned out to be really great for a new person to the group who has recently taken her kids out of school. One of them is less than motivated and, from the situations she described, he's just like Eldest, except that he's dyslexic. I think she came away from the evening feeling more reassured and confident.
The questions they got were interesting. Those that had also gone to public school got a chance to describe their experiences, and the good and bad of both. They were asked what future goals they had, if any (the youngest of them talked about her interests, but had no specific goals yet - and rightfully pointed out that no one can really say what they will, or won't, be doing in 5 or 10 years). The new home schooling mom asked what motivated them, and for advice on the situation with her son. They were asked if they felt home schooling was preparing them for the next stage of their lives, and if there was anything that they would change or do differently if they could. All in all, it was quite interesting. I really enjoyed it.
The teen years are something that have been on my mind a fair bit, recently. No surprise, since I've got two of them, but the thing that comes to mind is that I don't really think of the girls as "teenagers." Eldest may be chronologically a teenager, but as far as I'm concerned, she's an adult. Sure, she might not have a lot of life experience yet, but she has all the capabilities, skills and maturity of an adult. (Actually, more than a lot of adults I've met over the years, but that's something else entirely... *L*) Youngest isn't there quite yet, but she doesn't have far to go.
Whatever roads their lives take them, I have every confidence they're going to do just fine.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
A good Monday
I hope everyone had a really great Easter. :-)
My husband was able to take today off, so it was a 4 day weekend for him. Nice that he could do that. Easter Monday is generally a quiet, just us, day.
The only downside I had over the weekend was that I was just a touch under the weather... Okay, maybe more than a touch. Maybe I was having the menopausal cycle from hell that had me using a week's worth of TP in 2 days. It made things a little bit uncomfortable. ;-)
It also left me feeling rather anemic, but today, I was feeling desperate to get out of the house and into the beautiful warm sunshine! Eldest and I grabbed our cameras and headed into the valley to see how much I'd recovered, while Dh and Youngest went WoW'ing together. Thanks to someone giving us an old 15" flatscreen monitor for free, we've been able to set up the old computer again. It still needs some work, but Dh cleaned it out enough that it's functional again. Since it's able to handle WoW, that means we can have 2 people playing at the same time. Joy. :-P
While they were busily manipulating pixels, Eldest and I did a bit of hiking. Some of the paths we used to take are closed due to erosion, but they're still being used. We found a place where we could clamber down to the river's edge and get some photos. Clambering up was a bit more difficult. My feet were NOT enjoying it. I keep trying to tell myself that I'm still not recovered, but I was really unhappy with how quickly I got out of breath, and how often I had to stop and rest. This is the first walking trip I've made that wasn't a library trip (sidewalks only) or a mall walk since fall. I wasn't impressed with myself.
Since my feet were very clear that clambering up and down river banks was not a good idea, we headed in the other direction where we could get part way up the valley without doing stairs, then between a combination of stairs and a complex with an escalator, eventually make our way up to street level. While Eldest waited at the top of some stairs while I hobbled up, she happened to look up and see someone that looked like a friend of hers. When we popped into the building so I could use their public washroom, she kept an eye out. Sure enough, it was her friend, hanging out with a friend from school. She went out to say hello, then we went our seperate ways.
After we continued our walk, we decided we needed to get something to drink, so we turned around to use a predestrian crossing, only to run into her friend again. So we invited them along. They hadn't been to a particular place we go to fairly regularly, so that's where we went.
Four hours later, we were still there! It was quite a lot of fun, and we talked about all sorts of things. At one point, when we were in the middle of a discussion of philosophy and various forms of government, a guy sitting behind Eldest turned around, excused himself, and joined our conversation. *L* He couldn't help but overhear us, and found it really interesting. He turned out to be a Marxist Kurd from Turkey, who tried to rail a bit against capitalism, and blame manufactured crisis for the war in Iraq. It was a bit of a ramble, and I couldn't quite see what his point was meant to be at times, but it was interesting. Then he commented on how glad he was to hear us discussing such things before going back to his laptop to wait for the woman who joined him later.
Interesting, the people you can randomly meet at cafe's. *L*
Eventually, I figured I'd better get home and see about supper, if necessary, and left Eldest to stay with her friends. They were trying to decide where to go next when I left. By the time I'd got home, Dh had called my cell phone (which I'd left with Eldest, since she didn't bring it along - we were just supposed to go hiking together! *L*), so he knew she wasn't with me already. I was happy to discover Youngest had cooked supper, and they were already eating when I got there. After I finished eating, I went to upload the photos I'd taken (far fewer than I'd expected) and check my email and so on. I changed my facebook status, joking about how long I'd been out and that Eldest was still out. Shortly after, I get a comment from her friend's mom, saying it's good to see her again.
Turns out, they'd gone to her house for pizza and a movie. *L*
Some time later, Eldest calls for a ride home. Dh answers and says sure thing, but doesn't ask where she is. That confused her for a bit, so she told him anyway. He just said yeah, and that I'd be there soon (he doesn't know where they live). Once she found out about the facebook thing, it all made so much more sense. *L*
When I had the chance, I left a quick wall message on her friend's mothers facebook, thanking her for having Eldest over. Her daughter answered and there was a bit of banter about how we knew where she was, even though she hadn't told us, then joked that I was cyberstalking Eldest on facebook, and she doesn't even have a facebook page! Which is pretty funny, when you think about it. I have a couple of her friends on my list, and sometimes they find out about things from me before she's had a chance to tell them herself. *L*
All in all, though, it was a grand day. Beautiful weather (well... not for Eldest. She doesn't like heat or sun. *L*), good friends, and a nice, relaxed time together.
Life is good.
My husband was able to take today off, so it was a 4 day weekend for him. Nice that he could do that. Easter Monday is generally a quiet, just us, day.
The only downside I had over the weekend was that I was just a touch under the weather... Okay, maybe more than a touch. Maybe I was having the menopausal cycle from hell that had me using a week's worth of TP in 2 days. It made things a little bit uncomfortable. ;-)
It also left me feeling rather anemic, but today, I was feeling desperate to get out of the house and into the beautiful warm sunshine! Eldest and I grabbed our cameras and headed into the valley to see how much I'd recovered, while Dh and Youngest went WoW'ing together. Thanks to someone giving us an old 15" flatscreen monitor for free, we've been able to set up the old computer again. It still needs some work, but Dh cleaned it out enough that it's functional again. Since it's able to handle WoW, that means we can have 2 people playing at the same time. Joy. :-P
While they were busily manipulating pixels, Eldest and I did a bit of hiking. Some of the paths we used to take are closed due to erosion, but they're still being used. We found a place where we could clamber down to the river's edge and get some photos. Clambering up was a bit more difficult. My feet were NOT enjoying it. I keep trying to tell myself that I'm still not recovered, but I was really unhappy with how quickly I got out of breath, and how often I had to stop and rest. This is the first walking trip I've made that wasn't a library trip (sidewalks only) or a mall walk since fall. I wasn't impressed with myself.
Since my feet were very clear that clambering up and down river banks was not a good idea, we headed in the other direction where we could get part way up the valley without doing stairs, then between a combination of stairs and a complex with an escalator, eventually make our way up to street level. While Eldest waited at the top of some stairs while I hobbled up, she happened to look up and see someone that looked like a friend of hers. When we popped into the building so I could use their public washroom, she kept an eye out. Sure enough, it was her friend, hanging out with a friend from school. She went out to say hello, then we went our seperate ways.
After we continued our walk, we decided we needed to get something to drink, so we turned around to use a predestrian crossing, only to run into her friend again. So we invited them along. They hadn't been to a particular place we go to fairly regularly, so that's where we went.
Four hours later, we were still there! It was quite a lot of fun, and we talked about all sorts of things. At one point, when we were in the middle of a discussion of philosophy and various forms of government, a guy sitting behind Eldest turned around, excused himself, and joined our conversation. *L* He couldn't help but overhear us, and found it really interesting. He turned out to be a Marxist Kurd from Turkey, who tried to rail a bit against capitalism, and blame manufactured crisis for the war in Iraq. It was a bit of a ramble, and I couldn't quite see what his point was meant to be at times, but it was interesting. Then he commented on how glad he was to hear us discussing such things before going back to his laptop to wait for the woman who joined him later.
Interesting, the people you can randomly meet at cafe's. *L*
Eventually, I figured I'd better get home and see about supper, if necessary, and left Eldest to stay with her friends. They were trying to decide where to go next when I left. By the time I'd got home, Dh had called my cell phone (which I'd left with Eldest, since she didn't bring it along - we were just supposed to go hiking together! *L*), so he knew she wasn't with me already. I was happy to discover Youngest had cooked supper, and they were already eating when I got there. After I finished eating, I went to upload the photos I'd taken (far fewer than I'd expected) and check my email and so on. I changed my facebook status, joking about how long I'd been out and that Eldest was still out. Shortly after, I get a comment from her friend's mom, saying it's good to see her again.
Turns out, they'd gone to her house for pizza and a movie. *L*
Some time later, Eldest calls for a ride home. Dh answers and says sure thing, but doesn't ask where she is. That confused her for a bit, so she told him anyway. He just said yeah, and that I'd be there soon (he doesn't know where they live). Once she found out about the facebook thing, it all made so much more sense. *L*
When I had the chance, I left a quick wall message on her friend's mothers facebook, thanking her for having Eldest over. Her daughter answered and there was a bit of banter about how we knew where she was, even though she hadn't told us, then joked that I was cyberstalking Eldest on facebook, and she doesn't even have a facebook page! Which is pretty funny, when you think about it. I have a couple of her friends on my list, and sometimes they find out about things from me before she's had a chance to tell them herself. *L*
All in all, though, it was a grand day. Beautiful weather (well... not for Eldest. She doesn't like heat or sun. *L*), good friends, and a nice, relaxed time together.
Life is good.
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Keeping up, and catching up
Well, it's certainly been an unusually busy time for us lately!
Aside from preparing for Easter, Eldest, who has finished her online writing course, is now in the middle of a philosophy workshop. A local fellow home schooling mom brought in a rather interesting fellow to do this for us - her own dad, who just happens to be one of those genius renaissance scientists who's gone through several fascinating careers (including one at NASA), so this is a pretty cool opportunty. He's only out for a short time, so they've crammed his days full with different workshops aimed at different age groups. The guy's gonna be worn right out before he gets to go home! *L*
I'm certainly thankful for our van right now! There's no way we could have taken advantage of this at all if we didn't have transportation of our own. The location doesn't have any bus service. Still, I'm glad Youngest didn't have a lesson with her voice coach during Spring Break. Otherwise, we would have had to drag Eldest along, then go straight from one to the other. With the workshops already being 3 hours long, that would have been one heck of a long day for her.
Meanwhile, we've got all our usual running around, plus a few extra runs that come with a major holiday on the way. We're now ready to start colouring eggs - I plan to try doing drapanki this year - and need to bake bread. Besides that, we've got everything we need for this year's basket. I even got a new basket. Aside from the old one being full of yarn right now, I found it a bit too deep. Between the depth and the sloped sides, it made it hard to keep things from falling on top of each other. This basket is actually smaller in square inches, but the bottom is larger than the old one, so things can be spread out nicely, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out.
With Eldest taking part in various things, it felt like we were doing lots for her, but other than the voice coaching, not much for Youngest. In asking her what her interests might be, she brought up wanting to do something more physical, like martial arts. Dh has been teaching them off and on, but he wasn't been able to maintain it. We aren't able to do formal lessons right now, but I can at least show her the basics of karate I learned in my youth. Today was the first day we started on that, and it was only a quick session in between trips. Just some stretches and exercises, along with the basic blocks. Once she's got the blocks down, I'll move on to punches, then kicks. I'm appreciating the opportunity myself, not only to get my own skills back up at least somewhat (some things, I am physically unable to do anymore), but to fill in for the walking I haven't been able to do in the last couple of weeks. We haven't even been making our library trips lately, other than to quickly drop off what's due and pick up holds. Or should I say, the girls do that while I try to find someplace to pull over, because people are parked in the passanger loading zone, which is supposed to be for people who are quickly dropping off/picking up books. :-/
A bit of a brag moment. Our family was featured in the latest newsletter for an hs group we're a member of. There's even a photo of the girls. The editor had sent a question out to the group for some feedback from people who've been hs'ing for quite a while, and my answer ended being the basis for a whole email interview. It was fun. :-)
A moment to share a brag for a fellow hs'ing mom and friend of mine, too. :-D Youngest and I just got back from seeing a movie this evening (in the second run theatre) with a whole bunch of other hs'ing folks in support of one of the teens, who is an actor. He was in the movie, sharing a scene with a couple of the main characters. Not a big part, but any part with lines, never mind a conversation, is good for the career. Especially when the scene is shared with a rather big name in the acting world. It was pretty cool to see him on the big screen. When his scene was done, everyone cheered for him. Then at the end, we all hung around until we saw his name in the credits and cheered him on again. :-D I'm quite happy for his success, and look forward to seing how his career progresses. It does make it hard to get together with his mom, though, since she's flying all over Canada and the US with him for auditions and parts. One of these days, we'll finally get together for a cuppa! *L*
All the running around with activities is kinda fun, but I have to say, I just don't know how some families manage to keep up schedules even busier than this, all the time. I know a few families with their kids involved in teams, clubs, and classes all over the place, and they're always on the go. I guess it's worth it, but I really appreciate the much slower pace we maintain most of the time. Having one or two regular things, sure, but when it gets into 4 or 5 things going on at once, it would drive me over the edge. *L* I really don't understand how families with kids in school manage it without everyone burning out completely. Then again, maybe they are burning out. I'm certainly reading enough articles about stressed out children and families.
Things will get back to normal for us after Easter. This school year is going to be a short one for us. We'll be getting our facilitator visit at the end of April, and once the paperwork is finished, we're officially done for the year. Not that that changes much in our routine. *L* It would be a good time for Eldest to start looking for a summer job. She's been wanting to for a while, but Dh isn't too happy with the idea of her working during "school" hours, of working more than a few hours a week. That sort of kills off her chances of getting anything that's out there for someone just entering the work field.
She and I, however, will be collaborating on a project together. Somehow or other, I'd ended up telling her about a book I'd started to write shortly after Youngest was born. She's encouraged me to dig out the old manuscript (which was among the boxes we brought back from storage in MB last fall). I'll be working on the text portion and she's going to be my illustrator. Which is going to be extra cool, since she and her sister are in the book, so she'll be illustrating herself as a 2-3 yr old, and her sister as a baby. :-D When things quiet down, I'm going to have to set aside regular time segments to work on it, as part of the book will require a fair amount of research. I mostly need to get my a$$ in gear, and prevent distractions from dragging me away.
Speaking of distractions, I've discovered the new layout options on blogger. I think I'm going to go play around with this blog's layout for a while. :-D
Aside from preparing for Easter, Eldest, who has finished her online writing course, is now in the middle of a philosophy workshop. A local fellow home schooling mom brought in a rather interesting fellow to do this for us - her own dad, who just happens to be one of those genius renaissance scientists who's gone through several fascinating careers (including one at NASA), so this is a pretty cool opportunty. He's only out for a short time, so they've crammed his days full with different workshops aimed at different age groups. The guy's gonna be worn right out before he gets to go home! *L*
I'm certainly thankful for our van right now! There's no way we could have taken advantage of this at all if we didn't have transportation of our own. The location doesn't have any bus service. Still, I'm glad Youngest didn't have a lesson with her voice coach during Spring Break. Otherwise, we would have had to drag Eldest along, then go straight from one to the other. With the workshops already being 3 hours long, that would have been one heck of a long day for her.
Meanwhile, we've got all our usual running around, plus a few extra runs that come with a major holiday on the way. We're now ready to start colouring eggs - I plan to try doing drapanki this year - and need to bake bread. Besides that, we've got everything we need for this year's basket. I even got a new basket. Aside from the old one being full of yarn right now, I found it a bit too deep. Between the depth and the sloped sides, it made it hard to keep things from falling on top of each other. This basket is actually smaller in square inches, but the bottom is larger than the old one, so things can be spread out nicely, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out.
With Eldest taking part in various things, it felt like we were doing lots for her, but other than the voice coaching, not much for Youngest. In asking her what her interests might be, she brought up wanting to do something more physical, like martial arts. Dh has been teaching them off and on, but he wasn't been able to maintain it. We aren't able to do formal lessons right now, but I can at least show her the basics of karate I learned in my youth. Today was the first day we started on that, and it was only a quick session in between trips. Just some stretches and exercises, along with the basic blocks. Once she's got the blocks down, I'll move on to punches, then kicks. I'm appreciating the opportunity myself, not only to get my own skills back up at least somewhat (some things, I am physically unable to do anymore), but to fill in for the walking I haven't been able to do in the last couple of weeks. We haven't even been making our library trips lately, other than to quickly drop off what's due and pick up holds. Or should I say, the girls do that while I try to find someplace to pull over, because people are parked in the passanger loading zone, which is supposed to be for people who are quickly dropping off/picking up books. :-/
A bit of a brag moment. Our family was featured in the latest newsletter for an hs group we're a member of. There's even a photo of the girls. The editor had sent a question out to the group for some feedback from people who've been hs'ing for quite a while, and my answer ended being the basis for a whole email interview. It was fun. :-)
A moment to share a brag for a fellow hs'ing mom and friend of mine, too. :-D Youngest and I just got back from seeing a movie this evening (in the second run theatre) with a whole bunch of other hs'ing folks in support of one of the teens, who is an actor. He was in the movie, sharing a scene with a couple of the main characters. Not a big part, but any part with lines, never mind a conversation, is good for the career. Especially when the scene is shared with a rather big name in the acting world. It was pretty cool to see him on the big screen. When his scene was done, everyone cheered for him. Then at the end, we all hung around until we saw his name in the credits and cheered him on again. :-D I'm quite happy for his success, and look forward to seing how his career progresses. It does make it hard to get together with his mom, though, since she's flying all over Canada and the US with him for auditions and parts. One of these days, we'll finally get together for a cuppa! *L*
All the running around with activities is kinda fun, but I have to say, I just don't know how some families manage to keep up schedules even busier than this, all the time. I know a few families with their kids involved in teams, clubs, and classes all over the place, and they're always on the go. I guess it's worth it, but I really appreciate the much slower pace we maintain most of the time. Having one or two regular things, sure, but when it gets into 4 or 5 things going on at once, it would drive me over the edge. *L* I really don't understand how families with kids in school manage it without everyone burning out completely. Then again, maybe they are burning out. I'm certainly reading enough articles about stressed out children and families.
Things will get back to normal for us after Easter. This school year is going to be a short one for us. We'll be getting our facilitator visit at the end of April, and once the paperwork is finished, we're officially done for the year. Not that that changes much in our routine. *L* It would be a good time for Eldest to start looking for a summer job. She's been wanting to for a while, but Dh isn't too happy with the idea of her working during "school" hours, of working more than a few hours a week. That sort of kills off her chances of getting anything that's out there for someone just entering the work field.
She and I, however, will be collaborating on a project together. Somehow or other, I'd ended up telling her about a book I'd started to write shortly after Youngest was born. She's encouraged me to dig out the old manuscript (which was among the boxes we brought back from storage in MB last fall). I'll be working on the text portion and she's going to be my illustrator. Which is going to be extra cool, since she and her sister are in the book, so she'll be illustrating herself as a 2-3 yr old, and her sister as a baby. :-D When things quiet down, I'm going to have to set aside regular time segments to work on it, as part of the book will require a fair amount of research. I mostly need to get my a$$ in gear, and prevent distractions from dragging me away.
Speaking of distractions, I've discovered the new layout options on blogger. I think I'm going to go play around with this blog's layout for a while. :-D
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