The Weekend

We are back from a whirlwind trip to Indiana to celebrate my niece's graduation from high school.  All the siblings made it in for the party.  With spouses and kids, we numbered twenty-four altogether.

Before the party started, David's sister and I did the math and determined that once her son graduates in six years, we will have a party every year until Jonathan graduates from high school.  There will be only one year when two cousins graduate.  I'd better start shopping tomorrow.

How was your Memorial Day weekend?

That Band

One of the first times we were in NoDa, the arts district here in Charlotte, we saw their name on the sign for the Neighborhood Theatre.  We took a double-take.

The night we produced the Andy and the Andys concert, they were appearing the next night.  We had a good laugh.

Then a couple years later, we scheduled a time with our photographers to get our family pictures done in the same area.  Then we rescheduled.  We said, "Wouldn't it be funny if...?"  And the night we finally made it....

Photo by Heather Fink Photography

The sign says "Booty Band."  The band's full name is "Yo' Mama's Big Fat Booty Band."

They seem to be following us around.  Maybe we should go see them sometime.

School at Our House: All the Other Stuff

So far this week we've covered our main curriculum choice, math and science, and English language studies.  Today I'm going to round up all the loose ends and touch on everything I haven't covered so far.

For those who are wondering, "Where is the Bible, history and geography?", that is all included in our Tapestry of Grace curriculum.  Tapestry is all-inclusive in that way; when we study one time period, we cover the pertinent world history, geography, and church history for that time.  Later on in high school, worldview studies become a bigger part of the picture.  This approach is quite natural for me, since it's the way I was taught to teach in college.

My older two boys aren't doing a modern foreign language yet, but we're doing koine (Biblical) greek using the program Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek.  They've begun the third book, which is when they start translating the book of I John.  It's been great to have them exposed to the original language of the Bible in this way, partly because David knows Greek.  He can reference a Greek word in our family devotions and the boys will perk up if they know it.

We attend an area co-op every Tuesday, which supplies the kids with experiences that I could not provide on my own.  This past year, for example, the younger two boys had a French class, a geography class using the Flat Stanley books, and Maddie did some special books and lapbooks.  I had a chance to teach my older two boys a class from The Dangerous Book for Boys (lots of fun!), and a biography class using the book Ten Boys Who Made History.  These are all "extras" that are beneficial and fun, but we just don't have the time and energy to fit them into our every day schedule.

Andrew watching his Pinewood Derby car intently.

The oldest three boys also participate in a local scout troop.  This has provided field trips, goals, and social activities that supplement our homeschool routine.

Ben and Cameron take piano lessons each Friday.  They are learning in an unconventional way through a program called Simply Music.  Someday I will blog about the program, because it's worth talking about.  We have, I think, one of the greatest piano teachers in the wide world.  I am really grateful that we heard about him -- he does not advertise, and through word of mouth he has a waiting list a mile long!

That sums up what we do around here to piece together a (I hope) great home education!  Did I miss anything?  Let me know in the comments.

School at our House: Reading, Writing and Grammar

This week we're running through what I use here at home for schooling our children.  If you're interested, you can read about a major curriculum change I made at the beginning of this past year or read yesterday's post about math and science.

I've taught every one of our (currently literate) kids to read using the book The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  Andrew just finished it up a few weeks ago.  I like the simplicity of it; the lessons progress through the vowels, the consonants, and then through the typical rules of phonics in a logical way.  It's taken all of the kids just shy of two years to complete the whole book, assuming they had about three lessons each week.

SPOILER ALERT:  The final few lessons are entitled "Building Your Reading Muscles" and have the students read four- and five-syllable words.  The very last lesson has them read just one word:  a selection from a rather famous movie about a plucky British nanny.  If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious.

We use the Getty-Dubay Italic system for handwriting.  The system begins with printing and then moves on to cursive in the middle of second grade.  They kids have also dabbled in typing practice here and there; I plan to work some more of that in this summer.

This past year we began more rigorous writing instruction for the older two boys using resources from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.  This program has suited me as a teacher quite nicely, partly due to the fact that it is similar to the way I learned to write in school.  It just makes sense to me.  It's so nice when that happens.

Lastly, for grammar instruction in the past we've used English for the Thoughtful Child.  This was a fine resource, but I needed a change.  I can't put my finger on why...I just didn't take to the book.  Instead, this year we've been using a free online resource called KISS grammar.  The author is a teaching instructor and everything on his site is FREE.  For the sake of introduction, I used the third grade book for Ben and the sixth grade book for Cameron.  KISS teaches grammar in context.  It uses selections from famous children's books and has the student dissect the passages grammatically.  So far, so good with this one.

School at our House: Math and Science

This week I'm running through what we use for home educating our five kids.  You can learn about our overarching curriculum choice here.

Today I'll touch on math and science curriculum.  My older kids use the computer math program called Teaching Textbooks.  It is a bit pricey at first glance, but we reuse it five times, so it's well worth the investment.  Each year I reuse the CDs and buy a new consumable workbook.

I appreciate the thoroughness of TT; my kids' test scores have improved with every year of use.  Plus they love the ownership of doing math on the computer.  They are in charge of all their materials, and I let them figure out how they will manage their time.  Later on, after they're done, I can log into the password-protected teacher grade book and see what their scores were, whether or not they attempted each problem more than once, and if they watched the tutoring session with each incorrect problem.  I can also delete answers -- or entire lessons -- and make the kids re-do them if necessary.

Prior to beginning with Teaching Textbooks in third grade, the kids use a British math program ("programme") called the MEP.  This curriculum teaches algebraic thinking very early on -- it covers things I didn't think first and second graders could understand.  In fact, my pediatrician basically told me I was nuts for thinking they were understanding it.  Oh well.  The only hurdles we find with MEP is in the area of money and measurement; being an export from the UK, the program teaches the metric system (not bad) and uses shillings, pence and pounds for money.  In the money problems dealing with simple addition, I just tell the kids that "p" stands for "pennies" and they're none the wiser.

Oh, and there is the wonderful matter of the workbook spelling "color" as "colour" and calling trucks "lorries."  I'm sure you could guess that I find that charming so it's not a problem as I see it.

In science, we have used the Apologia textbooks written for elementary kids so far.  We've done Botany, Astronomy, Flying Creatures, and Human Anatomy.  This next year we'll be doing Land Creatures.  In fact, I'll be teaching it at our co-op beginning in the fall.

Science is an area where I am weak, so I am always eager to work it into a co-op setting for the sake of accountability and group encouragement.  If the kids are responsible to get their reading done and I do a little discussion at home, then the experiments are best left to a group setting.  I have been extremely grateful to have co-ops for the last two years where we've done science together.  This past year the boys were privileged to have a nurse teach them human anatomy.  Recognizing my own shortfalls, I am happy to fall on stronger arms in these cases.

School at our House: Back to Tapestry

We just finished our fifth year of homeschool!  I can hardly believe it.  Since it's been a while since I've updated you on curriculum choices and the like, I thought I'd spend some time on that this week.  It is my fifth (or sixth, if you're picky) year of doing this, and I'm encountering new challenges every year.

Let's start with a major curriculum shift.  This past summer I made the decision to go back to Tapestry of Grace with the family.  I started with Tapestry four years ago when Cameron was in first grade (here is an old post with some pictures of our first year!).  After a year, I decided that the pace was too fast with the little ones.  I turned to Ambleside Online to slow things down a bit, and the gentler pace suited us nicely.

There are two reasons why Ambleside slowed me down:  one, the Charlotte Mason approach to education is not quite so aggressive as classical in the early years -- it focuses on developing a delight in learning rather than the drilling that goes on in the grammar stage of Classical Education.  Two, the history cycle -- that marvelous thread tying everything together -- is a six-year cycle rather than a four-year in classical.  There is a great deal more that can be said about the two different approaches, but let's leave it at that for now.

Although I am hanging onto my Mason ideals, as Cameron is aging up towards middle school, I wanted to go back to Tapestry because of its comprehensive approach to curriculum planning for the whole family.  A year's plan supplies great books, resources, discussion points, and ideas for every age level in my house (as well as high school), and it supplies background reading for me, as well.  This approach in planning is very helpful as I have four, and soon five, students in my school at various levels.

It's been a good switch for us so far.  It was humbling to once again switch everything up, but nice to be back on familiar territory with Tapestry.

I'll give you some more details about what everyone's doing in future posts!

Please note, the above links, as well as the one in my sidebar, are affiliate links.  I'd be ever so grateful if you'd use them to purchase any Tapestry materials...you'd be helping me pay for school next year.  Thank you!

You Ought to Know Rich, Part II

Part I here.

My two oldest kids take piano every Friday.  Cameron just reached the point where he is able to transpose a bit and play popular songs in different keys.  The teacher and I were talking about the songs he had chosen, and he commented on how easy it was to find popular music or Christian music for his less-experienced students, because so many of them have the same exact chord progression in different keys.

At first he sounded excited about this, but as we talked about it more, his voice trailed off a bit and he said, "It's really pretty boring."

And the moon is a sliver of silver

Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop 

 And every house must have its builder 

And I awoke in the house of God 

Where the windows are mornings and evenings 

Stretched from the sun 

Across the sky north to south 

And on my way to early meeting 

I heard the rocks crying out 

I heard the rocks crying out 

When I turn on the Christian radio station and the music is cutesy and shallow, it's a big disappointment to me.  Currently, there is one song that's so bland, it's featured in a department store commercial on TV.  Is this what God-honoring creativity has gotten us?  Advertising jingles?

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands 

Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land 

Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made 

Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

When I was in college, I attended a conference at Calvin college where I heard a professor suggest that secular music, too, can be used in the life of believers.  He questioned the disparity between Christian and secular music and resented the "Jesus factor" that existed in Nashville.  We then proceeded to listen to Natalie Merchant's song "King of May," which is one of the most moving pictures of the crucifixion of Christ I've ever heard.

And the wrens have returned and they're nesting

In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been 

And he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again 

And the streams are all swollen with winter 

Winter unfrozen and free to run away now 

And I'm amazed when I remember 

Who it was that built this house 

And with the rocks I cry out

I get excited when people get creative and it glorifies God.  Storytelling, metaphor, symbolism;  these are all tools that we see being used in the Bible.  Christians have the greatest story to tell:  the one that is told and re-told in nature, in classic literature, and in redemption stories all around us.

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands

Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land 

Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made 

Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

Lyrics from "The Color Green"

You Ought To Know Rich

Monday morning, my alarm woke me up with a delightful surprise from my iPod:  the first lines of Rich Mullins' song "The Land of My Sojourn."  It begins with the most gentle strumming from a lap dulcimer:

And the coal trucks come a-runnin' 
With their bellies full of coal 

And their big wheels a-hummin' 

Down this road that lies open like the soul of a woman 

Who hid the spies who were lookin' 

For the land of the milk and the honey...

(full lyrics here)

And so begins my plea to those of you who are younger than me, but who are passionate about quality Christian music, to get to know Rich Mullins' music.

All too often when Rich's name is mentioned, I hear a response like, "Oh, that's the guy who wrote 'Awesome God', right?" and I shudder.  That's like saying that Paul Simon's Graceland is the album with "You Can Call Me Al" on it, or saying that Martin Scorsese is that guy who directed "Gangs of New York." Yes, it's true, but it's such a sad and limited representation of the man's work that's it's tragic.

Rich was the first person who produced such quality lyrics and music that it made me dissatisfied with the state of CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) is it was and as it is.  I started listening to him in high school, and when his A Liturgy, A Legacy, and A Ragamuffin Band album came out, I was a junior.  Most people agree it's his best work.  He wrote the album after a trip to Ireland (the one he references in the video above), and it's ripe with imagery from the Irish countryside.  David and I played the sixth track, "Peace:  A Communion Blessing," at our wedding.

I remember exactly where I was when I heard that Rich had died in a car accident.  I was in the basement computer lab in Klein Hall on the campus of Messiah College.  My friend -- and future husband -- David sent me an email telling me the news.  I gasped.  David said that he was planning to go to Manhattan for the weekend and he wanted to light a candle in Central Park for Rich.

But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah 
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire 

And when I look back on the stars 

It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park 

And it won't break my heart to say goodbye 

The first song that caught my attention from Andrew Peterson was about Rich:  "Three Days Before Autumn," which he sang at that Valentine's Day concert.

And so began another chapter of fan-dom.

I've been thinking a lot lately about "normal" Christian music and why it leaves me dissatisfied.  Stay tuned.

Things I Tell Myself: Stop and Look

A tiny snail on the front step as I stretch after my run

A bird's nest found in the tree just last night, and the realization that I had missed its entire time of use

Sara's song about sand really being crushed rubies and garnets in some places in the world

A shiny penny in a crack in the road

The garden jumping out of the ground after this time of rain

The smell of the woods:  wet leaves, mossy growth

Sandra's article about creation care

....all calling me to stop and look, look, look

Earth's crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God, 
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

-E.B. Browning

...But Trust Me On the Sunscreen

This song came out in the summer of 1999, the year that I graduated from college and got married.  Does anyone else remember it?  It was a phenomenon for a few months.

 

I still love it.  David reminded me of it this morning, and seeing that it's graduation season once more, I thought I'd pass it on.  We know of one family that celebrated their oldest's graduation from Chapel Hill Saturday and the dad's graduation from law school on Sunday.  Crazy!

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as 

effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing 

bubblegum. 

Mother's Day Monday

Yesterday, as per our tradition, my family took me out to a nice lunch at Macaroni Grill.  We brought a single friend along since we like to adopt "orphan" children on Mother's Day.  She was excellent help as the waitstaff and kitchen were slow, my food was cold, the bill was wrong, and on and on.

It was a great perspective adjustment for me because just a few years ago, we probably would have had to throw in the towel and leave the restaurant for fear of multiple children melting down.  This time we just asked for more bread and more Dr. Pepper, and the kids hung in there for a good long time.

Granted, by the end of the meal, Maddie was rocking back in her chair, saying to herself, "I want to go HOME.  I want to go HOME."  But she is the littlest ( just "fwee") and she still made it.

So my Mother's Day gift to all of you struggling through the little years is to tell you that it gets much easier to do this sort of thing with lots of kids.  You will make it.

The trouble is, by the time they are old enough to peacefully sit through a meal, they're eating a lot more and you have to pay for it!  :-D

Overheard: Laura Ingalls Wilder Edition

Scene:  family sitting in living room after breakfast, finishing the last few pages of Little House on the Prairie


***SPOILER ALERT***


(In case you haven't read the book, at the conclusion, the little family is driving away from their beloved house on the prairie, not knowing what the future holds.)

Mom:  So what do you think will happen in the next book?  Where are they going to end up?
Andrew:  I think they will go to Independence [Missouri] and have a house there.
Jonathan, matter-of-factly:  I think they will get eaten by wolves.

This Actually Happened

You're not going to believe me, but it really did.

The week after we moved into this new place, we had one of my friends over in order to meet her new special someone.  They'd been hanging out together for a bit and we decided we needed to be nosy and check him out to get to know him and welcome him into our circle of friends.

We stood in the entryway and welcomed them, introducing ourselves to the young man.  Upon walking through the hall and into the kitchen, he remarked that he thought I'd like a friend of his, because my house looked a lot like hers.

"She has a blog.  You should check it out," he said.  "She's called The Nester."

...because my house looked a lot like hers...?

Well, on the spot I decided that I absolutely approved of him and asked them if they could move next door after they were married.

Not really.

I will own up to the fact that my house looks like a lot like the Nester's partly because I was so refreshed to find someone who decorated her home in cool tones.  After we moved here to Charlotte, I felt like every home I was in was warm browns, golds, and reds, which was very pretty in its own way, but it wasn't me at all.

And I will own up to the fact that when I went to the Nester's house, I asked her what the color of her front room was.  She told me the name of it, and then said that her sister had the shade that was a bit cooler, and it was called Oyster Bay.  Remember when I told you I never wanted to live without it?  I brought it with me to the new place....I wasn't ready to part with it.

This week the Nester is in Tanzania, reminding us all that hospitality isn't really about what your house looks like at all.

I hear so many excuses as to why people avoid hospitality.  Their house isn't ready...isn't big enough...isn't perfect.  They think their cooking is substandard.  They're too busy.  They're just not cut out for it.  They need time to themselves.

These are all delightful weasel words for disobedience to the command given in I Peter 4:9 to "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling."

I get told a great deal that I'm "just good at it." I will be the first to say that no, I'm not "just good at it."  I am quite bad at it.  Those excuses above run through my head regularly.  But maybe I have a bit more practice at beating them back and putting my foot down in obedience.

Practice.  Prayerfully putting one foot in front of the other.  Getting a plan.  That's all it is.

It's not about the house at all.

Overheard

Scene:  Maddie and Mom sitting in the seats before the Georgia Aquarium's dolphin show.

Mom:  Maddie, during the show you will see the trainers throwing little fish to the dolphins.  That's their treat.  If they obey, they get a reward.
Maddie:  And do they get spanked if they scream in their room?
Mom:  Maybe they have to go to timeout.
Maddie:  Maybe they have to swim with the sharks.

Sorry, President Reagan

Kidney stones will always remind me of the week Ronald Reagan died.

President Reagan's body lay in state at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, before being flown to Washington D.C. for his funeral.  We lived just a half hour from the library, and the naval base where the party was departing was just ten minutes away.  The route planned for the motorcade from the library to the base went right by our neighborhood.

Naturally, I dressed up the boys -- we had just three boys then -- in their finest red, white, and blue, purchased American flags, and told them all about how they should be respectful and quiet when the Big Black Car with the Very Important Man went by.

At the same time, my husband was in the air on his way to Florida.  He was a very expensive courier for his company that week.  He had to go to Orlando, pick up a part, turn around, and head back to California.  It was a long ordeal, but he was only on the ground on the East coast for five hours.

During that time that he was on the ground in Florida, I began to have a bad backache.  This was not unusual for me, since I was a nursing mother of a four-month-old with two other toddlers to take care of.  I spent a large part of my day bending over or crawling on the floor.  But as the day went on, it got pretty bad.

I called David and told him that I wasn't sure what was going on, but maybe I needed to see the doctor.  I knew everyone at our church was getting ready for the annual Father's Day campout in Yosemite, and I hated to bother anyone, so maybe I would wait until he got back and go in the next day.  He boarded his plane and took off, bound for a stopover in Denver.

When he got off the plane in Denver, he had a voicemail from a very tearful wife, saying I didn't know what was happening, but I had to call somebody and go to the hospital.  I didn't know who I would call, but I had to do something.

He called me back repeatedly during his layover and got no answer.  He of course imagined the best possible scenario:  me, lying in a pool of my own blood, with our three small children weeping over my lifeless body.

The truth was not nearly so shocking:  I had called a friend, she had taken me to the ER, and I had turned off my cell phone because in those days hospitals were pretty vigilant about keeping cell phones off inside their doors.  Oops.

I had called a friend who I didn't know really well, but she ended up being the perfect fit.  I didn't know it at the time, but she was a former firefighter who had EMT skills under her belt.  By the time she arrived, I had lost the ability to make any decisions.  She took my doctor's office to task over the phone for putting me off, and then called someone to come get my two older kids.  She packed Andrew into his car seat carrier, put together some bottles for him, and off we went to the hospital.

As we sat in the waiting room, she kept telling me to be louder.  When I am hurting, I get very quiet and pale.  She told me I'd better start screaming or we were never going to get seen.  I didn't do it, but the suggestion made me laugh.  When sitting became unbearable, she went to the desk and asked if it was alright if I laid on the floor in the waiting room.  Not surprisingly, the nurses decided that they could find a bed for me after all.

An hour later, I was on Demerol (read: high as a kite) and Andrew was full and happily resting in his car seat.  Remember poor David, up in the air, thinking I'm dead?

By the time he hit the ground in LA, I had passed the stone, been discharged from the ER, stopped at Trader Joe's for a snack, and was back home with our other two kids.  My friend stayed until David came home, just so she could corroborate my story about JUST HOW BAD IT HAD BEEN.

It was a very intense few hours for all of us, except for Cameron and Ben, who got to hang out at their friends' house while they got ready for camping.

We missed the funeral procession.  I will always be a little sad about that.