2009 - 2010 home school co-op recap

Earlier this spring our co-op had it's Spring Closing program. Our family was unable to attend as we also had an AWANA closing program on the same evening.

I found out recently that the student who prepared the closing program slide show posted it on you tube. Although most of you wont recognize anyone in the pictures except our family. I thought I would post it here, so you could get an idea through pictures of what a wonderful experience a home school co-op can be.



Next Time: Conventional Wisdom

Things Fortnightly

It's time once again for a thing or two or seventeen.

Thing 1: White Sox

I have been blogging about the top 25 labels of my blog for the first 300 posts. Tonights installment is the White Sox they were in a 6 way tie for # 20.

I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. The NW burbs are Chicago Cubs country. My Mom grew up as a Cubs fan and my Dad followed suit when he moved to the Chicago area. Each summer of my youth we would go to a Cubs game as a family and every few years our school would go to a game.

The White Sox used to have a program where if students had straight A's or perfect attendance they would earn 2 free White Sox Tickets. My older sister earned tickets this way and I remember how she and my Dad went to a Sox Orioles game together. The next year I had perfect attendance and my Dad took me to a game. This is where I fell in love with Bill Melton, Richie Allen, Wilbur Wood, Rich Gossage and the whole Happy Days gang. I still liked the Cubs but they took a backseat to my passion for the White Sox. That was more than 35 years agao and I remember it like it was 28 years ago.

As I am writing this it is actuall Wednesday night and I just came home from a White Sox game. The White Sox still give tickets away and Charlie and another Dad and son went on the White Sox dime. The Sox lost, but we had a wonderful time despite the score. The White SOx have this section called fundamentals where kids can play catch, use batting cages, and a few other cool things. It's like having a theme park within a ball park. Charlie and his friend had a great time.

Today (Thursday) I am heading back to Chicago to see the Sox play again. Lucy scored 2 free tickets and we are going to dog night. Fans actually can bring their dogs to a special section and into the game. In the past I have taken all 3 kids to dog night. Tomorrow is the first game where it is just Lucy and I. I wonder if she will want to play puppy when there are actuall dogs who can do that for us. I am not sure, but I think this is the first time in 30 + years of attending ball games that I have gone to back to back games. I wouldn't mind if we got a win instead of a loss, although Lucy will probaly have just as much fun as Charlie had independent of the result of the game.

Thing # 2. Lucy Dance Revolution.

Lucy had her ballet recital about a week and a half ago. One thing I noticed is the attrition rate of dancers as they get older. Their were 3 classes of pre school dancers of about 20-25students each. There were 2 classed of kindergarten dancers. In the highest level there (jr. high to H.S) there were 6 dancers. I wondered aloud to Amy if Lucy would be one of those 6 10 years or so from now. We think that she might just be. She loves dancing!

Things have changed much in the few years since Emma's first (and only) dance recital. Emma's recital (run through the same park district) was free of charge. We were given 2 free tickets for Lucy's recital and had to pay $5.00 each for every advance ticket and $7.00 at the door. That part was sort of understandable. What I did not get was that no photrography of any kind was allowed during the recital. Pictures like the one above were allowed to be taken at the rehearsal the day before. Well guess what? Grandparents don't go to rehearsals! You can't come between the trinity of grandparents, grandchildren and cameras. You don't mess with that!

The only footage taken at the recital was by a professional videographer who was selling the dvds and tapes for 20 big ones. So were photographs and videos not allowed so there would be less commotion at the recital or more ka-ching for the videographer? You tell me!

Thing 3: What's going on next year?

There is a home school conference this weekend that Amy and I usually attend. One of the main things we do there is choose the curriculum for the next calendar year. This is basically the first year that I will be the primary curriculum chooser. Two years ago we were planning on Amy teaching when we picked the curriculum. Last year we went mostly with curriculum we already owned. I am pretty sure of some things we will do this year and totally open on other areas. When I say I am the primay curriculum chooser, that is kind of a misnomer. We generally pick the curriculum together. When Amy was themain teacher, I would defer the final choices to her as she was the one who needed to teach the material. The only difference between now and then is now she would defer that final decision to me.

Thing 4: Reading Update

I started my summer reading last week. I am fully engaged in 3 books right now. Two from home and one from the library. When I read I tend to read more than one book at a time. Between 2 White Sox games, the home school convention and just regular life I'm not sure how mych reading I will get in in the next few days. Hopefully some.

Thing 5: No Junk food June?

June is usually a good month in our family to try to eat a little more healthy and to exercise more. I started the month out by going to that most healthy of places, Dairy Queen. Amy had told Charlie that we would go to Dairy Queen after his last soccer practice of the year. This just happened to be on June 1st! Healthy eating will commence a little later in the month.

That's all the things I

Six Word Saturday

Toady's Six Words: The dangers of blogging after midnight.

Last Saturday after I wrote my Six Words for last week, I was working on a guest blog about being a home school dad for a blog called Daddy's Home. Before I knew it it was 1 in the morning. I got ready to go to bed but decided to first add a blog to my blog roll. Because I was so tired, I accidentally deleted all 15 or so blogs from the blog roll. So at 1 A.M., I tried to remember all the blogs, find them and link them back to my blog. It was 2 a.m before I finally got to bed.

It is 11:15 p.m. now and I am going to post this before I blow something else up. For more Six Word Saturday head over to showmyfacedotcom.

Next Time: Films

Guest Posting at Daddy's Home

About a month ago, I received an e-mail about a blog called Daddy's Home. It is a blog about an organization of dad's who are the primary care givers for their children. Apparently, one of the editors of the blog had discovered my blog and asked if I would do a guest post about being a home school Dad at their blog. I was glad to oblige.

The article was just posted. You can link to it here. While you sre there, be sure to check out their blog. It has some other pretty good articles.

Next Time: Six Word Saturday

Balloons Ahoy!

As far as fortnights go this one seems shorter than most. But yes it's been 2 weeks since our last Things this Thursday. Let's get right to it shall we.

Thing 1. Talk about your send offs!

The last Monday in April was the last day of our home school cooperatives Spring Semester. The group Christian Workshops of the Fox Valley (CWF) had their 10th anniversary this year. To celebrate we had a balloon launch.

Each family put their names on a pre-addressed stamped post card and attached it to a balloon.

Then we gathered as a group.

and let go!

The release was less than 2 weeks ago and 3 posts cards have already been returned. So far all have come from Illinois. Some from 3 hours away. What I find amazing is that 2 balloons found 3 hours away were returned by the same person and seemed to have been retrieved on different days. Our families balloon is still among the missing. If it shows up I'll let you know.

Thing 2: Trained to do right!

Last year Charlie learned about the underground railroad in one of his CWF classes. In the town next to ours there is a historical marker on a very busy corner of a busy street. My sister is obsessed about historical markers, so I decided to take a picture of it for her. I took Charlie and Emma with me as a field trip is a field trip no matter how small.

We were surprised and delighted to find out that the marker showed that the home next to it was a station for the underground railroad.

It really does something inside of me to realize that in the area I live there were people bold and brave enough to fight against a great injustice. On this the National Day of Prayer it reminds me that God often answers prayers through the actions of others.

3. Is Chuck Lost?

Today I continue my tribute to the top 25 labels I used in the first 300 posts of Home School Dad.

Label # 20 (7-way tie) Chuck.

My blogging about the NBC show Chuck is very tied in with my experience with Three Things Thursday. When Michelle of Psalm 104:24 was at the helm of 3TTT she always had 1 of her things about the ABC series Lost. Having never watched an episode of Lost (a fact that HULU is helping me remedy, see future posts) I could not include a synopsis of said show. What I could do was write little blurbs about the best television show I never watched on television. I have watched every episode of Chuck online either at NBC.Com or Hulu.

Because of low ratings and the t.v. writers strike of 2007 Chuck has spent much of it's life on the NBC chopping block. Even with the large grassroots supports of scifi/ action geeks (like me)i t barely survived last year to make it to season 3.

As I reported here, I wasn't sure if Chuck's renewal was a good thing or not as the 2008-2009 season ended on the highest of high notes. It turns out my fears were totally unfounded as season 3 has made season 2 look like a Partridge Family reunion show in comparison.

But now that Season 3 is drawing to a close, Chuck's fortunes for a 4th season seem as unclear as ever. There is some speculation that Chuck could be renewed and premiere later in the season as it did last year.

I have more things than I have time to share them. If you'd like to share your things link on Mr. Linky below. I'll be back in two weeks with another installment of things fortnightly.

Next Time: Lyrics By Dave

Washington Day 6 and Beyond

It's been almost 3 weeks since our trip to Washington.

It is now time for Things Fortnightly. Thing #1 will have to be my journal entry from day 6:

Charlie and I were slugs today. We drove in to DC with the friend of my sisters that we are staying with. With 3 in her car and 3 in ours we could both ride in the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicles) lane. In DC commuters meet up to be able to make enough passengers to get in those lanes. This practice is called slugging. Once we got into the DC area we took the metro to the zoo. At first,, neither of the pandas were very active or photogenic. While we were resting one panda started climbing a tree and spinning around.

Amy got footage.


I showed it to my sister and she said she doesn't know anyone who's been there and seen them be anywhere near that active.

We also saw many other cool animals like Orangutans climbing through towers outside of their usual habitat. After a number of hours at the zoo we went to the library of congress and visited two amazing exhibits featuring children's literature. One for authors and researchers and the other for young children to read with their parents.

Thing # 2. You can't believe everything you read.

Before the aforementioned trip to DC we read and read and read about how to prepare for said trip. One thing that we read and read and read over and over and over (I think you may be beginning to see the point here) was don't drive your car in DC.

This is why in past journal entries you have read about trains and slugs. It turns out that driving in D.C. is no worse than driving into Chicago. For us it was our preferred form of travel and was part of the adventure. Again we stayed outside of the city proper, and I could see the benefits of parking your car somewhere for a week if you were going to be holed up in some downtown hotel.

Thing # 3 In-flight Movie

Thing # 4 Endings

Charlie and his cousin Bobby finished cub scouts last week.
The kids finish Awana and another semester of our home school co-op Monday.

It's a good thing they all have at least one more activity they are still involved with. Otherwise people might start asking "What about socialization?" again!



Those are my things for this edition. Can I count on you to share some things by clicking on Mr. Linky below?


Next Time: Washington Trip Day 7: Saving the best for seventh.

Jelly Belly Time

Jelly Bellies are awesome! Amy and I prefer Starburst jelly beans ourselves but when I had the opportunity to cross state lines last Friday and tour their facility on the Cheese side of the Illinois Wisconsin border we went for it.

It was one of those tours where you were not allowed to take pictures. What did they think we were going to report their latest accomplishments to Slugworth?

Oh well, the tour was free, the kids enjoyed themselves, and of course there was the two words every jelly bean lover lives for: free samples.


I was able to take these pics after the tour . . .

Here are a few tidbits learned on the tour.

• Jelly Bellies were very popular with former President and California Governor Ronald Reagan. In fact, the blueberry jelly belly was created for Reagan's Inaugural in 1980 so they could make a special red, white and blue assortment. Reagans's favorite flavor was licorice.
• Jelly Bellies take almost a week to make.
• The current most popular flavor is Very Cherry a distinction formerly held by butter popcorn flavor ,which, by the way, my daughter Emma does not much care for.

Next Time: Washinton DC Trip Day 2

Baker's Half Dozen

Six Word Saturday time again. Here are mine:

Baked my first cake from scratch.

I am teaching a class in our home school co-op this semester called "Let's go to the store." It is a pre-school class featuring stories and crafts about groceries and grocery shopping.

Last week I took my students and their families on a field trip to Meijer. Why Meijer? They give out cookies to children 11 and under. Some call it bribery, I call it incentive to behave.

This coming Monday we will be talking about deserts. I decided that I would bake a cake for the class, and since the class is about shopping, I thought it would be good to talk about all the ingredients needed for a cake. I have been baking cakes using box mixes since I was in the single digits. I had never made a cake from scratch before.

So today at our test kitchen/house Lulu and I baked a cake from scratch. On Sunday we will bake one for the class. I used a recipe for chocolate cake I found at Suite 101.com.

I had hoped to include a full tutorial on how to make the cake but preparing a cake , shepherding a 4 year old and photographing each segment turned out to be too much for me.

Here are the few pictures I did take . . .

The ingredients.

Mixing.


























The cake turned out pretty well. Yes, I forgot to preheat the oven. Yes I accidentally turned the oven off when I was checking to see if it was done. I also had a few other kinks that I think we can work out on Sunday.

Here are a few reasons why baking a cake from scratch works for me:

1. Baking a cake from scratch is not difficult at all. I had to melt chocolate for ours, which I had never done. A lot of cakes take far less preparation than that.


2. Teaching my children how to make a cake from scratch is a useful educational tool. I would have never envisioned myself as a Home Ec. teacher. But as long as I wear the home school pants int he family, I guess that's what I'll be.


3. My 4 year old is an excellent helper. She often helps my wife mix biscuits and other things. She has been wanting to bake this cake for two weeks since I announced the idea to the class. She really did most of the work: beating the eggs, pouring the butter milk, measuring and sifting the dry ingredients, and decorating the cake.



So those are my six words and why baking a cake from scratch works for me.


For more Six Word Saturday head on over to Show my Face dot com. To see what works for others head over to We are That Family for more WFMW.


Next Time: A School by any other name.

Structured and Unstructured

Party! Party! Party! This weeks carnival of homeschooling is a party edition hosted by Misty at Home School Bytes.com. She has asked me to contribute an article, as I had submitted one last time she hosted.

I actually started this post yesterday, until I realized that it was my last day to blog about the book One Million Arrows (Which, by the way, tells some excellent stories about home schooled families.) That is what happens to the avid procrastinator, you put off Peter to meet Paul's deadline. Or in this case Peter is Misty and Paul is Julie. Well enough with the nonsense, let's get this party started.

I am constantly fighting between myself as to whether my home school personality/style should be structured or unstructured. I have always been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy. At times it has been a necessity. When I was a missionary in Russia, more than once I was asked to give remarks or a sermon 5 minutes before the service started. Doesn't the Bible say "always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." (1 Peter 3:15 ESV)?

Ah! There's the key word, prepared! Often when I am unstructured, it is precisely because I am not prepared. I roll with the punches, rather than put a few jabs in of my own. Most people, like myself, who think they like getting things done at the very last minute are just fooling themselves. They like it because it's the only thing they've ever known.

Unstructured maybe a good style for some. but if unstructured is just a euphemism for lazy, then you have big trouble!

So here I am making a good argument to be structured. But here is the problem, when I try to be structured, I drive my kids and myself crazy. The problem is that when I structure myself, I am a very unforgiving master. If school is supposed to start at 9 and we don't start until 9:05 then the whole day is ruined! There are constant disruptions in our class day. It's the kind of thing you would expect when one of your students is nicknamed Destructo!

What I have been learning the hard way these past 2 years is that structure is good, but too much structure is suffocating. I think structured and unstructured can be on the same boat as Pete and Repeat, if you have good understanding of what structured and unstructured mean.

To me, structured means being prepared and unstructured means being flexible. This is problematic in our house as I have described my procrastination trouble in the past two posts and one of my student's has been telling me for years "I'm not flexible!". Problematic or not I see that I need to be prepared and flexible at the same time. Not unstructured because I wasn't prepared or structured because I'm inflexible.

I, like all of us, am a work in progress. On this past Friday, I got the idea for this post as I was both structured and unstructured at the same moment. On Friday, the last thing Emma does at the end of the school day is to work on her blog. The problem was she had just taken her spelling test and had not done as well as I would have wanted. We were running late (says the inflexible teacher), and I wanted her to move on to her blog, but I also wanted her to write sentences using the missed spellings words. That's when structured and unstructured were sitting in a tree s-c-h-ool-i-n-g. I told her to write a blog post using her missed spelling words.

Here is what my Bunny Girl came up with . . . (This is also available at her blog by clicking here)

I will create a story using these five words: allegiance, geometry, appearance, biennial, and disturbance. Get ready for a cool story about bunnies right now!

At school By Alice

Told by Jenny the Bunny

I was at school, during geometry when there was a sudden disturbance. "Jenny!" said my brother, Benny. " We just saw the appearance of Nero!" I whispered to him, " That cat is for show and tell. He is for the biennial of Whiskers!". Nero is my cat. He is a ancestor of Whiskers, the most famous cat in the B.S.B! I told Benny to bring me Nero after we pledge allegiance to the flag. Mrs. Honey told us to write a report of famous cat or the ancestor of a famous cat. She told us to bring a ancestor of a famous cat or draw one. After we pledged allegiance, Benny came in with a basket. A yowling basket! "Benny! What are you doing?!" I asked. Mrs. Honey asked me,"Will you please do show your show and tell please?" I looked in the basket, put it on the desk and said," Look in the basket. What do you see? The one in the middle is my pet cat, Nero. It looks like she just had kittens. Nero is related to Whiskers. And so are her baby kittens!"

The End.

By the way, B.S.B stands for the Bunny States of Bunny world. Good Bye!

So what do structured and unstructured mean to you? What other interior struggles does home education bring out in you? Please fell free to comment and let me know. Also hop on over to my daughter's bunny blog (pun intended) and let her know what you think of her story. Then do the hop back to the party at Homeschoolbytes for the rest of this weeks carnival.

Next Time: More about One Million Arrows

Six Word Saturday

Every day as part of our school day we read aloud from a book a chapter at a time. We are currently working on Winnie the Pooh. This week when Emma was reading to us the part where Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's door my mind drifted to the animated version.

The movies introduces a character name Gopher, who happens to be a gopher. Gopher has the signature line "I'm not in the book." The line actually has a double meaning. The straight forward meaning is that gopher's excavation services are not listed in phone book. The second meaning is that since the character was created for the movie, he is literally not in the book.

I have always appreciated children's entertainment that also has adult humor thrown in.

Which brings me to today's six words . . .

When did adult lose a letter?

When I said adult humor a moment ago perhaps some of you thought of risque or inappropriate humor. I actually meant the second definition of the adjective adult found in my Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary which states " of relating to, intended for or befitting adults, ex. an adult approach to a problem."

Webster's offers a third definition of adult as dealing in or with explicitly sexual material. But it seems that these days that is the most common definition. Adult used to mean mature, deep, grown-up. Adult has become a four letter word.

So here I am a 45 year old who does not swear (use adult language), drink alcohol (adult beverages) or watch pornography (adult videos). No wonder my parents often sit me at the kids table at family gatherings.

Seriously when did the word adult become strictly a euphemism for things we don't want kids to do? Aren't there more adult uses for the word adult?

Not sure exactly where this diatribe came from or where it's going. It's been brewing in my cranium for some time and I thought I would try to let it out. If you would like to see more Six Word Saturday head on over to Show my face dot com and join in.

Next Time: Structured and Unstructured

Video Shmideo

I am putting off my post about our recent trip to the zoo to share a few links to videos.

The son of an elder from my church, a home school student, has entered a contest that is hinged upon how many views his you tube video receives. This is an excellent video entitled Let's revolutionize higher education!. The idea presented here is revolutionary, and presented very ably. I encourage you to watch it and tell others about it.



The movie Star Trek Generations was on Hulu this week reminding me that I have it on videocassette. Charlie watched it last night and absolutely cracked up at a scene, that I had almost forgotten. We showed the scene to Emma and she just loved it as well. In the movie, the android Data is experimenting with an emotions chip. In the scene my children enjoyed he is asked by Commander Riker to scan for life forms. Here is the result.

Speaking of movies, I was reminded on the radio that today is the thirtieth anniversary of the miracle on ice. Yep, thirty years ago Herb Brooks and his US Hockey team defeated the Russians in the Olympics. Prior to the game coach Brooks gave the team a pep talk. Here is a rendition of that pep talk from the movie Miracle.


You may have already seen the you tube video of a 4 year old giving the Brooks speech. It's worth watching over again if you have. I really thought that was impressive until I saw him on Ellen. It is one thing to quote it in your living room, but something else entirely to recite it in fromt of t.v. cameras and a live audience.

Well that's all the footage I have time to present today. I hope you enjoyed it all.

Next Time: The Z Double O

Poems for Children Nowhere Near Old Enough to Vote.

In preparing for our unit on poetry I checked out many volumes from famous poets. Being from Illinois, Carl Sandburg came to mind. Carl Sandburg lived from 1878 to 1967. Poems for Children Nowhere Near Old Enough to Vote is a volume of his work found and published after his death. I like everything about this book: the title, the introduction, Istvan Banyai's clever illustrations, and especially the poems.

The poems are about body parts and common objects. There is simplicity and logic in them. The first four lines of "pencils" gives us a glimpse of this:

Pencils are to hold when you write.
Pencils come loose unless you hold them.
One pencil writes many thousand words, if you know the words.
Pencils too pointed break their points and then laugh at you.

I enjoyed sharing these poems with my kids. I think the benefited from seeing how to look at familiar things from differing perspectives. In another of his poems, Sandburg describes music by saying, it is when your ears like what they hear. If poetry can be described as when your eyes like what you see, I would have to say Poems for Children Nowhere Near Old Enough to Vote is pure poetry.


Next Time: Sickness Disease

Things This Thursday

Thing 1. Carnival sightings

This weeks Carnival of Home Schooling is at Corn and Oil. I haven't read it all yet, but what I have read is first rate. I especially appreciated Tag your Truant at Home is Where you Start from.


My blog is still the site of the most recent carnival of book review blogs. You can check it out by clicking here.

Thing 2. Sew what?

Emma is taking a machine sewing class at our home school co-op this semester. It is the only course I chose for her. She would have rather taken a drama class offered at the same time. I chose for her because she has shown interest in sewing before, and it is a class that at this point neither Amy and I could teach her. We have supplemented her yen for drama with a park district class on improvisation that takes place in the spring.















It turns out she LOVES the sewing class! She had a little trouble the first week with the sewing machine we borrowed, but we borrowed another one which is working fine.

She sewed this pocket in class. She has been working on a few more at home.















I always try to teach at least one co-op class to one of my kid's grade level and assist in one of the other kids classes. I hit the trifecta this year. I am the assistant in Charlie's gym class, Emma's is taking the second part of my Narnia class, and I am teaching a pre-K class called, "Let's go to the store." This week Lucy and her classmates made a shopping bag. Here is a picture of Emma and Lucy with their projects.
















Thing 3. Two Race Charlie

It seems that no matter how full or empty your schedule is that there usually are two "can't miss" events scheduled for the same day or time. Recently, we have been experiencing that phenomena in spades. For example, the sewing class and drama class Emma wanted were two of the classes Emma wanted to take most this semester and they were offered at the exact same time. This is the second year in a row that the Awana closing ceremony and our home school closing ceremony are scheduled on the same day.

We are hyper vigilant when it comes to avoiding scheduling conflicts. I should say that Amy is hyper vigilant when it comes to avoiding scheduling conflicts. Last Fall when we received our schedules for cub scouts and Awana Amy entered them all in our calendar to make sure there were no conflicts. We were glad to see that the Pinewood Derby and the Awana Grand Prix, two similar model car events were scheduled on different weeks in January.

That was until, the Cub Scouts moved their race back a week and then they were both on the same day! Charlie was able to build two different cars and bring his Awana car in early so he could enter both races.

Thing 4: An extra special glimpse at my life.

The first time I was on an airplane was in 1973. I was 9 and we went to visit Washington D.C. I did not get on a plane again until Spring of 1992. I spent the next decade as a fairly frequent flyer. I flew domestically and internationally landing in 8 countries outside of the U.S. The last of which was in July of 2001 to attend my brother's wedding. I have not been on a plane since. It has nothing to do with the events of September 11th of that year. It is just that I have had no occasion to fly since then. Everyone else in the family has flown since then , although only 2 of them remember it. Charlie flies to Florida this year to go to DW with my parents.




















Thing 5: Television by the book.

My sister stopped by today and gave me my Christmas present. 2009 not 2010. She gave me the ninth edition of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows. I already had the 8th edition which carried a description and cast list for every prime time show from 1946 to the 2002/2003 television season. It also includes the prime time schedule, Nielsen ratings, and Emmy winners for each year. In short a TV geeks dream come true. The 8th edition is 1,591 pages long. The new 9th edition checks in at 1,831 pages and goes up to the 2006/2007 season. Chuck is not included in this tome as it premiered in the fall of 2007. If the 10th edition publishes with a 4 year lapse between editions as the 9th did. It should be available sometime in 2011. I'll be making room on my shelf.

Those are my things this Thursday! What things are up with you? Due to a glitch with mr. linky I am not able to accept links today. If you have some things to share just post a link on the comments.

Next Time: Book Review

Poetry

Poetry appreciated. Poetry demonstrated. Poetry Lucified.

We have been studying poetry in school for the past few weeks. Today I had Emma blog about two of her favorite poets who coincidentally have written several poems about bunnies. You can see her post by clicking here.


Charlie and I worked for a while to write a poem and finally since many of the poems we have been studying have been accompanied by illustrations. Charlie wrote and illustrated a poem about winter.

I like to ski. Wheeeeee!

Lucy really wanted to write a poem about flowers. So I had her dictate one to me.

Flowers are pretty

They're very nice

I picked them for my Momma

Flowers are beautiful

The pink and purple and red ones

and green ones and black ones and yellows ones

and roses and green ones

and orange ones and . . .

Now, she probably had a few dozen more lines to recite when I interrupted her by saying that's a nice poem let's draw a picture of a flower. Her response: I'm not good at drawing flowers let's draw a horse.

Then she decided that she wanted to draw a unicorn instead of a horse. I want to say that she wanted to draw a unicorn because I had read Shel Silversteins's "The Unicorn" earlier that day. But Lucy's motivations are generally much more random than that. Here is said picture . . .

Those are my six words for today. Head over to Show My Face dot com to play along at home.

Before you do, I want to share a small poem I wrote today inspired by Charlie. I had asked him to write a poem about winter and he was getting frustrated and being silly at the same time. He said something like: Winter winter Winter winter. I don't like winter.

I decided to write a poem from the perspective of a second grader assigned to write a poem about winter and does not want to.

Winter. Winter. Winter. Winter.

Winter is no fun.

Winter. Winter. Winter Winter.

Now my poem's done.

I say it's done

but Dad say no.

Who wants to write

when you can play in the snow?

Sledding, Skiing, snow ball fighting.

Winter's really quite inviting.

It's fun outside and in the home

but do I have to write a poem?!!!

Winter. Winter. Winter. Winter.

Now, my poem's done!

Next Time: Things This Thursday

Carnival of Home Schooling: Library Week Edition

This is week 212 in the carnival of home schooling. If this was the carnival of home schooling for dogs it would be week 1,484.



Before I get started with the theme of this week, I thought this would be the best time to talk about the big news story going on right now. I certainly don't mean Leno vs. Conan. Laura presents 21 Ways For Your Children To Help Haitian Earthquake Victims posted at Practical Homeschooling.



Twice a year, our family embarks on library week. It is a week where we go to at least 1 library every day during the week. It serves our family as both a break in the academic year and also an opportunity to discover the various amenities and learning opportunities afforded at these libraries. In past years, we have crossed state lines to see how the other book lives. This year we kept it strictly in Illinois. Interspersed amongst the fine articles that I have assembled for you this week, I will tell you of our library travels during our Christmas break.

Our first home school article comes from Jenn who presents More Homeschooling (Plus Bonus Funny Interlude!) posted at Rational Jenn. She says: "As the needs of my kids (ages 7.5, 4.5, and 1.5) change and grow, things are getting harder to juggle in our homeschool! Yikes! "

Speaking of juggling, Cristina presents Home Spun comic strip #435 posted at Home Spun Juggling.

Not all schooling takes place indoors as Becky Johnston informs us in Animal Tracks posted at Wide Open Campus.

The outdoor learning continues, as Amber presents October Nature Walk posted at The Mommy Earth.



Day 1: St. Charles Public Library. I previously blogged about our trip there but for those who missed it is Emma's report of our time there:


Name of Library: St. Charles Library. St. Charles, IL.
Something I liked: I liked all the Animal Ark Books they had.
One thing I didn't like: They didn't have one of my favorite books, Bunnies in the Bathroom.
A book I read while I was there: 2 Minute Mysteries by Donald Sobol author of Encyclopedia Brown.
Dad asked me to ask the Librarian a question. Lucy said she would, so I followed her with my notebook.
Lucy: Knock Knock
Librarian: Who's There?
Lucy: Emma
Librarian: Emma Who?
Lucy: Emma Kayrene (My Middle Name)

Next up, we have Cindy who wanted to get into the nitty gritty world of the planning of her unit studies. This she has done with gusto in Unit Studies Revisited, an informative Q&A, posted at Our Journey Westward.

A good homeschooling book to add to your personal library is The Socialization Trap by Rick Boyer. Click here for my review. I thought of that book when I received a carnival submission from Molly Cook of Southern Spunk. It seems she wrote this piece in response to having had her fill of ignorance outside of the homeschooling circle. She had heard the socialization word one too many times and decided to set some people straight. Well, you go girl! Here she is with, Don't Go Hatin' On The Homeschoolers.

Molly is not the only one out there confronting stereotypes and misinformation. There seems to be a plethora of education "experts" out there essentially making up their own facts and bending those facts to meet their agenda. To that end, last week's host Alasandra presents Robin L. West takes a potshot at homeschooling posted at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog.



Elena LaVictoire weighs in on the Robin L. West issue with The Double Standard of Robin West - Author of The Harms of Homeschooling posted at My Domestic Church.

Day 2. Our library Journey continued to Lake Zurich, Illinois where we visited the Ela Public Library. Emma and Lucy had a play date with some girls from our church. Things we liked: We could use our library cards there and what we checked out would show up at our regular libraries website. They also had a cool super hero section that Charlie enjoyed.


Sebastian from Percival Blakeney Academy has submitted Egyptian Art Projects for Kids. It is an insightful post rounding up links on ancient Egypt.



Sandra Foyt presents A response to the New York homeschooler arrest case, describing our typical homeschool day, and arguing that there is no such thing as "no-schooling." in Homeschooling, Unschooling, But Not "No-Schooling" posted at On Living by Learning.


e-Mom presents Family Life: Top 100 Books for Kids posted at C h r y s a l i s. This is an excellent list. A great place to get a hold of those books would be your local library.


And speaking of libraries that brings us to day 3.




That's a picture of Charlie and me at the entrance of the Oak Park library. Oak park is a lovely Chicago suburb that actually feels more like downtown than a suburb. No offense to my friend Patti who grew up there, and has fond memories of the previous library building, this one has all the warmth of a bus depot. A children's section that is on tile rather than rugs did not add to that impression. They did have a very good selection of books to choose from. I also taught Charlie how to use a microfilm reader, which he was extremely keen on.

When I visit libraries I spend a lot of time with a kid and a book in my lap. Lapbooking is the subject of our next post, as Lynn presents Lapbooking Ideas posted at Eclectic Education - Homeschool Blogger.


Here is a quick family science experiment submitted by The Family which I give two big thumbs up. It is aptly titled Genetic traits of the thumb and posted at Once Upon a Family.


Michelle Dennis Evans presents an excellent work titled Freedom and Kids posted at Michelle D Evans.

One thing I have noticed about libraries, is that they often have good craft ideas especially around holidays. Libraries aren't the only ones with good holiday ideas. Here are some valentines day articles worth looking at . . .


Shannon Dodds demonstrates with Valentine Craft (sun catcher) posted at Mommyapolis.




HappyCampers presents Valentine's Day Homeschool Ideas posted at Reese's View Of The World.

Day 4





Johnsburg is a small town in Mchenry County in Illinois. It has a population of less than 7,000 people. Yet it boasts one of the finest libraries I have ever been to. For homeschoolers it is a special library. It houses a homeschool resource center with shelves of curriculum and other materials available for checkout. Homeschoolers can check out material for 6 weeks at a time and renew for an additional 6 weeks as long as there are no holds on the material. I am test driving an Abeka spelling book I checked out from there with Emma.

Since socialization gets brought into the home school discussion so often, I have decided to bring it into this week's carnival again. Janine Cate wrote a very insightful article on socialization based on a recent conversation she had. She says it comes down to what socialization means to you. I proudly present It depends on what you value posted at Why Homeschool.




Kathy says Read my review of the first Camp Club Girls book, a fun new book series for your tween girls. You can find Camp Club Girls and the Mystery at Discovery Lake posted at Homeschoolbuzz.com Reviews.



Misty shares a couple of tricks to make multiplying by 9 more fun. Check out (Library Pun Intended) Fun Multiplication Tips and Tricks – 9’s posted at Homeschool Bytes.

Katherine from No Fighting No Biting went out on the first non-frigid Saturday in a long time and took her big kids to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. She says the inspiration was worth the long lines. Read all about it in National Archives.


You know what else has archives? That's right, libraries. Let's get this fun over with and move on to day 5. Amy read on-line that Downers Grove library was having a game day so we decided to end our library week there. There were tunnels and little rooms for the kids to explore. Lucy played on a children's computer while Amy and the kids played games. Their favorite was a dice game called Shut the Box. We liked it so much we ordered one from amazon.


Speaking of Downers, very few downers are more depressing than thinking about the many terrorist acts that have been in the news lately. ChristineMM shares ideas about how to talk to young children and tweens who ask about news stories about terrorist attacks against American civilians. Take a peek at Thoughts about Parenting Kids in Times of Terrorism posted at The Thinking Mother.


We check out all manners of things out from our library. The main 2 staples are books and DVD's. With that in mind, Rachel Lynette presents Comparing the Book to the Movie posted at Minds in Bloom.



Linda Dobson revisits The Animal School saying it's a wonderful classic. It's posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

Lynn presents 10 Ways Save Money on Homeschooling posted at Lynn's Gather Page. I just want to say that 3 of the 10 ways include using the library. Way to stay on theme Lynn!

Well we did it! We got through library week. 5 days, 5 libraries in 5 different counties. There were several things we did during library week that didn't involve going to the library. I'm sure we ate, shopped, I think we might even have bowled once. I didn't really go into detail about them here because I was focusing on the library part of library week.

In the same way, I received many submissions this week that had nothing to do with homeschooling. Some were fine articles, but I just didn't think they fit here, so I left them out. One exception to that was a fine article from Leah, The Danger of Parenting Books posted at Ingathered. It really described a perspective to parenting that I think is similar to my home school tale on it.

Next week's carnival is being hosted at Corn and Oil. Susan has a post this week entitled Don't burden the innocent. She says The public schools seem to be making attempts in several states to close in on homeschoolers by using truancy as their weapon of choice

Announcement: The library week carnival of homeschooling is closing in 5 lines. Please select from the articles above and then go on with your homeschooling Day. You can submit a post by clicking here.

Next Time: Looking forward to our trip to Washington DC.

The Old Switcheroo!

So, if you've been following this blog, you have been informed of why we as a family home school. You have also been told that because of the current job situation, I am the home school teacher.

I would be remiss, however, to give you the impression that I am the teacher because of circumstance. I think its because of providence. I truly feel God's hand in my current avocation. Let me give you the skinny:

When Amy and I got married nearly 11 years ago I was newly employed at a mortgage company. I worked there for almost 10 years. The 2nd half of those 10 years of employment were much more stressful than the first. In addition, as our family grew, we barely managed to live on my salary. The idea of Amy and I switching responsibilites would sometimes bounce in my head, but I never felt peace in considering such a move.

What did occur was this: In the fall of 2002 I was given the opportunity to work a 4 day 40 hour work week. Amy got a part time job as a school psychologist 2 days a week and I got a part time job as a home school father 1 day a week. (For those doing the math at home, we did have 1 day a week wher the children were watched outside the home.)

What the experience brought me was this: I felt much more suited at my part time job than my full time one. I loved being home 1 day a week and being a more formal part of their formal education. Also during that 10 year period, I was given many affirmations whether in Sunday School teaching or training people at work that I would make a good teacher.

In late 2005 we had our third child. At the end of that school year Amy stopped her part time position and that summer I lost my full time position. Amy started subsitute teaching while I looked for work again giving me opportunities to home school the children. I worked in call center positions from 2006 to 2008. When my employment ended in July of 2008, Amy and I were ready for the change. She applied for a full time school psychologist position in the same district where she worked previously and was hired 3 days later. (She would have been hired sooner but there was a weekend in between.) We got to spend almost a month together as a family while we prepared for the switch. In late August of 2008 I became the 2nd full time teacher in the history of the Izola Becker Home School. I have never felt more suited for a job in my life. I love the commute. My students are like members of my own family.

I am far from perfect. I yelled at my children last semester more than I ever yelled at them in their entire lifetime before. Sometimes just getting through the day with the three of them is all I can handle. But with all that said, this is the best job I have ever had!

Next time: Home school goals for 2009