It's all small stuff

Health is Relative

Genes and environment come together in the Fall to make life miserable. It doesn't seem to matter that we don't send our kids to Public School......to continue..

16/Oct/2005
2:10am
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Volunteering

Entry No.1

Some weeks ago, I remembered something we used to do when money was tight...to continue..

1/Oct/2005
3:55 pm
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A Little Ink Blot -- Writing Life

Esther's Jungle Book

Friday evening has become our family movie night...It is great fun. But when the movie is over.....to continue..

10/Oct/2005
9:30am
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On Cats

A friend noticed that the freezing temperatures outside her house drove a mother cat to deposit her 2 week old kittens under the house. ..to continue..

30/Sept/2005
12:30pm
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Homeshcooling Mom

Organizing

Entry No.2

With only one month of schooling under her belt, Alene has already learned the art of delay and slow down to avoid her least favorite subjects. ...to continue..

06/Oct/2005
8:00 pm
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Newbie

Entry No.1

Our 5 year old has begun kindegarten at home this year. We are just finishing. . ....to continue..

30/Sept/2005
3:30 pm
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Creativity knows no bounds!

Spiritual Musings of a post-modern Woman.

Literary Newsletter

Having been asked, I am looking into the interest, possibility, need for hosting a Literary Newsletter for Homeschooled Kids.
Check back here, often, to see if we have any news.
E-mail me with interest, opinions, comments, content, reviews, fiction/non-fiction shorts that are "literary."
I reserve all rights to accept/reject/edit/publish content so submitted.
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Esther's Jungle Book

Friday evening has become our family movie night. The girls watch a kids movie, eat popcorn, and relax with Mom and Dad before a late bed time. Then Mom and Dad watch a late video and harass the girls until they fall asleep. This Friday, Esther chose to watch Disney's Jungle Book. Mom sings-a-long and the girls dance to all the songs. It is great fun. But when the movie is over: Pajama time.

Esther was immediately and unusually obedient this week. She ran to her bedroom and took off her play clothes. Then she decided she had to go potty. Being 2, that is a surprising and exciting discovery. So she ran to the bathroom, took off her pull-up, and did it all by herself. She was so pleased she immediately ran out to the front room dancing a jig and singing at the top of her voice "just da bare 'essecities, da bare 'essecities..." The absolutely bare truth!

10/Oct/2005
9:30am
Comment

On Cats

A friend noticed that the freezing temperatures outside her house drove a mother cat to deposit her 2 week old kittens under the house. But then the mother cat disappeared. Another cat in the family is also missing. And I, being the ungenerous spirit I am, suggested a series of episodic adventure stories: "Puss in Boots, the wanderings of an irresponsible, unteachable, unapproachable, independent but Cute feline and his friends."

30/Sept/2005
12:30pm
Comment

Homeschooling Mom

Organizing

Entry No.1

With only one month of schooling under her belt, Alene has already learned the art of delay and slow down to avoid her least favorite subjects. She earned frowns on three of last week's four school days. I am pleased to see that she doesn't like to receive frowns on her pages, but so far, that hasn't motivated a change in her behavior.

Then I remembered something that her Kindergarten class at church does to organize the kids as they come into church each morning. Knowing they will have between 25 and 50 5 year olds for an hour, they have 6 small classrooms off the main Kindergarten worship area. Each classroom has a different activity, and is color coded. The purple room has blocks. The blue room is table games. The yellow room is computers. There is also a video room and a cooking room. As the kids come in, they get to choose a ticket from the board and put it in the envelope for the room they want to go to. When a room is full, there are no more tickets of that color.

How does this help Alene do her unpleasant tasks? Ah, this is the fun part, because she actually wants to organize her week this way. We are going to make a ticket board with all her weekly activities printed out on separate tickets. There will be a pocket for each school day, and she will get to choose a ticket at a time to accomplish. At six tickets a day, four learning activities and two fun activities, she will be able to plan her week out as she goes. If she does all the fun topics first, the end of her week will be really long. If she does a few harder classes with some really fun ones each day, school will be more pleasant for her.

Of course there are a few ground rules about what she can choose and when. That is part of how the board will be organized. A row of tickets for the academic classes will be separate from a row with Arts and also from the row with fun rewards. The daily envelopes will be at the bottom. She will get to choose three academic tickets, one Arts and two rewards each day.
Think it will work?

06/Oct/2005
8:00 pm
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Newbie

Entry No.1

Our 5 year old has begun kindergarten at home this year. We are just finishing our third full week of school. For a kindergartener, that seems like a long time. For her Mom, it seems like we haven't even begun. Our schedule is relaxed but with a definite pattern.

Schedule:

• Monday: 2 hours; 4 topics
• Tuesday: 2 hours; 4 topics
• Wednesday: Field Trip or play with homeschool friends
• Thursday: 2 hours; 4 topics
• Friday: 2 hours; 4 topics

Topics:

Alphabet

letter recognition, naming, sounding, writing

Numbers

number recognition, counting, number sequences, counting patterns

Reading

phonics, sight words, Spalding Method, Custom Primers

Handwriting

Going for perfect printing here. On the blackboard, on dashed line practice papers, in her Journal, anywhere she can write.

Math

adding, subtracting, telling time, counting money

Science

Art

Music

singing songs, playing piano, playing rhythms, learning Ukelele, and the Tin Whistle

Dance

ballet, jazz dance, tap dance

LanguageAmerican Sign Language, Spanish, Allemannisch, Swiss-German

This list of topics (subjects) sounds impressive, but I must chuckle at the the reality. For instance, in our Dance time, which we do once a week, we take 20 minutes to practice steps to a DVD in one form of dance. And in Music, which we do twice a week, lesson and practice time is combined to learn just one new thing in 10 minutes, whether we are working on an instrument or rhythm or singing; and then the girls play freely for 10 to 15 minutes.

30/Sept/2005
3:30 pm
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Newbie

Entry No.1

Comment

K.Verduyn
1/Oct/2005
10:21am

You schedule sounds like a lot of fun. Alene must be loving it. I'm trying hard to get Aiden to be interested in schooling. He gets the numbers and math just fine, but is having lots of trouble with his letters and sounds. They just don't seem to mean anything to him yet. His handwriting is coming along and he can form his numbers 1-10 correctly most of the time. I figure it will click sometime and he will be off and running. When we get DSL, I will be able to let him play letter games online and it might help him get the sounds better.

Original Entry Date:
30/Sept/2005
3:30 pm
Comment

It's all small stuff

Health is Relative

Genes and environment come together in the Fall to make life miserable. It doesn't seem to matter that we don't send our kids to Public School. Gramma Fishel left for a driving vacation to Canada several weeks ago. The last few days before she left she came down with a cold and ear infection. When she returned, she was even worse. We spent several days staying at her house while she was gone (while we were working on the bathroom at our house) and both Ted and I started getting mild colds. Since then, we have spent a few Sundays in a row helping our Church with childcare for an outreach program, and this week all of this caught up with our three girls.

Rebecka has not been sleeping well the past few nights because her sinuses are full. At eight months, it is hard for her to remember to breathe through her mouth when her nose doesn't work. It seems like she has to re-learn that trick every time the congestion builds up. So she screeches her frustration out in her sleep. It is a good thing that she is still nursing; her immune system has a slight edge over her older sisters.
Like Esther who barks her coughs out in her sleep, and moans over her sore throat, and then has a good fever spike about 3am each night. Today she was so exhausted she fell asleep at 4:30 in the afternoon and didn't wake up for dinner. She didn't wake up until 12:30 in the morning, when she realized she was hungry and thirsty and had a terrible cough. After Apple Juice laced with Tylenol and Cough Syrup, and some warm, buttered rice and a quiet private screening of Disney's Bambi she went right back to bed and to sleep.
Then there is Alene. She has inherited Grampa Fishel's hayfever allergies, Daddy's childhood susceptablity to repeated earaches, Mommy's affliction with nose bleeds and Gramma Fishel's low immune system. She had the same exposure to Gramma before and after the trip as the other girls, and the same exposure to kids at church; but she came down with a really nasty ear infection. So far it is just external, but it is ugly and painful. Tonight we rinsed her ear with warm sea salt water and Mullein/Garlic oil, and gave her Belladonna and homeopathic earache tablets.

16/Oct/2005
2:10am
Comment

Volunteering

Entry No.1

Some weeks ago, I remembered something we used to do when money was tight in the late 70's to early 80's. Gleaning! Oregon is a pretty healthy agricultural state, and the state's food programs include Gleaning Groups in its list of ways to get food to hungry people. I thought, "That's something I can do, now that I've got a family a little in need." So I called all the gleaning groups I could find. And no one returned my calls.

Gleaning is a lot of fun. The group gets permission from a farmer to follow after the commercial pickers and collect the produce that just wasn't quite perfect for market. Each picking volunteer keeps half of what they pick and gives the other half to the group to be distributed to sponsored families or individuals in need. It's a great program.

Guess what? The closest field gleaning program is 90 minutes away and only serves residents of Clackamas County. We don't qualify. All the gleaning groups in Washington County, 60 minutes away, go to supermarkets and such stores to get their distressed goods. The only gleaning group in Columbia County is the Scappose Senior Center. They don't glean in fields either. I was disappointed.

Some two weeks after I left messages at all these places that weren't really what I was looking for, the Scappoose Seniors' Bread Store called me and announced that I would be working on Saturday morning at 10 am. Just one Saturday? No, every Saturday. That was all the information I was given. That first call didn't even tell me where the bread store was. Chuckle.

Today was the third Saturday of my involvement with the Seniors' Bread Store. Just two hours each Saturday morning to help attend and stock the giving away of bread and produce and food items. I get to take what we need home each week, too.

On Monday afternoons three people ride in the Seniors' cargo van over to Sauvie's Island to The Pumpkin Patch. I ride along and help load up the distressed produce they want to give to the Seniors' Bread Store. One week it was 40 lbs of tomatoes with black spots on them. I took one box and made 12 pints of delicious Salsa!

So I am a volunteer, and a blessed one at that. We have recieved more than my time so far is worth, but the ladies at the Bread Store don't see it that way. They are pleased to have someone new and younger to help. They keep telling me to take more stuff. This week I gave free bread to my Mom and three neighbors. Wonder what next will bring.

1/Oct/2005
3:55 pm
Comment

Creativity knows no bounds!

Spiritual Musings of a post-modern Woman.