One-Sixteenth

November 17, 2008

Trek Gets Cool?

Wow. Who would have guessed that Star Trek could look this cool?

Posted by lynx at 9:21 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

November 14, 2008

Life with my children

Me: Did it ever occur to you that I know more than you do?

Lachlan (age 6): No.

Lachlan: Um, Mom, um .... um ... I forgot ... wait ... (puts his fingertips on either side of his head, scrunches up his eyes) ... wait, I have to look inside my mind ...

Connor: Oh, you have to watch out for those decimals. Decimals will kill you if you give them 0.5 of a chance.

Why we get nowhere whenever we try to revisit learning Spanish:

(If you don't know any Spanish, it's supposed to go like this:

Person one: Hola! Como te llamas? Hello, what is your name?

Person two: Me llamo (name). Como te llamas? My name is (name). What is your name?

Person one: Me llamo (name). Que tal? My name is (name). How are you?

Person two: Bien, gracias. Adios! Fine, thanks. Goodbye!)

Me: Okay, Aidan, tell Connor "hello" in Spanish.

Aidan: O, hai!

Me: No. In Spanish. Say hello and ask his name, and then ask how he's doing.

Aidan: Hola! How is your llama?

Connor: My llama is in a coma. How is your llama?

Aidan: My llama is Aidan. How tall are you?

Connor: About five foot four. And how tall is your llama?

And that's about where I give up. Actually, that's where I gave in, and started singing "Llama in a Coma," but it's the same thing.

Posted by lynx at 11:52 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

November 7, 2008

Should students be able to graduate after 10th grade?

New Hampshire is doing something right.

Yes, absolutely, students who are ready early should be able to escape high school.

Posted by lynx at 11:28 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

November 4, 2008

Where are the lines?

I thought voter turnout was going to be huge?

No line here. I walked in, voted, walked out.

I registered to vote via mail. Yes, they did ask me for ID. However, my ID is from Michigan, not Virginia. They accepted my voter registration card as proof of residency ... you know, the one I got through the mail with no proof of residency. I was prepared. I had every kind of legal document proving identity and residency that you could hope for. I was hoping they'd ask for some.

At least they asked for my ID.

I was pleased that they offered a choice between electronic voting and a paper ballot. I went with the paper.

This was a very odd election, in that it's the closest I've ever come to voting a straight ticket. Weird. One lone Independent for Representative spared me from that indignity. But my vote for McCain/Palin has been cast.

Posted by lynx at 9:15 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

October 31, 2008

Halloween

I apologize for the picture quality. I've mislaid the good camera, and these are cellphone pics.

Posted by lynx at 8:13 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Boys and girls of every age ...

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!
In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song

Posted by lynx at 10:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

October 29, 2008

Civics Lessons

We've seen McCain. We've seen Palin. We've seen Obama. If I make this seem like a big deal, understand that I had never before been to any kind of political rally.

I can't find the camera that holds the McCain pictures, but we were behind the podium, anyway.

We arrived an hour ahead of starting time for Barack Obama, and the line was amazing:

I'd say there was about the same amount of people for both the Obama and the McCain rally. We knew at that point that we weren't going to get in, so we hung back behind the crowd, in an area where we still had a decent view and could hear well:

That picture makes it seem like we were further away than we were. The view was actually much better than that. The bright light shows you where the podium was.

We were able to make it to the Sarah Palin rally much earlier, and had a much better spot:

If you look, you can see Tito the Builder off to the left there, in his yellow hard hat.

The kids had a much better time at this one. The crowd involved them, giving them signs and pom-poms to wave. Many of the people around us were high-school kids, cutting class. They were a hoot. We told them that they should get extra credit from their history teacher for being there; they laughed and said that there aren't any Republican history teachers.

And guess what? I know you'll be shocked. I know you'll be appalled. But you know all that racism and hatred the media has been telling you that McCain and Palin have been stirring up? What do you know - it wasn't there. There was no more "stirring up" of anything there than there was at the Obama rally. No racist remarks. No violent words. No mean chants. Nothing. Nope, not a thing. I just had to say it. Half of you already knew that. Half of you aren't going to believe me, no matter what. And half of you don't care. (I never was that good at math.)

Posted by lynx at 7:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 22, 2008

It's educational. It's educational.

The blogging has gone way down here since I got onto Facebook. It's so much easier to stick a meaningless one-liner status update onto Facebook, than it is to, say, write a blog post.

Remember when I took the kiddos to the McCain-Palin rally? At the time, my kids expressed interest in going to an Obama rally, too. Sure, I told them. It would be good to see both candidates. It would be educational.

Okay, but McCain and Palin were here on a nice, sunny, warm day. Outside, in a nice park. In the early afternoon. Near my house.

Suddenly, it turns out Obama will be in a little park practically next to my parents' house. Okay, but he's talking at 5:30, which is just a lousy time. Outdoors. As it's getting dark. And COLD. In a little park, which in no way is going to be able to accommodate the number of people I'm sure will be there. And cold. Accounting for both DC and Obama traffic, I figure I'd better leave my house four hours or so before the event. Then I'll be driving home in the dark, which I usually avoid, because I kind of have no depth perception in the dark.

I tried to passively get out of it, to have an excuse, but my husband took care of my excuse, and my children really want to go. Plus, my older children feel strongly that they should go to help keep a lid on their Grandma. I think they have visions of her being duct-taped and hauled off by Obama's security.

No, really, we're going. Yes, I'm whining about the logistics, but obviously it will be interesting and educational, and historical, and an opportunity that should not be passed up. I am wearing red, though.

Posted by lynx at 8:11 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

October 18, 2008

Weekly Report - Week ... 9?

I think this was Week 9.

We all feel like we need a break, even though we just took a week off.

This week Connor read an adaptation of Gulliver's Travels, another book of the Iliad, a book about Poor Richard's Almanac, and Starship Troopers. He was supposed to read more Locke, but we didn't get around to it. He's been such fun, lately. He comes to me and says things like: "You know, it would be interesting to see, if you put a bunch of kids on an island, what kind of society they'd come up with." Or: "You know, a nuclear war wouldn't kill everyone, so I wonder what life would be like for the survivors ..." Heh. Here, kid, let me add some books to your library list.

Incidentally, although we're going to be doing the government readings listed in TOG, we've decided against using the textbook they recommend. On closer inspection I see that the text is clearly focused on teaching American government from the perspective that the U.S. was meant to be a Christian nation. I think we'll just read the source documents and reach our own conclusions, thanks.

On a pagan-y note, I was struck by the similarities between Locke's natural rights, and "An' it harm none, do what ye will." I've never read Locke. Reason #8,972 I'm glad we homeschool: I get a do-over of my own education.

Connor has finished his pre-algebra book, and has started into Algebra. We're using an older Dolciani algebra book, and Jeff is teaching it.

He is doing well in Latin, and is in chapter 9 of Latin Prep 1. He's doing less well in Greek, but in truth I haven't made Greek a priority.

We have had to end, at least for our, his online writing classes. Instead I'm starting him on Classical Writing - Diogenes: Maxim. I love this book. It is actually easier than Homer; the goals are clear, and the assignments are shorter. It also dovetails nicely into history for us, as Maxim focuses on Ben Franklin's Autobiography and the Silence Dogood letters.

Aidan has finished Right Start E! He's done with the program! Wheee! Now I'll do Singapore Math with him full-time, until he finishes 6B; then I'll hand him over to Jeff.

This week Aidan finished The Witch of Blackbird Pond, What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, some of D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, and ... I forget what Heinlein he's working on right now. Space Cadet, maybe.

He is doing very well in Henle; he's nearly finished with the 3rd declension. We do all the Henle work orally. Greek - same as Connor. He's doing the Greek, but I need to to a better job of seeing that they *learn* it. It would help if I learned it too.

I've started him back into CW Homer; however, I'm not going to use the workbook for him. We're going to wing it, and wing it casually.

Griffin had a great leap in math. For a long time I despaired of ever being able to move forward in Right Start, he had such a hard time with mental addition. We finally moved on anyway, and it turns out that although he struggles with mental addition, the first time I showed him how to add two four-digit numbers together on paper, he got it.

He's made some progress in reading, too. Griffin struggles with reading. It's hard for him. This is the area we work, and work, and work on. But, finally, he is progressing. Slowly, but progressing.

Lachlan outreads him by a large margin. Lachlan probably reads at at least a 3rd grade level. Twerp. He's just started Cub Scouts, and, well, as many of you know, it's quite bittersweet to see your youngest run confidently off with the group. It turns out that in a group setting, he is quite the goofball/class clown type. Twerp.

Outside of academics, we've found a great nature study area. Near our house is a wooded area, with a stream in which a group of beavers has been very busy. We've never caught a glimpse of the beavers themselves, but every time we go out there there are new trees down.

We're trying to hit the pool 2-3 times a week. Scouts is in full swing, and Connor has finally found a Troop he really likes. It is, in other words, busy and crazy. They're at the pool now, so I have some quiet time. Tomorrow, we're going to Mt. Vernon to kick off our study of George Washington. And we have to make Halloween costumes this week.

Whew.

Posted by lynx at 4:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 11, 2008

Tapestry of Grace, One Unit In

We've completed our first unit, our trial unit, of TOG. How did it go? I already have the next unit on my desk.

Yes, I love it. Ever since it was time to bump the older boys up to the next level, I've been floundering. I haven't gotten a good handle on how to challenge them, or to successfully require more of them. TOG has helped me to manage this.

Specifically, it's helped me to get them reading more consistently, and to discuss with them what they're reading. Yes, the discussion should be a no-brainer, shouldn't it? But some of us are ... easily distractible ... and really need that piece of paper reminding us what we're supposed to be discussing.

In the last 8 weeks, Connor and Aidan have read:

A retelling of Don Quixote
The Landing of the Pilgrims (Landmark)
Perrault's Fairy Tales
The Witch of Blackbird Pond

In addition, Aidan has read Diane Stanley's Peter the Great, and several chapters of Story of the World. Connor has read through book 7 of the Iliad, several chapters of This Country of Ours and Our Island Story, and four chapters of Locke's Second Treatise on Government.

(Not all those works are assigned in TOG.)

That's not bad, is it?

Yes, we like it. The schedule is flexible, allowing for students to move between levels as their abilities dictate, and keeps us on a good track. The discussion questions are good - sometimes even excellent. And it's not so time-consuming that we can't do our own thing, like classical studies.

I've got the two little boys working at the Lower Grammar level. Aidan is well-placed in the Upper Grammar level; I had him do some Dialectic readings, just to see. He can read the books, but slowly. Soon.

The Dialectic level is actually a little easy for Connor, but I'm not willing to bump him up to the high school (Rhetoric) level yet. So, at his request, we're adding the Rhetoric government elective to his work - hence the Locke. Does this kid rock, or what? Neither Locke, nor the Iliad phases him. I must have done something right.

We are also doing the TOG geography. We are NOT doing the church history, or the writing program. I substitute out about half of the literature selections. I almost wish they integrated a science program with the rest, except that I know what that science would be.

Posted by lynx at 10:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)