.....Sunflowers & a Spoonful of Sugar

Fall Pear Cake, Finally!

2011-11-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

The children are at their Friday options program, and I finally took the time to make my infamous and decadent sour cream pear cake. I have always intended that this should be a fall tradition, but I probably have not made it in the last two years. This year I saw the pears in the market for only .99c per pound and vowed I would do it.

I suppose the main reason it takes so much gumption for me to make this cake is that it has quite a few steps, requiring several bowls, dishes, and utensils, and I have to get the Kitchen-aid out for the batter. Moreover, the recipe, which I clipped from a magazine, is written in narrative form and not in bulleted steps. I took a little of the stress out of the endeavor this year by doing some of the prep the night before, which seemed to help, though I probably could have done more. So, before I put the recipe book away this year, I plan to simplify the directions to my own liking.

In closing, I must say that the smell that is coming from my oven at this moment is Heavenly! It almost makes it all worthwhile for that alone, save for the eating of it which promises transports of a different sense!

Owls in Science and Art

2011-10-20T23:25:00.002-05:00

We are studying owls in science. We love owls, they are such amazing animals. Each child chose an owl to sketch and paint in acrylics. Then we cut out that owl and painted a background, mixing blues and purples in watercolor for the night sky (since owls are nocturnal you know), and then using acrylics again for tree and moon. Then we glued the owls onto our backgrounds. See the holes in the trees. We learned that owls are not nest builders, rather they appropriate another animal's abandoned home and only add some finishing touches, some grass here, leaves there, etc.

Mermaid's owl (left): This white and orange owl is actually a baby barred owl. Snuggler painted a great horned owl (right).

Talker painted a screech owl (left), and so did I (right).

Our Behavior, Ourselves

2011-09-15T19:30:00.002-05:00

I came upon this article in the latest email from CERC (Catholic Educational Resource Center), and I found that it really and truly hit home in regard to my mothering at this time. Especially this quote:

Karol Wojtyla taught that in making an ethical decision, a moral agent does not only give rise to a particular act, but he also contributes to the person he is becoming. Every time I perform a moral act, I am building up my character, and every time I perform an unethical act, I am compromising my character. A sufficient number of virtuous acts, in time, shapes me in such a way that I can predictably and reliably perform virtuously in the future, and a sufficient number of vicious acts can misshape me in such a way that I am typically incapable of choosing rightly in the future.

I feel that lately I have been compromising my character: by getting angry at little things, by yelling at my kids, and by being grumpy. Yes, I have stress and it is not easy to homeschool 4 "lively" children between the ages of 6 and 10, but that is not a valid excuse. Everytime I am angry, everytime I yell, everytime I react sourly to my husband, I am forming my character in an unhealthy way. I may have thought that I could change others behavior by my anger and scolding, in reality I am only forming myself to my own detriment. This scares me, I see that if I keep this up "a sufficient number of vicious acts can misshape me in such a way that I am typically incapable of choosing rightly in the future."

I cannot go on thinking and acting as I have. I need to think about how I behave in a different way. Since I believe actions speak louder than words, what if I worry not about how to change others, but how to improve myself by being kinder, more thoughtful, joyful, and thankful? I tried this new tack today and, though I slipped not a few times, the times that I decided to understand instead of scold, or help instead of nag, really did make me feel better. I felt His grace, I felt like a better mother. Who knows but that in changing myself I may just reap the results I wanted in the first place.

Happy Court Date Anniversary

2011-04-08T13:19:00.004-05:00

One year ago today, the courts in Kazakhstan granted us the adoption of a little girl we hardly knew.

She has surely come a long way! Her English is amazing and she has blossomed into a lively, happy, and healthy six year old. You can see she still has the same beautiful smile though now missing a couple teeth!

Class Exercise 94: Write a Radio Broadcast

2011-04-06T19:46:00.003-05:00

Voyages in English 4 (1962 Version) asks the student to write a radio broadcast in which a famous person is interviewed today. Here is Eldest's final effort. I think it shows a typical 4th grade boy's take on an interview with our first pope.

Announcer: Students of the fourth grade, you are listening to a broadcast by VIE. Today our interviewer, Johnny Johnson, is going to talk to St. Peter. Now to Johnny.

JJ: As we all know, St. Peter was the first pope and a great man. So St. Peter, what do you think about the Catholic Church today?

St.P: It is very well established, and I am especially impressed with the apostolic succession. Just think how lucky you are to live in America where Catholics aren't persecuted!

JJ: What do you think about our pope, Benedict XVI?

St.P: I hear he is a very good pope. It would be so good if Jesus could come back to earth so you could meet Him.

JJ: What was he like?

St.P: He was very kind and gentle, yet strong and brave when he died on the cross.

JJ: Wow! And now back to the announcer.

Ann.: There you have it folks, come back next week for more of VIE. Goodbye.

St. Patrick's Day Art

2011-03-13T21:44:00.007-05:00

It was so nice to get the paint out today and actually complete a small art project. The littles started on it with me, but neither perservered and finished. The inspiration for this project can be found at Art Projects for Kids.

Below is my completed work per the instructions given. Only now I see that my lines that cross the stem and form the leaves curve upwards and not downwards as in the blog. Maybe that means that my cloverleafs just look a little perkier? If you go to the link, you'll see the drawing tutorial starts with a cross (stem + side leaves), which just adds to the opportunity to discuss the significance of the clover as St. Patrick used it to explain the Blessed Trinity to the Irish people.

I drew only the crosses, lightly pencilled. Then I began immediately with the watercolor paint. I used a small round brush and a nice bright green to make three heart shaped leaves. Then I diluted the paint with water and proceeded to fill in the background leaving an outline of white around the leaves and stems.

After the paint was dried, I used a metallic gold pen to trace over the stems and veins.

For my next attempt, I lightened the background color a shade by adding a smidge more yellow to the diluted paint. I really liked the soft look of the watercolor clover, and I wanted to keep it that way, so I didn't outline the leaves as before. Still, I needed something to give the clovers a little more texture and interest. I traced the stems using a light green metallic pen and tried drawing heart shaped outlines inside each leaf, which didn't show up because the ink was too light. When all else fails, get out the glitter glue!

I finally elected to paint heart shapes inside each leaf with glitter glue and the same fine paint brush. I was quite satisfied with the effect. I may use this one to make a birthday card for our neighbor who was born on St. Patrick's Day!

Once again I am behind in my planning holiday festivities. We only started playing our Irish CD's today, I just requested Darby O'Gill and the Little People and A Fine St. Patrick's Day, and I have yet to purchase our yearly corned beef!

Eric Carle Snowmen

2011-02-15T15:07:00.003-06:00

Mom's and Eldest's, 8 yrs old

This fairly simple art assignment comes from Deep Space Sparkle. We followed Patty's directions using white acrylic paint, construction paper, plain white paper, and a few oil pastels. Being the frugal family that we are, I cut each background paper in half, letting them choose their own colors.

First they painted the ground snow and then the snowmen. I reminded them that snowmen should have a large snowball at the bottom and progressively smaller snowballs on top. Even this was not a simple task for the kinders. Using previously painted paper in blues, greens and purples, as well as leftovers from our fall leaves art project, they cut out hats, scarves, eyes, carrot noses, and buttons and glued them onto their snowmen. Snowflakes for all but one child, who was not too attentive, were applied using the back of the paintbrushes dipped in paint. Lastly, we added smiles and arms using the oil pastels.

It was a relatively quick project and even a neighbor girl enjoyed participating!

Snuggler's, 5 yrs and Talker's, 7 yrs

Mermaid's, 6 yrs and Neighbor's, 7 yrs

Poinsettia Art Project

2011-01-18T19:42:00.004-06:00

We had some lovely poinsettias around the house for Christmas, and they are actually still alive even now, but we didn't get around to this art project until now. I did this project with the kinders.

First, I cut some sponges into large and small poinsettia leaf shapes. We used acrylic paints, thinned with water, in red and orange for sponging the flowers. Next, I chose a bright blue for the background and yellow for the centers. We sponged the flowers first, then dotted the centers using qtips, and lastly painted the background in bright blue. This was a 2 day project. I always make sure they know there are no right or wrong attempts with kinder art.

This first one is Mermaid's. She started out just fine with the flower shape, then morphed them into an orange flower bud or potted flower sort of look.

Snuggler's finished work is next. I was quite impressed with his artwork. In fact, I think his flowers look more like poinsettias with their pointed petal tips than mine do.

Mine look a little too much like a Hawaiian print fabric in my opinion. Like I said, no right or wrong when it comes to kinder art!

The Miracle of the First Poinsettia: A Mexican Christmas Story, is the book we read along with this art project. I know there are others out there, but I prefer this one which I purchased at our county library sale, what a find!. The story is lovely and well written with an appreciable smattering of Spanish to add to it's authenticity. And the pictures are wonderful and vibrantly hued.

Art and Etiquette

2011-01-12T23:38:00.000-06:00

A lesson in etiquette: writing thank you notes for all the wonderful Christmas gifts we received.
A lesson in art: collage.

Nativity Play - January 2011

2011-01-11T20:26:00.000-06:00

This year we had a Roman soldier,

Joseph,

a shepherd,

and our little angel.

2010 Christmas Tree Cutting

2011-01-10T22:03:00.000-06:00

I really should keep up with these things, and I suppose it's better to be late than never, as the saying goes. Here are a few snaps from this year's Christmas tree cutting jaunt in mid-December. As you can see, there was very little snow, still it was nice to get up to the mountains and chop down a fresh tree.

Keva

2011-01-09T22:13:00.001-06:00

We splurged and purchased an abundance of Keva planks this year for Christmas. For the first few weeks they were a hit with one and all, even the girl!

The final results of a timed tower building contest. Yup, Dad won.

Words for 2011

2011-01-07T12:59:00.002-06:00

The 4Real gals are now posting their “words” for 2011. I think mine will have to be kindness, charity, and gratitude, all of which are very much lacking in the everyday doings and goings on in our family. Gratitude is a word that I just thought to add last night, though it is one that has been uppermost in our thoughts this Christmas season, and we would all do well to keep in mind this 2011. It seems that our children are, to a great extent, ungrateful. It is exceedingly hard for us as parents to constantly provide goods, toys, and experiences for our children and almost immediately and alongside of the profferred enjoyment, to see and hear a spirit of complaint about some additional thing they didn’t get or weren’t allowed to do.

Another word that I would like to see more fully embodied in our family is generosity, or its opposite, unselfishness. Maybe independence would likewise be a good word for them. I would like them to behave a bit more independently in finding things to occupy their time and doing tasks and chores.

And then there are the usual suspects: patience, discipline, obedience, humility, simplicity, order, and the opposite of anger – forbearance. Then how about faithfulness and hope – during those times of near despair when the vocation I’ve been given seems to be one of unending family strife and suffering.

Then I begin to think of areas in my life where I personally need to make a change. The word I need to jumpstart those changes is definitely discipline, so that should be up there with kindness, charity, and gratitude for me.

And lest you think that I think badly of my children, I should say that any remonstrance that I have directed toward them falls first on us as their parents. So while I would dearly like to see behavioral changes in them, I know that they must see those changes in us first.

The Large Letters Are Coming Down

2010-12-18T12:57:00.000-06:00

Now that my youngest is almost 6 (next month!), we no longer need these large cutout alphabets tacked all over are school room. It was a fun project, teaching them to be creative in coloring and also how to cut.

I can't say I'm too sad though. It will be nice to have the extra space to put up their new creations.

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

2010-12-16T20:07:00.002-06:00

I have not done this picture book art project with the kiddos yet, but I have thought about it. The book is a sweet little story about a young fox who tries in vain to keep his favorite tree from losing all his leaves.

And at the end of the story his tree is transformed into a beautiful, icicle-clad, winter masterpiece of nature. The picture of the tree in the book is done in blues and purples and accentuated with glitter. For my painting I tried to do the same. I painted primarily in watercolor and used white acrylic paint to add snow on the branches and at the base. Then I used opal glitter glue to make it shine.

I believe such a project would lend itself to children of kindergarten age on up. They might think it a fun change to paint a tree using blues and purples, and of course, there's always the delight of using glitter on anything!

Withholding socks, or how I crack myself up with my own pun...

2010-12-09T14:38:00.007-06:00

...or who knew 'withholding' was spelled with two h's?

My sons wear holes in their socks almost before I get to wash them it seems.

A long while ago I bought some socks that neither of the older boys like, but that fit them just fine. The result is they always choose other socks and only wear these socks when they are in dire need of clean socks (dire need = I've worn the same socks for 4 or more days and there are no other socks in my drawer or my brother's drawer). Since I wash clothes often enough they rarely have to wear these socks they so dislike, which have now been sitting in their drawer for over a year when normally they need new ones every 3 months! My opinion is that socks are socks and, by golly, they will wear these, especially since they are crew socks, (not their socks of choice - ankle socks) and it's winter time.

So yesterday I gave my sons to know that they will indeed wear the neglected pairs, and until they do, I am withholding socks.

As soon as I said that, I lauged to myself. "Withholding socks!" Of course they didn't know why I thought that was funny, and I didn't tell them. Don't you think that's funny? I did, and now in writing this post I know how to spell withholding too! However, I am a little worried that they will stubbornly either continue to wear dirty socks or go barefoot!

Fall Leaves Art Project

2010-11-21T17:49:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Patty at Deep Space Sparkle we had a artful time creating fall leaf and squash collages. To begin, we first we painted several sheets of white paper with different fall colors.

I don't have tempera paints so I just watered down a few acrylic paints (yellow, orange, red, and green) and let the kids have at it. I only told them that they had to cover the entire sheet and that they could use only the colors provided. Well, I must say they did a fantastic job and had fun doing it too!

Next I had them cut out various leaf shapes and a squash or two of their choice from the painted sheets.

I told them that the leaves did not have to be perfect; I told them that they should probably draw large leaves (based on the examples in the art blog where I pilfered the idea), but somehow they just couldn't get away from the small and, sometimes, detailed leaves.
Once they had cut out enough shapes I had them choose construction paper background in a contrasting color and then glue on their cutouts. Next I got out the pretty gold paint and showed them how they might outline or accentuate their leaves. In hindsight I should have had them all choose a black background since the gold shows up so much better on it.
Of course I did one myself and added some doodles in gold and some fall quotes, also lettered in a gold gel ink.

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower” - Albert Camus
“Autumn is the mellower season, what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruit" - Samuel Butler

Following my example, the children added their own original quotes, which made for a nice personal touch and brief narration.
"Fall is when the leaves fall off the trees and you can jump in them."
"Carve a pumpkin at Halloween, that's what makes a glow."
"I like to jump and play in the leaves."

Teepee Project and Tutorial

2010-11-17T21:54:00.001-06:00

For Eldest's Colorado History class he had to build a native Colorado Indian dwelling. He chose the teepee after deciding against cliff dwellings and wickiups. This was a great project as he learned a lot about geometry, model construction, presentation and how it might have been to actually build a teepee.

Eldest is not one for doing things entirely on his own, so I like these projects that require some independent and original thought. He used twigs from the various trees in our backyard for the poles, and had to search for those that were straight and of similar thickness. Once he had the sticks, he had to think about how he might construct the structure to support the covering. With a little hint from mom (who loves geometry after all) he realized that he would have to layout a circle on his cardboard base to align all the basepoints of the poles, trimming the tops of the poles to the correct length. We started with three of the sticks tied together at the top and then carefully laid the other sticks against those, positioning their ends somewhat equally spaced around the circumference of the circle. We then tied the additional poles together with the original three at the top.

Now that we had our skeleton structure he had to think about how he would cover it. To do this he had to think about what a cone would look like if you could cut it and lay it flat. I didn't show him a picture like the one here but had him figure it out by enlisting the help of his 7 year old brother (who can readily picture things like this and who had already made a miniature teepee from some cardboard and toothpicks some hours before!). So a cone can be made by drawing a circle with a 'pie' piece cut out, and the radius of the circle would be the height of his teepee. What a great geometry lesson! Since his teepee was about 12 inches high this would require quite a large piece of material (a 2 ft diameter circle!).

However, I said I didn't think that his teepee would require as much as even 3/4 of a circle, seeing that his teepee was rather narrow and tall (which was a mistake on our part since real teepees are a bit more squat I believe). So I suggested he make a scale mock up to see how much of a circle he would need for his teepee. For this we took a small circle of paper, cut it along a radius, then overlapped it till it was about the same aspect ratio of height to circumference as his structure by eyeballing it. Then he could see how much paper he had overlapped, trim the overlap, and find out how much of a circle he actually needed. It turned out that he would only need about a half circle of material to completely cover the structure. So we cut out a halfish circle out of an old ecru flannel sheet. I said I would tea stain it to give it a darker color, which you can't really appreciate in the picture (maybe I should have used coffee?). We attached it to the structure carefully with hot glue and then he painted it with some Indian symbols, and cut a slit for a door.

Next he added a stone (sculpey) fire pit and a stream for effect. I thought it turned out great. I think he did too until we took it in and compared it to the other kids projects. I still think his actual Indian dwelling was one of the best, however, his project did suffer a tad on presentation. Others had added Indian figures, fake trees, painted backgrounds, etc. Nevertheless, he learned a lot from the project and will be more prepared regarding the 'wow' factor the next time around!

Eldest Child's Prayer

2010-11-16T15:19:00.004-06:00

What does it say about the psychology of the eldest child when, after whining and complaining month after month about having to learn Latin, mom gets fed up and overburdened with teaching four children, and she decides the only way to continue to homeschool is to let some subjects go and ease up on others, so she chooses to drop Latin, because of all those complaints, then that same oldest child writes this when he has a penmanship assignment to “Write your own prayer.”

Dear God, help me to listen to my Mom and Dad. Make it so that I can learn and study Latin.

Kitchen Table Day Dream

2010-11-13T23:59:00.008-06:00

Today I picked up our new table for the 'breakfast nook.' I think that is what realtors would call the little area on the other side of the 'peninsula' in our bright and ~~small~~ cozy kitchen. But enough about the nook, let us get back to the table, but before the table comes the tale of the chairs, because we didn't intend to buy a new table when we walked into that furniture store a week ago.

We intended to buy 3 oak chairs to match our ~~old~~ beloved dining table. The dining table originally came with 6 chairs until a son of mine, who used to rock back and forth upon the back legs of one of the chairs, rocked one time too many and toppled said chair for the last time, breaking the back completely off. Said chair is now his homeschooling 'stool.' It is much harder to rock a stool on two legs than a backed chair, having to do with leverage and such (though it can be done if you perservere, sometimes my kids can be quite tenacious). So we were down to 5 chairs for our dining room, then two of those 5 chairs were appropriated for use in the nook, since the old table in the nook only came with 4 chairs and we need to seat 6. This left 3 lonely chairs in our dining room. Now we don't normally eat in the dining room, instead we use the dining table for schooling and projects, so I don't want or need 6 chairs around that table during the day. I fear overcrowding, I need my space, and four dining room chairs would suit just fine. Nevertheless, it would be nice to have more chairs for when we have guests. So what we wanted was to pick up 3 inexpensive oak chairs.

However, when we walked into the furniture store we were confronted with a Veteran's Day sale and a great deal on a larger oak table with two chairs and a bench. We quickly decided to upsize, it was definitely time.

Ode to the Old Nook Table and why we considered replacing it.
The table in the nook I brought to our marriage, having purchased it some 10 years before that date. I love this table. I don't know what style it is but you might call it country pine or cottage pine and antique white. It has the natural pine top with a white base underneath and shapely white legs. The natural finished top shows off the beautifully knotted wood, which I love. Well, after nearly 20 years and 4 kids the finish is well worn and pitted, but I still love the look. My plan is to have it refinished when fork banging is out of style with the kids. So up until today we continued to seat 6 at a 47 x 31 inch table. To give you an idea of the size, here is a picture of the table with three kids sitting at it, and these are small kids (ages 8, 6, and 4 at the time), but notice those lovely dark knots!

So at the store, we settled on two chairs instead of three, and picked up a new table, a bench (the kids loved the idea of a bench!), and a bookcase to boot. (What does saying 'to boot' mean anyway? I believe that is what is called an 'idiom'? Eldest just looked up idiom for his English class and here I am using one. ) Now let me tell you about this table, which will lead into my 'Kitchen Table Day Dream.'

Our new table is a spacious 3 x 5 feet. We gain a whole foot in length and half a foot in width. It fits just fine in the cozy nook.

My daydream.
As I contemplated my new and capacious table, it became clear to me that this table is the answer to bad behavior at meal times. I saw then that the smallness of the old table was the root of all our mealtime mayhem! Why, with a larger table, the kids will have enough elbow room and will hardly notice the sibling next to them. Therefore all the cries of "he's too close to me," all the poking and the careless bumping, will vanish. Now as never before our kids will have to learn to say "Please pass the _________," and "Thank-you," to which the other will answer, "You're welcome." (There is no passing at a 31 x 47 inch table set for 6, you just reach for what you want, beside, there's no room for anything but plates, cups, and utensils anyway!) With the new table I will use a table covering, since I will attempt to preserve the finish. With the new table we can actually set the table with enough room for forks, spoons, knives and napkins in their proper places. The mere dignity of such a scene will inpsire better manners in my children! I could see all this in my mind's eye as I gazed on my newly covered, large table.

Then I heard something that disturbed my reverie. It was the kids, fighting over who gets to sit on the bench...of course.

Halloween

2010-11-10T08:27:00.005-06:00

For your viewing pleasure, we present, the halloween photo.

This year we had an army guy, an angel, a warrior king and Obi Wan. You see here two of the costumes that doubled for the All Saints Party, the Guardian Angel and Padre Pio, a Franciscan. I love it when that works out!

This was Mermaid's first Halloween and she had a grand time. Of course what kid wouldn't love dressing up (with a tiny bit of sparkly eye shadow), running around the neighborhood with best friends IN THE DARK, and collecting candy. Who was the child genius who thought up this tradition!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day!

"My Kid"

2010-09-17T18:51:00.000-05:00

Maybe you know about those plastic bands that come in all kinds of shapes and colors. Here is what wiki answers says about them: Silly Bandz are toy rubber wristbands in various shapes that gained popularity among schoolchildren in 2009 and 2010. The craze prompted some schools to ban the toys. I can see why.

Honestly, I didn’t know they were called “silly” bands when I first saw them. I had seen them in the summer when only a few girls at church had them, and I knew that this fall they were the latest fad and that every kid wanted not just a few but 10 or 20 or more, which is just, well, silly. So when my kids first saw them this fall and had to have some, I said, “Oh, those are just silly! You want those silly bands?” Little did I know that advertising had already chosen such an appropriate name for them.
So we did indulge the kids and purchase some. However, our children only got 6 each, which they keep trading over and over again. So today at their Friday homeschool co-op I asked if they traded with any kids. Mermaid said no, she didn’t, and the boys contradicted and said she did trade with someone. She adamantly restated that she did not trade with ‘any’ kid. The brothers said, “Yes you did, you traded with Snuggler (her brother). “No," she said "he’s not a kid, he’s my kid, he’s our kid!”

Still learning English, I guess she did not realize that ‘any’ included someone that so clearly isn’t just ‘anyone’ to her. She is so right, isn’t she? Family isn’t just ‘any’ one, they’re ours, they belong to us.

The reason for my 7 month hiatus...

2010-08-19T22:47:00.005-05:00

...we've been a little busy. Can you tell why in the picture below?

We've expanded our family by one, a beautiful 6 year old girl adopted from Kazakhstan last April. Actually we spent most of March 2010 and part of April in Kazakhstan and were granted adoption at the end of a month long trip. We then came home for about 6 weeks and then I traveled back solo to pick her up. On May 28th we touched down on US soil with one more US citizen.

It hasn't been an easy two and a half months but there has been great improvement in attachment and behaviors. And we are gearing up to start school this Monday. I will have a 4th grader, a 2nd grader and TWO kindergartners. Our newest family member will go by the alias "mermaid" since she so loves the water and swims like a fish!

Valentine's Day

2010-01-26T09:43:00.001-06:00

Yes, I got crafty last night. This website has some really cute ideas. I just used some miscellaneous scrapbook paper and construction paper, markers, glue, and some googly eyes. The owl valentine is supposed to have two cut vertical slits at the bottom through which you can slip a pencil so that the owl looks like it is sitting on a perch. You might still be able to do that with the heart there but I didn’t since I didn’t have any Valentine’s pencils. The fishes are made from two large hearts glued together for the body and a smaller heart for the tail.

Here are some ideas for Valentine’s messages for the owl valentines:

I’ll owl-ways be your friend.
You’re owl-right.
You’re a hoot, Valentine.
To real wise guy

.
And for the fish:

Best fishes, Valentine.
You’re oceans of fun!
Best fishes for a Happy Valentine’s day.

Genghis Khan

2010-01-25T15:01:00.000-06:00

Today we went to the Genghis Khan exhibit at our Nature and Science Museum. Lately we seem to be having a field trip bonanza. This is what is great about homeschooling, going on your own time and avoiding the crowds. Last week we went to the National Western Stock Show, today the museum. Thursday we are going to a see “Annie” performed in the morning by a youth theatre group, and in early February we have tickets to a matinee performance of the opera “Barber of Seville.”

I don’t have anything scholarly to say about Genghis himself, but the exhibit was well done and educational with those character passports to bring it alive for the the kids. They also had two performers and a miniature trebuchet that the boys loved. And last but not least, you get to put together some really cool Mongolian paper hats!

Scary Things

2010-01-22T09:32:00.000-06:00

Why do boys like scary things? This topic came up while speaking with some other parents whose boys seem similarly inclined. Is it the sense of danger and adrenaline surge scary things embody that little boys crave? Of course I mean normally adjusted, loving, kind, non-aggressive little boys, as are my own.

Scary things challenge our daring and courage. Right? Maybe. I hope.

Why, I recall watching those ‘horror’ movies when I was younger, not because I was interested in imitating them, but because it was exciting. I admit to feeling the adrenaline rush as Jamie Lee Curtis tried to get away from that Halloween guy, whoever he was, I certainly can’t remember.

Oh well, we parents can turn all things to good when it concerns our children. No longer do I worry about my child’s fondness for the dangerous and ‘scary’. After all he’s only five and he’s so very affectionate!

Now when he says he likes scary toys and scary movies, I think, “My brave boy!”

Ps. I hope I don’t come to regret this post!

Homeschool Humor

2010-01-21T15:42:00.004-06:00

Do you need a good laugh?

I probably shouldn’t treat this with so cavalier an attitude, but in truth, I did get a good giggle from it though I'm sure that was not the author's intention at all.

The imprudent and misguided audacity of it would be worrisome to me (and in a way it is, if any of those irascible, liberal pundits decide to take this seriously and act on it), if it weren’t so gosh darn silly.

The source of my amusement is an essay called “The Harms of Homeschooling” written by one Robin L. West, of Georgetown University no less. The essay was published in an educational journal called Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, a publication of The Institue for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

My first reaction after reading the 5 page essay was, “Are you kidding me? Has academia so far deteriorated that writing like this is considered scholarly?” Then I read this review at First Things, and felt a bit comforted that others feel the ridiculousness of this as well.

In the beginning...

2010-01-17T23:12:00.003-06:00

Snuggler, just turned 5 last week, says

What was it like in the beginning? Was there just a lot of babies? I mean, what came first babies or people?

Well, I guess Adam and Eve were never babies. Poor Adam and Eve. I bet God couldn't wait for them to have their own!

Kindness

2010-01-12T15:44:00.003-06:00

Have you ever read Kindness by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik? (AKA ,The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time)

I am reading it now, and though I am not done with it, I feel compelled to sing its praises. I rank this book up there with the other pre-eminent Catholic “self-help” books such as Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales, Imitation of Christ by Thomas À Kempis, and The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux. Yes, I think it is that good! It is at once a treatise on kindness, a bible study, an examination of conscience, and much more. I am afraid it will convict you of the true meaning of kindness as perfectly exemplified by Jesus Christ, and what it means to live a life of Christian kindness as urgently exhorted by the apostles and saints. This is a must read!

The Value of Good Penmanship

2010-01-07T16:31:00.005-06:00

I appreciate good penmanship. When I see the writing of someone with a good hand I am impressed. What makes them write so prettily? Or shall I say handsomely in the case of men? Is it natural ability? What do you think of someone who has nice penmanship?

I’ll tell you what I think. I think, “Wow! That person must be a very conscientious person, one who pays attention to detail, one who is disciplined and who put time and effort into training his/her hand to write like that, and one who appreciates beautiful things.” Okay, I guess that’s a little much to divine from someone’s nice handwriting, and maybe a person with good handwriting isn’t conscientious or detail oriented or disciplined; maybe they are simply artistic, and like to see a pretty page. That does not discount the fact that if you don’t ‘naturally’ have nice handwriting, but work to develop good penmanship, you may become conscientious, disciplined and detail oriented, or at least, in the case of students, obedient. All of which are good qualities to be sure.

I guess you can tell that I value good penmanship. I think there is value in children taking the time, and making the effort, to produce good penmanship. In our home-school, the goal of penmanship practice is not only to achieve nice handwriting, but to develop the habits of discipline, routine, and obedience, not to mention fine motor skills. In my opinion, bad penmanship is a result of laziness, barring any real physical handicap of course. When my 9 year old wishes to, he can write quite handsomely. At other times, and more often than I’d like, he can write quite illegibly. I’ve told him I will no longer accept sloppy papers. I hand them right back to him to redo.

That brings up another point. Bad writing may well be bad manners. It is inconsiderate and discourteous to write something sloppily so that your reader must take pains to decipher or even guess at what you are writing. It is a constant struggle that I hope will become easier as they mature. I too can write sloppily. It is amazing how lazy your hand can become when you try to write too quickly.

Our penmanship curriculum:
Preschool: We use various manuscript alphabet workbooks as well as worksheet pages from http://www.donnayoung.org/.
Kindergarten: CHC’S Little Folks Letter Practice and Little Folk’s Number Practice, 1” rule.
First Grade: I have used both Seton’s Handwriting 1 for Young Catholics, 5/8” rule, and Universal Publishing’s Writing Our Catholic Faith, Grade 1, ½” rule. Seton’s workbooks usually take more than a year to complete, UPub’s take less than a year, so sometimes I mix and match to finish up the workbooks between different students.
Second Grade: Universal Publishing’s Writing Our Catholic Faith, Grade 2MC, ½” rule (includes cursive).
Third Grade: Seton’s Handwriting 3 for Young Catholics, all cursive, 3/8” rule

A Matter of Manners and Contradiction

2009-12-20T22:15:00.006-06:00

Did you know that it is not good manners to contradict?

I didn't. I knew I didn't like it when people constantly contradict, but I had no idea that I had a basis for asking them not to do so. Just think of all those times that a simple conversation deteriorates into an argument, or hurt feelings, because someone just had to voice his or her contradictory opinion!

It is certainly unpleasant when we are continually contradicted, and it is more than a matter of offending the speaker’s pride, but a matter of bad manners! At least it used to be a matter of bad manners in the good ole days. Here is my proof twice over. Just recently I came across two imminently respected sources which clearly teach that to contradict is not nice.

1. George Washington’s Rules of Civility, #87

Let thy carriage be such as becomes a man grave, settled, and attentive to that which is spoken. Contradict not at every turn what others say.

2. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Who does not love this book and all the resounding pearls of child-rearing wisdom contained therein? It’s there on page 215 of the chapter titled “Pa Goes to Town,” Harper & Row publication 1971. The scene takes place in the log cabin. Jack, the perfect family dog, is growling as if he would like to go outside, but when Ma opens the cabin door he refuses to go out.

“Jack’s afraid of something,” Mary said.
“Jack’s not afraid of anything, ever!” Laura contradicted.
“Laura, Laura,” Ma said. “It isn’t nice to contradict.”

Later when Jack does go out, the author says that Laura wanted to say, “I told you so!” to Mary, but she didn’t. So there you have it, Ma teaching her girls good manners! Was Mary wrong? Was Laura right? Did Laura have a right to voice her opinion? I would answer maybe to all three. Just because you have an opinion that seems right to you but contradicts what someone else has said, does not mean you have to voice it, and if you do voice it you just might be exhibiting bad manners.

Making Books

2009-12-09T22:55:00.001-06:00

I happened across this website today while searching on how to make a scrapbook for my preschooler. What I’ve seen so far, I like. There are some pretty nice projects here. What do you think?

A True Gentleman

2009-12-07T22:45:00.001-06:00

From The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, Chapter 3.

For salmon, like other true gentlemen, always choose their lady, and love her, and are true to her, and take care of her and work for her, and fight for her, as every true gentleman ought; and are not like vulgar chub and roach and pike, who have no high feelings, and take no care of their wives.

Friendship

2009-12-05T22:42:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I went to the gym and as usual I quickly grabbed some lightweight reading material (i.e., something you can read while on the step machine) to take with me. This time I grabbed one of those Little Books for Busy Moms published by MOPS that for some reason did not make it into the Goodwill donation bag. This one is titled If you ever needed Friends, it’s now by Leslie Parrott. What a great little book! At this point in my life it is exactly what I need to read. The basic theme is obviously that mothers need friends. They need someone to confide in and someone to share the journey. Maybe most moms know this and maybe most moms make and keep friends easily. Friendship does not come easy for me; I am not extroverted and it seems, with the three boys and homeschooling, that I have very little time for friendships anyway. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that I do not live near family or any close friends from high school or college. And I admit, because of distance, I have let some of those friendships drift away.

Now that my eldest is almost 9 years old and the youngest is almost 5, I feel a real need to reach out and establish, or re-establish, some close friendships. This idea has me almost considering facebook! But really, I think I just need to make more of an effort to keep in touch and nurture my friendships. My major stumbling block, or shall I say - excuse, is that I don’t have enough time. Up to a point that is true. Homeschooling, the way I do it, is very time consuming and also very isolating. At least if I had my kids in a bricks and mortar school I would be socializing with the other moms there and I would have scads of time during the day to take care of my friendships. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that I can make some changes. Here is what I propose –

1. Reach out more to friends through email and phone, possibly even snail mail.
2. Take advantage of those homeschool group activities and mom’s socials more often.
3. Get together more often with local friends: Friday lunches, mom’s nights out, have people over to the house.

Picture Book Art

2009-11-25T15:47:00.010-06:00

Counting in the Garden by Kim Parker has some lovely and simple watercolor illustrations that can be easily used as inspiration for a painting art project, or so I thought. The boys just got frustrated and were probably not inspired much by flowers. Not so their mother.
Below is my handiwork, an L.

Throughout the year we are completing large cut out upper and lower case letters to put up around the school room. The book itself is a simple 1 to 10 counting book with whimsical and colorful paintings. Each number, like my L, is painted in a floral pattern. Below is a close-up of my work. I used watercolor and acrylic paints on watercolor paper.

I guess I need to redirect my artistic talents to....cars and airplanes? I'll have to think about that.

Danielle Bean on Homeschooling: Love it, Hate it

2009-11-16T08:46:00.007-06:00

A homeschooling mom posted this to our yahoo group. Danielle Bean is a homeschooing mother of eight, she is a writer and speaker. I have heard her speak at a homeschool conference in St. Louis and was very impressed. This essay is so honest, accurate, and relates so well to how I feel about homeschooling, that I thought I would post it here.

I Love Homeschooling, I Hate Homeschooling
by Danielle Bean

Through the years, my experience as a writing, blogging, publicly homeschooling mom has made one thing clear to me -- in Catholic parenting circles, homeschooling is a hot topic. Probably second only to the infamous "spank or don't-spank" debates.

On a daily basis, inquiring minds fill up my e-mail inbox: What is your homeschool philosophy? Were you homeschooled as a child? What about socialization? Do you use a boxed curriculum or your own? Is it hard to do? Does your husband help? Are you a teacher? Are you crazy? Why do you do it? How do you do it? And do you think I should do it too?

Well, geesh. I don't often write about homeschooling because when it comes right down to it, I'm a bit of a reluctant spokesperson. But now, since I am crazy enough to say things that could potentially alienate me from people on both sides of a hot topic, I'll share with you the whole truth of my thoughts about homeschooling.

I love homeschooling. And I hate homeschooling.

I love that I can give each of my chi ldren specialized, personalized education that meets them where they are and is flexible and adjustable as their needs change. I love that I can spend two months, two weeks, or two minutes teaching my five-year-old to tell time, depending upon how readily he masters it.

But I hate the burden of being solely responsible for my children's educations. I hate lying awake in the middle of the night sometimes, quite certain that I have failed to meet an eight-year-old's needs for map skills practice or Latin flashcards.

I love that I am truly connected to all of my children -- even the older ones -- and that their father and I are the first people they come to with questions or problems, big or small. I love that I thoroughly participate in their daily joys and sorrows, and that I know them completely -- their likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses.

But I hate that my kids aren't answerable for their schoolwork to any adult who is not a parent -- a simple fact that I know motivated me as a young student.

I love that our daily schedule is built around our family's needs and preferences and does not revolve around an outside institution. I love that we don't break up our family unit during the day and that we truly do enjoy spending great lengths of time together.

But I hate giving up the long stretches of quiet I know I could have in my days to write, to read, to scrub a toilet, to just breathe, if only I would send my kids to school.

I love that my younger children truly know and love their older brothers and sisters and that the none of my big kids considers himself "too cool" to accommodate a five-year-old, entertain a toddler, or carry a baby.

But I hate that my littlest ones don't get as many stories read aloud to them by their mother as my oldest ones did at their age.

I love that my kids are spared the negative influences of peer pressure, materialism, and just plain cruelty that permeates so many schools' social structures. I love that my daughters wear clothes they like and feel comfortable in, without concern for sex appeal or designer labels.

But I hate the burned-out, never-done feeling that threatens to overwhelm me some mornings as eight children accost me with grammatical crises, algebraic emergencies, geographic quandaries, and a desperate need for apple juice all at the same time.

In today's world, many homeschoolers feel they must continually defend and explain their decisions. As a result, it can be tempting to sugarcoat the entire experience -- at least in public. Sometimes, though, I think we get so busy trying to sell homeschooling that we fail to acknowledge any of its shortcomings. But we don't do anyone any favors by failing to admit that homeschooling is sometimes an enormous sacrifice or by pretending it's ideal for every family.

Homeschooling is not perfect. In fact, it is an awfully hard commitment to make and to keep on making. And yet somehow I always find my reluctant, selfish self admitting that it is the right one . . . for me, for now, for one more year.

Helena

2009-11-11T22:09:00.007-06:00

Helena, written by Evelyn Waugh and published in 1950, was this months book club read. Waugh, I believe is a contemporary of Graham Greene (whose novel , The End of the Affair, I read but disliked), Tolkein, and C.S. Lewis (both of whose novels I love), among others I am sure. This is the first book of Waugh's that I have read. For some background on the author and his works, here is a website I just found: Doubting Hall, A Guided Tour Around the Works of Evelyn Waugh. The website says he began his writing career with the novel Decline and Fall published in 1928, and Helena was not published until 1950, well into his career. I suppose one of his most acclaimed novels is Brideshead Revisited (which I have not read or seen, but has a large fan following) and A Handful of Dust (about which I have not heard much at all, though the website above calls it his "masterpiece").

Helena is, of course, a historical fiction piece about St. Helen, the empress dowager of Rome, during the reign of Constantine. Did I enjoy this novel? Yes and no, that is I did not think it great. It taught me a bit about the goings on of Imperial Rome and gave some insight into the possible personality of St. Helen. It was humorous at times and that I appreciated, e.g., when the indomitable and elderly Helen questions local experts about the cross, where it might be found and what it might be made of – hilarious! However, being something of a romantic, I was looking for more of a story about Helen, her motivations, personality and feelings, none of which can ever be known. So Waugh gives us a detached but detailed and satirical portrait of things that happened and things that may have happened. Nevertheless, he does acknowledge the probable saintly character of the woman and gives entertaining and well written glimpses of the key events in her life.

Another benefit from my reading is that I pulled out my dictionary and in the first few chapters learned well the meanings of words such as convivial, descry, esoteric, lachrymose, prosaic, and turgid, to name a few. In the end, I did enjoy this book enough to desire to read more of Waugh’s novels.

I cannot neglect to mention that Evelyn Waugh was received into the Catholic Church as a convert in 1930 and wrote this about his conversion and respect for the Catholic Church:

“Today we can see it on all sides as the active negation of all that Western culture has stood for. Civilization - and by this I do not mean talking cinemas and tinned food, nor even surgery and hygienic houses, but the whole moral and artistic organization of Europe - has not in itself the power of survival. It came into being through Christianity, and without it has no significance or power to command allegiance. The loss of faith in Christianity and the consequential lack of confidence in moral and social standards have become embodied in the ideal of a materialistic, mechanized state . . . It is no longer possible . . . to accept the benefits of civilization and at the same time deny the supernatural basis upon which it rests.” Waugh concluded by stating his belief that Catholicism was the "most complete and vital form" of Christianity.

I pulled the above quote and subsequent sentence from an article by Joseph Pearce on E.W. found here.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-09T23:31:00.004-06:00

Last year we spent Thanksgiving at home, and I daringly baked a turkey upside down in the oven to insure moist and flavorful breast meat, the promised result according to my internet recipe sources.

The year before that we were still on our 15 month St. Louis adventure and so we merrily headed south and spent the weekend in Memphis, Tennessee with the idea of enjoying some top-notch Memphis BBQ for Thanksgiving dinner.

This year we will again break from the traditional homey Thanksgiving Day kitchen marathon. The plan is to go skiing on Thanksgiving Day, so a home cooked meal is out of the question. We were thinking of ordering takeout from Boston Market. A pre-cooked turkey Family Meal for Four, which includes 4 large sides and cornbread, will run us about $26 plus tax. Who knows, we may even end up picking up some finger licking BBQ instead!

Update: Well, the dreaded swine flu hit us instead of us hitting the slopes. We spent a quiet and tuckered out Thanksgiving at home while we recovered. As for our dinner, we did pick it up from Boston Market and I supplemented it with roasted asparagus and homemade pumpkin pie.

Things We’re Learning in History: The Explorers

2009-11-05T22:05:00.004-06:00

1488 - Bartholomeu Dias (Portuguese), first to sail around the Cape of Good Hope.
1492 - Christopher Columbus (Italian sailing for Spain), sailed across the Atlantic Ocean landing in the Bahamas, named the island San Salvador (Holy Savior).
1497 - John Cabot (Italian sailing for England), sails to the coast of North America.
1498 - Vasco da Gama (Portuguese), sailed east around the Cape of Good Hope and on to India
1499 - Amerigo Vespucci (Italian sailing for Spain), sails to South America
1513 - Vasco de Balboa (Spanish) crosses the Isthmus of Panama.
1520-1521 - Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese sailing for Spain) attempts to sail around the world, but is “killed” in the Philippines. His crew continues on to Spain to be the first to circumnavigate the globe.

What’s in a name? Name origins I did not know!

The Philippines is named after King Philip of Spain, for whom Magellan was sailing.
Venezuela was so named by Amerigo Vespucci because its waterfront reminded him of Venice.

First Quarter Done!

2009-10-22T17:47:00.005-05:00

We have completed the first quarter at our homeschool and report cards are out. Actually, I really kept numerical records only for my 3rd grader. The first grader gets subjective O, S and P grading (Outstanding, Satisfactory and Poor). The preschooler just gets lots of hugs and kisses, as usual. Overall the older two did very well with grades no lower than a B+ for the 3rd grader, and no lower than an S for the 1st grader. However, in my opinion, had they both been of a more melancholic temperament (like mine...) they both could have received A+ and O for all subjects. Then again maybe not?

Religious Baby Talk

2009-10-14T09:40:00.003-05:00

This is one way we know our children are being brought up in a Catholic household.

Snuggler still sports the vestiges of baby talk in his daily chatter. When we say words that are unfamiliar to him because they are not normally part of his vocabulary, he replaces them with words that he knows, or words that he can say easily.

So when we need to put Vitamin E oil on his skin to help heal a cut or scrape, “Vitamin E” oil becomes “Adam and Eve” oil. His favorite cereal and fruit snack bars, called “Nutri Grain” bars, becomes “Notre Dame” bars.

Slang

2009-09-25T12:11:00.001-05:00

I find it amusing when slang makes its way into my children’s vernacular. It is especially droll when that child is my youngest, almost 5 year old. We were on our way to the grocery store, the one that gives free cookies to kids under 12. Snuggler was happily anticipating a sweet treat by reminiscing about cookies he had previously received there. He remembered some Christmas sugar cookies with red and green sugar sprinkles on top.

“What if the cookies were bell shaped and had sugar on top? That would be sweet! But mommy, when I say sweet I don’t mean like it tastes sweet, but that it would be so cool, dude!”

Math Picture Books

2009-09-22T10:29:00.008-05:00

History of Counting by Denise Schmandt-Besserat

We use this as a first grade read aloud. Imagine living without numbers! Try 'body counting' as a native tribe in Papua, New Guinea does, cool!

Labor Day Hike

2009-09-08T23:05:00.002-05:00

This is the second year we have taken a Labor Day Hike up to Devil's Head Lookout Tower. This is a great, family friendly hike. It is nice for those of us with little one's because there are bathroom facilities both at the trail head and the summit.

At the top of the hike there is a fire lookout tower with awesome 360 degree views, places to explore, wild raspberries and this year...millions of ladybugs!

These little ladies should have been there last year as well but I certainly do not remember them. Apparently they spend the winter up there at 10,000 feet above sea level.

They come up after they have finished their spring and early summer aphid feasting in June. There they huddle together and barely move until the next spring. So now I know where to go when I have mid-summer aphid issues!

Gripe Alert! There were many dogs with their owners on this trail that day. I don't mind the dogs on the trail persay, and these were all leashed and well-behaved, for dogs that is. However, I can't say the same for their owners. I think I would be justified in renaming the hike "Devil's Dog's Head" because of the noticeable aroma of doggy poop that served to detract from our enjoyment of the great outdoors. Really people, pick up after your dogs and pack it out!

Not Care for Opera?

2009-09-02T19:51:00.003-05:00

I am currently trying to organize a homeschool group outing to see a student matinee performance of The Barber of Seville. One of the moms replied to my email announcement by saying she would have to pass because her children did not care for opera. What! Not care for opera?

Though I am no opera aficionado and have only been to one full length performance myself, I told her I thought I could help.

First I suggested she tell her kids that opera is really just classical music with lyrics. I love classical music but after awhile just listening gets kinda boring, doesn’t it? After awhile don’t ya just want to sing along? Well, Mozart has composed many lively operas that are as pleasing to the ear as his purely orchestral pieces. Why, if you love classical music, opera can provide you with a classical sing-a-long!

Second I told her about the CD, World’s Very Best Opera for Kids and advised her in no uncertain terms to get it. (I wrote about this CD before in this post.) Then, and this is important, on a cold, rainy or overcast fall day, take the kids out on an errand that requires at least a half hour of driving. This is the moment to slip in the CD and listen to these opera favorites. For me, there is something singular about opera and inclement weather that makes it easier to listen to and much more evocative of mood and feeling. With the kids strapped in, what can they do but listen?.

Almost all of the tracks on this CD are recognizable (especially to those fans of Elmer and Bugs...kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, etc.) and almost all are lively, easy to enjoy pieces. And they are all sung in English with craftily contrived (where necessary) lyrics that are modest enough for children. After a while, my children and I were actually singing along. You may have to skip past the slow ones, i.e., the 6th track, an aria from La Boheme, the 12th, an aria from Madame Butterfly, and the 13th as well.

Third, I recommended another opera “greatest hits” CD called Madison Avenue Goes to the Opera. This CD, though no longer available new, can be found used for cheap. The pieces in this collection are sung in the original Italian or German and may not be kid-friendly, nevertheless there are some pieces that will be familiar as they were chosen as the soundtrack for various TV commercials.

Fourth, I linked her to some of my favorite opera pieces as a means to entice her to give opera a good try with her kids.

Papageno’s song from the Magic Flute, Mozart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liDTdbqljo4&feature=related. This is cute and the words in english on the kids CD are about them wanting many many children...or uh...chicks?

Va Pensiero form Nabucco, Verdi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5OfG5DABRM. This video shows the cutest Italian kids singing at the Torino Olympics. Some have said that this song should replace the current Italian national anthem...I agree.

La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni, Mozart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsYoZ2iZvqk. This opera is a bit risque and this is the only song I really like from it. This performance is by Cheryl Crow and Pavarotti, she gives a good effort and seems appropriately humble alongside Pavarotti.

Voi che Sapete from The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwrgrSoAVdc&feature=related. Song starts 40s into video. For those of us Jane Austen fans, this is the song that Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle ) sings at the piano when she is visiting at Pemberley, while Darcy (Colin Firth) looks oh so lovingly at her. Knowing the meaning of the words to her song gives an added depth to the scene!

Fruhlingstimmen (Voices of Spring) Kathleen Battle, Strauss. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF0XSkb7TyM. Though not from an opera it is operatic singing. Kathleen is awesome and the ‘sleepy’ conductor merits some amusement. IMO he makes a good bugs bunny-esque conductor!

Why is Blue Dog Blue? ....or Red?

2009-08-17T22:53:00.006-05:00

Have you heard of the magazine Arts & Activities? It is a magazine for art educators (that would be ….me). It contains “fresh and stimulating classroom-tested ideas”. It’s just what I need and I am happy to have found it at the library. I was even able to download this particular article from their website: “What Color is Your Dog: Taking a Cue from Artist George Rodrigue” by June Compton, a teacher in South Carolina.

Ms. Compton provides a lesson plan for introducing students to the work of artist of artist George Rodrigue, a Cajun Louisiana native. After briefly surfing through his website, I can say that I like his paintings very much. You can even download two education packets from the website. One is a 75 page educator’s manual entitled “Rodrigue’s Louisiana: Cajuns, Blue Dogs and Beyond Katrina”, a comprehensive guide replete with classroom ideas for incorporating art into learning about Rodrigue, French-Cajuns and Blue Dog. (Warning: There are a couple of pages with nudes.) The other is from another teacher and provides an activity similar to the traveling Flat Stanley project.

Unfortunately, the article in the magazine didn’t show the real Blue Dog painting, and I didn’t take the time to do all the research noted above prior to attempting an art project with Snuggler (4.5 years old). So, armed with only the magazine article, which showed some very simple versions of Blue Dog, (or yellow dog, pink dog, rainbow dog….) painted by her class, Snuggler and I worked together on our imitation of Blue Dog. Since Snuggler is only 4, I was responsible for creating a very simple line drawing of a dog which I let him paint. (I know, you’re saying, that doesn’t look anything like…..but remember, I didn’t know what Blue Dog really looked like, so I drew what the other children had drawn. It’s kind of like playing telephone line with paintings, indeed, something got lost in the translation!) Then I helped him with his outlining technique and taught him how to refrain from flooding the watercolor paint pans. He didn’t have the desire to color in the background so I did that for him, but the color choices were his and he did add glitter glue in various colors and locations. I love teaching kids to paint by giving examples of easy things they can do!

We are going to get the book from the library, “Why is Blue Dog Blue?” by George Rodrigue. Maybe I’ll have Eldest and Talker paint some blue dogs too! This time we’ll be sure to try and stay closer to the original!

Update: So we got the book from the library and had the older boys give it a shot with no completed efforts. I, however, got inspired. Here is my version of Blue Dog. I used watercolor and acrylic on watercolor paper. The boys say it looks like a girl dog. That's okay, I can live with that.

School Year Calendar, 2009-2010

2009-08-14T11:43:00.001-05:00

This year our school year will begin on August 24th. Initially we will plan for a 36 week school year which, with holidays and normal breaks, will hopefully end before Memorial Day on May 26, 2010. Our holidays and breaks will consist of:

1 day Labor day
3 days Thanksgiving break
7 days Christmas break
1 day Variable day (used for Presidents day)
6 days Easter break

We will be taking our major vacation during the summer this year.

Utah Vacation, June 2009

2009-06-14T23:09:00.004-05:00

We had a great time on our mini-vacation in Utah. We were there for one week and it brought back a lot of fond memories. I am sorry to say that I don't have any personal pictures of the two most beautiful places we saw. The first is the alpine loop, which begins east of Lehi, passes by Sundance Ski Resort and ends east of Orem. It has such awesome scenery! The picture above is from from the internet. The second was our drive up to Snowbasin ski resort, which was extremely lush, a veritable verdant feast for the eyes!

Colorado's mountains are beautiful but they are not as green as Utah's. The reason this is so is that Utah's mountains exhibit more variety in their deciduous trees. I think this is because Utah's mountains begin at a lower altitude, 1000 ft lower to be more exact. Colorado has aspens and pines in the mountains. Utah has those but also tons of scrub oak and other various types of leafy trees that I couldn't identify. So their mountains, especially in early June, are very, very green!

Also, there are "real" mountains right in your backyard if you live in along the Wasatch range in Utah. By "real" I mean snow covered in June, jagged, and majestic mountain peaks. We live in the Denver front range, but what we see from our house are the hogbacks, or foothills. There is very little jagged and majestic about them. But in Utah, you see awesome peaks from your home, or as this picture shows, from the Walmart parking lot.

We began our vacation on Sunday by driving around downtown Salt Lake City and reminiscing about the local haunts we frequented. We then joined some friends for dinner and a nice visit.

On Monday we settled in, enjoyed the hotel free breakfast (kids love those hotel breakfasts, and so does mom!), played at a local park and drove the Alpine Loop, spoken of above.

On Tuesday we visited the Kennecott open pit mine. The largest open pit copper mine in the world. Some facts about the mine are listed below.

Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - about 18.1 million tons.

The mine is 2-3/4 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers (now known as the Willis Building) on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.

The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle
astronauts as they pass over the United States.
Here the boys are in front of a tire from one of those two story trucks.

After the mine we stopped at IKEA. I love IKEA. Why don't we have IKEA in Denver? How crazy is it that Salt Lake City has IKEA and Denver doesn't?

On Wednesday we drove into Salt Lake City to take in a show at the Clark Planetarium and play in the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum; both free as part of our Denver Museum of Nature and Science membership. Later we took a walk around the lovely rose gardens at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah.

Enjoying ice cream sundaes at Thanksgiving Point.
Thursday we took in a hike around Silver Lake at the end of Big Cottonwood Canyon.

On the way out of the canyon, we stopped at Silver Fork Lodge and had some hot chocolate. It was a chilly day. We tried to do Donut Falls hike but got rained out.

On Friday, we went to the Dino Museum at Thanksgiving Point and saw a 3D film on Whales and Dolphins. Later we left left Lehi and headed to Ogden. Here we are east of Layton, Utah, where I used to live. Again we have views of some awesome mountains. We are walking here on a wetlands boardwalk at the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve, a Nature Conservancy bird sanctuary.

Saturday was the last day of our trip and we went out to Promontory, Utah to visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site. There we saw an excellent re-enactment of the ceremony at the pounding of that final 'golden' spike which signified the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. Then we drove back to Ogden and up to Snowbasin Ski resort for a look around, and as I said before, lush, verdant, beautiful! It was a very nice week.

Art Project: An Egg is Quiet

2009-06-02T20:06:00.011-05:00

I like to use picture books as inspiration for art projects. Today we used An Egg is Quiet by Diana Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long. This book is a perfect springtime read and provides timely inspiration for a water color painting assignment. Here is a sample from the book.

And here is the result of our efforts. Notice the nice white 'light' spots on each of our eggs!
Top: Snuggler, 4 yrs old, Bottom: Eldest, 8yrs

Left: Talker - 6 yrs, Right: Mom, old enough

On another note, we are proud to provide a home for a mommy expecting four. Yes, a sweet American Robin couple has chosen our amur maple shrub for their home this year. I first found the nest a couple of weeks ago as I was vigorously thinning the overgrown bush. Fortunately, I stopped short of destroying their newly made nest with one newly made delightfully blue egg in it. Since then the worthy robin pair has added 3 more ovum (Latin for egg) to the nest.

May Garden Wish List

2009-06-01T16:56:00.007-05:00

Last Friday the boys and I went on a morning bike ride. Our goal - to take pictures of a tree that I have been watching for a couple of weeks now. It is a medium to tall tree, not very dense, but with bright fuschia colored flowers. I have only been able to see it as I drive by it at 4o miles an hour. This tree is on a 4 lane busy street, so we couldn't just park near it to investigate. In fact there really wasn't any convenient place to park and walk, so biking was, as I rightly guessed, our best option. Even then, we had to cross a ditch from the bike path to get to its roadside home.

By the way, is "tree watching" a bona fide hobby? I don't know what else to give this penchant I have for, well, watching trees. My husband and sons are always hearing me say on our bikerides and walks, "What is that? Look at that! I've got to get a picture of that one!"

Our mission then was to digitally capture this unique and wholly unfamiliar tree. This first picture does not do its vibrantly colored flowers justice, however, I wanted you to see its growth habit.

Anybody know what kind of tree this is?

That tree then, heads the list of plants I'd like to see in my May garden.
Here are some other flowers we saw on our outing. This first shot shows a Snowball Bush. These bloom profusely in May and can grow quite large; this is a small bush. You can pick these flowers close to the bloom and then throw them around like summer snowballs!

I couldn't decide whether this next was a Snowball Bush or an Annabelle Hydrangea. The blooms seemed a little big for it to be the former. Neither have any scent, too bad.
These smallish purple flowers did have a nice lilac type scent, but neither I nor their owner knew what they were called.
Columbines.

Alba Bleeding Heart.

The neighbor's dahlias.

Oriental poppys, brilliant!

I’m Like Demi in Little Men, Sort of

2009-05-21T17:26:00.004-05:00

I don’t know much about Louisa May Alcott, except that she wrote Little Women, of course, and wasn’t her family part of that ‘American Bloomsbury’ group? (Referring to the book American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever which I have not read, yet.) Yes, they were. There was Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott and Fuller. I also found out that the sequel to Little Women was a book called Good Wives, which was followed in turn by Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

We are currently reading Little Men aloud. There is a character in the story called Demi, who’s head is always in his books. During a discussion of what good habits the boys will cultivate in the year, and which bad habits they will uproot, Demi is tasked with reading less storybooks – in fact, he must limit himself to ONE a week. Instead he must go out and play during playtime.

Likewise, I feel I must change my habits regarding books (and sometimes movies). I always have more than one (or two, or three) books going at the same time, not to mention the internet and other online or hard copy print sources of information that I can get my hands on. They draw me to them and in reading them I neglect things I might otherwise take care of in a timely manner. This past week I have practiced saying “no”. I am currently reading/listening to one novel and have requested another for book club, but that’s it. I am just saying no to beginning another book. This is a struggle for me. It takes constant vigilance.

Thus far I have spent the time I would have spent reading planting flowers in pots on the deck and in the front lawn planter, sending cards on time for birthdays and, sadly, sympathy cards, summerizing and organizing my shoe closet, and just taking care of those mundane but necessary tasks of family life. Oh, and I really cleaned the microwave, it looks so shiny and new! I’m trying to be more of a doer and less of a thinker, more physical and less cerebral. I think this is good for me.

Spring Snow Day

2009-04-27T09:04:00.003-05:00

This is what we woke up to today, and it's still snowing now.

Oh, and it will be 52F for a high today, 62F tomorrow. Once again, spring in the Rockies. I am hoping this is our last snowfall, but then again we did get snow on Mother's day one year.

Colonial Living History Day

2009-04-24T20:09:00.000-05:00

Today we went to a Colonial Living History day put on by a Christian group called VisionHeirs. The demonstrators were all well-spoken nice young men and women of high school age. It was awesome! The boys had a blast, literally. The morning started off with a skit about tensions between the Colonists and the English. Then we were divided into 7 groups to systematically visit 7 different presentations on Colonial life. They learned about colonial woodworking and were actually able to saw a log in half with a two person saw. We learned what an adze is and that it is typically used to make flat surfaces on logs.Next we moved on to the Education presentation where we learned what a school day was like in 1776. Can you say "willow switches"? I need to get me one of those!

Another station taught about gunmaking and how to make bullets out of molten lead.

Here they also got to fire an authentic looking rifle using caps.

One gentleman, portraying a French Lieutenant, and a British solider, showed how to load your rifle. Then they fired the blank, which sounded very cool. Like I said, the boys had a blast!

The Militia station was their favorite! They had all the boys learn how to hold a mock wood rifle and stand behind a barricade and fire at the British in full costume as they advanced in a couple rounds of "gentleman warfare". The British play actors improved their "get shot, fall dead" routine throughout the day.

The music station showed a string quartet playing various pieces of music composed and played by the Colonists.

There was also a farming exhibit where we learned about bee keeping, animals and working the land. At the cooking station we were able to sample Johnny cake and candied orange peels, very yummy.

All in all it was a great day and I am very glad we attended this event. Apparently, they do this free for homeschoolers again in the fall. Since next year we will be studying American history, we'll definitely try to catch this then.

The Birdhouse Project

2009-04-19T23:34:00.005-05:00

The Saturday before Easter we attended the Lowes kid's wood workshop. The project was a small wooden birdhouse. Since we had spring break coming up, I decided that painting the birdhouses would be a fun activity for us to fill our time. First we would paint the base coat. For that I pulled out some of our old interior house paints.

The idea was to use neutral colors on the body and roof and then paint colorful designs with acrylic paints afterwards. I thought I would paint some examples of things they might paint on their birdhouses: grass, trees, spiders, worms, butterflies, etc. Okay, I did paint flowers too, boys can paint flowers can't they?

And here are the finished products of my two younger artists.

That black square on the left birdhouse is a spider web with spider. Can you see the butterfly on the right birdhouse?

That is a fabulous worm! Painted by the same 4 year old who painted the butterfly.

After some frustration with his painting skills, my six year old decided to draw what he wanted first and then paint it. Here we have a bird and some creative captioning.

Spring Break Scenes 2009

2009-04-19T23:03:00.004-05:00

We just wrapped up a nice week off school. The beginning of the week afforded us some nice weather, but it turned cold by Thursday and on Friday we had some pretty heavy snow! Besides what is shown below we ran errands, had lunch at McDonald's, let the kids spend some of their Christmas money at Target (Legos of course!), and braved the elements to make it to the Museum of Nature and Science on that snowy Friday.

Homeschool park day: The weather was nice so we met some other moms and kids at a nearby park. It just so happened that in our group there were a majority of boys and look what they found. However, other moms, not members of our playgroup, were not too happy with our kids fond welcome of the slithering newcomer to the playground fun.

Another day we took a nature walk to the park and lake near our house. I had an idea that we would try to find some frog eggs in the reedy banks of the lake. But nary a frog, nor her eggs, did we see. Nevertheless, we found other things to occupy our time outside.

Tree climbing is always a favorite activity for my three boys.

We caught sight of a woodpecker working on his family estate. We figure this home was a few years in the making. That is about a 6 inch diameter hole!

Finding things is a specialty of boys isn't it. Here we have a corn cob minus the corn and a really cool fishing lure.

Back at home, we started off the week with mom helping the boys make the 'best' paper airplane. This is also known as 'Grandpa's' plane, but we did get some additional tips from YouTube videos.

And then the littlest one needed a pipe cleaner crown. We had a great week and the best part was....no school!

Easter Eggs - Boy Colors

2009-04-12T22:48:00.001-05:00

Colored Easter eggs? The typical image is of soft pastel colored eggs set in a pretty pastel Easter basket. Right?

At our house? Not so much. It is obvious we have 3 boys coloring eggs here.

Mom had to restrain them to allow at least one pink and yellow egg!

Narration - The Taming of the Shrew

2009-03-26T14:24:00.005-05:00

We are reading Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. This is an excellent retelling of Shakespeare's plays appropriate for elementary aged children. This text goes along with our Medieval to Early Renaissance history studies. Here is Dominic's narration minus the spelling errors, .

Katherine was bad-tempered and unkind, so she was known as Katherine the Shrew. Many men tried to marry Katherine's sister, Bianca, but her father, Baptista, put them away saying they had to marry Katherine first.

A man named Petruchio thought he could tame Katherine into being gentle. So he asked Baptista if he could marry Katherine.

St. Joseph's Day

2009-03-19T22:26:00.001-05:00

The basic pattern and idea for these came from Seton's Art 1 for Young Catholics. Using clear contact paper and tissue paper to make the "stained glass" came from another homeschool mom's blog. I love the effect and they look great on the window.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T21:15:00.003-05:00

Thank God for the Irish and St. Patrick! Once again we celebrate the Irish in the merry month of March by listening to our Irish music CD's (The Chieftains and Altan especially!), eating a hearty meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, and watching "Darby O'Gill and the Little People". The kids absolutely love this movie. It is possible that the boys actually think the 'little people' are real and 21" tall! This movie has humor, romance, and a scary banshee. (If you follow the link and want to listen to Sean, go to the bottom of the page and pause the music playlist.)

Somehow we coincidentally checked out an episode of Jakers! called "Spooky Storytellers" which also involved a tale of the banshee.

Today at lunch Vincent, my 4 year old, was making an "oooo, oooo, oooo" sound. I asked if he was pretending to be a ghost and he said, "No, a banshee!"

Great, so now instead of being frightened by thoughts of terrible monsters at night, they dream of scary banshees!

Banshee - a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the otherworld. (wikipedia)

Look who's 4!

2009-01-14T08:06:00.005-06:00

My baby turned 4 yesterday.

Happy Birthday to my sweetie!

Viking Helmets

2008-12-23T20:12:00.007-06:00

Fierce Viking warriors did not sport horns on their helmets. This is what a real Viking helmet looked like....mostly.

Regarding the horns, I copied this from a Denmark tourist information website.

Hornless Vikings
All the evidence suggests that the Vikings never actually wore helmets with horns, and there is no explanation as to where this image came from. All we know about horned helmets is that they were used in religious ceremonies in Northern Europe in the first millennium.

The 'bronze' cap is made from torn newspaper strips and modpodge modeled on a balloon that is supposedly the size of one of my kids heads. After drying and removing the balloon, we painted the hardened cap with brown and gold metallic acrylic paint. I guess I should have measured around the balloon and the heads, but I thought I could eyeball it. So much for precision fit. Also, we noticed that a balloon is a lot rounder than my kids heads. So, the kid with the roundest of three heads got to model for the picture.

The thin metal strips used around the cap and for eye and nose protection, were made from cut up cereal boxes painted with a mix of silver and black acrylic paints and fastened with paper fasteners. We got this idea from a book titled "The Vikings" by Gillian Chapman.

Faux Van Gogh

2008-12-12T10:38:00.006-06:00

It seems I never wrote about why I named this blog Sunflowers and a Spoonful of Sugar. Of course the subtitle to my title does provide something of an explanation.

Basically, the blog is about what goes on here with me and my children as we live the homeschooling life. It goes without saying that being a stay-at-home mom and teacher 24/7 is not easy. Thus I often feel it necessary to turn my thoughts away from home and to things of sublime beauty; things like art, music, nature, and great books. These are my sunflowers, they can lift my spirits.

However, for more immediate relief and an afternoon (or morning or just before dinner...) pick me up, some sweet treat like chocolate (i.e. a spoonful of sugar) might be necessary to help get me through the day.

Consequently, ever since I named my blog and put the picture of Monet's Sunflowers in my sidebar, I have been pining for a framed and matted print of Sunflowers for my home. I preferred Monet's version to any of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Compare Monet's painting in my sidebar to Van Gogh's Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (Arles, August 1888)currently kept at the Neue Pinakothek, in Munich, Germany. I thought Monet's Sunflowers were prettier.

But then I saw this piece at Linens N Things and I changed my mind. It is a hand-painted oil, and although it is a knock-off, the more vibrant colors are really beautiful and a real painting is much nicer than a print under glass. This hand-painted faux Van Gogh now hangs in my kitchen and brightens my day. And the price was right too!

The Solar System

2008-12-12T10:10:00.004-06:00

Keeping up with the hands-on craft projects here is our latest. This is from Exploring Creation with Astronomy by Jeannie Fulbright. We are only on the first lesson so far but we are really enjoying this book. The author touches on a lot of interesting facts and we are investigating further on our own with books from the library. We have already read a book on Copernicus and NASA.

This is the solar system model project. The sizes of the planets are supposed to be relative, but of course the size of the sun and the distance between planets is not. I think it is a great visual aid! Seven of the 9 (or 8 if you don't count Pluto) are shown in this picture starting at the right with Uranus. Moving left we have Saturn, Jupiter, Mars (is blue...sorry we didn't have a red bead the right size), Earth, Venus and Mercury. Mercury is an ivory colored bead and you can barely see it in this picture. Most of the planets are made from different sizes of balloons but Mars and Mercury and of course Pluto (not shown) were so small we used beads instead. We cut a big circle out of large paper and colored it for the sun.

Check back for our next creation...a viking helmet!

History Craft Projects

2008-12-02T17:52:00.004-06:00

Guess what we're studying now in history?
Those vikings better watch out for the scary giants behind them!

Snow Day!

2008-11-30T16:32:00.003-06:00

It started snowing the day after Thanksgiving and we now have a winter wonderland! We went sledding on Friday and now the kids have been playing in the culdesac for hours!

Medieval Pilgrimage Lore

2008-11-28T23:53:00.008-06:00

I seem to be thoroughly immersing myself in medieval pilgrimage stories, specifically Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and A Medieval Woman's Memoir: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe by Louise Collis. Both were written in the late 14th century (circa 1380).The timing is perfect as we are studying this period in our homeschool and Chaucer is on the Great Books list as well.

I first began by listening to the Blackstone Audio version of The Canterbury Tales read by Fred Williams. I mention the name of the reader specifically because I doubt my enjoyment of the reading would be as full if it were read by someone else. Mr. Williams has the perfect voice and accent for such a story and is able to add a humorous note when required, as it certainly was in the Miller's Tale. Though this tale is not for children, I certainly had as hearty a laugh as ever I had when I heard it told. If you aren't opposed to the bawdy humor of the middle ages, and need a laugh or two, listen to this tale.

The Canterbury Tales is a set of stories told by medieval men and women while on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the burial place of St. Thomas A Becket. Margery Kempe's story is that of her pilgrimage to the Holy Land in that same time period. Both are entertaining and give good insight into life in the middle ages.

One what per child?

2008-11-19T08:26:00.003-06:00

One Laptop Per Child. I heard this first on NPR and I thought, "You've got to be kidding!" But no, it's true. There is a "non-profit" organization called just that, abbreviated OLPC, whose mission is to provide free laptops to "the world's poorest children". These laptops are not for schools, they are for the child to take home and use. The company that makes these laptops is Quanta Computer Incorporated, a Taiwan based manufacturer of notebook computers. They sell them for approximately $188, hoping to reduce costs to $100 in the future.

I have a problem with this, actually, a couple of problems.
1. Here in the US we are trying to get our kids off of their computers and get them outside playing and exercising. Or we want them to read real books, not snippets of information. How about taking that money and improving their schools instead, possibly providing an improved computer lab at school? Why do they need a computer to take home with them?
2. These laptops also come with internet access but the website doesn't mention filters, which I hope they have. Nevertheless is the internet a good thing for young children ages 6-12? How much information from the world do they need? Shouldn't they be reading books that their parents approve of and talking to parents and family members for information they really need?
3. My own child doesn't have a laptop nor does he have access to the internet. I prefer him to read books and he is doing just fine.
4. And couldn't this money be better spent? Are children who need laptops rather than adequate shelter, food and clothing really the world's poorest children? Aren't there people starving in the world that the $188 dollars could better serve? Who is going to maintain these computers? How about books and libraries in these impoverished areas?

I am sure there are many more absurdities to this effort but I won't spend any more time thinking of them.

More Fall Photos

2008-10-24T17:10:00.006-05:00

Today we went on a hike on Mt. Falcon, one of the easy to get to Jefferson County Open Space areas near Denver. There are some nice hikes here with scenic mountain vistas, forest trails, plains and open meadows. Here is one of those moutain views.

Another view from the top of Mt. Falcon.

I don't know what kind of montane shrub this is but I loved the little whirly-gig feathers attached to their seeds. Now those seedlings know how to travel with style! And they're so pretty too!

What could be more exciting than finding some bones...it was a little disappointing to our boys to find out that they were animal bones of the four-legged variety and not human.

And here is our Autumn Blaze maple in full fall glory, the show off! (How do you like Vincey's cute pajamas?)

Fall Foliage and Flora in Our Backyard

2008-10-01T08:22:00.012-05:00

Here are some pictures of our early fall colors. We have been having some warm weather lately but the trees are still slowly turning due to less daylight and cooler evening temperatures. Our Patmore Ash turns yellow.

The Autumn Blaze maple turns red.

Some of our fall pumpkin harvest!

Meanwhile the flowers are still blooming! These are 'wave' petunias and marigolds. I love the combination.

These are cosmos, they grow like weeds here in Colorado, and although they are annuals they freely reseed themselves.

My roses always seem to get one last bloom in before fall ends, but these were just spectacular and there are still many more on the bush!

A sampling of fall colors from our yard. The bright orange narrow leaves are sumac leaves. Apparently sumac is very invasive, so these leaves are picked from our neighbor's shrubs that hang over into our yard.

A Great Book for Hurricane Season

2008-09-19T09:47:00.005-05:00

We love listening to audiobooks and our current selection is Stormy, Misty's Foal by Marguerite Henry. Having never lived in hurricane country we have never had firsthand experience of such a calamity, though we have seen the news reports. Before picking this audiobook I did not know the story's plot, but so far it is about a really bad storm that causes the island of Chincoteague to be evacuated and flooded. It provides details of the evacuation efforts and we are now in the middle of the after effects on the lives of characters. Little did I know what a perfect read for hurricane season this is! And a timely link was provided by a fellow homeschooling mom to these pictures of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike in Texas.

Homeschool Official Start Date

2008-08-14T08:23:00.009-05:00

We officially start school today! However, we have been doing a few subjects since Tuesday. Amazing but true, it seems to be going well!

We are beginning second grade literature with a reading of Beowulf, that is, an age appropriate adaptation of the circa 10th century, Old English epic poem. The version we are reading is a 'Kingfisher Epic' written by Penelope Hicks.

Why Beowulf? We follow The Well-Trained Mind chronological divisions for history and literature, that is:
1st grade – Ancients (5000BC – 400AD)
2nd grade – Medieval to Early Renaissance (400-1600AD)
3rd grade – Late Renaissance to Early Modern (1600-1850AD)
4th grade – Modern (1850 to present)

So Beowulf is in keeping with the medieval theme and the Kingfisher adaptation, in kid friendly prose, is perfect for the boys. In addition to the hideous cover picture, they like the black and white comic book type illustrations on almost every page. They never want me to stop reading the tales of bloody sword fights and the terrible monster Grendel. I don’t know if girls would enjoy this as much. Consider the following excerpt:

“With his claws outspread, the creature grabbed one man in each hand. In a moment he had torn them limb from limb and devoured them.” p. 34.

And lo and behold I even squeezed a narration out of my 2nd grader yesterday, written in his own hand!

“One night Grendel the monster attacked, he snuck up and ate 30 men. The next night they decided to sleep somewhere else. Two brave men stayed on each side of the door. They barred the door but Grendel broke the door. Even though they fought, Grendel ate them.”

Note: snuck vs. sneaked? I think I’ll teach him to use ‘sneaked’.

Homeschool Planning 1: Yearly Calendar

2008-07-20T22:31:00.004-05:00

In order to start my planning for the school year I need to see a time frame: a start date and a completion date. Defining the school year calendar is the most general level of planning and a good place to start, it provides the envelope inside which your curriculum must fit. Actually, after doing this for a couple of years this part of the planning will be pretty typical without many changes from year to year, only improving on what did not work the previous year. That is, unless you have to update your plan for the church camping trip now scheduled the week you had planned to start schooling, or that two week vacation in February to visit the grandparents that your husband springs on you. But that’s one of the perks of homeschooling right? Flexibility.

It turns out that our start date for the 2008-2009 school year will be August 14, Thursday.

The first day of school is dictated by:
1) The date we want to end instruction, which this year is Friday, May 29th.
2) The required minimum number of days which, for the State of Colorado is 172 days with an average of 4 hours per day of instruction. Last year we tried for a 36 week school year which amounts to 180 days, but in the end we probably completed only 35 weeks. Our local public school only schools for 174 days, not counting 8 early dismissal (1pm) days. Therefore, for our school year 2008-2009 I have decided that we will go with a 35 week school year or 175 days.
3) The days that we will take off for vacation and holiday, which this year include:

August camping trip for 3 days
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Break for 3 days
Christmas Break for 8 days (thru New Year’s Day)
Hawaii Vacation in February for 10 days
Good Friday
Easter Break for 5 days
Memorial Day

To arrive at a starting date, I count back 175 days, plus vacation and holidays, from May 29th.

To please my visual learner, I then create a basic spreadsheet where I list the important dates in the first column and what occurs on those dates in the next column. I can update and add to this simple table as the school year progresses and it gives me a good ‘at-a-glance’ description of the school year.

I also use a donnayoung.org Blue and White Calendar where I mark the days with a simple notation for school days (==), holidays (H), and vacation days (V). I can also easily print another of these calendars for marking attendance for each student. I also mark quarter end dates, for instance the first quarter ends on school day 44, or Monday, October 20.

Mid-Summer Blues

2008-07-17T08:59:00.003-05:00

This summer has not been what I expected and, as we are starting school this time next month, I only have 1 month of summer left. Do you think I will get my act together before then? I am not accomplishing what I want to with my 5 P’s although I seem to be doing a lot of school planning. I keep making lists but I don’t feel that I am prioritizing correctly. I still feel overwhelmed! Will I ever not feel overwhelmed? Why do I feel overwhelmed?

To answer these questions I need to take stock of how I’m doing with my 5 P’s starting with P1, Prayer. No, I am not doing my spiritual reading as I should(unless you count reading The Brothers Karamazov, wow, amazing book!). Regular home prayer is not enough for me or, I just don’t ‘do’ it well enough...yet. However, Mass, Adoration and confession…those devotions are all great, and I certainly get a lot from them when I do go, unfortunately I don’t frequent them nearly enough. I guess I know where I need work. Firstly, I will resume regular spiritual reading (like books about or by the saints) and contemplation of what I’ve read. Secondly I will attend Mass, Adoration and confession more frequently.

A previous goal for spiritual reading was 15 minutes in the morning. I can renew this commitment and begin this practice again.

Because we homeschool, I should be able to fit in morning mass once a week (beside Sundays) and that goal is on my school schedule planning list. I will call the local church regarding their adoration chapel. And lastly, I have put another date for confession on my planning calendar, once a month seems a good goal for me. In addition, I need to do some reading about the sacrament of confession so that I can most effectively avail myself of all the benefits and graces held therein. That seems like a good start.

"Left to Tell"

2008-07-09T08:52:00.004-05:00

I just read this book by Imaculee Ilibagiza. It is an amazing read! I never knew much about the Rwandan Holocaust that took place in 1994. How something like this can happen today is scary, the devil still has much power. However, this woman has a fantastic tale of courage, faith and forgiveness. I highly recommend this book.

Xylophones in Red Rock Country

2008-06-30T22:43:00.008-05:00

On the drive out to California, we stopped in Moab, Utah, the ultimate mountain biker destination amidst the red rocks. This post is belated as it was the beginning of June and Moab was perfect at that time of year, not unbearably hot, which means temperatures in the mid to high 80’s, and just beautiful. Amidst the dry desert and red rocks, the little town of Moab sported some lovely trees with flowers and plentiful bright green foliage. The catalpas seemed to do really well there and were especially dramatic with their large showy white blooms.

There was also the pungent sweet smell of the silvery leaved Russian olive trees and the large cotton woods were letting down their cotton which floated by like airy summer snowflakes. The trees and gardens of the town must be watered by the Colorado River, which was running high and looked refreshing as it wound its way on the west side of the town. Moab seems to be a sleepy little place during the morning and early afternoon because it is at this time that all the riders are on the mountain bike trails. I’m sure the scene will pick up at night!

I had been to Moab at least 4 times before children and done not a few of those slickrock trails. But I have an idea that there are some great things to do here with kids too, such as easy bike trails and Arches National park, which is about a quarter mile from town. Arches is inexpensive too at only $10 per carload for a 7 day pass. Sand Flats Recreational Area, home of the famous Slickrock Trail, is even cheaper at only $5 per carload for a 3 day pass.

But on this trip we found another gem we had never seen before. On the way up to the SFRA, you will take 400 East to Mill Creek Parkway. On your right side, across the street from Red Rocks Elementary school, is Rotary Park. In this small but shady (which is key on hot days) park a wonderful musical adventure awaits you. Some talented and artistic folk have created a xylophone/chime/percussion instrument garden. I don’t know what to call it exactly, but there are many different types of xylophones

and chimes
and even a steel drum or two. All the instruments are made of a variety of materials for the kids to play with at will.

There is also a playground, a small amphitheater, a huge carved tree-trunk-climby-thing,

picnic benches, and a bridge over the ‘mill’ creek. Oh, and did I mention shade? and lots of it!

If you go with kids to Moab, do not miss this park!

Barefeet?

2008-06-19T20:45:00.006-05:00

Do you go barefoot in the summer time? Do you let your kids go barefoot?

I do not go bare. I always wear flip-flops at the very least, which I remove once inside. That I have been very against outdoor barefootedness and the inevitable tracking in of dirty feet, has been a little bone of contention. That is maybe until today when I typed the word "barefoot" in the search field at the 4Real forums. This is really a great forum for Catholic Homeschooling moms, you can find almost any topic and get the latest opinions from like-minded women. Well, I wanted to see if I was the only narrow-minded, footwear-wearing, appreciator-of-clean-carpets in the group. Sometimes you just need some solidarity. So, another mom had typed in the same question I had: Do you let your kids go barefeet and track in dirt? Of course she also expressed a safety concern regarding nails and bee stings. My main concern is the dirt.

The overwhelming majority responded in favor of bare feet and none of these expressed any concern about dirt. So here's what I'm thinking: maybe all these women have hard wood floors, or something other than the off-white carpet that I have. I think that coming in from outside with barefeet is like wiping your hands on a white towel without washing them, I don't think that towel would be white anymore! But still the forum responses did sway my thinking...if so many people love the feel of going barefoot in the summer, what's a little grayish-brown tint to my off-white carpet in the long run? I suppose I can always get it professionally cleaned every fall.

How to Convince Yourself to Read the Great Books, Step 3 and Final

2008-05-30T00:07:00.004-05:00

Well Step 3 is quite simple, or is it? So I left off Step 2 with the following,

There were many areas that I wished I could study, namely: the Great Books, logic, and history. In the end I was convinced there wasn’t any reason why I shouldn’t embark on a study program of my own.

But taking on the Great Books reading list is no small endeavor. Where was that list anyway and what was I supposed to learn from reading all these books? Two more books helped me answer these questions. "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, and "The Well-Educated Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer.

Adler and Van Doren once worked for Britannica and their Great Books list is included in the back of HTRAB with some additions. This book will teach you what you should have learned in high school or college about critically reading all types of books. After you have learned how to read great books, pick up TWEM and discover how to organize your study. This book has an appropriate subtitle "A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had." Bauer gives you a guide on how to organize your study of books and provides her own book list which includes many from the Great Books list and a few more titles by notable female authors.

But, still I didn't take this on lightly. I knew that this would be a lifelong process and one that I would likely never finish. Life's short, you say, why spend it reading all those old boring books? Well, for that answer I go back to Dorothy Sayers essay to express for me a certain frustration at my own inability to understand society these days.

Has it ever struck you as odd, or unfortunate, that today, when the proportion of literacy throughout Western Europe is higher than it has ever been, people should have become susceptible to the influence of advertisement and mass propaganda to an extent hitherto unheard of and unimagined? .
Or do you sometimes have an uneasy suspicion that the product of modern educational methods is less good than he or she might be at disentangling fact from opinion and the proven from the plausible?
Have you ever, in listening to a debate among adult and presumably responsible people, been fretted by the extraordinary inability of the average debater to speak to the question, or to meet and refute the arguments of speakers on the other side?
Have you ever followed a discussion in the newspapers or elsewhere and noticed how frequently writers fail to define the terms they use? Or how often, if one man does define his terms, another will assume in his reply that he was using the terms in precisely the opposite sense to that in which he has already defined them?

As I grow older I wish to grow wiser, to think more clearly and logically, and lastly to express myself more eloquently. I cannot rely on prime time news and contemporary literature to help me reach me goals. I think the Great Books will lead me in the right direction and the effort will be well worth my time. Also, it is important to note that the Great Books List is not anti-God; it does include the Christian Bible, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. I, of course, will throw in other saints writings, e.g., St. Catherine of Siena and St. Francis de Sales, etc. In the end I hope to pass on to my children a respect for our Western and Christian literary traditions, and I hope that anything I learn will help me be a better mother and teacher.

Lovely Lilacs

2008-05-22T08:30:00.005-05:00

On Tuesday (May 20, 2008), I cut some white lilacs from our “Madame Lemoine Lilac” shrub. What a fancy name, but in my opinion, very well deserved. I am so pleased with this lilac bush! Here is its description from the nursery tag:

Vigorous, bushy, old-fashioned shrub or small tree. Prized for extremely showy panicles of double, bright white flowers in spring. Very fragrant blooms.

I am not sure why, but this shrub is still quite small even though it is now in its 5th spring. However, I do not complain, for unlike its neighbor, a “Common Purple Lilac” (oh well, with a name like that can I really expect much?) planted at the same time, it has much flowering for such a small plant.

Bright white, showy, fragrant? Yes, yes, yes! For the last two nights I have gone to sleep amidst the lovely scent of lilac from my bedside table. Ever mindful of our Creator I can only say thank You for such a beautiful gift that delights the senses.

First Communion

2008-05-20T16:37:00.002-05:00

It was a perfect day, in every way, as you can see. First he loses his first tooth and then this. I guess he's not really a baby anymore.

Blessed Junípero Serra and the California Missions

2008-05-16T00:01:00.004-05:00

1769 First Mission founded, San Diego de Alcalá on July 16.

We are currently embarking on a unit study of Blessed Junípero Serra and the California Missions prior to a trip to California in June. Having grown up in the Los Angeles/Orange County area and attended Catholic Schools for 14 years there, I had of course completed the customary ‘build-a-mission’ project in 5th grade and visited not a few of the missions. Funny, after moving to Utah for 4 years I even returned to California to get married in Mission San Fernando Rey de España!

Chapel where we were married, San Fernando Mission

Apparently though, I knew little about the history of the missions and the Franciscan priest who founded them. I thought this would be a fun way to prepare the kids for a visit to the San Juan Capistrano Mission. So I checked out several books from the library and was shocked to read of the alleged inhumane treatment of the Indians by the Spanish soldiers and the priests! However, upon further research I can only conclude that, as terrible as it was, there was some ill-treatment of the native American Indians at the missions, that most of this treatment was at the hands of the soldiers and not the priests, and certainly not from the hands of Bl. Junípero Serra. Further, that slavery was not an uncommon practice at the time the missions were founded, and though unquestionably immoral, was not practiced by necessarily evil men. (Note: The California missions were founded between 1769-1823, our own Civil War was fought in 1861-1865.)
That being said, here is a link to some testimonies from learned historians regarding Fr. Junípero Serra, just page down.

DR. MICHAEL MATHES, Professor of history at the University of San Francisco:

"Serra fought with the military and with the governors a lot. He was unusual in that regard. . . So we have, in a lot of correspondence of these governors, criticism of Serra, lots of criticism. But this criticism of Serra revolves around the fact that he was too much involved in the care and treatment of the Indians, that he would not allow soldiers to mingle with the Indians. He didn't want these people (the Indians) to be tainted with any possible immoral activities that the soldiers might be involved with."

DR. IRIS ENGSTRAND, professor and chair of the Department of History at the University of San Diego:

"He was much nicer to the Indians, really, than even to the governors. He didn't get along too well with some of the military people, you know. His attitude was, 'Stay away from the Indians.' I think you really come up with a benevolent, hard-working person who was strict in a lot of his doctrinal leanings and things like that, but not a person who was enslaving Indians, or beating them, ever."

The books I will use are:

The Story of Junipero Serra, Brave Adventurer by Florence Meiman White ( c 1987)
Father Junípero Serra and the California Missions by Sarah Bowler (c2003)
Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi (c1948).
California Missions & Presidios : the History & Beauty of the Spanish Missions text by Randy Leffingwell c2005 (used for photographs of the missions only.)

Warning: I would stay away from a book called The California Missions by Valerie Weber. It is very biased and constantly states that the soldiers and the ‘friars’ maltreated the Indians without mentioning Fr Serra by name in any of these accusations. In fact, it seems that negatively portraying the Catholic Church and its missionary priests is the main focus of this book.

I need some trees

2008-05-14T00:21:00.008-05:00

Remember this picture? The view from the backyard of our rental home in St. Louis.

Well, this is the view now back in Colorado. This one is not so bad.

But this one...not so good. See those homes? Well, I'd rather not.

So I am looking for trees to plant that will thrive in this arid climate and that will make me feel like I live in a forest. Any suggestions?

Spring Blossoms

2008-05-01T16:30:00.001-05:00

Spring has sprung in Colorado! This is the flowering plum tree as seen from our kitchen bay window. I do love seeing this with the early morning sun streaming through behind it. Too bad it only lasts a few weeks.

Mirroring

2008-04-24T08:31:00.006-05:00

(I had to put on my rusty old science hat to write this lengthy post.)

Have you heard about mirror neurons? I hadn’t until I came across an intriguing article in the May 2008 issue of Natural History Magazine entitled “Mental Mirrors: Special Cells in the Brain Mimic the Actions and Intentions of Others, Forming the Basis of Empathy and Social Connections.”

Basically, there are a bunch of neuroscientists who have lately made much ado about mirror neurons. They argue are that these specialized cells of the brain are “the foundations of empathy (and possibly of morality).”

You’re probably familiar with how these mirror neurons work on a physical level. They enable us to relate to the physical movements and actions of others around us. This is why when watching sports, or an action thriller, some of us can’t sit calmly in our seats, but tend to move with the people we are watching. I know I will often move my arms in the same way I expect the actors or athletes to move theirs! To a certain extent, as onlookers, we are feeling what they feel as they try to make the basket or escape the psychopath.

But what I find more interesting in the latest studies of mirror neurons, is how these tiny cells are active in situations where emotional empathy is present. Before I continue, I will offer a brief description of the distinction between sympathy and empathy in my own words:

Sympathy – A person is sympathetic when she says, “I know what you are feeling, I once felt that when…” In this instance, sympathy is knowledge of how someone feels based on your own personal experience. You can have sympathy for someone who has lost a loved one without feeling any loss yourself. The “oh, that’s too bad” type of feeling that doesn’t hamper you from enjoying yourself the next minute.

Empathy – Is when you, to some extent, actually feel what the other person is feeling. When you watch or read a particularly moving account of, say, a young mother dying of cancer and this makes you cry. You can actually feel the pain of this mother at leaving small children motherless and it moves you to tears. The feeling you have when you are empathetic does not always disappear in an instant, it may leave you feeling sad or happy for an extended period of time.

The research says our mirror neurons fire when we feel empathetic. “And when we see someone else suffering or experiencing pain, mirror neurons help us to read her or his facial expression and make us viscerally feel the suffering or the pain of the other person.”

This is why when a person tells us something that causes her eyes to tear up, ours do too!

“Mirror neurons help explain an essential characteristic of humans: we have an instinct to imitate one another-to synchronize our bodies, our actions, even the way we speak to each other.”

“These results suggest that it is in large part through mimicry that we are able to feel what other people feel, and so to respond compassionately to their emotional states.”

“If mimicry indeed supports recognition of emotions, then it follows that good imitators should also be good at recognizing emotions, and so endowed with a greater empathy for others.”

That being said, it is also important to note at this time that mimicry is a learned behavior. We cannot mimic someone unless we observe how to do what they do and then physically do it. This is how a baby learns, always by watching and then imitating. But are we cognizant of how are children, for better or for worse, learn and imitate our empathetic (or non-empathetic) responses? We all want our children to be caring and communicative individuals and this is just another example of how instrumental parents are in the formation of the characters of their children!

If a child is not shown empathetic behavior he will not learn to be empathetic. Seems simple enough doesn’t it? However, if empathetic behavior is learned then it is also shown to be somewhat ‘hardwired’ in the mirror neurons after the learning has taken place. A child that has not learned to be empathetic will not find it easy to relate to others. This is probably why some people, as they say, are “good imitators” and thus more empathetic than others. Just as the reaction to physical actions by mirror neurons is brought on by previously experienced or learned behaviors, so the reaction to emotional signals by mirror neurons must also be learned. This is huge when you think about your children’s happiness in later life being very much dependent on relationships with significant others.

The studies state another aspect of the importance of mirror neurons that provides some scientific basis to the idea of ‘intuition.’ If we are able to mimic and feel what others are feeling we are also able to ‘read’ people. From facial expressions and actions, in conjunction with our own experienced or learned sequences, we can feel how others feel and in that way know something of what they are thinking. How many times have we said “I knew you were feeling that way” or “I knew he was going to do that.”

We can discern what someone is thinking merely by observing them because we recognize what that posture, or those facial expressions mean. I’m sure you’ve heard or used the expression, “You can’t fool me!” Maybe those who try to fool you aren’t very empathetic and assume you aren’t either!

You can watch a video clip on the science of mirror neurons here. There is only one scientist in the clip that links the development of mirror neurons to evolution, but the article in the magazine never mentions that aspect and I don’t think evolution has anything to do with the significance of the research.

The book by Marco Iacoboni is Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others c2008. I haven’t read this book so I can’t wholly recommend it, but I did like the tone of the article written by him. His research page is http://iacoboni.bmap.ucla.edu/

Back in Colorado..and it's Spring?

2008-04-16T19:16:00.006-05:00

Well, Springtime in the Rockies that is.

The picture below is the view from my bedroom window into our backyard.

Actually, it isn't bad being stuck inside when I can spend time watching the Pope on ewtn.com (so thankful for this since we don't have cable or satellite!) and homeschooling here with the kids.

Leaving Saint Louis

2008-03-28T06:57:00.009-05:00

It is Friday and the movers are coming on Sunday to load up our stuff and take us home to Colorado. I wish I could write a more lengthy post full of eloquent reminisces but things are a bit busy at the moment. Perhaps I will write a post-move epilogue on our 15 month stay in this city of which we have become quite fond. I was hoping for a bit of spring bloom before we left, but though there has been much rain, the weather remains quite chilly. Nevertheless, we plan to visit the beautiful botanic gardens one last time. I’ll take what I can though; lately I found that even the stark, leafless silhouettes of trees held beauty for me this winter.

Creve Coeur Lake Park - Winter

But looking on the bright side, I am looking forward to getting back to Colorado and all the comfort and conveniences of a home we have made our own. I also find my thoughts turning towards our yard and gardens, both vegetable and flower.

City Museum, St. Louis

Saint Patrick's Day Tidbits

2008-03-18T10:31:00.007-05:00

We had a nice Saint Patrick's Day. This is what we did.
We watched our CCC Video "Patrick - Brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle". Then I read "A Fine St. Patrick's Day" by Susan Wojiechowski aloud to the boys, using my best Irish accent. (It's a good thing the boys don't know much about Irish accents!)

And of course we listened to our Celtic music CD by Altan and had Corned beef, Cabbage and Potatoes for dinner. Late in the evening, while folding clothes, and somewhat in keeping with the theme, I watched for the first time, "How Green Was My Valley". A screen gem released in 1941, starring Maureen O'Hara, Walter Pidgeon and Roddy McDowall, and directed by John Ford. This movie, filmed in black and white, also won the Best Picture Oscar. It was a wonderful movie and now a I am interested in reading the book by Richard Llewellyn.

My Blog Has a New Color

2008-03-14T06:46:00.009-05:00

What do you think? I was inspired after reading Frances Mayes "Bringing Tuscany Home". A really beautiful book. I've always loved Italy, I've been there twice and yearn to go back. This color is #EDCE51. I'm trying to match that 'tuscan gold' color you see on many homes and villas.

How do you think I did? For me, the lightness or intensity depends greatly on the angle of my laptop computer screen. In any case, wouldn't you just love to be sitting in the flagstone courtyard of that Tuscan Villa, enjoying a glass of chianti right now?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-11T14:00:00.008-05:00

So we just watched Disney's 1959 film, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, and loved it. We especially took a liking to this happy little tune which the kids and I are singing around the house! I believe this is Sean Connery's first American film. The actress is Janet Munro, who also appeared in Disney's Swiss Family Robinson film. Yes, that's really him singing and easy on the ~~eyes~~ ears, he is too!

Pretty Irish Girl

Have you ever seen the seagulls a-flying on to Heaven
Or the crimson sails on Galway Bay the fishermen unfurl
Oh, the Earth is filled with beauty and its gathered all together
In the form and face and dainty grace of a pretty Irish girl

Oh, she is my dear, my darling one
Her eyes so sparkling full of fun
No other, no other can match the likes of her
Oh, she is my dear, my darling one
My smiling and beguiling one
I love the ground she walks upon
My darling Irish girl

Words and Music by Lawrence Edward Watkin & Oliver Wallace, 1959

Where I've visited

2008-03-11T07:06:00.014-05:00

This is another one of those FUN blog widget things. The states colored red are where I've been. The count is currently 23. You can see that the southeastern and eastern United States is sadly, very sadly, underrepresented in my map.

create your own visited states map

The Countries Visited map is not as specific. You simply check off the countries you've visited even if you have only visited one city in that entire country. Nevertheless, my count is 19 countries.

visited 19 states (8.44%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Note: You may have to resize the image to make it fit in your post.

"For What is Good"

2008-02-26T21:18:00.005-06:00

I am an information junkie...I can always think of something I want to investigate more deeply. Sometimes these forays on Google lead me to much that is trivial, but at other times they are profitable, as was the case tonight.

The initial event: I was congratulating friends of mine who had their first baby yesterday. The father has the Portuguese last name Sequeira, which happens to be my maiden name, an uncommon name in the USA. We are not related; his family hails from India, mine form China, yet we both consider ourselves mostly 'Portuguese' (but that's a whole other post...) In any case, because of our shared heritage, I felt the urge to sign off my congratulations in the traditional Portuguese manner, "Parabéns!".

Tangent: Then I thought, "What exactly does 'parabéns' mean? My Grandmother always closed with it, and many xxx's and ooo's, on our birthday cards. I assumed it meant 'congratulations', which in essence, is what she meant I am sure. But still, I had to Google it and, gratifyingly, this is what I found:

With the captivating Portuguese form Parabéns! it is precisely this that we want to express, that the goal attained should be used well (parabéns means "for what is good"); since any good that is obtained (the gift of life, money or the gaining of a diploma) can, obviously, be used for either good or evil.

This quote is from a lecture entitled "Anthropology and Common Everyday Formulas -The Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas Underlying our Day-To-Day Speech" given by L. Jean Lauand, Universidade de São Paulo, which can be found here.

Now I find that quite interesting. What I thought was quaint and cultural is philosophical as well! It makes me want to sign all my congratulatory notes that way from now on!

Mah Jong

2008-02-22T07:36:00.006-06:00

Someone in one of my homeschooling email groups sent out a warning about the Chinese game Mah Jong, describing the game as a 'spiritual Ouiji board type game'. Unfortunately the reference for this statement was not given.

From www.mahjongg.com, an internet game website, I found this on the history of Mah Jong:

"It was not before the turn of this century until the West got a glimpse of Mah Jongg, when it was introduced in the international colony of Shanghai and from then onwards in the USA, Japan and finally Europe."

My grandparents lived in Shanghai up until WWII, my parents were born there. I can't even begin to tell you how to play this game, but I always thought of it as just a Chinese card game played with tiles. In fact it is part of my childhood memories. My grandmother and 3 to 7 of her old lady friends from Shanghai would get together and play furiously every Saturday. They would set up 2 square card tables (4 players per table) in her kitchen and play, smoke and gamble for hours, while we children ran in and out and around the tables, and my uncle made banana shakes for us! The constant and fast paced click-clack-click-clack of the tiles will be forever fondly etched into my memory. I had always planned to ask my aunt for her set of tiles as a memento of my family history. I don't know about any spiritual aspect of Mah Jong but I know they did gamble money!

Just right is not enough

2008-02-19T15:22:00.010-06:00

We have been celebrating a lot these past two months. We know it's lent, but it's hard to tell a 3, 5 and 7 year old that they can't have cake and ice cream on their birthdays! It may be known that our family, under the leadership of a health conscious patriarch, does not typically indulge in sweet treats. It's not that we don't enjoy sweets, we do, immensely, but we like to set limits. So after two months of celebrating, which, by the end, will have included several cakes with ice cream, shared malts (at Crown Candy Kitchen) and rootbeer floats (at Fitz Rootbeer restaurant,) all for the sake of the children, we have come to the following conclusion.
The right amount of sweet treats and ice cream should always leave you wanting more. We have also found out that too much ice cream can almost become a chore to eat. This happened to us when once we ordered two large Dairy Queen Blizzards, not realizing they were 32 oz each! Even when shared between 2 adults and 3 small children, this was a bit too much.

Dominic and the Well-Trained Mind

2008-02-15T07:14:00.004-06:00

In The Well-Trained Mind, author Susan Wise Bauer tells the story of how her son, after listening to the Iliad, put on a puppet show with a stuffed bear as Ajax. Well yesterday, through absolutely no prompting of mine, Dominic followed suit.

We had recently finished reading The Children’s Homer by Padraic Colum. This inspired Dominic put on a play about Odysseus being called to fight the Trojan War. This is the story of how an envoy from King Agamemnon came to ask Odysseus to fight with the Greeks against Troy in order to win back the beautiful Helen. Odysseus did not want to go and so pretended to be crazy by plowing his field with salt instead of grain. The messenger cunningly placed Odysseus’ infant son, Telemachus, in front of the plow. When Odysseus turned the plow so as to not injure his son he proved his sanity and consequently went to war. Such was the beginning of his 20 year absence from home that led to his many wonderful adventures. This was the story my son played out as narrator and the voices of all characters using playmobil figures and with props assistance from his younger brother. The second act was the story of Orion the hunter, Artemis the goddess, and told how Orion became a constellation.

All right, so Ms. Bauer’s son was reportedly only 6 years old and my Dominic is 7, and so maybe we’re a year behind. That might account for the slightly more realistic choice of play figures.

Quoting Lydia Maria Child

2008-01-29T17:20:00.000-06:00

Lydia Maria Child (1802 – 1880) was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist, opponent of American expansionism, Indian rights activist, novelist, and journalist. She is perhaps most remembered for her poem, Over the River and Through the Woods.

This quote is from her non-fiction work "The American Frugal Housewife". Much of this work consists of making cake economically and removing stains from cloth, but the first and last chapters contain some general wisdom that we would do well to heed even today.

“Begin early is the great maxim for everything in education. A child of six years can be made useful; and should be taught to consider every day lost in which some little things has not been done to assist others.” 1. p.4

The Story of Holly and Ivy

2008-01-14T13:49:00.001-06:00

Isn't it nice when your eldest child is old enough to read? Here is one more reason why.

I had checked out The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden sometime before Christmas and for some reason just never got around to reading it in a timely manner. Then today, after schooling was finished and during lunch, I decided to read it aloud to the boys. And I just couldn't stop.

I am somewhat familiar with Godden's work; I have read The Battle of the Villa Fiorita and watched the movie based on her novel, Black Narcissus, and enjoyed them both. I bought The Kitchen Madonna from the library used book sale but haven't read that yet. But today The Story of Holly and Ivy made me thankful Dominic can read so well. Why? Because I can't read when I'm all choked up and I couldn't get through the end of it without crying! I'm glad he could read the parts I couldn't. What a lovely story! No doubt about it, I will have to read more of her work now.

Dominic and his earthworms

2007-12-28T15:38:00.000-06:00

I have such an amazing and special son with a very large heart!

We have no pets. Please don’t think I’m a mean mommy, I just don’t want animals in our small house with off-white carpets. Animals, unless they are small enough to live in a cage, belong outside in their natural habitat. That is my view. But we were doing a science class experiment with worms to see how they lived and what they ate. So we put 8 night crawlers in a plastic container with dirt and fed them lettuce, eggshells and coffee grounds for several weeks. Finally, their home seemed to be getting too moist and somewhat ‘polluted’. So on a ‘warmer’ day (about 43 degrees for a high) I tell the boys to set them free. I tell them to take the worms outside and loosen up the dirt to make it easier for the worms to get in. They proceed for a few minutes, but after scraping up some dirt Dominic comes back in and asks if we can keep them in their container for one more day."No," I say, with some impatience. A few minutes later here comes Dominic again asking if he can touch them. “Sure,” I say with more impatience. Why does he need to ask me permission for every little thing!.

Later, when it is getting dark, Aidan comes inside. I ask him where Dominic is and this is what he says:

“He’s outside, he’s talking to the earthworms, he’s holding them all in his hands and crying. He’s saying goodbye and Merry Christmas and thank you to them.”

Still later, job completed, Dominic comes in with reddened eyes and cold and red hands, but he makes no fuss. I warm his hands and give him a nice hug because I love his child's heart!

Christmas at Plum Creek

2007-12-20T21:41:00.001-06:00

This is one of those stories about something a child says that makes you wonder at his wisdom and perception or just makes you feel all warm inside. In this case the child is Vincent, who turns 3 in January. Being the baby of the family, Vincent receives a lot of hugs and kisses from everyone but especially his mommy, of course. We always say when hugging or kissing that we are "loving" each other. For example, he'll say, "Mommy, let me love you," when he wants to give me a kiss. And of course "Mommy loves you" or "How much does mommy love you? Too much, " is often heard around the house. I give this as background on how his 3 year old mind has been used to using and hearing the word 'love'.

So today we were watching the Little House on the Prairie Season 1 episode entitled "Christmas at Plum Creek." In this episode, the Ingalls family is working hard to get each other presents for Christmas. Laura has a pony which she dearly loves but she sees Ma looking wistfully at a new stove in the Oleson's store. Laura decides to sell her pony to buy Ma the stove, meanwhile Pa buys Laura a saddle for her pony. Of course Pa doesn't know that Laura sold her pony to Nellie. So Christmas day the presents are exchanged. Laura is touched but sad that her Pa worked so hard for a saddle that she can't use and Ma is touched but sad that Laura had to give up her pony for the stove, which is revealed because the Oleson's come to pick up the pony at the very moment that Ma learns the stove is from Laura. This whole Christmas present scene is already fraught with much touching emotion when Laura leads Nellie out to the barn and says a tearful goodbye to her horse, Bunny.

It is at this point, while my older two sons and I are enrapt and a bit teary ourselves, that Vincent says in all seriousness, "I think that girl knows how to love."

Liberal Artophile

2007-12-18T14:51:00.000-06:00

I have discovered what I am. I am a Liberal Artophile, my own coinage of course.

What, you may ask, is a liberal artophile? Well, it's not an artophile who is liberal; because artophile and liberal, separately, I am not.

Basically it is a person, not educated in the liberal arts, who has a strong interest in, or admiration for the liberal arts. This could include the medieval studies comprising the trivium and quadrivium, or, the studies (language, philosophy, history, literature, abstract science) intended to provide chiefly general knowledge and to develop the general intellectual capacities (reason and judgment) as opposed to professional or vocational skills.

Now, would the opposite of a Liberal Artophile be a Liberal Artophobe?

(This defintion derived from the definition on wikipedia for Francophile, replacing "France" or "French" with "Liberal Arts", and from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary definition for Liberal Arts.)

St. Catherine, Sigrid Undset and politics.

2007-12-06T07:17:00.002-06:00

I am currently reading Sigrid Undset's "Catherine of Siena". I never knew such things about the "seraphic virgin" and I am only half of the way through it! The power of her intercession for those around her was amazing, almost scary in an awesome sort of way.

There is so much to recommend in this book, and initially these paragraphs from Chapter XII inspired me to blog negatively about the politicians of our day. But, on second thought, in the spirit of removing 'the log in one's own eye', these paragraphs can really apply to all of us in our homes. What Undset describes is, I'm sure, the cause of much familial, as well as political, discord.

"The artificial division of religion and politics did not exist for the people of the Middle Ages. ...they were completely aware that all the problems concerning the community - good or bad government, the welfare or misery of the people - are in the final instance religious problems. The fundamental question is, What do we believe a man to be? What is it he needs, first and foremost, so that he may be in a position to attain all his secondary needs-peace, justice, security, satisfactory relationships with his fellow men?"

"Catherine never had any doubts about the answer. A man is nothing by himself, has nothing from himself."

"If a man loves God, he will be able to love his neighbor, to attain wisdom, and to be just and truthful."

"Love for one's own ego, for something that in reality is nothing, leads to an abyss of nothingness. The love of a selfish man is nothing, truth escapes between his hands, his wisdom will show itself to be foolishness, his justice injustice, and in the end a series of disappointments and mistakes will lead him to hell..."

I don't know if these words are a paraphrasing of St. Catherine's wisdom, or if they are Undset's own thoughts, nevertheless, would that all countries, but certainly ours in particular with its seemingly 'Christian' origins, could adhere to such beliefs!

Sigrid Undset, born in Denmark in 1882, was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. She died at the age of 67 in 1949. She converted to Catholicism at the age of 42 and became a lay Dominican. Her best-known book is Kristin Lavransdatter, a three volume work about the life of a woman in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, for which she received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Just call me Lucy Maud

2007-12-04T06:44:00.002-06:00

I am in the midst of writing our annual Christmas letter and have already gone through several revisions. The main problem is that it is always too long, never too short. So what has ended up on the printing room floor? My over-exuberant descriptions of the trees, flowers and seasons a la Ms. Montgomery!

We all know L. M. don’t we? Lucy Maud Montgomery, born in 1874, was the Canadian author of the beloved Anne of Green Gable novels. I did not discover the Anne series until my adult years and simply devoured all seven books. Someday I will get my own set I’m sure. Have you ever read any author who could wax poetic with such verbosity about foliage and flowers like Lucy Maud? Well, apparently you didn’t read the first version of my Christmas letter! Forget about the multitude of places we visited here in St. Louis, all the events we attended and the progress the kids have made; the trees are what is important right? Wrong! I haven’t deleted all mention of them but nevertheless, due to lack of space, my own arboreal loquaciousness has been curbed.

Now instead of the Christmas letter, my effusiveness has ended up here in my blog.

This actually may stay in regarding winter: "The ice storm had made ice sculptures of the trees by encasing every tiny branch and berry with a quarter inch of shiny, tinkling ice that was really very pretty."

But first to go was something about: “The spring flowering of the magnificent magnolias and flamboyant eastern redbuds.”
Then regarding spring: “All those dense brown forests of twigs that lined the highways and towered overhead in the parks now burst into flower and leaf. A display that was nothing short of spectacular.”
And regarding fall: “Fall was slow to start, as we had a bit of an Indian summer, but nevertheless, it did not disappoint. The trees, which so graciously provided shade during the summer, erupted in large displays of yellow, red and orange.”
Lastly, in answer to what I liked best about St. Louis: “In a few words - the dense, jungle-like canopy of green in more places than you can count!”