A Day in The Life - Later

4.30 - Everyone's home and the girls unpack the shopping. I'm glad to hear Snowy had a play at the park while Arwen and I were busy.

We do the Mars Bar experiment - break the top layer of chocolate a little so that there are chocolate 'plates' on top of the caramel 'magma'. Stretch the Mars Bar a bit so the 'plates' move apart. Smash them back together so you end up with chocolate mountains. Smash it more so you get an earthquake. Eat it.  ( We bought an extra one for the poor, deprived girls...)

I have a rest on my bed for a while, listen to the radio and do a few rows of knitting. The girls get the guinea pigs out while Snowy and Chris try out a new game on the DS.

5.30 - Dinner prep - easy tonight, because I'm just making a vegetarian stir-fry with noodles. Lucy helps chop vegies and toasts the sesame seeds. She's also in charge of getting the washing off the line. We'll eat around 6.00. It looks stormy right now and I'm hoping it clears - Snowy likes to walk - run! - around the oval after dinner and it balances out the DS time!

I'm hoping to get time to toast some oats tonight and make muesli as well, but that's about it for our homeschool day. The only other 'to do' is to read another chapter of 'The Borrowers' to Snowy at bedtime.

This was a productive Monday! The only thing we didn't get around to was yoga - and that was pretty much compensated for by time at the park. This evening is for R&R and, having written this post today, I'm confident we all deserve it.

A Day in The Life - At Home - Morning

8.00 - Snowy and I wake up and after a bit of a cuddle, we head off to satisfy our addictions - Snowy for his 30 minutes on DS - I head for the kettle and a cup of tea. Lucy, my 'lark',  is already up - dressed and breakfasted and working on her 'to do' list for the day. She's already fed the guinea pigs.We have a bit of a chat about our dreams, and about what she'll be working on independently and what she needs me to 'teach'. Today it's a recorder lesson and helping her get started on a biology experiment. I check my emails and forums.

8.30 -  Arwen stumbles out of bed and heads for the kettle as well. She's definitely my night owl! Snowy's timer goes off; he finishes up on his DS and I log off the computer. I get breakfast for both of us. The girls tell me about the latest installment of their comedy mash-up 'Glamelot'. It's funny. I have a brief vision of them as a stand up comedy sister act. Everyone gets on with their morning chores - except for Snowy, who has moved on to his Lego - I wash the breakfast dishes, put away washing, make my bed, get dressed. Lucy sweeps the kitchen floor and Arwen dries up and puts away. I like having the kitchen clear for Maths.

I have an inner debate about whether or not to make Snowy leave his Lego and get his own chores done - bed, dressing, teeth, watering outside. I decide that as long as he's done by 10, that works for me. I give him a reminder. I'm realising that I need to put a bit of work into habit formation with Snowy. It's one of my favourite Charlotte Mason ideas, that of 'habit'. Relying on motivation is a capricious and often tiring thing. Habit, once formed, requires much less energy.

9.20 - Lucy is ready to start maths. It's a diagnostic test on her decimals unit. We look through it together for any tricky questions and I leave her to it.  The early morning rain has cleared so I put a load of washing on while Arwen reads through 'what you've done so far' of this blog post. She's hoping no-one steals their 'Glamelot' idea. Consider it copyrighted, all you comedy idea-stealers reading my blog!!! She highlights her name in green...

Snowy suddenly has a spurt of energy and gets all his jobs done in 10 minutes.  Arwen is officially ready for maths. I'm officially ready for a second cuppa.

9.40 - Both girls working. Arwen and I work on prime and composite numbers in the lounge room, so Lucy has the quiet kitchen to herself.  Snowy is playing Lego and waiting for the school shows to come on at 10.

10.00 - Schools shows on the ABC - Snowy watches 'Backyard Science'. I check in with Lucy to see how she's getting on. Arwen's done her 2 pages of maths and moves on to her English book. She's using 'English Now', which I think is quite boring but it's a way of getting her used to school-speak before next year.

I send a few emails about upcoming h/s events and look around online for images of leaf cells under a microscope for Lucy to use later.

10.30 - I mark Lucy's test and identify the areas she need to revise tomorrow. Must fuel Snowy up before we start working. I cut him up an apple. Gappy teeth make biting a whole apple impossible! Maths first, followed by a phonics lesson, some reading practice and some handwriting. We finish off with a page out of 'The Story of Life' about the first land creatures. Snowy narrates a few sentences back to me and I type them up as part of his ongoing narration.

Arwen is writing an article for her dance school newsletter about the jazz class they took in the city on the weekend. Lucy is writing her World War One journal - written in character as a nurse and then moves on to soaking some bean seeds and preparing a graph for her science experiment.  I've forgotten to hang out the washing so I race out to do that and put on another load and come back in to listen to Arwen read her piece aloud. I correct her punctuation. Snowy takes a break.

11.40 - Lucy starts recorder. We're working on 6/8 time and 'C' - I listen to her play and give her some feedback. She keeps practicing while Arwen chooses a LOTR project to do. She decides on an art project - writing out some characters' names in Elvish. I find the Elvish translator I've bookmarked for her previously. She and Snowy squabble a little in the meantime.

I've got a little window of time before lunch to do some more work with Snowy. We read a couple of pages from 'A Child's Introduction to the World' and talk about tectonic plates and how they move.

Lucy has finished recorder and starts reading Act 4 of King Lear using Spark Notes 'No Fear Shakespeare.' I hang out more washing and warm up some left-over pizza for lunch. By 12.30, everyone's eating. There's some grumbling over the fact that Snowy gets to do his tectonic plates experiment with a Mars Bar whilst the girls had to do it with a Vegemite sandwich!

12.45 - Lucy still has to finish  reading King Lear. Then she's got some knitting to do and an Amelia Earhart biography to start. She's also got some of 'Story of India' to watch if she feels like it.

I'm going to clean up after lunch, make a cup of tea and then read Snowy a chapter from 'The Borrowers' and do a little bit of yoga with him as well. The girls and I are between read-alouds - we got bored with 'DragonKeeper' and so the girls finished reading it themselves over the weekend.  More squabbling between Arwen and Snowy over how loudly he is bouncing the pilates ball. Arwen has some dance homework/practice to do before we go out.

I have to write a shopping list as well. I'm taking Arwen out in the next suburb over at 3.00 and will get some groceries afterwards. Snowy plans on spending the rest of his 'screen time' while I'm gone.

( This is the part of the day when I long for chocolate. And the bit where my efficiency dips. I could be filling out Arwen's high school application but instead I'm checking out my forums/emails again. )

Motivated by Chris suggesting that he do the grocery shopping while I'm out with Arwen, I write the list. Motivated by that, I start filling out Arwen's application form and realise that it isn't going to take very long after all. Then I start filling in the menu plan for the week. Yoga goes by the wayside as Snowy is deep in a Lego game. I have a quick read of the paper instead. All is quiet...

Day Book

Reading - Snowy and I have moved on to The Borrowers, which is a read-aloud dream - short chapters and lots of dialogue. The girls have been reading Shakespeare on Toast by Ben Crystal - an actor's look at Shakespeare, his plays and his language. It's funny and instructive. And I'm still reading them DragonKeeper by Carole Wilkinson in the afternoons. Not quite sure how the girls are feeling about this one - to be fair, it is a little more 'Let's learn about China by reading this book' than 'Can't wait to share this novel with you!'

I just finished Elizabeth McCracken's The Giant's House. I loved it for McCracken's ability to advance the narrative through character rather than plot. She writes a beautiful sentence as well, though for me, the book's ending failed to convince. It makes a neat companion to The Room by Emma Donaghue which was also an amazing exercise in style. Not sure what to read next. I'm dipping in and out of Dickinson - Selected Poems and Commentaries by Helen Vendler but I also want another excellent novel.

Doing - Lots this week. Open Night at the high school yesterday - overwhelming for Arwen, interesting for me. And an interview with the Principal tomorrow. A new homeschooling Mum over for lunch today to chat about approaches and resources. I always make those offers in the right spirit and then start to dread them closer to the time, but it's good to share ideas and experiences. I would have been so happy if someone had invited us into their home when we first began home schooling. Iceskating and playdates on Friday and in between, a stack of school work. And yoga. It turns out Snowy likes yoga. Who knew ?
And inspired by  this post
Snowy may soon be having a park adventure of his own.

Making - Lucy and I have both started our squares for the 702 Knit In, in a timely manner. We may actually finish this year! I'm not in much of a making mood. Even bread seems uninspiring at present. Perhaps I'm too busy making plans and appointments. I've got lots of poems floating around in my head but can't seem to settle to getting them down on paper.

Planning - to find out if there is an Australian supplier for MCT.
To gently encourage the- girls to accept doing some social activities separately, in preparation for next year. Working out a lesson plan for King Lear at book club next week. To get on top of Snowy's screen time. Putting together a middle-school Thoreau unit, CM style, which I think is going to work well and will share here soon.

A Thought -

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

- C.S. Lewis

Cambridge Latin Review

Cambridge Latin is expensive. I have $100+ worth of Cambridge Latin sitting on the school shelves right now - student book, teacher's book, CD.

However, Cambridge Latin is fun. Lucy - now in 8th grade - and I are having A Good Time. Lucy has a year of Minimus behind her and has just started Cambridge Latin. Did I tell you it's good ?

What I love and adore about this program is that it focuses on reading and translating passages in Latin from the start. I suppose I'd call it immersion in the language. The emphasis on translation is supported by exercises and explanation of grammar, and Roman culture is also explored through the characters and situations in the passages; yet the practical art of interpreting and shaping language is the core of the program.

You could skip the CD if you were confident with pronunciation. I find it helpful as a guide to reading the passages aloud but perhaps as we both become more skilled we won't have such a need for it. My only quibble with CL is that we're moving through the material so quickly; there isn't a year's worth of lessons in the book. Again, perhaps as Lucy moves through the levels and meets more difficult material, the pace will slow.

It's also a secular program, which is important for us. I don't need Lucy to learn the liturgy! Mind you, I don't need her to master the classics either. What  I want is for her to be able to access the distant past through language - and Cambridge Latin seems to be our time machine of choice so far.

The Trouble With Reading Too Much Emily Dickinson

Is that instead of inner dialogue sounding like this - "Better remember the library books and those phone calls." - it sounds like this -

Remember to return -
the books - telephone -
the school - call the physician -
and the vet - observe -
the list of all there is -
to do -

Half Magic Or "We Read Fast Around Here"

Read aloud time for Snowy hangs on a good hook here. By 7.30 he's heading for my bed with a book and his supper and we read till 8.00. At 8.00 the radio goes on so we can listen to The Book Show music and then we either turn it down to finish our chapter, or listen and chat till lights out at 8.30. Half an hour or more of dedicated read-aloud time most nights sees us galloping along  through our book list.

We've just finished Half Magic by Edward Eager. It's a funny, literate tale of  four children in 1920's America who find a magic charm, and of  the mixed up adventures it brings them. The children are intelligent and feisty, they have a mother who reads them E. Nesbit and Twain and their magical travels take them to places like the Court of King Arthur. ( Eager's narcissistic Lancelot is a scream. ) Snowy enjoyed the humour; some slight sentimentality at the end left him less amused.

Half Magic made me reflect on  the richness of assumed knowledge Eager expected of his 1950's readers and the comparative poverty of a Nintendo generation who can discuss Mario at length and be hazy on Arthur and his knights. And like many novels from an earlier time, it holds a mirror up to our low expectations of children's abilities to problem solve and to take care of themselves and others and reflects back to us an unflattering modern portrait.

It's Wednesday and It's Peaceful

No-one has argued or cried  today. Everyone has done their 'school' work. I've got time to plan for Snowy's co-op tomorrow. I've thought about what we're doing on Friday, but that's a secret best kept from the birthday girl. There's oodles of the day left for cooking lasagna, taking Snowy to the park, helping Lucy with her sewing, reading aloud.

I think my plan is working; the one where I quarantine Monday to Thursday afternoon for work and family. It gives us plenty of time to attend to our education, the house, our meals, our pets, our hobbies, paid work, games, each other.

On Thursdays, Snowy goes to co-op. On Fridays we have book club or a field trip. The girls see friends on a Friday night. They dance on Saturday mornings and see more friends. Sometimes a good friend comes back with them to sleep over. On Sundays we visit with family.

Last year wore me out. Its theme was "friends". Its mood was hectic and rushed and breathless and teary and angry and anxious and sad. It felt like school, always moving to someone else's timetable and following someone else's rules.

A wise mama told me to do things my way this year. So I am. And it's peaceful.

First Read Aloud of 2011

 

I wasn't so sure about this book when we started. It's basically a long recount of a strange adventure by balloon to the island of Krakatoa just before it explodes - not a lot of dialogue or getting to know any of the characters, there's a whole lot of descriptive prose and the chapters are a little longer than I prefer in a read-aloud.

Despite all these potential drawbacks, Snowy enjoyed it. I thought he'd get caught up in all the weird and wonderful inventions the book's narrator speaks of but although he enjoyed hearing about them, where he really got involved was in the drama surrounding an escape from the Island. He had to listen from the safety of under- the- bedclothes, the suspense was so great!

It would be a fabulous book for a unit study. 1001 rabbit trails to follow with this one! Yet I was glad we were reading  'just' for pleasure and that Snowy and I had such a strange journey to return to each evening.

 

Too Many

She gave me a doll. I remember that. Or perhaps it was her sister. One old lady looked much like another when I was three. The doll was made of plastic, soft yet inflexible, and had eyes that stayed open even when I wanted Dolly to sleep.
.
She died and I remember that as well. I heard whispers that she died on the toilet, in her night gown. Her sister found her. I didn't think someone could die there. My mother explained to me that she was very old and that she had just worn out.  It seemed comforting to know that someone could simply wear out and die in the middle of her daily life. Someone old. Someone who could be expected to die.

For a long time, it seemed that only the old did die. Even holding my Aunt's hand, younger than I am now, and watching her gather us all to her one last time before letting go, seemed an aberration. Tragic.

Yet lately the tragic has become ordinary. Adrian, Ruby, Pippa. Part of oblivion, stars without light, only their names remaining. How can names alone sustain a wife, love a mother, raise a daughter ? Absence closes in and all I can think is: too many.