Lost in a Snowflake

This is Utah home of the "Best Snow on Earth" and until recently we had only a few dustings to our credit this year. One thing I love about homeschooling is that when it does snow we can take advantage of it for our break-or the day if like last year you only get one day that merits snowpants and sledding.

It had snowed. Mockingbird gets grumpy if she is hungry/sleepy or it's morning. All three of these hit hard one day and combined with a few clumsy bumps led to her wandering around telling herself how horrible she was. I tried to patiently keep things moving, but nothing was working.

 Eventually we all made it outside for our break. But it went on and on, to the point where I realized she was asking for some kind of validation that she is OK even if it was a terrible start to the day. She kept moaning until I had to take her by the shoulders for the kind of scolding we all need every once in awhile: "I know you are having a bad day, but I love you and if Anything happened to you I'd be Devastated. You are a wonderful, smart, talented person, just having a bad day. I know it's hard, but you have extactly 3 minutes to feel bad for yourself--then you are done and we all move on." and I turned and left her standing there.

Less than 3 minutes later, Mockingbird wandered around a bit then shouted out, "Look at these snowflakes! They're the prettiest I've ever seen!" And they were. gorgeous. Big, sparkely, and perfectly shaped. By the time someone ran up to get a cloth and magnifying glasses the majority were just clumps of frozen again. But for just a few minutes they were perfect.

ExamLand

 

I can't find it now, but somewhere there is a board game for Charlotte Mason exams at the end of a term. It was like a trip around a pond stopping at different places/subjects to talk about. I wanted to reinvent the wheel (as usual) and really enjoyed coming up with our own that the kids could color. I also made a little country version of each of them, not because we are "country" but because it seemed a classic option, and fun. They loved coloring themselves and deciding where to go next.

Homemade Math Manipulatives-Place Value

 

 

 

For learning place value, addition, and subtraction (especially "carry the ten") we use these little 1" square cardboard chips I painted, cut, and labelled 1, 10, 100, 1000. The more I use them the easier it is for my student-at-hand to grasp a concept.

 

This is actually an extra bit of lamination I snagged, but we also use clear tinted binder dividers, or clear plastic covers with a paper inserted to make it easier to handle and dry erase markers.

 

 

 

 

Other manipulatives I store in just little plastic bags, but these I keep in a craft organizer--easier to find and clean up, and definately colorful.

 

 

I have used workboxes and bins for each student before. With just two children to keep track of, the easiest storage for me so far has been just throwing a all the math stuff in a bin. It's all in one place and fits just right.

 

Pictured above are also fraction circles and bars I easily made with foam squares from the Dollar Store.

"Of Finns & Frames" or "Dates with the Darlings"

As of today, we've instituted monthly dates with our kids and a parent. This month, I got Kingfisher & Bowery Bird.

Kingfisher and I went this morning to the Home Depot Kid's Workshop where this month's project was making a picture frame. I hadn't been to one of these in a long time and had just as much fun watching Kingfisher take his hammering and painting and stickering seriously as I did watching the parents take it just as seriously. I'm not kidding, there are always those parents who take their perfectly capable kids to a "Kid's Workshop" and yet the majority of the work ends up being done by an adult.
Of course we took our pin and balloon (kept in separate pockets), and got doughnuts afterward.

Bowery Bird and I went out this afternoon to another BYU International Cinema film. This time we saw Christmas Story. Not the Christmas Story everyone loves, and I personally loathe, but a Finnish version of St. Nick's beginning. Heavy on woodcarving and pure charity, light on commercialism and magic--it was a breath of arctic air compared to many American Christmas specials. It was Bowery Bird's first full length film with subtitles, and beyond the false start in Finnish--I don't think it even  phased her.
Afterward we exited the back door, and were lured into the science building with it's magnetic-manipulating gloves, perpetual pendulum, and giant crystals from Arkansas. I know--who could refuse?

Art Class: Ceramics 4

Repairing & Painting the Pieces

 

Guess I forgot to tell them to attach the head...The Very Vain Lady again, by 9y/o Bowery Bird

• Elmer's Glue worked slowly but surely for bits that fell off (like Frankenstein's bolt). Putting craft paint into baby food jars and no mixing allowed simplified things.
• This was a fun day that ended with a behind-the-scenes bit about clay animation, then a Shaun the Sheep episode.
• Students were told to bring pans to make moving their delicate works home easier...and some listened.

Penguin by 9y/o girl

 

Cat Piggy Bank by 7y/o Mockingbird "it turned into a leopard, mom"

 

Bust by 7y/o Mockingbird

 

Mr. Pickles by 12y/o girl

 

box with shelf by 7y/o Mockingbird

 

 

 

I am a Paleontolgist, That's What I Am

BYU Museum of Paleontology

This song by They Might Be Giants kept filtering in and out of conversation during our visit to the BYU Museum of Paleontology. I had forgotten about this little fossil of a jewel museum on campus until one rainy day when we had some time on our hands.
For not being very big space-wise (but far better than their original home under the football stadium), the collection is amazing. The museum houses mineral specimens, full size replicas, petrified plants (petrified wood seen right, against wall), and many child-friendly "touch-tables."

Ammonite touch-table

In this museum, more than any other like it, the sheer size of ancient life hits me, and I think it's because the rooms are small and displays don't leave a lot of space between you and them. Any one under 3 years old usually ends up being held most of the visit for this same reason...

This isn't a great picture, but shows a replica and the viewing window into the lab where they process the specimens collected from the field. If you look at the workers non-threateningly, one of the volunteers may come out and give you a tour. Luckily, that's just what happened to us.
I love behind-the-scene tours, especially of workshops so this was a real treat.

We saw lizard-like dinosaur bones being removed from sandstone, rare because there were 3 together in their natural arrangement and in an easily removable rock. We saw gar fish scales still shining in the stone, and vertebrate the size of a mini refrigerators lined up to be processed. Then our guide took us back to peek in the warehouse where fossilized bones dusted with a release agent were awaiting the dunk into vats of liquid silicon to become molds.

 

Life Story, by Virginia Lee Burton, is one of those books that leaves you feeling different about not only your place on the planet, but in time itself. Presented as a play, it starts with the scientific creation of our earth, takes the reader through each phase of ancient life, and eventually culminates with spreads of generation, year, day, hour, and your next few minutes.

I didn't really plan it this way, but we are studying the life cycle this week. So after seeing what happens when the life cycle stops, we went full circle and visited the pet store where they had two-month old puppies and baby tarantulas. Awwww...

Microcosmos

We recently went to watch Microcosmos (not high, despite many who claim it as the only way  to experience this movie) on the big screen at the BYU International Cinema. It's an award-winning french film entirely of insects in their element-up close and incredible.

Initially our whole family was watching it, but Canary (just learning to talk) kept narrating for everyone, "Bu-fly"  "Wa-er" "Big!" She loved it, but afraid others wouldn't, Mr. Owl chivalrously walked campus for the duration of the film. At home Kingfisher was adamant about not wanting to go watch it, but it took 4 taps and a jerk to wake him from his cinematic trance and leave too.

It was gorgeous. To the point where I was totally entranced by an ethereal fairy emerging from her mystic lagoon, only to later realize it was a mosquito! Ugh! I hate mosquitoes. But it wasn't emotional manipulation--so I had no one to blame but my eyes and nature's own beauty.

In fact, what sets this film apart from most, and what I loved about it, was the absence of a sentimental storyline voice-over by some celebrity. It also lacked anthropomorphizing and editing to aid the stupid viewer in grasping some straw of connection with the natural world. This film expects more of its audience and doesn't tamper with perfection. No talking, minimal music, and no obvious fancy editing.
Just magnified clips of life happening; relentless fighting (stag beetles of course), meticulous working (ants), endless eating (caterpillars), and some unabashed loving (snails, yes...snails). The film is rated G, despite the revolting love scene between two snails set to opera music. I'm sure the filmmakers got just the response they wanted from our audience's snickers and head shaking. Opera music. Snails. I'll never see them the same again...

Art Class: Ceramics 3

Ceramics 3: Slab Containers

Up-side down slab container by 9y/o Bowery Bird

Slab construction instructions  I didn't read the instructions, but the pictures helped.

• I cut cardstock in squares and rectangles to help them. The key is for the walls to just be the same height. Snakes of clay were "caulked" into seams of corners for reinforcement.
• Some made impressions in their walls before attaching, some after (branches, buttons, beads)
• Some wanted to do circular walls, which worked well for the careful craftschild (yes, that's a word). Just make a rectangle, roll and seal it. Stand it on top of a pancake of clay and use it like a pattern to cut the bottom.
• Walls needed to be 1/4" thick at least to stand.

Half a box by a 9y/o girl

 

Box container by 7y/o Mockingbird

Artist 2012-3013

Mary Cassatt
quick intro video

biography
a few other works in the National Gallery


Winslow Homer
biography
quotes, works, etc.


Gilbert Stuart
biography
National Gallery tour (paintings & explanations)




John Singleton Copley
biography
huge gallery of works

BFSU Vol 1 Thread D Lesson Links

D-1 Gravity: The Eath's Gravity; Horizontal & Vertical

D-2 Day and Night and the Earth's Rotation

D-3 Reading and Drawing Maps

D-4 Land Forms and Major Biomes of the Earth

D-5 Time and the Earth's Turning  you tube Day and Night and Earth's rotation

D-6 Seasonal Changes adn the Earth's Orbit

D-7 Gravity II; Rate of Fall; Weightlessness In Space, and Distinction Between Mass & Weight

D-8 Rocks & Fossils

D-9 Resources; Developing an Overview  Magic Schoolbus Holiday Special on recyclin- Hanukkah

BFSU Vol 1 Thread C Lesson Links

C-1 Concepts of Energy I; Making things Go

C-2 Sound, Vibrations, and Energy  Magic Schoolbus & the Haunted House on youtube

C-3 Concepts fo Energy II; Kinetic & Potential Energy

C-4 Concepts of Engergy III; Distinguishing Matter and Energy

C-5 Inertia

C-6 Friction Magic Schoolbus Plays Ball on youtube

C-7 Push Pushes Back

Halloween can make your hair stand on end.

California Gull & I took our broods to a local senior citizens home to celebrate Halloween with the residents there.
Mockingbird was begging to go home as soon as we stepped in, and honestly, I didn't blame her. We've not been to a residential center before ever, and to see 50 people in wheelchairs lining the hall plus all the costumed orderlies was initially a bit of a shock.
Especially since there were some green-skinned witches, very convincing zombies with gauges, and a big, tall man poured into his tights, tutu, and pink wings later identifying himself as "Gerry the Fairy." (I thought the barbed wire tattoo on his left bicep really brought the whole outfit together.)

Bowery Bird won the prize for best Children's Costume as the Bride of Frankenstein.
(I think it was due solely to the clapping and cheering of  Frankenstein in the back.)
Add some black rain boots and a sheet--literally draped and cut (see the fairies in Sleeping Beauty for directions) to an amazing up-do and you've got a pretty creepy gal.

How to achieve the 14" do?
1 water bottle
6 bobby pins
Lots of regular and colored hairspray
and my talented friend, Puerto Rican Parrot.

 

Some silhouettes I did for Bantam Hen.

 

 

And Canary running from the paparazzi.

 

 

 

On the Hunt for The Homeschool Yearbook

I'm no pro with organizing, printing, or even taking photographs--as you can obviously see from this blog. Someone that is amazing at this is Heidi over at Mount Hope Chronicles where I go for homeschool Eye Candy (yes, that is the name of my Favorites folder her blog is in).

But I've successfully printed two Homeschool Yearbooks out of our 3 years of school. (That middle year, when I had a baby, we're still filling in the pieces from--which is perfectly understandable, right?)

 

Homeschool Yearbooks are a different beast

--in that, organizing photos chronologically would be fragmented, and virtually everything else overlaps creating a potential BLAAAH everywhere. 
But, unlike a brick and mortar school yearbook it's incredibly rewarding when done because instead of having to search through the entire thing for the 3 pictures of your children and things relative to them--they are on EVERY page.

I create a Yearbook because I want to:

1. Motivate myself to keep going.

 It gives validity to what I do everyday. To look back and say "Yeah, we did learn something. Here's a picture of my daughter painting a letter "A", and in this other book she's reading! Oh, and here she's doing another painting--with the brush upside down." Hmmm.

2. Make sure my children see that we had fun.

Who knows what memories will stick in their head, or come out later in therapy? At least I've got proof that it wasn't just an isolated cell they were educated in with rats rummaging through the endless piles of broken pencil leads, chipped abacus beads, and flash cards. We went on field trips, frequented the park, had friends over, and enjoyed being together.

3. Reward my effort with something pretty.

 I can crop out the laundry pile in the other room, dirty diaper smell doesn't translate to photo paper, and if you were grumpy that day--you're not in that spread. See how nice that is? All I'm left with is a cute corner of life to look fondly back on as the rest fades-thankfully- into oblivion...

4. Remember what we did.

Because, if I don't put it on paper somewhere--I forget about it. I want to remember what we enjoyed, and the things we tried that worked well so we can be sure to repeat them. I'll know what field trips are worth the effort and what field trips ar---Never mind. If it's a field trip, I'll go.

5. Capture a child's predisposition.

Family Albums to me, are more general--and I just don't have the get-up-and-go to do an album for each child every year. But if I do a yearbook, I can capture who that child was at 6...8...10 y/o. It's been sometimes surprising when I've noticed patterns. Oh, you were into climbing up everything that year, you were the one always Right There when the camera came out, and you  are happily somewhere in the background--to busy to be bothered.

Aha! You thought you'd see some of our faces here, huh!?

Art Class: Ceramics 2

 Busts

"A Very Vain Lady" by 9 y/o

To get our weird started, we watched this YouTube clip of the Swiss mask theater troupe
Mummenschanz on Muppet Show "Clay Faces"

Demo How to Sculpt a Face We breezed through--based on their attention span, not mine.

Clay Faces Step-by-Step I gave a quick demo based on these instructions and they worked great.

In case the link changes they are basically:

• Make a boat shaped hollow base.
• Make a ball of clay for your head.
• With two thumbs, push in eye sockets, pull out nose, make opening for mouth.
• Build up browline and lips with clay tube, and add eyeballs to the sockets and eyelids.
• Add details of hair, neck, etc.

7y/o working on Head

Some pieces fell off if they weren't attached well enough.
Older kids helped younger kids make their base.
It was near Halloween, so things got a little creepy, and by that I mean they grew horns and pointy teeth (I drew the line when only one eye was suggested).



Girl's head by a 7y/o



"Shapeshifter" by a 12 y/o

Mary Cassatt and All That

So on weeks when we don't have our "Art Class" with friends, we ideally, copy a work of art by our term's artist. This term was Mary Cassatt, we had already read a couple children's biographies and watched a film about her. For today's project, "Young Mother Sewing" was the voice of the people.

 

 I pulled out oil pastels and chalk pastels, pushed back sleeves, and gave strict orders to stay at the table until completion; in that order.

Earlier we had played the memory game where I hide the picture and ask them "what color is the mom's hair?" or "can you see her needle?" and "can you see the dragon out the window?" so they had really looked at it carefully before this.

We just briefly talked about the focal point, major dividing lines in the picture, and the tone of our cardboard (we're big spenders around here) compared to the lightest/darkest values in the picture. Then I noticed their eyes glaze over and went to do dishes and leave them in peace.

And what a peace it was--silence for the better part of an hour working on these:



 

by 9y/o Bowery Bird

 

by 7y/o Mockingbird

 

Then we have a 4y/o boy's interpretation of "Young Mother Sewing."


by 4y/o Kingfisher

It was smeary, but fun. I think the tactile nature and vibrant color of chalks really appeals to children, and I'm going to have to pull them out more often.

 

 



Parenting Books

My family and I were getting on the light rail in downtown SLC on a Friday evening to find the car pretty full. I had my toddler in a sling and was going to stand since a young man had his leg folded comfortably across half of the only available seat. Re-thinkng this and realizing it was silly of me to enable rudeness, I went ahead and sat down, adjusting the baby onto my lap. He didn't move his leg. He didn't seem to notice. He didn't even pause his conversation with the pretty girl behind him.

Granted, it was an engaging topic about how the fake baby she was holding for class might start to cry....  Then an amusing interchange ensued with my husband loundly asking me in an overly concerned voice, "Are you alright?...Do you have enough room?...Are you sure you're comfortable?" Then, when that didn't have any affect,  "Do you mind moving over--she is holding a baby." To which the young man acted as though I had suddenly appeared right before his eyes, and was all politenss.... I could wax poetic on the irony of it all...but instead I'll just list

My Favorite Parenting Books:

Power of Positive Parenting
Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child
Christlike Parenting
Parenting Breakthrough
Babywise
How to talk so your Teen will listen, how to listen so your teen will talk
How to train a child
CM series
Love and Logic
Ready or Not Here Life Comes
10 Habits of Happy Mothers
Spirited Child
Highly Sesitive Child
Raising Joy
Scream-free Parenting

Capable Cook Recovers Food Slump

Toast after Canary is finished with it-I'm not kidding

I have a friend, Bantam Hen, who doesn't plan a menu and NEVER makes the same meal twice.

Really. She subscribes to several food magazines and visiting one of her dinner parties is a trip for the tasetbuds (in more ways than one). I don't know which is more amazing, the fact that she does this or that her family of 7 goes along with it. She has said that this freedom to create keeps her cooking. That otherwise she would probably get bored and loose interest in the kitchen pretty quickly.

Back at my place, I am, yet again, I having a food slump. I'm not talking about Louisa May Alcott's cozy comfort food, the apple slump. Whose recipe can be found at the cleverly titled Paper & Salt. I am referring to the medical condition  where an able-bodied mother is no longer mentally capable of creating lovely meals for her family due to an increase in complaining and apparent decrease in appreciation.

It can be seriously detrimental to a family's well being--but I somehow develop it routinely. Since no prescription (or subscription) can pull me out of it I have a go-to plan, and it's not beans and rice for a week (I tried that once and it went over like a chicken with clipped wings). Insetead, I do this:

I get dressed up. I go to Zuppas cafe, and I read:

The Capable Cook's Credentials which are:

1. The Capable Cook plans meals ahead of time. Make sure I am planning out shopping list, menu, etc. just so I don't think about it more than I have to.
2. The Capable Cook serve meals on time. For us that's 7am, 11am, 6pm and no random snacking in between. More about that here.
3. The Capable Cook offers a variety of healthy options. One mother told me she always offered for dinner a main protein, salad, vegetable or fruit, and starch if not in the main dish. She encouraged her children to try everything and left it at that. That has worked better for me that requiring each bite of one dish. I was taught a parent's responsiblity is to provide the food; a child's is to eat it.
4. The Capable Cook remembers to include family members in the process. "Mmmm, this are good rolls--wonder who made these." (That's Mockingbird either fishing for compliments or experiencing amnesia)
5. After all that, the Capable Cook creates a mealtime atmosphere where food is not the focus. "Father Franklin thought that good talk around the supper table, sharing ideas and discussion, held the family together. The talk was usually so interesting they hardly ever noticed what the food was like."-- Poor Richard. (And candles so dim they can't see what they are eating helps too.) More about that here.

The Cooks Credentials are those things which entitle a Family Cook to confidence, competence, and authority. One of the best things I've learned about motherhood is that whining is inevitable. It is simply the result of vocal individuals expressing their right to an opinion with a very limited vocabulary, the poor dears. But, if I'm doing these 5 steps, then it's not something I need to feel responsible for. I just patiently move on to the next course, "Brussel sprouts, anyone?"

But to motivate myself further, I might also go watch Martha Stewart, visit the library for cookbooks, or go shopping for new candles with smaller wicks.

Art Class: Ceramics 1

Coil Animals

7y/o beginning working on his coil base

I reviewed how to make a long clay snake, then coil it flat to make a base, up to make a wall. We also talked about how to smooth the wall with our tools and use slip and texture to secure layers.
We looked at some images of clay birds, cats, and a particularly cute hedgehog online to get the wheels turning. I encouraged them to not necessarily do something representational, but have fun.

Cat chasing Mouse by 12y/o girl

 I have about 3 sets of ceramic tools for everyone to share and little bowls of water on the tables. This clay cleans up really easily once dry, which you will find out if you put your feet up for half an hour after class and don't even think about cleaning until it's time to make dinner.
So I eventually scrapped the protective tablecloths. Sometimes we did use a gessoed drop canvas I have to work on the floor and easily "peel" off a wet piece. Jackson Pollock-like it has led a colorful life.

Birds. By Bowery Bird.

We still don't know where this tattoo came from.

Looking Like October

Mockingbird had to have two teeth pulled so that the new ones could come in straight.
I tried to play it cool, and forget two years ago when my wisdom teeth were removed. Which really wasn't that bad by itself, but thrown in having had a baby 4 weeks prior, and nose surgery two weeks after and it was a streesful time that this only resurfaced.

We there are both doing well, when the nurse leans over to to her coworker, "They're going to be sawing."
Wha-? I sit in disbelief.
He didn't hear so she repeated, pantomiming a handsaw in motion this time over Mockingbird's reclined head.
Soon I realized she wasn't talking about a dental procedure, but the landscapers outside, as the sound of a chainsaw tore through the window. This was a relief, but  unsettling itself. Mockingbird seemed fine and I tried to pat her leg every once in awhile. But when I glanced up to see at just the right angle what was going on inside her mouth, I took a deep breath and decided to just keep my eyes on my book.
Our visit was a total of 15 minutes, 15 long minutes.
Mockingbird wiped her eyes--brave girl--got her toy, and we left.

On the way home I tried to make things lighter.
"Wow, it's officially October now isn't it?...Overcast skies, crisp air, yellow leaves, and pumpkins out-"
"and bloody teeth" Mockingbird mumbled around her gauze. (Twice because I couldn't understand her.)

Those Wicked Apple Trees

"Are you hinting my apples aren't what they ought to be?"

"Oh no. It's just that she doesn't like little green worms!"

Actually, I don't mind the little green worms. Only pesticides can promise pristine produce. What is that saying about my food if even bugs won't eat it?

But that's not my point. Today we went gleaning for our morning break.
I was hearkening back to the peasants in my pedigree as I crawled up the overgrown apple tree near our home that sits on some odd corner of ignored property and shook the trees till fruit rained down and the children said it looked like the Apple Tree in the Wizard of  Oz.
Mockingbird shouted out "Ow! Yow! Hey!", not because she was getting hit but, "because it's fun to say!"
Bowery Bird found me sticks to bat at the high branches full of more fruit she found.
Kingfisher collected apples with grass stuck through them from it hitting the ground so hard & Canary, we just tried to keep track of.

More on gleaning at the Utah Society for Environmental Education blog.
Great links can be found at the end of the article.
Comment if you know of others to add.

Life Skills

I have a love hate relationship with my washer and dryer.
After 9 years of marriage we finally had them in our own home. Luxury! Modern Marvels! Bliss...Until they stopped working.
First the dryer stopped moving. "I'm a smart person. I have a college degree. I can hot wire a car (not really) but if a 15 year-old can do it--how hard can it be? It's just a machine with parts and directions...to be found somewhere, I'm sure. And I can not go another week with dirty laundry."

Boosting my morale with sentences like this (especially the last) I did it. With a great YouTube home video (the Southern drawl eased my anxiety), and some duct tape I replaced the drum belt for $10 in 15 min.
Then 2 weeks later it stopped heating. This time my husband ended up replacing the thermostat for $50.
A few months later the washer stopped moving. We replaced the feed dogs for $10 in 5 min.

We saved money not needing a repairman or entirely new washer & dryer, but the best is yet to come.
A couple more months and somehow, a fully dressed clothespin doll fell from the craft shelf above, into the lint trap. But, from my earlier intimate dealings with the dryer, I was able to not only remain calm, but remove the back panels of the dryer and get it out in less than 10 min--then go on with life. Amazing. I had never repaired anything more than a broken hair clip before this, and here I was welding power tools like a pro! Life Skills at work.

Then a month later a spool of wire fell down the lint trap. Really? Is this a joke? Is some one trying to make a point?
Here, for your reading pleasure are

Helpful Sources  in Teaching Life Skills to Children:

 Life Skills for Kids by Christine Field is a thoroughly covers topics from Time Management  to Navigating the World without it seeming overwhelming.

The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Browne Boyack has, in my opinion, a terrible cover that belies the powerhouse of information within. Her conversational message to parents is that we should give our children the opportunity to take responsibility and control of their lives early. Then they can make mistakes in the safety of our home, and not have to as adults when the stakes are higher, or--Horror of Horrors!--just opt for the safety of perpetually living with mom and dad FOREVER.

What Every Child Needs to Know Along the Way by Gail Martin, I need to check out.

"Family Work" is a thought provoking article on family work by Kathleen Slaugh Bahr and Cheri A. Loveless that has personally altered my thoughts on family and work. Go figure.

Ironically, it is the very things commonly disliked about family work that offer the greatest possibilities for nurturing close relationships and forging family ties. Some people dislike family work because, they say, it is mindless. Yet chores that can be done with a minimum of concentration leave our minds free to focus on one another as we work together. We can talk, sing, or tell stories as we work. Working side by side tends to dissolve feelings of hierarchy, making it easier for children to discuss topics of concern with their parents. Unlike play, which usually requires mental concentration as well as physical involvement, family work invites intimate conversation between parent and child.

 Adventure to Inspire has impressive and detailed lists of life skills to download. The checklists for obtaining skills, with privileges attached are pure genius.

The Art of Manliness has 31 life skills for men ranging from "Managing Your Online Reputation" to "How to Tie the Half-Windsor Necktie Knot". I smell cologne whenever I go to this site.

Everything I did one Wednesday

A few months after I had a baby I was feeling better, but like I wasn't accomplishing anything. I mentioned it to my mom and she gave me an order/suggestion (isn't that the same thing when it comes from a mom?). "Write down one day everything you do, not what you want to do--and you'll see you are doing a lot."
So I did. It was such a validation of my efforts that I repeat the exercise whenever I need a pick me up. For example here's everything I did one

Wednesday:

• Night before: bed 10pm
• 5am alarm goes off.
• 5:10 get out of bed. Dress for the day.
• 5:20 My time-writing, and a chance to laugh at my own jokes.
• 7 grocery store before husband leaves for work because we need milk & eggs
• 7:15 back. Awake kids, start a load of diapers in the washer. change and dress Canary.
• 7:30 My husband leaves for work. Cold cereal breakfast for me, empty dishwasher awake kids again. Remind them to do their Top Row. Toy bin of cars out for Kingfisher & Canary.
• 8am Circle time on couch. I read the Aiken Drum story, we look at Scotland and Canada on the map & watch the YouTube version of this folksong. From our Gospel Picture Art Kit I pull out a picture and we talk about the 2000 stripling warriors from the Book of Mormon while someone cried about the cereal being gone, because they woke up late. We open our Memory Binders,  and practice our parts for the children's Primary Program in church coming up. I text a teacher and my sister.
• 8:30 Puzzles bin out for Canary. Bowery Bird is reading science experiment book...telling me her next plan. Mockingbird is doing her copywork & 4 spelling words at the kitchen table. I remind her, "No drawing our letters into faces and people." Kingfisher practices writing H's & does some gingerbread man tracing from a cookie cutter. Bowery Bird practices piano-have to help her with left hand. Easel and washable markers come out for Canary. Pass off Bowery Bird's Faith in God booklet goal for seeing a play last week.
• 9am Lego bin out for Canary. Mockingbird does independent reading for her Book It Pizza Hut chart. Bowery Bird does her cursive copywork (for dictation on Friday) & spells 5 words.
• 9:30 Bowery Bird starts a terrarium she found in the science book by getting dirt & rocks for our empty fishbowl. I switch laundry to start whites, check email, print Book It reading chart for the month, pick up toys, and we all go outside for our morning break.
• 10 In, H has a friend over to play. Star Wars bin out (reminders to be quiet in hallway). Print Connecticut  line map for Bowery Bird to do map work/notebooking of  This Country of Ours on. She uses the Kindle to review names.
• 10:30 Tried to read aloud with Mockingbird, but she's tired of reading. I read Literature to her: Uundertood Besty while she drew our Halloween costumes. Bowery Bird wants to listen in. Puppets bin out for Canary. Little friend's mom came to take him home. Tell children to stop drawing on the windows with the new white board markers--especially in front of Canary who might get ideas. Started garden tomatoes, scalding. Prepped- 
• 11 Lunch of sandwiches, mangoes, applesauce, and chocolate milk. (on an even better day they'd make their own after breakfast) Pulled out term board, with new Mary Cassatt picture, let them look at it. Did picture study, where I took it down and they each took turns remembering things in the pictures as I prompted. Mockingbird was surprisingly good.
• 11:30 Clean up chores: Mockingbird peeled tomatoes from ice water then did dishes while Kingfisher picked up toys & dusted. Bowery Bird did a science experiment with water, dish soap, and paper triangle she read about in the aforementioned science experiment book (that has been in our home at least 3 years and gone unnoticed till now), then showed us. Reminded Bowery Bird to sweep, clean up stuff, and clear the table. I filled in.
• 12 noon I changed baby, washed baby. Set up Little Duke audio book for Mockingbird in my bedroom, Starfall on the computer for Kingfisher in his top bunk, after ordering Bowery Bird to stop studying face painting on the computer for upcoming Entrepreneur Day. Had her read Poor Richard to herself in the living room as I  read stories to Canary, sang a song, and put her down for a nap
• 12:30 read with Bowery Bird from Age of Fable. 
•  Mockingbird does some reading on Starfall. I spend time with Kingfisher while Bowery Bird sets up art with him. (She initiated these little "art classes" with him once a week.) He and I read The Ladies Who Stopped the Wind, he retold it to me. We two went outside, talked about feeling and seeing the wind and how it moves. We played then I carried him home.
• 130 Bowery Bird and Kingfisher did art. They made houses out of crackers, frosting she made of water & sugar, beans, spaghetti, and trail mix (the last of it). She had directions written in pictographs on a white board. Math with Mockingbird. She feels left out. Canary won't sleep. (She wouldn't eat lunch). I feed her cereal facing away from the few M&Ms in the trail mix project. Put her back to bed. Mockingbird & I drink chocolate milk outside for love. We come up and do math (place value) she does a worksheet independently after. 
•  Canary won't sleep, is up. Bowery Bird and Kingfisher clean up. Kingfisher is bored. Doorbell from neighbor about lost item; not ours. But a package! Give Bowery Bird her math assignment & negotiate when it will be done; 5pm on graph paper.
• 2:30  We open package-home school phonics books from Usborne. This is a day they can watch 30 min of TV. Martha Speaks, all agree on and watch.
• 3 We tidy up house, load dishwasher, prep dinner pots, leave for a friend's house
• 4 The kids play with 8 kids ages 12-2y/o in their new play fort. I visit with a friend. She shares vegetables. I start home.
• 5 We are all home. We are all cleaning-vacuum, clean bedroom (sort of), lip sync to Rapunzel soundtrack, I'm getting snacks for baby and making dinner. Kids run out to play. Oh hi husband you surprised me home at 5:30! I know you've only been working this schedule for a year and a half... I read mail. I ask kids to set table
• 6:20 we sit down to a candlelight dinner. (The better to not see your food by.)
• 7 I leave for a home school meeting about my umbrella charter school.
• 9:10 home-- head spinning with changes. Exhausted.
• 10 bed.

This ended up being a typical "Good Day"; a day when we are progressing, our house is functional, the kids cooperative (relative term), I have patience to handle what comes, and we are learning even if its not exactly what I planned.

To some this may set heads spinning--and it does mine if I don't have that time to myself in the morning. But you get rhythms and habits and it starts to work. We've been at it for 4 years now and I see this being a turning point for us in terms of things actually coming together.
To others this may seem like not much is being accomplished--and yet it is. It's little bits here and there that add up over time.

FYI- Note, none of the laundry got folded for 2 days, and I slept in the next morning till 8am, which is kind of typical too.

Karma Counter-September

Sept 23-OUT
by 2 Kiwi's and a hug, arrived by freecycle : 4 drawer metal filing cabinet (good riddance ye hoarder of space!)

Sept 25-IN
from family- owl pellets, Miracle berries, MadMen dress, short hipster dress, several books, 2 Old Navy dresses, clothes for Kingfisher, 2 formal dresses for Mockingbird & Bowery Bird, new Grandma handmade dress for Bowery Bird--needed.
Sept 25-OUT
for family; 6 handmade lavendar sachets for the dryer out by plane (so sad to see them go-of course I'm talking about the family, Sheesh!)

Sept 27-IN
keyboard for Bowery Bird's piano practice--arrived by silver Honda (this is a loan, but so generous I break the rules to include it)

Sept 28-OUT
1 large garbage bag of misc. toys, Avent baby bottles, binders, women's and children's clothing to my favorite Vintage Charity Donation Boutique (Deseret Industries thrift store).

Sept 29-IN
4 lovely autumn-colored skirts--I'd previously admired-- arrived by doorbell with friend attached! (is this good karma already or what!)

The Man Who Planted Trees

We recently went to a unique play done by the Puppet State Theater Company of Scotland.

The Man Who Planted Trees is based on a children's book of the same title, and while not a true tale, you wish it was. Essentially, it is the biography of a man whose mission is to reforest an area by personally planting each seed, with no other motive than just doing what needs to be done.

This 2-man (and minimal puppets) show masterfully and repeatedly broke through the fourth wall at the onset continuing intermittently throughout the performance to an audience of 307 school children & chaperons. An adept actor took us unnoticeably from a witty repartee with Dog his real name), to the subtle narration of his hut's host, then bridge to the next scene. With the aid of Dog playing the straight man, each participant was immediately drawn in by not only the punch lines, but also the expert timing as we all awaited what we delightfully knew was coming.

With muted palette for both background and costumes, a tone was immediately set for this thought-provoking and unconventional hero's story. By its  contrast, the colorful birds swinging above, wafting scents of a lavender field, and actual spritzing of a forest's rain left all us literally reaching for more.

Habit Cards for the Refined

I got the idea from Our Learning Journey: A Journal for habit cards made with images from works of art and laminated.
If I were really cool, I'd have mine up on Google docs too. But i don't. Maybe someday.

So I scoured the Internet for pictures our family would like, my thinking being that if it's something we like to look at, we'll look at it...more.

So, the first day they were up the kids were very interested in reading the artist and titles. I still am.

Albrecht Durer was someone we had studied, and his detailed Praying Hands work perfectly here. Personally, I love his Rhinoceros more, but couldn't find a way to fit it into our day...

The Last of the Mohicans by N.C. Wyeth was a family favorite because we are part Mohawk (but those of us over 2 don't normally dress like this.)

Vincent Van Gogh makes a tidy Bedroom at Arles--even if his life was not.

We had recently read a children's version of Hamlet and found Ophelia's imminent death hilarious when paired with personal grooming. (insert carefree humming) And I wanted a Waterhouse...that wasn't topless.

Cezanne's Still Life with Compotier is a skewed and disheveled table--not still at all-- and appropriately, needing clean up.

The Wreck of the Covenant by N.C. Wyeth (from Kidnapped) makes bathing seem a delightful option, especially if you are recently shipwrecked.



Jessie Wilcox Smith of course, found her way into the mix more than once.

"But why do you have the Mona Lisa for 'Brush Teeth', mom? She isn't showing any teeth."

"And why not?...Because she didn't brush them and they look terrible--Let that be a lesson to you!"

In-A-Godda-Da-Vidda, Baby

 

"An expectant hush fellover the crowd. Strong men stared and shook their heads in wonderment that any rational person would so tempt fate as to eat something everyone knw was poisonous. Women held their breath; tehy say one faitnted. A medical doctor stood by. He had already advised both the crwd and his client that this mad act would result in frothing and foaming at the mouth, acute appendicitis, brain fever, possible stomach cancer, and , in all likelihood, certian suicide. The date was September 26, 1820; the place, the courthouse steps in Salem, New Jersey; teh principal actor, the eccentric Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson; the mad act, eating a basketful of raw tomatoes."

--from You Say Tomato, (quoted from The American Magazine and Historial Chronicle, Winter 1987-88)

Love IT. This year we planted our first garden.

Lest you think this is one of those deals on a drip system out back that I can shew the children in the general direction of for an afternoon snack--think again. This is our city's community garden. Nestled in a neighborhood that boasts it's own police outpost, cozied up against the tracks (116 cars in 8 min one day, Bowery Bird filmed it), within a padlocked, chain-linked fence--is our little haven of a garden. I know, pretty idyllic.

But it really has been. The fence means both I don't have to worry about animals and can let my children run free to make forts in the untamed areas once we are safely locked in. We've harvested much more than I thought possible from two 4x16' plots and really minimal effort aside from planting and watering. That's the nice thing about the high desert I guess--even weeds don't grow much here.

This little place has reminded me how much I love the smell of tomato plants. My parents tell of when I wasn't old enough to talk and crawled over our deck railing, and down a 7' 4x4 support to eat green tomatoes from our garden, then walk around to the front door and knock so my baffled mother could open the door and let me in.





My children, who have seen a lot more manicured lawns than I ever experienced, find it a place they can get filthy and dig and dump and let loose. I don't know who loves that more--me or them. It's a good place for us to be.

So I am pretty proud that this summer I've been able to follow-through with my first full-on garden. In all honesty, my Visiting Teacher (a.k.a. The Best Babysitter Ever, because she made root beer with my kids, took them to a pet store, told them to choose their favorite spool of ribbon to keep, and let them chase her cat) suggested I join her in doing a garden and really showed me how. She moved in August, leaving me literally to reap the rewards. She  became a friend and I truly miss her.