Saturday, March 28, 2009
David Copperfield
Today I did laundry, more laundry, and then some more laundry. While I was folding (and cleaning my room, which is no small incident) I watched Masterpiece Theater's David Copperfield starring the very young Daniel Radcliffe (spelling?). For the poor unfortunate souls out there who do not know what Masterpiece Theater is- it is exactly what the name implies. It airs on PBS every Sunday night. They take a classic novel (a masterpiece) and turn it into a movie. They do an excellent job. So if you don't want to read a 900 page novel from the eighteen century but you want a little culture than you should give Masterpiece Theater a try. Occasionally, and I really mean occasionally (hardly ever) they have something really distasteful. But usually they are so clean, so beautiful, and so compelling. We love them. Anyway....David Copperfield is my all time favorite novel by Charles Dickens and the movie is very true to the book. It is four hours long so it got me through mountains of laundry.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Schedule and Knitting
We learned how to knit today! A small miracle. Even Anna can knit. Now, her knitting looks different than mine, but she loves it and is very proud of it, and spent hours on it. For those that don't know-knitting is with two long needles, pointy ant one end, like a nail at the other end. We are knitting bags for our knitting stuff. They started out as scarves unfortunately, but will end up being bags because they are turning out wider than we thought they would be.
So where did we learn to knit. 4-H. I feel like such a hick typing 4-H. 4-H is usually learning how to take care of livestock such as sheep, pigs, goats, ect. and then ultimately selling the animal for a profit at the end. It is a very big thing around here. But they also have homemaking areas of 4-H. My friend that invited us to her 4-H group is a homeschooling mom. She has 3 kids in college (all previously homeschooled) and 3 at home, currently homeschooled. She has been a great resource so far. Before I ever met her, I sat in front of her at stake conference. I was drawn to her for unexplainable reasons. I struck up a conversation with her after conference and the spirit kept screaming at me, "Ask her if she homeschools." Now what are the chances? Why would I ask that? After the spirit told me like 12 times, I asked her and she said "yes, for 20 years and I have 3 in college. We love it, ect, ect." Wow. That was amazing. So Amie is her name and she and her 16 year old daughter taught how to knit today.
I was really proud of my girls. They were so polite and patient. Knitting is pretty easy when you get the hang of it, but is pretty hard at first. I'm very excited about it.
Schedules. Oh boy. I feel like Mom. I have had many, many conversations with Mom about her schedule. I also spent a few hours this week discussing organizing containers with Amy....
Back to schedules. Sighhhhhhhh......... It is very hard for me. Hard like say......running a marathon would be for me, or going a whole week or even a day without hurting myself. However, I am wondering now that I've been home a whopping week, since I went on my California vacation, I am discovering I get confused and overwhelmed at how to use my time. I get an anxiety stomach ache. (I'm getting one now just thinking about all of this.) Then I get frustrated and depressed and surf the internet, sleep, or eat. Utter wastes of my life. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty to do. Plenty of fun things to do too, but can't bring myself to prioritize and commit to doing anything that ultimately is not super duper easy! Completely and totally pathetic! Sighhhhh again.
What to do about my problem? Become obsessed with it of course. I've read and read about schedules and decided I need to succumb. I found a web site that offers products to homeschoolers. They have a book/system that I bought called Managers of the Home, from here on out referred to as MOTH. I'm excited, scared and somewhat hopeful. The system includes a 200 page book, as well as charts and organizers. What I really need is to go to a week long "Schedule Camp for Moms" . However, I never saw that advertised online. If you ever see that available, let me know. Anyway, I have a gut feeling that MOTH is the next best thing to a mommy camp, and hope, so much, it will help me.
So where did we learn to knit. 4-H. I feel like such a hick typing 4-H. 4-H is usually learning how to take care of livestock such as sheep, pigs, goats, ect. and then ultimately selling the animal for a profit at the end. It is a very big thing around here. But they also have homemaking areas of 4-H. My friend that invited us to her 4-H group is a homeschooling mom. She has 3 kids in college (all previously homeschooled) and 3 at home, currently homeschooled. She has been a great resource so far. Before I ever met her, I sat in front of her at stake conference. I was drawn to her for unexplainable reasons. I struck up a conversation with her after conference and the spirit kept screaming at me, "Ask her if she homeschools." Now what are the chances? Why would I ask that? After the spirit told me like 12 times, I asked her and she said "yes, for 20 years and I have 3 in college. We love it, ect, ect." Wow. That was amazing. So Amie is her name and she and her 16 year old daughter taught how to knit today.
I was really proud of my girls. They were so polite and patient. Knitting is pretty easy when you get the hang of it, but is pretty hard at first. I'm very excited about it.
Schedules. Oh boy. I feel like Mom. I have had many, many conversations with Mom about her schedule. I also spent a few hours this week discussing organizing containers with Amy....
Back to schedules. Sighhhhhhhh......... It is very hard for me. Hard like say......running a marathon would be for me, or going a whole week or even a day without hurting myself. However, I am wondering now that I've been home a whopping week, since I went on my California vacation, I am discovering I get confused and overwhelmed at how to use my time. I get an anxiety stomach ache. (I'm getting one now just thinking about all of this.) Then I get frustrated and depressed and surf the internet, sleep, or eat. Utter wastes of my life. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty to do. Plenty of fun things to do too, but can't bring myself to prioritize and commit to doing anything that ultimately is not super duper easy! Completely and totally pathetic! Sighhhhh again.
What to do about my problem? Become obsessed with it of course. I've read and read about schedules and decided I need to succumb. I found a web site that offers products to homeschoolers. They have a book/system that I bought called Managers of the Home, from here on out referred to as MOTH. I'm excited, scared and somewhat hopeful. The system includes a 200 page book, as well as charts and organizers. What I really need is to go to a week long "Schedule Camp for Moms" . However, I never saw that advertised online. If you ever see that available, let me know. Anyway, I have a gut feeling that MOTH is the next best thing to a mommy camp, and hope, so much, it will help me.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
No Longer Confused
Well, it's been 4 1/2 months since I've cared to post and share my life with anyone. But it's been a week now since I've had to teach at school and decided it's about time. I want to read all of your blogs and start participating again. I love you all and I miss you.
So, most of you know by now that I took my children out of school on my last day. We are officially homeschoolers, or home learners as Darin and I would like to label ourselves. We are not doing school at home. We are not bringing school home. However, we hope our home will be a place where learning flourishes--whether by study, experimentation, writing or play. Already the girls have shown me how motivated they are to learn. Anna found a Readers Digest book on North American birds at the library in the adult section. It is basically an encylopedia of birds. I assumed it would go unread. How wrong I was. Both girls have spent hours pouring over the book. Aliese just printed her third newspaper. Her most recent edition has two articles and the weather forecast. One of the articles is the second in a series about birds. The other article is about the Boston Tea Party spurned on by the reenactment of the Boston Tea Party that occured this past week. She spends hours researching, writing, rewriting, and typing her paper. Anna requested a math assignment today. Anna wrote a story yesterday for the Reading Rainbow contest. This is all with grandparents visiting!
I realize that it won't always be wonderful, but these last few days have been so wonderful. They are already playing together better, and laughing more. Some of you might like to know my plans for curriculum. Well, I'm not altogether sure. This much I know, for now while we detox our systems and minds from the pressures of school, it's going to be pretty laid back. They both read and write all day. I'm going to insist on music every day. Eventually I will probably adopt a math curriculum, but I'm not ready for that yet. Until then we will concentrate on math facts, money and telling time when they are in the mood for math. I've been very unimpressed with their math experience this far, and I think we need some good drilling in the basics. Otherwise, for now, I think all of the other subjects will easily be covered if I am here to help my children learn what they are interested at the moment. For now the interest seems to be birds and Aliese is particularly interested in the Great Depression. We have two libraries to go to and we will check out as much of whatever they want every week.
I am really, really excited. I probably read 1000 pages last month about homeschooling. The more I read, the more convinced I became. With each book I had more clarity of thought and more love and warmth for my children. I really really really hope that our home learning will last along time. I have a completely different perspective on it than I did last time when we did it with Aliese. I also have a different perspective on being home and working outside the home. I realize now how truly wonderful it is to be at home. I know now how awful it is to work outside the home. I appreciate my husband so much more than I ever did before. I'm so grateful he goes to work everyday without complaint even though he would rather be home with us or out golfing. I really hated working and I was not a happy person when I got home either. I, with the girls, took at least an hour to enjoy being together after a long day at school. The longer the evening went on, the better we got along. The further we were away from school the more we liked each other. And then we'd have to get up the next day and do it all over again. Now we wake up liking each other, and we get to be together all day liking each other!
I'm getting tired of typing. I'll fill you all in more later.
Love you all.
So, most of you know by now that I took my children out of school on my last day. We are officially homeschoolers, or home learners as Darin and I would like to label ourselves. We are not doing school at home. We are not bringing school home. However, we hope our home will be a place where learning flourishes--whether by study, experimentation, writing or play. Already the girls have shown me how motivated they are to learn. Anna found a Readers Digest book on North American birds at the library in the adult section. It is basically an encylopedia of birds. I assumed it would go unread. How wrong I was. Both girls have spent hours pouring over the book. Aliese just printed her third newspaper. Her most recent edition has two articles and the weather forecast. One of the articles is the second in a series about birds. The other article is about the Boston Tea Party spurned on by the reenactment of the Boston Tea Party that occured this past week. She spends hours researching, writing, rewriting, and typing her paper. Anna requested a math assignment today. Anna wrote a story yesterday for the Reading Rainbow contest. This is all with grandparents visiting!
I realize that it won't always be wonderful, but these last few days have been so wonderful. They are already playing together better, and laughing more. Some of you might like to know my plans for curriculum. Well, I'm not altogether sure. This much I know, for now while we detox our systems and minds from the pressures of school, it's going to be pretty laid back. They both read and write all day. I'm going to insist on music every day. Eventually I will probably adopt a math curriculum, but I'm not ready for that yet. Until then we will concentrate on math facts, money and telling time when they are in the mood for math. I've been very unimpressed with their math experience this far, and I think we need some good drilling in the basics. Otherwise, for now, I think all of the other subjects will easily be covered if I am here to help my children learn what they are interested at the moment. For now the interest seems to be birds and Aliese is particularly interested in the Great Depression. We have two libraries to go to and we will check out as much of whatever they want every week.
I am really, really excited. I probably read 1000 pages last month about homeschooling. The more I read, the more convinced I became. With each book I had more clarity of thought and more love and warmth for my children. I really really really hope that our home learning will last along time. I have a completely different perspective on it than I did last time when we did it with Aliese. I also have a different perspective on being home and working outside the home. I realize now how truly wonderful it is to be at home. I know now how awful it is to work outside the home. I appreciate my husband so much more than I ever did before. I'm so grateful he goes to work everyday without complaint even though he would rather be home with us or out golfing. I really hated working and I was not a happy person when I got home either. I, with the girls, took at least an hour to enjoy being together after a long day at school. The longer the evening went on, the better we got along. The further we were away from school the more we liked each other. And then we'd have to get up the next day and do it all over again. Now we wake up liking each other, and we get to be together all day liking each other!
I'm getting tired of typing. I'll fill you all in more later.
Love you all.
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