Congratulations Christian!

See what arrived in the mail for Christian?

He is making plans - 

plans to complete his undergraduate

and move on to a graduate program.

And this is the next step in the plan.

Congratulations, Christian!

Lifestyle of Learning: Volume 5

Being engaged in our community and the activities it has to offer has always been an essential part of our lifestyle of learning.  Until recently, we have gone to the library at least weekly where we have participated in everything from preschool programs to those intended for adults, we have accessed books, movies and computer games and have forged relationships with librarians who have shared their own interests and knowledge with us.  We have visited local, state and national parks sometimes just to play or move our bodies and sometimes to take advantage of a historically-related opportunity.  We have had memberships to and frequently visited zoos and museums.  We have enjoyed, either as a performer or a spectator, our community theatre.  We have created art with our local arts council and learned tae kwon do with our park board.  We have plugged in to our homeschool community by participating in a homeschool boy scout troop, participating in a homeschool physical education group, singing in a homeschool choir and going on field trips together.  We have taken advantage of the expertise of private shop owners learning, among other things, to ride horses, do ceramics, and fuse glass.   Also, I have included the boys, from a very young age, in doing my familial shopping and errands where they have learned what it takes to provide for the needs of a family and have learned many practical skills (i.e. comparison shopping).  I also never hesitated to take them in to art galleries and antique stores where they learned proper etiquette for such places and self-control, where they were exposed to historical artifacts that accessible and relatable, and where they were able to talk to small business owners about their entrepreneurial efforts.  Sometimes 'community as classroom' takes on a more literal interpretation and we find ourselves taking our more conventional learning resources (i.e. books) in to the community for a change of scenery.  All of these have given us the opportunity to learn new things and meet new people.  

Desiring to be introduced to new people and ideas and seeking to expand the borders of our comfort zones, I am always looking for new ways to be engaged in our community.  This week we had the opportunity to do just that.

Here is a glimpse of our lifestyle of learning for the week of February 27-March 2.

 Maceo and I went to a small movie theater that offers independent, foreign and local films.  We viewed "Amour" the Austrian movie performed in French that was nominated for an Academy Award for best film.  Maceo worked to analyze it from a cinematographical  perspective and was exposed to conversational French.  And we learned that we need to take advantage of this theater and its offerings more frequently.

Although we live within walking distance of a university and have at least three other colleges in our little city we have never taken advantage of the opportunities they offer...until this week.  Bishop and I went to our neighboring university to hear a holocaust survivor speak.  Eva Kor, who was forced to be a part of Mengele's twin studies at Auschwitz, spoke of her experiences and her road to forgiveness.  It was a cool experience and we most definitely need to be routinely checking the schedules of these colleges and universities.

And, of course, our adventures in learning continued at home.

Maceo's reading.

Lenten scripture readings and our Jesus tree.

Bishop is still studying the CNS.

Bishop making an edible spine.

Our life-size anatomy poster has found a home on our dining room door.

In true 'lifestyle of learning' form we had a little serendipitous learning this week in the form of natural observation.  First I have a confession to make: the pumpkins that decorated my porch for Halloween and Thanksgiving were never properly disposed of, they were moved to a discreet corner of the porch where they have remained throughout the winter, decaying slowly.  As winter stretches on the squirrels have turned to the pumpkins for their meals.  Although we have not caught them in the act of munching on the pumpkins we have enjoyed looking for evidence that they have indeed been feasting.  We have seen teeth marks on the skin of the pumpkins as they attempt to get to the interior of the pumpkin.  We have seen the shells of the pumpkin seeds after they have cracked them open and eaten the meat of the seed.  We have seen squirrel scat and many a footprint left by our furry neighbors.

It has been a delightful week of learning!

Winter Wonderland Fun

This winter wonderland is what Bishop has been dreaming of!

And this is the moment he has been waiting for!

What wonderful winterland fun!

Scenes from my Morning Constitutional

Lifestyle of Learning: Volume 4

One of the things that is so appealing about homeschooling is that it is so flexible and adaptable.  I know each of my children very well.  I know their strengths and weaknesses, the things that they are interested in and those that they dislike, and their personalities and temperaments.  One of my goals is to create a learning environment that best suits each individual child.  This is often times difficult to do, particularly when you have children that are nearly polar opposites of each other.  It requires a lot of time, energy, consideration and prayer.  There are other confounding factors as well.  These children are always growing, shifting, changing and their learning environment must grow and shift and change as well.  Also, their learning environment is impacted by my strengths and weaknesses, my interests and dislikes, my personality, my mood, my personal struggles and insecurities.  Other family members and situations we find our family facing all have an impact on the learning environment.  I am always struggling for the 'right fit'.  Sometimes I find myself feeling overwhelmed or insecure and adjust what we are doing and how we are doing it only to find that I have failed to exploit one of the things that I find most appealing and valuable about homeschooling - its flexibility and the ability to adjust the learning environment to best suit the needs of each individual.  Recently I made one of those changes.  I began to feel as if we weren't covering enough material in some subject matters, that the children's studies weren't rigorous enough so I began to present the material in a fashion that allowed us to get through far more material.  I began to "teach" in a more conventional fashion.  I created 'riveting' lectures complete with pictures and music to put events in to context.  I created fun ways to record all this new-found knowledge but, alas, this did not go over as well as I had imagined.  My students were not hanging on every word I spoke.  Bishop enjoyed the time that he got to spend with me but Maceo yearned for independence.  So, in an effort to be flexible and adaptable as homeschooling allows for, I have adjusted things again.  The plan for the week is that Maceo will have control over his schedule.  I will make note of things that I want him to accomplish and he is responsible for getting it done.  Bishop and I are going to work one on one.  And it has worked fabulously this week.  Tension has been reduced and enthusiasm has been revived.

Here is a little of what we have been up to this past week.  (Please keep in mind that Maceo is working independently so there aren't any pictures of him and his work.  I will have to rectify that.)

I now present February 17-23:

An invitation to explore the human body.

Baskets of resources to play with and peruse.

Yet another invitation.

And the first thing he grabbed was the Somebody game.

We played, he won.

Identifying parts of cells and their respective functions after having listened to a rap about cells.

This human body model is truly inviting. (Even Maceo can't keep his hands off of it).

Preparing a slide so as to examine cells.

Bishop LOVES the microscope.

He looked at cheek cells, onion skin, mold, prepared slides of plant and water life, and just about everything on the nature table.

Another invitation - let's look at the central nervous system.

Lunch and an introduction to the systems of the body.

The making of a mini-book.

-Ectomy: a fabulous game about the parts of the brain and their functions.

We played, he won.  (I am beginning to see a trend here).

Welcoming the newest scouts to the troop.

Bishop and I began to study the human body.  I prepared materials as if it was a unit study but I simply use it all as a guide, a jumping off point and I allow Bishop to pursue in depth that which grabs his attention.  Maceo studied history, math, logic and form drawing independently.  He also spent a great deal of time researching the movies nominated for an Academy Award.  I love when he gets immersed in a subject matter such as this one.  This is when I see the greatest educational gains for him.  He will expose himself to a great deal of new information and many a new idea will develop as he independently researches those things that catch his fancy.  (I will definitely write more on that later).

Maceo and Bishop both attended their first funeral and learned a great deal about empathy and kindness and compassion as they extended themselves to their friend who just lost his mother.
Life has so many lessons in store for us. 

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of our now one-year-old Ella.

Her mommy and daddy had a most wonderful party for her.

I am currently wading through the plethora of pictures that I took and will create a more extensive post later but for now let me just say,

"Thanks for the great party and happy birthday sweet girl."

The Magic of an Icy World

Thursday arrived accompanied by an ice storm.  Off and on through a good portion of the day sheets of ice rained from the sky dressing the world in layer after layer of glistening ice.  Blessedly, it was not enough ice to take down our power lines or fell any of our fragile trees but it was enough to compel us to hibernate on Thursday and to move slowly, cautiously, yesterday.  But yesterday Bishop and I did venture forth and explore the icy world just a bit.

We found that the natural world looked and felt particularly interesting dressed in its icy finery.

And man made items had a special appeal when coated with ice as well.

And, of course, the ice had to be explored in a variety of ways - touching, sliding, and breaking.

I have no pictures of this but of particular interest to Bishop was the removal of ice from the Jeep.  It is a soft-top and removing ice from the canvas simply requires hitting it - hit the canvas and the ice shatters.  Bishop was eager to have the responsibility of clearing the ice from the jeep.  He really loved removing it from the roof - if you hit the roof of the jeep from the interior it breaks up the ice on the outside and sends it flying.  It is really quite a sight to behold.

Today I went for a little walk.  The world was really quite silent until I happened upon this magnolia.  As I was passing this tree I could consistently hear bits of ice tinkling as they made their way through the leaves and branches of the tree.  At first glance the tree didn't appear as if it had much ice on it but if you look closely,

I mean, really look closely,

you will see the tiniest icicles dangling off of nearly every leaf.

As the morning sun was warming this tree the icicles were falling off, tinkling through the branches, and laying like shimmery confetti on the ground beneath.

It was truly magical.

An icy world can be truly magical.