Sketch Tuesday: Music Store

Last week's assignment was to draw something you find in a toolbox.

Here is your slideshow: Something in a toolbox.



This week's assignment, due Monday, December 6th: Sketch you find in a music store.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, December 6th and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

NotebookingPages.com- Awesome Sale and Opportunity!

NotebookingPages.com is having a terrific sale starting today and ending on Monday, November 29, 2010.

Becoming a Treasury Member is a great way to save lots of money and have at your fingertips an abundance of pages to adapt and use in your homeschooling week. What do you get as a member? During your membership period you will receive access to all the current notebook pages on the website, member's only pages (awesome stuff in here), and everything offered during your subscription period indefinitely. See the NotebookingPages.com website for more specifics. Click over to read the wonderful article on using notebook pages in your family.

If you are a Treasury Member you already have access to the newest products and I encourage you to try them out. I am especially liking the idea of the 3-D templates which boost your plain notebook page up to a lapbook sort of page without a lot of effort. She has the base pages and the templates all sized and ready to print and adapt to whatever study you are completing at the time. The other product that has a lot of potential even for my older students are the new A-Z Animals Notebooking Pages. These are not juvenile in the least and could be adapted to your nature journal, a biology notebook, or to pull out when an animal becomes of interest. You can preview both these new products by clicking the button above.


What Do I Personally Think About the Treasury Membership?
I have had several people ask me about the Treasury Membership and whether I thought it was worth the price. Would it help to say that I would purchase a membership if I were starting with my children in elementary grades with no hesitation? I also think it is well worth the price if you are going to be using premade notebooking pages for any of your upper grades too. We use notebook pages in our high school courses every week and it makes a great way to record shorter, informal narrations in history, science, art and music appreciation, and even literature.

If you have thought of purchasing a set of notebook pages or if you are ready to become a Treasury Member, now is a great time to do so with the special promotion prices. Just to let you know, I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com and I will receive a commission if you purchase anything using my links. If you would like to know more how I use lots of NotebookingPages.com's pages in our home school, check out the tab at the top of my blog for loads of ideas.

Bonus Gifts With This Particular Promotion- Including Something From Harmony Art Mom
Also, with this promotion they are giving away a whole bunch of free stuff from affiliates. As part of the promotion, I have contributed a short autumn study of oak and acorns, which includes three notebook pages.



Don't miss this opportunity to save a lot of money on a homeschooling tool you will use for many years to come.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Tool Box

Last week's assignment was to sketch something you use to clean the house. One mom commented that she thought her children were going to draw a picture of her cleaning but they didn't...too funny. Enjoy your slideshow.

Here is your slideshow: Something you use to clean the house.




Next week's assignment, due Monday, November 29th: 
Sketch something you find in a toolbox. 

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, November 29th and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Weekly Wrap-Up: Highlights Only Edition

This Weekly Wrap-Up focuses on just a few highlights from our week since I ended up going in depth about our creative writing course, making this rather long. After two rather meaty posts this week you are all probably weary of my shenanigans so I will spare you the gory details of another week with Harmony Art Mom.  I promise...highlights only.

Literature: We are starting new round of literature books and a new poet this week. I have to say that The Chosen has the best first chapter that I have read in a really long time. The writing style, the vocabulary, and the subject matter all grabbed me from the very first page. I am looking forward to reading more in the weeks to come. The other book we started was The Crucible (more intriguing than I remember) and our poet is Robert Frost. Mr. A is going to memorize The Road Not Taken over the next six weeks.

Astronomy: I haven't been relating too much about this course lately because it has sort of fallen flat. We sat last week together and discussed direction and changes that need to be made in order to get this going again. Mr. B had some great input and I realized I need to participate a little bit more with his night time activities since he doesn't like going out and observing the sky at night by himself. I agree that when we do it together we have a great time. I mention this just to illustrate how the mechanics of self-educating work since it doesn't always seem to be in a straight line. I will be trying to be better at sharing how that looks in our family.


Baking: This week our special treat was Puffy Apple Oven Pancake. Delicious!


Art: Mr. A finished painting his closet doors and here they are all back in place. He found an image online that he liked and sketched it onto the doors with pencil he then went back with a very small thin brush and painted the design in.



Ancient History: We are starting a study of Ancient Greece.....mostly in context with the Iliad and mythology. So it really is a study of ancient Greece from a literature point of view. I guess we could also say that we are tying in our Bible reading too since we are reading in the book of Acts as part of our family Bible study. Now that I think about it, we are also examining ancient Greek art and architecture which may just turn this "ancient history" course more into a "humanities" study. When the plans said "Ancient Greece" at the beginning of the week Mr. B sort of looked at me with a look that said, "Ancient Greece, again?" But now looking back on it from the Friday perspective it is easy to see that we have covered lots of new ground and made some new connections other than the same old study of Greece.

Creative Writing: I realize I haven't said much about Mr. B's pursuit of a more "creative" writing course. We worked through the Write Your Own Science Fiction  book but Mr. B couldn't pull a complete idea for his own science fiction story to round out his work. I decided that what he did write as he went through the book was so good that I didn't want to sour the whole thing with forcing a story. No use in doing that. The quest for finding a new creative writing plan was looming before me and I spent too many hours researching and digging through websites and blogs trying to find something that would fit Mr. B's needs. I came up with a big zero.

Here is where I have to humbly admit that I felt a great sense of frustration and failure. Mr. B was depending on me to get something going again but it just wasn't happening. Here is the most humbling part. After relating the whole situation to my husband, he in just one sentence solved the problem. He told me to ask Mr. B what he wanted to do next. Could it really be that simple? Turns out it was and after talking to Mr. B he outlined a perfect plan for more creative writing that fits him like a glove. He admitted that he loves to read and then respond to the reading. He was hoping to read some extra books and then use those as jumping off spots for his creative writing. I love the idea since it fits my thoughts about how great writers are usually great readers as well.

So my wheels started turning and I remembered that I had on my shelf from years past the dictation/copywork/spelling program from Simply Charlotte Mason called Spelling Wisdom. It would be a wonderful source for his literary quotes and I immediately was able to glean some great ones for Mr. B to read and then respond to in some way. I also picked a few literature books (The Cay as the first one.) to build on and I pulled our short story anthology down to pick some of those for future assignments. The plan is now a mix of several different items all woven together. I promise to give you some of the plans in a future post. This was our first week using the new plan and he floored me with his writing. I will include samples in the future post as well. I am hoping to polish the idea up and make it even better as we go along since I see this as a course that will span into next year as well.

So there is my "highlights only" edition of our weekly wrap-up....lots of great stuff and much more I could write about but I will save it for another time. We are heading into a weekend of stormy weather, possibly some snow tomorrow night and Sunday morning. This meant we had to get out and winterize the yard a little in preparation and fill up the birdfeeders. The boys this morning saw a red-tailed hawk land on a post in our backyard and they both came running in breathless with excitement, both talking at once and both wishing I had seen it too. I told them they were given a gift by being in the right place at the right time. Off to make some tea....

Barb-Harmony Art Mom



Literature Resources





Creative Writing Resources

Self-Education-Clarification

In my last post I talked about how my boys are moving in the direction of being totally self-educated. After reading email and comments, I think I should probably clarify what I mean since it seems like what I had mind was misinterpreted by some readers. I apologize in advance for the long post...hardly seems like a clarification if it is longer then the original post. I never want to discourage anyone so I feel moved to make some things a little clearer.

Self-education in our family is not code for unschooling. I am not leaving the direction of our homeschooling totally up to them or to chance. Self-educating defines our method after choosing courses and then how we offer those courses within our homeschooling goals for the year. I talk a lot about goals and pursing specific skills here on the blog so it will be no surprise that I feel that is where the self-education begins. Once we have goals and skills desired for the year defined, our courses are chosen, focus is sharpened, and the boys have input about how the direction of our homeschooling is going. If you read my Weekly Wrap-Up posts you can get glimpses into how this translates into daily and weekly assignments.

The other point that I want to emphasis is that self-education is not something that is easy with younger children. I would never have expected my boys to be able to do what they do now even perhaps as late as middle school. I have done a lot of reading about the classical ideas of stages in learning (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and in my experience the self-education trend happened in our family when my boys hit the rhetoric stage of development. They began to apply what they were learning to themselves and their world. this translated into questions they wished to pursue. (Here is an excellent article by Susan Wise-Bauer if you are interested in reading more: The Joy of Classical Education.)

History and literature began to have context and they could form questions about their reading and wonder how it all fit in with other things they were learning. A great example of this is Mr. A and his study of modern history, government, and economics. Suddenly reading about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison has context beyond just their biographies. Mr. A is trying to grapple with the fundamentals of our country's legal and political system and how it has played out in the 20th and 21st centuries. He jumps on the internet and finds the primary sources to read because they now have meaning as he reads about the mechanics of a presidential election or how the government can manipulate the economy. Self-education just seems to stem from a desire to be able to ask great questions after reading about ideas and then knowing how to go about answering them. Once they have those answers, my boys enjoy talking or writing about them because it seems a logical conclusion to their self-driven pursuits. I didn't see this happening until high school.

There is a time for explaining and I certainly didn't mean that I don't answer questions that come up but more often than not I use a Socratic sort of discussion to help my children make sense of what they are learning. (If you are interested in learning more about how to do that, I highly recommend this article by Marcia Sommerville on Socratic discussion and her explanation of the READ-THINK-WRITE way of learning.)

Another thing that ends up leading  my boys to self-education is that I never claim to know all the answers which has helped them be more comfortable seeing me as their fellow learner. Honestly, Mr. A and I have tackled some math in the last few weeks that I don't ever remember covering before. I frankly tell him that I don't know the answer and then we work at it together. The key is that I have left myself available to answer when needed. If I don't feel equipped to help, we go to outside sources like the internet to find the answer. I will sometimes tell him to look it up and then have him tell me what he finds out and this is a great way to not only build his confidence by being the new "expert" but it helps solidify the material in his mind by his teaching it to me. I am not totally hands-off as far as school goes and if I gave that impression I apologize. I am more engaged in their learning than ever before and spend more time trying to keep abreast so I can not only be the guide that Charlotte Mason talks about but also the friend or learning companion.

Self-education is also something that needs to be modeled. If all your children have ever known is a more regimented textbook, workbook, fill in the blanks sort of learning style, the more foreign it will be for them to shift over to a more question based, discussion based style of learning.We have gradually and naturally shifted to our current way of homeschooling. I have gradually become more concentrated in my efforts to learn alongside my boys because I see how it benefits them in the long run. I can't emphasis enough how much homeschooling in high school is different than the lower grades. It is very different. I am continually feeling as if I am in over my head but when I stop and analyze things, I realize it is okay because I don't need to be the proverbial bucket filling up my children's educational cup. They are filling it up for themselves and only occasionally needing me to guide them to more water.

Sorry for the long clarification but I thought it was important enough that I wanted to make sure that what I said in my last post was not used to mislead another mom or even worse, discourage her. My point yesterday was to help those coming after me, perhaps just starting out in homeschooling or those that have younger children, to see that there is a great experience opportunity if you just keep at it.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

"Guide, Philosopher, and Friend"

"In urging a method of self-education for children in lieu of the vicarious education which prevails, I should like to dwell on the enormous relief to teachers, a self-sacrificing and greatly overburdened class; the difference is just that between driving a horse that is light and a horse that is heavy in hand; the former covers the ground of his own gay will and the driver goes merrily. The teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of books is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend; and is no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding." Charlotte Mason, volume 6 page 32

I have been attempting to read a little more of Charlotte Mason's ideas each week to keep myself encouraged and refreshed by the simple principles shared in her writings. Although I sometimes have a hard time distilling her words into practice, today when I was reading this section in volume six it resonated with my current experience in attempting to educate my high school age sons. As the year is slipping by, I can see how they are self-educating in all areas and my role is just as Charlotte Mason described in this section, that of  "guide, philosopher, and friend". I am becoming more of a learning companion and a fellow learner.

In this same section of volume six, Charlotte Mason says that many teachers flood their students with explanation, with busy-work, and with activities that don't really teach them anything. I try hard not to fall into those traps by making an effort to remember that guiding is better than explaining and this allows space for their own thoughts instead of pointing them towards a desired conclusion. They are making their own connections with the books and ideas this way and not just spilling back onto paper what they are told to remember.

How about another little gem from Charlotte Mason?

"Knowledge for its own sake is pleasing because it's so fulfilling. When you see evidence that a student in your class shares your delight in knowing, and shares your pleasure in expressing what he knows, and shares your affinity for some wise philosopher or brave hero, you both connect and share a kind of bond."
Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 6, page 92.

A real hunger for learning and knowledge is an amazing thing to see and to share with your children. It can happen over time. Every tear that is shed in private over our own lack of confidence will soon dry when we realize that "all children want to know everything". (Although I must admit that with teens it is sometimes hidden with a hint of an attitude.)

It is a worthy quest to help your children become self-educators over time. I highly recommend reading Charlotte Mason's volume 6 even if you can only read a few pages at a time. You can read online at the links above.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Housework

Last week's assignment was to sketch something you use to treat a cold or the flu. I loved the ones with bowls of chicken soup! Thank you all for your participation.

Here is your slideshow: Something to treat a cold or the flu.



This week's assignment, due Monday, November 22, 2010: 
Sketch something you use to clean the house.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, November 22nd and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

I am in the process of cleaning up and reorganizing my blogs this week. Please make sure to look at the tabs at the top of the blog to find things that were previously found in the sidebars. I am hoping to get things a little more organized so new readers will not be overwhelmed and long-time readers can find items they are looking for more quickly. Thanks for your patience and support.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom
 

Weekly Wrap-Up: First Unexpected Snow Trip of the Season

I was not aware that my husband had yesterday off because of the holiday so we took a last minute day trip up into the mountains. I had heard reports that it had snowed but I was not aware of how much it had snowed until we were on the road. Talk about a gorgeous day! The sun was brilliant and the roads were clear so looking out at the snow on the Sierra was magnificent. It was truly refreshing.


The day went by too fast and with the time change it was getting dark before we made our full circle back home again. One last stop was made at Inspiration Point to take a one last cold photo in the fading light. Now the boys have turned their thoughts to winter sports.

The rest of our week went by really fast, our November routine helping to keep us moving forward through our studies. Here are some highlights from our week.


Chemistry Update: Cleaning off my science shelf, I realized I had a Spectroscope kit from Home Science Tools that we could add to our normal plans this week. The kit includes all the materials to flame test a group of chemicals to see the color of the flames they make. There is also a booklet and lab sheet with the kit to record your results. My boys loved this kit and happily burned chemicals for a long time, noting each time something new about the various properties of each one. Mr. B says, "Now this is chemistry!" I think that sums it up.

History: As part of Mr. A's history, he read All the President's Men by Bob Woodward.  He enjoyed the book so much that this week he started The Brethren by the same author. If you are unfamiliar with the first book it is about the Nixon years and Watergate. The second book is about the Supreme Court. Can you tell that I am surprised that he is choosing to read another somewhat political book all on his own? Pleasantly surprised. I love the way these books fit into our government study and give the mechanics of the government some faces that Mr. A can relate to as he sees how things work out in real life.



Mr. B read the Ray Bradbury time-traveling short story, The Sound of Thunder. What a classic! We had fun deciding why the butterfly changed the course of the story. You can read this one yourself in this online PDF.

Mr. B also started some new projects in his afternoon time. He has started building a self-parking car with his robotics kit. I am not sure what this project is all about but I will keep you posted. He is working on a videography project that will document his study of Ancient Egypt using Corel.


Art this week was working with neutral colors and I saw him printing out some examples of paintings that feature neutrals, not sure what he is going to be doing with those. He also finished his Manet study with a notebooking page.  His recipe of the week is Chocolate Crinkle Cookies...an all-time favorite with me and so yummy.

Mr. A wants me to say that geometry is *not* his favorite subject. I am giving him lots of credit for sticking with it even though he is not enjoying much about math this year. It is a good thing he is almost finished with his book and he can be finished with his math altogether for the year.

I think those are the most interesting things we did this week and probably the best examples to share as far as our personalized high school plans. Homeschooling can be incredibly satisfying as far as being able to offer activities that are meaningful to your kids and to see their growing interests in topics beyond what you offer. It always turns out better than I hoped if I just stick with it.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

To those reading in a reader or email: Click over to the blog if you want to see the Amazon links for things referred to in this post.

What November Brings to Our Lives

November is here and bringing with it a sense of endings.

The end of summer, the end of barefoot days, and the end of long after dinner walks. The rhythm changes and we settle into a slower routine around our house. Perhaps slower is not the proper word for the change but rather a more deliberate pace.

Mornings are not bursting with sunshine and bird song but cups of hot cocoa and snuggles with the cat on the sofa. School is a comfortable and predictable activity that we go about without much hesitation. Afternoons are wrapping up with my time spent in the kitchen either alone or with a helper making dinner and more often than not now a delicious dessert. The oven is no longer the enemy and we turn it on to prepare a meal and to warm the house. Evenings are much slower in the autumn and filled with conversation and reading.

Slowing down to savor the warm things in our lives, we adjust to the November pace.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

(I guess November makes me a little more reflective as well.)

You may wish to check out my Autumn Outdoor Hour Challenges on Squidoo...maybe it will inspire your November. Book recommendations, music suggestions, art to view, and all of the autumn challenges from 2009 organized into one place.

Sketch Tuesday: Common Cold

This was a really fun assignment and I love the variety of sketches sent in for the slideshow.Thanks to all the participants.


Here is your slideshow:

Something Made in China

This week's assignment due Monday, November 15th, 2010:
Sketch something you use to treat a cold or the flu.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, November 15th and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Have fun sketching,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Poetry Study for High Schoolers Part 3

Here is the next batch of poetry assignments we used to finish our study of Robert Browning.

Week 7:
Read as many of his poems this week as you can fit into the allotted time. Make sure to keep a list of the poems you read in your literature journal. Read this section on SparkNotes about My Duchess. Does the use of couplets in this poem add to or distract from the poem?

Week 8 (similar to Week 2):
Choose one poem and answer one of the questions for your poetry journal.
(Here is a LINK to a list similar to ours. My son chose, "Who is the speaker and what kind of person is he?")

Week 9 (similar to Week 5):
Choose a poem and print it out. Use a highlighter to mark strong words or images in the poem. Decide on the mood/tone of the poem.  Here is a list of words you can use to describe the mood of a poem: Tone and Mood List. This week though let's have some fun with tone/mood.
1. Write a stanza from your poem this week into your journal, replacing highlighted words with synonyms.
2. Compare the two versions and tell me how your word choices changed the mood/tone of the poem.
This was a really fun assignment and at my suggestion Mr. A used the thesaurus to find words to substitute.We learned a lot about word choice and their influence on the whole feeling of a poem.


Week 10:
We can't leave our study of Robert Browning without having talked about Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Read a love poem from each poet and compare the words and feelings.
How Do I Love Thee?
Life in a Love

Our little amphibian from our walking trail last week.

Week 11:
Pick one poem from your reading and choose a stanza to memorize (at least 4 lines). Use the suggestions from this website (Rule #1) to implement with your reading. Be ready to tell me what the lines mean.
(Mr. A chose the poem Amphibian and did a great job at reciting his stanza at our Friday meeting.)

Week 12:
Our last week with Robert Browning calls for a short biographical notebook page. Pick one last poem to share with me on Friday. Have the poem printed out for your journal and highlight any words you like or think are especially fitting to the poem's tone/mood.

That wraps up our second poet of the year and I think my son is finally truly understanding how word choices effect the tone and mood of a poem. I think we are going to move on to another literary device now that he has this one solidly fixed in his mind. We are heading into a study of Robert Frost next! I can hardly wait! This poet is actually included in our Tapestry of Grace Year 4 Classic plans so I will be gleaning a few ideas from there for sure.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Determined to Get It Written Edition

I had every intention of posting a wrap-up post the last two Fridays but it just has not happened with all the things going on around here. Nothing too exciting or earth shattering to keep me from writing but it has been the everyday stuff that happens when you have a busy and full household. Bear in mind then, this post contains snips from the last three weeks of school.


Chemistry is in dire need of some new life. It has lost its zing and although we are enjoying the materials we are working on, I think I need to come up with something new to breathe some new life into it. Suggestions are always welcome. I am thinking about adding in this book:

Literature is in the wrapping up mode. Mr. A is finishing both the Grapes of Wrath and The Lord of the Flies next week. What an emotional ride both books have been! There has been so much food for thought and honestly I have taken away more from the books than he has. There are some very adult themes and ideas in both books that really only have context when you have lived life a little. Mr. A is writing an essay with the theme of man's inhumanity to man with examples from the Grapes of Wrath and he turned in the rough draft today...still need to look at it. He is still working on Robert Browning poetry and reading Poe's short stories. Look for a poetry for high schoolers update soon.



Mr. B is working on a scholarly study of the Iliad using The Teaching Company DVD series by Elizabeth Vandiver. I am appreciating TOG and their sequence for Year 1 and I am glad we stuck out the more difficult poetry from Egypt, Assyria, and Akkadia. We have something to compare to this epic Greek poem. I am also glad that we are not totally new to Greek mythology and the Iliad story coming into reading it in high school.

History is moving right along for Mr. A and he is amazing me at the amount of detail he has absorbed through his reading each week. We have added in a few notebooking pages as part of his written narration and I think that mixes things up a bit. His economics study and his history are so relevant to the world we live in and I hear him relating current events to things he is learning.


If you have ever wanted a concise explanation of our economy/justice atmosphere in America, don't miss this book, Whatever Happened to Justice? I have long wanted to understand better the world of economics and this book is one of the best things that we have read this year as far as being relevant and eye-opening. The discussions we have after reading this book keep popping up long after school hours. It makes for great dinner time conversation. This series of books is a perfect fit for a study of the 20th Century or Tapestry of Grace Year 4.

Art and music appreciation are happening every week which warms my heart. Mr. A asked if he could take a break from his formal artist study to finish an art-related project that he started over the summer. He is painting a scene on his closet doors which means the doors are in the garage instead of in his bedroom. I decided to give him the time so he could finish up and get the doors back up on his closet. I have no idea what motivated the subject matter but he likes it and I guess that is all that matters. I will post photos when he is done.


Every term I like to give Mr. B a random art project and see what happens. This time around he worked on an art lesson loosely based on this project on tints and shades. I tend to forget how much this child does not like to paint. He commented several times about the inefficiency of painting and how markers would have made the project easier. I like to stretch his skills and comfort zone a bit every now and then just to keep him progressing. I got the message loud and clear though.....no paints. I guess this means I better rethink the mini-unit on acrylics I have been cooking up. :)


Mr. B's baking course has really taken root. His brothers convinced him to try an apple pie and now we have had two in the past few weeks. He tackles the recipe like a scientist and that makes me smile. His official projects have been peanut butter cookies and then fudge brownies. A+ on both recipes.

I almost forgot that last week Mr. B finished his robotics project. Check out his robotic claw!

You may need to click over to the blog to see it...not sure.

We have taken several long walks this past week....so perfect is the weather for walking in the afternoons right now that it seems wrong not to make an effort to get outside. The woodpeckers and squirrels are busy in the trees of our neighborhood and the trees are starting to turn color...orange, red, yellow, gold, and even purple.

Okay, finishing here for this time. I will try to be more regular in my posting and perhaps it won't have to be so long next time.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom


I am listing the books referred to in this post because I always receive email asking me what particular books we use to accomplish our week. You may need to click over to the blog to see the links on Amazon.com.

How to Make Time for It All

How Do I Make Time For It All?

I don't try.

I am usually a happy busy person but even I get overwhelmed from time to time. I have learned a trick over the years that has helped me cope when I get that feeling of craziness that can develop in homeschooling moms, wanting to keep constantly in motion.


I know when I need a break. I take a few minutes and if the weather is nice I slip outdoors to wander around our yard. I stop trying to get it all done. I breathe. After a few minutes of walking around the garden, I find a spot to sit in the sun to feel its rays on my cheeks. More often than not I am greeted with the nuzzling nose of my pup or the rubbing on my shins of a feline. They sense my need to recharge and let me have a little "fur therapy" as we call in our family. I scratch their chins and they reward me with unconditional love.

This all takes but a few moments...I can feel myself settling down and shedding those feelings of being overwhelmed. No longer even feeling the need to try to get it all done I return to the rest of my day a much more satisfied mom. In the years when I had little ones, I would take them out and walk them around the yard with me even if it was just for a few minutes.

What is even more curious? I can look back at the end of the day and realize I accomplished what I needed to accomplish even after fitting in that short break.

Try it.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Made in China

Here is your slideshow: 
Something you use to clean your teeth.
 


This week's assignment, due Monday, November 8th, 2010:
Sketch something made in China.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, November 8th and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Have fun sketching,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Follow-Up To My Math Post

I received so many great comments on the math post both on the blog and in private email that I thought I would give it another entry just so I could further wrap-up my thoughts. Please note that in our family we are not pursuing college plans that require higher math courses so we have a little more flexibility in our courses. If your child is hoping to gain entry into a college or university that requires such courses, realize that you will need to keep to the particular college's requirements to qualify for admission. Also, in planning to take the SAT, our family has adapted by taking the test at the latest possible date to allow for the longest possible time to study the skills needed.

Here are the thoughts that came up after I posted the last entry on math and math standards.


Silvia brought up the idea that keeping pace wasn't worth what we had to give up in order to keep it up. I agree with that thinking and felt it is worth sharing more about in this post. I think if keeping up with the standards means that we need to pull our kids away from areas of interest and talent, we need to rethink how out of balance we are. The effort we spend pushing our children in higher levels of math could be wasted if their goals do not require those courses.

I know our family has thought and rethought through the issue of what we want to be preparing our children for in their future. I know many children don't have a solid idea of what they want to pursue after high school so it seems some homeschooling parents tend to prepare them for everything or what many call "college prep". I must admit here that we never put "college prep" in front of our children as if it were the ultimate goal. In our circle of friends this idea is socially acceptable but I know that there are other circles of acquaintances that feel like we are short-changing our children because we aren't going the college prep route. In the long run I have seen how giving our two older children the solid foundation not only in math but also good habits has been ticket to propelling them into their own future.


Both Nadene and Heather brought up the topic of practical math application as part of a high school plan. It feels uncomfortable to tell others that your 11th or 12th grader is completing a consumer math sort of program. Immediately the questions cross their face....why is a "smart boy" doing an "easy" math plan? We chose a different sort of math option for our oldest son's 12th grade year because it fit his goals.

My oldest son was totally into starting his own business after graduation and we felt that an accounting course during high school would be to his benefit, more so than more advanced math. I purchased the books and workbooks and we worked through it together. (I was an accountant in another life.) This was a course that benefited him as he started his own online business at the age of eighteen and the experience has continued to be relevant even now as he works for a growing web design company. It takes a certain amount of guts to choose a different course and then stick with it but I would encourage you to truly take an interest in what your children are dreaming of doing and then support it. They can always go back and take math courses at college if needed or better yet, self-educate. This particular son has gone on to take very difficult math courses in college as part of his computer programming degree and has done so successfully. He saw the need and had the maturity it took to buckle down and work at them diligently.


I think it was Heather that also brought up the point that we need to wait until our children are ready and then math becomes a series of light bulb moments when the time is right. I think we tend to rush our children through math courses, not allowing time for things to sink in. I have solved the issue in our family by stretching math courses out over multiple years. My boys do not work on math every day. One son works three days a week and the other works four days. I think this strategy works with the upper level math books and we just split the courses into sections. Last year Mr. B did Algebra 2A and this year he will finish Algebra 2B. I love that my boys don't see anything unusual with doing math this way. Perhaps it is because we have always just worked from where they were and not worried too much about official grade levels. Someone mentioned that they wished that math texts were not labeled with grades and I couldn't agree more.

Note about our younger years: When the boys were younger we did math four days a week and left Fridays for math related games and projects...I think most would call them Living Math activities by today's homeschooling vocabulary.We still could usually finish a text in a year by combining or skipping things as we went along. (There is usually a lot of repetition in a math book or needless reviewing at the beginning which can be compressed or skipped altogether.)

I think that about covers all my afterthoughts and also shares some of the great points left in comments and emails. This is a great topic to talk about and even though I know some disagree with the diversion from the normal math sequence, I wanted to bring the topic up for those families that are having issues with teaching math, math texts, and math standards.


Several have stated that the same issue exists with learning to read but I have not had any personal experience with that part of the equation. All my children learned to read somehow before kindergarten so accelerated reading programs were not an issue in our family but I can see how it would be a problem for other families and the same principles apply. Children will be ready for certain skills and tasks at their own rate and as homeschooling parents we have the unique position to adapt our plans to fit our child's needs individually.

Another long post but hopefully it helps stimulate some thinking in a direction that will help your family.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom