Day 74--Supermoon

You probably know there was a super moon tonight, it was pretty cool, but the pictures online lead you to expect it to be a ridiculous size. Why do they do that? I didn't think it would be, but I thought it might be a little bigger than it was. Here are my blurry pictures taken through the window. The first one was right before the moon became visible. Look how much it was lighting up the sky! It was already dark out. The other one was just a few minutes later, after it came up over the horizon. It was so clear and bright. They say it won't be this close to the earth again until 2034. That's a while.

The kids had to do school without me today, since I had to go to the doctor. They sat outside freewriting about things in the yard. The girls did some nice descriptions, and Sam did a very funny piece where he told what the patio stones made him think of and that made him think of something else and something else until he got all the way to cheesie bunnies. They're rabbit shaped cheese crackers. Looked like a pretty fun exercise. I'll have to remember it.

I got some good news at the doctor. He said that my little problem will go away and he didn't have to do anything about it. I went thinking he was going to have to do an unpleasant procedure and I was extremely nervous and upset by it. My stomach was in knots and my blood pressure was like 129 over 90 something. It's usually about 100 over 70. I was so relieved. I just have to wait a week or two for it to go away completely. But it has started feeling much better in the last few days, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we did some family history research. Rachel has done a lot of it and she showed Sam and Sarah how to do some. Their favorite part was going back on our family tree to the 1500's and finding the silliest sounding names. They giggled themselves silly. I'm not sure how much the learned about how to use the family history website though. We'll have to see if they can look up things on their own or not. Next we're going to have to figure out how to search records in order to add people that aren't already on there.

I can't resist this picture of Eliza trying to kiss the baby in the mirror during our video chat last night. We are absolutely going to expire waiting for them to get here. They're coming the week before Christmas. Just another 5 weeks I think. She changes so much from week to week. She's able to sit up for a while when they put her that way now. Last week, she just fell over immediately. Another couple weeks and she'll be completely stable. Isn't it fun to be the grandma!

See you tomorrow!

Day 73--The Moore Formula

Have you read The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond and Dorothy Moore? I won't go into the whole thing, but I love the model of "The Moore Formula" that they discuss. Here's their brief synopsis of the it:
"1) Study from a few minutes to several hours a day depending on the child's maturity; 2) manual work, at least as much as study; 3) home and/or community service an hour or so a day. Focus on kid's interests and needs; be an example in consistency, curiosity, and patience."

Don't you love that? We cover number one pretty well. We study from a few minutes to several hours a day, but it doesn't depend on the child's maturity. It depends on the day. That's probably not what they meant, but I can only do what I can do. We definitely do not do as much manual work as study. Unless you count cooking. Ha! (I thought I had heard that the formula included the children working at having a business.) And we've actually had a hard time serving lately because of health stuff.

Today was lovely though. We did manual work that was service. We helped prepare lunch for 35 young adult missionaries for our church this morning. We made tacos--our specialty. We chopped tomatoes and lettuce, fruit for fruit salad too. We made refried beans and guacamole, set up tables, and talked and laughed and had fun. It was so nice. We didn't do any studying though. It can't all happen on the same day right?

I think the Moore Formula would surely produce a well rounded, socially aware, adult with fortitude and a variety of abilities and interests. I guess we've had seasons for different aspects of this formula though. We have times when all we do is serve those around us for hours and hours each week. And then that slows down and we get to spend a lot of time studying. The manual work is always hovering in the background in every season. Like tomorrow, we're going to go to the old house and sand the living room floor in order to refinish it. The realtor says we're going to get another offer on Monday, so we'll see. I don't like to get my hopes up; but they did ask if we were willing to do a couple things, which we are. They're things that need done anyway, so that's ok.

We have always taught the kids to clean the house, even though we don't have regular chores that people are responsible for. We have done chores in several different ways throughout the years. It's probably time to have them more structured again. I'll have to work on that. I love how I can read about different "homeschool methods" and take what sounds good and include it in what we do. I never have followed any method or curriculum strictly. That would kill us, not because we're undisciplined, but because as wonderful as other people's programs are, they just don't know my family. I'm allowed to take any idea and make it right for us. and so are you!

See you next week!

Day 72

Sam and Sarah finished the Lego treehouse. What do you think? He submitted it for the competition right away. I'd love for him to win something. It's a pretty clever design.

Well, when I was giving Sam some math problems today, he said he really wants to do what Sarah's doing; so it's Pre-Algebra for him too. We don't have to be in a hurry. I think I'll have him figure out things mentally first and then hopefully he'll be able to see the logic of the procedures as we apply them.

Sarah thinks it'll be a month before she can remember how to solve for X when there's anything a little complicated about it. I'm sure it's going to click soon. In the meantime, I don't mind teaching it over and over. I like to look for different ways to explain things. There are so many ways with algebraic thinking though. She and Kamille were talking (texting) about it today and I saw where Sarah told Kamille that I have a gift when it comes to finding different ways to teach the same thing until it clicks. I have to admit, that made me feel good.

Rachel's whole world is about writing these days, because of the book editing and the college application essays. Oh, and she reads book after book after book. Maybe she's trying to read them all again before she leaves home. I remember when Wilson was probably in 6th through about 8th grade, we had to limit his reading to 5 hours a day. I'm not even exaggerating. That's pretty funny to me. I wish he had 5 minutes a day to read a book now. Maybe some day.

See you tomorrow!

Day 71

We didn't spend too much time on the news today, like I thought we would. Well, I don't know if I really thought we would or not. It's kind of silly. I guess I feel like protesting the election of a president, while a right, is a little. . . I just can't find a word. We have elections, we get a new president, and we get over it. Close to half the people in the country usually don't get the president they wanted. This happens every election. We might complain and be disappointed or irritated, but do we really protest? What is going to happen exactly? Usually a protest begs for change. What's going to change? If high school kids are walking out of class or people are burning cars that belong to strangers, what then? So you're upset, so you don't like the president-elect, so you want it to be known. What then? Frankly, it's embarrassing. Ok, enough of that.

Last night, the kids had youth night at church; and they did some interesting things. Rachel and Sarah had a self-defense class. They didn't learn too many moves or anything, but the lady did a good job of sharing her experiences and helping them understand how important it is to take care of themselves. My girls would rather not practice moves on other people anyway, so I'm sure they were relieved. Sam had a CPR class. He got to practice on a dummy, and they even got to use the defibrillator! Well, it was a practice one so they couldn't get shocked. Pretty cool.

I've been dealing with a little medical issue this week, which has been distracting me quite a bit. Today I went to the doctor and found out I have to have a small procedure done to take care of it. I don't know when it will be--it needs to be as soon as possible! I guess I'll be distracted by it for several more days. I've never even heard of it before. I get the strangest things, and the whole family suffers. Well, maybe suffers is too strong a word. Boy do they learn! It's just not always school subjects.

Sarah has been helping Sam build a treehouse for a Lego competition today. I love it when they work together on a project, and I especially love it when one of them gets involved in the interests of another. Perfect school if you ask me. What better thing to learn and practice than to be connected to each other and work together, sharing ideas and collaborating?

See you tomorrow!

Day 70

I was reading Peter Elbow's book, Vernacular Eloquence and came across inkshedding. It's like freewriting as a group in order to communicate with each other. I think he was talking about it being used in business, where a group has to collaborate and they each write their ideas and pass them around for others to read. I can't remember all the details; I'll have to read it again. But it sounded great to me. I thought it would be fun if the kids and I just wrote a conversation instead of speaking it. I'm hoping Sam will become more comfortable writing just what he's thinking instead of thinking he has to write something formal. He says his brain locks up whenever he has to write something instead of saying it. It happens to Jeff too.

Another idea of inkshedding is also that afterward you trash whatever you wrote It's not intended to be kept for posterity, just used in the moment and discarded. It reminded me of emailing and especially texting. We usually don't keep those; they serve their purpose and get deleted. That might also make it easier to not worry so much about the accuracy of the writing, since it isn't kept. I sent Sam an email, but he hasn't responded yet. I think I'd like to get a small dry erase board and have an ongoing conversation on the board. Maybe I'll leave it in his room. Or I guess we could just use sticky notes. Either way, I'm excited to try it.

I showed the kids that preview of the new Anne of Green Gables movie today. They didn't like it any better than I did. Of course, I told them it was awful before we started, but they agreed anyway. Then we had to go pick up the DVD that I reserved at the library. I think we'll have to watch it tomorrow afternoon. It's just so good.

Rachel's getting closer to the end of her college application. Today, I think she finished drafting the essays. Now she wants me to help her go over them. She also got her ACT score. I still wonder if there's any way to get mine from all those years ago. I'd love to know what it was. I have no recollection at all. I don't remember my college application being this long. And I only remember writing one essay. I wish I had kept a copy of it to show her. She'd probably get a kick out of it, like my sappy love poems I wrote when I was 14. I just found those the other day, and the kids are dying to read them. How embarrassing!

I think Sam's thinking he wants to do the Pre-Algebra this year after all. I need to talk to him some more about it and maybe try a bit more of it again. He's had some time to think about it since I decided he would wait til next year. He's listening to what Sarah's doing, and I think it's interesting him. I'm not sure that's how he would describe it though.

See you tomorrow!

Day 69--Sam was so surprised!

Sam's surprise party was so fun. He almost fell over from shock. It was pretty funny. I can't believe I didn't get any pictures! We had six boys come over; they spent most of the time running around outside in the dark playing freeze tag. More like freezing tag--it was getting kind of chilly. We had pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream. Sam ate a ton of it.

This morning, Jeff and the kids worked on memorizing the end of a poem that we started months ago. I can't remember what it's called or who wrote it now. Or any of the words. That's pathetic. I have the hardest time memorizing. Sam was telling me he doesn't feel like he can memorize very much either. That's so hard to believe, because he knows so many things that he's read. You'd think it would be easier. After the memorizing, Jeff took Sam and Sarah on a bike ride. Sarah always comes home out of breath and gasping and shaking. I don't know why she doesn't just take it easy. Sam seems fine. I think her tiny bike is too much work. Tonight we started fixing up that bigger one for her. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it going. Rachel and Jeff went for a walk after the bike ride. She doesn't like to ride too much; she'd rather walk every time. I tell her to use the scooter, but no.

We always all end up working on math at the same time. It's not easy. Or smart. I have got to get that under control. Today it was 3:15, and I knew it would be the last thing anyone was going to do; so it had to be math. Today wasn't as bad as some days though, because no one had any new concepts to learn. Although Sarah had some new kind of word problems. She had to set up algebraic equations for situations like: Two boys got the same amount of money from their dad and one earned more until he had doubled his money. The other one got $15 for his birthday. They ended up with the same amount as each other; how much did they start out with? X+X=X+15. I think it was frustrating for her because she likes to breeze right through, but she had to stop and think. She seemed to like it in the end. It's just not always her favorite thing to take information and have to manipulate it in a different way each time. Algebra's like that. I'm glad she has this year of Pre-Algebra to practice doing that gradually.

I saw a clip for a new Anne of Green Gables movie. I was not impressed. I wouldn't have taken the job if I were an actor. There's just no way to follow the original. I'd probably get mad if I watched it; it's so different. They have Matthew talking so much, and he doesn't seem shy. I wondered if they even read the book. He would never talk that much. It was kind of sad. Makes me want to watch the original again. I'll have to go reserve it at the library.

See you tomorrow!

Day 68

Ok, we got out the dry beans today to figure out that "55 sheep and cows in a field" problem from yesterday. We got it, but I still don't know how to do it without guessing. I looked at the lesson example from the previous page in the book, but I have no idea what they were talking about. Maybe I'm losing my touch. By the way, there are 20 cows and 35 sheep. I didn't have Sam do any other math today, and I only had Sarah do a few "solving for x" problems.

Rachel and I worked on factoring polynomials today. She's done it more than once before, but she always has to re-learn it. We were doing the difference of two squares. Then when she got the factors, she had to factor one of those because it was another difference of two squares. She got it, but I hope she remembers it tomorrow.

Sarah worked on her science all day long. She could hardly think of anything else. She did a whole study guide and studied for the test. Then she took the test and got a 95. She was pretty happy, but she said, "I did all that studying and spent all that time, and the test only took 10 minutes!" Yep.

Sam will be 14 on Friday! I made his birthday dinner tonight because Jeff will be working Friday night. We had beef tips with roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes. So good. Then the kids made cupcakes and cream cheese icing. But I was having a gall bladder attack, so I didn't dare eat the cream cheese. Well, not much of it. I'm having a surprise birthday party for Sam on Friday evening. Don't tell him! We're just having a few of the other 13 year old boys from church over. A couple of them are in the Sunday School class I teach, and it was their idea--very sweet. They're good kids.

Of course we read aloud like every day. Anne of Green Gables. I'm glad we decided to read it again. It's like visiting an old friend. It's so comforting to read a favorite book again, don't you think? I love that we know what will happen, but we can't wait to see anyway. I think we'll have to re-read some of our other old favorites too.

Sam and Sarah took a bike ride around the neighborhood with Jeff walking part of the way. They love doing that. Sarah's bike is way too small though. Her legs are so long! I think she's kneeing herself in the chin. We have a bigger one that's new, but cheap. It loosens up whenever anyone uses it. I guess we'll have to put some loc-tite one it to hold it together once and for all.

Rachel worked on her application for college again today, and she started checking over my editing of her book. I think she likes what I've done so far. I'm going to have to start checking into self-publishing. That may take a while. Then when I'm finished writing my homeschool book, I'll have it all down and it'll be easy. And then the two other books I'm writing. I wonder how many years it'll be before anyone sees any of those!

See you tomorrow!