Vacation ends on a high note

We've been off-line and out of school for a few weeks having an amazing vacation here in New Paltz. Our friends, R & her daughter A (L's "twin"), visited us for a month while the kids went to summer camp. Not only do we love R & A, they're the kind of people who are totally game for anything. So we've been hitting the neighborhood hot spots -- Lake Minnewaska, Split Rock Falls, Sliding Rock, Saugerties Light House, Freestyle Frolic dances, and finally today, the Trapeze School.

God, what an experience! You drive down this country road, and in the middle of a field is a huge trapeze set up. L, A & I took today's class: put on safety harnesses, crawled 30 or 40 feet in the air on a small ladder, leaned out over a long, long drop to grab a trapeze bar, and then......jumped. It was incredibly frightening, and (as soon as my feet hit the ground), exhilerating. Watching these little girls swinging in the air, eventually getting their courage up to hang upside down by their knees and do flips (which I did as well!!!) really made me feel so proud and happy. I'll put photos up as soon as I can.

But R & A's departure means we start school up again. I want to focus a little on France, since we're going to be going there in mid-August for 2 weeks. Maybe borrow some books from the library (Madeline? What else of French-themed?), and cook French food and try to learn some french phrases. It will be hard to get back into the swing of things (see, nothing but swinging on the brain today) after such a long and delectable break, but it was worth it.

Another lesson on letting go

After L's lame first day of school, I was determined to BE PREPARED for her second. I spent many hours after the kids were in bed, printing out worksheets, reading lesson plans, organizing projects. I decided that today we were going to be doing Math, Science, a read-aloud/narration session, Phonics, as well as our usual recitation of the poem of the week and reading.

We started the day downstairs in the den, where L & T cuddled up with me on the couch while I read a couple of Aesop's fables: The Wolf and the Kid, and The Tortoise and the Ducks. They were really interested and asked that I read each fable twice, though the moral lessons were as opaque to the kids as they were to me. But L got a kick out of the turtle hurtling to his death on trying to show off, so it was a good start to the day.

Bouyed by my first success, I turned to Science. After the fiasco with the Tanglewood nature study "curriculum", I had moved on to another free science course that seemed easier to prepare for: Math Science Nucleus. This curriculum was developed by a non-profit group of scientists & educators trying to bring science into classrooms. So there are detailed lesson plans, children's workbooks, basically everything you need to teach science. So I was psyched. Today's lesson was going to be on the different states of matter. I had the workbook, I'd read the lesson plan, I had rocks, water, balloons at my disposal...I was ready!

While I was gathering up the workbooks & everything I'd prepared the night before, L picked up a daddy-long-leg off the carpet and started playing with it.

"Is this a spider?" she asked.

"No honey, it's not," I answered, distracted because I'd misplaced something we needed.

"Is it related to a spider?"

"I don't really know."

"Can you look it up for me?"

I was about to tell her to put the bug down and listen to me while I lectured to her on solids, liquids, gasses and plasma, but then I realized that she was totally into this topic. She really wanted to know what it was. So I sat down at the computer and started researching daddy-long-legs and found a child-friendly site explaining what it was and how it is different from a spider. We watched the creature climb up and down her arm and she peered at it through a magnifying glass, enthralled. We ended up having her do a narration of what I had read to her about daddy-long-legs and draw a picture that she put in her nature journal.

What a wonderful surprise gift that daddy-long-leg turned out to be. It gave me the reminder that one of the beauties of homeschooling is the possibility and thrill of veering off course to discover something new. Serendipity should be a by-word here. All it takes is for me to let go. Not always easy to do, but worth it.

So the rest of the day went like that. Instead of finishing the day's program, we drove into town for lunch, then had ice cream, then went to Coxing Kills falls where the kids waded around trying to catch water bugs and fossil hunting. I consider it a day devoted to science.

Nature study and curriculum decisions

We've been spending a lot of time up here in New Paltz. The house is so surrounded by trees and other plants that sometimes the green light sifting through makes me feel like I'm underwater.

We've started incorporating a lot more nature study into the day simply because it's such a large part of our lives here. Yesterday, L, T & I went for a walk to find a tree to "adopt". We found it on what L calls her island, a little bump in the course of the stream. I don't know what kind of tree it is yet, just that it's a bit bigger than a sapling, but not quite a mature tree, and L says it speaks to her. Through the year we'll research what species it is, look at how it appears in all the seasons, measure the trunk circumference and just generally visit it regularly and keep a record in our nature book.

The really good news of the week is that I think I'm settling into a curriculum, at least for this year. Charlotte Mason (CM) is one of the major types of homeschooling philosophies, not quite as strict and full-on as Classical Education but with more structure than unschooling. It's named for a British educator who created a philosophy around the education of children that incorporated a lot of nature study, short lessons, and learning through the reading of classic "living" books. I'm still educating myself on exactly what all this entails but what I see of it so far I'm really attracted to. (You can find out more about this philosophy here). What I like about it is that it is flexible, doesn't require us to follow a rigid schedule of courses, and incorporates much of what we already do--read classic children's literature, use narration for example.

So CM is going to be the driving philosophy behind my choices for what and how to study & teach. I'm still going to use Starfall for phonics, Singapore Math (though I'm really intrigued by this free math curriculum which I might incorporate), do nature study ála Tanglewood for science, and follow Ambleside Online's art & music schedule. For the history/geography core, I'm going to use this online curriculum, Mosaic Introduction to World History, which, on top of being free, uses Story of the World which L loves.

So now I just need to file my paperwork with the Board of Ed, figure out the bones of a schedule, and get started!