Recurring Conversation

I've had a variation of this conversation at various times with the older 4 boys over the past few years. Most recently it was with J when he felt the need to touch an empty bullet casing to his lips (the bullet casing was from a Memorial Day service).

Concerned Boy: "Mom? If I [lick, touch, eat] [whatever the item in question] what'll happen?"
Me: "Probably nothing"
Concerned Boy: "Would it kill me?"
Me: "Probably not. Why?"
Concerned Boy: "Because I just did."

Explain this to me--if an alarm bell goes off in the boy's head after he does this thing why does he not have the same alarm bell go off before he does it?

The Love of a Two Year Old

Last night after dinner, Cr went out the back door to turn off the sprinklers. He then went through the gate to put the trash at the curb and pull the van in the garage. He re-entered the house through the garage door after being outside for only a handful of minutes.

When Cr came through the door, N's face lit up like a Christmas tree and he started exclaiming "Daddy's home!!!". Thrilled, he ran across the room and gave Cr a hug like he'd been gone all day, or even days.

That boy loves his Daddy.

School Plans for the Remainder of 2008

Even though our new school year doesn't start until August 1 (our school year runs from August 1-July 31), we're going to start our new books next week. At the beginning of May we dropped our regular work and spent the time preparing L for the standardized test he has to take (he starts today) and drilling math facts with L and Z. They did some Latin and Greek review, and some spelling, reading, handwriting, and logic, but most of this was independent and I'm ready to get back into a school groove. L is 4th grade, Z is 3rd grade, J is 1st grade, and M is K4/K5ish (he turns 5 in January, but is eager to do school). Here are our plans (which are always subject to change):

Math:
L: Saxon 6/5, Singapore Challenging Word Problems 3
Z: Saxon 5/4, Singapore Challenging Word Problems 2
J: Saxon 2, Singapore Challenging Word Problems 1
M: Kumon workbooks, start Saxon 1 when he's ready

Latin:
L & Z: finish Latin for Children A, start Latin for Children B
J & M: Song School Latin

Language Arts:
L: Classical Writing Aesop (possibly changing to Poetry for Beginners after Christmas), Rod & Staff English 3
Z: Classical Writing Aesop, Rod & Staff English 3
J: Explode the Code 4 and up (I don't know how far we'll need to go)
M: Phonics Pathways, finish Explode the Code Primer A (he'll either continue with Primers B & C or begin with Book 1 depending on when the blending switch flips)

Greek:
L, Z, J, & M: Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, Song School Greek

Spelling:
L: finish Spelling Workout C, start D
Z: finish Spelling Workout B, start C
J: Spelling Workout B (when I don't think he needs Explode the Code anymore)

Copywork & Dictation:
L, Z, & J will either use good sentences/passages from their reading or selections from The Harp and Laurel Wreath. M will continue to work on letter formation (Kumon workbooks). I'll use StartWrite to create copywork pages for all of them.

History:
We'll finish up Story of the World 3 (I'm aiming to be done by Christmas) and start Story of the World 4.

Geography:
We're going to study the US States until Christmas, and then I plan on studying World Geography. We'll also use Legends and Leagues for a general introduction to maps and globes.

Memory Work:
We'll memorize poetry from The Harp and Laurel Wreath (I'd like to have us memorize at least 6), the US States, and the Presidents this year.

Science:
L & Z: Science Detectives Beginnings

Assigned Reading:
This year I plan on having L, Z, and myself all read the same books and discuss them. I've got 4 books picked so far: Andersen's Fairy Tales (we'll start with this one), Tanglewood Tales, A Wonder Book, and Tales from Shakespeare.

J will continue with the various Easy Readers and Beginning Reader books we have. Once he's reading well I'll come up with a plan for his reading.

Logic:
I've got a few resources to choose from here: Mind Benders Beginning Books 1 & 2, Primary Analogies Book 1, and Critical Thinking Activities for K-3 & 4-6. L, Z, & J find the logic activities to be fun, so I'll include 1 or 2 worksheets with their independent work.

Music:
We'll continue listening to selections from How to Introduce your Child to Classical Music in 52 Easy Lessons. L, Z, & J will continue with piano lessons.

I think this covers it all. I'll update the sidebar with links soon. It looks like a lot, but we won't do everything everyday and I still plan to finish our lessons by noon, with an hour of independent work or reading in the afternoon.

Life After Vacation

We're back from vacation. We spent last week in Wisconsin with Cr's parents and siblings and their families (there were 28 of us total). We rented some cabins on a lake to help celebrate Cr's parents' anniversary. It was a good time, even though the weather was cool and damp with an insane amount of mosquitoes and ticks. The boys got to fish (didn't catch anything), go out in a canoe, reconnect with cousins, toast marshmallows over the campfire, and Z ate 32 cookies over the 5 days. He's the only one that counted, but his brothers couldn't have been that far behind. Add to that the cases of soda they drank and I figure they'll finally crash after the sugar high sometime this week.

I really need to update our curriculum on the sidebar. I think I've got it all picked out for the 08/09 school year, and much of it is here. Cr will be giving L his state required standardized test next week and we'll start back up after that's out of the way. Our new year doesn't officially begin until August 1st, but we're going to get a head start on the new books. I also need to spend some time really training M & N (and reminding J) how to behave during school hours, so I'll use this summer to work on their behavior.

Sixty Years

Cr and I are both blessed with parents who haven't divorced. Cr's parents are celebrating 60 years of marriage today. Happy Anniversary Grandma & Grandpa L!

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

We often call J "Ralphie" (to which he responds "Don't call me Ralphie!"). We call him Ralphie because he looks an awful lot like Ralphie from the movie "A Christmas Story". You need to be familiar with the movie to understand this post, so if you haven't seen it you might as well stop reading and go watch the movie.

On Sunday, Cr was in the backyard planting strawberries, the boys were playing, and I was downstairs in the schoolroom working. J entered the room crying with his hand cupped over his eye.

My wonderful Ralphie-look-alike nearly shot his eye out with a Nerf dart gun. Once I stopped laughing (after I checked to make sure J wasn't blind), I had to explain to the poor boy why I was laughing at his misfortune.

The Loop

We're trying something new here at the Academy. Instead of following a routine/schedule, we're following The Loop (I had been calling it a flow chart, but Cr pointed out that it's a loop).

We have been fighting two problems with our schedule this year. The first is that it is easy for me to get caught up teaching L and Z and missing more days than I'd like with J and M. The second major problem has been the difficulty of getting back to school after lunch. By the time they'd had their quiet time and started to play, it was difficult to reengage their brains for more learning.

I read a few articles by Joyce Swann. She has 10 children, and all who are old enough have earned their Master's degrees by the age of 16. Her school hours were from 8:30-11:30 every day (they school year round, as do we). Once her children finished one subject, they went on to the next. This left the rest of their days free to pursue their interests. While my goals aren't to accelerate the boys' educations to this degree, it did get me thinking. If she can school for 3 hours in the morning and have well-educated children, surely I can come up with a plan.

The plan is The Loop. I will start at the top of the list and move through in the order listed from 9:00 to 12:00. For example, I'll start with Latin and if I only get through Language Arts with J by 12:00, the next day I'll start with Language Arts with M at 9:00 and keep going down the list until noon, and if we finish History before noon I'll start back at the top with Latin and so on. J & M will only be required in the school room for their specific lessons, but L & Z will be required to be in the school room working the entire time because they have plenty of independent work they can do. We have lunch from 12-12:30, and then they all have quiet time on their beds until 1:30, where they can finish up independent work or read/look at books.

While we haven't been following The Loop, the past 2 weeks we have been following the 9:00-12:00 school hours and quiet time from 12:30-1:30 where they've done independent work. Our days have been much more peaceful, and I'm hopeful we've hit on a solution for this upcoming year.

Heh, Heh, Heh.

During one of our family Wii sports sessions, Cr made another good shot on one of the games.

Cr: "Heh, heh, heh."
(a few moments of silence)
Z: "Heh, heh, heh."
(small pause)
Z: "I'm trying to be like Dad. Only I don't have the voice. Or the vocabulary."

Parental Disclaimer

We were able to purchase a Wii (for those of you who have never heard it said, it's pronounced "we") several weeks ago. We have really enjoyed playing it together.

M has a blast with it. However, he calls it "the weed". So if a very excitable little boy ever comes up to you asking you if you want to "do the weed", or proclaiming with passion that his Mommy and Daddy "do the weed" every night, or that he himself loves "the weed", before you call the authorities to report that he and his family are into illegal drugs, find out if he's talking about the new video game system.

Huh?

For those who don't watch American Idol, or who simply missed this, here it is. Yes, this was sung on national TV (twice, actually, but the first night they changed Jesus to Shepherd). I don't know the how, the why, or the who behind it but it happened, and I like it so much I'm posting it here.