homeschooling

So, what does your winter uniform look like?

October 17, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 16 Comments

As the cooler weather sets in and I am rummaging through my closet to find my boyfriend lounge pants, I am reminded of this post from last winter and thought I’d share it today. It’s another tribute to my love for make up. I am indeed a southern girl through and through. Visit my friend Denise’s blog and laugh and cry with her as she shares her trip to the MAC counter.

I have a good reason for posting these pictures. I’ll tell you momentarily.

First, let me say that one of the major roadblocks for me when I was deciding to homeschool was what I’d like to call the denim jumper road block. Or what I call the ‘buns and jumpers’ factor. I do not own a denim jumper and if I did, trust me, I would not wear it well. I envisioned that everyone who homeschools wears denim jumpers and tight librarian buns and grows their own wheat and takes vows against electronics and laughter and makeup; none of which I was willing to do. Imagine my surprise when , after reading a few ~~hundred~~ blogs, I realized that it takes all kinds.

As it turns out, ex-doctor/ADD/obsessed with all things fashion and decorating/ moms like me have our little niche in the homeschooling world. I found that there are in fact plenty of fun-loving, hip, classical- book loving women who have journeyed out into the homeschooling wilderness with nothing but our dry erase boards, laptops, lip gloss, a lot of good books.

So when my 16 year old daughter commented on my ‘uniform’, it gave me pause.

Who is she to criticize my ‘uni’? She often mistakes my closet for the dressing room of Target. She shops, she tries things on, she leaves things lying on the floor, and never brings the number back. So when she meandered in to ‘try on’ a few things and came out wearing part of my ‘uniform’, I was aghast. My uniform is not a denim jumper, but it is a pair of lounge pants from Victoria’s Secret; the boyfriend pants with the bedazzled ‘PINK’ on the rear. And a stretchy mock turtle neck and wooly warm sweater from Target. I often vary the color of the mock turtle. But the rest stays the same. I wash it, of course—maybe twice a week. But that is what I LIVE in people. Everyday, until I have to leave the house.

So when Caiti said to me, “You can’t wear these EVERYDAY!” I say,

“Ummmm…..Yes. Yes, I can. I can…… and I do. And this is the one thing in my closet that is off-limits. Take the Fry lace-up knee boots and the Rock ‘N Republic Jeans and the Micheal Stars t-shirt and what-have-you……but for the love of all things cozy and comfortable…….back away from the lounge pants.”

And when the girls and I go to ballet or to Hobby Lobby, I exchange the lounge pants for jeans but often leave the top ensemble in place. This present lounge wear addiction that I’m nurturing did not come about overnight. I didn’t purpose ahead in my mind that when I started homeschooling, I would forsake all cute clothes and resort to one pair of lounge pants as my official ‘uniform’. It just happened. I do make an effort to change out of the lounge pants for a short time in the evenings. So my poor husband can at least get glimpses of the fashion guru he once knew.

So I don’t judge anymore. I’ve lost every judging right there is. I wear a loose (fairly fun and fancy free) bun almost everyday and my own special ‘uniform’—–lounge pants with a limited variety of tops. My very own version of buns and jumpers.

So scroll back up to the top and see my bun and then take a gander at the top half of my uniform. There you have it. Maybe I’ve just given up. Or at least given in—-to comfort.

Please advise…… before I start selling all my clothes and boots on Ebay. Is this a phase? Am I just taking advantage of wearing lounge pants because I can. Will I grow weary of lookin’ like a lazy college student who doesn’t understand that PINK flannel PJ bottoms does not constitute proper outerwear? BTW, there is nothing more disappointing to any husband than to see a Victoria Secret bag that houses oversized lounge pants and a hoodie. Look on the bright side, it could be worse. It could be a matching track suit. I see a good new years resolution coming on here.

And if I seem a little over-dressed for church…..well, cut me a little slack. I’m making up for a weeks’ worth of lounge pants. If it’s any consolation, I’m still wearin’ plenty of makeup. And all manner of hair products. When that ceases, by all means, intervene.

Apples to Apples

October 2, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 22 Comments

Is there anything that ushers in fall better than a trip to the apple farm on a cool, crisp autumn day?

So, my friend Tammy and I loaded up our kids and headed for Carver’s Apple Orchard. We had lunch at their restaurant—-with honest to goodness apple fritters (deep fried no less) and fried catfish. I’m really gonna need those fresh apples to keep the doctor away after that lunch!

And I love this huge sign on their wall–showing when certain apples are ready for picking. I may have to go back for a taste of the King David’s.

The apples always help to get rid of those pesky baby teeth!!!

And of course we’ve had to taste every kind that we bought. I like the ambrosias best so far. But the pippins are perfect for cooked apples, which we made last night as a side to our chuck roast and veggies.

And we couldn’t leave without snatching a few pumpkins!

Our plans for the apples include:

apple fritters

apple pie

applesauce

apple cider

apple cake

caramel apples

What do you do with your apples?

Happy Fall!

How We Spend our Days…….

September 25, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 30 Comments

I am no pro at this. I am not even what most would call a ‘seasoned’ homeschooler. But as year 2 is delightfully underway, I am more convinced than ever that this is where I belong. I receive lots of emails about homeschooling and I am probably ill-equipped to answer them.

I wish I were more disciplined and patient and organized.

But one thing is for sure, I love learning and I especially love learning with them.

Kids are smart and can see right through us. They know us sometimes more intimately than we know ourselves. We can do everything ‘right’ on the surface and they know if something is missing. I think sometimes they’re lack of lots of knowledge makes them more intuitive. I say all that to say that—they know if we are not living authentically—if we’re just going through life’s motions. My most important homeschooling advice is to live honestly and authentically with your kids. They can spot a fake a mile away. You aren’t hiding anything from them. You might as well live in humility and forgiveness. That is a language they understand. So, don’t fret so much about the small stuff—whether to do Shurley Grammar or Rod and Staff or whether to use this or that reading program. Live an honest, authentic life and they will learn to do the same. The rest will come easy.

So here’s what’s new and different and definitely working for us this year:

1. Literature We spend 30-40% of our day in whole books—either me reading to them, them reading to me or listening to books on tape. This is a big change from just doing a series of worksheets all day. Here’s what our reading list looks like so far:

~Pilgrim’s Progress We are reading this together—and so far I’m doing the reading. Soon enough, when I order more copies of it, they will read it aloud and to themselves. We are reading the unabridged version—-with all it’s old english language and we’re reading it slowly. Very slowly. Like 5-10 pages a week slowly. At this pace it’ll take a year and so to finish it. Charlotte Mason recommended this very slow reading of Pilgrim’s Progress as a way to ‘live with the book’—to intimately get to know this book, its’ main character Christian and its’ themes. After one month of reading it with my girls, I am completely enamored with their ability to understand a complicated allegory with very formal language. And I’m also awed at Bunyan’s ability to communicate theology in such an inspiring way. I would NEVER have believed that a 7 and 9 year old could understand, let alone, enjoy a book of this magnitude—-but they do. This is a highlight for us!

~Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb~~ This is a wonderful adaption of many Shakespeare plays written with beautiful, complex language. We read one story a week in 2-3 sittings. The girls LOVE these. As you know, his stories are often convoluted and can be difficult to follow. But because he’s a brilliant writer, they are compelling. The girls almost always want me to read more. And what a gift to give a child: to introduce them to the best in literature at such an early age. Every family, homeschoolers or not, should have this book!

~Jungle Books/Robin Hood ~~ These classics are also read in smaller sections over a longer period of time according to the CM literature list. We’re currently reading JB and will start Robin Hood (likely in January) next. Again, these are the original works and unabridged and meant to be read on a somewhat slower pace.

These books form the core of our literature and curriculum. I also use the CM reading list for the girls’ ‘reading’ books. So far this year, they have read The Saturdays, Understood Betsy, and are currently starting Caddie Woodlawn. This is what I use in lieu of ‘readers’—so they read these books on their own (usually a chapter a day) and then read a couple of pages aloud to me.

The website for incorporating the Charlotte Mason method is called Ambleside Online and although we are currently using only her literature method, we are heavily influenced by her philosophy.

We also add 2-3 books a week on top of that to supplement what we’re learning in history. For example, because we’re studying medieval history, we listened to an audio book on King Arthur this week and read aloud Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. As icing on this very rich ‘literature cake’, we listen to books on tape every night before bed—usually something ‘fun’–like The Wind in the Willows or On the Shores of Silver Lake.

2. Math—I thought I’d have to jab sharp objects into the ear drums if I was forced to do another year of Saxon. Anyone who could—day in and day out—-read all those scripted pages for every lesson—deserves sainthood. So, in an act of desperation and self-preservation, I switched to Singapore. And now I know why Asian countries always beat us in math. This stuff is advanced. No more hand-holding and repetition like with Saxon. You’re on your own baby. And sadly, I’ve come to miss the ‘handholding’ of Saxon a bit. I think our girls have inherited my general lack of enthusiasm for math—-hard as I try to feign it—and I find we need more repetition than Singapore. So, we’re doing Singa-saxon, which is greek for ‘my own chaotic mix of Singapore and Saxon. I’ll let you know how it works out but so far—-so good. I’ve only had them in tears twice, I think. And my eardrums have been spared from sharp objects.

3. History—We are using Story of the World 2–The Medieval World. Did I ever tell you how much I LOVE this program. If you could see the list of amazing stuff we’re gonna cover, you’d sign up to enroll at our school pronto. We just finished the lesson on Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora from Constantinople—–which I love to say over and over again. Say it with me, Constantinople. Thankyouverymuch. And this week, we studied Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. As a supplement to our studies, we talked about Islamic extremism and watched YouTube videos of the towers falling and President Bush’s bullhorn speech. Talk about wide eyes and questions and interested kids—-they couldn’t get enough.

“Where were you , Mommy, when the towers fell?”

“Did you cry?” “Where was Daddy?” “Was I born yet?”

And we learned the five pillars of Islam, which they recited back to me last night, followed by questions about how they can possibly go all day without eating (Ramadan).

With history, I tend to focus more on Western Civilization, so we sometimes skip the lessons on India and the far East and spend more time on things related to christian history. But this program has become a favorite of my girls. They will often say that history is their favorite subject. I’m pretty sure when I was 7 and 9 that I didn’t even know the meaning of the word ‘history’.

4. Memory We are still going strong with our memorization. I bought the Andrew Pudewa program for memorization and have decided NOT to use it as it was intended. I am borrowing many of his selections but we’re doing it in our own order and supplementing with other stuff too. There are so many great passages and poems that I want to memorize that I didn’t want to be pigeon-holed into someone else’s choices. That said, I love many of the poems in his book and we are currently memorizing “Rebecca, Who Slammed Doors for Fun and Perished Miserably”—-which is oddly quite an entertaining little piece. We’re also still finishing up on the catechism for the ten commandments, doing regular scripture memory, and adding to our history catechism weekly—-which I basically make up from important events in history. (I also follow the Veritas History cards fairly closely). I use Luther’s small catechism and The Harp and Laurel book for sources.

5. Latin and Spanish I am completely excited about language this year because we’ve been able to hire a latin and spanish teacher for the girls. She was their teacher at the classical christian school they attended two years ago and has done a phenomenal job so far with them. They are already conjugating Latin verbs and using conversational Spanish at the breakfast table. She comes for one hour 3x a week and if you live in the Morristown area, she has more slots available. Just email me if you’re interested. I’ll be featuring her soon on my blog because she also makes jewelry and has an Etsy shop. I feel so blessed to have her and the girls are learning oodles.

6. Grammar—I settled on a combination of Shurley Grammar and Daily Grams. The girls love the SG chants and this week we added the preposition to our arsenal of words we can diagram in a sentence. We do a ‘Daily Gram’ everyday and then do about 3 lessons in SG a week. It’s working so far but I will likely switch (in a year or two) to Rod and Staff Grammar because apparently (according to Susan Wise Bauer) that is the only program that teaches the correctly and fully how to diagram sentences. For now, I like the chants and the question/answer flow of SG and the repetition of Daily Grams.

Our other subjects are basically the same and you can read about those here. We have also started piano this year, which has been so wonderful! And the girls are swooning over their new dance classes (Lakeway School of Ballet and Dance). Between the two of them, they’re taking ballet, tap, jazz, irish, lyrical, hip hop and progressions. Basically, I watch little girls read and dance all day. What could be better than that?

This Irish dancing is contagious—and how about the fact that she’s 7 and has had maybe 7 classes so far!!! They’re trying to teach me but it could be a lost cause.

By far the best part of homeschooling is the sheer amount of time I’m able to spend with them. We share an intimacy that I wasn’t sure was possible between mother and child. It’s only made me more ‘jealous’ over them. Now I better understand why God is a jealous God. He wants our hearts—fully, completely. He loves us unconditionally, has our best interests in mind, and can teach us more about the world and about ourselves than anyone can. And that’s what homeschooling has been like for me. It has the familiar ‘ring’ of a relationship that I know deep in my spirit. I was created for this—–to be in communion with Him and these little ones in a way that is often difficult to put to words. I couldn’t be more grateful…..

to be here…..

today…..

in our home……

learning to live this beautiful life He has given us…….

Together.

Today’s (Not-So) Creative Blog Post

September 17, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 19 Comments

hello, my name is edie and i have ADD.

i’m highly distracted by all things shiny, and sweet….

and colorful…..

so, when i should be sleeping, i sew quilt squares…….

and when we should be counting by 6’s, we’re fighting over who gets to play (frightfully bang) on the new-to-us piano……

and when we should be ironing laundry, we sit in our new craft studio and chat.it.up. about all the fun stuff we’re gonna sew and knit and glue……

okay, and we also admire the little love note Caiti left us last week……

and when I should be organizing my dreadful desk, I find out that Kim has featured lifeingrace on Today’s Creative Blog!!! today could be a lost cause! Thank you Kim for making my day.

all in all, we’re still not doing so bad, it’s 12:50 and so far we’ve:

listened to 3 chapters of king arthur

sewed 10 quilt squares

played ‘onward christian soldiers’ 27 times on the piano

read a chapter in our reading book

recited our new poem, ‘rebecca, who slammed doors for fun and perished miserably’ 5 times

recited our old poem ‘the spider and the fly’ once—-it’s very long

finished our spelling and grammar lessons

listened to ‘positoovity’ while practicing our tap dance

counted by 3’s, 4’s and 6’s in an effort to learn our multiplication tables

completed our history lesson on the ‘east/west schism’ of the catholic church

practiced our irish dancing to a song called ‘the queen’s jig’

contemplated a trip to K-Mart (aka Kame-Apart) to look for baby bottles (for emme’s doll)

made brownies and started dinner—which so far includes beef and tomatoes

now, it’s break time, and i’m heading back up to steal away some time on emme’s sewing machine! weeelllll, unless i spot something shiny or colorful on the way up!

Geography lessons with the Griswalds

August 26, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 37 Comments

As a vital part of our homeschool, I like to choose a few quality toys that they can play with while they’re listening to books on tape or while we’re taking breaks. Legos have to be my favorite, second only to Lincoln logs. But girl-ish legos are hard to come by. So, when I saw the Lego RV—the endless educational possibilities began to fly through my mind.

Yes, my friends, that’s a bike rack on top! This RV is be-dazzled with all kinds of amazing stuff.

And my little Emme spent nearly two hours putting this gem together, all by herself. It wouldn’t have taken her so long, but I had the ‘dad’—whom I shall affectionately call ‘Cousin Eddie’ (not only with his cool hair do–but also the snazzy muscle shirt he’s sporting) and ‘mom’ packing up lots of things from the house to get ready for the family’s first big trip in the RV and kept distracting her with my Cousin Eddie voice.

And this is not your grandmother’s RV. If you’ll look real carefully, one of the Griswald children is asleep in the ‘overhead’ compartment. (She’s yellow with an orange hairbow). This RV has brought us so much entertainment already that I’m thinking of purchasing another one. Camping is always more fun with other families, ya know.
Please notice ‘dad’s’ hairdo.

What does this have to do with homeschooling, you ask? Geography, of course. The Griswalds are gonna travel. A lot. And this particular RV is amphibious, so not to worry about how we’ll get through the straight of Gilbraltar. We’ll get through just fine.

This amazing map I bought at Hobby Lobby last week is one of those ‘easy stick’ gadgets that you can stick and then remove and re-stick. So we applied it to our school table so that we’d always have the world map at the finger tips. This could very well be my most favorite idea yet. We talk geography all the time now. And the Griswald’s travel all over the world. Cousin Eddie doesn’t think twice about traveling to Australia one day……and then Alaska the next. He’s quite adventurous and doesn’t even take the time to repack the RV.

We’ve had more fun with this and find ourselves sitting in there all the time asking each other questions like “Where in the world is Belfast?”

And what could be more entertaining than Cousin Eddie playing air guitar on the Rock of Gilbraltar . Elea snickers everytime she shows us where ‘Chad’ is—-her favorite country in Africa.

We even sometimes use our ‘art man’ to take giant steps across the world. If he’s does a leaping splits he can touch Brazil and Australia at the same time.

Who needs a geography book when you have the Griswalds’ and Art Man?

And have you ever heard Cousin Eddie’s famous homeschool quote?

Oh yeah, Yuban Coffee. You know you can sprinkle that stuff on anything? Ice cream, mashed potatoes, or just eat it right out of the can for a quick pick me up.

Excuse me while I sprinkle coffee grounds on my oatmeal!

Logos School gets ready for year 2…….

July 28, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 30 Comments

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly… all days holy, all men divine. R.W. Emerson

Our homeschool starts almost as soon as we get back from vacation. I’ve been reading and searching and making our final selections. We’re making some changes this year, mostly in literature and math. In literature, we’ve decided to follow the Charlotte Mason approach, introducing more difficult classic books at an early age. Our list for this year for my 2nd and 3rd grader includes Pilgrim’s Progress (which is read very slowly over 1-2 years), Tales from Shakespeare, The Jungle Books, The Adventures of Robin Hood, English Fairy Tales, and Heroes, just to name a few. That list seems a little daunting but reading Charlotte Mason this summer has convinced me that children are much more capable than we think and tend to rise to the level of expectation. We’ll continue to use supplemental literature from the time period we’re studying which will be the middle ages through the Renaissance— from Story of the World.

I’ve also been feverishly working on our timeline. I couldn’t find not ONE free wall in this house for our timeline. Not ONE. I was sitting in the school room (ie. garage) mulling it over when it dawned on me that the perfect place for the timeline was right in front of me—-the garage door. So, I quickly got to work and couldn’t be happier with how it’s turning out. There’s something just *inspiring* about a physical timeline right there in the open where everyone can see it—study it—digest it. I used black cardstock cut into strips to make the actual ‘line’. Then I just printed off the dates and events from my computer. I basically followed the Veritas History Cards—with some of my own additions and omissions–to decide what events to include. Then to make it come alive, I’ve been printing off famous classical paintings or sculptures of that event or person and taping it above or below the timeline. It will take me a while to catch up, but once I do, I don’t think this will be that hard to maintain. I plan to use the other garage door panels to hang maps. It’s just perfect. There is literally ZERO wasted space in this schoolroom.

Other changes include substituting Singapore Math for Saxon and implementing Andrew Pudewa’s Poetry Memorization program. We’re also working on possibly hiring a Latin/Spanish tutor—-which would definitely warrant a series of hitchkicks on my part. I sorta drop the language ‘ball’ last year. Apparently, I can’t do it all. And although I say that we ‘start’ school soon, I’m trying to change my paradigm—-we’re always learning—school doesn’t start and stop. So, on our little excursion to our farm this weekend, we learned about blackberries and ruby-throated hummingbirds……..

……..and that fishing is extremely difficult without worms.

I can’t wait to get back to our little cozy routine. And if we can manage this reading list, these girls are gonna be smarter than me by next year.