LaPaz Home Learning

Not much going on here. Just kind of laying around, soaking up the sun.

How about you?

This has been a big project for me, but I finally got my home-made version of the Montessori  grammar box materials done. Whew!

I decided that rather than the traditional series of 8 individual boxes to present each of the parts of speech, I only really need the last box (or at least something similar to it) to hold all of the parts of speech. So that’s what I had in mind when I hit the yard sales,  where I found an old mail center-type shelf  for 50 cents (cant beat that price!).

Here is what it looked like before Ed modified it for me:

He removed the key hooks, put a new back on it, added some dividers and square dowels as little toe boards to hold the word cards up, then I painted it and added the titles with paint pens. Rather than hanging on a wall, it lays flat on a table.

Seeing as I am operating with only one child in a home setting, rather than a school setting, I think it is fine to just use the one box. I’ll keep the cards in a coupon file, and fill the box as we work with each part of speech, leaving empty compartments for parts of speech we have yet to cover.

I got the sentences from here, and made my own word cards out of colored card stock and sharpies, using vocabulary from the sentences. I will also be writing some of my own sentences so I can tailor the vocab to things that are relevant to JBug. She is already asking to use it, so I suppose I was right on with my timing.

All we need now are the grammar shapes and we are good to go.

Funky, but functional. It’s what we shoot for here.

Lately I have been thinking JBug is about ready to begin exploring some of the Montessori grammar materials. I can’t afford to purchase them ($$$), so I am making my own versions. I’ve been working on the grammar box materials and I am almost ready to share them, but in the mean time I want to share my own version of the detective adjective game.

The detective adjective game (scroll down a bit) is usually played with 54 triangles of different shape, color and size, plus slips of paper on which are written clues like “the small, blue, obtuse-angled scalene triangle.” The child reads the clue, uses it to choose the correct triangle, then reads the next clue, chooses the triangle, etc. I thought about making all the necessary triangles for the game, but decided instead to just use what I had on hand—buttons!

So I got out the button jar and pulled out 40 different buttons. I sorted the buttons and wrote clues to distinguish each one. For example: “The smallest flat red button” or “the large brown flowered button.” Then I cut the clues apart, stored them in a little box with the 40 buttons, and that was that! I’ve stored them away for now, but as soon as we get to the adjective materials I will have a fun hands-on activity for her to do.

I was thinking about other ways this game could be made if you wanted to and don’t have lots of buttons. It could be easily done with shells, beads, coins from around the world (ex: “the small silver Chinese coin”), leaves, rocks, fabric scraps…anything really that you can have 40 or so distinctly different objects that vary in 3 or 4 characteristics. I think using the original triangles is great, but using other objects adds a bit of individual flair to the game, making it extra fun. Best of all…it’s practically free!

Ok, maybe it’s not exactly joyful…

But it certainly is noise!

This is entirely too cool!

So, I was reading a post at the always-inspiring blog the moveable alphabet.  The beginning of the post was about magnets, which we’ve kinda done to death, but at the end, there was a link to this: The-Hunt-for-Micrometeorites  which I showed to JBug and we were both blown away at how very cool it was, so naturally we grabbed our magnets and headed outside for a micrometeorite hunt of our own.

As per directions, we dutifully sifted through the dirt at the bottom of our rain gutters, running our magnets through it all in hopes of finding those tiny silver space-spheres. We also tried sidewalk cracks and roadside deposits.

I actually held out little hope of finding anything. See, our soil is very sandy and course, and the directions stated that this works best in fine soil. Plus, we were picking up large chunks of iron-rich debris of some sort that was clogging up our magnets. But, we dutifully stuck our findings to a sticky note, put the note under our microscope, and commenced the search for the tiny silver spheres that meant we’d found our space-traveling quarry.

After long hard look which produced nothing more than a major headache I gave up.

JBug, undaunted, persisted.I have to give her credit, she was not easily discouraged.

And guess what! Success! She actually found some!

Here is the picture I took using the highly sophisticated method of sticking my point-and-shoot up to the microscope eyepiece and hoping for the best.

See the tiny silver ball sitting just above the big grey chunk-o-junk?

That is a real-live micrometeorite, folks, straight from outer-space! Shazam!! Now, how cool is that?

Way to go, JBug! You rock!

Poor JBug. Superboy is gone for the rest of the summer and though we all miss him, I think she is suffering the most. After all, her number one person to pester companion has briefly escaped is taking some time away and left her with no one to annoy play with.

So, in order to keep her from driving me insane feeling blue I am doing what any desperate good mom would do and setting her up with some time-consuming fun activities to keep her occupied entertain her.

This was yesterday’s diversion activity*:

Inspired by our latest snorkel excursion to the reefs, I pinned a big piece of easel paper up on the wall and sketched out a simple underwater scene, and together we filled it with many of the things we have seen. I added a few things, she added a few things, and then she painted. And painted and painted! For the entire evening! Wow! She was really into it! And as a bonus she learned about mixing colors and adding white and black to tint and shade.

Finished product! Such a happy scene! She loves it and says she wants to hang it in her room so she can pretend to be Ariel. And she’s been happily humming “Under the Sea” ever since!LOL!

(* I hope you know all that stuff at the top was totally tongue-in-cheek. I am actually looking forward to being able to spend some real one-on-one time with my little bug. A rare opportunity.)

We’ve had company and it seems like old times around here lately:

The dynamic duo, JBug and Squirt, having some quality puzzle-time together. The two of them were inseparable  for days!

I drug out JackJack’s Montessori materials and he obviously missed them! He was so excited to get his hands on them again and spent hours doing every botany, zoology, and insect puzzle, the knobbed and knobless cylinders, map puzzles, and stacks of matching and animal cards! Every time I brought out another item he would jump up and down and exclaim, “Oh! I remember that!!!”  And he did! Priceless!

Definitely one of the greatest benefits of moving here is having Squirt and JackJack back in our lives on a frequent basis. Love, love, love.

Turn out the light, folks, the party is over.  8th grade is done. 9th grade begins. It’s now High school! And everyone knows this means  it’s time to finally get serious once-and-for-all.

Let me just start off by saying I kind of resent that someone, somewhere got to arbitrarily decide a start/end point for when school is suddenly “Official” and “Important.” That here, now, at this randomly appointed time I have to keep a “Transcript” to prove that my child is learning exactly what all of the other kids are learning. Or he won’t get into college. And his life will be ruined. And just about everyone else sort of collectively goes along with it. But most of all I resent that I am feeling pressure (mostly internal) to go along with it, too.

Why?

I’ll tell you. Better yet, I’ll show you. Have a listen to my internal conversation. It sounds something like this:

Me: There should not be a randomly designated deadline after which all learning is vitally important and before which none of it is. That is just wacky.

Me: But the world we live in is wacky, isn’t it?

Me: Yes, but that’s no reason for me to buy into the wackiness. My son should be able to keep learning just as he always has. If it’s working so far, why should we change now?

Me: Because of college. He needs to be able to get into college. Even if he doesn’t end up going, he needs to at least have that option available. He needs a transcript with 4 years of English, 4 years math, 2 years foreign language, etc, etc, etc. How can you do that unschooling? You can’t.

Me: That’s just your fear talking. You know what you are doing here is right and good. There is no reason why he should have to learn exactly the same thing at the same time as every other kid his age. You can free him from mediocrity, from the pressure to conform. Let him choose his own path. You can do this!

Me: It’ll be too hard! (insert whiny voice here) It would be so much easier to just sign him up for online classes, or enroll him in a school-at-home school with lesson plans all written out for you.There are some really nice ones out there, aren’t there?

Me: Like what?

Me: You know, the Classical Academies, the Great Books courses. Those types of things. Rigorous, solid, respected.

Me:  He will hate it. I’ll hate it. He will hate me.

Me: Well, life can’t always be fun and games. He needs to learn how to study, how to achieve goals.He needs to buckle down.

Me: But he does study! His interests. He does achieve goals. His goals. Wait…Buckle down???!!!  Did you just say that? Is this really me saying that??? Ok, hold on!!! Who ARE you???

Me: …

Me: That’s what I thought. I would never cave in to such thinking! I would never give up my dearly-held principles simply due to fear of the unknown! I know what we are doing works. I trust my child and his natural capacity for learning. I trust myself to guide and support him in his endeavors. Now get out of here you impostor and don’t ever come back!

Me: Ok…but… what if you ruin his life???

Me:…*sigh* …

We finally got a look at the face behind our eerie night-time serenade and he is a real beauty:

and surprisingly big, too! Here is a picture with Superboy’s hand for scale:

Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko)

The Tokay Gecko is native to Asia, but like many other tropical animals has been introduced to Florida and is thriving here. This one certainly looks (and sounds) healthy!

Multiple choice quiz:

Whenever I post a meme you can tell I have nothing to write about because:

a) not much is going on worth writing about

b) I’m so busy I don’t have time to post

c) I am pondering some big ideas and have not yet worked out what I want to say

d) all of the above

I’ll leave it to you to decide which it is. In the mean time, please accept with my apologies the following:

Book Meme

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Me: Probably Bill Bryson: In a Sunburned Country, A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Small Island, Short History of Nearly Everything (2 copies, original and updated illustrated edition) and probably more that I can’t think of off the top of my head right now.

Superboy:JK Rowling

JBug: Dr Seuss or Jan Brett

Modgirl: JRR Tolkien
2. What book do you own the most copies of?

All of us: Peterson’s Guide to Eastern Birds-copies of that seem to multiply somehow.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

Me: only a little.

Superboy:I don’t care.

JBug: No. What’s a preposition?

Modgirl:  The first one, yes, but the second one was ok.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

Me: Indiana Jones.

Superboy: Alana from Song of the Lioness series.

JBug:Harry Potter

Modgirl: Fitzwilliam Darcy

5. What book have you read the most times in your life?

Me:I am not a big re-reader. In fact I cannot think of any book I have read for myself more than once, other than field guides.Now, if it was a read-aloud to the children then it would be Dr Seuss’s ABC book or The Big Honey Hunt.

Superboy: SAS Survival Handbook

JBug: Superman comic book.

Modgirl:The Hobbit

6. Favorite book as a ten year old?

Me: The Black Stallion series.

Superboy: Spiderwick books

JBug:N/A

Modgirl: The Rats of Nimh series

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?

Me: I don’t know. I tend to not read a book unless I am pretty sure I’ll like it. I don’t have time to waste on bad books.

Superboy: can’t remember. Some dumb book about a book made of dragon skin that eats people, or something like that.

Modgirl:I read part of Twilight and nearly threw up. Needless to say I did not finish it.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?

Me: Animal Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Superboy: The Hunger Games(thanks, Lissa!)

JBug: Amelia Bedelia

Modgirl: Paradise by Toni Morrison

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?

Me: I’m not into forcing people to read. But perhaps some science books would be a good idea.

Superboy: cannot choose.

Modgirl: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

Me: Next by Michael Creighton

Superboy: Redwall by Brian Jaques

JBug:The Sign of the Seahorse by Graeme Base

Modgirl: Idlewild by Nick Sagan
11. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?

Me: Annals of the Former World, By John McPhee. Still slogging through this one after a year or so. It’s really good, but I just find it very difficult reading for some reason.

Superboy: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

JBug: was so proud to be able to read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr Seuss.

Modgirl:Atlas Shrugged or Watership Down

12. What is your favorite book?

Me: Impossible to say.

Superboy: I have at least 50 favorite books, but if forced to choose it might be Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

JBug: Ginger Pye

Modgirl: Impossible.

13. Play?

Me: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)   So hilarious!

Superboy: Romeo and Juliet (the modern version with Leo DiCaprio)

Modgirl: Children of Eden (to read) Lion King on broadway (to watch)

14. Poem?

Me:Umm… so hard to choose. I really like Robert Frost, so perhaps one of his. But it depends on my mood.

Superboy: The Raven

Modgirl: Gate C22

15. Essay

Me: Lots of stuff by John Taylor Gatto

Modgirl: Coda from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Me:Stephanie Meyer

Superboy: Stephanie Meyer

Modgirl: Stephanie Meyer
17. What is your desert island book?

Me: Outward Bound Wilderness First Aid Handbook

Superboy:Man vs Wild: Survival Techniques from the Most Dangerous Places on Earth by Bear Grylls

JBug: A survival book that has pictures (like SAS Survival Handbook)

Modgirl: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson(I could read this a thousand times)

18. And . . . what are you reading right now?
Me:Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie (so far it is charmimg!)

Superboy: SilverFin (A young James Bond Adventure) by Charlie Higson

JBug: Ginger Pye (read-aloud)

Modgirl: The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007

And there you have it! Let me know if you decide to play along!

(ht: Matilda, Jennifer, Faith, and Erica )