Karen had to go and tag me and pull me out of my Thanksgiving- and homeschool-induced stupor. I know I've been a bad blogger lately by not posting much or visiting the blogs of blogger friends, but I had to clean the house well because everyone was going to be here and somehow they always find an excuse to look in closets and cupboards and drawers, so everything has to be clean.
And, my homeschool friends may think it a tad anal, but I had scheduled the time off over Thanksgiving to plan the second half of the year's curriculum. I know some of the mom's are blessed with the ability to wing it day-in and day-out, but I need a plan -- I need to chart a course, or if I can't see where I'm going, I'll never get there. Phonics and math are at whatever pace my son can handle, although I do have the math broken out to have an idea of where we need to be to finish Level A (RightStart Math) this year. History needs planning to find the books I want to use, piece-meal them out over the unit we are studying and planning of the various hands-on activities.
But, Karen didn't ask about why I've been in seclusion, she tagged me for this meme, so let's get on with it.
Six things that make me happy
1. Family - I was blessed to have had the childhood I did. A great big, happy Irish clan that honestly got along and sincerely loved (and even liked!) one another. Hubby's family is a challenge, but I think God is using both of sides to make the other better. Having Thanksgiving at my home this year, I think, really tempered their brash ways for an hour or so. Everyone got along, no politics, no football. There is hope! And, there was a rumor that my MIL had voted for McCain. For a few days, I almost thought I could hug her! Unfortunately, it was just a rumor.
2. Faith - Where would I be with out my faith. Comforting, edifying, educating, correcting, humbling, inspiring...
3. Friends - Thank goodness for good friends, especially good Catholic friends.
4. Time for quasi-intellectual pursuits - Yes, I love Jeopardy, Suduko, crossword puzzles, researching genealogy, and even now learning the things I didn't learn in Kindergarten! Don't tell my homeschool friends, but I saw that Saxon Math had several placement tests on their website for high school math...I did all four of them one morning. Nod your heads; I'm a geek.
5. Being at the cabin - Makes me happy because the kids can be kids, mom can turn the reigns over to dad and veg. No TV, no phone, no computer.
6. My kids - OK, when they're sleeping...kidding! When I combed my daughter's hair this morning and said, "There's my pretty princess," she turned around and said to me, "You're a pretty princess too." It's good their manic ways are balanced out with their gosh darn cuteness. But if my son does get me a Power Ranger for Christmas, I won't think that is so cute...unless it's the Red Power Ranger.
BTW: Six is my favorite number...Karen dislikes it. But, then she likes odd numbers over evens, so six didn't even have a chance.
I tag Cathy, Vincenzo, Ray, Chris, Mum of 6 Shell, and Christine from Maryland (who doesn't have a blog but can play along if she's up to it and place answers in the combox). Although I'd wager 4 of the 6 won't play along, the party poopers!
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7 comments:
Six Things that Make Me Happy
1-A comfortable pair of jeans and an old tee shirt. If I didn't have to look "professional" to face a bunch of fourth graders everyday, I'd be in living life in denim comfort.
2- MUSIC! Anything but rap/hip hop and Broadway showtunes. Andrea Bocelli to Grateful Dead to Stravinsky to the Gather hymnal...it revs me for life!
3-My husband. We've been together for many years and are a delightfully comfortable fit. My mother always said to marry your best friend, and she was right.
4-My faith. I tell people that I'm a practicing Catholic and that someday I'll get it right.
5-My daughter. She was completely unplanned, but has been one of the greatest joys of my life. And I think she is pleasing to God.
6-A good book, a cup of tea, and the love seat in my living room on a rainy day. Need I say more?
I know what your saying about getting everything in the house in order--clean--my relatives, well they used to call me, "Mrs. Clean," and they would look hard for some "dirt," just to harrass me. One time Jim's sister actually found some dirt, and she carried it on a rag, around the house to everyone who was at our house that day, exclaiming, "look, I actually found some dust." Needless to say, she was NEVER invited to my house again--I did not find it amusing in the least.
Good job on the meme, now I have to go do mine :)
I know that "seclusion" bit. I've been TERRIBLE about making the rounds. Which is why I tagged you!
BTW, how old are your darlings again and what history are you giving them? [I'd say piece meal is best too, given the "politically correct" trash that is being put out in schools now and texts. Honestly you might as well rename them "Learn to Hate the USA " subtitled "white men suck"
Karen
[BA - History - UCSD]
Christine:
What wonderful and delightful answers. Mine are not the most original :) Although I totally agree on the jeans and tee shirt. I used to work in the business field (prior to being an engineer) and wore suits and LOW heels everyday. Then, after becoming an engineer, I worked at Intel and you had to wear jeans and tee shirts with NO make up. Broke me of my business suit ways rather quickly!
Tara:
I'm the one that gets bothered about having things clean. My in-laws' homes are generally quite messy, although my MIL is fairly neat. You have a charming SIL!! Will have to stop by and check out your meme answers.
Karen:
My son is the one in school. He's 5 and my daughter is 3. We are doing ancient history this year. It's based on the Trivium, where you do history in four chronological chunks. I use RC History as a road map (Connecting with History)
www.rchistory.com which is a Catholic perspective on history, focusing on salvation history, along the lines of Jeff Cavins. Actually, there are some good resources available now without revisionist history...so many it's hard to narrow down some times just what resources I plan to use. Next year is from the birth of Christ and establishment of the Church to about 1600, which is a HUGE chunk. So far we've covered Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egpytians, Hittites, Hivites, Hyksos, Nubians, Amorites, Phoenicians, Philistines, Canaanites, Israelites etc. Next up is Minoan, Mycenaen, Greek, Roman, Medes, etc. Will cover Indus and Asian, along with the Americas and Europe in one unit at the end. I think I've learned more than the kids!!!
Ah. Okay. I saw your next post. One thing about the cirrculum. Even though you are "doing" knights, etc. next year...don't deal and damp down the intrest THIS year. Part of the point of homeschooling is NOT to march everyone in lockstep all the time.
So yes, do a specific cirriculum to build a good foundation on...but NEVER put off a child wanting to know what he wants to know *today.*
Best present I ever got was a set of encyclopedias that were arranged TOPICALLY. One thing lead to another, and I ended up reading most articles in that 24 volume set. [Except volume 12, because that one had the spider pictures in it.]
Karen:
Although I tend to be on the structured side, nothing is being squelched. My son was interested in the human body awhile back so we have a good sized colletion of books and such on that topic, same with knights, same with bees and construction equipment, etc. I'm regularly buying the kids books on a variety of topics...what I'm talking about many times in my posts is the more formal structure of what is to be learned in school, but a great deal of learning happens throughout the day on any number of topics. As my kids get older, they will have input as to what particular things/people interest them within a given topic and I can incorporate their interests into the curriculum. Each kid has a decent-sized book case in their room and both are filled with all sorts of books. Plus they have the requisite toys to just be kids too :) In fact, the bucket of knights, along with the catapult and battering ram, are strewn all over the floor.
Saxon math tests, you are so funny! Only an engineer...
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