Jen sent a link to Jen Igarishi’s editorials over at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  These essays are insightful, often funny, and quite convicting.  I love the Perfect Homeschool article. She explains that homeschoolers should aim high, set goals, be diligent.  But if your vision isn’t executed perfectly it is not necessary to send them off in despair.

If you missed it, go visit Meredith at Sweetness and Light. She has made some gorgeous materials!

Homeschool E-store is having a special Mother’s Day give-away from 8am til midnite on MONDAY, not Sunday. They are offering some $200 in free ebook curricula during those hours.

Me?  I will be spending the day with my oldest who is newly arrived from school in AZ. : )  Have a good one!

Hop on over to Pleasant View Schoolhouse for some awesome perspective on homeschooling, written in Anna’s trademark concise, articulate manner.  Fwiw this is very much the philosophy I espouse these days. Particularly noteworthy is the last few lines. She asks: "Are you living an interested life?" To me this is the core question. Do you find the world fascinating? Does that fascination rub off on your children? Are you creating something on a regular basis? Do you thirst for knowledge yourself?  Remember you can’t give what you don’t have. In the end if you are living a ‘fascinated life then none of the bells and whistles curricula matter. If you aren’t, none of the bells and whistles curricula can help.

Meredith is having a Carnival of Toddlerhood Friday and I hoped to make a thoughtful contribution with all sorts of cutting edge advice. Yeah, well. Life, it happens. (see previous cow entry for this week’s excuse ; )) That tends to be considered a con when homeschooling with little ones. Current thinking on parenthood is that we ought to plan each moment of the day with factory precision. We should devise and implement thematic lesson plans for our little people. We should be sure to provide optimum musical, nutritional, social, philosophical, physical, emotional, financial, and educational experiences. Or else.

I have long suspected such obsessive parenting was not likely critical to successful child rearing but dog-gone it you sound downright second rate in the parenting dept if you say so.  Dorcas Smucker helped me think about this differently. She shares how she tried heroically to stage memories that would rival those of her own childhood. From thanksgiving turkeys to Christmas candy making she felt perpetually let down by the realities of her life and longed to recreate picture-perfect experiences like those she remembered. Her sister even bought her a ‘Lets Make a Memory’ book to help her ‘send children into adulthood with a stockpile of good childhood memories.’  The irony of all this is that her own mother had hazy recall of how those deep seated family traditions came to be. Apparently she had not been a victim of what Smucker calls ‘nebulous parenting."  Her mom knew that ‘memories creep in when you’re busy doing something else.’

This is so true.

Sometimes life trumps your best intentions. I believe, like Dorcas’ mother, that if you work hard, fear God, and have fun, memories will take care of themselves. Children remember love above all else. I hope to remember this:

My current toddler is on the cusp between baby and big boy. When he sleeps the baby side is most prominent though. Thank God for small favors <g>  This will pass all too quickly. Anymore, while I still see the value of early childhood enrichment I appreciate that life itself is education. Bringing up our little people alongside of us in our busy days provides a rich and varied upbringing. Slowing ourselves to come alongside of our little people in these quiet moments keeps us sane.

It’s ok not to have every moment planned out. It’s ok to let your babies play. It’s not copping out to end up doing the dishes, washing the clothes, and making the meals instead of presenting a cross curricular wonder lesson. That is love too. Those things are chock full of opportunities for making memories and teaching our little guys. What is most important is the slowing down part. Don’t miss this time. I have said it before, if you blink twice, it’s passed.

from Marva Collins’ Way on drawing analogies:

"What drug takes its name from Morpheus, the god of dreams?"

"Morphine," the children called out in unison.

"From where do we get the words geography and geology?""The goddess Ge," they answered.

"Who was Ge?"
"Greek goddess of the earth."

"What does museum mean?"

"Temple of the muses."

"What else does muse mean, Laura?"

"To think about something," she answered.

"Which of King Priam’s sons has a name which means to bully?

"Hector," the class responded.

"And who killed Hector?"

"Achilles."

"How did Achilles die?"

"Paris shot him with an arrow in the heel," Gary shouted, before anyone else could put together a complete sentence.

"And when we use the phrase Achilles heel what do we mean, Tracy?"

"A weak spot."

…and so it went. This is the key to quality classical education in my opinion. Many published unit studies attempt to help make those connections for the students/teachers but like Marva Collins, I believe the best way to make connections is to read widely. Many homeschool mothers worry that their lack of teacher training is a potential handicap. Marva said that the best training a teacher can have is a solid liberal arts education. If you did not come to home education with such a background you can still do exactly what she did: "read constantly in order to tie together fragments of information and interweave subjects."

That does not need to consist of reading intense literary texts either as we discovered reading aloud the other day. We had a picture book of Rip Van Winkle. When we began the story we learned Rip lived in the Catskills Mts near the Hudson River, which one daughter remembered was named after Henry Hudson who was looking for the Northwest Passage. This had just come up in her history book. That reminded them of the D’Aulaire Columbus book and the other explorers read about lately and a lively discussion ensued about why those men were trying so hard to get to Asia(silks, spices, etc)and how America was accidentally discovered in the process.  They wondered why Hudson was called Hendrick in the book and what the significance of the Dutchmen was, so we discussed New York’s original name – New Netherlands, recalling the artist we studied this year, Rembrandt, who was also born there about the same time.

As we read about Dame Van Winkle’s nagging and scolding we discussed the bible’s definition of a valiant woman who brings her husband ‘good and not evil all the days of his life’. We discussed the significance of the sign over the tavern where Rip hung out – first bearing a picture of King George and later George Washington, hence alluding to the American Revolution. We noticed the illustrator was Will Moses which sounded an awful lot like Grandma Moses about whom we read earlier this year. Reading the book jacket revealed that he was indeed linked to her both by relation and artistically, painting in a similar primitive style. Later in the week a copy of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion magazine had an ad for a Will Moses poster which another child immediately noticed and correctly connected back to the book and ‘Grandma’.  And so it goes here. : )

We are reading a bit more slowly these days but exchanges like these are free lessons as far as I am concerned. They require no prep time, just a willingness to enter into the story with the children. I don’t believe any prepared lesson plan can effectively replace being well read, unless you are willing to be tied to a cumbersome lesson manual that will make artificial connections for you. Those will never work as well as the spontaneous connections made with our children as we call to mind similar people, places, and events read about before. We have benefited most in our homeschool journey not from complicated, and costly, lesson manuals but from hours on the couch or around the kitchen table hashing out ideas born from books.

Today the Ranch Hands will be making an Easter garden to remember Jesus’ death.  On Easter morning the stone will be rolled away.  There are some very nice pictures to give you an idea of the finished project potential here, here and here. Other years we have done a Jonah craft. This site has several Holy Week and Easter patterns. The garden is towards the bottom.

A few years ago I picked up some wooden half eggs. There are full wooden eggs but these you can lay down on the table to paint. We are making some faux pysanky eggs with these this weekend. You simply paint them a base color such as black or red and then decorate in a traditional pysanky pattern. (notice we are just now making them ; )) No wooden eggs at your house?  No problem. You can find paper craft eggs here, and here they make them into state flower eggs. This egg unit has lots of book titles, experiments, and crafts.

Historically the hardest part of Good Friday is observing silence from noon until three when Jesus died for us. Silence is not our strong suit. ; D Yet we feel it is vitally important to take this time to remember an event too awesome for words.  I have linked up some coloring pages for quiet time:

http://www.sermons4kids.com/jesus_on_cross_2.gif

http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/jesus-cross.gif

http://www.edupics.com/data/mediapictures1a/202/jesus-on-the-cross–786.jpg

Flash card that is. ; ) I found some great resources for language printables. The first is eslflashcards.com.  I am not a huge fan of cartoon graphics but I can be flexible when free is involved. These are huge files and have all sorts of potential uses. They can be used with prereaders. They can be sorted by category such as things you wear, things that go in a house, holidays, things you do, etc. They can be used for chore charts (perfect for pocket charts) for preschoolers since there is a set of health related and things around the house cards.

MES-English is another great site. They have some reading cards that could be made into 3 part cards easily. There are also phonics cards, classified words cards, and free phonics books.

Sight words? You bet. In flash card form right here and here.

D’nealian letter cards (could also double as phonics sounds drill)

File Folder phonics games.

I’m tellin’ you, the possibilities here……

This is our last look at Tucson. I guess the pictures taken say something about the photographer. Some people fill travel journals with landscapes. I fill mine with architecture. To me the way people live tell us a good deal about them and I have always found homes to be fascinating.

Simply Charlotte Mason has some printable forms for making a trip notebook. You will want to print the budget forms ahead of time to fill in as you go.   Another printable journal is available here and here. Is low-tech more your style? Check out samples of a child’s journal created in a sketchbook. To be honest that one is my favorite.

Homeschool World has an article describing the creation of one family’s travel journal.

Children’s Travel Journal ideas from Notebook Magazine.

How to keep a travel journal article for adultsand older teens. This artists travel journal is breathtaking. Sigh. And why I carry a camera I guess. Speaking of which here are the last shots of Tucson.  We can call these "The Door Series" lol!

Jill Novak, who publishes Girlhood Home Companion and The Gift of Family Writing is joining up with Cindy Rushton to conduct a nature notebook workshop at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo.  There will be a free preview chat Thurs March 29th at 6,7,8,or 9pm (west to east respectively). Jill’s site is here.