On To High School

Well, in the space of a weekend our homeschool has changed radically.

In June, Catherine attended a science retreat put on by WISE, Women In Science and Engineering. Despite her usual introvert misgivings about spending the day with a bunch of public school kids she didn't know, she had a great time and came home talking about possible careers in molecular biology or computer science. Eep. My plan for grade ten science had been Zumdahl`s World of Chemistry with labs from a book by Robert Bruce Thompson. The lab bit was doing my head in in regards to planning and cost but no big worry, right? After all, she wanted to be a writer or linguist so science wasn't a huge deal.

Right.

Now science had to be rigorous. Not just that but Catherine wanted more structure then I generally provide and wanted to be taught by someone who, "knew what they were talking about." The nerve of that child. We talked and high school was an option we were both willing to explore.

Fast forward a bit and now my little girl is registered for two courses in the fall semester at the small local high school. One is an integrated General Science course (foundational for the next five semesters of science) and the other is a visual arts course that she thought might be fun.

She'll be fine. She's got the kind of confidence and self assurance you don't often see in teenagers today. And she was adamant that she still wanted to do the rest of her subjects on her own or with me. I think she'll have fun and hopefully meet more of the local teenagers. It's just me that has to adjust. I need to remember that she's capable of this and that choosing to homeschool is not a choice that means always schooling at home but rather centering the decisions about education in the home.

Besides, is only one semester.

So far.

Homeschooling in the Last Days.

Okay, whoever searched for the phrase, "Homeschooling in the Last Days," and wound up on my blog (assuming you come back), I want to tell you something.

If you really, honestly, truly believe these are the Last Days, forget about the frikkin' homeschooling.

Stuff your kids with candy, spend 12 hours a day at the theme park, buy them a Wii, 360 AND PS2, give them each 6 kittens, bunches of frogs and a pony, have chocolate cake at every meal and a birthday party everyday.

If it's the Last Days then drop the freaking BJU workbook and go have fun. Yes, I know you'll have lots of fun when you're raptured but gosh, it's not like they'll be able to come back for a visit.

At least work on getting them the 360. I'm pretty sure they're won't be any Microsoft products in heaven.

Story of the World

Well, I managed to get a copy of the audio book version of this series and we listened to the first CD this week. I was well aware that this had a heavy christian slant so before starting, Catherine and I talked about history. We talked about how there are objective facts like dates and how there's interpretation of the meaning of events marked by those dates. There are fancy German names for both concepts courtesy of Wolfhart Pannenberg but bugger all if I can remember them. We also talked about myth and how, despite there being no facts involved, they can tell us a lot about the people who told those myths. On to the Story of The World.

It was really interesting. Catherine drew as I cleaned and when she had a question we'd pause the CD and talk a bit. When we got to 'Abraham and God' and 'Joseph' I'd make it clear that we were now firmly into mythical (possibly legendary) territory. It got interesting when we learned that the story of King Sargon of Akkad involved him being floated down a river to be found by a royal servent. Echoes of Moses anyone? So Christian myth gets presented as history but the threads that built the myths are still in there for listeners to ferret out.

I know there are workbooks availible but frankly, we'll have enough workbooks and worksheets when we start up some curricullum. Catherine picks stuff up easily enough when she's interested and worksheets often seem like busy work. To supplement I'll see what we can explore on the internet and look for some documentaries on early civilizations.

The Story of the World seems like it's going to be a nice resource so far. One you really need to approach with a little scepticism and the tools to question and research what it claims but that's really not a bad thing at all. I think it's probably good to introduce some materials that you intend to challenge so your kids can see that just because it's in a book doesn't mean you need to accept it all without question.

Damn Brownies

Catherine can pick a prepositional phrase out of a sentence and name the subject and verb of that sentence like nobody's business. Easy Grammar, with it's black and white pages and ever-present cloned turtle armies marching across worksheet pages, looks boring. But it's not. What it is is rigourous and thorough. So Catherine's doing well and heck, she ain't the only budding grammar diva in the house.

Grammar this morning obviously. Math Mammoth as well. Read a little bit on the tower of Babal in her bible activity book and we'll read the story from my Oxford NRSV tommorrow so we can get a better picture of it.

And then it was Brownie night tonight. I thought we were selling cookies door to door. The brownie pack leader or herd leader or whatever the title is missed giving Catherine the information last week and then I misheard the leader when she called me to let me know about the cookie sale. So I arrived expecting to have to flog cookies and found out that thankfully, I'd missed the whole thing as it was really yesterday. Phew! However, Catherine and I had a nice chat about the little brownie chant they have to do on the drive to the meeting. She hasn't memorized it yet and admitted she just faked the thing. I said I thought that was fine. Christian though I may be I squirmed when I heard the little girls promising to "love my God". On the copy we got later, 'faith' was written in in an attempt to be inclusive but, of course, not everybody believes. Some little girls don't have a faith. Nevermind the promise to, "Serve Queen and country," just so she can tape together construction paper easter baskets for an evening.

I'm not entirely comfortable with the brownies but Catherine enjoys it and has friends there. We can always talk about the icky cultish bits afterowrds.

Dinosaur Hunt

After math and after debating whether animals could make concsious choices about good and evil (we read the second Genesis myth last night)Catherine pulled out her really big dinosaur book. It's The Ultimate Book of Dinosaurs and of all our dinosaur books it's been the one that we've gone back to over and over again. She sat down on the couch and started working at reading huge dinosaur names and doing quite a good job at it. After awhile she decided that she was an Ornithomimus and that Harry and her niece Maddie were her babies.

Now of course a mother dinosaur needs to teach her babies to hunt but it's still a little disturbing to see your 8 year old hurl a stuffed rabbit across the kitchen and scream at your son and neice to, "Hunt the rabbit! Kill it! KILL IT!" Even more disturbing is to see that little, delicate 3 year old neice barrel towards the stuffed bunny on all fours, grab it in her mouth and shake it to kill it.

Things got a little gentler when Catherine built them a nest. I mean, yes, occasionally a pterodactactyl circled overhead and Catherine had to toss a blanket over them, whisper to them to be quiet and sheild them with her body but that's reasonable. She certainly doesn't have to much of a Bambi sensibility when it comes to playing animals.

The neice has gone home, Harry is watching Winnie the Pooh and Catherine and the husband are out swimming. I think it is the time for some chocolate mint ice cream.

First post!

I'm now on my third blog! This is quite a departure from my other two blogs as this one does not have comic books as a central theme, but this is one I really needed.

I'm a housewife and homeschooling mom of two, Catherine (8) and Harry (4). We're actually unschoolers and in our house that means little in the way of formal or conventional education. I plan to post stuff from our day together for a few reasons.

First, to motivate myself. One of my other blogs is about my goal to become a comic book penciler. Since I started it I've become more focused on that goal, practiced more, become more determined. I want some of that focus and determination in our homeschooling. We're drifting around lately, not really doing much of anything and it's not a situation that's making anyone happy. So there's that.

Second, so friends and family can check up on us. Many in the family are enthusiatic about what we're doing and would probably enjoy peeking in on our activities. Others aren't so sure of homeschooling and would probably appreciate a reasurring window into our days. I should make it clear however that even those who feel uncertain about homeschooling in general have been unfailingly supportive of our choice. they trust us to raise our children well and that's a great gift that not all homeschooling families have.

Third, to give other homeschoolers an idea of an unschooling or homeschooling day. When I was first considering homeschooling the most valuable information always seemed to be accounts of the nuts and bolts of home education from other homeschoolers. The advice, methods and curricullum all paled beside the usefullness of getting a glimpse into how it actually happened. I gained a lot from those parents that were generous enough to write about their experiences so it's my turn to share.