Posted in gloom despair and agony on me on Sep 26th, 2007 9 Comments »
I’m doing what my friend Bess calls ‘crock-pot thinking.’ I’ve thrown all the ingredients in my brain and am just taking awhile to let it all simmer before I make a decision. Part of this process for me includes writing down my thoughts, because it forces me to examine each part of the [...]
Posted in gloom despair and agony on me on Sep 25th, 2007 8 Comments »
I was blog-surfing the other evening, and I found an entry written by a mother whose children have never been in public school. She’s having difficulties getting them to cooperate with homeschooling; she discussed it with a friend whose children had previously attended public school, and were gleefully homeschooling. They decided the reason [...]
Posted in Holidays on Sep 22nd, 2007 10 Comments »
This evening was our Autumn Equinox/Mabon tea. After a trip to a local orchard, we made candle holders from four of the apples, which we lit as we each shared some things for which we are grateful. The children were very pleased with our table, as well as our foods, and I couldn’t have asked [...]
Posted in Life on Sep 20th, 2007 3 Comments »
Never again plan an outing to the zoo with four children the day after a slumber party in which two of the children (and myself) are up until two in the morning.
Not one of my smarter decisions.
Posted in Carnivals, Charlotte Mason on Sep 18th, 2007 No Comments »
The First Edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is up at The Educational Life.
There are some great posts, and the story she put together is really cute. If you like Charlotte Mason, you will enjoy this carnival.
Posted in Life, Perceptions, Philosophies and Methods on Sep 18th, 2007 4 Comments »
The guest on today’s The Diane Rehm show was Mark Penn, the man who coined the term soccer mom, Hillary Clinton’s chief presidential campaign adviser, and author of the book Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes.
According to the book review by Publisher’s Weekly, microtrends are “relatively small patterns of behavior in our culture [...]
Posted in Lesson Planning on Sep 17th, 2007 5 Comments »
I’ve been working on the plans for our celebration of the Fall Equinox. I’m hoping by the time we finish this five-day unit*, the children will:
have an understanding of the equinox
be familiar with the harvest and abundance stories in various mythologies (Demeter and Persephone, Ancient Greece; Modron and Mabon, British Isles; and Amiyao and [...]
Posted in Kid Speak on Sep 15th, 2007 2 Comments »
The Sun, preparing to warm her cup of tea in the microwave: Mama, how long do I set the timer?
Me: Fifty seconds.
The Sun: What?
The Moon (trying to be helpful): Five-zero-start.
The Sun (offended and scoffing): I know my alphabet, you know.
*very tongue in cheek. I’m being sarcastic. Not in a mean way [...]
Posted in Life on Sep 14th, 2007 12 Comments »
Posted in Lesson Planning, Materials We're Using, Perceptions, Philosophies and Methods on Sep 14th, 2007 8 Comments »
This weekend I will be sharing here my plans for our celebration of the Fall Equinox/Mabon (which falls on September 23rd this year). Before that, I want to clarify where I stand regarding religious labels. I can’t really say I’m secular in the true spirit of the definition, but I also don’t believe [...]
