summer time
Mere hours before I have to submit my intent to home educate my children for another year, I received official word that I was done home educating the two school aged ones for this year. I received this word approximately 14 minutes after emailing in the last of my paperwork to the kindly superintendent of homeschooling. I wasn't even late. I can't be late, right? Because the kids in public school weren't even done yet. I think the saddest news of my month was that the kindly superintendent of homeschooling is retiring. He actually reads my paperwork and answers back with kind and encouraging comments. I'll have to be on best behavior from here on out because the next person isn't guaranteed to be kind.
And yes, despite the fact that Nathan tells everyone who walks a dog by our house that he was in Kindergarten, he wasn't. He'll be in Kindergarten this next year and Kindergarten is not even compulsory in our state. So all those things he gets to do, like interviewing passing neighbors about why their dog is blind, that is an enrichment activity. So is the fact that he daily raids my tupperware drawer to capture any insect he sees. He then puts the tupperware + insect into the freezer and grabs a post-it note and writes (with spelling help from others) an informative collection note that says "MOTH" with the letters straggling across the page. And because some kind parental figure in the house has begun letting him pin his insects, he now has his own collection. He also sings in pig latin. And he can add numbers up to 10 (on his fingers).
His main talent though, is asking complex and thoughtful questions after he's been put to bed. He has a sixth sense for asking a question that cannot be answered simply right after you've tucked him in and said goodnight. Anything from wondering who his step-dad is ("you don't have one" wasn't enough to make him go to sleep) to a question about whether his friend's illness (a cold) is the same as her cousin's illness (terminal cancer).
So what am I doing with all this summer free time? Well, I'm cleaning my house and planning school for next year and putting away school from this year. Nathan's summer reading book is Farmer Boy and he was totally upset about the cliff hanger ending of the second chapter tonight and didn't seem impressed when I pointed out that chapter three was not going to finish the story of the bad boys who want to hurt the teacher. I'm also reading aloud Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, to the older boys. Elsie is confused about the difference between Harry Potter and Beatrix Potter. She prefers the latter, though today I found her shouting with perfect enunciation, "Petrificus Totalus!" (I let one child read the books and now all my children are shouting Petrificus Totalus at each other).
I have other goals of teaching more advanced handicrafts (more sewing, weaving, etc) and working on some of my own projects. But today was a total wash, I just sat around drinking tea and reading library books.
I got The Child Catchers by Katheryn Joyce. I think the book has some important things to say about adoption and international adoption. But the not exactly veiled hostility toward Christians and her disingenuous way of acting like people who are on the fringe of American evangelicalism are its typical rank and file, make me think she wasn't hoping to make anyone critically examine their own position. But the point about the James 1:27 verse calling us to care for widows and orphans together instead of just trying to extract out the cute orphans and care for them made reading the book worthwhile for me.
Pulling Jim Gaffigan's Dad is Fat off the new book shelf at the library made me happy. I'm reading it a bit at a time out loud to Matt, so we can chuckle over Gaffigan's humor together.
Not from the library and probably due a fuller review than it will get right here, right now is Eat with Joy by Rachel Marie Stone. For the last couple years, I've know that I've enjoyed Rachel Marie Stone's writing at Christianity Today's her.meneutics blog. After reading her book, I realize it because we've spent the last 10 years reading all the same books. If you want to spend some time thinking about "the church and food" then you'll probably enjoy this book.
Also not from the library, is the intriguing book, The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood by David Montgomery. I'm about a chapter into the book and I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing.
Also, I'm slooooowly reading Emma by Jane Austen. I like Austen's writing (ok, I liked the film adaptations first) but I've read shockingly little of it. I've listened to some audio books of her work (Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion) but I've only read Pride and Prejudice. So clearly I need to work on that deficiency in my reading. And Clueless is one of my favorite movies.
Children are overdosing on TinTin, Hardy Boys, Beverly Cleary (Henry Huggins on CD and the Mouse and Motorcycle) and other good library topical finds (20th Century physics, Bears, papercrafts). Perhaps the funniest library selection goes to Elsie who found a board book about babies that giggles when you press a button. Elsie pressed the button continuously all the way home but she thinks it sounds like crying and is often heard trying to comfort the sad babies of the book, "It's OK babies, don't cry." and then she pushes the button again.
And yes, despite the fact that Nathan tells everyone who walks a dog by our house that he was in Kindergarten, he wasn't. He'll be in Kindergarten this next year and Kindergarten is not even compulsory in our state. So all those things he gets to do, like interviewing passing neighbors about why their dog is blind, that is an enrichment activity. So is the fact that he daily raids my tupperware drawer to capture any insect he sees. He then puts the tupperware + insect into the freezer and grabs a post-it note and writes (with spelling help from others) an informative collection note that says "MOTH" with the letters straggling across the page. And because some kind parental figure in the house has begun letting him pin his insects, he now has his own collection. He also sings in pig latin. And he can add numbers up to 10 (on his fingers).
His main talent though, is asking complex and thoughtful questions after he's been put to bed. He has a sixth sense for asking a question that cannot be answered simply right after you've tucked him in and said goodnight. Anything from wondering who his step-dad is ("you don't have one" wasn't enough to make him go to sleep) to a question about whether his friend's illness (a cold) is the same as her cousin's illness (terminal cancer).
So what am I doing with all this summer free time? Well, I'm cleaning my house and planning school for next year and putting away school from this year. Nathan's summer reading book is Farmer Boy and he was totally upset about the cliff hanger ending of the second chapter tonight and didn't seem impressed when I pointed out that chapter three was not going to finish the story of the bad boys who want to hurt the teacher. I'm also reading aloud Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, to the older boys. Elsie is confused about the difference between Harry Potter and Beatrix Potter. She prefers the latter, though today I found her shouting with perfect enunciation, "Petrificus Totalus!" (I let one child read the books and now all my children are shouting Petrificus Totalus at each other).
I have other goals of teaching more advanced handicrafts (more sewing, weaving, etc) and working on some of my own projects. But today was a total wash, I just sat around drinking tea and reading library books.
I got The Child Catchers by Katheryn Joyce. I think the book has some important things to say about adoption and international adoption. But the not exactly veiled hostility toward Christians and her disingenuous way of acting like people who are on the fringe of American evangelicalism are its typical rank and file, make me think she wasn't hoping to make anyone critically examine their own position. But the point about the James 1:27 verse calling us to care for widows and orphans together instead of just trying to extract out the cute orphans and care for them made reading the book worthwhile for me.
Pulling Jim Gaffigan's Dad is Fat off the new book shelf at the library made me happy. I'm reading it a bit at a time out loud to Matt, so we can chuckle over Gaffigan's humor together.
Not from the library and probably due a fuller review than it will get right here, right now is Eat with Joy by Rachel Marie Stone. For the last couple years, I've know that I've enjoyed Rachel Marie Stone's writing at Christianity Today's her.meneutics blog. After reading her book, I realize it because we've spent the last 10 years reading all the same books. If you want to spend some time thinking about "the church and food" then you'll probably enjoy this book.
Also not from the library, is the intriguing book, The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood by David Montgomery. I'm about a chapter into the book and I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing.
Also, I'm slooooowly reading Emma by Jane Austen. I like Austen's writing (ok, I liked the film adaptations first) but I've read shockingly little of it. I've listened to some audio books of her work (Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion) but I've only read Pride and Prejudice. So clearly I need to work on that deficiency in my reading. And Clueless is one of my favorite movies.
Children are overdosing on TinTin, Hardy Boys, Beverly Cleary (Henry Huggins on CD and the Mouse and Motorcycle) and other good library topical finds (20th Century physics, Bears, papercrafts). Perhaps the funniest library selection goes to Elsie who found a board book about babies that giggles when you press a button. Elsie pressed the button continuously all the way home but she thinks it sounds like crying and is often heard trying to comfort the sad babies of the book, "It's OK babies, don't cry." and then she pushes the button again.