Nicholas has finished his third grade math and decided to jump directly into fourth grade maths :\ He initially had planned to do another math book while his brothers did theirs, but when I pulled out the 4th grade book to make sure I had everything ready for August, he jumped on it and won't let go. I think he's jazzed at the idea of being WAY ahead of his brothers and lording that over them for all eternity. I am not discouraging him ;)

Jonathan is about 25 lessons away from finishing his maths (he got behind whilst visiting grandma over winter), and Benjamen has about a dozen lessons left to finish. I anxiously await their decision when they finish. It will be interesting to see whether Nicholas exerts any peer pressure on them to "get ahead" or whether they'll take the time off until August.

Time off is relative of course. We have loads of things to take the place of math work :) The current plan for July (and maybe part of June) is to thoroughly gear up for the release of the last Harry Potter installment on July 15. Benjamen asked for the 6th book on CD for his birthday (yesterday), and we already have the previous 5 on CD, as well as all of the released videos. We'll listen to the books, and read them on our own, and I plan to incorporate the spells (which are all in Latin) into our lessons. We'll try to translate them all accurately and add them to our Latin vocabulary (though I think the boys all know lots of the spells already and what they mean). We'll also brush up on our mythology by tracing those allusions as they crop up in the books. Benjamen's our current mythology expert, with Jonathan coming in a close second (mostly because his interest has waned, I think; Lovecraft is now his all-encompassing obsession), so B can spot any I might miss and give us the background. I'm looking forward to it and I think we'll all have fun with it. Even Jonathan, though he may be loathe to admit that anything I've thought of could possibly be fun ;)

The boys are all doing well. I'm working on spelling with Nicholas, which seems to be his one soft spot. I think more reading time will fix it naturally, but I'm also giving his spelling lessons special time and focus. I don't worry about it. He's made loads of progress since we've been working on it. We hit the library often so he has focused reading time, and I try to remember to keep up "reading hour" at home, too, in addition to the story time reading where I read aloud. We just finished one of the Moomintroll books, which was a popular choice. Very silly stuff. After storytime, they write a bit in their journal about the chapter we've read and I correct their grammar/spelling/handwriting/whatever. They seem to enjoy the whole process (B & N, J is exempt from the demeaning, humiliating, babyish story time ;P )

Jonathan's weak spot is writing, due entirely to lack of interest and a little bit of fear, I think. We've gotten to the point where he's writing daily, but without interest. He writes every night in his personal journal, as well, and has been for years, unasked, though I don't read that so I can't speak to the quality of that writing ;P I think it's a phase, and I think it will pass. He's very much in disinterested, apathetic teenager mode right now, across all subjects and in most areas of life in general, though he particularly balks at writing.

Benjamen's weak spot it grammar. As with Nicholas, I think reading will go a long way towards his absorbing more of the rules of grammar, but I'm also working with him in a focused way, daily, on understanding and consistently using the rules that he does understand. I think he may be overwhelmed by the quantity of mistakes that he's making, so I'm having him write one sentence at a time and we go over them individually. If I correct a paragraph, he gets disheartened by the number of mistakes, even when it's really just the same few mistakes made multiple times. I think I also need to separate grammar practice from handwriting practice for the same reason. I've generally been correcting handwriting mistakes in every lesson, and asking them all to practice writing neatly for every lesson, but Benjamen, in particular, gets overwhelmed by too much correction, so I think I'll shift tracks a bit with him.

With all three boys doing so many different lessons, I've been losing track of who has done what from day to day, so I've started keeping a simple check-list for each boy and encouraging them to go through their own cycle of lessons, which they pick, depending on what they feel like doing at any given time, so that we hit everything once before we cycle through again. It's helped me notice what they enjoy doing, what they don't mind doing, and what they procrastinate with. And it's not static, it generally depends on their mood, though it seems they each have a particular lesson that they enjoy the least. Benjamen almost always leaves spelling for last, even though he's quite good at it. He had a few lessons (on apostrophe words for instance) where he stumbled quite a bit, and he still hasn't shaken that off, I think. Nicholas leaves science for last, and I think that has to do with the nature of the lessons we chose for this year. They're challenging and writing-intensive, and he has to do a bit of thinking, so he generally leaves those for last. Jonathan, of course, generally leaves writing for last, but not always. Noticing these patterns has been an interesting side-effect of keeping better track of things.

We've had loads of workbooks this year, many of them hand-me-downs collected from friends over the years, sort of as an experiment on my part, to see how they boys would do. They've not had any problems doing the work, but I do think it bores them. They've been exposed to things they might not otherwise have been exposed to, and I do like that, but I think the boredom outweighs any novelty benefits. I don't think I'll be doing any more workbook-type lessons in the future. As I suspected, they all seem to thrive more when we follow their natural interests and find "real" source books to learn from, rather than workbooks and curricula. A good example emerged from a recent trip to the bookstore. I was looking at the middle school and high school science texts, and not finding anything that I thought might interest him. So I went over to the adult science section and immediately saw lots of books that I thought he would enjoy. I called him over and he chose The Elegant Universe (about string theory), the Quadrivium (about number, geometry, music, and astronomy), and a host of other books from the same publisher on evolution, coincidence, alchemy, and the like. He's been chatting me up ever since about all of the cool little tidbits of information he's picking up from them.

That's what works for my kids, when they become naturally interested in something, are allowed to make a choice about what they want to do/read to pursue that interest, and then find cool/fun/amazing sources of information on whatever the topic happens to be. I can encourage them to learn about this or that science topic all day, and I can even cajole them into doing it, but when they choose, they inevitably choose wisely for themselves, and the kind of real learning they do when that happens is leaps and bounds above what they accomplish when they have no intrinsic interest in the subject.

It's a rainy day this morning. We were going to go help a friend, but she called to say she was in too much pain today. So our plans were aborted around 9AM and we started maths instead. Benjamen is doing much better this year on that front. Concepts seem to have gelled and he needs much less guidance and help from me. We're still in the review phase with a few new concepts thrown in here and there, but I'm very pleased with his progress. Nicholas is still doing very well in math. We got out all the measuring cups and dug through the refrigerator this morning and reviewed cups, pints, quarts, half-gallons, gallons, and pints. We went over how many ounces were in all, how many cups in all of the larger vessels, and generally had fun pouring water everywhere. He picks up concepts easily and plays with them for weeks afterwards, asking all sorts of interesting questions that let me know he's holding them in his mind and turning them over in new ways.

Benjamen is heavily, heavily into Greek myths and legends this year. Jonathan got him into the Percy Jackson books back in the spring, and that has branched into an insatiable exploration of all things Greek. He's interested in the myths and legends of other cultures as well, and we've bought all manner of books from all over the world. He's reading versions of the Iliad and Odyssey at night before bed, and quizzes me hourly on which goddess did what. He was Poseidon for Halloween and Nicholas piggybacked with a Hades costume. We go to the library and he sits for hours with books about gods and goddesses.

For history we're listening to The Story of the World whenever we're in the car. We have all four sets of CDs, from ancient history through modern history and they seem to absorb it all as we travel around. They ask lots of questions and we look up the answers at home. Like so many of their subjects of interest, the formal things I throw in their path are really the least of their learning. Benjamen is interested in presidents and reads biographies on them and asks thoughtful questions about their terms and decisions as president. He classifies them as Good Guys and Bad Guys and it's been interesting seeing which qualities get each president sorted into their group.

Nicholas has been reading, reading, reading this year. We go to the library and bookstores every week, usually more often, and he reads steadily for hours. I've seen a big improvement in his spelling and vocabulary throughout. We have spelling books, vocabulary books, reading books, etc, that we work on daily, but the biggest effect on his improvement in all of those areas is simply letting him read and providing quiet opportunities for him to do so. He likes books about holidays, animals, and those "step" books that have numbers on them (step 1, step 2, etc). He likes trying the different numbers to see how far along he's come. Over summer he remarked to me that the book he was reading had paragraphs (!) and I was pleased that he noticed how the distinctions were made between the different levels of books.

Benjamen and Nicholas both have geography and science books that we work on daily, and they've thrown some new concepts in our path. Ultimately, they learn more and remember concepts better when the science & geography lessons come to us through our everyday lives, rather than from those books. Benjamen gets a series of animal cards through the mail and sits with the books (he organizes each card that comes into its proper category) for hours, reading about the creatures, their habitats, habits, and where in the world they live.

I purchased lots of books on different subjects this summer (geography, science, reading, writing, etc) because I was anticipating another busy year for myself, and thought it would help me stay on topic and make sure we cover what we should, but I've found they're not as helpful as I might have wished. We do the work, but it's not always relevant. We've come across some interesting topics that we've explored further on our own, but not with much frequency. The boys don't seem to enjoy the studies very much and alternate between thinking that the topic at hand is irrelevant, repetitive, or beyond them. All in all, I think we do better to follow their interests, play often, read often, talk often, and seek out more information about what we're interested in. Every night the boys choose a bedtime story and I'm always amused at the academic subjects they invariably choose. Biographies of artists, Gilgamesh, stories by Shakespeare, Beowulf, stories by Homer...it always gives me a giggle, but also makes me proud.

Jonathan is with his grandmother since September, and I'm not sure when he's coming home. He has lots of books (classics) that I sent with him, and lots of study books (writing, which he has been balking at, math, science, algebra, geometry, etc) and his grandmother has him on a schedule for completing all of his studies. She sends me a spreadsheet with his progress every so often. I can't imagine that he's not learning and thriving with her, as he did here. He's voracious in his interests, and they're wide and varied. We talk several times every week and he seems very happy and productive. He misses us, and we miss him, but he's a happier, healthier person with his grandmother than his is here at home with his pesky brothers and his nagging old mom.

We're almost finished with math, now, and have karate to look forward to this evening. In between, Nicholas wants to make a play about the sun and the wind. I think they have determined that we are going to make shadow puppets for our play out of cardboard. Not a bad way to spend a rainy day :)

01.29.09

Benjamen, who is all about Japan ever since starting karate, learned about World War II today.

He has a Japanese language tutorial on his Nintendo DS, loves going to the Japanese Steakhouse and trying all sorts of different dishes there, and checks out Japanese cooking books (and Japanese folklore, Japanese language, Japanese fact books, etc). Today he was listening to a CD of Japanese stories and came across the story of Sadako and the Paper Cranes. When he was finished listening (with his brothers, but they weren't as interested as he was) he had an avalanche of questions about leukemia, the atom bomb, World War II, etc., so we sat down with the laptop and googled to our hearts' content.

We found photos of Sadako and memorial statues erected in her honor. We found photos of what leukemia does to the blood and photos of children ravaged by the disease. We found photos of the mushroom clouds over Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We found photos of the Enola Gay and I reminded him of the trip we took a few years ago to the Air & Space Museum where we saw it up close and personal (he didn't remember, so we're planning another trip back).

He wanted to know which president was in charge when the bombs were dropped (he's memorized all the presidents in the order that they took office, so I guess that piqued his interest). We looked up several bios on Harry Truman to get a good overview of the whats, hows and wherefores of the decision. We read about how many civilian men, women and children were killed and how many more suffered for decades from the radiation exposure. He asked, at that point, "Didn't they even care about all those little kids?" Broke my heart. His questions eventually led us to pages describing Hitler and the holocaust, at which point, he said, "No more photos."

All told, we spent a good hour and half reading, talking, and searching out the information he asked for. He's been processing it all ever since and has sought me out every half hour or so to ask more questions, most of them philosophical rather than factual. He just came in to ask, while I was typing this, "Why did they have to kill all of those people just because their leaders refused to surrender?" I didn't have an answer for him, of course. I asked him in return, "It seems like it doesn't make sense, doesn't it?"

We've were studying ancient history at the beginning of fall until everyone seemed to lose interest in the materials I had on hand. I've let it drop and we've been studying history as it affects us in our daily lives through holidays, the news, and spontaneous questions that the boys have posed themselves. I think that Benjamen learned more in a few hours today than he's learned all year, and in a way that was meaningful and important to him. I would bet any earthly possesion I have that this lesson will stick with him for the rest of his life, and that he'll still be talking to me and asking questions about it a month or a year from now.

01.23.09

Lovely week. We kept up with our maths, did some kitchen chemistry (yeast!), have been reviewing lots of book on Japanese culture, language, history, and folklore (because Benjamen is so very into karate), and are gearing up for Chinese New Year on Sunday/Monday. We had a library day and spent a morning at the playground, despite the cold. Jonathan and I hit yoga on Wednesday evening and that always makes for a nice time. And of course, Tuesday and Thursday nights are karate nights, and Thursday night karate was followed by a night at the local Japanese steak house. They're getting to know us by name up there!

Jonathan has been doing some more writing this week, as well, and I thought I'd include a sample of his cursive penmanship.



It's a history of his Bionicle (LEGO) guys and reads:

The Great Spirit Mata Nui created an island named after him. He also created inhabitants for the island called Matoran. However, his brother Makuta was jealous of Mata Nui, and cast a spell over him making him fall asleep. However, the Turaga, the elders of Mata Nui, used six Toa Stones to summon six Toa, heroes that control one of six elements: Tahu, Toa of Fire, Kopaka, Toa of Ice, Pohatu, Toa of Stone, Lewa, Toa of Air, Onua, Toa of Earth, and Gali, Toa of Water. They must collect six Kanohi masks in order to defeat Makuta. But Makuta, in the last few seconds before he was defeated, awakened the Bohrok swarms. The Toa defeated them and changed into Toa Nuva, the Bohrak Kal came, To Be Continued.

(The lines on top are where I was showing him that his lower case letters needed to be smaller --half as tall--as his upper case letters.)


And a book review! I bought him the book last night after karate, and he had finished it this morning when I woke up. He wrote up the book review this afternoon:

I bought the book for Jonathan last night and he read it for a few hours before falling asleep. He finished it this morning and wrote the review this afternoon.

Dragon Rider

I really enjoyed the book Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. It's about a dragon named Firedrake, a brownie named Sorrel, and a boy named Ben. They travel all over the world looking for the Rim of Heaven, a place where dragons can live and not be afraid that humans (apart from Ben) will find them. One of the adventures that they had along the way was getting a map from a rat map maker. The map looked like an atlas, only on each page there was a ribbon, and if you pulled it, a new section of the map popped out. They are searching for the Rim of Heaven because humans are planning to flood the valley that they live in. I liked this book because it had a good ending, because it had sandmen, and, of course, it had dragons! I recommend this book to just about anyone who likes dragons. It had a whole lot of details, interesting characters, and a djinn with a thousand eyes! I would give it a rating of 9/10. I hope that you like this book as much as I do.

01.19.09

We had such a lovely weekend. We took the boys to the children's museum on Saturday and they just caught a showing of The Princess and the Pea as we walked in the door. They got to interact with all sorts of scientific displays, dress-up exhibits, construction stations, etc. The animal room was a big hit with Benjamen and Nicholas, while Jonathan most enjoyed the play and the pulley exhibit.

Afterward we went out for Indian food at a new place that just recently opened in town and the boys all tried lots of foods that they'd never had before. They drank enough lassis to drain their college funds, but I was really happy to see them being good sports about trying new things and enjoying the majority of them. I think there was just one shrimp dish that didn't go over. I was happy, too, that Dan, who's recently gone vegan, was able to have a wide variety of dishes from which to choose.

Sunday we just ran errands and grabbed some pizza, but it was a fun day, too. The boys each spent some of their allowance and brought home toys to play with for the rest of the evening. Benjamen and Nicholas came up with a plan to combine their money and go in on a toy together. I was pessimistic and thinking that there would be conflict, but so far, they've been taking turns or playing together with it, drama-free, a pleasant surprise that reminded me to give them more credit and to stop expecting the worst.

Today we've done our day's maths (actually Nicholas took a break, so I need to finish his in a moment), watched Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on YouTube, and wrote a little bit about it afterward. I had Benjamen write a sentence for me and then we corrected his mistakes (grammar mistakes, not letter formation), and Jonathan is finishing up his essay right now:

An Essay on Martin Luter King, Jr.
By Jonathan Peter Baltzell

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who spoke up for all colored people in America. He was a Baptist minister. He made a speech called the "I Have a Dream" speech. In his speech, he said that Mississippi was the state that racism was most common in. The point of the speech was to give colored people equal rights to white people. He wanted them to be able to drink from the same water fountains, sit wherever they want on the bus and in restaurants, etc. We celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to remember that without him, colored people might still be treated badly. We also remember him because he protested against racism peacefully and because he urged others to protest peacefully. Also, if it were not for Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama would probably not be president right now. Basically, Martin Luther King, Jr. changed the United States forever.

Feeling Like Fall

The weather has grown cool and the leaves are changing, so we're spending as much time as possible outside enjoying the transformation. I put the boys' old little blue table outdside and we sit around it throughout the day eating, talking, and studying together. The cat plays with bugs and tumbling leaves at our feet and the chickens peck around looking for grubs and stray birdseed from the feeders.

Jonathan has undertaken the study of piano and meets once a week for a one hour lesson with a gifted teacher who is both patient and captivating. He studies for five minutes at a time throughout each day, working toward an hour of study per day. I'm envious of the opportunity, and if the instructor weren't already working in exchange for my baked goods as it is, I'd be tempted to ask for lessons as well.

Likewise, Benjamen is studying karate twice per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour each evening. He is really thriving on the exercise and discipline, and seems to be thoroughly enjoying every class. In addition to the physical exercise, he's picking up on the concepts, such as respect, the practice of meditation, and is learning Japanese in the process. His sensei is pleased with his progress, and I'm over the moon that he's found something that's just his own.

We've moved past the ancient Egyptians in our history studies and are knee-deep in the Biblical stories of Abraham and the Jewish tribes. We listen to CDs in the car as we run errands, go on field trips, etc, and discuss the concepts, new words, and any questions they have. It's been hassle-free, so far, and they all seem to be enoying it. Having the chapters on CD makes review simple and pain-free, and they're good about letting me know when enough's enough.

This past week, with the weather feeling so deliciously autumnal, we took a drive out to Ridgefield Farms and picked their available apples. They conveniently had 3 types available for picking, so each boy picked a row and filled his bag. Afterward they each chose a pumpkin from the huge pumpkin patch while I chose two pots of gorgeous dark mums. They also helped me snip flowers from the pick-your-own patch and we assembled a gorgeous fall bouquet. On the way out we picked up a huge sunflower full of seeds for the birds. It was immediatley descended upon by a wild horde of rogue squirrels who utterly decimated it beyond any reckoning.

Everyone's chugging along in maths and not resenting it too terribly. Jonathan still has the worst time of it, but I see much maturation on that front. Nicholas enjoys his lessons and Benjamen speeds through them so we can move on to more exciting adventures. They all are making excellent progress, despite their varying approaches to lessons.

This next week we're taking the week off from studies and doing some fall cleaning/decorating. We're all looking forward to the change in our rhythms as cool weather sets in.

End of Year Recap


Math All three boys are a few short lessons away from completing their year of math. We fell behind with a month of illness in March and an unanticipated 2 week trip to South Dakota in May for a memorial for their grandfather. They've all done very well with their lessons, though none of them are particularly excited by them. I'm looking into some new ideas for math next year.

Reading Jonathan is still plowing through everything he can get his hands on. He's reading the fourteen Oz books, at the moment, at the rate of a book or more per evening. He still freaks me out slightly.

Benjamen picks up books and magazines everyday, on his own, and especially likes books and magazines about animals. He has his own subscription to West Virginia Wildlife magazine and looks forward to each new issue. He and I are reading the Little House books, still, and are more than halfway through the series.

Nicholas and I are doing 100 Easy Lessons together, and he is enjoying them. He brings me the book on his own, usually several times a week, and I try to remind him if several days have gone by without a lesson. He brings books to me throughout the day for reading and both he and Benjamen each pick out a bedtime book every evening.

Writing Jonathan's handwriting is lovely to behold, and he's getting much more confident (and less resistant) to using cursive handwriting. I find little notes around the house, most of them in cursive these days. He writes letters to his grandmother, stories of his own making, comics, etc, and has a stellar grasp of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and the mechanics of writing. His form isn't bad, either.

Benjamen's handwriting varies, naturally, but when he's diligent and concentrating, it's perfection. Like Jonathan, he also writes to his grandmother and writes notes and cards for his friends and family. He also keeps a journal a la Junie B. Jones, and is working out the mechanics of writing, gradually. His spelling is fabulous and he's really surprised me with what a great speller he is.

Nicholas has writing pads and a writing white board, which he adores. He can often be found sitting at the table writing and pelting me with spelling questions as I work in the kitchen.

Science I didn't pursue any formal science with the boys this year when their interest started waning. Jonathan finished two chemistry books last year and started physics lessons this year. He was bored by what we were doing, so I opted for some science kits that he often did with his father. He also plowed through several science texts on his own in his evening reading. He also has a subscription to Weird, Wild Creatures, a series of fact cards that arrive through the mail with information on creatures from the animal kingdom, mythology, etc.

Benjamen and I still pursue his avid interest in animals. He received binoculars for his birthday and can often be found out on the deck watching birds. We're currently following a nest of wrens who have made a home in one of my planters. We check on them several times a day, watch their mother and father bring them worms, and are waiting for them to fly off any day, now. Benjamen is also my foodie boy and we've spent untold hours doing kitchen chemistry, carefully measuring, following recipes, and, unbeknownst to him, uncovering the basic principles of laboratory technique.

No formal science for Nicholas, of course, but he's following along with his brothers' "lessons".

History Benjamen has been following along with Jonathan's modern history lessons this year and they both memorized all of the presidents this year. They challenged each other in that pursuit and I was surprised to find that Benjamen memorized them more readily and easily than Jonathan (who also memorized the Gettysburg address this year). Next year all three boys will begin all over again with ancient history and I'll be glad to have everyone on the same page from here on out. We're actually going to start history when we get their math tied up since it's so full of fun projects.

Musings

For Jonathan's birthday, he asked to go to a local Japanese steak house where they cook the food right in front of you and throw food in your mouth and try not to set you on fire. So we went, and something interesting happened while we were there. There were eight of us seated around the table, my family of five and two couples flanking us. The couple sitting beside Dan chatted with him, especially the woman side of the couple, while the couple on my side, who were younger, were friendly, but not talkative.

Jonathan was his usual talkative self, telling jokes (Two atoms were walking down the street. One atom said to the other, "I think I've lost an electron." The other asked, "Are you sure?" The first atom repsonded, "I'm positive." Ba-dump-bum.), asking questions, giving us dissertations on string theory--the usual. Benjamen was a little shy somehow and kept his jacket on, hood up--but he talked to me excitedly and was happy to be there, anticipating the show. He also surprised me by ordering scallops. And he loved them. Nicholas was seated near Dan and the talkative couple and he was his usual five year old self, laughing and talking and playing.

Toward the end of the meal, the talkative lady leaned toward Dan and said, "I'm assuming your boys are homeschooled." Dan was taken aback and I was a little surprised, too. He asked how she knew, and she answered, "Well, your boys are so well behaved," (ha!), "and they all seem so bright and interested and interesting. I heard your oldest talking about electricity and religion and shellfish, and I saw how you all interact, and it's just not the way regular children behave, in my experience." I wanted to ask her if she was a teacher, but I didn't.

That was a week ago, and I'm still not sure what I think of the whole thing.

It's not the first time people have guessed that we were a homeschooling family, but it was the most out-of-the-blue instance, I think. There were really no overt clues that would mark us as homeschoolers. It wasn't a weekday morning, when they should have been in school. We weren't in a library looking up Greek Myths or classical children's literature. We weren't hanging out at the park with a bunch of hippy, funky homeschooling friends. But still she assumed we were homeschoolers. We exude homeschooliness, now, I guess. Whatever that is.

Another thing that bothered me (bothered isn't the right word, but neither is disturbed or unsettled) was that when she was talking about Jonathan, and the way he talks, the things he talks about, the way he interacts with us, she talked about him as if he wasn't there. This happens alot. People don't take kids seriously. She would never have talked about me in the third person, she would have addressed me directly. And she would never have made any comments about my intelligence or lack therof, but it's socially acceptable to make those kinds of comments about a child even in the child's presence.

Jonathan always, always responds to those kinds of comments by dumbing himself down. He'll start randomly yelling out things like, "Pie!" or "Muffins!" or some other nonsense. We're used to it, but it's always still disconcerting. It seems obvious to me that he resents being discussed in that way, and that he finds it insulting. I talked to him about it a few days afterward and asked him if he knew why he did that (the shouting). He said that she was talking about how smart he is and he just wanted her to know that he's also "completely random." Maybe that's all it was, but after seeing the same response ever since he was two years old, I kind of doubt that that's all there is to it. It's a defense mechanism, in my humble mom opinion.

I've let some things go with him this year. I realized that the experiments we were doing were actually boring him. He would go through the motions, and he didn't object or say anything, really (which was my first clue). He just wasn't into it, and so I let it go. I realized that I don't need to set up science learning opportunities for a kid who lies awake at night reading science encyclopedias and has an abiding crush on string theory.

Ditto for grammar, reading, spelling, and all things language. He's very advanced, verbally. There, I said it. Out loud. He corrects my grammar (and I'm no slouch). He reads The Deluxe Transitive Vampire for fun (OK, I do, too). He out-spells me and I often find myself asking him how to spell words that are stumping me. He's a voracious reader. He doesn't need artificially constructed learning opportunities.

Benjamen is a different kid. Or else I haven't learned my lesson with him, yet. We do math and spelling every day. We read out loud and study animals, a subject about which he is still very passionate. We talk, talk, talk. He has subscriptions to magazines (all of the boys do), and we read them together, completing activities. We play card games and board games. We watch movies together.

And Nicholas. We do math meetings a couple times a week. He brings me a huge Learn-How-To-Read type of book and we do a lesson or two. He writes constantly. "Mom, how do you spell..." is his constant refrain. He sends me messages via fridge magnets. This fall he's be a first grader, whatever that means, and he'll be on the grid with the local board of education. Sometimes I wish that we had gone underground when we moved out here. As easy as the hoops are to jump through, I don't like having School in my head, even if it is way in the back. It has an effect on me, psychologically, and that extends to the boys on some level, I know it.

Next year we begin the four year history cycle all over again. This year (modern history) Jonathan memorized the Gettysburg Address, the whole thing, and he speaks it with such inflection, and such understanding. When we first encountered it, we went over all of the troublesome words and phrases and we discussed the historical context. This is so much more than was done for me in school. To me, the Gettysburg Address (and the Preamble to the Constitution, and every other thing I was forced to memorize) was just a jumble of words. Sometimes I had a vague understanding, but no one, of course, ever sat down with me one-on-one and made sure that I understood the words and the broader meaning. And of course, I don't force the boys to memorize (Benjamen was memorizing the Gettysburg Address in parts, just from hearing Jonathan recite them, and even Nicholas would chime in when Jonathan stumbled, which surprised me). I ask them if they want to. I tell them school kids do it. I tell them I did it when I was younger. We discuss whether it's important, or fun, or interesting, and they decide whether they want to do it. Jonathan and Benjamen have also embarked on memorizing the sequence of US presidents. We're up to James A. Garfield (# 20).

So next year, like I said, we start over again with ancient history. It will be Nicholas' first formal year of history study, if he wants to join in (and judging by his participation this year, he definitely will) and I like that we're back at the beginning for him. We'll all be able to do history together, and that's new. Last year I did the Renaissance with Jonathan and and ancient history with Benjamen and it was a bit of a pain. This year I just let Benjamen follow along with Jonathan's studies of Modern history. Next year, begin anew and I'll be able to let them all engage with the material on their own levels. We'll read aloud and Nicholas can do coloring pages while we read or afterward. Benjamen and I can read myths and story books from the time period, and Jonathan, who already has a good grasp on the basics (and more, probably) can delve deeper.

It's going to be a fun year, I can already tell.

Non-Newtonian Fluids




We're playing with them again today. Several times a year, it seems, the boys ask me to whip some up.

If you're not familiar, check out this YouTube video.


It's a simple suspension of corn starch and water that changes back and forth from a liquid to a solid. You can pick it up like a ball, but then it goes gooey and drips like a liquid.

The Mad Tea Party

It was a roaring success (photos!)! I was half-afraid that only the children of the folks who helped plan the party would show up, but there were so many kids and parents that I hadn't met before, and I had a wonderful time getting to know them all.

Our dress-up box full of play silks, leftover pieces of material, my husband's old sport coats, and odds and ends was very popular. The kids had fun dressing up as clowns and princesses, and they mixed and matched the play clothes in charming and imaginative ways.

The food was wonderful, and everyone really came through, helping out through donations, preparing wonderful food and drink, and helping set up the table beforehand, and clean up afterward. We ended up with some leftovers, but remarkably few, considering the amount of food we had on hand.

We also had loads of activities available for the kids. We had a coloring area where the children could color "stained glass" scenes from Alice in Wonderland, a musical instrument area, a train set for the smaller children to play with, chess sets available for children, whether they already knew how to play, or wanted to learn, and Alice in Wonderland tattoos were applied by one of the adult planners. Another planner helped the kids play Pin the Tail on the Cheshire Cat. My husband also set up a projector on the stage which played the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland throughout the party, with the sound very low so that it didn't dominate the kids' attention. I think they all had a wonderful time.

It was lots of work, and I was exhausted by the time the clean-up was done, but the rewards were sweet. I'm already thinking about a fall evening party out in our yard. I must be crazy.