transition

End of an era, and all that.

As of June, I will be done homeschooling. The journey that began when R turned four and we debated about her education, deciding to "try it for a year", is ending some fourteen years later. M, the youngest of the three, will be entering high school in the fall.

I feel like I should write some sort of retrospective, but how does one distil so many years of learning into mere words? Once again, words alone prove hollow. But it being me, I'll try.

2008 school day

When I began I looked at women who had been teaching their kids for five or six years and I considered them sages of educational wisdom. They had taught so much, multiple subjects, while I was on my first steps of doing flash-card phonics and teaching math using plastic counters. They must know it all. They had seen to many different facets of learning. When I reached that point myself, I wondered if they really had known everything - because I sure didn't. 
I then got terrified when I realized some moms who were starting their homeschool journey seemed to look at me as I'd looked at those women. I figured they'd find me out. Perhaps they did, perhaps not. Unless they read this, I suppose. Hm.

Each phase of learning, and each student, brought new twists and turns. And rather than a closed-in maze that gave me claustrophobia, the twists and turns made it feel like winding path that meandered through new and varied scenery. Not to say I didn't have days (weeks?) of metaphorically bashing my head on a wall. Each phase also brought its own challenges. When child #1 and child #2 learn very differently, you think you've got it figured out until child #3 comes along and blows all of those tidy ideas out of the water.

I learned about my own limitations - and I learned some talents, too. I learned about learning styles. I learned about trying to quantify our learning for the people who asked, "what do you do all day?" I learned that socialization doesn't require a classroom or a playground. I learned the joy of seeing a child who has worked, struggled through something suddenly have it click - and the light bulb comes on. It's incredible. I worked through projects with them and saw them overcome nervousness to present their work to groups. I shared my love of learning and, I hope, instilled some of it in them. I tried to show them as we learned some things together that really, you should never, ever stop learning.

I learned about ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and Greece and Rome and the Middle Ages and Genghis Khan and mommy did you know that this shark eats these fish and mommy what is the name of that bird and why do we say "won't" instead of "willn't" and why do I have to do all this math and Bible and Latin and Greek and reading books and science and mommy look look at this turtle skeleton I found IT IS THE COOLEST THING EVER.

So while our days will look very different, it's the right time for us. I always said homeschooling may not be for every family, but it's been a huge blessing for us. I stand by that, even as I bid it a fond farewell.

since brevity is the soul of wit, i will be brief

I love Grade 9 homeschooling. We get to cover cool topics, and A has just finished her unit on Shakespeare's Hamlet. As her final work on it, I had her choose a speech and rewrite it in modern language. This was to be done in two stages. The first, a line-by-line translation, came out as follows:

O that this too too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter. O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t, ah, fie, ‘tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this, But two months dead, nay, not so much, not two, So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother That he might now beteem the winds of heaven Visit her faced too roughly. Heaven and earth, Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on, and yet within a month – Let me on think on’t ; frailty, thy name is woman – A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father’s body Like Niobe, all tears, why she, even she – O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason Would have mourned longer – married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules. Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galléd eyes, She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good. But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Oh, if only my body could melt away, And just disappear. Or that God had not set His laws against suicide – Oh, God How useless, worn out and boring The world seems to me. Dammit! It’s like an unweeded garden That’s left there, and choking, ugly things Grow in it. That it’s come down to this: My father has barely been dead two months. He was a great king! Compared to my uncle, Like a sun god to a grungy animal. He cared for her So much, he wouldn’t even let the wind Be too rough on her face. Oh my God, Must I remember? She would follow him As if her love for him swelled From his presence, not his absence, but within one month – I can’t stop thinking about it; my mother is such a hypocrite – The clothes she wore aren’t even old, From when she attended my father’s funeral, Constantly crying, she was constantly crying and yet - Oh God, a creature without any sense of reason Would have mourned longer – married to my uncle, Who, although my father’s brother, is no more like my father Than I am like a demigod. Only one month, Before the sting of false tears, Had left her eyes, She married. The speed was wicked, to go So quickly into incestuous marriage. This has not and will not do us any good. But alas, nothing I say can change it now.

We'd had to do some research on the references (like Niobe), but I was pleased with her understanding. The second stage had me laughing, when I said to boil it all down and give me a very modern version of it. It was as follows:

I HATE MY LIFE!

MY DAD’S DEAD,

AND MY MOM’S AND IDIOT

AND MY UNCLE’S AN UGLY JERK! AND

NOBODY’S LISTENING TO ME! OMG!

Shakespeare, meet the Twitter version...

another year in history

It's the time of the school year when for a couple of weeks everything else is shelved and the girls get to work taking all their research of the months before and putting it into presentation-ready form for the Historica Fair. They learn about a specific area of history but also learn research, organization, and presentation as they described their project and answered questions for the judges. We had three projects from our house this year, for the last time as next year R will have passed the grade 9 upper age limit.



M covered the story of Vincent Coleman, hero of the Halifax Explosion of 1917. A very cool story (the vignette that inspired her to research this is here), we found newspapers from the days after the event at the National Archives and she learned about his life and even covered the possibility that he didn't stop the train.



A had a sort of followup to last year's project on Vimy Ridge, as one of the soldiers from the cemetery there was brought back to Canada in 2000 to lie in state and be buried as our Unknown Soldier. She learned about the tomb's history and structure, built a scale model of it, and reported on the unknown's last journey to Ottawa.



R was back after a year off and revisited a topic of a few years back, this time in much more detail and depth. She learned about the New England Planters, a group of immigrants to Canada from (you guessed it) New England to take up free land left behind after the Acadians were expelled. This group included some of our ancestors who were, pretty much, land grabbers. She learned about changes this group brought in construction and government, as well as the back stories of how they came to live in Nova Scotia.


They did a great job. A took first prize in her age group at the fair, but all three girls are able to go on to Regionals in April.

babyblogs

We're back at school, and the girls have a new assignment this year: each of them now has a blog. It's intended as a writing exercise, getting them to think of what they wish to communicate it and the best way to do so. It's a side lesson of grammar, composition and editing. The fact that they're excited about it lets the lesson part sneak in (almost) unnoticed.

I hope they have fun. They all enjoy making up stories, telling me about their adventures. Writing is fast becoming a lost art, and I hope they can find the joy in it.

here we go again

Today was the Regional Historica Fair, a day full of project presentations by both R and A, along with 150 other students whose topics covered all facets of Canadian history. A full day for them and for M and I as we spent the day exploring the Museum of Civilization.

At the end of it all, R's project placed 6th overall, and she's once again off to the Provincials in June. A was a bit down, being her competitive self, but she's already thinking on next year's project.

much arranging

I've spent much of this morning arranging and planning. School starts next week, and with several new curricula involved this year, I wanted to get familiar with them and figure out how our weeks will generally look. One encouraging moment came when R asked with what I believe was sincere excitement to see her Algebra book. Wonder how long that will last?

Monday will be non-book days for the most part, with French tutoring, riding on alternate weeks, and science and history enrichment in the afternoons for R&A. Those afternoons will be library time for M and me. R will also work on her writing program (WriteShop, which looks detailed but a very thorough and useful tool for my little writer), and we'll read some of Story of the World, (history disguised as cool story chapters, something the girls routinely ask for).

Tuesdays & Thursdays will include Bible study (a kids' book by Precept that looks very promising), math, spelling, science, grammar for A&M, and WriteShop and Editor-in-Chief (learning to proofread and edit) for R.

Wednesdays & Fridays will be the same, with social studies (Story of the World and working on their map study books) in the place of science, and R just doing her WriteShop work.

And somewhere in there, each of the girls will do various novel studies. R will be doing a two-book study to compare and contrast Jack London's The Call of the Wild and White Fang, this term and then do Farley Mowat's Lost in the Barrens next term. A will do The Hobbit this term and The Secret Garden next, and M will do some book studies on the Beatrix Potter stories.

Also somewhere in there I will be doing the week-to-week music at church, and working on arrangements for the CD project, and trying to maintain a sense of order and peace in our house.

And then of course there will be the 79% of weeks that don't go as I planned, and the much-anticipated visits from family members that push the book work waaaay down the priority list.

Looks fun.

I'm seeing more and more leaves starting to change. Summer has been cool, wet, too short, and now it seems to be on its way out the door.

the end, and yet not

School is ending this week. Math is finished today, grammar by week's end. Government study is almost wrapped up and may lead to a field trip next week to downtown Ottawa.

Of course, as with most homeschoolers, the "end of school" is a bit nebulous. We start this Thursday a four-lesson unit study with a group of families on botany and wilderness understanding and survival, all led by a naturalist whose wisdom and knowledge we had a chance to learn from once a few years ago. Over the next four weeks the girls will learn much from field trips and hands-on activities.

Economics is the other non-ending course. The farmer's market starts this week, and after R and I making a batch of pickles to sell, she and D sat down to make a cost analysis of the batch so that she can both determine the selling cost and keep track of her business expenses. It was also a lesson on scrupulous cleanliness in the kitchen, since the product will be going to other people's homes. This week we plan to make several jellies to take to the market next Saturday morning.

Global food production was another lesson gained this weekend, as I talked to a beekeeper at the farmer's market and learned that some so-called Canadian honey is only 5% Canadian, the rest coming from Argentina or China. I had no idea.

And A and I had an overnight away in beautiful Merrickville to celebrate (early) her 10th birthday. It's a tradition we started with R, a night away with Mom in a lovely inn, dinner in the fancy restaurant, talking about the upcoming preteen years and a bit of what she can expect to see happening to herself and her friends. Rather than just "the sex talk", it was an evening and morning of connecting, celebrating the unique person she is, and having lots of fun together. R still talks about her night away, two years later.

So while school "ends" this week and the books are put away, the learning continues.

dirt-digging and mud-slinging

It's veggie garden season again. Seeds that arrived while the ground was white (and deep white at that) have been patiently waiting in their little paper packets but are now getting antsy and wanting to get outside. They told me so, really.

Some have had a head start, and a tray of tomato, pepper, eggplant, cauliflower, and some scrawny-looking lettuce has taken up residence on my kitchen window sill. I do think they are farther ahead than in other years, possibly because this year I took the precaution of placing a kitchen chair in front of the window so that the dogs don't knock the whole load on the floor. Each of the past two years I've had seedlings on the window sill, they've fallen at least once so there's a bit of a guessing game when planting time comes. I guess that adds adventure to the whole thing.

Today, after school I hope to hit the veggie garden, stir up the soil, add more compost to fill up the boxes some more, mark out the grids for planting, and plant some seeds directly, ones that don't mind the cold so much: broccoli, spinach, kale, leeks, shallots, maybe even some beans and peas in hopes that the frosty nights are behind us. I also hope to stake out the garden expansion for this year, for R's foray into the farmers' market. A few extra boxes, that's all, our little contribution to the "Eat Local" movement.

Election update:the Fish and Balloon parties made up their party platforms over the weekend (made up, respectively, by A and R), which have been kept secret from each other and thankfully there have been no press leaks. They will be nominating candidates for the various ridings today and voting in their party leaders. The two parties have thus far been very genteel about it all, with no anti-campagining going on. Then again, it is early into the process and things can get nasty in the final days. A thinks Gadunka will win the leadership of the Fish party, mainly because he's big enough to eat the other Bionocles. The term 'democracy' may need a little more explanation there.

more classics

The girls' history book has brought us up to the Elizabethan Age, and had a chapter on Shakespeare. After reading its paraphrased story of Macbeth yesterday, we read A Midsummer Night's Dream from a book I had bought separately, Ten Tales of Shakespeare for Children by Charles and Mary Lamb. This book tells the plays in a story format, good for reading aloud and not having to explain who's talking, but it keeps some of the lines so that the flavor is there. I followed that up by getting my Pelican Complete Works of William Shakespeare and reading Puck's final speech in the original language ("If we shadows have offended / Think but this, and all is mended").

They loved it. R especially was taken with the old-style language. We even looked up some sonnets, M recalling that the one quoted in the Sense and Sensibility movie was #116 ("Love is not true love / Which alters when it alteration finds"). I'm going to try to track down the local company that does Shakespeare in the Park, and see what they have playing this summer.

slowly but surely

Things are changing, bit by bit.

The snow is melting, aided by the April sun's attempts to warm things up. Our sump pump it running about every 15 minutes and we're downstairs twice a day to make sure that the lovely little rivers continue to flow where they should. The creek is going to be high when the surface ice breaks up and leaves.

We were at the orthodontist's office yesterday for the official start to little M's journey into orthodontics. Her upper palate is too narrow, giving her quite a crossbite, so an expanding appliance is in the works. It will be the start of little by little pushing the bones apart so that when they finally do fuse over the next year, they are in the right place and her teeth can be nice and straight. That little bit of joy will be followed by a smaller sport-model one to keep the space intact, and finally some braces to rotate the teeth properly. While the assistant was going over the list of possible results of orthodontics (speech issues, tooth looseness, trouble playing wind instruments), she came to "psychological issues", meaning the whole braces-stigma thing, I guess. We looked at M, who was happily deciding what color braces she would choose, and decided that likely wouldn't be an issue. She has plans for pink and purple ones, "and green and brown if I go hunting with Daddy, for camo." As soon as she found out she could choose colors and change them, she wanted to get the braces right away.

I ran yesterday. Yes, really. I, who hate running but struck up a relationship of mutual tolerance last year, have found myself wanting to run this spring. I think I was missing the way I felt after. Not during, mind you, just after. So, I did a short 1-km run. Nothing much, and not as well as I did before last year's mini-Tri, but better than I started out last year. So, slowly but surely I may get into better shape again this year. I was happy with doing it and did feel good after. It seems I am joining the dark side.

School is continuing and I can see the light of summer break at the end of the tunnel. History is reaching the end of the Middle Ages (Wars of the Roses, Henry V, Richard III of "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" fame, the Plague and the end of the Feudal system, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans who were an empire - not just footstools, as you might have thought), Earth sciences is wrapping up and a potential group study on botany is on the horizon, and the book work is getting into the last 30 or so lessons. My plan this year is to have it all done before we leave for Bean's wedding. Who wants to come back to June, arguably the best month on the farm, after two weeks away, and do school?

A song for Bean's wedding is coming together. Quite nice and I am happy with it - I hope the bride and groom like it as well as I do. Nice without being too cliched, and I do like the music.

The chickens' end is in sight. Their rate of lay has dropped off to almost nil. Their ultimate end will likely be the stew pot. I don't relish the idea (no pun intended) but they aren't earning their keep and the planned influx of 10 new hens in June will mess up the pecking order. So,they'll make the one-way trip, come back to take up residence in the freezer, and we'll clean and disinfect the henhouse so there are no issues with the next batch. These hens have been good and healthy, but we don't want to take chances. Even R, the chicken girl, is her pragmatic self and is ok with it.

Slowly but surely, things are changing and spring really is coming.

rain, rain, keep coming

It is raining. Forecast for tomorrow: rain. Forecast for Wednesday: rain.

This makes me happy. Nothing like three days of rain to take away snow that has sat over our fields, languorously looking at me like a party guest who just hasn't clued in that they've overstayed their welcome. No matter how I sigh or look at my watch or yawn, it just doesn't take the hint.

Last night for supper we had an "I'm sick of winter" meal: grilled Italian sausage, potato salad, homemade lemonade, and popsicles for dessert. M was very excited about the meal and after we talked about how much we wanted warm weather to come, I said we could watch a movie as we ate, so sent her to choose one. Her choice? Ice Age. Hm.

This week we're back to school as usual, after a week of blistering through Historica projects. Each of the girls did a project and presented it to the group and while none of them were chosen to go on to Regionals, given the short time we had (1 week for research, 1 for putting it all together) I was impressed with what each of them had learned and with their presentation skills. All the projects there were of a very high calibre and it was a fun afternoon. R learned about the New England Planters, a rarely-heard-of group of people who moved from New England to Nova Scotia in the wake of the Acadian Expulsion. One of these land-grabbers was my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Yes, really. I counted. Meanwhile, A, spurred on by curiosity as to who the guy is on the $5 bill, learned about the life and political career of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. M did a very good report on the history of the McIntosh Apple and brought some to share with everyone.

the end of a (medieval) era

Our two-week Medieval unit stretched to three weeks, between learning and sewing and feasting. All in all, it was a nice break from the regular book and some good hands-on learning. Saturday night was the end of the unit, marked with a feast that itself involved some learning and some new culinary adventures. The recipes were taken from an online search of medieval cookbooks that had the original recipes as well as modern translations.

The dresses were done, much to the girls' delight, and after setting up a folding table and the kitchen chairs in the living room by our fireplace, using a blanket over the window (a poor tapestry, but it darkened the room enough that we could enjoy a fire while we ate) and the shield A had made for last fall's fair as a decorative prop, we were all set to go. We had whole wheat pita bread to serve as trenchers, which the middle ages folks used instead of plates. In view of easy cleanup, the trenchers sat on plates instead of right on the table. Everyone had a goblet for 'wine' (the real thing for Lord Dad and Lady Mom, white grape juice for the girls), a knife, and a spoon for the soup. No forks here, as they weren't used until the 1500s.

The first course was leek and potato soup, followed by a course of something called 'flampoyntes', a pork pie that had an odd taste but was really quite good. To browned bulk sausage we added cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar, and shredded cheese, baked it in a pie shell, and then topped it with diamonds of fried pie pastry. Interesting combination, and the pastry diamonds for decoration were a bit fussy but I liked the look of it.

The original recipe for these, from England in the 1300s, is as follows:

Take fat pork ysode. Pyke it clene; grynde it smal. Grynde chese & do therto with sugur & gode powdours. Make a coffyn of an ynche depe, and do this fars therin. Make a thynne foile of gode past & cerue out theroff small poyntes, frye hem & put hem in the fars, & bake it vp &c.

Simple enough, no?

The third course: first, duck cooked in a wine-onion sauce that again used cinnamon and cloves (apparently this recipe will also work for rabbit, in case you're wondering), as well as wine, chicken stock, and vinegar. Very good and tender, though at first the smell was very heavy on the vinegar and had me a bit concerned. The duck itself was a wild duck shot by Goaliemom's husband and graciously donated from their freezer. I do think I'd cook with duck again. It's got a nice flavor, even in its medieval setting.

Duck was followed by pheasant (another one hunted by GM's hubby - enjoyed with many thanks) which was 'barded', or wrapped in bacon. Yummy. That's really all there was to it, though the recipe (England, 1400s) had me laughing at the directions. When a recipe starts with telling you how to kill the bird, it's a far cry from modern ones. And this passage: ...breke his necke, and pul him dry, And draw him as a chekon, and kutte off his fete and wings by the body and the nekke, and roste him, and reise his winges and his legges as a heron... gee, I'd love to, but I'm really not up on preparing heron for eating. Or crane (as in another recipe), for that matter.

'Eating pheasant' also led to a fun discussion on the importance of the letter 'h'. Think about it.

Along with the meat was 'pescodde' (France, 1300s), a dish of pea pods cooked in water that first had boiled some bacon. That was simple and good. We only had one veggie dish as feasts for nobles typically were mostly meat dishes.

Finally, along came some baked pears. Apparently, pears and apples were believed to have medicinal properties and were a common finish to feasts.

All in all, the unit was good and the extra learning a welcome addition. The food was good - different, but good - but they certainly had no concerns about their fat intake. One of the benefits of a very active lifestyle, I guess.

home ec at home

R discovered sewing yesterday, and she quite enjoyed it. I had made the first layer of her medieval dress (pics to follow when all three are done; only A's remains) and, considering the fabric and seams required on her kirtle (the top layer, basically a sleeveless tunic covering the main dress) I decided it was good for her to learn to use the machine. I showed her step-by-step how to thread the machine, how to adjust the speed with her foot, how to pin the fabric and then run it through for a seam that we then pressed.

I had flashbacks to my own time learning to sew, the terms in junior high Home Ec class where we learned lots of rules and how-tos, the time spent sewing with my mom where I learned much that broke those rules but made more sense, born as it was of years of experience and coming from someone who was and is a great teacher. I particularly remember one instance of pressing out a certain seam, and Mom showing me a trick. "Where did you learn that?" I asked, to which she replied, "When you do it wrong enough times, you figure out a way to do it right!" How true.

Of course, that led to recalling the cooking terms of Home Ec class, telling R about it and how we were docked marks if we dared to actually taste the food while it cooked. R met that with a blank stare ("what? How can you know if it's seasoned right?" ah, my good little chef) and we laughed as I realized that she is learning from me much as I learned from my mom, that sometimes (and often) experience takes the day.

After everything was put together R put it all on and proceeded to run about the house looking like an extra out of Rivendell. I almost expected to see her ears had taken on elvish points. She loved it, and I was amused and surprised at my camo girl twirling around in *gasp* a dress. I had thought that getting them to dress like medieval girls for the feast might be a problem (A had been talking armor at one point), but it seems we shall be a proper nobleman's family at our dinner. And thanks to donations from Goaliemom's freezer of a duck and two pheasants, that has taken on a more authentic tone.

Today will be spent at home, sewing A's dress, editing Seren's book which continues to delight me even as I apply what we now call the Red Pen of Doom, and coming up with something good for supper. Sole and risotto with brussels sprouts (sauted with carmelized onions), I'm thinking. And yes, I will taste it as I cook. Dock marks if you like. I don't care. HA!

snow day

It being February, with March break a while off and the girls having put in six weeks' hard work in school, and some lovely new snow having fallen last night, I have declared a snow day. The public school kids have already enjoyed a few of these, and we haven't taken advantage of the weather for a day off before today.

This morning was an early start, D and I out putting the rogue chain back on the tractor. This is far better to do as a two-person job, as one (me) sits in the tractor and edges it back and forth while directed by the stronger one (D), who lifts, adjusts, tightens, and arranges the chain. Once it was on D headed in to shower and get ready for work while I cleared a path through for him to drive. It'll need a little more work this afternoon but is more passable than it's been for a few days.

We will be doing our medieval work today, but that's it. We're playing inside with the hamster, Lego, My Little Pony, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The girls are eager to get their costumes started, and after browsing several medieval clothing sites and trying to find something that's as authentic as possible but still doable, I think we're ready. Apparently A's Bionocle characters are going to help. Hmm.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and the girls and I had thought of doing our fancy dinner today, but with D at the church's annual meeting tonight, band practice tomorrow, and dance on Friday, it looks like it'll be a weekend meal. Maybe lobster will drop from its stupidly high price of $17 per pound by then? Wishful thinking, I know. But I think that on a snow day wishful thinking is allowed. Even encouraged.

getting medieval on the kids

Apparently, that's a modified quote from Pulp Fiction. Since I have not seen it, I can't really vouch for it.

Today starts two weeks of what I'm calling "Medieval Immersion" in school. While we'll keep grammar and math as usual, this history book is on the shelf as we pause to learn about how people lived, dressed, ate and generally went about their business in the years around 1000-1200. Even spelling has succumbed to a word list gleaned from the topics of the day.

Today we introduce the unit and head out to the local wool mill (well, ok, Wal-Mart) to purchase fabric to make some costumes for the girls. R and A will get some basic sewing lessons out of the whole thing as well. I do like multi-discipline learning.

We'll see how the next two weeks pan out.