Learning notes

Random notes about things we've done in our homeschool over the past two weeks or so.

We made pinhole viewers to observe the eclipse and origami ninja stars.

We watched the first two episodes of Planet Earth II.

We spent a lot of time watching weird math and science YouTube videos.  Especially from Smarter Every Day who did videos about extracting venom from stone fish, the science behind why cats land on their feet and the punching force of the mantis shrimp.  Did you know that the mantis shrimp isn't a shrimp?  Also Ted Ed talks about Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe, the Voynich manuscript, the interesting question of the infinity hotel, teleportation and time travel.

We designed a trap, looked at different types of traps and discussed how they work.

The 7yo read a lot of Garfield comics, played with his Pair of Pears game, got people to play chess with him and constructed forts.  The 5yo and 3yo listened to many, many stories and played loud Latin music to choreograph dances to.

We found a whole bunch of interesting caterpillars and researched them.

We learned how the lawnmower works, weeded the garden and had a bonfire, trimmed the hedges, made brownies, washed the dishes, and practiced with the phone.  Life, essentially.

The little girls went to a playgroup with Daddy and did a craft.

Learning Notes Weeks One and Two

It's week three of school already, so I'm behind - good to know some things never change!

My friend Melanie at The Wine-Dark Sea writes a synopsis of her school weeks and I find that idea very appealing, especially in terms of tracking things.  I'm a sucker for lists and I also tend to fall into the pit of self-doubt periodically with regards to school, wondering if we do enough, if we read enough, if everyone is where their peers are...as if any of that really matters to me, which it doesn't.  Most of the time.

Last year I gave learning notes posts a whirl but faltered because we defaulted to curriculum plans so much, which is boring.  Each week all that really changed is whether or not we got our scheduled work done and if we went anywhere.  This year, when I am essentially not using any sort of pre-made curriculum or lesson plans, the notes will be different and fluid, I imagine.

Week One

We started school on August 1st.  The children were complaining of boredom so I decided not to wait for any books to arrive but just use whatever we had lying around.  Which is no small potatoes.  We have a lot of books 'lying around'.

Tuesday

We did a trial run of our Morning Basket.  Stories read: excerpt from A Family Treasury of Little Golden Books, excerpt from the Opie/Wells Mother Goose, The Little Red Hen from Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales
Devotional: Little Visits With God lesson 'Are you glad to go to church?'
Non-fiction reading : Story of the World Volume 1, chapter 7: Hammurabi and the Babylonians

Reading: 7yo read Hardy Boys.  5yo and I did lesson 40 in Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: We pulled out a textbook (Journeys in Math 3) to get some conversation ideas and ended up discussing skip counting and odd/even numbers.

Bedtime read aloud - none.  We watched a movie.

Wednesday

Morning Basket: One Morning in Maine by McCloskey
Devotional: lesson was 'Are you growing as a Christian?'

In the afternoon we found a bullfrog and ended up researching it and building a habitat and trying to catch it food before it was released.

Bedtime read aloud - chapter 15 of The Hobbit with the 7yo.  There Is A Bird On My Head with the 5yo.

Thursday

Morning Basket: No fiction read.
Non-fiction: Horrible Histories The Awesome Egyptians Pg 1-11
Devotional: lesson was 'Where is God?'

The 7yo has gotten interested in board games so he had an outing to the library with Daddy in order to laminate some game sheets.

Reading: 7yo read I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words.  5yo did lesson 41 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: 7yo and I reviewed patterns and simple addition, which we learned last year.

Bedtime Read aloud: 7yo - A comic, 5yo- The Mouses' Terrible Christmas

Friday

Morning Basket: no reading other than devotional.
Devotional: lesson was 'Why not ask?'

Trip to get inoculations and we discussed vaccines.

Reading: 7yo- read a P.aw P.atrol story to 3yo.  5yo - lesson 42 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: some more reviewing of last year's topics.

7yo helped to stack some brush.  We discussed wet/green versus dry/cured wood, if moss really grows on the North side of the tree, and compass points.

Bedtime read aloud: 5yo Mr. putter and Tabby Walk The Dog.  7yo - Ch. 16 of The Hobbit.

Saturday (I find it easier not to take a weekend and disrupt the routine)

Morning Basket: no reading other than devotional
Devotional: lesson was 'How Strong God Is!'

7yo and I started sorting collectable cards and discussed categories.  Conversation about what a desert is, looked up definition in Oxford English Dictionary and National Geographic Kids' Atlas.  Talked about layers of the Earth, terrain at the bottom of the sea, aquafers, geysers, the Earth's molten core, etc.  7yo decided to build a Lego replica of this.

Reading: I know the 7yo read something, but I don't know what.  5yo and I did lesson 43 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: nothing specific.

Bedtime Read alouds: 5yo Two by Two.  7yo ch. 17 of The Hobbit.

Sunday

We didn't try and touch on any topics because we take Sunday off for work.  That being said we did a few things today.  We watched an episode of David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities show about nocturnal animals.  The 5 yo learned how to finger knit.

We also read a lot.  Lullaby Berceuse, Doing the Laundry, The Mole Sisters and the Fairy Ring and The Mole Sisters and the Cool Breeze.  The 7yo and I read chapters 18 and 19 to finish the Hobbit.

Monday

Morning Basket: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Make Way for Ducklings, Saint George and the Dragon from The Children's Book of Virtues.
Non-fiction: Story of the World Ch. 8 part 1 The Assyrians: Shamshi-Adad.
Devotional: 'Thou Shalt Not Covet'.

Reading: 7yo read Days With Frog and Toad chapter 1.

Math: reviewed single digit addition.

Bedtime read aloud: 7yo first 2 chapters of Chasing Vermeer.

Tuesday

Morning Basket didn't happen

Math- reviewed changing order of addends does not change sum.  Played Yahtzee and practiced addition including carrying.

Reading: 5yo Lesson 44 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  7yo read Little Bear's Birthday Soup.

Watched David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities episode on armoured animals.

Wednesday we spent the day cleaning, and then on Thursday the sink situation happened, so we were fully occupied with repairs for the next three days.  However we did take out he telescope at one point, and we did some star gazing and some cooking and art.

Yesterday started a new week!

Homeschooling - New Thoughts

We seem to have changed from a structured, Classically styled homeschool to a much more fluid, literature based eclectic school style this year.  I don't know that we fit into any molds anymore but in a discussion with a friend the other day we used the term Facilitated Unschooling.  I think that covers it fairly well.

What this means is that we aren't writing schedules, but we are keeping lists of things we've done and read.  We aren't filling out workbooks, unless we feel like it, but sure, if we feel like it then we are.  As usual I am abysmal at crafting and this year we're not going to force it.  There are a lot of guided discussions, carefully chosen videos, suggested books and so forth.

We started school two weeks ago, and the first week was a lot of flailing, followed by a few days of feeling like we had a rhythm, followed by the sink and a sinus cold and a lot of rain, followed by Sunday, when we don't 'do school'.  So tomorrow is a new week and hopefully it flows a bit smoother.

This isn't unschooling by any stretch of the imagination.  It's, well, it's facilitated.  Probably really facilitated.  And it's pretty flexible and changing all the time as I find new books I want to use and we get distracted with sparkly interests for a period of time.

The Great Plumbing Debacle

I hadn't really paid attention to how long it had been since I posted on this blog, which makes sense.  Ever since we started homeschooling in earnest, not to mention the arrival of baby #3, everything other than school and survival sort of took a back seat.

Now, though, the 'baby', despite still being referred to by everyone as such, is three years old.  Not really a baby.  And the homeschooling is on its third year, maybe fourth if you count random stabs at preschool.  The move to the 'new house' is four years past, and nothing about being a minister's wife shocks me anymore.

Today I made a little joke about wanting to resurrect the blog for the sole purpose of chronicling the recent three day crazy train of attempting to fix the parsonage sink.  And then I thought, well, why not?  I don't think I really have much to say on this blog anymore, but I dragged the cobwebby recesses of my mind and remembered how to log in, and here I am.

I make no promises.  But here I am.

So, the plumbing.  Ugh.

Well, we live in the parsonage, or manse, or clergy house.  Whatever your denomination calls it, it's the house owned by the church and lent to the current minister as a 'free' place to live.  I think a lot of churches have done away with their parsonages these days, and instead give their ministers a housing allowance.  But our church hasn't, and so when the husband was hired I knew already where we would live.  Here.

The parsonage is oldish and smallish and maybe a bit out of date, which suits us because we are also oldish, smallish and a little out of date.  Also, we're not picky, which is a good trait to cultivate if you have hopes of entering the ministry.  Just a little free advice from me to you.  But being oldish means everything is a little bit run down and I expect stuff to need a lot of duct tape and prayers.

The day before yesterday the kitchen sink stopped draining.  I did my level best with Drain-o and when that didn't work I decided I was going to plunge it.  With the seven year old holding the stopper in one side of the sink, I plunged with all my might.  When that didn't work I tried the other side, and then pulled over a chair and got up on the counter to use my full weight.  Well, certainly a lot of gunk came up, I'll spare you the details, and all of it had to be scooped into a bucket and dumped into the toilet.  For over two hours we worked on it, and we simply couldn't get the sink to drain.

I looked under the sink and consulted Dr. Google but the two of us, usually such an efficient team, couldn't understand the ancient pipes in my cabinet.  At this point I called it and told my husband he should let the church maintenance guy know that his services were needed at the manse.

Let me take a minute here to pause and sing the praises of Church Maintenance Guys, otherwise known as trustees, wherever they may be.  These fine men (there may very well be Church Maintenance Gals out there, but it's been my experience that the position is almost always something only a middle aged man with paint splattered pants and a squint would want to fill) come out in all weather, at all times, usually with a trunk full of tools so old the children wonder in awe if Noah himself used them.  They climb under your house, up your chimney and through your azaleas.  They pet your cat when you aren't looking, make suggestions as to the best placement of next year's bulbs, have the garbage and recycling ordinances memorized, and unclog your toilet for you.  They have an odd sense of humour and will gently mock you once they know you well enough.  What wonderful people they are, even the crabby ones, to volunteer for such a job.

Our trustee showed up with a chemical in a bottle that he thought might work.  We poured it in, waited the required time, and tried the sink.  It didn't drain.  Not to worry, said the trustee, and produced another bottle, this one very strong and certain to work.  Again we waited ( in between applications we drained the sink via the pipe underneath) and again we flushed the sink and again it did not drain.  Well, now this was exciting, thought the children as they clustered around their bedraggled mother who had been without a sink since just after breakfast.  The pipe underneath was opened again, and we fed our three foot drain snake into the wall.  Cleaned out, we resealed the pipe and tried the sink.  It didn't drain.  Not daunted yet, the trustee went home and got his own five foot snake, came back, opened the pipe, fed in the five foot snake, cleaned it out, resealed the pipe and tried the sink.  It didn't drain.

Under the house he crawled, and went to look at the plumbing.  We conferred and decided that he would return the next day and cut out a section of pipe from the crawlspace and clean from there.  The next day he did just that, using the five foot snake in both directions.  We resealed the pipe and tried the sink.  It didn't drain.  Now well over 24 hours without a sink, he agreed to open the pipe underneath for me to place a bowl so I could clean the sink and counter and possibly do dishes.  And he said he'd come back the next day again.

He did, and somehow he'd convinced his brother to come with him to help, and they cut out all the pipe and replaced it.  They resealed it, we ran the sink, and it drained.  Three days to fix a sink.

I'm so grateful for running water and modern plumbing.