Videos and a new app for us!

We've been using the YouTube Kids App recently as an addition to our homeschool and we're really liking it!  Here's how we've incorporated it into our days.

The app is loaded on only one device, so it's easier for me to keep track of who is doing school.  I have an account set up for the 6yo and 8yo, and a separate one for the 10yo.  I have gone into the parent settings and switched the app to not show any video suggestions for the children, and instead I individually add videos to their playlists.  The app also allows me to set a timer but so far I haven't used that function.  There are no ads and no in-app purchases that I've noticed.

Once that's set up I ask the children for 8-10 subjects that they are interested in, and I take some time to go through and add videos to their playlists for them to watch.

And with that intro - here's a bunch of stuff we've been watching recently!

The Wind and Mr. Ug - A cautionary tale about Mobius strips.

The Stringless Yo-Yo!

A Hamster Running a Minecraft Cube Maze

Slowly reducing the size of a hole to see if a cat will attempt to pass through it.

The 10 best squirrel feeders

Waking up, working and going to sleep in Zero G

A tour of the Russian segment of the International Space Station

The science behind the name Pokemon

Working on the Mars Rover

The ISS crew conducts a spacewalk

How to fold the world record paper airplane

How to feed wild birds the right way

The ISS bathroom tour

English Heritage teaches how to make a cardboard sword

The School Day - Thursday, October 1st, 2020

Students: 10yo (Grade 5-ish), 8yo (Grade 3-ish), 6yo (Grade 1-ish).

The first thing you'll likely notice is that our definition of 'school' is pretty vague and flexible.  Take heart; you're probably doing more than you realize.  All three of my students are fairly independent, and our house is a constant hive of activity so I'm going to attempt to tell what was happening during the day but keep in mind it was all swirled together and didn't happen in as linear a fashion as it appears.

The 10yo and I started the week 4 unit of Chemistry for the Logic Stage.  We're loving this program and it dovetails perfectly with the boy's interests.  Today was experiment day, so we gathered a variety of materials and tested to see if they held any of the four attributes of a metal - conductivity, malleability, magnetism and lustre.  After we'd hooked up our materials to a circuit, pounded them with a hammer, held a horseshoe magnet to them and looked at them against a lightbulb, he wrote our his experiment notes and read about metals, poor metals, semi-metals and non-metals in the Smithsonian Science Visual Encyclopedia.  I can't recommend it highly enough for little science lovers.  In the meantime the 6yo read a few Frog and Toad stories aloud to grandma, and the 8yo read chapter 6 of Anne of Green Gables, narrated the chapter to me, and then answered her two questions in her literature study guide.  I gave her the Oxford Can. Dictionary and she looked up her vocabulary words and copied them out.

I am taking an intensive university-level grammar course right now, so I spent time throughout this printing off work.  The 6yo finished her reading aloud and brought out art supplies and started crafting.  As the girls finished their work they helped Grandma fold and put away laundry and and then sat with her to watch tv.

The 8yo asked me a question about dinosaurs which led to me reading this article from BBC Earth to her and the 10yo.  The 10yo suggested that an efficient way to estimate dinosaur weight from footprints would be to measure the depth of the print.  The 8yo wondered if the length of the neck influenced the pitch of a vocalisation.  Everyone disappeared to watch the show Oh, Baby (all about baby animals) and we had to interrupt it to Google pictures of baby squid.

Which turned into watching youtube videos about metals.  Here's one on crushing tungsten steel, which we discovered today is the hardest metal.  And here is one on making a ball out of tinfoil. And another ball out of tinfoil.

I had to go to the store with my mother in law so my husband sat with the children while they read.  This is what the 10yo read...

  

When I got back we did history.  We wanted to learn about Samuel de Champlain, which was fascinating.  I read from several books about him, and we ended up taking down the globe to talk about latitude and longitude, astrolabes, astronomy, the Latin word 'astro', native peoples, etc.  We looked up astrolabes from the Canadian Museum of History to see what they looked like.

It was 3pm by this point, so the 6yo helped Grandma cut up butternut squash and the 8yo set the timer and did her free reading.  She's working through Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat.  The 10yo took apart and rebuilt a gear box from a solar powered robot that hadn't been working properly but stopped in order to get the lasagna in the oven and then went back to whatever he was doing with that gear.  When the 8yo finished I logged her into Prodigy math and she got to play while I went to my chiropractor appointment.

I got home and made some tea and played a few rounds of an addition/subtraction dice game with the two youngest.

And by then it was about 5pm and any 'formal' school, such as it is, was done.

Book Review - The Wilderking Series (Books 1-3)

The Wilderking series is a trilogy consisting of The Bark Of The Bog Owl, The Secret Of The Swamp King, and The Way Of The Wilderking.  It is much lauded in homeschool literature circles, which made me wary because...you remember Wingfeather, right?  Hmmm.

Reviews state that it is a retelling of the story of David and Goliath in the OT, but in a fantastical Southern Swamp style world.  I'm thinking moss hanging from trees and people poling dories around.  Possibly catfish.  But Christian catfish.  Sigh.  I don't know why I do this to myself.  Again, I ordered the whole blessed trilogy in one fell swoop just to ensure I would read it.  They came in and I was encouraged to see they aren't that thick - so if they're terrible, it won't last long.

Book one - first impressions are this is not cover art that will win anyone over.  It is pretty unattractive, actually.  My immediate worry was that this was going to be ridiculous, and honestly I was waiting for it to become that way.  Every new character, every time I heard a name, or a phrase, or anything at all, I internally cringed Just In Case.  But actually...we loved it!  We really did.  It was adventurous, exciting, fast-paced but not rushed, based on a story we all knew but with so many quirky, original changes that we still didn't know what would happen next.  The characters were engaging and thought-provoking, the bad guys were bad but not violent and horrific, the good guys were good but not perfect and one dimensional.  It was excellent.  It was an excellent, engaging read.

Marilyn

I’ve struggled with anxiety for my entire life, and it took me a long time to stop feeling a vague sense of shame about that, especially since discovering that there were still Christians in the world who believed that anxiety like mine was caused by a lack of faith.  I can’t think of a more misguided or hurtful thing than that to say to someone struggling against the waves of adrenaline in a panic attack, akin to telling an asthmatic that if they just prayed more, then they would breathe better.  The truth is that God is not ignorant of my anxiety any more than he is ignorant about anything else in his creation.  He knows me, He made me, and He doesn’t make mistakes. 

Shortly after a bad spell that lasted a few months, I got it into my mind that we should get a dog.  We already had three children, an elderly cat, a busy church to pastor and parents with various stages of failing health, but a dog seemed like a good idea to me all the same.  We must have gone to the shelter a dozen times but nothing ever worked out.  All around us people acquired pets, but I couldn’t seem to find the ‘right dog’.  I didn’t want a small dog, but I didn’t want a big dog, either.  I didn’t want one that shed everywhere.  I didn’t want one that barked or jumped or did anything dangerous like run into traffic and I definitely did not want a dog with health concerns or one that would chase the cat.  Also, two of my children were terrified of almost every dog they encountered.  Oh, and I got unreasonably frustrated when a dog pulled too much on a leash, and I didn’t want a puppy. 

In hindsight, I wouldn’t have pegged me for someone who should get a dog.   

When we did go see a possible pet, I always found something wrong with the animal.  This dog shed too much, and pulled when we walked.  That one had a fatty lump on its torso and even though it was completely harmless it felt weird.  I don’t know why I kept looking, since I seemed determined to find something wrong with every last creature. 

Fast forward to the summer of 2019.  I was helping out in the kitchen for vacation bible school when a friend of mine, who happens to breed dogs, mentioned one in conversation.  Her name was Marilyn, and she was a four-year-old purebred poodle.   She had had two litters, and now she was spayed and ready to find a forever home.  At first I was very excited that Marilyn could be THE dog, but my anxiety grew as I talked to my friend over the next few weeks.  How heavy was she?  Gosh, she seemed bigger than I wanted.  She was a poodle and I didn’t know if I really loved that breed.  She was four years old, was that too old?  Was it too young?  Indecisive anxiety swirled around me and when Marilyn eventually arrived at our house for a two week trial I was a nervous wreck.  I was afraid of everything you could be afraid of, but mostly I was afraid of disappointing my family if I said no another time. 

What I didn’t, and couldn’t, have anticipated was that Marilyn had feelings too.  She was happy to come over with her owner, but steadily more nervous as the visit progressed, and when the lady left without her, Marilyn was terrified. 

One of my main reasons for adding an animal to our family was that it might benefit ME – I would be forced to go outside and walk the dog even if I felt anxious, for example.  The dog would help me be brave.  But looking at Marilyn, who had no idea what was happening to her, made my heart swell in a strange way I hadn’t expected.  This dog needed me to be brave for HER.  She was lonely and afraid and confused and she needed me. 

That realization changed my heart.  Marilyn was afraid of what was happening to her, and I was afraid of what was happening to me, but maybe we could be afraid together, and the company might be nice.  She must have felt the same way because the second day she was here she decided that her mission in life was to be beside me at all times.  No matter what.  She waited for me to get out of the shower and she followed me from room to room and outside.  My children started to joke that if you ever needed to know where mom was you could listen for the ‘click, click, click’ of dog toenails on the floor. 

It’s been almost a year now.  Marilyn jumps when she gets excited and she did growl once at the cat before he sorted her out on the household hierarchy.  Sometimes she barks.  She’s too big.  Her hair grows at a phenomenal rate and when you cut it little bits get everywhere.  She hates having baths.  I’m not perfect either, though.  I get stressed at phone calls and I bite my nails and frankly I’m getting pretty exhausted with all this bathing required by polite society myself.  It turns out what I needed wasn’t the perfect dog, it was Marilyn, who needed me, too.  Because God made both of us, and He doesn’t make mistakes. 

In all my worries, I never expected that. 

Reading Notes - August 2020

 August was filled with an anniversary, two birthdays, a week long visit of friends, and the beginning of our school year.  Because of all that, I finished a grand total of ONE book!  However, I did make progress on some others.

Since the world lost Ravi Zacharias recently, it seemed only fitting that I read one of his works.  Zacharias has the enviable ability to take hold of the big questions and fearlessly articulate Biblical answers that are accessible to the everyman.  This is theology for the world - nothing overly academic, nothing particularly intimidating to grasp, filled with relevant illustrations and lots of references - but plain truth, simply served.  A man after my own heart.

Recommended by a friend, and certainly finding a permanent place on my shelves.  What does God look like in the midst of suffering, especially suffering that will not end in this life?  I made some progress on this book but didn't finish it.

I've been reading this collection of Anne Fadiman's essays (she really shines as an essayist) for a while now.  This month I finished reading about her ice cream obsession just in time to have a conversation with a friend about the very shop in California that Fadiman loves.  Small world.

Currently a perfect read before bed - I'm about halfway through Haskell's fantastic almanac-style observations of a small square of forest floor in Tennessee.  I think this one will find a permanent home beside Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

I've been reading War and Peace (this Everyman 3-volume edition is lovely to read) for an online bookclub and finished Volume 1, Part 1, Chapters 1-10 in August.  If you'd like to join in, I'm participating in the club through The Center For Lit and there is a 1-hour podcast discussion for each section.

This month's biography was lingering on my Kindle for a few months since I picked in up for a pittance.  Ciszak's trials and life in Russia have been astonishing to read and remind me a little of Jan Wong's excellent book about attending university in communist China - Red China Blues.  I read about 3/4 of this one in August.

And finally I started Claiborne's book, Irresistible Revolution, which I've been thinking about reading ever since I finished A Year Of Small Things.  That author was a huuuuuge Claiborne fangirl.  I...am not so much.  I'm a quarter of the way through and meh.  

The Return To School...

 ...for ME!  I'm going to be taking a course at university for the fall semester and boy, I had forgotten how much I detested signing up for things until I spent about 6 hours trying to finish my enrollment.  Six. Hours.  And I am applying as a citizen, in a language I know, for a course I can complete with confidence, AND I have applied for higher education before.  Imagine, I told my sister today, if I was a new Canadian?  Or this was my very first time attending university, in my late 30s?  Imagine if I couldn't speak English very well or navigate the websites?  What a crippling system it is for the disadvantaged.

First, the student number.  Then registration for a student account.  Then registration for another section of the student account that lets me add courses.  Then downloading an app and installing it and then activating it (which required TWO devices, btw, in case you don't have two devices or are trying to do this in, say, a library or a friend's house), and then registering for the program itself.  Then finding a phone number and calling it (long distance, in case you are doing this on a public phone) and after waiting on hold for 53 minutes (in case you are trying to do this on your lunch break at the burger place) getting hung up on, calling back and waiting for 38 minutes until someone answers.  Articulating yourself clearly (in case you struggle with that.  Oh, and there was no visible TTY option, so I guess if you are deaf you're out of luck) Then printing off a form (in case you don't have a printer), understanding what the form says, or what any of this stuff says (in case English isn't your first language), scanning it (in case you don't have a scanner) and on and on.  This is without even discussing the financial aspect of higher education, or the discernment necessary to choose a program, or the self-confidence, the home life, the suppot network and so forth.

Bootstraps, y'all.

Some less serious, but still valid, reasons I homeschool.

 In an online group a woman recently asked why homeschoolers bother to homeschool anyway.  It's more work, isn't it?  It's time intensive and expensive and your kids don't go away so you're very stressed, yes?

Goodness, with that definition no wonder so few people are embracing it.

I fumed thought about this for a while and decided that despite my really wanting it to be so...no one magically knows the thoughts inside my head.  I actually have to communicate them.  I tell my children this all the time.  "No one knows what you're thinking!  Say something!"  Anyway, without further ado, here are some excellent reasons that I homeschool.

1)  I'm lazy.  Okay, not really but sorta.  Listen, I do not know how all you school parents do it.  Every year I hear about the lists sent out of classroom supplies you're supposed to send with your kid, the back to school shopping, the mandatory haircuts, the SHOES, people.  They have different shoes for inside the school!  What insanity is this?  More shoes?  They wear shoes to school then they change into OTHER SHOES??  Do you know how long it takes my children to find shoes???  And then nine months of packing food, checking backpacks for papers, dealing with homework, fielding emails from the school, getting the kids UP and FED and CLOTHED and outside in the blessed-dark-before-the-dawn for a BUS.  And then they come HOME again all upset about something or angry at Becky because Becky used to be their friend and now she called them a poopy head at recess and you're just like Janet, give mummy a break I am trying to make SUPPER.  And as if that isn't enough now you get to spend the whole night doing homework or mandatory reading or checking off book logs or something.  Baking for a bake sale.  Volunteering to do something or other with the PTA.  Ugh.  Or driving!  All the driving about!  The child forgets their mittens, the calls from the office "Oh, Mrs. Smith, Bobby doesn't have a lunch today."  Are you kidding me??  He left the house with a lunch!!  Where is his lunch???  Where is your coat, child?  Why did you leave it at school?  What is this fresh hell, here?  A class-wide Valentine's party and you must bring cards for everyone in the class!!  GAH.

2)  I'm really cheap.  I know the party line is that public school is free and homeschool is not free so you should use the perfectly good public school system but my experience has been Really Not Like That.  Sure, I spend money on school stuff, but man, I don't think it's anything like the public school parents do!  Every day you need food your kids will eat, that is acceptable to the school; I give my kids whatever.  Make a smoothie, kids.  Have a peanut butter sandwich.  Honestly, our whole house is covered in a microscopic layer of peanut butter, most likely.   Your kids need to be in clean, socially acceptable clothing, appropriate for the weather.  Not like my kids, who can sit around in a bathing suit in February if they wanted to.  A bathing suit, a top hat, and aviator glasses.  Under the kitchen table.  Your kids need all these supplies, they cannot, apparently, practice their cursive on the backs of scrap paper with the free pen the dentist gave us.  Every extra thing your child does seems to cost more money!  Gotta give a deposit on the instrument, buy the special tshirt, pay for the field trip, fill up the cafeteria card for those forgotten lunches, give extra pocket money for the overnight excursion, the obligatory purchase of school play tickets and fundraisers!  The fundraisers ALONE.  I do not want to sell cookie dough or pizza coupons or candies to anyone!  See reason #1 above!

3) I have things to DO!  I don't know where this idea came from that homeschooling means you are stuck in your house.  Honestly, the one month my eldest was in kindergarten was by far the worst month for staying at home.  I couldn't go anywhere!  I had to pick up a child at, like, 2:30 in the afternoon!  I was constantly checking my watch and got nothing done and was a stress filled wreck.  My children are home and you know what we do all day?  WHATEVER WE NEED TO.  We want to go wander around a museum for 6 hours, we can.  We want to sleep in until 10am, we do.  I need sour cream for supper and I forgot until the last minute?  We just...go to the store!  Whenever!  Doesn't matter!  I go to the dentist at noon, I visit the eye doctor at 2pm, we serve supper at 5, or maybe 6, or whatever.  Maybe it's a really good night for star gazing so we just don't bother going to bed until 11.  Doesn't really matter.  Are you not feeling well, child?  Well, fortunately I don't have to deal with an auto-call answering machine and attendance because, doesn't matter!

4) I don't like people.  No, okay, that's not entirely true.  I sort of like people sometimes, on my own terms.  I do not like being forced into a relationship with people.  I don't want to go to parent/teacher interviews and have someone tell me about my own child.  I don't want to meet teachers.  I'm sure they are very nice people, but I don't wanna.  I don't WANT to talk to Mildred, the woman who is doing the set design for the grade eleven production of Fiddler On The Roof, and who wants to borrow my sewing machine.  I already talk to so. many. people. all day, every day, and I just don't have any more spoons to give people.  No, I don't want to go to another meeting.  My life is meetings and paperwork.  No, I don't want to chaperone anyone anywhere, and I don't want to obsess about whether teacher Jones should get a mug for Christmas when really, the poor woman does WANT a MUG.