Amazon has my number.

You know how they send those e-mail recommendations every so often? Well, there are usually at least one or two books that are right on target. But this morning I got a list of books that makes me want to drop some money in the Amazon coffers! The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School, Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting, I Believe in Me: A Book of Affirmations, Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World, Fairy Island: An Enchanted Tour of the Homes of the Little Folk, Making Waldorf Dolls. Do they know me or WHAT? Seriously, this was the list of recommendations in ONE e-mail. All my book-ratings and reviews have finally produced a perfect list of recommendations.

What did we learn today?

Well, it would be hard to say in so many words. But I know the day was filled with moments of spontaneous insight. What's funny is ... by the end of the day, I always find myself asking, "What did we learn today?" Kind of like ... "Tell me one thing you learned today." And even though I know we learned a huge amount, that filled our hearts and spirits as well as our minds, it would be difficult to take a test on it or present it as a factoid at the dinner table. Interestingly enough, my mother asked me yesterday, "If you are a homeschooler, how do you ever learn to take tests?"
Hmmmm..... "Why would a homeschooler need to take tests?"
"Well, so they can take tests. You know ... when they're adults."
"What kind of tests will they need to take when they're adults? Cholesterol tests? Yes. Hearing Tests? Probably. But history tests? Probably not."
Okay, both of us were missing the mark entirely. She knew exactly what she was trying to ask me, and I knew exactly how I was trying to respond, but we were speaking from two different worlds. Homeschooling is a new concept for her, as it is for many people in my family -- she has no point of reference. So she asks. And because the concept of sending my child to public school is just as unusual a concept for me; or allowing other people to get paid to spend the day with my child because I don't have the patience to do it myself ... Well, that is my world. So we try to communicate about these things, but we're speaking from completely unique perspectives and it just takes us a long time to understand. But we try. We really try and eventually, even if we may not really understand, we are able to embrace each other's need to be heard.

I don't know what we learned today. After a full day, the three of us ended up hanging out at Barnes & Noble for over an hour. Maybe even for over two hours. Anabelle read all the new picture books that are out. She really enjoyed The English Roses, but wanted me to read it to her and it was just a long book, so I didn't. Then she read joke books -- I've never heard so many silly knock-knock jokes at one time in my LIFE. And finally, at checkout, she hugged me and buried her head in my stomach and said, "You smell soooooo good at night." And I know the smell she was talking about. It's kind of a warm mom smell. And the only one that ever has it is your mom. And now I have that smell. Awesome ...

And then when we walked out the doors of the bookstore, she threw her arms out, smiled up at the sky and shouted, "HELLO WORLD!"

It's hard to really describe what we learned today.

Well. Anabelle wants HOMEWORK.

But she doesn't want the homework I provide for her. She wants the kind of homework that she wants. Whatever that may be. Period. Usually it's math. The math from our curriculum books? Noooooo. The math that we write down ourselves or just call out to her. I'm thinking it may be time to start trying to impose a *little* more structure on this whole thing. Maybe a notebook would be nice. A notebook with completed HOMEWORK assignments. We shall see...

Speaking of reading ...

Because Anabelle IS such a proficient reader, I'm wondering about word attack skills and spelling. One of the best "tips" I've discovered is keeping a dictionary on the dining room table. She LOVES to look through the dictionary and learn new words. The dictionary we're using is one of those big, fat, humongous dictionaries from Reader's Digest that belonged to my great grandmother. Went to B&N the other day and looked at all the different choices for children's dictionaries. Tough call.

"Classical" Education, Well-Trained Mind, ETC.

Talking about unschooling made me take a good hard look at our "curriculum." I would have to say that it's eclectic, with a strong lean toward the classical. I haven't read the latest edition of The Well-Trained Mind, but when I did read it, the thing that stuck in my mind was that learning to READ is the job of the kindergartener. So that's done. Anabelle can read just about anything you put in front of her. Seriously! I had bought the entire "Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" -- everything available, the COMBO PACK -- and we never opened it. I forgot the reason, but Peacehill Press had made a mistake with our order and by the time it arrived, we were already smoking along and it was just too late to go back to a phonics approach. So it's whole language and literature-based all the way now. We're going to use the Language Lessons and Story of the World, though. I've got to say that I really LOVE SOTW, but we are moving through it very, very slowly. I can't seem to flesh out a "plan" for working through the book in a 3 year period. I'm just anxious to mummify a chicken. ;-)

Anyway, now that we're officially first graders, it seems to be time to read the revised edition of WTM and finally start working my way through The Well-Educated Mind. It kinda freaks me out at times. Anabelle is only 6 and, when I read all this stuff, I want to do it ALL and I want to do it NOW. I guess I could start by getting that classroom organized ...

"Un"school RULES!

Anabelle never really liked the sound of "un"school and I can't blame her. But we seem to be moving in that direction. I mean, the two of us are just about the epitomy of *spontaneous*, so it seems to work. We were at the lake the other day and some ladies asked Anabelle if she had come to the lake after school. Belle told them, "I'm half homeschool and half unschool." That was the first time she really tried to incorporate the whole idea of unschool into her repertoire. Really, I'm of the opinion that it's just a word. However, that's certainly NOT the way the "Radical Unschoolers" look at it. Anyway ... We had been at the lake for hours and learned quite a bit and I had finally explained to Belle that it was pretty much what I had been trying to tell her that unschooling is like. So it was on her mind. Anyhoo ...

That said, we're still putting the classroom back together and it's looking pretty good. I can hardly wait to start moving back toward a rhythm of some sort.

The lake was waaaaay low the other day, but also nice and clean because of a weekend rain. Until the last hour, we were the only ones there. Ellen and I had brought out books to read, but since the place was deserted, I ended up spending my time playing with Anabelle. She picked up shells and I picked up fossils. And we walked all the way up and down both sides of the shoreline as far as it was possible. We dug up clay, caught a baby frog, etc. etc. etc. It was so much fun that I'm kinda anxious to go back. We actually haven't gone AT ALL this summer because it was TOO HOT. Yes, it was too hot to go swimming. We tried to stay close to air conditioners. Relaxing and having fun together brought up all kinds of conversations and I can't exactly remember how they started ... I know we had a long talk about the difference between the lake and the ocean ... And Anabelle said something about the "first people" that were here, and I said they were Indians; Ellen corrected me and said they were Native Americans. That led to a discussion of WHY they were originally called Indians (Columbus) and then how most of us are actually from Europe and HOW that happened (Pilgrims, Mayflower). I figured that was pretty first grade ... later we can talk about immigration, etc.

One side of Poppop's family (Viets) was either German or Dutch. It started in the 1600's with a physician who ended up in America because of a shipwreck. There is a BOOK of the Viets family that goes all the way from then until about the time Poppop's parents were married. I think the next thing we need to make is a family tree. Perfect, because that's exactly where Story of the World starts.

We seem to be off to a slow start this year...

...but that's okay, because we're learning how to improvise and we're learning lots of other things as well. Since Momo is at the Senior Center now, we go up there at least 2 or 3 times a week. Anabelle has made MANY new friends and loves to participate in the activities. She is very kind to everyone and they absolutely love her. As I watched her strolling around the room during Bingo yesterday, it reminded me of when I was a little kid doing the exact same thing at Bellmire.

We've also been doing a lot with Girl Scouts -- FUN! Anabelle had started guitar lessons, but isn't so sure she wants to continue. She'd like to take piano instead. I think! She may have changed her mind already. Then there's karate that's about to start and we're trying to decide about theater classes in Arlington.

We're still working on the organization of our classroom and that gets a little *slow* at times, especially since we tend to get distracted when we uncover books or games we'd forgotten about. Ben taught Belle how to do card tricks and from there, I taught her to recognize the different "suits" in a tarot deck. From there, she made up her own "magic" tricks.

And here she is NOW, so it's time for me to quit blogging.

this is the best

a little gril's mom created this blog it's the best!