Parrot Toys From Cardboard Boxes

We usually spend a small fortune on the right toys for our sun conure, Arcus. 

But toys are an important part of keeping caged birds healthy and sane. 

Recently, however, we've tried hanging cardboard boxes in his cage. 

He loves them! 

He tears them to pieces, literally, bit by bit, making the happiest of chipping sounds as he destroys them, leaving a thick layer of cardboard confetti on his cage lining. 

He enjoys boxes far more than any toy we usually buy. 

This is good news for our budget! 

Domestic Satisfaction

I'm finding a tremendous amount of satisfaction in my domestic life lately. 

After dutifully cooking and baking for twenty plus years mostly because it was my job to do so, I've reluctantly reached a new level of mastery in my kitchen. 

And when you combine that mastery with my new quiet resolution to be content with my domestic lot, I find myself joyful and free. 

Cooking and baking for my small family in my somewhat dated kitchen turns out to be downright delightful. 

I used the same mushroom marinara sauce three different ways last week. 

First, I served it fresh over spaghetti with grated parmesan and from-scratch, fresh, baked Italian bread sticks for a meatless meal. 

Several days later, I still had leftover sauce, so I added some spicy Italian sausage to the same mushroom marinara and served it over spaghetti noodles again. (My family loves spaghetti, so they raved.) 

It's quite satisfying to receive immediate positive feedback for work you do, and it's extremely satisfying to work for the people you love in the home where you live.  

Finally, a few days ago, I had only a fraction of the now sausage and mushroom marinara to use. 

I wondered whether I should just throw it out, but instead, I added it to a quiche with just the right cheese and... viola! 

My family alternated between looking down at the quiche and up at me with awe. 

Cooking meals for my people and sitting and eating and talking and laughing with them is the best thing I get to do with my day. 

At this point in mid-life, I've experienced a thing or two, and somehow, I no longer envy shiny, busy, empowered, brilliant, women with their apparently fulfilling careers that take them away from their home and their people. 

In fact, I quite happily, continually forgo opportunities that I believe I'd actually enjoy, because I'm no longer longing for fulfillment and meaning and significance outside my home, at least not right now. 

I want to protect my time and energy and this mental, emotional, and physical margin to engage in domestic life while my kids are still here.

So I cook and really enjoy cooking and then sit with my grateful people around our lively table. 

Wisdom whispers encouragement to my heart to keep this up. 

I believe I will look back and see this was not only the most rewarding part of my day right now, but building my family culture with my own hands through making family meals will be altogether the most significant work of my life. 

 

Advice From a Homeschool Veteran

After eighteenth years of mothering, thirteen (or more?) years of homeschooling, and ten years of learning, teaching, serving, leading in different homeschool communities, I think I know a thing or two (or seven) about that homeschool life. Here's some sage advice from a somewhat salty veteran. 

1. Be realistic about your children.

Your children are not perfect. If you don't already know this hard truth, just attend any co-op long enough. The other people there will reveal (or try to reveal) truth to you when they confront you about your child's bad behavior. Humble yourself and just let the harsh realities sink in. It is good for your soul and the best thing for your child. All co-op veterans have had to do this again and again through the years to remain in community. You have to understand that your child needs a Savior just like you do. Their sin is real enough that Jesus had to die for it, too. So commit to remaining in community and dealing with the ugly issues as they arise. If you blame the other students or teachers and resist taking responsibility (or even avoid taking responsibility altogether by leaving co-op), you may avoid ugly reality for a time. In fact, you may actually avoid it for so long that you find your child is no longer a child at all, but very much a grown-up man or woman stuck in anti-social, destructive thinking and behavior. And if you are like me and you already know your kids have real problems, because you are constantly confronting and dealing with their problems at home, don't be too hard on your kids when they fail in public even when they really, really embarrass you. Mortify your pride. We have to teach our children how to live at home and in community, and the best way to learn how to live in community is to just remain in community as humiliating, painful, and inconvenient as that can be at times. 

2. Lower your expectations when dealing with human beings, even when you are paying them as professionals. 

Your child's tutors aren't going to be perfect. Even Christian, spirit-filled, virtuous, brilliant, well-trained, experienced, professional tutors will have some human flaws you should probably just continually overlook and bear with (and teach your children to bear with) in Christian charity. Disclaimer: If your co-op is totally secular and you are godless, maybe you can feel a sense of freedom to treat your tutors (and teach your children to treat their tutors) like a commodity that you may or may not be entirely satisfied with at any given moment and that you may or may not decide to purchase again next semester or next year. But if you are a Christian in a Christian homeschool community of any sort, this spirit and attitude grieves the Holy Spirit of God, and you must treat others with the charity, grace, mercy, etc. commanded by God. That doesn't mean you won't confront people about issues, but it does mean you'll handle conflicts and complaints totally privately, and you will be ready to understand, forgive, and reconcile, and your love will be ready to continually cover many, many offenses, "seventy times seven." So Christian, prepare yourself to have to bear with the imperfections of other Christians in your homeschool community as they are most certainly bearing with yours. And since many co-ops are often led by regular moms and dads just like you, a good rule of thumb is to realistically consider how well you and/or your husband would do in the exact same position with all the same variables, and then judge and/or give grace and mercy to the other parents accordingly. 

3. Lower your expectations even more if your co-op is volunteer-led and you aren't paying a dime for the class your child is in. If your co-op is free and led entirely by volunteers, it's probably realistic to lower your expectations even more. If a class is free, that teacher may believe she's doing your group a real favor when she shows up. To some extent, she may even be correct. I can be annoyed that my child's teacher doesn't show up, but if that person is just a volunteer, I can't be totally surprised, and I don't have much recourse other than to switch my child out of that class and find one taught by a more consistent volunteer. If my child isn't actually learning any chess in the chess class at co-op, I can be disappointed, but if that class was totally free for me, again, I can't be totally surprised and I can't complain much. When people take money for what they do, they tend to be more accountable to show up and do a good job. This is not the way it should be in an ideal world, but it's realistic, and it's best to keep your expectations in due proportion to reality at all times. 

4. Take on some real responsibility. 

You should volunteer or apply for a job at your co-op. Bear real responsibility there. Get your skin in the game. Enough should depend on you that you are actually vulnerable to real criticism if/ when you fail to perform. That much responsibility should be enough to secure you from ignorance and arrogance. Moms who never take on responsibility at co-op are, as a rule, to the individual, most critical. These moms hold themselves aloof and manage to maintain a spirit of superiority because they have never allowed themselves to be put in a position of servitude to anyone in the community. In truth, these moms are the only ones in community who can maintain a critical spirit and complain without shame, because they are the only ones who are truly ignorant of how well their leaders are actually doing. Moms who take on a measure of real responsibility are always more gracious with others and more content with the way things are. This is, of course, no coincidence. Moms who serve in a co-op know from their own experience bearing under responsibility how well the other leaders are actually doing considering all the variables they are constantly dealing with. 

5. Don't treat co-op as extra.

Families who treat co-op as optional, who show up just when they feel like it, are also those who end up leaving because they "don't see the value in it." The truth is that these families treated co-op as optional, so therefore, it was functionally optional in their lives. They don't get much value from it, because they don't show up to receive the value it has to impart. If you treat co-op as indispensable, it's likely to become exactly that. Note that this same rule applies to any stuff of life. If you don't attend church consistently, you are likely to start doubting the value of church attendance, too. 

6. Don't let your son or daughter fool you. They probably don't really want to learn Spanish. 

Teenagers can be crafty devils.  They'll resist doing schoolwork by all manner of ways and means. And if they can't wear you down and make you give up expecting difficult things from them altogether, they'll come up with ingenious tricks to fool even the smartest of moms. And here's the interesting part: Your teenagers have convinced themselves they mean what they are telling you. But what you need to understand is your teenage son who hates doing his schoolwork doesn't actually want to learn Spanish instead of Latin. Spanish is not his real passion. He does not think it will actually be more useful in real life because people actually speak it somewhere. He does not want to use it on a future mission trip. Your teenager still just hates the work of learning any language, living or dead. He's really interested in avoiding learning any foreign language at all. Yes, you will have found a Spanish program online that "he's really excited about" and yes, quitting Latin will offer a measure of relief from the ongoing struggle of making your child submit to your authority and obey you and do his schoolwork. But in the end, your son or daughter will end up merely surveying Spanish like all the other students in all those mediocre schools. You'll be able to give him a credit for foreign language, honestly. But honestly, at that point, your son will have truly wasted his time studying foreign language. He will never use it (or be able to.) But he will certainly have learned how to resist authority, manipulate people and situations, and avoid learning a form of discipline that only mastering (or trying to master) really difficult things could teach. 

7. Guard against extracurriculars. 

There are a lot of appealing programs for homeschooling teens out there, and these programs are actively recruiting homeschoolers. They sell themselves as "a great compliment to your homeschool." But in reality, these programs don't often compliment homeschools well, because they can actually take over homeschools. Naturally, these programs' leaders prioritize their program and really hope you make their program your priority, too.  These "special" opportunities swallow a day here, then a few days, then an entire week, then a few weeks. All mundane schoolwork is pushed to the margins, because these other opportunities are so special, urgent, important, exceptional, a real privilege, etc. Given enough of this type of thing, your teen representative or debate champion devalues regular schoolwork and becomes a mediocre student in everything but his or her special extracurricular/s. So I guard against even the best of opportunities. We take extracurriculars on a very limited basis. The majority of our school days, really and truly, go to pursuing excellence in the basic, boring, not-so-special, not-at-all-extra, fundamental things like chores, reading, writing, math, logic, science, etc. 

These are the tips I have to give, seven insights earned through two-ish decades of numerous humiliations, mistakes, observations, conversations, reassessments, and of course, all the usual blood, sweat, and tears. 

I volunteer these for free. So whether or not you like them, you're probably just lucky to have them. 

Foundations Fine Arts Drawing Projects for Cycle 2

I am tutoring my youngest daughter's Foundations class for my Classical Conversations community this year. 

We always do a Fine Arts lesson as part of our Foundations class. 

For the first six weeks of Fine Arts, we teach drawing lessons based on Mona Brookes's Drawing With Children. 

I decided to plan drawing projects related to the current history cycle. 

Here are my plans for the six weeks of drawing for Cycle 2- The Middle Ages.

Week 1- OiLS/ Crown

Introduce The Five Elements of Shape (OiLS) using my homemade poster. 

For warm-up: 

Show the class three different pictures of crowns, each progressively more complicated, and ask students to break the images down into the five elements of shape. Ask them what shapes they see. I got images of crowns off Google by searching for "Crown Free Clip Art."

For the lesson: 

Show the students a finished drawing of a crown, so they can picture what their own crowns will look like. Then show them step-by-step how to draw another crown in class.  

Here's the finished crown I showed the class:

Here's the crown I drew in class (not colored):

Have students add their own elements of shape to decorate their crowns and then color them in with markers, crayons, or colored pencils.

Here's one of my student's crowns decorated with her own elements of shape and colored as she chose.

Here's my youngest daughter's crowns. She's one of my students. 

I got the idea for drawing a crown from this Art with Alli video. 

Week 2- Symmetry/ Coat of Arms

Review The Five Elements of Shape using my poster. Talk about symmetry in nature and in art. 

For warm-up: 

Let students fill in the other half of the page of shields. I drew this warm up myself using ideas from Drawing With Children.

For the lesson: 

Show students a finished drawing of a Coat of Arms. Then show them how to draw one step-by-step, making it personal with their own letter and elements of design. 

Here's the finished drawing I showed students to begin:

Here's the drawing I made in class:

Allow students to color them in using markers, crayons, or colored pencils. Here's my daughter's Coat of Arms. 

Week 3- Upside Down Image/ A Lion (for Richard the Lionhearted) 

Review The Five Elements of Shape using my poster. 

For warm-up: 

Encourage students to reproduce the series of shapes. I made this warm-up myself based on sample warm-ups in Drawing With Children.

The lesson: 

Do not show the students the finished drawing beforehand. This drawing is supposed to done upside down with the idea that a person can look at an image and reproduce the elements of shapes and successfully draw anything, even if a person doesn't know what he or she is drawing and even if she is drawing something upside down.  

We drew a lion. 

We started with the chin at the top of the page and drew down to the top of his head, etc. Then we turned the images right side up to color them with oil pastels.

Here's the lion I drew upside down, shown right side up, of course:

Here's one of my student's lions:

I got the idea for drawing a lion upside down from this video from Art with Alli. 

Week 4- Abstract/ Stained-Glass

Review The Five Elements of Shape with my poster. 

For warm-up: 

Give each student a paper and a Sharpie. Roll a dice and draw an abstract picture using the random shapes that go with the number rolled, according to this game's instructions. Give students one color of their to briefly add interest to their drawing, but move on quickly, since this is only a warm-up.

For the lesson: 

Show students a finished stained-glass. Point out the letters of your name: V-E-R-O-N-I-C-A. Pass out a piece of paper. Tape it to the desk. Pass out a piece of wax paper. Tape it over the paper. With a Sharpie, students draw the letters of their names over each other to create an abstract design the size of the paper beneath. Students color in the spaces between the letters with crayons. 

Help students glue black slips of construction paper on the front and back of their waxed paper to create a frame around their window. Label the wax paper with students' names. Allow the frames to dry. Finish the frames and/ or cut of the excess wax paper at home, writing student names on the back of the window frame in white pencil.

Here's my stained glass window:

Here's one of my student's stained glass windows:

Week 5- Perspective/ Castle

Review The Five Elements of Shape with my poster. 

For warm-up: 

Look at three pictures that show perspective. Google "Castle in perspective" for free images to use.  Discuss how objects closer to the foreground appear larger; Objects farther away appear smaller (even if they are actually bigger.)

For the lesson:

Show students a finished drawing of a castle. Show them how to draw a castle in perspective step-by-step. Allow them to color their pictures till time is up. 

Here's my finished drawing of the castle:

Here's one of my student's drawings:

Week 6- Combine all lessons for a Final Project/ Illuminated Letter

For warm-up: 

Display the poster, but skip the review and show students a few examples of finished illuminated letters. Briefly talk through the elements of shape in the letters. 

For the lesson: 

Print out the first letter of each student's name before class, and pass those out to the students. Drawing with pencils first, show students how to use the ruler to create a straight border. Show them how to arrange the edge of their letter over the border on the page to create perspective. Allow students to switch to Sharpies and trace and decorate their borders and color them in. Once students are down coloring, give each student a dab of silver or gold paint and a brush and allow them to paint in their letter. Set letters aside to dry and/ or take them home. 

Here's one of my illuminated letters I showed as an example:

Here are some of my students' letters:

Here's my daughter's illuminated letter:

At the end of the six weeks, I made each student a book out of their artwork and gave them to students to take home on Week 7.

These six weeks were incredibly fun and rewarding. I could teach drawing all year long; I enjoy it so much!  

I did a lot of work to ensure the drawings went along with the history theme and I practiced my drawing ahead of class so that the time in class would be well spent on creating outstanding keepsakes. 

Our family has been in Classical Conversations for ten whole years, so we have several of these books of artwork made by our daughter's tutors over the years and years of Foundations drawing lessons, and we cherish them all!

 

Crochet

Avril’s in a crochet class at one of our co-ops. She and and several other homeschool girls and moms (There’s one male student, too.) sit around on cozy couches and crochet for an hour. It’s just the loveliest thing to see them all working together and chatting quietly, happily. Avril’s making a lot of great progress!

Dodecahedron

Avril had to build a dodecahedron and use it to calculate surface area for math. (She's about half-way done with Math-U-See's Pre-Algebra.) There was also dodecahedron in Phantom Tollbooth, one of the books she had to year for Challenge B this year. So she added faces to the surfaces so it would match the dodecahedron in that story. She's been keeping this interesting, handmade trinket on her school desk just for fun the of it. 

First Things First

After breakfast and chores, before schoolwork, the girls and I sit and listen to the audio Bible for about half an hour. 

And as we listen, we need something to do with our hands, so we've taken to drawing or coloring. 

I am currently illuminating a letter A, as shown in the photo above.

This new addition to our routine has been a lovely, leisurely way to start to our homeschool day. 

So far, we've listened to the books of John, Romans, Proverbs, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter. 

After a half hour of listening and artwork, we go about our days as we always did before with piano practice or silent reading or math, etc. 

All the schoolwork just begins a little later, and we have to work a little later into the afternoons or evenings, but it is so worth it. 

Our entire day feels so much more leisurely, less harried. 

We are finding time to be creative while also putting first things first. 

Boundary Lines and Pleasant Places

The girls don't know that I know that they have already been awake for hours.

I have the almost-supernatural hearing of all mothers, so I sense they are up there shifting, turning, reading, snuggled between the pages of their latest books. 

They will often read for hours in the mornings, depending on how early they wake. 

And I let them, especially when we have extra time, especially when the day before was so full and exhausting to us all. 

They may not realize it yet, but I am often also downstairs under a quilt or in front of a fire reading, praying, thinking, enjoying the quiet morning before the day's work and study begins. 

I am lingering now, but it feels wrong to go just yet. If I hold on a little longer, I may receive a blessing. 

And it would be wasteful, indulgent to leave the fire to burn in an empty room. 

So as the sun comes up, and the logs burn out, some final change will be my signal to rise. 

It hasn't come yet. 

In this season, the Lord is teaching me to be still, to be, to receive my portion, to taste and see, for there is nothing better for man to do under the sun. 

At times, the wind picks up and stirs my discontent, but my outlook really just depends on where I fix my eyes. 

So in more and more moments like this, I sit still and lift my eyes. 

The morning light through the autumn leaves outside has the effect of layers upon layers of stained glass.

 My spot on the couch becomes a pew at the back of a great cathedral. 

The leaves are falling, and they will be falling for weeks. 

Every year, it's a wonder that there are always still more to trickle down in masses of color to dazzle the eyes; The number of them really staggers the imagination. Such abundance! 

The breeze blows, all the branches shake, and the effect becomes kaleidoscopic and dizzying; It's a parade of celebration! 

As problematic as a room full of glass can be in winter in New England, all these windows means I dwell in a gallery of living paintings. 

And besides, there is always the fire inside the hearth. 

Yes. And fire blazes within bounds inside me, too, and keeps dangerous elements at bay. 

Indeed, the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. 

I can receive my daily portion again with thankfulness now, so I rise to go about my work. 

Quiet Labors, Interesting Thoughts, and Sweet, Sometimes Fiery Fellowship

Adele had a cough, congestion, and a sore throat this morning, so we decided to keep her home from church. I stayed with her while Dwayne took Avril. 

If it's the same for her tomorrow morning, I will call her pediatrician to see what is up. 

As I gave Adele medicine this morning, I noticed we were inundated with laundry, somehow, though we do at least a load every single day. 

So with all the extra hours at home, I did at least five loads of laundry today. I've lost count of the actual number. 

I also read my Bible, spent extra time in prayer, listened to the end of two audio books: Orthodoxy by Chesterton and Till We Have Faces by Lewis, and listened to a few more chapters of The Penderwicks. 

I even made Italian bread sticks from scratch to go with with homemade sausage marinara, spaghetti, and the fresh Italian-style salad I made for dinner. 

My breadsticks weren't uniform and beautiful, but they tasted very like Olive Garden's breadsticks, only better perhaps, since they were fresh and from scratch. 

Now the sun is setting, the girls are practicing piano, a last load of laundry for the day is drying, and I was reading Esolen's Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization on and off before typing this. 

My life is not very sensational or important, I realize as I type this summation of another typical day. 

But I enjoy my quiet, domestic labors, interesting thoughts, and the constant, sweet (and sometimes fiery) fellowship of the Holy Spirit. 

What more or better is there? 

Simple, Good Things To Do

It was the most beautiful fall day in Connecticut. The sun was gentle, bright, and warm and the leaves are at peak color. 

I left early and attended a Women's Conference at my friend's church until the afternoon. It was nice to be with my friend all day and share two meals together. I saw a few other friends as well, which was a nice surprise, since I wasn't expecting to know anyone else at the conference.   

Dwayne took the girls to our church's Pumpkin Festival in the early afternoon. Avril volunteered at the pumpkin painting table for a few hours. Adele is still young enough to enjoy the games and activities with the other kids. She actually painted a pumpkin at her big sister's craft table. Dwayne talked to some of the dads and pastors there while the girls were busy.  

Later, when we were all back at home, we all went to Sycamore's for dinner. It's one of our favorite, local places. We usually sit at the exact same table and order the exact same things including a basket of fries to share, burgers or egg salad sandwiches, respectively, and one or two root beer floats with massive balls of vanilla ice cream on top as seen in the photo above. 

We would be passing the grocery store on the way home, and I usually do my shopping on Saturdays, but since I was at the conference, I couldn't today, so I asked if we could all just run inside together. I had already planned our meals for this week yesterday, so the list was ready, and it happened to be quite short, since I already have on hand most of what I need for the meals I am making. The girls don't usually shop with us, so oddly enough, that was a rare treat for all of us. Naturally, they talked us into a few purchases we weren't planning and don't usually make, but that was fun and just fine. 

After unloading the groceries, Dwayne and I talked to our oldest daughter who is away at college on the phone while the girls played Minecraft on the tv downstairs. Screen time is very, very, very limited in our house, so this might actually be the first time they've played Minecraft in months. Now the girls are upstairs reading aloud to one another while Dwayne and I sit in front of the fire. 

It was a lovely, fall Saturday in New England. The Lord is good to us. We find the simple, good lives we get to live, the simple, good things we get to do, quite fulfilling. 

Daily Wonders

We love our home in the woods. 

We don't have to go far to see something wonderful at least once a day; We need only go to the closest window and peer out. 

Two female deer have been coming by to graze on our native woodland plants. 

The other day, we managed to get the photo above before she moved on. 

Today, we saw two large woodpeckers hopping and eating insects in our yard just like robins hunt for worms. 

The wonders never cease, and we are thankful and don't take this home for granted. 

Before we moved here, I had a spiritual dream of a home that brought me great joy as I looked out its windows into a wood; I knew it was a promise about this house. 

And though it was a brief vision, it was certainly a prophetic of the realities I experience here day after day. 

Seeing the daily wonders brings the joy and the joy reminds me of the dream and remembering the dream builds my faith and brings even more wonder. 

Illuminated Letters

Each week in Foundations at Classical Conversations, there is a Fine Arts lesson of some kind.  

For the first six weeks, Foundations tutors teach a drawing lesson using Mona Brook's Drawing with Children. 

I have so, so, so enjoyed teaching drawing this year. 

So far, it has been my favorite part of teaching Foundations. 

It has reminded me just how much I love to draw. 

Each week, I joyfully, diligently plan the projects for my class ahead of time by doing one for myself at home. 

Tonight, I planned our final drawing project by making an illuminated letter as a test.

 I will have to seriously simplify this project for the students, but I love how it turned out. 

Maybe I'll do another illuminated letter with just one outside border, the simple inside border, and the letter. 

That would make the project much more doable in the given thirty-minute time frame. 

But I am very excited about letting students paint their letters with the metallic acrylic paint, and teaching drawing is reminding me how much I love to draw for myself. 

Youth Worship Team

Avril tried out for the youth worship team at church, and she made the team! So she'll start playing keyboard in the children's services, learning how to play with a band and help lead worship. We're pretty proud and happy. 

Independent Work

Adele, my youngest daughter, did some new independent work this week. She added her own dress-ups to the rough draft of her weekly essay for Essentials, and she did her own research for a presentation on the Joan of Arc for Foundations. 

I usually sit with her to add dress-ups to her Essentials paper, but I was busy the day it needed to be done, and I realized she was probably more than ready to add dress-ups on her own, so I let her try it alone. She did great! We've done it so many times together that she may be ready to continue doing this on her own every week from now on. 

I don't normally make her do research for Foundations presentations, but she needed an idea for a presentation, and she was interested in presenting on a history topic. So she used the keyword outlining she is learning/ has learned in Essentials to read the source texts and create a keyword outline of facts from our books about the Middle Ages. She ended up narrowing her topic to Joan on Arc, specifically. 

Painted Pumpkins

The girls painted adorable, funny faces on our tiny pumpkins. They got ideas online using Google Images and used our acrylic paints and brushes. 

Restful Sundays

We've been keeping our Sundays restful, and it's been lovely. 

We will go to church in the morning, but that's usually it. 

Then we come home and eat a simple meal. 

Maybe we take naps or play a game or bake a dessert. 

We always do a lot of reading. 

Last Sunday, Adele helped me make a batch of sourdough rolls. 

Then, instead of dinner, we toasted blocks of cheddar on the fire and smeared it on the fresh-baked sourdough. 

And we sliced apples. 

Toasting cheese is something we've always wanted to do since reading Heidi. 

The cheddar got smoky-flavored and all warm and soft.  

Long, leisurely Sunday hours provide some margin to be creative in simple ways and just enjoy the live we have been given. 

Thank God, in His wisdom, He commanded us to give a day to rest. 

We've been taking that command more seriously lately, and it's only been to our benefit. 

Colonial Murder Mystery Party

Dwayne and I went to a Murder Mystery party at our friends' house. It had a Colonial American theme. He was given the part of George Washington and I was Martha. The wine and hors d'oeuvre were excellent and it was fun to be around old friends. Dwayne and I certainly followed as many clues as we could in an attempt to win the game. I took every advantage I was given, even reading one secret clue over a man's shoulder before he saw there and had figured it out for himself. Ruthlessly, I made people, even friends, pay for information I had.  I even took a stack of coins that counted towards my total that someone carelessly left out on a table.  But alas, cheating doesn't prosper. Neither of us won.  

Suggested Reading for Cycle 2 of Foundations

There are a lot of books suggested to go along with the current history cycle of Foundations. 

Everywhere you look, there seems to be another list. 

In the ten years we've been homeschooling with the help of CC, we've ever been able to read all the books that are suggested, so we settle for picking some of the titles each year, all of which are usually excellent.

We either read the books aloud together, or I will assign them for silent reading. 

Right now, Adele is reading Arabian Nights an hour day during her silent reading time, one of the titles suggested on one of the reading lists for Foundations Cycle 2- The Middle Ages. 

Animal Day at Classical Conversations

 

Our Classical Conversations group had Animal Day on Week 3 of Foundations this year, the day in Cycle 2 when Herbivores, Carnivores, and Omnivores are introduced as part of the new grammar for Science. 

Kids could dress as any animal or wear a t-shirt with an animal print or picture, etc. 

Adele wore an old eagle cloak we had on hand in our dress-up supplies. 

Then, in free time, she and her big sister used a You Tube video to create an eagle mask. 

This is the kind of enrichment and fun that our CC community constantly brings into our homeschool days. 

I've grown to really appreciate the way community activities like Animal Day shake us up and out of our regular routine, adding small enrichments to our days and lives. 

Reading Update

Since I last posted about my reading this year, I've read all of:

Doom's Day Book by Connie Willis

A Severe Mercy by Stephen Vanauken (for a book club with friends)

The Singing Bowl by Malcolm Guite

The Intellectual Life by Sertillanges

The Phantom Tollbooth by Jules Feiffer 

I've read portions of:

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

God has a name by John Mark Comer (for a Bible study on Exodus at church)

The City of God by Augustine

Paradise Lost by Milton

The Odyssey by Homer (for an evening discussion at our house)

The Collected Works of PG Wodehouse

Dante's Inferno (for a book discussion via webinar with two of my mentors)

Rehearsals

The night before our weekly CC community day, I always make the girls practice any/ all of their presentations for the family after dinner. 

It's a way to rehearse for the next day, but more importantly, share what they are doing with their Dad who is finally home to see what's happening in our homeschool. 

Adele, in Foundations and Essentials, usually has a Foundations presentation to practice and an IEW paper to read.

Avril, in Challenge B, usually has a Science research project on a famous astronomer to share, at least that's true this first semester, and every few weeks, she also has a Lost Tools paper to read.   

Both girls have been presenting at home like this for years, but they still have to overcome some nerves every week to present whatever it is they are currently working on to the family. 

But overcoming those nerves and practicing at home just makes presenting to their director and their class of peers even easier.