Destination 2009

We just got back from a long weekend vacation to Destin, Fl. Of course before we even left the state of Louisiana we had to stop at the first Bass Pro we spotted. Cool building, boys had fun. I was anxious to get to the beach.

I have to say this trip was 95% planned by Tigger. Normally I am the hotel research consultant and plan more, but this time I left it in his capable hands. The above was the view from our hotel window. Okay it the zoom view on the camera outside the window, but it was still gorgeous.

This is Tigger finally getting to fish in the gulf. Can you say happy camper? Below is the happy shot of vacation. We are currently reading the Percy Jackson book series and I can say with certainty that if Tigger were the son of a Greek god he would be a son of Poseidon. Salt water makes the man happy. He was giddy the entire time we were there.

This was his first walk in the clear water. Beach therapy lowers blood pressure. I'm sure there is a report somewhere that confirms that.

One morning the boys went to play a round of golf, nine holes. It was Z's first real game of golf and apparently he is a natural. We are quite pleased that they are putting in a new golf course just a few miles from our home. We plan to add golf to the PE schedule. Tigger said that Z played better than him. Oh, the picture below is the happy state of sleep and silence that I experienced while the boys were golfing.

Z at the beach. He could also be the son of Poseidon as he loves all water. Step 1: insert boy into body of water. Step 2: watch smile appear on face. Step 3: Rinse and repeat.

We took a back route home and happened upon the Air Force Armament Museum @ Eglin Air Force Base. It was the coolest place. Z loves military aircraft and he was a wonderful tour guide. He truly knew a lot about these aircraft. Let's just say the Military Channel has been very educational. This photo is staring down the nose of an SR-71 Blackbird. (Daddy, this one is for you, I'll post more photos of it soon)

This is Z posing again. Thing about being an only child is that you're always the one posing in front of the camera.

This picture was from our final dinner out in Destin. It was at Cheeseburger in Paradise and as you can see I had two tired and happy boys.

We have been beach lovers most of our lives. We absolutely fell in love with Destin. My favorite new state park is Henderson State Park, which is gorgeous. We are now planning to make Destin an annual event. None of us really wanted to come home.

Our Books for 2009-2010 School Year

This is the stack. Can I just say I love books. We will be starting our sixth year of homeschooling in a few weeks. This will be our second year following LCC (Latin-Centered Curriculum). I'm looking forward to where this year will take us. Our core subjects will Latin for Children (primer B), Classical Writing Homer for older Beginners, and math.

We will be transitioning through a few math books this year, I'm not sure how it will play out but we are going to start the year by finishing Life of Fred: Decimals & Percents. We will follow that by starting with a 1972 Dolciani pre-algebra text. I will follow that or mix it with Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. I plan on taking two years to get through the pre-algebra and LOF book, so we're going to take our time and solidify those algebra concepts.

Our religion subjects for the year are mainly three items. The History of the Church, Dig Deep which is a study of Proverbs for boys, and Louie Giglio video teaching. A little Louie Giglio will brighten anyones day.

History is going to cover Medieval times and most of our study will center around Famous Men of the Middle Ages. We are also going to spend some time discussing family genealogy from the Middle Ages, which I'm looking forward to myself. Science is going to be centered around the book Science Matters, which I reveiewed in an earlier post.

Art and Music are going to follow a new path this year. We are going to study an artist and a musician each for a month. Four of the artists (or art period) books are above. We are going to do an art project tied to the study of the person or period for the month. I have not purchased the books for it yet, but we also plan to study The book of Kells and the Bayeux Tapestry each for month. Music is going to take a similar format with a few contemporary musicians thrown in for good measure.

Art Talk was recommended by a Jenny at the Ridge School and I'm loving this book. We will probably take three years to work through the entire book. The Western Music book is one we will pull excerpts from to use during the year. The Heraldry book will come in handy during one of our art projects.

These are the literature books we will dig into this year. No, you're not seeing double. I do have two King Arthur and two Robin Hood books. One copy I can make my notes in and one copy Z can read on his own. We will also read The Canterbury Tales (an abridged copy) and Dante's Divine Comedy which I also reviewed earlier.

I am looking forward to this year. I did re shelve the pile of books, to look at it all at once was a tad overwhelming.

Where has the Summer Gone?

We have five more weeks of summer before we start back to school. It seems we have done nothing but deal with bugs and heat. In the next week I'll be finalizing our schedule and getting ready to start our sixth year of homeschooling.

The children in the photo above don't look too happy to be there either. I'm sure I've made a similar face to the girl in the first row, not the glowing one, the scowling one.

I have a to do list as long as my arm but this is the first year I'm not totally stressing getting through it all before the start of school.

I guess we have accomplishated a few things. I rearranged the classroom, I'll get pics posted soon. I found a new veterinarian and my dogs is now getting some relief. Bless her, she is allergic to everything in our yard.

We start back to school a week before public school. Why? Because we can. No, seriously so we can take off a few more days when needed, like sick days, spontaneous I-don't-wanna days, and sometimes well days "Well I don't want to teach today". Last year our momentum was interrupted by a double dip of hurricanes that was enough chaos to send anyone into a tailspin. We ended up having two weeks off from schoolwork and substituted Emergency Preparedness training instead. Hopefully we'll just get a vacation this year.

Dante's Divine Comedy as told for young people

I finished Dante's Divine Comedy as told for young people yesterday. What a ride! If you have never read Dante and are somewhat intimidated by a traditional version this is the one for you. The "as told for young people" part of the title is subjective, I think. This is probably not a book you want to read to really young children.

Between being sick (see side bar) and reading this while also reading the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series it has made for some interesting dreams. I have a very vivid imagination that likes to run wild at night.

That being said, I truly enjoyed this book. It is very readable. The Inferno portion is graphic and might be disturbing for sensitive readers. But I wouldn't stop there, the Purgatory and Paradise versions balance out the images from the Inferno.

Z will be twelve when we do this as a read aloud next fall. I made many notes throughout the book and look forward to having some amazing discussions with him. This is not a book I would simply hand to a student and have them read without parental interaction. I would also pre-read at least the Inferno part if there is any question about whether this content is appropriate for your family.

I also think this book would make a nice balance if you are having your student read the "adult" version of Dante's Inferno. It gives a nice, quick summary even if you don't plan on reading the remaining traditional sections.

This book has earned a spot beside our other versions of the classics done for children including
Black Ships before Troy, The Wanderings of Odysseus, and In Search of a Homeland.

Science Matters, 2nd Edition

Science Matters is the book we are using as our spine for science for next fall. It is part of the LCC recommendations for 8th grade. Now Z isn't going into 8th grade but he has a wonderful comprehension of all things science. I have the first edition of this book and we read a couple of chapters this spring as a trial run, it was a major hit. A 2nd edition was just released and was laid in my hot little hands (hot from being on the UPS truck) about five minutes ago.

Here are the author notes on the update to 2nd edition. He mentions a few of the updates that have taken place since the first edition was released and then states... "Accordingly, every chapter has been significantly updated, we have added only a single new chapter on the explosion of advances in biotechnology. We conclude that the experience of the past two decades underscores the value of the great ideas approach to achieving scientific literacy."

The ISBN on the new edition is 9780307454584.

Even if you are not using an LCC approach to science I believe this book is a must read for students and parents alike. It felt invigorating to read about quantum mechanics and actually understand it, and that was in the old edition. I can't wait to dig into the new one this summer for me, this fall together.

Wakefield Walk, State Park Style

We opted to visit the State Park that is literally five minutes from our house. We haven't been there since last year and they have opened many more things since we were there. Including the walking bridge over the swamp. It goes to a nice walking or biking trail.

These are the deer we saw from the car on our final tour around the park. They were not afraid of us at all.

This deer stood still as a statue but never took her eyes off of us.

I love the silvery look of these trees. I just finished reading Percy Jackson and expected them to turn into some sort of monster at any moment.

There is a turtle in this photo. What do you call a group of turtles? A pod, a clutch, seriously I don't know, but there were a bunch huddled here together. They were quick to grab the bread crumbs someone was tossing them. Amazing to watch.

This is a view from the river which is on the opposite side of the road from the swamp. This was our view for our picnic. The cool breeze coming off it was nice and Z and Tigger enjoyed the boaters that came by. It's a no wake zone so they checked out every boat.

It was a nice afternoon. We walked over a mile on the trails. We plan to go back and take up some hiking and biking.

And So it Begins

Today was our final day of school. We decided to stop today as the public schools got out at noon and Z wanted to play with his friends. So we are done. Our fifth year of homeschooling wrapped. I love the flexibility of homeschooling as we've had to run around with Tigger for the last few days as his truck was in the shop. He came home around lunch today so we could go pick it up for hopefully the final time. He was singing Alice Cooper's summer anthem.

The car ride home gave Z and us time to talk. I remember someone once advising that talking with a teen or pre-teen boy was sometimes best done in the car. There is something honest and freeing about conversation that happens in the car. I find that to be true.

Yesterday he finished math in record time, he completed his reading assignment and asked me to read more from The Lightning Thief. Percy Jackson is a great series to start at the end of the year.

We'll take a few weeks off from everything but reading and then we will start a light summer schedule where FLEXIBLE is the key word. I'm most concerned about keeping Latin, math, and reading fresh in his mind. Well, mine too.

You know what I'm doing tomorrow? Me either! Sleeping in is as far as the list has gotten so far.

The Final Countdown

This school year is coming to a close. We have two more weeks. I'll make a formal wrap-up later but I was thinking of some of the things we have learned this year, intentional or otherwise. We are done with most of our formal lessons and these final two weeks are going to be about wrapping up some loose ends and hopefully having some fun.

Z has been great this year. Eleven is such a wonderful age. I see him growing, literally everyday we wakes up looking just a smidge different. I have small hands and we have always compared hand size, now his are almost bigger than mine. I wear a size 8 shoe and his feet are almost as big as mine. His abs are great (I can't recommend an exercise ball highly enough) and he has finally started to outgrow some of his favorite clothes.

His learning has changed this year as well. My reluctant reader is reading consistently at a much higher level than the beginning of the year. He wrote this year. Those four words are music to my ears. CW Aesop B helped him find his creative side. It also helped find his compassionate side. Many of the models involved Aesop's Fables or fairy tales that involved some animal getting injured because of their folly. Moral tales, right? Z changed every story so that no animals were harmed in the rewrites of his models. I don't have any problem with that.

Nature came to our door many times this year. Nature walks sometimes didn't involve leaving the house. Most of them were cool, except the snake on top of the garage door. That one still has me glancing up at the garage when I walk under it.

Memory Work has been a no-brainer for Z. He doesn't even call it a subject. He has great aptitude for memorizing and we'll continue with it over the summer.

Latin, ah Latin. It has been my favorite subject this year. I have been well pleased with our choice of using Latin for Children. It moves at the right pace for us. This weekend we were using our Latin skills to help him understand the meaning of the names of certain Transformers. Z never balks about doing Latin.

We've been goofy as well this year. Most have been subtle word plays based upon my inability to speak clearly without the proper amount of coffee in my system. Some funnies this year have been:

• the transient (ie: homeless) verb, instead of the transitive verb. Z now calls the transient verb our friend.
  
• Oprah instead of the word "ultra" in Latin. It's part of his memory work and he always smiles as he mis reads the word
• Augustus Caesar reminds Z of Augustus Gloop from Willy Wonka. We both have that silly song stuck in our head. (Johnny Depp version)

I'm hoping these final two weeks are stress free and happy. Maybe a few goofy moments thrown in for good measure.

Wakefield Walks

This is the giant dirt mound Z discovered in the carport. A creature has been digging under the shed. We did a google search and decided it was an armadillo burrow. Tigger is going to deal with it this weekend as we don't want it to undermine the foundation of the shop.

This little guy was walking up the driveway. Z and I removed him to a safe place so Daytona would not find him. She was out on her cable.

He was very curious about us and didn't go into his shell until I picked him up.

A nice little pose to show off his neck and really long back claws.

In honor of the outpouring of nature that continues to flow around our yard, I composed a little poem.

Nature, nature come to me
and we shall take a walk with thee.
Abundant life outside the door
Never searching anymore.

New Title Photo

I feel like changing my photo as much as I've been changing my hair color lately. Which has been twice recently. My hair has natural red highlights and after putting blonde highlights on, they came out copper. I knew it'd be red, but not this red, but it's okay for summer.

Anyway the latest photo is from one of my favorite places, my back yard. The hammock was a gift to my dh last Father's Day. The trees were placed just the right distance apart. In a nice twist when we put the dog on her cable she can sit right beside us yet not get tangled in the hammock. You can lie outside and rock gently and listen to the birds chatter. It's a great place to take a book and read. Sometimes I pretend to read and simply zone out. If there were a ocean breeze rocking the hammock it would be perfect.

Classical Insights

Keeping tabs on Homer

Yes, I tabbed each day and each skill level. Different color pen for each day and each writing project.

Reading Latin will keep you balanced.

Even Atlas needs a little cushion from time to time.

Spring is in the Air

Along with a few other distractions.

We spent a great deal of time outside last week. Friday we went to the park. The first two photos are from that trip. We toured the walking path with tiny remote control car in hand. Watching it almost put my motion sickness in action.

Again, another shot of my back yard is above. I will never tire of looking at these trees. They're just gorgeous. This is our table in the backyard, we did school out there one day last week as well. It HAD a nice canopy over it until the wind tore it down. It was nice to be outside and enjoy the birds singing. Z was playing with a candle when I took this picture.

Wakefield Walks

A lovely lizard shedding his skin. Probably going green for the latest fashion update.

A squirrel feasting outside the window.

This is what a pinecone looks like once a hungry squirrel is done with it.

Good thing he is not required to pick up after himself. Messy squirrel.

Nature continues to inundate us this spring. I have seen multiple caterpillars and can't wait until all of the beautiful butterflies come out. Dragonflies should be appearing soon as well.

A Planning Week

Spring break has turned into a planning week for me. I feel like I have done the hokey-pokey with curriculum for next fall. You put one in and you take one out, I was all turned around earlier this week.

I had Multum non Multa running through my head as I realized that I needed to scale back my plans a little. It is, after all, Z's education. We have seven more years to fit subjects in, they don't all have to happen tomorrow.

So the big decisions this week were:

- We are holding off on starting Elementary Greek for one more year. I'm sad but that will give me time to go through at least EG1 before I teach.
- We will be doing Science Explorer 7 instead of Conceptual Physics. While I know he would comprehend the physics I think the reading would be too much unless we were doing a science-centered curriculum.
- I read through CW Homer and have a better idea of how this program will work for us. In fact, I'm excited about using it.
- The art book I bought earlier this year will work for the next three years when mixed with an "art of the month" focus.
- We are also doing a "musician of the month" adding some current musicians into our study.
- My history and literature plans are scheduled and fit together wonderfully.

It has been a productive week and now I am ready to relax for my final day off.

An Easter Sunset

We went out to eat for dinner and then for a walk at the lakeside. We were able to watch the sunset, it was very beautiful.

History Plan 2009-2010

It's hard to believe we only have six weeks of school left for this year. That being said I am in planning mode for next fall. Like the fashion industry, I plan a few seasons in advance. We are delving into the Middle Ages and I know have a complete plan, written in pencil of course.

We are using two main books next year:

Memoria Press' Famous Men of the Middle Ages and Yesterday's Classics Story of the Middle Ages. We will get our study questions from Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of the Middle Ages.

I chose the Greenleaf Guide over Memoria Press material as I wanted mostly discussion questions, not necessarily a workbook. I had more than a few days of debate going on in my head about which one to chose and I think Greenleaf will fit the bill for us.



I went through the two books this week and divided up the chapters of the Harding book with the biographies of the Famous Men book. It looks to be a great mix and I believe it will work well for us. I also plan to add appropriate entries from the DK Visual History encyclopedia.

As with all plans they are written in pencil, subject to change. I plan to read through the books this summer and make notes. But for now that subject is planned and ready, of to the next.

Spring Break 2009

We are officially on spring break until the 20th. We will not be visiting exotic beaches (although I hope we can trip down to the Gulf at least one day), we will not be consuming mass quantities of anything, nor will we have a large noisy party that will force the neighbors to phone the authorities. Although Z did stay up late last night and I slept in this morning. Stay tuned for more of our adventures in Spring Break 2009...

A New Friend, A New Heading

If you look I have a new heading for spring. This little lizard was sitting outside on our porch post yesterday. He was quiet while I snapped this photo. He was more interested in the little gnat flying around than us. Don't worry they are quite harmless.