Shooting Nature

New Header photo and shooting nature

It has never been my life's desire to live near a swamp. However I find the animal life around one to be quite fascinating. If you open your eyes there is nature study everywhere. The other day I went to the state park for a quick "teacher conference" (see previous post) and to snap some pictures.

I walked right by this scene and stopped short. I had been looking at the ground watching for snakes and I almost missed it. In the middle of the shot there is a Great Blue Heron. Can you find it?

Look at the tail end of the "d" in Wakefield, there it is. One again nature gives us a life lesson. Do you know what it is? To see the truly beautiful things in life sometimes you have spend time looking where you didn't think there was beauty at all.

The Return of Alex Rider!

The latest installment in the Alex Rider series, Crocodile Tears, arrived today. We have already read through chapter two. I can't say how excited I am that it is here. I may stay up late tonight and get a good bit - or should I say bite - of reading done.

I wonder how Alex will save the world this time?!

ETA: I have posted a review at the Elegant Lion blog. It gets two thumbs up from me.

Teacher's Field Day

I was able to get out into nature by myself today. I needed a little break from Nanowrimo and I wanted to catch some fall in the park. Being in nature helps me regroup. I think I'll need that this week. The above is me having a private teacher-parent conference. Looking for thoughts, inspiration, and peace.

The lovely bird has found balance. Why is it so easy for birds to balance on the tiny branches of life? Is it because the are able to fly above it and see it in better perspective.

These dying leaves were one of the most vibrant colors in the park today. Vibrancy right before plummeting to their deaths on the ground. I'm sure there is something poetic there. I'll steal from Homer, "the Generation of Leaves".

These berries were beautiful. Berries thrive best in groups. Another point to ponder.

I love the colors in this picture. We recently had a few big storms. There were a lot of small trees down and many logs in the water. I love the composition of the broken branch framing the greenery behind it. So maybe being broken does not mean being useless. Another great point along the way.

All in all it was a great teacher's meeting. I think we'll schedule those on a regular basis.

N is for November and NaNoWriMo

November used the be that month that lay quietly between the chaos of December and the frustration of October. Not that November has been without its own celebration, there is that whole Thanksgiving holiday, a whole week off of school at the end of the month. Thanksgiving around here has meant a few things. We cook a dinner and poke at the turkey every few hours to see if it is done. Then we go to the movie. OR We decide on Thanksgiving Day that we'd rather go out and suffer through a turkey dinner prepared by someone else. (My family suffers when I cook too, they have learned to eat anyway) One year I think we filled up on a family size tub of popcorn at the theater.

Anyway this is now the third year that November has had some excitement. In addition to schooling Z I'm writing a story. My son would say it with rolling eyes, "You're writing another? What about all of those you've already written." Then he'd point to the bottom shelf of the classroom bookshelf that holds several stories in various stages of completion.

I love Nano. (www.nanowrimo.org) for those who don't know what it is. Basically the world of writers gets together and crafts (*snort*), okay writes a plotted, not plotted, 50k words in 30 days. The average is 1667 words per day. It's the 5th and I'm on 10,345. The process is the reward. The first year I thought I'd never reach 50k, the 2nd year I thought I could never stop writing, This year I'm actually liking my story.

Part of the plot has been bits and pieces of dreams I've had over the last few months. Thankfully I have weird dreams that wake me up in the middle of the night going HUH! I've already interwoven about five or six dreams into my story.

Along this road I must also continue with schooling. This year has been eye-opening in many way. We are only eleven weeks into the year and we've had breakthroughs, ephiphanies, stumbling blocks, and even a few victories.

We're branching out and trying a few new things. Academically and socially. November is the month to allow those ideas and revelations to stew. Stirring once in a while, it will be interesting to see how Thanksgiving break ties all of them together.

Thanksgiving is about being thankful. I can't wait to see what develops in Z and in my story in these few short weeks.

Nature Study at the Door

This darling sparrow was in our fireplace this morning. Z freaked me out saying there was something banging from inside the glass doors. We got the flashlight to be sure it wasn't a bat (not letting that into the house) and saw that this tiny bird.

I had a little net and was going to catch him and Z had opened the front door. He darted up to the top of the vaulted ceiling and then flew smack into the sliding glass doors to the sunroom. Poor guy.

He is now sitting on the front porch in a box on a chair. He feet are fine as they are curled around a twig. His neck isn't broken as he was turning his head around. He's been out there for about 30 minutes and appears to be resting.

UPDATE: Z and I went outside to move the chair as the sun was starting to shine directly on it. The little sparrow flew away and landed in one of our tall trees. I'm so happy.

Beware, I'm redecorating

As I am running out of things to redecorate and move in my actual house, I have now turned to my blog. Should things seem out of place and a bit discombobulated over the next fews days I apologize, but I promise the mess will all be picked up, the books will be returned to their shelves and there will be no more dust in the corners.

Water Bonds

My knowledge of chemistry is somewhat limited. I know that water is 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen and I know that when H2O is allowed anywhere near Z a chemical reaction occurs. The boy loves water, in the sink, in the tub, in the ocean, he is happy.

Today was a blah day. I went to Walmart early this morning, it was pouring rain. It quit for a while and we've all be lying around today. Z scooted through the classroom a few times proclaiming, "I'm bored."

So when it started to pour again I decided it was time for a positive chemical reaction. We went and played in the rain. We splashed in puddles and watched the tiny waterfall going down the driveway. Then we moved to the muddy backyard. Z was splashing in the mud and falling down. We rinsed off with the hose and then repeated. He was laughing. I asked him to explain his current mood in interpretive dance. With glee he bent down scooped up mud and proceeded to smear it on his chest and then drew a happy face on his torso.

I so wanted to take his picture, he asked me not too. Instead I etched the memory into my brain. A moment of pure splendor, chemistry in action.

Fahrenheit 451: Through the eyes of a child

I'll admit I might have had some ulterior motives to choosing Fahrenheit 451 as our read-aloud. I read it earlier this year for the first time and wondered why I waited so long. You can read my review here. One reason I wanted to read it to Z was because he has an affinity for the TV. He loves to keep it on even when he's doing something else. He's more likely to be found watching Mythbusters or the Military Channel than anything else, but I notice the Disney channel has been on less lately. That's okay with me.

His first remark about the book was "It's weird". We talked about the future as viewed from the eye of the 1950s. We discussed what technology is available today. We discussed what seems out of place in today's society, like the medical personnel smoking during a procedure.

He picked up on some of the finer points of the book and didn't balk when I almost cried over the burning of the books. We discussed about a few of the things that set us apart from others in society, the books we read being one of those.

We even discussed the generational appeal of the physical book, that encounter is posted here. In the end I was inspired to have us each become a book, in the sense that Montag is the book of Ecclesiastes. For Z I have chosen Goodnight Moon. I have many fond memories of reading this book to him when he was little. Reading it many times in one night. So our next memory work will be Goodnight Moon. I pray he will always carry that with him. He will always be that book, that book will always be a part of him.

I haven't decided what book I am yet. I'm writing a few, maybe that's who I am. There are bits and pieces of many of them in my head. Thankfully we still have the opportunity to pull them off the shelf and look up what we can't remember. What if that choice did not exist?

Another year older

The joy of my life is now twelve. I remember twelve. I think being forty-two is easier. We've had a busy week. We always take off school for his birthday, I think it should be illegal to work or do school or your birthday.

We are now the proud owners of Guitar Hero (complete band), and are learning to play Dungeons & Dragons together. Z is quite the drummer, but he has always loved the drums.

I have some cute pictures to post and will do so over the weekend when the whirlwind stops turning.

I truly relish each stage of his growth. He's an awesome kid and we are blessed to have him as part of our lives.

Remembering

Week 4, Part 1

One of the beautiful things about homeschooling is the flexibility you can have. One of my favorite sayings is.

"Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape."

The last two weeks have been very Gumby in nature. Last week I spent the entire week in bed, mostly. There were moments of shuffling towards the computer, the classroom, the kitchen, but mostly it was spent sleeping in a wonderful (NOT!) state of illness. Our school schedule was very flexible that week. Z's concern for my well being was often summarized with the statement, "Mom, if you're not feeling well, we probably shouldn't do school today so you can rest." Followed with a concerning pat on the back I was mush and he won.

Fast forward to this week, technically week 4 (four) of our school year. I don't schedule around certain days, I make our schedule by week, just for reasons such as those nasty bugs that knock me down from time to time. So this week was catch-up. We aren't quite there yet. So this was week four part 1.

Next week we are off Monday, so Tuesday will begin week 4, part 2. We'll finish catching up on all of our subjects and start Week 5 as if we had never gotten off track at all. Our Latin curriculum is divided into weeks and generally I feel fine if our school week lines up with our Latin week.

Of course the week after that we are off Monday and Tuesday for Z's birthday. I think everyone should get off work or school for their birthday so we're taking two days to celebrate. Come to think of it week 5 might stretch into two weeks as well.

Good thing we started early this year.

The Almost School Photos

Yesterday I decided to capture our school photos. Granted yesterday was messed up. Neither one of us slept enough Wednesday night so we were a little...um, punchy, silly, apt to break into random bouts of giggles. Did I mention I love homeschooling? But still I tried to take the photos.

The elusive 11 year old. My first attempt to snap an action photo. Z is quicker than the camera. Notice the half eaten cookie and the fingertips on the table.

My next attempt had Z running from the room, notice the legs in the bottom left. He decided this was an apt (aptus in Latin, as we are learning that word this week) time to start a camera war and pulled his phone and started attacking me with clicks. Since I had on no makeup and I'm sure my eyes were swollen from not sleeping, and the hair, well let's not mention the hair, I have not seen said photos. I will probably bribe said child to delete photos at some point.

My final attempt was snagged from under the table, yes under the table. You will see Z's foot. My precious only child now has a foot slightly bigger than mine. He wore more rollerblades (don't worry they are boy's skates, nothing hot pink for sure) when he went skating the other night. You can see his cute smiling face in the background. I like smiles during school.

Thinking about it just now I have posted lots of pictures of Z. He is currently in the heading, shown from the back walking down a path. He's in the sidebar at the beach. Tigger recently found a photo of Z and him at a NASCAR race when Z was little. It is precious. I'll have to scan it and post it. But Z has grown so much (1 1/2inches in the last 4 months) and in so many ways since that photo. Perhaps it is fitting for our school photo to be feet. I see a lot of potential in those feet. I have a lot of hope for the future for those feet. I'm excited for the journey he is on and I feel blessed to be guiding him down the path.

Friday Art

Artist: Z
Date: August 14, 2009
Medium: Bic Marker w/yellow paint for road stripes
Size: 9 x 12

Our Classroom 2009 - 2010

Continuing with the not back to school blog hop, here is our classroom in it functional state, that would be kind of messy. My desk is on the left, Z's desk on the right. The three clocks are set to London time, local time (CST), and Sydney time. It's nice if you are having a bad day to know that it is almost over in you were only in London.

This is the library portion of the room. Bookcases from Target, comfy chair courtesy of my parents. This room was originally a dining room, but we are blessed with a nice eat in kitchen so we never actually eat in this room, unless we're doing lunch while doing school. That will probably happen today. We have those "TGIF, this was a long first week of school" thing going on today.

This is basically the view looking back from the library portion of the room. Our former dining room table serves as our work area. It's big and knicked up and a well loved table. It's perfect. I may bequeath the table to Z once he graduates, if the table lasts that long.

These are the baskets were Z keeps his working files. The cabinet underneath holds a plethora of tools. Probably one of my favorite Hobby Lobby 50% off furniture deals I ever bought.

This is a closer view of the bookcases. I was able to rearrange the classroom and really play up the red wall. The shelves are full and don't tell but the middle case is full of math, history, and science books for high school. We aren't there yet, but I hope to read through most of them over the next several years for my own self-education. Anyway they look pretty sitting on the shelf (tongue in cheek smiley here).
So that's our classroom. I truly like the set up we currently have. We also have a big picture window that is wonderful, but distracting. I have an uncanny need to rearrange at least once every six months, but I'm not sure how to top this arrangement. Well see what the future holds.

Tomorrow the Adventure Begins

It's a jungle out there! Tomorrow we start our sixth year at Wakefield Academy. This is me preparing for the adventure by re-reading The Latin-Centered Curriculum. My well loved copy now has tape on the cover. Maybe I'm hiding a little bit as I realize I know have a middle school student. AAAHHH!

I am quite excited to see where years journey takes us. We may not know the adventure ahead of us, all we can do is prepare and head out...

...and seek the beauty that may be waiting right outside our own back door.

Another Road Continued

Pancakes anyone?

Just a pretty shot.

Some color in the forest.

Another Road Less Traveled

Some more views from our hike today. This time the entire family went.

A dead tree and a big hole. Z has a size 6 shoe for comparison.

Tigger stopping to get a drink. Did I mention it's sticky humid today? Shortly after this his bike blew a tire and he walked the bike back.

The Road Less Traveled

Today we found the road less traveled, it's just minutes from our house. Z and I hiked for almost an hour.

Then we stopped to view the swamp. As creepy as it looks there was an air of peace. We've been reading Percy Jackson and Z said it reminded him of Pan, without the humming dodo bird.

We did not see Pan, but my heart did momentarily stop as we spotted wild alligators. Yes there were two. We were above them on a dock. They were hanging out with lots of turtles, just sitting there with little heads above water. I've seen one other wild alligator since we've been here, but none so close to home.

The dragonflies are plentiful and we spotted this unusual one, we called it Batman. Dragonflies are so friendly, this one stopped and let us check him out up close.

We hiked and we sweated. It was nice.

Curriculum for 2009/2010

Thanks to Darcy for putting together this August Blog Hop. I've finally finalized our plans, which is great considering we start school next week. This will be our second year use The Latin-Centered Curriculum as our model, which worked wonderfully for us last year. Every year we do a theme. The theme for this year is The Journey: Treasure Quest. It seems fitting for what we have planned for the year:

Latin - Latin for Children B. We're looking forward to furthering our Latin this year and checking out the cool new DVDs from CAP featuring Supra Vir.

Writing/Grammar - Classical Writing Aesop & Homer for Older Beginners. Homer recently underwent surgery in my house, yes that's a scalpel in my hand. I unbound the workbooks and put them in a binder to make them easier to use.



Math - Math, math, math. Normally science is my wishy-washy subject for the new year. It has been math this year. Now my plan is to finish Life of Fred Decimals & Percents and then move into a 1972 Dolciani pre-algebra program. I also have Singapore CWP 5 to supplement.

Logic - The Art of Argument. If ever a child needed to learn how to argue it would be mine. Z is a master of negotiation and hence this is part of the molding into a young man that I deem necessary.

History - Famous Men of the Middle Ages is our main text. We will also use "the Story of the Middle Ages" and many historical books to fill in this fascinating time of history.

Science - Science Matters, which is a book I reviewed a few weeks ago. Absolutely fascinating, I think any parent who is confused about science should make this a must read.

Literature - We will read about King Arthur & Robin Hood as our main texts. I've chosen Roger L. Green for King Arthur and Howard Pyle for Robin Hood.

Geography - This is a continuation of our world geography study from last year. In year two we will focus on Asia, Africa, Australia & Oceania, and Antartica. Lots of As in there.

Religion - we will focus on the history of the church for this period. Z will also do a short study on Proverbs for boys and I have some fascinating Louie Giglio DVDs to expand our horizons.

Art/Music - we will study one period, genre, or artist each month.

I'm truly looking forward to starting back next week. Z is not as excited, but I can't wait to see what new adventures this year will hold.