Turbo Cheesecake and Battlestar Galactica
Turbo and I just made a lemon cheesecake- a first for both of us. I must admit I tried to pass the task off to DH- he's made cheesecake before. But this way, both Turbo and I learned a new skill, spent some valuable time together, and gave God the chance to teach me His favorite lesson, patience.
(If you've ever made cheesecake witha 4 year old, you know of what I speak)
Last week, I checked out the entire original series of Battlstar Galactica from the library. The kids love it as much as I'd hoped.We are down to the last disc (they're doublesided) and so far only one day overdue. I keep worrying the library police will come after me, but we did save the money for the fine beforehand.
Labels: Battlestar Galactica, cheesecake, patience
Yo ho, yo ho... (SPOILERIFIC!)
Yesterday DH calls me at 2:40 and asks if we want to go to the 3:30 showing of
Pirates 3. I hem and haw a wee bit as we have guests- he then tells me , "Say yes, I've already got tickets" Squeeee! So I bid my guests farewell, make myself piraty, and load kids into the van to meet up at the theater. We even got through the 3 hour movie with only one potty break!
SPOILERS:
Definately bigger on effects than plot, but we thought it was a whole lot of fun. The 4 year old was dissapointed by the lack of giant sea monsters. (We won't go into what it says about my parenting that my kids were *not* disturbed by a movie that starts with a mass execution). And was that the best wedding in a movie, or what?
(Thanks to abovementioned potty break, I still don't know how Jack got the Black Pearl to the shore)
Common Cold Hell
I have to say, nothing puts a damper on my homeschooling mama style than being too stuffy and sore throated to read to my kids. We just did NOTHING today. OK, I did nothing, the kids have been hard at work in the backyard or, in The Boy's case, with his stack of
Artemis Fowl books.
At The Boy's behest, I have started said books. The first book I'm finding somewhat dull b ut he assures me it gets better. I want to show my kids that I value their opinions and recommendations, though I'll admit some quid pro quo here- he promised to read
Ender's Game if I read
Artemis Fowl. So far, he hasn't. Still, I need to trust that me slogging through his books has value for our relationship.
Labels: Artemis Fowl, Ender's Game, homeschooling
In which I rate the Star Trek Movies
ST: The Motion Picture - One of the most pointless movies ever made. "hey, remember that great episode with Nomad? well, what if the Voyager probe went nuts.
ST II: The Wrath of Khan - One of my top 3, even though it gave me a life long severe earwig phobia
ST III: The most memeorable thing about this movie for me is that when I was a kid, I won tickets on the radio for a preview showing 3 days before it came out. the day it officially premired there was a costume contect and a friend make me a "kid Spock burial robe" costume (complete with custom fit fabric ears and lo, I also won the costume contest.
ST IV: The Voyage Home - I love it. It was funny, and I remeember more lines from this film than any other.
ST V: The Final Frontier - I can only say..."Gah! Hurts my brain!"
ST VI: The Undiscovered Country - Highly enjoyable, love Chang and the tie ins with Worf.
ST: Generations -Another top 3. A great segue from TOS to TNG moviesST:
First Contact - Love it.The movie's Zefram Cochrane is much for enjoyable than the TOS one. Forever changed my emotional reaction to "Magic Carpet Ride"
ST: Insurrection - I like it more than some folks do.
ST: Nemesis - This sucks as much Final Frontier.
Labels: Star Trek Movies
Challange to relaxation, #1
Not Finishing SubjectsOur school year ends on June 19. Right now I'm struggling with the knowledge that unless I decided to do some cramming days ( not what anyone wants) some books will be close to done, but not done at that time. And the knowledge that that's OK, the world won't end if we have to carry some of that over until fall, and most importantly, that it doesn't mean they're not learning enough.
Labels: homeschooling
What I am reading these days?
I'm on a Star Trek kick, and more specifically, a Vulcan kick. Right now I'm reading "Vulcan's Forge" by Josepha Sherman and Susan Schwartz. ONe thing I love about the book is that it has Starfleet humans who practice religion. Yep, I know it makes roddenberry's ashes roll in their urn, but I enjoy. This is the third book of theirs I have read and as I have sometimes done, read them backwards, starting with " Exiles" and then "Vulcan's Heart".
Labels: Josepha Sherman, reading meme, Star Trek books, Susan Schwartz, Vulcans
So here we are, on the second day of me trying to be more relaxed. The boy woke up late and not feeling well, which happens often enough that I begin to worry ( and this was the year I planned to skip well-childs).He has been sleeping a lot. Of course I go nuts, worrying on the one hand that it may be some fatal disease, on the other that it might be mental illness. I may have to get this checked out.
What was cool was that he came out and asked what he had for shcoolwork. He wanted to play GameBoy, and did not see himself doing so with his schoolwork undone. I love this kind of responsibility. I feel "unfinished" because we didn't do any history or Latin, but I remind myself-relaxing! and the kids did get 5 subjects done each. We worked on letters for our retiring pastor, and they did great jobs. Now I am making chocolate chip banana bread for said celebration.
Labels: homeschooling
More Relaxed
iIve made the decision to be more relaxed in my homeschooling, and perhaps other things. We are all getting too stressed and for too long I've been trying to *make* the kids behave in a way that will stress *me* less, but within my framework. I need to listen to them more, trust them more, and follow them more. Not easy for a control freak like myself.
Labels: homeschooling, trusting kids
Happy Mother's Day
Hope all my sistermamas out there are having a wonderful day.Thanks for sharing the journey with me, and do something special for yourself!
Squeeeee!!!
I am going to see Tim Curry onstage! I'm so happy I could pee, and it's not the beer.
Thoughts on why people homeschool
I see two basic reasons people choose to homeschool. One, the parents want something different than what a public or private school can offer. This can include everything from the highly religious family who want their child's education totally centered on their religion to the the radical hippie unschool family who wants to raise their children out of the box- and everything in between. This is something very basic that is often missed. There are private religious schools for parents who want that, there are less structured school options such as Waldorf, and if test scores are the main concern then parents will volunteer. Schools can't woo HS parents by improving test scores or modeling themselves on freeschools, becuase school is precisely what HS parents DON'T want. Two is that HS parents really do want to spend that time with their children. That part is much harder to speak to as it can sound judgemental to say "I want to be with my kids all day". Homeschooling also offers so much freedom. We can accomplish ( academically) in 2-3 hours what the average school needs a 6-7 to accomplish. We can study things that they simply won't get in the public schools, such a s Latin or Greek. We can take a day to ride the bus downtown and go take a class at the symphony's educational program, or I can teach them how to deal with an auto tech. I fall WAY on the "schooly" end of homeschoolers, but I do see everything as life learning. I am learning so much with my children. I am spending so much precious time with them. I would not trade it for anything.
