The Life of Lucy

Here lately I feel like my life is an "I Love Lucy" rerun. Yes, I grew up watching Lucy and her "red" hair brained antics. I sometimes could laugh 'til I cried. Funny how when those things are happening to you, it doesn't always seem funny . . . at least not at the time!

A week ago Thursday we were scheduled to sing at our homeschool "kick off" cook out. After setting up all our equipment, we had eaten and were trying to get the sound check finished. We were making ready to begin our short program, when our middle daughter approached us with her ashen brother in tow. The boys had been playing and my son had run into the back of another boy jamming his thumb joint into an amazing position. Needless to say, the concert was cancelled, we spent several hours in ER that evening, and many hours the next day in and out of the doctor's office and outpatient surgery. Thankfully, it all ended well - nothing really serious, and my son should have his splint removed this coming Monday.

But that didn't end it. Saturday we were scheduled to sing at the finale of a church revival meeting, but our lead guitarist had come down with some horrendous flu - high fever, chills, etc - and none of us wanted to get around him much. Besides we didn't want to infect the whole church! The following Monday night found us in the same position. Scheduled to sing at another revival, still a fevered guitarist, we cancelled that gig as well.

I guess the clincher was last night . . . three of my gang and our recuperating guitarist were on their way home from town, when they thought they had either hit a large hole in the road or maybe had a blown tire. As they started to slow down, they saw the wheel pass their truck. It was like something out of the old "Herbie" movie!! They pulled off the highway, leaving long gashes in a newly paved road - no kidding, the paving equipment and workers were close enough that even I could hit them with a rock. Apparently while they were traveling without the wheel, the sparks from the metal on pavement caught the median grass on fire - we have been VERY DRY here lately. Someone who saw it all happen must have called the fire department, because a fire truck pulled up shortly to extinquish the grass. It wasn't much of a fire, probably more precaution than anything. But what a HOOTENANNY!! Again it all worked out well, within an hour or so they were back on the road.

I could fill a book with all the comical things that seem to happen around here. Perhaps I could be the next Erma Bombeck. I can't wait to see what this next week holds!!! :D

" . . . for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content"

A New School Year

I was always one of those "nerds" who loved the start of school - buying school supplies, getting new books. And so, I look forward to the beginning of our homeschool year as well. We have been dabbling at school for several weeks, but I guess you could say last week was our "official" beginning. I spent a lot of time over the summer revamping our school room, reorganizing the kids individual school space, and rethinking my homeschool approach. Years ago when my first two children were homeschooling, I was an avid Charlotte Mason advocate. When they hit high school we had to implement some changes, but it seemed to work for us (that was before the days of Ambleside Online). After my girls graduated, there were some mistakes along the way that I didn't want to repeat with my other kids, and so I started over with the gamut of ALL the homeschooling approaches. For years, we tried bits and pieces of everything . . . textbook approach, Classical education and the trivium, self education and the Robinson curriculum, but always I adhered to Living Books as much as possible. All that said, this year we are back to Charlotte Mason. I spent much time reading Charlotte Mason's materials this summer. I am not sure I ever fully understood her approach and now I still feel like a novice. But plug ahead we shall!!!

We have implemented quite a few books from Ambleside Online and because it is my nature, we are doing a lot of my own thing. My friend Lisa, over at Shady Brook Acres shared with me the drawer system and I am finding it to work great for me. Each student has their own "crate" of books and I daily pick from those books to fill their "drawer" which comprises their daily assignments. I also have a crate full of books that we read together during our "morning time" together. So, here is what our schedule looks like this year.

MORNING TIME:
Poetry - Selections of Emily Dickinson / we do this EVERYDAY
101 Hynm Stories - 1x a week
Minn of the Mississippi by Holling
Do Hard Things by the Harris twins
Story of the World - Vol.3
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Walk the World's Rim by Betty Baker
RedWall by Brian Jacques

By way of explanation, we do a short poetry selection everyday and talk about it if necessary. On Monday we pick a hymn, sing it, and read from the book. The rest of the days I read from several of the other books, mixing and matching as I go. Poetry included, we probably read from four books daily.

The kid's schedules look very similar. (The order of the readings is Monday thru' Friday (M,W,Th,F). We have a homeschool co-op on Tuesday. J is my son, A is my daughter)

BIBLE ~ J-Old Testament, Gospel, Acts, Animals of the Bible
A-Joshua, Luke, Acts, Pilgrims Progess
MORNING TIME
MATH ~ J-Teaching Textbooks (for my review visit www.homeschoolhootenanny.com), A-Algebra 1 through a homeschool mom.
LITERATURE / BIOGRAPHY Reading ~ Lit. on M & Th, Bio. on W & F.
WRITING / PENMANSHIP ~ A-writes something everyday; J-Penmanship.
SCIENCE / NATURAL HISTORY ~ J reads from science selections M & Th, from Natural History W & F, A-Natural History on M, Physical Science (Apologia) thru' co-op.
GRAMMAR / SPELLING ~ J using Sequential Spelling, A using Analytical Grammar and Spelling Power.
READING ~ J reading Historical Fiction(HF), Shakespeare, HF, American Tall Tales. A is reading on the same schedule except on Friday she reads Kon-Tiki for Geography.

Book Selections ~ For J
Aesop's Fables
Story of Inventions
Matchlock Gun
Ben & Me
Burgess Bird Book
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Pilgrim's Progress - Abridged
Physics Lab in the Home
American Tall Tales

Book Selections ~ For A
David Copperfield
Secret of the Woods
Early Thunder
Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold
Tales of Shakespeare
Pilgrim's Progress