YA Authors, Planting Trees & Prom!

Writing Club Meets a Real, Live YA Author!

My friend and former co-worker, Sandy Hall, published a YA novel.  And not only did she publish a YA novel, she entered a manuscript into the online forum of a major publisher that was starting a new YA label and after lots of feedback and edits, her manuscript was voted the best.  And not only that, but she got a multi-book contract that allowed her to quit her job as a youth services librarian and write FULL TIME!

This is her book.  The girls and I went to her book launch party last summer.
It was very exciting!

I ran into Sandy at a party a couple of months ago and we got to talking and she said she would come and talk to my writing group!  The girls were super excited to have a real, live author talk to them in person!  We talked for hours about the writing life, getting ideas, character development, plotting, plots, favorite books, Dr. Who, making stories timeless and many, many other things.  She encouraged the girls to get involved with online writing forums and communities.

Sandy shared how she plotted her first novel with these notecards and a ring to bind them together. Characters got different colored cards; she had a card for each month and what happened that month; a card for what happened to each character during that month and cards for plot and other things all arranged chronologically.  She also shared how the story came to be: a story about what it is really like to go to college; a story about a guy and a girl who meet and like each other, but never talk, but everyone around them knows they need to be together.  She also shared this video with the girls on Three Act Structure by KatyTastic that she said was really, really helpful in plotting her novel.

It was such a great experience!  Sandy and I always used to talk about our favorite authors and we even used to travel to meet them and go to book signings and may or may not have discussed stalking them.  As readers, authors are more exciting to us than movie stars!  And now Sandy is one of them!  She told us how she was invited to a dinner with different famous YA authors and just kept giggling when she met anyone because she was so excited to be there!

1000 Trees PLUS!

The year we started homeschooling, Jason set a personal goal to plant 1000 trees in his lifetime.  Through his work and volunteer efforts, he met that goal last year.  But that didn't stop him from planting even more trees!  He arranged to get 600 MORE saplings and is distributing them to garden clubs and at Little League games and Earth Day celebrations in our area this month.

It really upsets Jason that so many people take down trees and don't replant them.  He could go on and on and on about it from how it affects wildlife to air pollution to oxygen needs.  I love and admire that he doesn't just get mad, he does something about it!  He gets out there and he volunteers his time and he educates people and he gives them free saplings to plant!

In a cool turn of events this year, some of his friends from when he was in his teens and twenties showed up to get trees to plant to support his efforts!

The Prom

I write this blog mostly for friends and family who want to see what is going on but are not on Instagram.  So, I will share that my girls are not missing out on any of the traditional high school experiences.  They go to a Masquerade Ball in the autumn with homeschool teens from all over our state.  They attend Game Nights 3-4 times a year with homeschool teens from all over our state.  And now that she is in high school, Allie attended her first PROM!

Allie and her friend Katie

The NJ Homeschool Prom is held down the shore, near where my brother lives.  Allie got ready at my brother's house and then we took a bunch of photos.  Our family is REALLY SILLY.  The tennis racquets were my niece's idea. But, of course we had to go with it, because...tennis racquets!

Jason and my brother hung out and jammed on their guitars and my sister-in-law and I took Allie to her prom.  First we stopped and took photos on the beach.  It was a really fun bonding experience with my sister-in-law who is really funny and was telling Allie all kinds of things to do and not to at the prom.  It was hysterical!

My sister-in-law also set up this pose...

We were walking by this car and my sister-in-law INSISTED that Allie pose with it!  We were three silly girls, let me tell you!  But we had such a blast!  I am SO GLAD that my sister-in-law came along--she made the whole thing so much fun!

these poor kids, it was like they were on the red carpet and the moms were snapping pictures like the papparazzi

Back at my brother's house, Jason and my brother were jamming.

Jason, Piper and I had a great time hanging out, eating Surf Taco, talking, laughing and playing games with my brother, sister-in-law and niece while Allie danced for 5 hours with friends, enjoyed a Shirley Temple fountain and a Nacho Bar and was part of a million prom selfies!

Presidential Politics

My high school had a Presidential Politics class each presidential election year.  In order to take the class, a student had to have a certain GPA and be taking AP classes.  I think these requirements were just because they only offered one session of the class every four years.  As luck would have it, I had a decent GPA and was taking AP classes and I got to take this course.  It is probably the single course in my entire high school career that I refer back to the most.  I learned so much in that class.

I decided that with Presidential hopefuls declaring candidacy for the 2016 Presidential election, I wanted to have the girls learn about each candidate.  I thought creating a handy-dandy chart of the candidates would be a good way to keep the information organized.

Ted Cruz's website for his presidential campaign is not yet online.
We will update his platform on key issues when it goes live.

I needed to give them more information than just charting candidates.  They need to understand the role of the President and how the United States Constitution provides for a separation of powers.  They need to understand how the electoral college works.  They need to understand how Congress and the President are supposed to work together and why that is important.  They need to think about the character of a great leader.  They need to know about the ideologies of the political parties.

This will be a long process - we still have 20 months until the election! - but with Ted Cruz announcing his candidacy, I thought it was time to start.  This will probably be something we do a little at a time and I am sure it will evolve over time.  I am probably not covering everything necessary for this class, but since we are starting so early in the presidential election season that many of the things I have missed I believe will present themselves over the next 20 months and we can dig into them then. (Since I started writing this post, we have added Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul to our list of candidates).

We laid the ground work by refreshing ourselves on and/or learning about:

• The Three Branches of the US government
• How Senators and Representatives are elected, who ours are, what ours stand for
• What the US Constitution says about both who is eligible to run for President and the roles and limits for the office of President
• How the electoral college works
• Electoral vote versus Popular vote and this
• How a Bill becomes a law and this video and this poster; we also discussed "pork" and "filibuster" -- the girls love these words
• What makes a great leader - the girls researched this using a variety of websites and created a poster
• I recently purchased this lapbook: US Government Studies Lapbook by Knowledge Box
• And I am considering purchasing this one: Presidential Election Process 6th-12th grade lapbook by Knowledge Box
  
  

**The girls got a kick out of some of the terms--like Hopper for the box a bill is put in when it is introduced and "pork" referring to all the things politicians layer on a bill that has nothing to do with the bill.  Gerrymandering was a another favorite.  And of course, muckraking.  We can't forget filibustering.  

One of the things that I remembered from the class I took in high school was the fundamental differences between the two main parties -- Democrats spend on social programs whereas Republicans spend on military; Republicans are pro-business whereas Democrats are pro-worker.  It was difficult to find information that did not pertain to specific issues on these topics or that was not slanted.  Once I added the word 'ideology' to my search, I had to weed through a lot but found a couple that were helpful, if not exactly what I was looking for.

• Democrat vs. Republican
• Political Ideology Definitions - I printed this out and we took our time going down the list issue by issue.  While I am not sure that the girls are old enough or have enough experience in life to have opinions or strong feelings toward one side or the other, I do want them to understand both of the two main political parties stances on topics.  I think this is a much easier way to understand where the parties are coming from when they disagree about issues relating to the environment or civil rights or equal pay for equal work.

The girls learned about propaganda from the following images I found in my search for the political ideologies of the two main parties.  We looked at these and I asked which party do you think created this propaganda.  It was an interesting way to show how people in the party view themselves and view the other party:

Additionally, these articles were running on-line and getting attention by some of my friends on Facebook, so I shared them with the girls as another example of propaganda:
           

•               New Study Shows that Liberals Have Lower IQs than Conservatives
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•               Are Conservatives Dumber than Liberals?

            The headlines gave us all pause-is this true?  Who did the study?  Allie scoffed, didn't believe either but Piper was not so sure.  It was investigated and this was a satirical piece.  Anyone can write anything on the Internet.  The girls learned the importance of digging deeper, checking sources.
         

We also looked at this.  Although it is from the UK, I found it interesting and pretty accurate in terms of American political ideology.

At this point, about three weeks in, we have spent close to 20 hours on what I thought would be a 60 hour (or half high school credit course).  Most candidates have not even declared candidacy yet.  We will spend quite a bit of time perusing each candidate's website for information.  I foresee us watching debates as well as the party nomination events...and I am certain a lot of other things will come up in this study, so it may end up being a full high school credit.

****I was asked a question in the comment section of my blog that was actually an impetus to us beginning this study.  I feel that one of the big detriments to homeschooling is that sometimes children are only exposed to their parents' point of view on certain issues.  I had an experience that I was grateful for, which made me realize how when we say things around our children, they pick up our feelings on things and take those feelings and beliefs as their own.  I feel that I have a responsibility to my children to allow them to form their own opinions.  There are certain values that Jason and I have set forth in our home, but as far as politics and even religion, we want to provide a foundation to allow our children to make their own decisions.  When I present anything controversial, I try to present it without bias and to present BOTH sides.  Sometimes, in the case of the civil rights movement or poverty, it might be a story.  Other times, in a study like this, it would be articles written on both sides of an issue--or on ALL sides of an issue.

Pre-College, Art & Life Stuff

Art

Over the years the girls have taken a lot of formal art classes, but right now they prefer to create on their own, in their own time and what they feel like creating.  They use Pinterest for inspiration and youtube when they are hung-up on a technique.  I have begun to count this time toward high school credit.  

Allie is all about shabby chic right now.  She wanted some lace and asked my mom, who is an expert seamstress and has a room with wall to wall shelves lined with bins of fabric; my mom let Allie bring home a HUGE bin of lace.  Allie rushed home and created this "chandelier" for over her bed and a scarf for her dresser.  Then, she got up in the middle of the night, because she couldn't wait until morning once the idea came to create valances for her windows.  She has also made frames to hang earrings on and she is currently working on lace and beaded bracelets to give friends.

Pre-College

I have been reading Heather Bruggeman's blog for years, but recently started reading through the archives.  It is rare for me to find another secular homeschooler with which I have so much in common.  I loved these posts:

Pre College - I love the sound of it and the idea of taking the time to prepare oneself for the future.  Getting to know oneself and explore things. Learning how to take care of yourself physically, emotionally and mentally is so important.

High School Homeschool Resources - I so appreciate this list.  As a secular homeschooler, it is rare to find other secular homeschoolers in the blog world that are not unschoolers and that will recommend curriculum.  I have been searching for secular homeschool science curriculum...there is not much out there.  The Chemistry program we used this year was an OK fit, but since it is created by the American Chemical Society, there is not a program for other areas of science.  I was considering using a textbook or online classes or just having Allie take a class at the community college...and now Apologia is in the running.

My Super Talented Family

My dad has been retired for a few years.  He loves to fish and he and my mom have a summer home on a lake in upstate New York.  He was looking for a winter hobby and came across wood-burning.  He has been making absolutely beautiful things!  

Jason is on the Board of Directors for an organization that ran a Silent Auction fundraiser and he asked my dad to make something, which fetched a nice price (donation to the fund)!

My dad recently began wood burning on furniture.  I love it.  I love novelty pieces and this is an awesome one.  I am so proud of him!!!

Writing

Allie has been spending hours upon hours writing a novel.  She has not shared it with me yet, but based on the amount of time she is spending and the thought she putting into it, I have decided to consider some of this creative writing as part of her Language Arts time.  I realize that if she were in school this would be a project she did at home, separate from any school credit.  However, because I want to give her the time and space to do this, I am counting 5 of the probably 60+ hours she has spent on this toward her freshman language arts credit hours.

Book Club

Both Allie and Piper are part of e-cubed, which is a teen-led group that meets every Wednesday for three hours.  They have a rotating schedule of classes that they democratically vote on at the end of the previous year, but Book Club and Country Day are two constants year after year.  Allie is passionate about books and reading and writing.  She and a friend would like to lead the Book Club portion of the group next year.  I have recommended a few books to her that I think might be good for the Book Club and we have decided that if she reads them, comes up with discussion questions and answers the questions (or makes notes on answers/ideas) we would count those books toward the Contemporary Literature portion of her Freshman Reading List.  She is currently reading:

WritingArtCircle

We were able to do our Writing Club on the deck this week!!!  It was so nice.  After we were done writing, the girls ran around and did cartwheels and back hand springs.  It was great!  Lately I have been feeling like my two are growing up so fast--so it was nice to see them just all play like kids again!

NAET

Several years ago, when we adopted a puppy and had to return it because my allergies were so bad, a friend recommended NAET, she said it worked for her child's food allergies.  I looked into it and being someone who has seen the effects of yoga and Che Gong on my own health and my husband's health, I was intrigued.  I have been afraid of the cost and the girls also exhibit mild allergic symptoms to dogs...but I feel so compelled and drawn to having a dog, to rescuing a dog or dogs, it is something that I just can not let go of, I can not forget.  Interestingly, I was thinking about NAET after someone had posted a dog rescue picture on Facebook and a couple of seconds later a little message flashed in the upper right of my computer that our library was having a seminar on NAET.  I took that as a sign.  I am going to go for it!

Investing

I was reading Heather Bruggeman's post about resources she used homeschooling her daughter through high school.  The one that stood out is the Dave Ramsey Foundations in Personal Finance.  I am a saver, an investor.  I believe strongly in saving for a rainy day and living within - or below - our means.  It is important to me that my girls be savvy with money.  We are doing that a little here and there by having them put half the money the earn babysitting and dog walking in their savings accounts at the bank and encouraging them to really think about their purchases and not impulse buy. I am especially interested in the Cash Flow College component of Dave Ramsey's program for teens. I have read through some of his books and I like him, I like what he says and a lot of it is stuff my dad taught me growing up.  This got me to thinking about investing.  Not that we are wealthy by any means, but we have a professional managing some of our money and I enjoy playing around with stocks and investments - it's like a hobby - but really, I have no training and I think it would be neat to take a class and learn more about it.  Oddly enough, the VERY day that I started thinking about this...a flyer came in the mail from our local community college advertising non-credit summer classes.  I think I am going to sign up for one--anything I learn I can pass on to the girls!

High School Literature Resources

As the girls pick books off of their Reading Lists, I will post the resources we use with the books on this page.   It can be accessed from the top menu under Homeschooling High School.  Hopefully I will remember to keep this page updated. 

Animal Farm

Russian Revolution Facts & Summary (article on History.com) -- Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution.  

Russian Revolution Explained: History Review (video on youtube) -- about the causes of the Russian Revolution.

Character Comparison Chart: Russian Revolution and Animal Farm -- we printed this out

Literary Devices in Animal Farm - Shmoop

Moving Beyond the Page has a unit study for Animal Farm  

BUT I found this free packet to use with Animal Farm and we decided to use this instead.  We found it to be perfect for our needs.

We are planning to watch the movie for Animal Farm, but are still waiting for it to come in via ILL as of this writing.

Gilmore Girls, Ancient Civ Project & Dorothea Lange

Gilmore Girls

I feel like we came to this show at THE PERFECT TIME FOR US!  I remember when it was on TV and I had infants and toddlers and I just never committed to it.  But now that it is on Netflix, it seems to have made this comeback and to be super popular with a whole new generation of girls and moms. Several of the girls' friends LOVE this show--they quote it and re-watch certain episodes over and over.  It's like Seinfeld for them.  Jason has been traveling for work and we decided to try it and we are HOOKED!  I love Lorelai's sense of humor.  Allie loves the town--which reminds me of the town we lived in in Connecticut (Stars Hollow is based on Washington, CT, which was about 15 minutes away from where we lived, but our old town is mentioned in this article as one that makes Stars Hollow come to life--it really is a beautiful town.  I cried the first time I saw the green and KNEW I wanted to live there!).

Calligraphy

Allie often gets lost in her art studio.  The things she draws astound me.  I am in absolute awe of her talent (she is very shy about her work and hesitant to let me share).  She has taken art classes in a variety of studios around here, but she prefers to create when she is inspired and things that speak to her and she'll often consult a youtube video when she struggles with something--drawing an eye or learning a certain technique.  

She babysits and walks our neighbor's dog and makes some cash, half of which she is required to put in the bank and the rest goes to either her gerbils and hermit crab and fish or to art supplies.  She recently bought herself a Calligraphy set and has been spending HOURS upon HOURS working with it and honing this beautiful craft.  She went to a  friend's slumber birthday party last weekend and created a beautiful card for the friend.

Back to Ancient Egypt

The way I have decided to do World History (and it has been working well) is to take the topics in Story of the World 1 and have the girls research each, create a list of facts from which they create an outline, cite the sources on a Works Cited page in proper ALA style and then write a paragraph.  They have written about history, archaeology, nomads, nomadic farmers, the Nile River, cuneiform, hieroglyphs and the Egyptian calendar.  They have drawn detailed maps of Ancient Egypt for this project and are currently working on Tutenkomen's family tree.  They research 2-3 topics a week and write the paragraphs.  It has been going well and they are surprised at how much they remember from SoTW.  I have long thought that education needs to catch up with technology and to some extent, no one is going to remember every detail in a textbook and I don't want to get bogged down with details.  If we keep it simple, I think they are more likely to retain it and have enough info to look something up on their phone if they are in a conversation  and need more detail.

We have been supplementing this project with videos on youtube.  We love the Crash Course series by Hank and John Green (although sometimes we have to go back because they go so fast!).  We have found some other great videos as well--some students have made as projects, some that are cartoons and quite funny.

Dorothea Lange

I have always loved photography.  I used to buy coffee table photography books before I ever had a coffee table.  I love really gritty photography that really shows people's lives.  This year we discovered Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine when we did our Immigrant Study.  I can not get enough of their work.  The real people.  The reality of life.  The human condition.  There really are no words.  The photographs can only be experienced and they are experienced at such an emotional level.

After we watched Grapes of Wrath, I decided to get a Dorothea Lange book out of the library.  I found there was a documentary about Dorothea Lange in our library system--it took a while in inter-library loan, but we got it and watched it this week.  It was wonderful.  She is wonderful. She struggled so much as a mother because she felt called to make a difference in the world and that required her to travel and be away from her kids.  She was also so poor during the Depression that she had to send her kids to live with another family.   It seems logical that her own experiences of poverty allowed her to capture what really mattered, to see it and to know it in a way that someone who has never been there could never relate or understand, but with her experienced eye, we can all see and understand a little better.  She brought the plight of the migrant worker to light.  She worked as a government photographer, allowing the government to see what different Americans lives were really like--until our government stopped wanting to see such things.  Her photos of the Japanese Internment Camps were impounded by the government for decades.  Her catalog is astounding and her vision breathtaking.

I have decided to start counting credit hours for art.  This documentary counts as two hours.  I already counted the Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine books as history, but the hours Allie spends drawing or perfecting her calligraphy can be counted as art as well.  I think we will call it Studio Arts & Art History.  Whenever I try to plan art projects they tend to fall off the schedule (the girls prefer to create their own way in their own time).  I am realizing that art journaling is not my thing--our Writing and Art Circle has turned much more into Writing and the girls are happy with it.  But, I think that all the hours Piper spends with her pearler beads (she has pulled them out again and is having fun with them) and the hours Allie spends in front of her easel or in her art studio or sewing or knitting, I can count toward a Studio Art & Art History credit.  I am sure we already have 60 hours this year, but I am going to start counting as of last week.

this book is amazing.  i had to buy it for myself.

Film Study - Singin' in the Rain 

The girls wanted to watch "Singin' in the Rain".  It was mentioned in The Art of Watching Film and they were intrigued since my mom often sings the song.  We discussed how both "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Wizard of Oz" are musicals, but the latter is a fantastical musical and the former is a "show" musical.  Some say "Singin' in the Rain" is the best musical movie ever made.  We also discussed the deep, rich colors of the film and the effects and what makes a movie a classic.

Reading

Allie LOVED The Help, she read it in just a few days and wrote a beautiful literary analysis of it.  The Civil Rights Movement and justice and people being treated fairly are things she is interested in.  At times she talks about being an attorney.  I could definitely see her doing that.  At other times she talks about being a teacher or a journalist (like Miss Skeeter in The Help), I could also see her doing either of those.

Allie and a friend want to run the Book Club at e-cubed next year.  I think this book would be perfect, so even though I did not include it on her Freshman Reading List (I planned to put it on the list for next year) we decided that if she reads it and writes a reaction, we will count it.

Piper is still reading and enjoying Fan Girl by Rainbow Rowell.

Math

Allie has gotten into Galileo and Kepler--things we learned about our first year homeschooling and had followed several rabbit trails on--it's been SO COOL to see how chasing rabbit trails lead to TRUE LEARNING and recall and connections.  It's amazing to see!

Piper is working on percents, which she likes.  She's quite a shopper and a bargain hunter and sale shopper, so she feels like this helps her :)  We were at Hobby Lobby and had 40% off coupons and Piper kept figuring out how much different things would cost if we bought them with our coupon!  Real Math.

Italian

We made up for lost time this week.  I don't know what it is, but it's clicking and we find ourselves talking about the words and quizzing each other at random times.  I love this learning together!

Chemistry

With Jason traveling for work and a lot on his plate at work when he gets back, I have taken Chemistry over again.  I am so impressed with the work they did with Jason.  They understand polarization of atoms and attractions and why things dissolve.  They know how molecules work differently in cold and hot water and how that affects dissolving substances.  I was very impressed.  We did a lot of review this week and covered another part of chapter 5.  I also realized we need to do more, explore more, in order to count this as a full year course, so we ordered an alcohol burner, flasks and some other accoutrements.  The girls also spent about three hours exploring science kits that we had in the closet and doing the experiments and explaining to me why all of the bigger balls fell to the bottom (they were heavier) and the smaller ones rose to the top when shaken and how the glass spheres worked with water to make a spongy surface, etc.  As long as they did the reading for the experiment and could explain it to me in their own words and show me they understood it, I told them I can count it as science.

Cooking & Baking

With Jason away, we took an anti-cooking stance.  It's been Chipotle, Fro-yo for dinner, cereal, grilled cheese, tuna sandwiches, salads and my favorite: rice bowls!  I make a ton of rice, sautee some greens (kale and spinach with lots of garlic), make a lentil salad (ok, so I did cook, but I cooked enough on one day to last for three meals for each of us!!)...and we just pull from that and fry an egg to put on top!  Sometimes we add kimchi!  YUM!  

Credit Hours & Chemistry

We are fortunate to have a thriving, open, friendly local homeschool group that loves to share their wisdom.  Several moms who homeschooled through high school and have kids who have gone on to college, recommended tracking high school hours.

Initially I had my reservations about tracking hours because 1) I felt like I had enough going on and 2) I was afraid it would make me more rigid.  I am, by nature, someone who craves organization but in homeschooling I have found that the true learning happens when we go off-course and explore and dive in, rather than just follow the plan.  I was afraid that tracking hours would make me less comfortable with moving off the beaten path.  Actually, just the OPPOSITE happened: I found that tracking hours created order from what sometimes feels like chaos when we deviate from the plan.  This is especially true with Language Arts, History and Film Study.

I have also found that it shows where we have gaps or where we don't have enough material.  Allie was originally going to take an online biology class this year, but it didn't work out time-wise and she decided to do American Chemical Society chemistry with Piper and Jason.  We added videos and experiments and projects to make the middle school program challenging enough for high school credits.  

Chemistry

Jason has been traveling for work and when he returns work will be crazy busy with new projects and new people starting and he won't have time to commit to chemistry, so I have taken it over again.  In so doing, I realized we would be about 24 hours shy of 120 hours (1 high school credit = 120 hours of work).  I knew Chem Lab experiments were missing, so I started looking online, but I was not satisfied with the reviews and what was included for the price.  So, I started looking online for home chem lab experiments at home and found a plethora of options.  I especially liked that they used things you can buy in Home Depot or Lowe's or an art supply store, I really like the idea that the girls will learn the chemical names of things in household products.  I was able to buy the alcohol burner, flasks, test tubes, tongs and ph test strips for under $45 on Amazon.  We will be doing experiments from Off the Shelf Chemistry and Classic Chemistry Experiments, which will require us to buy drain cleaner, lye, borax, denatured alcohol, hydrochloric (muriatic) acid and to use things like nails, bobby pins, baby oil and other things that we have around the house or in the garage.  There are a few experiments we probably won't do if the cost of supplies is pretty high and we don't have another use for the items (like photography developing chemicals).  We will be starting to do these chem lab experiments in addition to the ones in our chemistry curriculum next week.

We are tracking hours with: Language Arts, History, Film Study, Cooking & Baking and Chemistry.  Math and Italian are based on finishing the curriculum (with Italian I have found that Level 1 is more like one semester than a whole year; I can't speak to the other levels, but we bought 1-5 so if we complete that we should have at least the two years of foreign language required of many colleges).  E-cubed (teen-led outside enrichment class) is based on weeks attended multiplied by 3 hours per week...and does come out to over 120 hours for the year, so we are counting that as well for it's leadership opportunities, book discussions, mock trial, improvisation, skill development, etc.  Film Study and Cooking & Baking are things that we anticipate will take more than 1 year to fulfill the 120 hour requirement of one high school credit (or 5 here in New Jersey).  We are on track to have more than enough credit hours for full year Language Arts and History credits this year.

Allegories, TIME and The Prom!

Allegories (Film Study)

We have been studying allegories in our film study.  Each of the girls researched movies that are thought to be allegorical or have good examples of allegories.  Allie picked The Shining--(of course! She has been begging to watch this and I've had mixed feelings, but I DID see it when I was her age and she has seen other scary movies and of course, it is really a good choice in studying allegory) and Piper picked The Wizard of Oz.  I struggled with having the girls research the theories of allegory in the movie BEFORE or AFTER watching the movie.  I ended up deciding to have them research the symbols and theories BEFORE watching the film (in Piper's case she had already seen the film before).  Both girls were really interested in this project so they took PAGES and PAGES of good notes.  Then we watched the movies together.  After watching the movies, the girls thought about their feelings/reactions to the film, they looked over their notes and thought about which things they agreed with and why and which they disagreed with and why and which helped them gain a better understanding of the film or the message of the film.  We discussed their feelings about the film and the notes they had taken on the film.  Then they both wrote detailed papers about their feelings about the film and which allegories they agreed or disagreed with and why and which they felt furthered their understanding of the film.

Reading

Allie began reading from her Freshman Reading List.  Patty's relationship to Ruth in Summer of My German Soldier made Allie feel like reading The Help.  She has wanted to read this book for years, but I kind of wanted to save it until she was "just a little bit older".  There are a few things Allie likes to collect information on and the Civil Rights Movement is one of them, so she LOVING this book.  I  printed out this Literary Analysis and am still in the process of deciding how to use it, but I know I want to use it in one way or another with Allie.

Piper is not a reader.  This has been difficult for me because I love to read and Allie loves to read.  I am a firm believer that reading helps with writing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, putting thoughts in logical order and all kinds of things.  I have been relentless in trying to help Piper find books she will like and owe a big shout-out to my librarian friends who often alert me to books Piper might like. So far the only books she has REALLY liked are books by Lauren Myracle and now this book by Rainbow Rowell.  I am not having her read from an assigned list at this point, I am afraid that would make her really dislike reading.  I am allowing her to find books that she likes and just read them through.  We are discussing the book.  I am not sure what else I will have her do with the book, if anything.  I am just THRILLED when I see her reading on her own!

TIME for Passions

I have always been someone who needed time to do nothing.  Time to just be.  To reflect, to think, to sit and ponder.  My girls are much the same way.  Early on, I realized that filling our schedules with extracurriculars and outside classes left us all cranky because we needed time with nothing to do.  

When my girls were little, they used that time to play.  When they got older they used that time to construct elaborate houses for their American Girl dolls that took over the entire floor of their bedroom and included sinks made of boxes and straws and ramekins and refigerators constructed of shoeboxes and duct take and cardboard and food made of Sculpey.  Eventually they tried their hand at making stop motion videos and learning about video editing and voice-overs and things like that.  Allie has spent hours and hours reading and collecting facts about the two subjects that interest her most: civil rights and World War II.  Piper has spent hours and hours designing houses on Sims and has now ventured into software that architects and interior designers use (at her father's suggestion).  Allie now gets lost in front of her easel sketching still-lifes.  I have asked if they want classes, but all they want is TIME to do these things.  They tell me that if there is something they have trouble with, they Google it or youtube it and figure it out.  I think this is cool.  This is natural learning.  This is a skill that they will need in life: learning how to find the information you need, practicing at something to get better at it.  I am so proud of them for this.  None of this would be possible without giving them TIME to pursue these interests on their own.

Homeschool Prom

Allie is going to the homeschool prom this year!!  Every homeschooler over 13 is invited to purchase a ticket to the Homeschool prom, but we had made the decision to wait until high school for the prom.  I honestly do not feel that my girls have missed out on very many of the really good and important high school experiences.  Weekly e-cubed meetings provide an opportunity to learn in a group, hang out, be kids, learn from each other.  Allie has been to the Masquerade Ball two years in a row (and it will probably be something both girls attend through high school) and now she will go to the prom which is held down the shore very close to where my brother lives so I can drop her off and go hang out with my brother for a few hours and play Cards Against Humanity.  Win-Win!

My niece stayed with us a couple of weekends ago and we were determined to have a "Very Girly Weekend".  Piper shopped for her thirteenth birthday gift from her dad and I - Make-up!! and while we were out, we went to look for prom dresses and shoes for Allie.  The first dress she saw she loved.  I wasn't the biggest fan of it on the hanger, but once she put it on even I had to admit that it did look lovely on her!  I think my niece liked being part of the whole make-up and prom dress shopping and it was nice for the girls to share those memories with their cousin!

Other Stuff

Math 

Allie is working on polynomials.  Every day when I look at her work, I am so happy that we have a computer program that she seems to like (as much as she is ever going to like math) and that works for her because the further she gets into this stuff, the more I realize I can not help her with it.  I did sit in on some lessons recently and I have to say that Teaching Textbooks style is very simple and it makes sense.  They take things apart and they teach just one part of it in each lesson.  I really appreciate the simplicity.

Piper has been whizzing through decimals, which she understands much better than fractions.  

Chemistry 

Jason has been working with the girls on Chapter 5, dissolving solids.  They talk about it at dinner sometimes.  I really appreciate how when you homeschool the lessons just become part of your family life and are discussed often and frequently, which I think must cement concepts in.

Writing 

I am counting the papers the girls wrote about theories of allegory in their chosen film for writing (the movie watching, discussion and research on theories of allegory in the film as Film Study, but the paper is writing).  We have also been using a lot of informal journal writing prompts as part of our morning exercise.  I am not grading these or even looking at them unless the girls give me permission, it is more about flow and getting the ideas out and learning about the fluidity of writing.

Vocab

Working on the root: Multi

Italian 

This fell off our schedule this week.  Two whole days were spent watching movies, discussing allegories and writing and editing papers.  I always berate myself for failing to get something done, BUT I am trying to work on that.  We got in a zone with the movies and allegories and it WAS a good use of our time.  We can make up for it with Italian next week.

Cooking & Baking 

Allie made coconut red lentil soup for dinner one night.

E-Cubed & Pottery

Piper finished pottery, she decided NOT to continue but to join e-cubed instead (there is a time overlap which would make doing both unproductive).  

Dog Walking 

The girls continue with their dog walking business.  This gives them their own money, half of which goes into the bank.  The girls have saved their money to buy themselves things that they want.  The other day the girls asked me to take them to see the movie Duff.  Allie has read the book and loved it, so despite the fact that I abhor every single thing about movie theaters and would WAY rather wait for the DVD and lay cozily on my couch eating organic popcorn popped in coconut oil, I was very tempted.  I asked the girls if maybe they would like to do this with friends (whew!  I get out of smelling the smells and hearing the food sounds and having to try to figure out when a good time to go the bathroom is) the girls first question was, "Will we have to pay for it?"  I shrugged.  "I don't know.  I didn't think about that.  Would you not want to spend your money on that?"  They didn't even have to think about it, they both said they would rather wait for the DVD if they had to spend their own money on it.  "Hmmm, well then why would I want to spend my money on it?"  I asked.  "Because you are our mom and you are supposed to spend money so we can do stuff like this,"  they told me.  Sure, I definitely have responsibility to supporting my kids, but I am not sure if that means movies are a necessary item for my budget.  Clothing, shelter, food are all necessary; classes and lessons and books are necessary since we homeschool, but movies?  Movies, to my mind, fall under the category of luxury items.  I explained this to them.  I also explained that I only have a finite amount of money, it's not endless, so if I spend money on one thing, I may not have it for something else.  "What if I gave you the choice between going out to eat or going to the movies, what would you pick?"  I asked them.  "Well, we can watch the movie on DVD for a dollar or even free if you get it at the library, I mean we would have to wait for it, but we can't make food like they do at Uproot,"  Allie decided.  "Could we get fro-yo?"  Piper asked.  

Japanese Internment, Dorothea Lange & the Silicon Valley

I need to balance my need for organization with the fact that just going with the flow works better for us.  These last weeks have all been about going with the flow and I feel like we are digging deeper and not just checking things off of my organized list and it feels GOOD!

Summer of My German Soldier/Japanese Internment

We abandoned our history/literature study that I had spent all of last summer planning.  I gave up on reading The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559 Mirror Lake Internment Camp, but I still wanted to read Summer of My German Soldier with the girls because I knew Allie would love it and there is a ton of stuff to discuss in the book.  I consciously strewed some books about Japanese Internment

Camps around the house and we watched a video on youtube.  But, as luck would have it, the girls were intrigued and when the first chapter of Summer of My German Soldier mentioned the Japanese, Allie decided to break from Summer of My German Soldier and read The Journal of Ben Uchida first.

That lead to watching two documentaries: Unfinished Business and Civil Rights and Wrongs: The Fred Korematsu Story.  This lead to many discussions of whether the US government was protecting the Japanese (they were being attacked on the street after Pearl Harbor) or treating them unjustly (there were NO INCIDENCE of Japanese-American terrorism at the time).  The girls were particularly upset about how the Japanese men and women had only days to prepare and lost everything they had worked for--could the government have done something different?  Stores and homes would have been looted; the US government could not afford to buy everything and allow the Japanese to put they money in the bank.  Why would something like this NOT happen in the US today?  How are our feelings as a society toward Muslims and people from the Middle East different or the same today.

Summer of My German Soldier is such a thought-provoking book.  A Jewish girl harbors a Nazi POW.  Her father is abusive; the Nazi is kind.  The Nazi didn't agree with Hitler, he didn't like Hitler or what Hitler was doing, but he had no choice, he had to be a Nazi or his family would have suffered; her father has a choice to be nice and chooses not to be.  Reading between the lines, we learn how different people view different situations in the book.  Was Patty right or wrong for harboring a Nazi?  Who was the better man here?  At what point do you speak up?  When does speaking out and going against the grain make you a hero and when does it make you a pariah?  Good stuff.

Photography has been a HUGE part of our history study this year.  We learned about how Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine affected change in New York City at the turn of the century.  Their photos were powerful and showed us visually things that words can not express.  I had not heard of those photographers before and can not stop reading about them and looking at their powerful photos.  After watching Grapes of Wrath a couple of weeks ago, I decided to get a Dorothea Lange photo book from the library.  The girls and I have been looking through it daily.  I think we feel like we want to keep looking at these people because then maybe their suffering will be less.  I know that makes no sense, but it just feels like we should remember these people.  The first page of the Dorothea Lange book Grab a Hung of Lightning tells how she took the Migrant Mother photo on a whim, she was driving home, exhausted and had countless rolls of film, but she knew that a drought had affected the pea pickers and she turned around on Highway 1 (a road the girls reacted to, as we have driven it and seen migrant workers--even today--still working those fields) and went to the camp and photographed that woman, who is only 32 in that photo and has 7 children. As a result, the San Francisco Chronicle rushed to publish the photos and a story about the plight of the pea pickers and the federal government rushed in food and supplies to help the starving families--none of which would have happened if Dorothea Lange had not turned around on the highway.

Migrant Mother photo by Dorothea Lange

Affecting change...

I was on CNN.com the other day when this story caught my eye.  I scrolled through the case studies and the stories, the statistics and the facts and then the possible solutions.  I decided to share the story with the girls and discuss the possible solutions.  We discussed whether the government was responsible for trying to help these people?  We discussed the four solutions and which we liked best.  Allie felt compelled to get more involved and write letters to the government and do some more research.  It was only after we had gotten involved that I realized the Silicon Valley is within spitting distance of those Pea Picker's Camps and how similar the stories are.

Dead Poet's Society

I saw this movie in the theaters with my friend Sean when it first came out.  We were 17 and we had had a teacher, Mrs. Leahy, that year who was a lot like Robin Williams' character in this movie.  She was an English teacher and she empowered and emboldened us to think for ourselves.  In her class, I suddenly realized that education was about learning things so you could contribute to society--something I didn't realize when I was filling in ovals and regurgitating information.

So often in making the decision to homeschool I thought of this movie.  If school was about standardized testing, would my girls ever have a teacher who ignited a passion in them?  Who told them, “When you read, don’t just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think," (Robin Williams, as John Keating, Dead Poets Society).   Who would hold their hand over their eyes if they were afraid of public speaking and get them to come up with a beautiful poem about the human condition?  Would they have a teacher who encouraged them to look at things differently?  A teacher who encouraged them to seize the day?  I don't know that there is room for that in a standardized society and I felt strongly that I wanted my girls education to be more like Dead Poet's Society than a model of standardization.

I have been excited to watch this movie with the girls, I wanted to make sure we did it at the right time so it meant something to them.  I'm not sure if it was the right time or not, but we watched it.

There was a lot to discuss with this movie.  Robin Williams encourages the boys to be rebellious, but in so doing he ignites a fire in them, so was it wrong to encourage them to do something they were not supposed to do?  Did the risk outweigh the reward or the other way around?  Neil's parents are not wealthy and they want a better life for their son, they struggle to keep him in a private school and they want him to put all of his energies into his studies so he can have a better life.  Are his parents wrong for not understanding his passion and gift for acting (an unpredictable, often unstable career choice)?  When his parents pull him out of school and enroll him in a military school, Neil takes his own life because he doesn't feel he can talk to his parents.  As a young adult, I felt misunderstood by adults, that adults put a lot of pressure on kids...but as an adult, as a parent, I see things differently.  The girls can see both sides, but growing up in a different kind of home, could not fathom that Neil could not talk to his parents.  These were some of the conversations we had about Dead Poet's Society.

Other Stuff...

The girls did math and we finished Lesson 2 in Italian.  They finished Balance Math 1--which I like because it uses a different part of the brain, a different approach to math and is more of a creative challenge than a math problem, even though it really was supposed to be for younger kids.  They continued working on their Ancient History project, researching and writing about Nomads.  They finished reading Summer of My German Soldier and answered questions about setting, themes, morals, characters, plot, who they thought the heroes were and why, etc.  We watched the Summer of My German Soldier movie on youtube (Kristy McNichol plays Patty!--what the heck ever happened to Kristy McNichol?).  Allie and Jason skied on Mondays and Piper volunteered at the library; Allie had e-cubed and Piper had pottery on Wednesday; Jason went to Atlantic City for a conference; and we celebrated Piper's birthday with NO SCHOOL ALL FUN on Friday.  Oh and we cancelled Writing Club because of snow!

Allie made a Cinnamon Roasted chicken.  Since I don't eat meat and have gotten to a point where I can't handle raw meat (it grosses me out) my girls and Jason have had to learn to cook meat.  I was pretty proud of Allie for trying a recipe that is so different.  They all loved it.  I was told it was excellent.  I was also at least 26 before I attempted making a roasted chicken.

Jason heard about this yoga pose that has been proven to improve scoliosis.  Since I have scoliosis and do yoga, I have been trying it.  I've always done the side plank, but this is slightly different and held longer and ONLY on the weak side.  I have also been looking into Elise Browning Miller's videos on Yoga for Scoliosis.

I finished watching Downton Abbey for the season and I cried.  Yay!  It was sooooo good!  I think the girls and I are going to try Gilmore Girls --we need a show to watch together and now that Gilmore Girls is on Netflix it seems like everyone is talking about it!

I am reading this book.  It can snow forever as long as I always have books like this to read.  I am loving it.  One of my friends said it is a, "I hope the kids make their own dinner because I don't want to stop reading" kind of book and I definitely agree.  I forced myself to finish this blog post because...I don't really know why....my need for organization and writing these posts makes my week feel complete.  Hopefully now I can just lay around and read until Jason gets home from Atlantic City!

Counting Our Blessings

The last few years we have done 40 Bags in 40 Days and our whole family has cleaned out closets, our attic, our drawers, our basement and donated 40 Bags worth of things for Lent (Jason also gave up Facebook and never went back and the girls have given up sweets and their favorite video games in the past).  Doing 40 Bags in 40 Days changed how we bought things: we don't buy as much, we realized we don't need as much and we also realized we like things pared down, it looks neater and is easier to keep neat.  We tried to do 40 Bags this year...but we just didn't have as much stuff. So, we decided to approach Lent differently.  We are volunteering at the soup kitchen (which we do monthly anyway).  We are writing letters and getting involved in an effort to end poverty, especially among children.  And, we are also Counting Our Blessings, which was something that everyone kept telling Patty in Summer of My German Soldier to do.  I have challenged the girls to each count their blessings and illustrate it in a creative way that will impress me.  I can't wait to see what they come up with!