What We've Been Up To....

So, you may have noticed that it's been a little quiet over here these past couple of weeks.   We spent a fantastic 2-1/2 weeks traveling on the West Coast visiting family, and then came home and almost immediately left for a church retreat.   It has been a lovely, albeit intense, few weeks.   Here are a few of the highlights of our summer travels:

 

Lots of cousin fun with cousins of all stripes – first cousins, second cousins, cousins-once-removed, 'friend' cousins: park dates, swimming, sleepovers….

 

 

 

 

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA

 

These are my children, as they are.  Just keepin' it real, folks!

 

El Dorado Park Nature Center, also in Long Beach

 

 

Tidepooling in San Pedro, CA

 

 

Fun Meet-up with some Ambleside friends in Oregon.  It was like our kids had always known each other or something.  Thanks again, Harmony and Maggie Annie!  (I also got a coffee date with Brandy and dinner with Kathy…but forgot to take any photos. Oops!)

 

 

Deception Pass State Park, Washington

 

 

Day out seeing some of the lesser-known sights in Seattle – or at least things I hadn't seen before, even though I've been there 4 or 5 times - such as Gasworks Park:

 

 

 

The Troll Under the Bridge…

 

 

And watching boats go through the Locks!

 

 

A fun time was had by all, but we were wiped out when we got home and are glad to not have to travel anywhere again for a long while now. J   Now that we are home, we are working towards getting back into a routine…which means starting our new school year….launching a (very modest) new co-op effort….new opportunities for the kids….and hopefully some time for writing in the margins.  My summer reading has been so enriching, and I have so many thoughts swirling in my head that I'd love to have time to share with you here.   Stay tuned!

What We've Been Up To....

Out and About::

One of my goals for our "summer term" was to take advantage of some field trip opportunities….and we did!   A few highlights…

 

 

The Discovery Place, our local hands-on science museum.  The second time they went, Papa took them uptown on the commuter train which was an extra special bonus.

 

 

Long hike in one of our local parks.  When the weather cools off in the fall, I'd love to do a lot more of this kind of thing.

 

 

And swimming.  Lots of swimming.

 

In the Schoolroom::

We finished our summer term right before the Fourth of July.  We left off exactly half-way through AmblesideOnline Years 2 and 4 (and 6 weeks in to Year 1), which will be a good place to pick things up again in the fall.  We read Twelfth Night – the first 'real' Shakespeare we studied at home.  We read a retelling first to familiarize ourselves with the plot, followed by this movie version (over about three viewing sessions), and then the older two and I took parts and read through the play.  So much fun!  We've also gotten back in to drawing again, and had a blast drawing a scale-plan of our dining room after reading that section in Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography.   Summer term was a success. 

 

 

 

The past couple of weeks have been blissful nothing, other than my planning wheels turning along in the background while my children invent wildly creative games such as "World War II bomber pilots", which involves launching paper airplanes across the room at various targets….

 

 

Creatively::

We made little wooden people to go with our Twelfth Night study.  I'm not a crafty Mama, but this little project was fun.  They have gotten a lot of play too, so very well worth it.  Our inspiration came from here.

 

 

 

 

In the Kitchen::

Peaches.  Carolina peaches.  And ice cream.  Or if you prefer, coffee with ice cream.

 

 

Oh merciful heavens yum.  I'm not a fan of Carolina summers (think upper 90s and HUMID), but this just about makes up for it.

 

Around the House::

I have slowly started going through some of the boxes in our garage, boxes that have been in storage for most of the 15 years we lived overseas.  What a trip down memory lane that has been.  I've turned up some real gems in the process.   Like this:

 

 

My old Disneyland pass from college days.  Disneyland was only about 15 minutes down the freeway from where I went to college, so we went often.  Back in those days, you could purchase an annual pass for only $99.  I always used my birthday money for this purpose, and then had a whole year of something free-and-fun to do on Friday nights (or for the cost of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream in a dipped waffle cone on Main Street).  Such fun memories.

 

And also this:

 

 

My best friend and I on my 19^th birthday.  I will decline to share how many years ago THAT was.  She's still my best friend, even though we live in different states, and I get to see her next week. J

 

What have you been up to?

 

Summer Plans

I've been seeing a lot of 'summer plan' posts popping up in various places on the internet.   I thought it might be fun to chat about that over here in this space too.  We are actually still in school mode here at our house, and will be until mid-July, and then will be traveling on the West Coast later in the summer.   So really…we don't really have the leisure of a long, lazy summer here.  That said, we are still in need of a little refreshment to ease the monotony that can lead to burnout.  

 

I don't make super-ambitious reading goals anymore, although I always have a running list of books I want to read going in the back of my mind.  The only reading that I'm for sure going to do this summer is to keep up with the I Promessi Sposi discussion, because I'm co-leading it. (I'm also REALLY enjoying it, so no chore there.) I am also slowly reading Athansius' On the Incarnation as my theology pick at the moment, and would like to finish that this summer and move on to something else.  I'd also like to read Charlotte Mason's Volume 2, Parents and Children, which is one of the remaining two that I haven't read yet.  Truth be told, I will likely be reading novels and other lighter fare more than anything else this summer since I anticipate most of my reading time will either be at the pool while the kids swim or while traveling in the car which doesn't really lend itself to dense reading material.  So, we'll see how we go.

We had a very disrupted school year so are still in school mode until mid-July, like I said. We did 4-day weeks with a 5th day for co-op this past year, so we are keeping the 4-days schedule and plan to take that 5th day for a weekly field trip now that co-op is finished for the year. There are several museums that we'd like to visit, and I'd also like to take some longer, full-day type nature walks. I also set aside much of our normal morning basket fare and we will be doing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, drawing, backyard-type nature study, and some hands-on things related to the topics in CM's Elementary Geography instead. Later in the summer we'll be travelling on the West Coast, mostly to visit family, but hopefully will get some good outings and nature journaling opportunities along the way. So really my 'summer enrichment' will be mostly things that I do WITH the kids. Shakespeare, drawing, nature walks, museums and afternoons by the pool are good for Mama too.

The one other thing that I'd really like to do is do some follow-up study and research after Dawn's Swedish Drill presentation at the Conference (and her recent Mason Jar podcast, and her series of guest posts over at Afterthoughts) and come up with a simple baby-steps plan towards being more intentional about physical fitness in our home after our travel break. So that's my 'something new' to learn about.

 

 

I'm also working towards better habits in the morning - we've been letting far too much of the morning slip away from us before getting going with our school work.  Currently, I'm in the brainstorming mode.  I'd love it if you'd share your morning routine with me in the comments - perhaps your routine will help me think outside the box for improvements I can make to ours.

And that's the plan. What about you?

What We've Been Up To....

Out and About:

Well, for people who are trying to rest this summer, we've been out and about quite a bit. J   We had a fun family 'exploration' of some of the wooded trails around where we are living on one cool-ish, gray Saturday morning.  We had a brief visit from my husband's parents (they hadn't seen the children since Christmas 2011!! - we will be spending some more time with them later this month) and a fun day out with an "auntie" from Papua New Guinea days.  We had a real 'proper' Fourth of July with fireworks – a first for our children.   Swimming, bike riding, and playing with neighbor kids have all been regular features of our days too.   We're keeping busy, but busy with good things. J

 

 

In the Schoolroom:

We are officially out of school until sometime in August, although Mama is in active planning mode.  More musings on that topic soon.  In the meantime the two older children are doing one school-related reading per day, just to keep moving forward a bit, and running through some math facts – adding/subtracting for James and multiplying/dividing for Michelle.   That takes all of about 20 minutes for each of them in the morning, so not too much.   We are enjoying having a proper break.

 

 

Creatively:

I crocheted a few dishcloths, and am now trying to teach myself some new embroidery stitches.  I have long admired embroidery, but have never known how to do much more than a basic running stitch and backstich (which I didn't even do properly!).  I have this book (I can't wait until I feel confident enough to try one of the projects in it!) and have also been using some of the tutorials here when the pictures in the book don't cut it.  So that's my latest crafty challenge.  With the children, we've been doing a bit of nature journaling:

 

 

 

 

And a bit of drawing, following the suggestions in the Artistic Pursuits Elementary 4-5 curriculum.  This was purchased mostly with Michelle in mind, but the littler ones are enjoying joining in too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Kitchen:

Local Peaches.  I was worried when my husband brought home a box with probably 30-40 peaches in it that I'd have to mess around with freezing them or something, but I needn't have.  I think we ate at least half of them within the first 24 hours.  I now know how to make my picky 5 year old who tends to eat three bites of her food and then insist she is full actually finish her meal…just promise her a peach.   I love summer fruits….

 

 

Around the House:

Trying to reorganize chore routines in a way that will be sustainable once we get going with a full school schedule again (meaning Mama doesn't have to be responsible for it all).  We're getting there, slowly.

 

 

What have you been up to?

Summertime Plans and Ponderings...

So, we are actually on a summer break.  I don't know if we've ever taken a really-truly-proper summer break.  We've always been 'take off a week or two here and there' type of homeschoolers.  Taking a good six weeks off all at once….I don't think we've ever done that.

 

Why now?  Well, we had planned to be travelling all summer, so I had organized our school terms out accordingly since I'm not interested in trying to homeschool on the road.   Now we aren't going to be travelling apart from a couple of weeks to visit my in-laws at the end of July.   I didn't feel like tweaking the plans I had already made, however.  So a six-week summer break it is.    And quite honestly, the lack of regular routine aside, I'm relieved.  I love homeschooling.  Overall it has been a really fantastic, wonderful thing for our family.  At the same time I am really glad to have some time to come to a full stop for a while, to just enjoy being together as a family and doing things when and how we feel like doing them (rather than because the schedule says so), and to take time to reflect on the past few years – where we've been as a family, where we want to go as a family, and what we need to do to get there.             

 

This article on a Charlotte Mason style summer plan has been circulating lately and it gave me a good framework to think through how I want to use these precious weeks off this summer.  Here are some of my plans, inspired by that article:

 

Mother Culture:

I'm definitely planning to read this summer, although quite honestly most of my current reading is of the lighter variety.  I'm trying out Elizabeth Goudge on the recommendation of some AO friends, and have a couple of other lighter-but-not-twaddly novels on order thanks to their suggestions.   I'm not up for another Dickens or finally tackling a Russian author this summer. :P  I will hopefully finish up Beowulf and How to Read a Book – both books I'm discussing with some ladies on the AO Forum.   I'm re-reading  When Children Love to Learn (more on that in a minute).  I'm also trying to be intentional to carve out time for daily Bible study and spiritual reading every day – my soul is very much in need of refreshment so this is a top priority.

 

I am also planning to take advantage of my husband being around this summer to sneak out to a coffee shop once or twice a week to write.  I can't do this in Africa and I had almost forgotten that it was possible.   This is definitely an exciting development.

 

I'm also hoping to spend time in some crafty pursuits, both for myself and with the children.  Michelle and I have been crocheting together.  Littlest one is itching to do some sewing, and I have been wanting to try to learn some new embroidery stitches so I may sit down and do some of that with her.  We also recently bought the Artistic Pursuits Elementary 4-5 curriculum which focuses on drawing techniques – Michelle and I have enjoyed the first couple of lessons and the little ones have joined in some too – even Papa is intrigued and may join us next time we pull it out.  James is enjoying various hands-on fix-it jobs with his Papa.

 

We are hoping to plug in to a good local church where we are living for the year – we visited one last week that is very promising – my soul is need of corporate worship, good teaching  and fellowship (in English!!).  And I am also excited that I will be able to attend two different Ambleside Online Retreats later this summer and meet in person many of the ladies that have been my online homeschooling support network these past couple of years.  (I will be in Indiana and at a smaller retreat in the Texas Hill Country…will I see you?)

 

Nature and Outdoor Time:

This one has been a little tricky because it has been pushing 100 for the past week or so where we are.  We are from Africa.  It gets hot in Africa.  It doesn't get THIS hot in Africa (at least not the part where we lived).  Yeesh.  It's put a bit of a damper on our plans to try out some of the parks and nature trails in this new-to-us area, although as soon at the temperature dips a bit, we will.  In the meantime, we are at least trying to take a walk around our neighborhood in the evening when the heat isn't quite so intense.  We also  just got a season pass for our local pool which is only a 5 minute walk from our apartment – we'll be there often.  We've procured bikes for the children, and as soon as my husband can get a hold of one for himself he will probably start taking the older two out on bike rides a little farther afield than our parking lot. J   There is apparently a nature museum and a hands-on science museum in the nearby 'big city', so we may visit those on some of those too-hot-to-spend-much-time-outside days.

 

Take a Good Look:

I'm really good at making schedules and other practical plans for our homeschool.  I love making neat-and-tidy charts and checklists and organizing new books.  However, in the craziness of our life over the past few years, it's been a long time since I've considered matters such as atmosphere, relationships, and habits.   I'm re-reading When Children Love to Learn as a guide to help me contemplate these principles, and I'm determined to put off any further practical planning until I've had some good time to think and pray through these more foundational issues.   I'm also teaching in a co-op setting in the fall for the first time, so I also want to consider how to put those principles to work in a group setting.   I'm sure I'll be processing some of those thoughts in this space.  Stay tuned.

 

Masterly Inactivity:

And yes, we will be practicing masterly inactivity as well – unstructured time for personal pursuits.  My oldest has built – and is continuing to add to – a "Borrower House" in a corner of the living room.  James is spending lots of time with Legos – his room has become his Lego-Man-Cave (are 7 year olds enough to have a man-cave?  Well, he does anyway.)  Now if only I could convince my littlest one that masterly inactivity was a good idea….

 

What are you planning to do this summer?