New Discoveries

The interesting thing about homeschooling is the new discoveries you find on almost a daily basis.

For example, Diva is a writer. She astounds me with the maturity she writes with. She wants to do NaNoWriMo this year, so that's going to be a chunk of our LA for next month.

I also (because I am disorganized as all get out) discover books I've purchased on a whim, or more likely, because they were a set of books someone was selling, and since I wanted 3 out of the 4 in particular, I end up with books that get shoved aside because they weren't what I was looking for.

I ran across one of those books today. Its called, "The Childrens Book of Virtues" and although it was published in 1995, it has illustrations that are in the 1940s style. I was reading through it this am, and was thrilled with what I found. Aesops Fables, Robert Frost, stories taken from First Nations culture...divided up in the table of contents with sections such as "Courage/Perseverance" "Compassion/Faith" etc. Most definitely a Christian resource, but that works for our family.

Diva, as part of her writing exercises, has been copying Proverbs from the Bible. I think she's going to be copying out some of the short poems from this as well. Its also going to make a wonderful read aloud for the Littles.

On another note, I really need to get my space organized. I simply don't have the shelves I need. *sigh* I do have some, but its going to mean a total reorganization of the house...which means Wolf has to tote and carry, since I can't manage it one armed.

I wonder what other books I'm going to find? LOL

Not What I Had Planned

Called my school board about Tazzie. They have a reading program that he's eligible for. So, I signed him up, figuring, no biggie. Uh huh.

Til I ask, innocently, "So what do I do next year, sign up for this program again?" (Understand, Tazzie isn't 5 until February)

"Oh no. Next year you'd register him for grade one."

My heart and stomach plummeted. Tazzie? Grade one? Next YEAR?! I thought I had two more years before registering him for grade one! I thought he had to be six in September to be eligible. Nope. As long as he's born before the end of Feb, he's eligible. Holy old crackers! Mama wasn't ready for this. No Sir, No Ma'am!

The upside is, I can register him the first year in 'traditional', and then have him reregistered the next year *the year I thought he would be registered* in blended or aligned. (For those unfamiliar, aligned is following provincial standards. Blended is a 50% minimum provincial standards, the other percentage parent led. Traditional is all parent led)

I can't believe that I'm planning to flunk my son for first grade. Girlfriend K says not to look at it that way, its simply having 12 mths to complete 6 mths of work. *sigh*

On the upside, he is homeschooled, so nobody is going to be teasing him. I just honestly can't see Tazzie having the maturity for grade one. Truly. His birthday is smack in the middle of Feb. Two weeks, and he wouldn't be able to register for anything til next year.

And what whacked out school board has end of Feb for age cut off? Mine, apparently.

What also has my heart thumping and racing is that I could have been unregistered with him for a year, completely unaware that he should be. I can't imagine the fall out potential from THAT, legally speaking. "Hello, Mr. Truant Officer. You're here for WHAT?!"

And here's some irony. Princess, our youngest, whose birthday is in Sept, won't be allowed to register for anything for two more years, despite her and Tazzie being a mere 19 mths 7 days apart. She will have to be five before any registration of any kind is allowed.

Weirdos.

Yes, I'm totally committed (or is that should be totally committed?) to continuing our homeschooling efforts, including Tazzie and Princess.

I seriously believe I'm not only doing whats best for my kids, but also my bank account. There's no doubt in my mind that sending the Littles to public school would result in at least one lawsuit from a teacher for mental cruelty.

Bragging On Tazzie

I bought the beginner level Bob books last night.

This am, he read THREE of them to me!

Woooo hooooo Tazzie!!!

The really funny thing is, Tazzie has been reading here and there for over a year. He won't, however, do it on command He does stuff like know the difference between Ceasar and ranch dressing because he can read the word 'cheese' on the ranch...but wouldn't do it if asked to.

I *think* I figured out why last night. I had said something about him being able to read his own books, and he was unhappy and said he didn't want to. The light finally dawned. He thought if he read, I wouldn't read him bedtime stories anymore, that he'd have to do it all on his own. I reassured him that Mommy would always read him bedtime stories, and when he was reading, we could take turns if he wanted, and move on to bigger and better stories like his big sister, and that he could read whenever he wanted to during the day.

And suddenly today, he's reading the Bob books. Awesome!
For those that don't know what Bob books are, look here.

Is That An EYEBALL On Your Table?!

Yes. Yes it was. And an ear too, if you must know.

One of the top things I love about homeschooling (other than shopping for the curriculum, and I'll have an article later about that, because lawsy, that is FUN!) is the ability to bridge the gap between the Diva and the Littles (aka Tazzie and The Princess). In this particular case, Wolf had taken Princess out for a little Daddy and Daughter time, leaving me with Diva and Tazzie. What to do, what to do. Haul out an eye ball and ear of course.

Yes, we're talking models, folks. This is 'The Non Stepford Style' not 'The Frankenstein Style', remember?

So, here we have the Eyeball in The Box.

Fancy, no?


If you're able to read the somewhat blurry, small print, you'll notice that the eyeball is made out of 'durable soft foam!'. Soft, yup, and as for durable...well...it survived round #1 with Tazzie. I'll need more rounds to really assess the 'durable' claim though.

So here goes, hands on exploration with the eyeball...

Tazzie gets his half (oh, did I mention its in halves? Yeah, I'll get back to that in a second, cause its really cool the way they did it...)and examines it, then attempts to use it as a spinning top. *sigh*

Of course, Diva is much more studious. At least when there's a camera around. *snort*


Homeschooling gives you the opportunity to say things that would otherwise never be uttered, such as, "You didn't wash your hands! There are dirty finger prints on my white eyeball!" and "Quit squeezing the eyeball! These have to last til The Princess is done high school!" amongst others.

The cool thing about the eyeball model, (ha! Thought I forgot, didn't you? Neener neener, neener!) is that on one half of the model, its perfectly labeled. On the other half, its labeled with only letters, so if you wanted to test your child, you could hand them the letter only half and have them write out the name to each corresponding letter. Clever no? Diva wasn't so enthused.

Moving on to the ear.

Obviously, these things are a wee bit larger than life. Van Goh, where art thou? Yes, I find that funny. Nobody around here gets my humour.

Tazzie thought that if he only yelled loud enough, something would happen. I know that feeling. Its called Motherhood.

Diva, checking out the ear. She made some pretty neat observations, including that the cochlea looked like a snail shell.

All in all, a great success, even if there was some fighting over the ear.