Not Inadequate

You know how little kids always have a bazillion questions?

And how a lot of them are the same one? Over…and over…and over….?

Well, I finally did something about that and I’m at Heart of the Matter talking about it today.

We spent the whole weekend getting ready for a gigantic garage sale we are hoping to have in a couple of weeks. We cleaned years of CRAP out of the basement, and just moving it to the garage felt liberating. It’s not like it’s all really crap, but it there was so much of it, I felt disgusted and discouraged. Who are these people that bought all this stuff? Why did I think I needed not one, but two mini-muffin tins? Why did I buy a tiny mirror at a thrift store for $3, carefully wrap it, and stick it in a box for 14 YEARS?

Everywhere I looked, I saw dollar signs.

And they were fly - fly - flying away.

Not only that, but it was FILTHY down there. Yet another reason to be grossed out by ourselves. Most of my friends think that my house is perfectly clean all the time. I don’t know where they get this idea, except that whenever someone comes over, I go into panic mode and we all scramble to pick up. I scramble and bark orders and scare people with the crazy eyes. I’m a multi-tasker that way. Plus, I don’t let people upstairs to witness the kids’ bathroom or the giant pile of laundry that inhabits on our bed.

So not only was I confronted by crap and filth, but I also had to work and lift stuff and the dust got all up on me, and now my eyes have been hurty for three days.

AND I’m too tired to do any of the things I need to be doing, like school and bread baking and dinner making.

And being tired reminds how close I am to turning FORTY, which is, I guess, officially OLD.

FORTY. I will be forty in 31 days.

My husband said turning forty was really no big deal, because after you do it, it’s over and you don’t have to worry about turning forty anymore.

I asked him when he was planning on realizing his next big one was FIFTY.

Judging by the look on his face, that had not occurred to him yet.

I might have taken a small amount of pleasure in being the first one to remind him about it.

Another small sample of the the Awesome Wife Service I offer.

AND THEN, this morning, all my Twitter pals were bragging about being on Spring Break, and I got all grumbly and jealous and whiny and started wondering why I didn’t schedule a break for us, because we could sure use a break…

and then I checked my schedule…

and we WERE supposed to be on Spring Break this week.

And now I’m all confused.

Which must be another symptom of being forty.

Except I am NOT forty YET, so forty better just step off.

I SAID STEP OFF.

Laundry is stupid.

• I love the blog Home Learning Victoria. I always learn something. Rebecca talks about books and games and all sorts of interesting home ed things, and I often open an Amazon window so I can add things to my Wishlist. This post in particular touched me – Skip Those Teachable Moments.

• Speaking of Home Learning Victoria, her review of the book Nurture Shock sent me to the library to check it out. The first chapter is on The Inverse Power of Praise and had so much amazing information in it, I read it aloud to my husband last Sunday morning. Has anyone else read this? If so, let’s discuss.

• I went out to dinner last week with my best friend, L, and we talked a bit about home school and public school. Then she sent me this email:

“I would love for you to offer tips or thoughtful insights to parents that have their children in public school.  In other words, advice for those who don’t have the option of home schooling, but lean into the home schooling philosophies.”

Which I suppose serves me right, since I blathered on obnoxiously about learning environments and freedom and now I’m on the spot to put my money where my mouth is.

Dang it. Where the hell am I supposed to get a Thoughtful Insight?

L’s kids are (oh dear, I hope I get this right…) 14 and almost 16. They attend a small town public school. L is a very involved parent - going to every meeting, keeping track of grades, and making sure her kids are working to their abilities. Both the kids are on the advanced track in a few subjects, and they both play sports and do other extra-curricular activities. I can’t think of anything I’d tell her to do different, since I think she’s a great parent.

But!

I know that all mah homies out there have/had kids in both environments and you guys probably have some awesomeness to offer. So bring on the advice, book recommendations, and suggestions.

See what I did there? I managed to sidestep the question AND sort of answer it!

Help a girl out, peeps.

Happy Monday!

Two years ago, I read it takes 3 years before you find your homeschooling groove.

I was all, “Girrrrl, please. I know what I’m doing!”

Hah.

Since then, I have floundered around quite a bit. We started with School-at-Home.

Then I saw Charlotte Mason out of the corner of my eye and we headed in that direction.

Then I corrected course toward Interest-Led with an Unschooling bias.

Then I started thinking those weird Latin Moms had a few good ideas (you know who you are).

Then I suffered a panic attack, because I finally had it narrowed down to Relaxed, Interest Led, Slightly Unschool-y with a side of Strict, Organized, Classical.

And those two philosophies seem pretty opposite.

Probably even the road to Crazy Town. 

After much thinking, reading, talking, researching, Twittering, and whining, I think I have a plan. At least for now.

Obviously, Big is at the age where we are mostly focused on the basic skills. I’ve reduced our formal, scheduled subjects to Math, Literature, and Spelling. Math is the only workbook. I finally realized the other workbooks were just busy work. Astonishingly, Big retains more when we do less. Now that he’s a reader, I can hardly keep him in books. We are working our way through a stack of Real Literature, as well as a bunch of read-for-pleasure books.

The part of Classical Education that appeals to me the most is the rigorous thinking. I’ve said before that one of my main objectives is to teach my kids how to think, not what to think. From the ideas outlined in The Well Trained Mind, we will steal Latin, Math, and Logic & Rhetoric. We will being Latin next January.

Everything else: Interest-Led.

It is unfortunate that we have been conditioned to think kids aren’t interested in anything but video games, and that they have to be dragged kicking and screaming to learning. It is sad that we assume if they had their own way, they would do nothing. A discussion for the damage the school environment does to the desire to learn is for another time; however with my own children, I can barely keep up with their interests. They have the attention span of a gnat, but also manage to be insatiable. A passing conversation with my son reveals interests in Words, Geology, Outer Space, Geography, History, Gardening, Machines, Sharks, and of course, Volcanoes. Little wants to know more about Kittens, Ladybugs, Fish, Horses, Swimming, and Pink Stickers.

And so, we will Notebook everything we are interested in. Presently we are Notebooking Vocabulary, Book Summaries, Science (we are ladybug farmers!), and a 50 States in 50 Weeks sort of a thing.

That’s the plan. Some hard stuff, some easy stuff, and lots of fun stuff; stuff that they have to learn, stuff they want to learn, and stuff they will learn because someone else has an interest in it.

Kind of like real life, right?

Homeschooling Isn’t:
The same kids
in the same room
doing the same thing
at the same time
in the same way
to achieve the same results
because they are the same age.

—Stephen Moitozo

They had a link to this at Simple Homeschool over the weekend, and I loved it so much I wanted to keep it.

Organized education operates on the assumption that children learn

only when

and only what

and only because we teach them.

That is not true.

It is very close to one hundred percent false.               

– John Holt

• This weekend I tasted Nutella for the first time ever. Oh. Em. Gee. I am in love, and will be swirling a big spoonful into my coffee as soon as it’s done brewing.

• On Sunday, my son was helping sweep the kitchen floor. Then he swept the table.

With the broom.

I was not there to see it, but I heard my husband holler, “NOOooooooooooooo!” while I was in the shower.

When I came downstairs, he asked if I wanted to know what all the yelling was about.

I said No. 

But he told me anyway.

And now I have to burn that table.

• On Saturday night, I got a quart of Ham and Bean soup out of the freezer and asked my husband to make some Jiffy Mix cornbread to go with it. A minute later he gloomily announced we were out of eggs.

But then!

I remembered last week Connie at Smockity Frocks said you could make an egg substitute using ground flax. The chance for a science experiment was too good to pass up. What’s the worst that could happen – we ruin a $1 Jiffy Mix? I mixed 3 tablespoons of water with 1 tablespoon of ground flax and followed the rest of the directions on the box.

Success!

We were both pleasantly surprised that it worked (Jim more so – he is suspicious of stuff I find on the internets). The cornbread turned out fine – maybe a little crumbly, but it usually is. We covered it in butter and honey as per usual, and ate it with a spoon.

(yep. boxed cornbread. the cheap stuff. eaten off a paper plate. with a plastic spoon. that’s how we roll, yo).

Yesterday at about 4:45 pm, I realized that I had not started dinner in the crockpot yet.

This was an unpleasant discovery.

As I was scrounging around in the fridge, I found a pound of bacon and actually remembered what I bought it for.

Oh my LANDS, y’all!

(Something about this dish gives all my thoughts a Paula Dean-ish drawl, y’all)

Being the baking geek I am, I follow the King Arthur Flour Blog. A while back they talked about these biscuits and I immediately put bacon on the grocery list, intending to give them a try some lazy Sunday morning.

These biscuits might be yummy-ness perfected.

These biscuits are another reason to be glad I am not a vegetarian. I just don’t think lentils would be the same.

If these biscuits were a movie, they would win an Oscar.

Firstly, fry up some bacon. MMMmmmm…..bacon…

Secondly, whip up a little butter-maple syrup sauce.

Then MIX THE BACON INTO THE SAUCE.

Say whaaaat…?

You heard me.

Are you hearing Paula yet, y’all?

Make some biscuit dough.

Drop the DOUGH over the MAPLE BACON SAUCE o’ YUMMINESS.

DO IT.

Bake. Turn out onto a plate.

Devour.

Accept the accolades of your grateful family.

Try to be modest about your mad baking skillz.

King Arthur Flour’s Maple Bacon Biscuit Bake

Syrup

• 1/2 pound bacon, cooked until medium-brown
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Biscuits

• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons cold butter
• 1 cup cold milk or cold buttermilk

Directions

• Preheat oven to 475°F. Lightly grease an 8″ square or 9″ round pan.
• Cook bacon. Make syrup. Combine bacon with syrup and spread in the bottom of the pan.
• Make biscuits – whisk dry ingredients together, then work butter in until mixture is crumbly. Add milk, stir well.
• Drop dough in heaping tablespoons on the syrup in the pan.
• Bake 10 minutes. Turn off oven, leaving biscuits in hot oven for 10 more minutes.
• Turn over onto serving dish.

I used 1 cup AP Flour and 1 cup freshly ground whole wheat flour. I also think this recipe would benefit from lining the baking dish with parchment, as lots of bacony goodness stuck to the pan. How I found the strength to not grab a spoon and eat the bacon syrup right out of the bowl I will never know. I made a giant whack of scrambled eggs and proclaimed dinner a success. It was about 45 minutes from start to wolfing down.

I will definitely make these again, because oh mah GAH, y’all, they are CANDIED BACON ON A BISCUIT.

This post is for Applie who asked me why I like All About Spelling so much.

I LOVE All About Spelling.

It will be my spelling program forever and ever, amen.

When I was looking for a spelling program, I was overwhelmed by all the choices out there. I read every single review of every single spelling program I could find, scrolling through pages and pages of opinions on sites like Home School Reviews, Cathy Duffy Reviews, and The Homeschool Lounge.

What really took All About Spelling to the top of my list was that it consistently received very high marks from a huge variety of moms and students. Moms who homeschooled from the beginning liked it. Moms who pulled struggling readers/spellers out of public school liked it. Moms who had kids with dyslexia or other learning disabilities liked it. Moms who had kinesthetic learners liked it.

What is so different about it? It uses a multi-sensory approach to learning. We can work orally, with flash cards, with the letter tiles, or with regular old pencil and paper. It has all these different avenues built into the program, and that makes it easy to connect with the visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner. Even though I’m not entirely sure what kind of learners we’ve got, this is going to cover all the bases.

Here’s why I like it:

• It is organized. It progresses in a very logical manner. This appeals to me, because I am logical and like to do things in a Neat and Orderly Fashion. In fact, the phrase Neat and Orderly actually comes out of my mouth on a pretty regular basis. I’ll bet if my husband made a top ten list of Ways in Which My Wife is Annoying, hearing “guys, let’s do this in a Neat and Orderly Fashion,” all the time would be on it. IF there were such a list. But there isn’t. Right, Sweetie?

Speaking of organization, I like that AAS teaches all the letter sounds of all the letters. Sure, after the first few Explode the Code workbooks he knew the basic letter sounds and the short vowels, but wondering when to introduce the 4th sound of U or the 3rd sound of Y stressed me out a little. Should I teach all the sounds all at once or would that be overwhelming? On the other hand, saying, “Hey! You mastered all the sounds! Guess what? - There’s a bunch more!” seemed like a dirty trick. Besides, my son was advancing more quickly in reading than he was in our phonics workbooks (Workbooks! Gah!), and got frustrated when the words did not follow the phonics rules we had covered so far. Luckily, All About Spelling answered those questions for me and I could stop wasting all my valuable freak-out time on vowels.

*By the way, we have now abandoned Explode the Code altogether for phonics and are using All About Spelling and real books for Language Arts. I throw in some handwriting practice when I remember, and next year we might add in some gentle grammar. Right now though, AAS is fulfilling way more than just spelling. In my opinion, it’s a comprehensive learn-to-read and spell program.

• There is no student book. Only the teacher’s manual. This is a plus to me, because we can work through each chapter at our exact pace, rather than trying to get 10 pages per week done or Mommy’s Schedule is ruined and Mommy doesn’t cope well with that. I allow approximately a week and a half per chapter. Some chapters we work on for 3 days, some take 6 or 7 days (10 to 20 minutes per day). Plus, no student book means no badgering this child to write, no listening to this child whine about writing, and we can work at the speed of his brain, not the speed of his hand. (Of course, if you have kids that aren’t so averse to writing, you can spell on paper.) No student book also means no consumables, which means I can save everything for my daughter and avoid buying more stuff.

On the other hand, it is a very teacher-intense program. There is ZERO preparation, and all the lessons are scripted and very specific about how to get the point across; but the teacher must be there, working with the student. This is not a drawback for me since my kids are very young at 6 and 4 – I’ll be fine doing spelling with them every week for the next 6 years if they will just attain Bathroom Independence.

• The letter tiles. Again, the letter tiles allow us to learn to spell without all that pesky writing. Big likes to work with the tiles. I don’t know why exactly – something about them is fun. Pretty much everything is more fun compared to some dry old workbook that makes your hand hurt. Fun means I never have to cajole him into doing spelling. Fun means he asks to do spelling. Fun means spelling isn’t even really considered schoolwork. Fun makes it a win all around, is what I’m saying.

• It is a mastery program with lots of review. We are in chapter 22 and not only do our spelling words focus on the phonics rule we just learned, there are also spelling words that incorporate rules from previous chapters. We tend to think that spelling the English language is confusing, but in reality, 85% of our words are spelled phonetically and with specific spelling rules. All About Spelling focuses on both of those and does so in such an organized way, that I no longer worry about sight words or gaps. Rather than having kids memorize long lists of words, AAS teaches the how and why of spelling. I feel confident that by the time we have completed the entire program, my kids will be able to read and spell almost any word they are confronted with.

• Other Awesome Features. AAS has their own set of readers that correlate with the spelling lessons. They also have a site called the Chatterbee where you can talk to other users and ask questions. I think it’s a great resource and have used it a couple of times. Marie Rippel herself (the author of the program) will respond to questions and emails with amazing promptness. I’ve realized that AAS is family-owned and I like supporting small business, so that’s a tiny bonus to me. Also, there are no grade designations. We started from the beginning, but if you have older kids, it’s nice that AAS does not label each step as a grade, but rather as a level. It is arranged by spelling concepts, so it’s only logical to start at the beginning - older kids can do this without feeling like they are doing baby work.

I really can’t think of any cons to this program, except that some people think it’s a little on the expensive side. I don’t, because readin, ritin, and rithmatic are huge priorities to me and I don’t mind spending money on them; and also because there are no consumables which reduces the cost dramatically, depending on how many kids you want to use it with.

You may have noticed that I have a link in my sidebar to All About Spelling. When I placed my last order (for All About Reading for Little – more on that later), I raved so much about the program, the owner (that’s right – the owner took my order) asked if I was an affiliate. After much thought, I decided I believe in the program so much, I would give it a shot. The links in this post are affiliate links, and if you are inclined to place an order, feel free to click through from here. I have received no compensation for this post, I really did write if for my buddy Applie.