Still Waiting . . .

I am still waiting on my 2008-2009 Rainbow Resource catalog. Anyone else got theirs yet?

I thought I was doing the right thing by waiting until their new catalog reached me before I ordered. Perhaps there would be more items I could order at the same time, right? More business for them. But I just checked the Main Item I wanted, and its price has nearly doubled – to what everyone else is selling it for. So, now I might not order from them at all.

But I’m still waiting for the catalog.

Birthday Cake

My youngest just turned one year old. I usually make a cake for birthdays, so I pulled out my recipe books. I had been wanting to try some of the recipes I saw in the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Fraternally Yours magazine (March 2007 back page). This seemed a perfect opportunity.

Black Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup COLD coffee
1 cup milk
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour sides of 9″ x 13″ cake pan. Mix all ingredients until well blended. Batter will be thin. Pour cake batter into pan and bake for 45 minutes. When cake is completely cooled, spread with peanut butter frosting (below).

Well, I did make a few changes to the recipe. I used softened margarine instead of the vegetable oil. I made the coffee with milk and decreased the total liquid to 1 1/4 cups (instead of 2 cups). I used two 9″ round cake pans, but forgot to flour them after greasing them. Note: This is an important step that caused me some frustration. Definitely don’t forget that step if you try this recipe.)

Looked good. So, then I tried the:

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp. milk, or as needed
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
     Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate the vanilla and milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get light and fluffy.

I can’t ever do something exactly as it is listed. I didn’t soften an extra stick of margarine (didn’t use butter). So, I nuked it in the microwave until it was soft and, well, runny. I wanted to use the same measuring cup for the peanut butter as for the powdered sugar, so I put the powdered sugar in first. Then, I wanted an easier time of getting the peanut butter out of the measuring cup, so I nuked it as well. I think the p.b. microwave action was the killer. The frosting never got “thick.” It got chunky and the butter (from the peanut butter) separated from the rest of the mix. It definitely never got “light and fluffy.”

It wasn’t a total loss. I used it as a middle layer between the other two layers of the cake. The outside of the cake was frosted with my old standby – fudgey frosting. (Recipe not at my fingertips or I would post it, as well.)

Happy Birthday little one!

Planning Next Year and Interruptions

I’ve started planning my lessons for next fall.

So far, I have been able to fit 42 chapters of Story of the World I into 33 weeks. I made sure to include some slop for extra reading and activities, but we will be kept hopping in order to keep on schedule.

In religion, I am about half done. We are covering the No. 1 St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism Chapters 1-14 on a schedule suggested by Laura Berquist in Designing Your Own Classical Curriclum. Alternating with that, we will be studying the saints. That part of the lesson plans is blank at this time. I also included a two week cram of the ten commandments. We still haven’t decided if our second grader will be receiving the Sacrament of Penance or Holy Communion this year. There are a few weeks left after all these items are penciled in. If the second grader does receive the Sacraments, those weeks will be used quick review of the First Communion Catechism. They will be dropped in whenever it works to put them in.

Next, it is onto Science or Math. I can’t plan Spelling/Dictation yet as I lent out my copy of Spell to Write and Read/The Wise Guide to another homeschooler who is also knee-deep in planning. She is looking for a program to use with her kids and had never heard of SWR. We were discussing the planning process when she raised the biggest problem she has.

Was it too many curriculums to choose from?                                       Nope.
Was it curriculum that wasn’t right for her kids (too difficult/easy, not-the-right-style, boring, etc)?       Nope.
Was it that she is not a detail person?                                                    Nope.

What was it, then? The problem she has is INTERRUPTIONS! Whenever she tries to get some serious planning done, she has to take a break to deal with something.

I can relate. I am used to breaking up fights, keeping the crawler out of the flowerbed, helping the toddler get something or get out of something, assisting with some chalk drawing, or ferrying drinks outside. All while I’m trying to read something, take notes, or write up my lesson plans. I try not to simply give up. So far, my most productive time was the rainy afternoon this week when my kids had two neighbors over. I was able to have a huge (30-45 minutes) block of time to work on my history plans. I had almost finished them (three weeks left) when the rain stopped and the kids decided they wanted to move back outdoors. Cleanup ensued and chaos reigned supreme.

But, I soldier on. Math shouldn’t be that hard, but I think I’ll tackle Science. I’ve already started to work on my Apologia Astronomy rough plan to get the book done in 16 weeks. Another homeschooler wrote plans spreading it to 22 weeks, so I am paring it down to fit our school schedule.

Onward!

Books, Books, Books!

We’ve been checking out our limit of books from the library lately. At our small, local library, we get one “household” card. Only 15 items (including movies) may be checked out at any one time. This is somewhat of a problem with a large family and homeschooling. Each kid likes to have a couple of books to take home each library trip. Several books are usually desired for school subjects that week – one or two each for history and science. It is also desirable to have a book for “literature” assignments for the oldest. Needless to say, we have run up against the maximum several times. We do get an occasional waiver to go one or two books over with the understanding that we will bring a few back ASAP to get us back under the limit.

However, with school out for the summer, it is interesting that we are running up against the maximum now. The simple explanation is the summer reading club. The kids have read (or been read to) two books per day, on average, since the club started. They checked out 14 books on Tuesday. By Saturday morning, those were all read at least once (thrice for a few of them). Back to the library we went. We kept two of the books from Tuesday at home and we carefully pared our checkout list down to 12 + 1 movie so as not to exceed the limit.

Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Only One Small Hiccup

Vacation bible school is over and the kids had a blast. The only hiccup was Thursday night when it started to pour rain right before we picked them up. I had neglected to check the forecast earlier, although I did note the dark rain clouds moving into the area. I hoped the storm would hold off until we had the children home. It didn’t work out that way. We could barely see through the driving rain on the way to pick up our kids and a neighbor.

Our biggest regret was that we rode our bikes originally although we switched to the van to pick them up because of the storm. Through pouring rain, foot-deep “flood” rivers, and dark conditions, we packed all the bikes and the kids into the van and headed home. Two of the children requested blankets during the short drive because of their wet skin and the chilly air. The neighbors cheered when we dropped off their child and his bike. I hadn’t planned on a “natural shower,” but had one anyway.

Overall, the kids really enjoyed themselves. They came home with lots of stories, trinkets, craft projects, and an enthusiasm for vacation bible school in the future. One of the adult volunteers told me on the last day that my quiet (shy) child actually led her group in the bible verse. Color me astonished!

We will certainly consider sending them to this activity again.

Busy! Busy!

I am one of those introverts who would rather stay home with a good book than interact with people. If there is one thing on my calendar all week, I stress out thinking I’ll forget it or that it breaks up my regular schedule. However, I have been out of my comfort zone for the last few weeks in this regard.

One contributor was some horrible back pain I started having almost two months ago. It was so bad that I couldn’t sit on the floor and change diapers. I became a patient of a chiropractor and am now in much better shape (literally and figuratively). However, it did mean trips to another nearby town three times a week for the past month.

Another contributor is the kid’s summer activities. We have vacation bible school (which the kids are enjoying immensely), going to the pool, the reading club at the library, tumbling classes, etc. I think we were gone more today than home. Except for the morning (breakfast, chores, reading-of-books), the kids more outside more than inside our house today. That’s a great thing for keeping the house clean, but not so great for keeping the children and their clothes clean!

On a side note, we are getting a lot of use out of our bicycles this summer. We’ve been able to bike to a lot of places in town and people are getting used to seeing us pedaling by. We do a lot of walking, as well. But biking is becoming more and more favored each day. We certainly get there faster when we are on wheels.

Questions, Questions

As I wrote before, we have run into quite a few children who are going to be entering kindergarten this fall at one of the local public schools. Their mothers, upon hearing that I have a child of that age, almost always ask, “Is she going to be starting kindergarten in the fall?” I usually hesitantly answer, “Yes.”

Inevitably, a few minutes later, they follow up with a question about which school. To which I answer, “Mine.” Then, I explain that we homeschool. So far, the comments have been positive toward our choice with a unanimous, “I could NEVER homeschool because . . . ” and all the usual reasons given. So, I read this article by Jeanne Potts Faulconer with some interest. There are times that I am very glad not everyone knows we homeschool because our kids are not necessarily the stereotypical “well-behaved homeschooled” children. 

The gist of the article is that people stereotype homeschoolers and that all homeschoolers are ambassadors of the movement and need to fight the stereotypes – even the positive ones.

I certainly know that there are hundreds of different reasons why parents decide to homeschool. Some are enthusiastic and some are reluctant. Many start on the path to homeschooling for one reason and after a couple of years have completely different reasons for continuing. Still others find that after a few years, their reasons for homeschooling have changed and, in some cases, dried up. So, they decide to discontinue homeschooling.

I try to remember in all my interactions with the public that I am an ambassador of the homeschool movement. I am not one who thinks everyone should homeschool their children. I am pretty emphatic that many parents would not want to go down this road. However, I am not any more patient, more intelligent, more dedicated to my children, or more organized than most of the other parents out there. My husband and I have simply chosen a different path. A path less taken, so to speak. It is as full of briars, weeds, dead ends, and wild animals as the well-traveled path. It is a tough road to travel, but we are committed to it . . . at least for now.

Activities Review

Things have definitely been busy here since school officially ended for the spring. The kids have been to the pool, joined the summer reading club at the library, learned six letters (one uppercase) in cursive, done upteen review pages in the math books I provided for review, run rampant all over the neighborhood, rode their bike many miles, and driven their parents crazy only a little.

My #2 child is also trying out gymnastics/tumbling. She has only gone twice and the first time was rather nerve-racking as she kept running out of the gym to tell Mom she wanted to go home NOW. When she left that first time, however, she commented, “That was fun, Mom. Can we do it again sometime?” My reply was, “Yes. NEXT WEEK.” The second session went much better as far as her doing what she was supposed to when she was told. We have met MANY young children who are headed into kindergarten in the fall at one of the local public schools.

We are pondering sending the two oldest to Vacation Bible School next week. I am leaning toward letting them go this year and seeing how it goes. My husband was adamantly against it until I asked for his reasons. He could not come up with anything except an aversion to such activities in general. Since we are not sending him, he quickly agreed to give it a go if I really wanted to try it. We will see how next week shapes up.

Curriculum / Lesson Plans

One of the things I have on my to-do list for the summer is to develop next school year’s lesson plans. In my two years of homeschooling, I have not yet had a master lesson plan made up in advance. However, #2 will start kindergarten in the fall so I think it is time to get a bit more organized. It will help me to have a general idea of what I need for the upcoming week if I have something written down for each subject.

In all my curriculum searches, I have seen many lesson plan books for teachers. Some are for public/private school teachers. Some are geared specifically for homeschooling families – even those with large families.

I’ve taken a look at all the ones I have run across. I wonder if I should purchase one or make my own format? Yes-yes, I know about the ones on the computer. But even though I blog, I really don’t have time to sit in front of the computer and enter all those plans in. My lesson plans are written in pencil while sitting in a lawn chair on our driveway supervising the kids playing. I have to be able to put down the pencil and notebook and referee a disagreement, change a diaper (or two), feed the baby, rescue a child who has gotten into a jam, kiss a boo-boo, or run next to a child who is learning to ride without training wheels. And when I come back from any of those activities, I need to know that even if one of the other kids has gotten to my pencil and notebook, all my work is still there. (Let me translate:  I don’t trust my kids and a laptop!)

I asked the veteran homeschoolers in my area what they do. Other than the ones who use Homeschool Tracker (on computer), almost all of them currently use something they have devised themselves. Several said they have tried the ones they bought, but they prefer to make their own as it is easier to customize for their own families. That is probably the route I will go. So, now I just have to decide what it will look like and start work on it.

What do you do for your lesson plans?