I added the Activity Guide with its discussion questions, narrations, coloring pages, map work, and, as the title suggests, activities! While the maps didn’t really do much for dd#2 at the time, the story-telling way of learning history really did make an impression.

Fast forward to this year. Dd#2 is now in 4th grade and doing her “second round” of SOTW1. I had my doubts as to how much she would really remember from the first time through other than the double-handful of stories she brings up whenever something related pops up (like nomads, Dido‘s Cloak story, the story of how Alexander the Great got his horse Bucephalus, Bull Jumpers, etc.).

I’ve been really amazed at the connections she’s able to make (between civilizations or what actions certain groups take because of what happened to them previously), the deeper understanding of the Big Picture (both geographically & chronologically), and the literary references she’s run across in the past four years that stemmed from something that occurs during this time frame  Her reading ability is obviously much better now, so she’s able to tackle books that I don’t have time to read aloud. This allows her to get more details of this time in history – whether it be non-fiction or historical fiction.

*in Best Infomercial Voice* But that’s not all!

I’ve also got dd#3 enjoying her first round of SOTW1 in 1st/2nd grade. She’s listening and asking questions, but mostly sits quietly coloring and soaking it all in. Her answers to the discussion questions run about 50% correct, but her narrations are much more succinct and summary-worthy than older sister’s. (Older sister wants to retell the whole story like Charlotte Mason-narrations. Susan Wise Bauer pushes for just-the-main-point type summaries in her narration style.) She enjoys history. That’s important to me.

. . . And what about the tag along that I mentioned in my post title? Well, he’s ds#1 – the five year old. He asks to have his own coloring page each afternoon that we do history. He sits quietly, coloring (with markers or crayons), and listening intently while I read aloud. Until I started calling on him specifically with the discussion questions, he would just yell out the answers (as sentence fragments). The girls were rather annoyed by this usurpation, so I now include him in the round-robin of questioning after we are done with each section in the book. Most of the time, he answers correctly and in complete sentences (modeling his sisters’ form).

How much is he really absorbing? Well, it is hard to tell how much he will retain long-term, but he volunteers information at dinner with DH about What He Learned in History. Another anecdotal story involves one of the history read alouds we did. We’d just read about Rome (Ch 28 – The Rise of Rome) a few days before. One of the sections was on Roman engineering (roads, aqueducts, indoor plumbing, etc.) and another was on gladiators. (What boy doesn’t like to hear about engineering or fighting?) While making our way through Time Warp Trio‘s “See You Later, Gladiator,” ds#1 kept interrupting to point out “We READ about THAT (the Via Appia)!” and then, “We just learned about aqueducts!” or “They are talking about net fighters!”

If you are waffling on whether or not to try SOTW1 with some younger-than-1st graders along for the ride, know that it is possible they will absorb more than you might think!

We purchased some Thumb Guards last summer and actually tried them briefly before he turned three years old. (The TG people say not to use them with kids under three because they are more likely to switch to finger-sucking or be able to get out of the guards themselves.) It wasn’t the right time to try them.

Fast forward to last month when we were trying to potty train the little guy. (I know, he should already be trained since he’s three. He’s not. Deal with it!) After a couple of days of almost constant success, he decided he really didn’t want the hassle of using the facilities.

We gave him a choice– he could either continue wearing his Big Boy pants and use the toilet when he needed to “go” OR he could go back to diapers but he had to stop sucking his thumb. Surprisingly, he chose to take on his love affair with both thumbs.

He was amazingly willing to put on the Thumb Guards the first several days. We added a Band-Aid at the base of each thumb where the guard chaffed his skin.

On the fourth day, his lack-of-quality-sleep (due to constantly waking up & finding that he couldn’t get comfort sucking in) created a frazzled little boy who cried and struck out with his fists when he couldn’t pull off the Thumb Guards.

We were able to get through this — mostly by enforcing naps which he’d almost ‘grown out of’ and distraction (books, blocks, Cuisenaire rods, sword play, puzzles, trucks, & Play-Doh).

He occasionally would put one of his other fingers in his mouth and his Thumb Guards took on a chew toy-look by the end of the first week, but he didn’t seem to be fighting the process much.

He has had a few setbacks over the last month. Around week three, he was able to pull off the guards before taking a much-needed afternoon nap. I found him asleep with the thumb firmly planted in his mouth. I was able to replace the guard more securely without waking him.

A few days ago, dh took off the guards in the morning for their routine cleaning. I forgot to put them back on after ds#2′s “airing out” time. Dh & I talked about it and based on how ds#2 wasn’t putting his thumb in his mouth, we decided to leave them off until either naptime or bedtime.

It ended up being bedtime. DS didn’t fuss when we placed them back on at bedtime. In the morning, we snipped them off and he went on with his day. This is our new practice.

Tonight, ds was tired a little earlier than usual. He started yawning after I got him ready for bed. Before I could brush his teeth and put him down, I caught him with a slightly pruney-looking thumb. I gently reminded him that we aren’t sucking our thumbs anymore and he held them out to get the Guards put on.

I ordered another 60 strips so we can continue with ‘night guarding’ for as long as we think it is necessary. I would hate to have him go through all this again because he starts backsliding.

Progress!

Update:  It has been just over a month since I posted this. We had a few nights of struggle when DS didn’t want the thumb guards on. I taped a long sock over each hand for those nights, but they were always off in the morning. Soon after, though, he went back to the thumb guards. He now does one or two nights without the guards with one night on, just to make sure he doesn’t slip back into old habits. When peeking in on him during a rare afternoon nap recently, it was wonderful to see that neither thumb was in his mouth.

My dd#2 loves to write stories but struggles to finish them. There are other parts to the writing process she hasn’t grasped yet, so I thought she would like to join dd#1 for some writing.

Writing Magic is set up with 30 chapters, each covering a different idea, topic, challenge, or bit of advice about writing. It is not meant to be a book that read all the way through in one sitting. Except for the first one, each chapter ends with “writing time.” (The first chapter starts with writing time.) Sometimes there will be one writing prompt. Other times, there will be two (or more!) prompts and occasionally there will be an extra assignment on top of the creative writing.

Mrs. Levine says that she volunteers as a teacher of a creative writing workshop in her hometown. This book is her way to share what she’s learned from teaching those classes about writing and how it “gets into trouble” [pg 7].

We usually do a chapter each day (four times per week), but when there is an extra assignment or multiple writing prompts, we’ll take two or more days. We only spend thirty (30) minutes on this daily, so our in-class writing is limited to about twenty (20) minutes. This isn’t always enough, so I encourage the kids to go back to their stories later to finish them up. This is hard to do, so if you plan on using this book, you might want to schedule its use when they have plenty of time to write afterwards.

We just finished Chapter 17 – Stuck!. The idea behind this chapter is so you know writing will never be perfect, not to expect to be great at it when you are just a beginner (corollary:  it takes practice to get good), and give you ideas on how to get out of a situation where you don’t know what to do next. The writing prompt gives you a story set up where the main character has a perfect life. Your job is to write twelve (12) possible disasters that can set her off on an interesting story. Then, pick one (or more) and turn it into a story.

This turned into something of a family affair. My darling husband overheard me reading and got in on the game. Here are all of our ideas — the good, the bad, the silly, and the insane. (You may borrow any of them. Just send us a copy of your published book!) Oh! I should mention that there were details to this person’s perfect life & what was going on. You’ll be able to figure those details out when you read enough of the ideas.

1) Car accident on way to graduation.
2) She meets a cool boy at camp.
3) She pees herself on the stage and dies from embarrassment.
4) Her father has a heart attack and dies during pictures after graduation.
5) Her mother meets an old friend at graduation and is never seen from again.
6) Her parents have big news:  they are pregnant.
7) During the graduation, the Chinese invade the USA.
8) At camp, she is thrown from her horse and breaks her neck.
9) Her boyfriend quits talking to her.
10) While at camp, her house burns down.
11) On the way to graduation, her father reveals that he lost his job months ago and they can’t afford camp.
12) Drawn in by a recruiting poster, she joins the Navy.
13) The Greek god Zeus steals her from the graduation stage.

1) She falls off her bike at camp and breaks her leg and back.
2) Her boyfriend dies.
3) Her boyfriend gets taken hostage.
4) Her parents divorce.
5) She forgets her suitcase.
6) She gets captured.
7) She becomes a thief.
8) Her friends get sick and later move away.
9) She gets sprayed by a skunk.
10) Her boyfriend likes another girl.
11) Camp gets cancelled.
12) At her graduation, she gets mortally embarrassed.

1) She gets blown up by a bomb.
2) The boyfriend says she has dumb hair.
3) When she gets home from camp, her parents have another child and don’t want her anymore.
4) Her clothes fall off at graduation and she’s so embarrassed, she dies.
5) A giant toad wants to marry her.
6) A giant brick falls on her head.
7) She goes crazy.
8) She is put in a pit full of lions and devoured.
9) She runs in a race and trips.
10) She acts like a pig and then a butcher with bad eyesight kills her and her mom & dad eat her as bacon.
11) She “passes gas” in front of her boyfriend and he is pushed two feet off the ground.
12) She grows a pig nose.
13) She goes on stage and forgets her line. She turns and runs.
14) All her adult teeth fall out.

1) She is caught picking her nose and fired from her camp job for being a bad influence. When she calls home, she finds out her family has rented out her room for the summer and doesn’t have room for her anymore. The story has spread and no one will employ her in her hometown. her boyfriend claims he knows no one by her name.
2) Camp has a fire the night she shows up and all evidence points to her having set it.
3) She is walking across the stage to graduate and breaks her leg. She can’t do camp that summer.
4) When she’s driving to camp, her car runs off the road and she has to hike to civilization. The camp figure she’s a no-show and goes on without her. she’s gone for months and no one misses her. Her boyfriend figures she’s moved on without him and gets a new girlfriend.
5) When she’s driving to camp, she picks up a hitchhiker who kidnaps her.
6) Her parents announce they are divorcing and there will be no “home” to come back to at the end of the summer. Mom is going to Europe. Dad is moving to India. She gets to camp and finds out it has been cancelled. No way to contact parents for three days and no home to go to.
7) Gets lost on the way to camp and ends up taking a spaceship to Mars.
8) Truck breaks down on the way to graduation. She doesn’t make it in time & school won’t give her a diploma. Camp won’t let her work there without it.
9) A tree falls onto car on way to graduation and kills parents. Seriously wounds character.
10) Tornado during graduation. Separates family & destroys camp.
11) Bags get mixed up and she has to do camp with old lady’s fat clothes.
12) World War III breaks out during graduation. Bombs drop. Chaos ensues.

There has to be at least one that has promise in that list, right?

In Chapter 24, one of the activities is making a Gingerbread Parthenon. Since we didn’t do Gingerbread Houses for Christmas this year, the kids were wild about trying their hands at an Athenian temple. (Note:  We’ve only done Gingerbread Houses one Christmas & I purchased the pieces “ready made” from a local lady who sells them for only $5 and includes a great frosting recipe. So, it didn’t actually involve me having to MAKE anything. The kids did the assembly, frosting, and decorating.)

In retrospect, I think the instructions really meant for the Parthenon to be 2-D like this one. The thought really didn’t cross my mind at the time. So, we made the recipe in the Activity Guide blissfully unaware that we wouldn’t have enough gingerbread. (The instructions clearly state there would be enough for TWO Parthenons. I figured we’d be rolling in the dough. Pun intended.)

We designed & cut out templates using heavier paper. We rolled out the dough on a couple of silicone mats that a neighbor gifted me. Those were handy!

The kids put the templates on the dough & trimmed around them, keeping the scraps for the next pieces. A couple of my artesians decorated the top friezes with Centaurs or Greek god/goddesses. Sometimes, they cut a little too deep & the slice had to be frosted (see picture below). Overall, they did a magnificent job.

The instructions in the Activity Guide don’t give an oven temperature or how long to bake them. I started with 350 degrees F for 14 minutes.

It was soon apparent that we wouldn’t have enough dough to get all the pieces made. So, I had to make another batch. (A half-batch would have been enough, looking back.) We had enough for some cookies later. The kids said it wasn’t the tastiest recipe they’d ever had, so if you plan on eating it, you might want to choose a different recipe than the one in the Activity Guide.

The second batch of dough was cooked at 375 degrees F for slightly longer than 14 minutes. One of the pieces got a tad toasty (burnt). Oops!

As soon as they came out of the oven, we used the templates again to retrim the edges.

I read about three tutorials before attempting the icing (recipe on this link halved) or assembly.

We pre-piped the edges (to give them just a little bit extra time to get sticky before putting them together) and used cans to support the walls so they wouldn’t shift too much when we let go.

My nine year old wondered if people had to step through the columns to get in since there wasn’t a door?

My five year old asked where the “circles” and steps were. …. Maybe next time, I told him.

We only enjoyed our finished Parthenon for a little while before the Spartans invaded.

We were left with ruins…

I have written before about the time my oldest asked my husband if he liked to read. She told him that she didn’t have the “patience” for it. If you can’t read fluently, chances are you don’t enjoy it and you aren’t reading for pleasure.

My second child would frequently complain about my oldest always having her nose in a book. She was so mad (and a bit jealous, I think) that she wasn’t getting play time because oldest was too busy reading.

Finally, after a summer spent voluntarily reading picture books to her younger siblings and listening to probably a hundred audiobooks, dd#2 took the plunge into loving reading in a big way.

Near the end of the summer, DD#2 purchased a book at the library called “Magykal Papers.” She enjoyed the cover and picked through the contents slowly. She wanted to know more and said there looked like there were more books in the series.

When I picked up the first book of the series, Magyk, for her, I knew it was too hard & too long for her to read.

I’ll give her credit — she tried to read it. But, she soon dropped it. She just wasn’t ready.

I was able to find it on audio CD at the Big City library. DD#2 loved the story & wanted the next one. But the Big City library didn’t have the next one available. So, I turned to Audible.

DD#2 enjoyed listening to Flyte & Physik. But I made her wait on book #4, Queste, because I knew Sage’s seventh & final book of the series, Fyre, wouldn’t be out until Spring, 2013. I was trying to stretch out the series until closer to the final book’s release.

DD#2 decided she couldn’t wait on me. She picked up the hardcopy of Queste at the local library and started in. It took a couple of weeks, but she read the whole thing. (She also told the story at the dinner table over the course of those two weeks. So, older sister had to pick up the series starting at Book 1. Younger sister started listening to Magyk on my mp3 player whenever she could sneak some time with it.)

She’s on Book 6, Darke, now. While she will finish the available books well before the next one is out, this gives her time to read more books by Angie Sage and to go back and read the first three on her own.

A lover of reading was born (or borne, as Angie Sage would put it)!

So, hang in there. Sometimes you have to get some help first. Sometimes, it just takes practice and time.

My six year old was reading aloud to me. I chided her a couple of times about the funny face she was giving me. She hotly denied making a funny face.

Later that night, I saw my daughter smile spontaneously and realized something was terribly wrong.

She looked like my aunt who had a stroke over two years ago. One side of her face was smiling and the other side was just sitting there – doing nothing. (She later said she looked like “Two Face” from the Batman comics.)

And then we found out she couldn’t close the eyelid on that side of her face all the way either, even while trying very hard and squinching up the other eye tight.

After a quick internet search (which came up with something called, “Bells Palsy”), I called the after-hours pediatrician line and talked to one of their nurses. She came up with Bells Palsy as a possibility after much questioning, but felt like we’d let it go too long (4+ hours from onset) without heading to the hospital. She wanted me to call 911 and have an ambulance take my daughter as quickly as possible to the nearest hospital rather than drive her myself. (I’m not sure if she was over-reacting or I am just really laid back, but this seemed very extreme to me. Perhaps there was something on her screen that pointed to a really serious condition where we needed immediate help.)

Knowing both the ambulance service & my closest hospital all too well, I declined that option. I also bypassed the next closest hospital (30 min away) and took my daughter to the Big City (1 1/2 hrs away) Children’s Hospital Emergency Room (ER) at 9 o’clock that night. I felt I was more likely to get a knowledgeable, helpful, and quick diagnosis there. Before I left, I had to coordinate worst-case scenarios with my darling husband as he’d have to leave for work at 4:15 a.m. He started to make phone calls as I piled a reluctant child into the van.

As I drove, I wondered if I was over-reacting. Or, if I was making the wrong decision to drive the extra hour. What if time really was that crucial?

In the end, we were back home an hour before my husband had to wake up to get ready for work. My darling dearie had indeed been diagnosed with Bells Palsy. The nurse and doctor put dd through a myriad of tests and me through many questions to get to that diagnosis. DD had not had a recent ear infection, cold, or other illness that is commonly said to precede Bells Palsy. However, that facial nerve had still, for some reason, pinched and frozen half of her face.

The Children’s Hospital staff were wonderful. They suggested we put dd on an oral steroid as it has been shown to shorten & reduce the effects of Bells Palsy, although there is some debate still about using it on children. I had them give her first dose before we left. That meant I had to find an open pharmacy on a Sunday. (Three pharmacies in our small town & none of them are open on Sunday. So, the next day, I toted all five kids to the only pharmacy open within 35 miles. It was a small price to pay for her well-being. Besides, I needed to get her some eye drops.)

Thankfully, we homeschool, so I was able to minimize her exposure to other kids except for her neighborhood friends, the local homeschool group, and the kids in her gymnastics class. These were all understanding of her situation and none had to see her eat, drink, or watch her get her eye drops in.

Learnings:

She had a tough time keeping her mouth closed completely those first few days when she was eating. She noticed that she would dribble a bit when drinking. In what I thought was a counter-intuitive move, I allowed her to drink from a straw. I had mistakenly believed it would be harder for her to drink from a straw. Online reading suggested otherwise. As long as she kept the straw on her ‘strong’ side, she did great.

We did not have to patch her eye, but I did give her eye drops on a regular basis (once she complained of scratchiness) until she asked me to back off a bit to see how her eye was doing without them. When she’s asleep, her eyelid closes entirely, although not as much as her other eyelid does. I now only give them on a ‘asked for’ basis. For us, this is working.

The steroid can make your kid a bit … different. Everyone has a different reaction. My kid is constantly hungry, a bit more snappish than usual, and sometimes doesn’t focus well. (She had trouble with the word ‘him’ during a read aloud and couldn’t count by 10s one day. These things popped up and passed as the dosage of the steroid decreased.)

Let the adults she’ll be interacting with know what is going on so they don’t make a big deal of it and they can also step in if another kid starts loudly commenting.

It can be helpful to let the child see how he/she looks in a mirror, but can also be distressing. (Looking at her Halloween pictures got her very upset.)

Advice I followed:

Don’t have her do exercises. Just let the nerve heal.

No gum chewing. Hard to enforce at our house, but supposedly is helpful to ‘resting’ those muscles.

Don’t favor that child over the others or ‘baby’ them. (This is REALLY HARD for me and I admit to not following it as strictly as I should.)

————-

We’ve let her know it could be awhile before it resolves itself. The other kids know not to comment on it. She doesn’t really pay attention to it except when she’s drinking nowadays. It is much more distressing for the parent & other kids who see it All The Time. Try not to let it get you upset.

Some resources that were helpful to me in those first couple of days/hours:

Kids Health Bells Palsy overview

Post by another mother whose child had Bells Palsy

Bells Palsy Frequently Asked Questions

Support Forum for Bells Palsy Sufferers – read the Useful Information section
* This is where you find out what type of eye drops to get, for example. There’s even a post for “parents of children with BP.” They also have a FAQ that is helpful to read.

And a friend forwarded me this:  A BBC reporter with Bells Palsy   It was probably the best article to use when explaining what my daughter had to others.

I sometimes have very vivid dreams. This caused me some trouble as a youngster as I would wake up in a panic about something terrible that had just ‘happened’ in my dream. As I got older, the real-to-me dreams continued.

Sometimes, they get me into trouble. I’ve had to go check on my kids — sobbing quietly — to make sure they are still breathing after dreaming about one of them having a horrible accident & dying. My darling husband doesn’t really care to have me mad at him because I dreamt he cheated on me the night before. (Intellectually, I know it wasn’t real. But when I have such a clear dream, it is hard to disassociate with the emotions that come along for the ride.) I’ve contemplated confessing those very real dreams in which I’ve cheated on my husband. (These seem to only come when I’m pregnant for some reason.) The guilt that accompanies them is overwhelming.

I had one of those vivid dreams last night. In this dream, whenever my mother drove the car back to our old neighborhood, we would pass backwards in time about six or seven years. My children & I were the only ones who realized we were in the past. (My mother & sister were also in the car with us and they didn’t seem to remember the future when we were in the past & they didn’t remember being in the past when we went back to the future.) My father was still alive. My joy at seeing him was uncontainable. I ran to give him a hug immediately.

His hug back to me was the same as it was when he was alive. He would loosely put his arms around me & pat my rear end a couple of times (like football players do to each other) and then let go. (When I woke up, I wondered, did he hug the others this way? I don’t remember.)

We traveled backward in time twice during the night. I was able to get two wonderful hugs from my father.

I am so grateful for the hugs I received last night, even if they were only in a dream. Because they felt real to me. I felt my father’s love last night.

Man, I miss him.

First – For our family, this is a Man Project. I turn the Activity Guide with the instructions in it over to my husband. He is the one that obtains the materials (other than the hen, which I picked up at the store) and sets aside time for the project each day/week with the necessary child-involvement.

Second – This is our second time doing this particular mummification project. Four years ago, the older two girls helped out. This time, it is child #2 (second time through) and child #3. I anticipate something like this occurring in another four years with child #3 (second time), child #4, and child #5. Too early to plan that far ahead, however.

Third – My darling husband tweaks the instructions because he is a miser with his salt solution. We liberally employ the hair dryer to help dry the chicken out faster. We encourage others to do the same.

Fourth – Remember, wash your hands frequently & well when handling & when finished handling the hen.Every day for the first several days (week?), he pulls out the hen, brushes off the salt, pulls out the hair dryer, and then repacks new salt solution into the bag. Eventually, it is ready to rub in oil & wrap in linen. We’re almost one week in & are definitely still in the drying-out stage. (Post updated at the bottom with ‘finished’ pictures.)

After rinsing the hen & squeezing out excess water, DH starts in with the hair dryer.

While drying out the inner cavity, DH showed the kids where the organs (heart/lungs) used to be.

The girls asked dad what all the bumps on the outside of the hen were for. Each bump = a feather.

Mixing up the salt/baking soda/etc. solution.

Did I mention that my husband likes to “help out” the mummification process by using the hair dryer?

This is our reserve of the salt solution to use when drying out our hen. DH puts the hen in a gallon Ziplock bag with some of this.

We had newspapers, papertowels, and rubbing alcohol on hand when finishing the ‘mummy.’

When we were done, this is what the plainly wrapped mummified hen looked like.

Do you still remember sayings/slogans you heard on the radio or TV when you were little? (Previous links were for “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” and “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” How about Wendy’s “Parts is parts” or “Where’s the beef?“) Can you still remember songs from your favorite TV shows from way back when? (I can remember everything from the A-Team to Jem to Greatest American Hero.) When you are young, your brain just soaks up all sorts of information. My job is to put USEFUL information into those brain-sponges so they aren’t just drinking in the words to Spongebob’s theme song.

This year, dd#2 & dd#3 are memorizing poems as part of our grammar program (First Language Lessons 1 & 2) and science (Elemental Science’s Lapbooking through Biology) – although we are using someone else’s poems (I’ll add the link later if I remember). They will be memorizing catechism questions as part of their religion studies. And, of course, there is on-going phonogram & spelling rule memorization as part of Spell to Write and Read.

DD#1 is memorizing quite a bit for science (Elemental Science’s Biology for the Logic Stage). This unit, for example, she’s memorizing the Divisions of Life (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) and the Five Kingdoms (Monerans, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals) + their basic characteristics. She’s continuing her study of Spanish, so she’ll have to remember quite a bit of vocabulary and verb-endings. This year’s Latin is review, so she just has to keep in her head all the conjugations & vocabulary from the past two years of her Latin studies! She will have to remember the location of many bodies of water and the names of several countries/empires in Europe and Asia as part of her mapwork in history (for my quizzes!). She is also memorizing catechism questions for her religion studies, but I don’t have any poems on her list for this year. On her own, she just finished memorizing “If” by Rudyard Kipling, so she is capable of keeping quite a bit in her head at once! If I can get her interested in another long poem, I’ll definitely put it down. At her age, however, I like that she picks out the piece because it keeps her motivated.

The brain is a muscle. If you don’t exercise it, it’ll get flabby.

[Here is an article about a study done in 2007 on just teaching the concept that the brain is a muscle. Here is commentary on another study done in 2009 on how much exercising your brain can improve your IQ scores.]