Switching it up...

In her book, The Well Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer asks the question: How do I know if my child truly understands what she is learning in math? The answer: Give her a page from a different math curriculum and see if she can do it. Switching curriculum, or occasionally supplementing one, can lead to a wider understanding of the subject because the information is presented in a different manor, and the student is exposed to a variety of viewpoints. You get a clearer picture of what you are learning, and sometimes fill in the holes. It also allows you, as the teacher, see any weak spots and provides the opportunity to strengthen them.

By the time January hits, our homeschool is usually ready for a change. The excitement of the Holidays are over, and it's back to business as usual. I hate business as usual. It boars me and makes me restless. I need change on a regular basis, and thankfully so do my kids. So, January is a great time to start new subjects, or just change curriculum for some subjects. I add some things and take some things away. I refresh our homeschool.

This year, for Mayah my 2nd grader, I am adding cursive and switching her math from Math-U-See to Abeka. She actually LIKES routine, and I can't change things too much for her or she gets insecure. That fine and I work with it.

For Ian, my 5th grader, I am adding to his writing curriculum (supplementing it with Abeka's Language B), changing his Logic program, and adding drawing classes. I am also raising my expectations in certain areas, such as his handwriting and spelling. I am requiring him to make outlines and write short essays that demonstrate his understanding in certain subjects, such as history and literature (the two are one and the same in our homeschool).

We are also going to purposely peruse New Years Resolutions this year. I want them to learn how to focus on a goal of personal achievement and find satisfaction in accomplishing those goals. We are going to lean how to set a goal, decide on the steps needed to achieve that goal, and practice the art of self discipline for the purpose of advancement. I acknowledge that this task requires that I set the example and I will be doing my best to model behavior that provides direction and accountability for my kids.

It seems that I am a bit of a self abuser. I always seem to go into weight-loss mode right before a major holiday. Like now, for instance. I woke up 2 days ago and decided that I absolutely had to lose 10 lbs before Christmas. Maybe it's my way of controlling myself when I would be otherwise free to indulge to my hearts content- which would be very bad.

I can't seem to get off the gain-lose-gain-lose roller coaster, and the sad part is that I know how to lose weight and keep it off, I just can't bring myself to do it! I don't need a magic pill to make me skinny, I need a magic pill to keep me skinny once I get there myself! Ugh!

I found this really fun site that has educational songs for government. Smart Songs also have videos on YouTube. The kids love it, and we bought 2 of the songs to put on their mp3 players; The Presidents, and Political Parties . Ian is half way through memorizing the list of presidents, and I was looking for a way to motivate and help him out.

Oh dear. I do believe I may have entered some very dangerous territory.

You see, my darling husband purchased for my enjoyment an e-reader: The Nook (Barns&Noble) is one of the latest to come out.

Do you realize what this means? It means that my book purchases will no longer be limited by my ability to find space for them on my mercilessly crammed bookcases. This will either be a wonderful blessing, or it may bankrupt us as the whole wonderful world of ebooks wraps me in a warm compulsive embrace.

Since the Nook has yet to be released ( I anxiously await Nov 30) I cannot truthfully say what this will do to my finances, or my obsessive book purchasing habits. Let's not even talk about how I can download ebooks from the library...

AHHH, that feels better.

Do you ever feel like throwing away everything in your house and starting over? Well, that is the point at which I had gotten yesterday. I was overwhelmed with all the STUFF cluttering my closets and living space. So yesterday, I spent the day cleaning out my house, and I have to say, I did a pretty darn thorough job. I took out 6 bags of garbage (4 of which came from Ian's room!) and I have a load of stuff for the thrift store that will fill my entire car. Why do we collect so much stuff??

15 Signs You Might Be A Bookaholic.

I found this on another website, and thought it was funny. I listed my favorites, and the ones that I may or may not be guilty of...

• You're packing for a romantic weekend away with significant other and you give more thought to which books to take than to which nightgown is your sexiest.

• Before you buy a purse you make sure a paperback will fit inside.

• Your significant other mutters about life in prison not being much of a deterrent to you since you'd be quite content sitting in your cell reading all day.

• You call in sick so you can finish reading a book.

• When you move you have more boxes labeled "books" than anything else.

• You have to constantly invest in new bookshelves.

• Your kids holler from the other room with something they consider a dire emergency, and you say, "Wait until I finish this page!"

• You have no idea what's on television anymore (except for Psych) because the boob tube has become just another piece of furniture.

• You tend to buy frozen, microwavable foods that practically cook themselves so that you don't lose any precious reading time for such an unimportant thing as feeding your family.

• You valiantly try to teach your kids "independence," which means you want them to do more household chores (so you can have more reading time).

• It's 2am and you think "just another chapter" and do the same thing at 3am when you know you have to get up in 4 hours and work.

• You try reading and walking at the same time. (Works on a treadmill!!)

• You start fabricating excuses as to why you can't go out with your friends when you're in the middle of a great book.

• You start thinking of the characters as real people.

• Your eyesight goes from 20-20 to legally blind because of reading in poor light.

Charlie's Latest Adventure

My poor beagle Charlie has done it again. He has gotten himself into a world of trouble by allowing his insatiable appetite lead him astray.

The other night, we arrived home from the YMCA, and were preparing a late dinner. The house was chaotic with dinner preparations, excited dogs, and overstimulated children. Mayah was assigned the task of feeding the dogs their dinner while I got our own evening meal ready, and nobody was paying attention to Charlie, who had designs on Sara Beth's dinner, as well as his own. Sara Beth was, at this point, far more interested in greeting her pack than consuming the tasty morsels of dried dog food that was placed in front of her, but Charlie had no such compulsions.

After finishing his own bowl of nutrition, he assumed that Sara Beth had let her guard down, and was in the process of helping himself to seconds- courtesy of Sara's distraction. When Sara realized that her bowl was being robbed at a frantic rate by her rival Charlie, she took offence and set about the task of teaching that rascal a lesson. I am not quite sure if Charlie was protesting the method of Sara's remonstrances- which consisted of a strong set of teeth clamped securely around his neck- or being deprived of his second meal of the evening, but he set to howling and yelping as only a woeful beagle can. The outcome of their little argument was a wound to Charlie's ear that sliced it neatly up the middle. The wound needed to be promptly addresses, as Charlie felt that it would be helpful to shake his head and splatter blood all over the house.

The whole family set off on a field trip to the emergency vet 20 minutes away at 10:00 at night.

Arriving, Charlie insisted on bleeding all over the vet's office while searching out any scraps of food that some other careless pet may or may not have left behind. He spent an uncomfortable night there, getting shaved, stitched and bandaged while Sara Beth was gifted with what she saw as a whole night of having her pack to herself.

The next morning, after paying an atrocious vet bill and receiving instructions for medicating and caring for a wounded rascal, I brought Charlie home . I refused to feel a disproportionate amount of sympathy for this dog, who, through greed and selfishness, single handedly drained the funds we had set aside to go camping in September.

He now wears the "Cone of Shame" as you can see from the picture, and we have made the decision to invest in pet insurance. I am hoping his stitches will be ready to come off in a few days because keeping his head wrapped in bandages has become a full time job, when you consider that Charlie's entire existence right now seems to revolve around determinedly removing said bandages.

Oh, and to avoid future situations of this nature, the dogs are now leased and fed in separate rooms at mealtime.