Skiing from Dawn to Dusk: A Frosty Pastime

Posted on January 30, 2012 by homeschoolhappymess

Gravity is love and every turn a leap of faith.  ~Author Unknown

 We are deep into our winter ski and race season, rising in the pitch dark and struggling into layer after layer of poly-fabulous clothes guaranteed to keep you warm while never absorbing moisture.

Each morning the task seems near impossible and yet by the time the sun rises we are on the slopes and loving every frosty minute.  Athena, Quantum, Truth and this year even Bounce are all on the race team.  We are thus driving to new mountains, hauling equipment and stomping our ski boots as we anxiously await the Happymess Kids as they compete in Slalom, Giant Slalom and Super G races, slicing towards us in techno-colored race suits, hitting the “gates” on their way down the slopes.

It is a long cold wait at mid-mountain as a “professional” ski mom.  Hot chocolate anyone?

Our list of equipment is unending with gloves, liners, boots, goggles, helmets, etc.  Many have commented that I must be the “equipment manager.”

More accurately, as a woman I met in Turkey once stated about my family role,

“I see you are the donkey of this expedition.” 

Athena and friend after competing in downhill slalom race (Allia)

The best part is the camaraderie between the ski families.  We have made some great friends and skiing with friends is the best part of any day.

Winter-Time
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake.

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is skiing ice-chilled slopes by daylight and reading winter poems by firelight.

 

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Encouraging Reading: A Library is Born

Posted on January 30, 2012 by homeschoolhappymess
“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.” 
 – Abraham Lincoln

In our continuing pursuit of the joy of the written word, we have embarked upon creating our own homeschool library.  The actual collection of books was started in my father’s childhood, continued in my own and has been vastly added to through the childhoods of our own eight children.  Prior to building the actual bookshelves we found that we had piles of books in every room, every corner, and on every surface.  We all knew where our favorites were so location was not a problem.  Literally  every corner of our lives was happily consumed by books.  Ultimately it was time for a bookcase. Well, actually a library.  So with this in mind we have been building a “school house” and “library.”  It has taken us over a year but we have finally done it!

Athena immediately dedicated herself to the Herculean task of unpacking the books (our close friends that we had not seen for a year!) and organizing them by subject and alphabetically by author.  This monumental activity took her 12 hours a day for more than a week.  She chose categories:  fiction, biography, travel, history, science, foreign language, religion, philosophy, poetry, reference, etc.  Within the categories she alphabetized each book by author.

I was very nervous with all this organization.  I am used to playing a mental game of Clue with my books, “I last saw this volume in the kitchen, under the table, with the candlestick.”   I honestly wasn’t sure if I could find the book I wanted by searching for it on the shelf.  Athena ignored my concerns and powered on.

Athena the Library Queen

Everyone in our family has worked hard to make our school house dream a reality and with everyone’s help we now have a fully functioning library and schoolroom with 1000’s of the greatest books a child could dream of; we have beautifully illustrated classics, enticing modern dramas, wonderful history and science books filled with paintings and maps and internet links.

Now for a great home education:  all we have to do is sit back, choose a great book and read, read, read.

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations–something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.” 
 – Katherine Patterson

 

Quantum and Jack London share a moment together

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is learning to read and reading to learn.

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(Home) School is Where the Skis Are

Posted on December 8, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

The Happymess kids have been on the road now for the past several weeks.  Throughout our travels we have tried to keep ourselves focused on schoolwork while enjoying our new environments.

We started our adventures by packing one laundry basket per child with all the “must have” school books.  This way we can drag the baskets into each new location and the kids can find their work, pencils, calculators, etc.  Homeschooling should always be this easy.

The basket system is working surprisingly well.  Everyone knows what they are suppose to be doing and where to find their work.  I allow them to pick their subjects, as anything in the basket is something worth doing.  They naturally choose different activities at different times as everyone thrives on variety.  Their choices are the basics:  math, reading, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, science, history.  I expect them to complete 3-4 subjects per day.  This is a slightly lighter work load than when we are at home…but then we have many other things to do…Also we have only one computer between all of us, and the internet only works occasionally so workbooks and pencils are a necessity.

No internet also means all non-electronic toys and games.  I am happy to include this engineering feat with blocks as a math exercise.

After several weeks in the mountains it was time to head to the grandparents house:  we took a very foggy ferry.  Scooter almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the fog horn for the first time.  It was very, very LOUD.  Note:  book baskets are stowed in back of car on ferry.

Grandma’s house was lots of fun, and one of the first activities was a fancy tea time.

Everyone enjoyed dressing up for tea time.  And they enjoyed the little tea cakes, sandwiches and unending individual pots of tea.

The highlight of the visit was an invitation to a very formal dinner celebrating the achievements of Happymess kids exceptionally famous scientist grandfather.  We are  so proud of our own resident scientist who is at the top of his field in almost a dozen different disciplines within the science-math-physics venue.  Quantum was chosen as the representative grandchild to attend the event because of his extreme interest in mathematics.  He was seated next to a famous statistician and enjoyed learning about the use of mathematics in the field of biology.

Bounce and Mommy (Allia)

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is loving every minute of life and learning to teach throughout the living.

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Writing Assignment: Using Non-Chronological Sequencing to Heighten Suspense

Posted on December 4, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

Happymess kids are perfecting their creative writing skills.  Quantum is hard at work on his current narrative assignment.  The assignment is to take a small (actual) misdemeanor and turn this episode of misbehavior into a fictional narrative that evokes an element of mystery or fear.  The method?  Beginning in the middle or the end.

Quantum chose a time when he “hid” in the back seat of the car so that he could attend his older brother’s college football game.  In actuality, we knew he was there and we were delighted to have him.  In Quantum’ s fictionalized account the young boy remains hidden until he gets out, unnoticed, at a country gas station.  He intends to secretly re-enter the car but his timing is wrong and his parents, unknowingly, drive off without him.

Quantum wrote this story from beginning to end, in correct chronological sequence.  He then chose a sentence from the middle of the story,

“It was hot and stuffy in the trunk and I was getting hungry.  I was wondering if my parents would ever stop for gas…”

This became the new beginning of his tale.  From the inside of the trunk we experience the boy’s discomfort and regret.  When the boy is abandoned at the gas station he is befriended by an old man.  The man encourages the boy to call his parents and tell them the truth.

By inverting the sequence of events and fictionalizing a small misdemeanor Quantum is able to create an entirely new, and suspenseful story.   He uses extensive dialogue to express the thoughts and feelings of his characters.  After calling his parents the boy is left waiting to be picked up at the gas station.  We know the dad is angry but the reader waits with the boy, in suspense.  We can only imagine what the punishment will be.  Will the dad be as angry as the boy imagines or will Dad be forgiving and understanding, as the old man at the gas station believes?  Quantum leaves these final questions unanswered so the reader can supply their own ending.

The technique of fictionalizing a small bit of truth and then inverting the sequence is successful in creating suspense.  Starting with a misdemeanor and writing a beginning to end story with liberal fictionalization was an easy way to get Quantum writing.

We like to begin our writing sessions (after planning) with several 15 minute free-writes.  Quantum sketched out a general idea for his story, “hiding in the trunk” a climax, “lost boy” and a theme, “reckless behavior can lead to unexpected consequences” and an uncertain ending, “would the boy be forgiven?”

Once the events and order had been established, it was…On your mark, get set, GO…15 minutes of non-stop writing, no time for perfection, just get the story down on paper.

After re-reading his free write Quantum chose his middle sentence and started from this point.  He began to write more thoughtfully and slowly, really taking the time to build the story in the mind of the reader.  Now he had to make us feel the inside of the trunk, and see the barren gas station, he had to make us worry about this boy by himself, his decision to trust the only adult, an unknown male.  We were rooting for him to finally call his parents.  We knew they would be shocked and worried.  We knew they would turn around immediately and pick him up.  Of course they would be angry, but would they understand and forgive?  Most importantly, will this boy finally get to see his brother’s college football game?

By starting. In the middle, and not answering all our questions, Quantum has created a tale of mystery and suspense.  Most importantly, this technique enabled a novice writer to begin at the beginning, initially, and to feel comfortable creating an imaginary story that rings true.  Following these basic stair step exercises demystifies the writing process and brings simplicity and joy instead of tears and frustration to the creative writing process.

Happymess Kids Practice the Dark Art of Writing

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is striving to make the impossible attainable.

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Teaching the Kids to Cook: Both Happy and a Mess!

Posted on December 3, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

I have been busily cooking for the Happymess crew (up to 10 people daily) for, umm, could it be 25 plus years?!  Well, I have (finally!) decided that it is time to share the joy, and teach the younger 5 kids to cook.

This experiment, fraught with anxiety on my part, and great anticipation on the part of the kids (When is it my turn?!),  began this week.

Truth began the experiment.  He was “in charge” of the kitchen for the entire day and had to plan, cook and clean up each meal and snack.  He woke up early and began with Bisquik pancakes.  He chose these because he learned to cook them on a Boy Scout camping trip.

Truth was very proud of his first attempt.

Quantum struggled upstairs in his pajamas, took one look in the frying pan and said,

“What the heck are those?”

Athena helpfully looked in the pan and announced, “That looks disgusting!”

Where upon, Truth ran from the room screaming.  It was a successful first step.  After rescuing both the breakfast and Truth’s feelings everyone proclaimed that the pancakes were delicious (they actually were).

Quantum and Athena were chastised for their insensitive behavior.  They were surprised that thoughtless remarks would hurt the cook’s feelings!  First lesson learned.  Their turn would be next.

Truth had a second chance to succeed at lunchtime.  He made grilled cheese sandwiches with sliced turkey and cream of tomato soup.

Notice the improvement in grilling?  Everyone enjoyed their lunch and remembered to say only positive comments and to thank the chef!

Truth’s Menu (Monday)

Breakfast:  pancakes and orange slices

Snack:  pretzels

Lunch:  grilled cheese with turkey, tomato soup

Dinner:  left over turkey and stuffing, brownies (Truth baked these)

Quantum’s turn was next and he wasn’t taking any chances.  He chose reliable foods that he could cook and made sure no one had a chance to laugh at his efforts.

Quantum’s Menu (Tuesday)

Breakfast:  waffles and bacon

Snack:  baby carrots and chips with onion dip

Lunch:  hotdogs and soup

Dinner:  breaded chicken breasts (these were excellent!), mixed vegetables, homemade chocolate chip cookies (learned at Boy Scouts)

Athena had the next turn.  Her biggest struggle was waking up early to make breakfast before the others awoke.  She managed without a single complaint.  I think she was afraid that I would give her the breakfast shift everyday if she complained.

Athena’a Menu (Wednesday)

Breakfast: corned beef hash, eggs over easy

Snack:  fresh pineapple

Lunch:  cream of tomato soup, French bread, roast beef slices

Dinner: tacos, homemade crepes for dessert

Finally it was Bounce’s turn!  He could hardly wait!  He loves cooking and was eager to impress his big siblings.

He began with making French toast.  As you can see, he was taking his job very seriously.

His first attempts at grilling French toast were quite impressive.  Everyone loved his breakfast and by now they were humbled by the complexities of pleasing a crowd.  Big siblings, usually quite critical, admitted that the French toast was delicious.

Thrilled, Bounce could hardly wait for lunchtime.

Bounce is making French onion soup.  This is a favorite when we eat at a restaurant and everyone was amazed that you could also make it at home.  Another big sibling hit!

After dinner Bounce had the best dessert surprise:  S’MORS!  Quantum made the fire (he just learned this week) and Truth couldn’t have ben happier with the melted chocolate and marshmallows.

Bounce’s Menu (Thursday)

Breakfast:  French toast, bacon, cottage cheese

Lunch:  French onion soup

Dinner:  spaghetti and meatballs with green beans, S’mors

And guess what?  Scooter had to have a turn also!  He came to my room by 6 a.m. eager to begin his “cooking day”.

He planned his favorite foods: hard boiled eggs and jello.

Scooter’s Menu (Friday)

Breakfast:  hard boiled eggs, apple slices, oatmeal

Snack:  vanilla yoghurt with sliced bananas and granola

Lunch:  tuna fish sandwiches

Dinner: roast chicken, baked potatoes, spinach, jello

Scooter especially enjoyed cleaning the floor!

Surprisingly, the experiment was a success.  The Happymess kids enjoyed planning and preparing their meals.  They learned to be respectful of one another’s efforts and they helped clean up when they realized how much work it is for one person.  It was actually LESS work for me when they cooked, even though I had worried that it would be more difficult.

As a friend use to say,  “It is always the wrong day to teach the kids how to clean up after themselves.”  Well, after 25 years, I guess I finally got the courage to share the cooking fun!

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is letting go…the kids can actually do things!

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Fifty Nifty Gifts You Create: Installment One

Posted on December 1, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

Happymess kids are searching their imaginations and resources in an attempt to find the creative, thoughtful gift that siblings and parents will love and that costs more in personal effort and less in cash. For the Backyard Bunch:  Athena is busy creating a backyard box set of games: a combination of Capture the Flag, Flashlight Tag, Trust and Nerf guns.  The boxes will include walkie-talkies (we have some already), flashlights, handmade belts to hold gear (black on one side for camouflage and reflector circles on the other to reflect flashlights to team members).  The boxes will be decorated with different colors for each team and can be used as bases or forts.  These backyard boxes will be perfect for her 4 younger brothers.  Maybe she should include a few cans of whip cream?

Truth and Quantum are combining their playmobile collections.  They are designing a storage box with playmobile and small town illustrations.  They plan to write “Bounce” and “Scooter” on the box.  For the first time ever, Bounce and Scooter will “own” the playmobile and can play with them as much as they like.  Sharing a favorite toy collection with a younger sibling is a top favorite for everyone.

A few years ago Athena and Truth made an alphabet book for Bounce with 26 pages. Each letter began a word that was special to Bounce.  They handcrafted each page and then had the book spiral bound with a cover at Kinkos.  They found some beautiful free alphabet printables at http://www.momswhothink.com  This year Bounce would like to create the same type of book for Scooter.

Athena is making personalized photo pillowcases for her best friends.  She recently made a pillowcase featuring a group of friends for a close friend’s birthday.

Happymess kids are designing personalized stationary and “thank you’ notes for family members.  They are taking family photos, landscape scenes, etc. and paring them with quotes and verses of poetry.  By uploading them to a stationary website they can create professional but personal stationary.  Stationary can be placed in decorated shoeboxes. Pens, markers and stamps complete the gift.

Scooter is creating muslin placemats by printing squares of fabric with leaf and vegetable prints using tempera paints.

A trip to an eclectic bookshop offered Happymess kids the opportunity to find unusual and favorite books in beautiful editions.  They created several “favorite book bags” as gifts, inexpensive yet perfect for sharing their love of learning.

Quantum, Athena and Truth, members of the USSA ski team, plan to offer personalized ski lessons to deserving family members.

Athena is considering buying some kitchen gifts, a fabulous pan for example, and including spices and spatulas and adding a collection of hand created recipe cards researched from the internet.  www.smilebox.com has free templates to create recipe cards, cookbooks and more.

Bounce plans to decorate his poems and books and share them with his family.

Are you looking for inexpensive and entertaining gifts for the kids on your list?

Check out our Quickie Thrifty Gifty List (approved as FUN by the Happymess team)

(first installment)

Yo-Yos

Slinkys

Nerf guns

Wiffle ball and bat set

Playdough

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is attempting to instill appreciation in the face of commercialism.  Wish me luck!

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Gearing up for the Holidays

Posted on November 29, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly—Thoreau

Thanksgiving is a great way to open the holiday season.  We spend time traveling to be close to our friends and family, we cook and eat and laugh and shop and plan for Christmas.  And most significantly we remember how important it is to be a cog in the wheel of our family’s lives.

Gearing Up for the Holidays (Quantum)

This year we are really making an effort to remove the materialism from the holiday season.  We are concentrating on the parts of the holiday season that are most important to all of us:  family and friends.

And no, it isn’t easy.  For children, Christmas seems to be inextricably tied to gifts.  But in addition to gifts there are so many tiny traditions and each of these small jewels creates the magic of what we think of when we think of “Christmas!”

We are singing Christmas carols, practicing our roles for the traditional church Christmas pageant, planning all our favorite foods and inviting guests from far and near to come celebrate on Christmas Eve.  Children are trying to earn last minute pennies and we are all busy trying to create “priceless” surprises for one another.

We have temporarily relocated to Vermont and are spending time enjoying one another and enjoying the unexpected.  Here we are able to touch and learn about local wild animals.

Christmas is a winter holiday and Happymess kids are building snow forts, sledding downhill and creating snow jumps so brothers, little and big, can take flying leaps into soft snow piles.

Big sister, Zuzu, from far away has come home and is busy creating balloon concoctions for smaller brothers.

After a very adult dinner we are able to step out side and watch the reflection of fireworks as they explode in the sky and are reflected in the snow.

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is being Thankful for moments of family unity.

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Almost Wordless Wednesday: Thankful for Nursery School

Posted on November 23, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

Today our nursery school hosted a Thanksgiving feast and every child was thankful for their friends and families, except for Scooter who proudly stated he was thankful for “rocket ships!”

We loved this easy class turkey made from a paper bag stuffed with leaves.  Every child contributed a “feather” attached to a small dowel.

The class also made this beautiful pumpkin bread, and they made the butter too!

Not withstanding his infatuation with rocket ships, Scooter was very happy to have Bounce join him for his feast.

My favorite fantasy moment was watching the children interacting with a painted background.  They happily ran to visit with butterflies, smell the flowers and attempt to draw water from the painted well.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Let Me Count the Days:  Homeschooling is enjoying the scent of painted flowers and the flutter of tempera butterflies.

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Finding Creative Inspiration

Posted on November 22, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

Creative inspiration is a necessary ingredient for every part of life, but certainly needed when educating and inspiring children. We need to be creative in our approach so our students are engaged and we need to continually reinvent the lesson to maintain both their level of interest and our own.

thinker

So where do we find our creative inspiration? Our Happymess approach is usually to look at each lesson as part of an inter-disciplinary component.

We ask ourselves, "How does this one piece of learning fit into the giant puzzle of knowledge?" I typically try to find at least 3 different disciplines related to each individual subject. I try to surround our nugget of factual study with small pieces of art, history or literature that will make the "fact" seem more "real" to our aspiring student.

For example, when studying math we ask ourselves, "Why is this really necessary? Who has used this knowledge in the past?" "Why might we be interested in knowing this in the future?"

These type of questions quickly lead us to a study of history, both ancient and modern. We can look at the ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians and learn how they studied the general principles of the world. We can study the lives of Euclid and Pythagoras and learn about the Euclidean algorithm for determining the greatest common divisor, or in Saxon Math terms, the greatest common factor (GCF). We study Pythagoras' theorem for determining the hypotenuse of a right triangle: a squared + b squared = c squared.

We see immediately that these are not merely formulas to be memorized. These are scientific principles that govern our natural world. These principles were observed by great minds of the past and were simplified into tangible equations.

So now as we commence our exercises we see that these Saxon math questions are part of an ancient dialogue. These questions have been asked, studied and answered for thousands of years. So "Why," our student wonders, "do we need to keep studying them?"

This is an excellent time to look at some current scientific uses for which these theorems can be helpful. They include use of GPS, navigating in outer space and measuring areas of a building or bridge for the purpose of construction.

Athena and I were recently purchasing tile for our kitchen. We went to several tile stores and were unable to determine the exact cost of the tile due to the lack of unit pricing. The salesperson was unable to provide us with a unit cost per square foot so that we could compare various prices of tile. After tap-tap-tapping repeatedly on her calculator she finally looked up sheepishly and said, "They just don't give us an app for that so I can't answer the question." Then she turned to Athena and said with a smile, "You see, that's why you have to study math in school." Athena just smiled back because she had already calculated the various sums in her head while pretending to study the ceiling.

We left the store thanking Pythagoras and his ancient friends for enabling us to get an honest price quote. Expanding the relevance of an otherwise "dry"

subject takes a creative approach but makes it much more fun to teach and much more entertaining to learn.

Where do we find our creative inspiration? We just keeping asking, "Why?" and "Who?" and "When?" each time we learn a new fact.

Let Me Count the Days: Homeschooling is searching to find the past and the future while struggling to understand the present.

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It is Destination Imagination Creation Time

Posted on November 19, 2011 by homeschoolhappymess

Our Destination Imagination teams are busy building, creating and constructing all types of props for their team Challenges which will be presented, in dramatic form, mid-March.  In total, no team can spend more than $125 so our team members are making all their sets and props from scratch, found objects and recycled trash.This team has finally engineered a device which will transport their teammates across the continents.  Later they will add many features and decorations but for now…all that must remain top secret.

Meanwhile, the elementary level children are hard at work creating their very own…Luminaries!.  Their Challenge play must be performed in the dark…and explain the present and future applications of solar energy.

It is now evening, pitch dark and shivery cold,  But the upper level team continues with….

Giant paper mache backdrops which they can use as frescoes for their paintings….

Destination Imagination:  It’s a way of life!

Let Me Count the Ways:  Homeschooling is always having a bigger happymess in your house, just after everything has been cleaned.

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