Report

Okay, it's not exactly a "weekly report" because it's taken us 2 weeks to do about a week's worth of work. We've had car issues. We've had nice weather that beckoned us outside:


We've had snowy weather that had us grabbing shovels and getting to work:



And we've had much packing, with Thalia and I going on a camping trip last weekend, and Thalia going on a retreat this weekend.

And, of course, GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. The orders are now in, though, and we can forget about it until the end of February we are suddenly proud owners of 220 boxes that we need to distribute (better than last year when we had 320 boxes -- lucky for us the incentives this year weren't nearly as attractive, so we didn't feel compelled to sell that extra 100 boxes).

School has happened here and there, though. Some highlights:

Thalia suddenly shouting out through a quiet house, "I GOT IT! I GOT IT!" when she solved a particularly snarly algebra problem.

AnnaBeth counting down the final few lessons of First Language Lessons 3 (only 4 more lessons, then it's party time!). She's getting sillier and sillier with these lessons. Today she was supposed to draw a box around prepositional phrases before she diagrammed the sentence; she turned each box into a litter box, complete with kitty litter.

AnnaBeth finished Minimus 1 this week. She's taking a break from Latin before starting the next program, which will most likely be Latin for Children.

Thalia asked to skip the rest of the Analytical Grammar review sessions and just do the regular Season 2 lessons. Grammar comes easily to her; I think she considers this "fun". Egads.

We were invited to see a dress rehearsal of a production of Much Ado About Nothing, which will take place later today. So far we've read a condensed version of the play in preparation. I placed a hold on a video of it (the Branagh version) which we'll probably get next week. Thalia has been on a Shakespeare jag lately, so this fits in nicely.

The Effects of Topography and Climate on Homeschooling

When we lived in northwest Ohio it snowed often. It was simply part of our lives. Snow happened, and we continued doing whatever it was we were doing. Sometimes we didn't even realize that local schools were taking a snow day, since it didn't make much difference to us. We laughed and said, "We take Nice Weather days," to emphasize that by working through the snow days we had plenty of time to goof around outside when the weather was warm and sunny.

Of course, northwest Ohio is pretty flat.

Now we have a hill that calls to us



and compels us to Go Down




And friends who yell out their doorways "Hey, wait for me!" when they see us pass by at 8:30am on the way to the hill




By afternoon everyone has dug out their driveways, and people from other neighborhoods are bringing vanloads of kids to our hill. But we persevere, because we never know if it will snow again this winter.



Actually, we met another homeschool family that lives within walking distance of The Hill (and thus, theoretically, to us). Bonus! And from talking to them, I have the distinct impression that they've taken the past 2 days to sled down The Hill. Heck, they're taking off next week on a skiing vacation, taking advantage of those off-season rates homeschoolers can get, and they STILL took off a couple of days to play in the snow this week. A fine example for us all.

More

More snow.






More fleece.



(Yet another Jalie 2212.)

More later. Right now we need to go do more shoveling and more sledding.

D is for Down

It is easier to go down



than to come back up.



And, yes, we know there's hardly any snow on that hill (which makes it lots easier to come back up, by the way), but this is the most snow we've had this winter. On a positive note, the school kids aren't out on the hill because there's so little snow (plus it's 8:30am, so they're enjoying sleeping in for once -- our kids usually get up about now, and this was the one day they didn't sleep in).

C is for Camping

This past weekend Thalia's troop went camping.

It wasn't as rugged as it sounds, in spite of the cold temperatures. They camped in a lodge that had baseboard heating, electrical outlets, a stove and refrigerator, and (best of all) indoor plumbing. So even though it involved sleeping bags on thin mattresses, going on a hike in the cold, and star gazing at night in the cold, it was a fairly plushy set up. I arrived Saturday morning (the camping trip really started Friday afternoon, but I had other obligations), and quickly realized that it was really a giant 3-day/2-night slumber party. The difference from most sleepovers, though, was that the adults also had to sleep on the floor in thin mattresses and share one bathroom with all the girls. Also, everything had to be cleaned spic and span for inspection before we left, including the outdoor latrine, the outdoor firepit and outdoor kitchen area, etc., even though we didn't use them; I'd rather stay home and take the next week to recover and clean up. But, hey, it was certainly an adventure.

The troop worked on their Interest Patch for games



(they loved this game, but it took forever)

and photography



I have no idea who took this picture of Thalia -- they were obviously messing with the settings on the camera. By the end of the weekend that battery on the camera was totally shot, by the way, but Thalia had scads of pictures of widely varying quality, as well as movie clips of some of the girls dressing up as Leia and Ahsoka and battling with light sabers (they had taken the broom handles apart to make the sabers).

Since the scouts were pretty well self-contained, working on their stuff, cooking the meals, cleaning up, etc., the adults were just sort of hanging out. I worked on a sock:


I did this heel 3 times before I got it the way I wanted it. The other adults now have a totally warped view of sock-knitting, since I knit a while, then ripped everything back out and started again continuously. But I didn't have access to google all weekend, heaven forbid, so I had to come up with a heel on my own -- I had to think instead of google, and that's not something I'm used to doing. For the record, I ended up making a 10 row gusset, then a short row heel down to 50% of the underside stitches; I think I wrote all of this down somewhere so I can knit the other sock to match, but here it is again just in case I can't find my notes.

The troop moms are asked to go to at least one camping trip per year, so now I've fulfilled my obligation -- on a no-bug, indoor toilet trip! I'm feeling pretty smug about that, let me tell you.

B is for Books

Some of the books that we've added to our bookshelves in the past week:



Mostly homeschool related. Homeschooling and piles of books seem to go hand in hand.

(And there's an even larger pile from the library this week. Wowza, can you even imagine homeschooling without a library?)

By special request, the title are:

A Student's Guide to Natural Science by Stephen M. Barr
A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich
Once Upon a Curse by E.D. Baker
Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland by Cindy Neuschwander
Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter by Cindy Neuschwander
Geography of the World (Jayne Parsons is listed as editor on the DK website, but I can't find her name in the book)
Living Memory: A Classical Memory Work Companion by Andrew Campbell

All but the last are available at Amazon.com; Living Memory is available through Lulu.com

Work in Progress Wednesday

Koolhaas hat knit in Pastaza, finished this morning. I tried taking a self portrait of the top of my head in it.



But looking at that picture makes me feel a little dizzy, like I'm about to fall onto the brick fireplace ledge there behind me. So I nabbed a nearby child and took another picture.



Better. I need A Warm Hat for this weekend (Girl Scout camping), so this is it. I wanted to wear it this afternoon when we went to the library, but the kids thought it looked weird, since it made my head look "too small" ("I believe what you're trying to say is that it makes me look like a pinhead.") Apparently it corrals my hair mightily, and they're used to seeing my hair stick out every which way, so the sleeker look was very disturbing to them. So I didn't wear it. Which was just as well, since it's over 40F, and my head would have probably spontaneously combusted due to the heat. It's a VERY warm hat.

Also, almost finished with a fleece pullover for Thalia. She picked out some fabric on sale, and I altered the pattern I had used for my fleece pullover (Jalie 2212).

Except when I tried to take a picture, it came out sort of periwinkle



which isn't the actual color. It's more of a Graham Purple (which doesn't make sense unless you're involved in Irish Dance, but really, trust me -- mine is Clarkson Blue and hers is Graham Purple).

So, more messing around with the camera, and oddly enough I could get closer to the correct color by using the "underwater" setting on the camera.


Again, this warm item was in honor of Girl Scout camping, during which the temps should fall back down into the teens and twenties. Which reminds me, I need to go wash my wool socks.