Fourth Carnival of Homeschooling is Up!

The Fourth Carnival of Homeschooling is up at the Heart Keeper Common Room. Please stop by and visit! http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2006/01/fourth-homeschooling-blog-carnival.html

Another One Bites the Dust

Will they ever invent a "Gadbois-proof" digital camera? We've just had our fourth annual camera disposal day. It's the same every time. We're going along just swell, enjoying the picture taking when all of a sudden the camera has a stroke. What am I doing wrong? I baby the camera, keep it in its box when not in use. OK, so I have 5 children to photograph, but should that make any difference? Am I working it too hard? Ohh, the guilt! Oooh, the dispair!

Perhaps my mistake is sticking with FUJI... I've always bought FUJIs. Mainly, I do this because it's the software I have installed on my computer. How's that for a lame excuse? The resolution is terrible by comparison - only three megapixels. I've had my eye on a really nice Nikon D70 for a bit. By the time I break down and buy it (I'll have to change my computer software you know...), it'll be about as up-to-date as camera obscura.

I don''t want a garden variety digi. I want a professional camera. I want a camera that takes photos like the ones that my old Minolta SLR takes. I want a camera whose body is made by Samsonite. I want a camera that can be dropped, bumped, burned and drowned. I want a camera that can take the pictures for me and allow me to take the credit.

Where, oh, where is my camera? If someone has seen it, won't you please tell me where?

What a Difference a Day Makes

60 degrees to 6" of snow in under 24 hours! Yesterday, the kids were outside in autumn layers playing baseball. This morning our two eldest were outside shoveling the driveway. I have GOT to get a new camera.

The fire is stoked up in the fireplace and I'm planning a hot lunch. Yesterday was chicken waldorf salad sandwiches and lemonade. In the words of Samuel Clemens: "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes."

Here are some other weather quotes I like by Mark Twain: "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." and "I could speak volumes about the inhuman perversity of the New England weather, but I will give but a single specimen. It gets through more business in spring than in any other season. In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours."

Oat Cuisine

Ahhh, the humble oat. The Latin name avena sativa has a musical ring to it, though. It's a relative newcomer to the cultivated grain family. Imagine - folks ignored it as a weed! The cheek!

The oldest evidence of cultivated oats was found in Switzerland and dates from the Bronze age. Originally used as feed for livestock, the straw (the stalk of grain left after threshing) was used for bedding. Oats have a lovely sweet smell and it couldn't have been long before someone worked out that they'd make a lovely dish for humans too. Apart from making a fine breakfast food, oats can be used much as barley or rice are used - in savoury dishes or as a starchy side. Oats are great for digestive function and clears cholesterol from the body. They make a lovely mucilage that is terrific for your skin when added to a bath, or to another base for skin care.

But we're talking about eating oats... Some folks like the grain whole, some like it cut, some like it squished flat and chopped, and some like it pulverized. I like oats anyway I can get them - must be the Scot in me. I thought it was about time I posted another recipe so here's an oaty one (and remember, if you can eat it without a plate or utensils, the calories don't count!):

William's 'It's Great to be a Kid' Oatmeal Cookies

I make these with William, our 4 year-old . He puts in all the ingredients and I only take over the mixing when it gets a bit stiff.

3/4c. butter (no substitutes)
1-3/4 c. flour
1c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. organic sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp.baking soda
2 c. rolled oats (some like 'em squished!)
raisins (golden or black - or any dried fruit you like - make sure they're cut raisin size!)
nuts (our faves are walnuts and pecans)
Chocolate chips (or any chip you like - carob, white choc., pb, or butterscotch)
*Note: dried fruits, nuts and chips should total about 1c. to 1-1/2 c.


Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla and egg; blend well. Combine flour, powder, and soda; blend well and add to butter/sugar mixture. Add oats, fruit, nuts and chips. When combined, drop by the spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325F for 15 minutes. Should yield around 4 dozen cookies. When they're cool, heap 'em onto a plate and pass the milk!

I found this anecdote on the University of Iowa's website: In Samuel Johnson's dictionary, oats were defined as "eaten by people in Scotland, but fit only for horses in England." The Scotsman's retort to this is, "That's why England has such good horses, and Scotland has such fine men!"

Verily I say "Amen!"

A Case for British English in America?

I've been grappling with this idea for several years. It has always puzzled me that British English isn't more widely spoken in this country. Yes, yes, I understand the whole rebellious/independence thing. I understand that we HAD to create our OWN language. blah, blah, blah. But then why call it "English" and not "American"?

When my children were born, I had a strong feeling that I ought to teach my children British spelling and syntax. I resisted the temptation to do so for fear of being labelled affected, phoney, or strange. As fate would have it, we found ourselves living in England after the birth of our second child. Not only did I fall in love with the place, but with the language. The eloquence with which Brits turn a phrase (even the commonest of people) was like honey for my soul. Bit twee to say so, but it's true.

I have, since returning to the US, noticed some phrases sneaking into the mainstream of American language - particularly on the news. Why not, then, adopt the language as it's meant to be spoken and written? I suppose the fact that many US college graduates are barely literate using American English is enough of a deterrant to doing so. It's a shame, really. It would be be so nice to have a conversation with people who understood the fullness and beauty of their own mother-tongue.

So what shall I do? I teach my children at home, so am not obligated to teach my children Americanised English. What do I care if people think me or my children odd for speaking or writing like Brits? After all... they invented the language, shouldn't we Americans speak it properly?

I'd love to hear your comments on this one. And if you've any resources for good British English grammar, I hope you'll share. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing properly...

'Puters, 'Puters Everywhere and Nary a Screen to Spare...

We have four computers in our home. So how is it that we're all still waiting in line to use one? We have two laptops - one for the odd ocassion that Brian consults, one for me to use for writing, a desktop PC, which is supposed to be for the children's use (researching various topics, ocassional gameplaying, and emailing), and a MAC which is used to layout our various magazines and books. A problem arises when we need to install another program - either vital to our business, or useful to the children's education. Three of our four computers are quite elderly and disc space is at a premium. Brian is often hard pressed to finagle some room.

Such was the case in the last couple of weeks. We installed a CRM to keep track of our advertisers and the only place we could put it was on the children's computer. This took the better part of a precious Saturday. Then followed the inevitable monopoly on the computer's time while the database was being populated. So, because I can't design and layout on the laptop, the MAC isn't convenient for my writing and the children can't touch either, and no one but Brian is allowed to use the second laptop, we've been sitting around the house looking like a wet weekend, and waiting for our turn to use just the one desktop PC.

How is it we've managed to put ourselves in such a fix? Maybe we need another computer...

Tuned Out Teens

Last weekend, Brian and I attended his family's annual get-together. Aunts, uncles, cousins all ranging in age from babies right on up to 70's. Only about half his family were present, but being French Canadian on both sides, we were still packed in like sardines. We had missed past years' gatherings since it's usually planned for New Years morning - truly inconvenient for us. Consequently, we hadn't seen this many family members all together in one place since our wedding 15 years ago. The aunties and uncles look a bit older, more gray in the hair, a little slower, but so happy to see all their kids together in one place. The cousins haven't aged very much - still recognizeable. Their children, the ones who were babies the last time either of us looked, were a collection of gawky teens that bore no resemblance to the chubby cheeked cherubs they once were.

As I circulated through the rooms visiting with relatives young and old and showing off my new baby girl, I noticed that the teens had all congregated in one spot - reminding me of a flock of birds that will huddle around the chimney cap for warmth on a winter day. It was so odd... They all looked as though they were in a trance, no one speaking and every one of them (there were at least a dozen) with a wire coming from his or her ear. Brian and our oldest daughter Cate (13) , were sitting on the sofa together chatting when I entered the room. I gave my husband a quizzical look which was returned by a knowing gaze. You see, our kids don't own iPods or MP3 players. In fact, until this year we didn't own a video game of any description. That's rather late in the game, I assure you. Not that I have anything against these little audio devices other than the fact that they are extremely pricey. They'd make wonderful little tools for the kids to hear audio books or lessons on while driving or sitting outside enjoying the weather.

What saddened me was that these children were missing out on so much fun. They weren't interracting at all with each other. They could have been chatting away about school, music, movies, other kids they know (most attend the same school). They could have been playing board games or having a game of football outside, the way we used to do with our cousins. What will their family reunions be like when they're grown - assuming they bother to plan one? What memories will they have to share with each other? They're so tuned out now, will they ever learn to tune in? To build deep, meaningful relationships with anyone, let alone their own family.

The appalling thing is that their parents simply shrug their shoulders and sigh "What can you do?". Indeed, you are their parents - the power is ALL yours. Go ahead and buy the gadgets for your kids, but do it with wisdom and prudence. YOU control the use. Get your kids outside, organize a game of some kind, start a conversation with them. It's a parent's responsibility. But it's so much easier to have them plug in and leave us alone to do what we want to do - uninterrupted...

Home economics

People often marvel at how we manage to make ends meet with five children ranging from 7 months up to nearly 14 years. Add to that the fact that we work from home, and educate our children at home. I have never really worked outside the home since my husband and I married almost 15 years ago. We had considered my working full time for a regular employer up until our third child was born. By then we had worked and reworked the numbers. The most I ever would have netted was about $25 per week. My entire paycheck would have gone to daycare, work clothing and commuting costs. That's planning to take a sack lunch every day.

It was never worth allowing a stranger to raise my children, not knowing what to expect from public school teachers from one year to the next and the hassle of co-ordinating everyone's movements in the mornings. Now that my husband is working from home full-time, it's even better. We've eliminated his commuting expenses - and with gas prices what they are, that's significant. He's much more productive because he's gained two hours each day not having to drive, which means better earning.

Home education is more expensive than public education... Or is it? We can borrow books from the library, which mitigates some of the expense. We have no hidden expenses - the odd field trips, hot lunches, and other expenses associated with school activities. They're certainly getting a private school education - an excellent private school education - at home. It would cost somewhere around $10K per year, per child for the same education and with 4 children of compulsory school age, that's a savings of $40,000 per year.

We don't put wear and tear on our vehicles, which cuts down on maintenance and repairs. We have time to grow and tend a garden (this is the year, I promise!), saving us several hundred dollars each year in food. We have changed our eating habits so that our big meal is at lunchtime, cutting down on leftovers, and improving our health. With fresh foods and better eating habits, limited contact with large groups of people carrying germs, we have far less downtime from illness and don't spend anything like the same amount on medical care or treatments. We save on health insurance because we're generally healthier and can choose more economical coverage. Because I'm home, I have time to do 'marathon cooking', which save several hundred dollars a month on groceries (nearly 50%) since there is almost NO waste and no fluff in the grocery list - again I can also control nutrition better this way. I use cloth diapers, saving hundreds of dollars over disposable, and being kinder to the environment. I sew, I knit, I embroider - we can make or make-over clothes.

My husband and I have fashioned a life based around our family life - we publish books and periodicals, much of which provides educational material for ourselves and our children. We can work early in the morning or late at night. We set our own price for our work, ensuring we have enough to sustain our family and to help those we care about. We're not, at the moment, what most would consider wealthy - the checkbook balance proves that. But we feel phenominally wealthy because we have the freedom to do nearly anything we want. Isn't that what wealth is all about?

Before you put the tree out on the curb...

Here's a beautiful idea for recycling your Christmas tree. Instead of putting it on the curb for the tip, or tossing it onto the compost pile, consider stripping the branches and fashioning a cross from the trunk. You can lash the arms of the cross onto the upright with ropes. Display the cross on your door (if it's sturdy enough) or somewhere else in the front yard during Lent. On Easter Vigil, you'll need some wet floral foam, chicken wire, and staples. Apply the foam to the cross by covering in chicken wire and stapling to secure. Easter morning, the cross can be decorated with fresh flowers (children love doing this job - it's very satisfying to stick stems into floral foam!). The flowers will keep for a week or so. Just keep the foam moist with a small watering can.

What a wonderful way to symbolize the full circle from birth to ressurection!

The Trouble with School

We are classical homeschoolers. For the uninitiated, classical homeschooling follows the Trivium. That is that children learn differently during key developmental stages. For example, small children - up to about age eleven or twelve - learn best by repetition and memorization, like little parrots. It's called the grammatical stage.

Right about the time kids reach adolescence, they start questioning everything. This is a stage that most people would agree is difficult. Kids need to learn logic at this age - learn to reason. This is called the dialectical stage.

Once children reach 14 or 15 years old, they arrive at the stage at which they want to have their say. This is the rhetorical stage and the time when kids need to learn how to speak and write eloquently. This is also the stage when they should have gained enough reason to express themselves safely and effectively in their person.

Grammar, Dialectic/Logic, and Rhetoric are tools, not subjects. To paraphrase Dorothy Sayers, subjects are the wood we ply our tools upon.

It is fairly easy to teach children in the grammatical stage and most schools do a reasonable job of this. However, it has been my experience that children don't get enough credit for their intelligence at this stage and can often be given inferior material to work with.

The trouble arises when children move into the dialectical stage. If they are not taught to reason, and reason well, children often lose faith in adults. They stop trusting and become convinced that grown-ups are authoritarian and, to put it bluntly, stupid. This is a tragedy since this is the time that their idealism is in bud and they need dependable guidance to help them become effective forces for good.

As children move once again, from dialectical stage to rhetorical, idealism has begun to take hold. If kids have not been taught how to reason, they make bad choices, perhaps with good intentions. The results of faulty reasoning can be disastrous as young people begin to discover their voices. Without having learned to reason and now, to communicate effectively, nay eloquently, young people have not the skills to communicate their views and often turn to vulgar means. This is the time when we notice teens becoming particularly "mouthy". They wear scary Tshirts, opt for expressing themselves in weird, sometimes dangerous ways.

The lack of dialectical and rhetorical skills can lead to inner frustration, which for a few youngsters, may lead to depression and dangerous behavior. They are entirely too vulnerable to "peer pressure" since they don't have the skills to reason, which gives them no confidence to dissent. Neither do they have the skills to speak effectively about why they've made their choices - with or against the crowd. This is by no means true of all children of traditional schooling, but might explain what is now considered "normal behavior". Now, 'weird behavior' is a subjective notion. I have a lot of tolerance for 'weird', so long as it doesn't get carried into coarseness, rudeness, or dangerous behavior to oneself or to others (physically, mentally, or spiritually).

People have asked me, over the last 10 years of homeschooling my children, how I came to such a decision. My standard answer has always been that I felt that public school education didn't serve my children very well; that public school couldn't provide services for my children's level of intelligence. While that is certainly true, it isn't the whole story. I've never fully been able to articulate, even to myself, what the rest of the story might be (perhaps due to my lack of a classical education).

It came to me in a blinding flash just the other day - the trouble with institutional schools is that pedagogy never advances beyond Grammar stage.

Happy New Year...

May you have a blessed 2006. I wish you good health, much love, great peace and joy!

I'm off to spend a restful day with my beautiful family!