Tuesday Teatime

We read all of Got Geography. The poems were great, the collection wasn't too terribly long, and BONUS! it somewhat assuaged that nagging feeling that we don't spend enough time on geography in its many forms.

We dined on slice and bake chocolate chip cookies. The refrigerated dough was on sale this week, plus it was cool enough to turn on the oven to bake. I must admit, though, that the cookies and dough aren't as good as I remember them (yes, I sample the raw dough -- I figure it's pasteurized). But they still smelled wonderful in the oven, and sometimes that's pleasure enough to make up for lack of taste.

And, of course, milk in our china cups. For dunking.

Whew, September hasn't been the best for Teatimes. But this was a nice little break in a busy day within a busy week.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I just got a wonking huge box from Webs . It is time to dump everything else I should be doing, and swatch.

More Sock Thoughts

I've decided that what I like about toe-up socks is that they require practically no planning. You just cast on some stitches (note to OliveOyl: I was inspired by this sock in Knitty to cast on this way for 18 stitches on 2 double points). You increase until it looks like it will fit around your foot, then knit merrily away. You stick in a heel (I didn't like the heel in the Widdershins sock, as it involved too much thinking, so I used the heel in Wendy's toe-up sock instead, modifying for the number of stitches I was using). Also, you stick a couple of safety pins in to remind you where you put the heel, so you have a clue when you knit the second sock.

Then you just knit as long as you feel like it, and bind off whenever you want to.



How relaxed this all looks, lounging on the big comfy chair! Really, you wouldn't know looking at all this comfy coziness that we're dealing with the ongoing water-heater drama (I have not one, but two new water heaters in my basement right now, neither of which is in that great of condition, both of which probably need to be removed; speaking of which, when you remove these could you please not slosh water -- nasty rusty water, especially -- all over the carpet and gouge holes in the walls, or at least tell me there's a problem instead of leaving me to walk downstairs and discover it myself?), that we're getting ready for a vacation that has morphed into a disaster-on-wheels before we've even packed the car, that we're in the throes of more birthday celebrations than we have people in our family (how did that happen?), that we're trying to do school, repair the driveway, get used to going to dance and choir and swimming (which means I need to have planned menus done hours and hours ahead of time that we can eat as soon as we can get home ... and they need to be gluten free, dairy free, almond/cashew free, pinto/kidney bean free, no trans fats, low saturated fats, no beef or pork as major ingredients, and take into account long time between prep and serving) ....

September is sort of a stressful month around here. Toe-up socks are mindless. It's a good combination.

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have a 10yo and a 6yo who have average math ability.The 10yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

On Tuesdays I upload an update of what we did in math for the week.

RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 54 Rectangles Inscribed in a Triangle

In lesson 53 Kid1 was unable to bisect a side of a triangle -- she forgot to draw a perpendicular back up to the line segment she was bisecting. I had showed her how to do it, and wondered whether she had really learned what to do.

The same thing happened in this lesson. This time it was a matter of a quick, “Remember, you go straight up here.” Ah. I think the lesson will sink in more with the repetition. I know I’m getting better at it.

Lesson 55 Connecting Midpoints in a Quadrilateral

Kid1 has a headcold. She stops frequently to get a tissue to wipe her nose. Every time she stops for tissue she tries to sneak a peek at The Sea of Monsters to read just a few more sentences. The lesson is interminable. She is to draw a quadrilateral, find the midpoint of each side, inscribe a new quadrilateral in it, measure the area of each, compare the two areas. This last bit involves using ratios, which clearly still puzzle her. It doesn’t help that her measurements are a wee bit off, giving her a ratio of 18 to 10. I prompt, “What is that a lot like?” Her mind is stopped up with snot. I suggest she stop after the first worksheet. She does.

The next day her head is clear. She knocks off the second worksheet in no time. She comments that it is much easier than she thought it would be.

Lesson 56 Introducing the Pythagorean Theorem

I always wanted to have more Montessori math manipulatives around when the kids were little. I thought it would be cool to play around with some of the Pythagorean stuff.

The lesson involves drawing squares, each using the side of the triangle as one side of the square, then comparing the areas. Easy. Kid1’s unsolicited comment: “This lesson was short and fun.”

If our socks could talk...

" 'There, that's finished,' Mama said. She stood and held her knitting up to the window. It was a gray stocking for Papa.... A year ago those stockings had been crinkly wool on the back of one of those merinos. Papa had sheared the fleece from the sheep's back, and Mama had washed it and combed it smooth with her spiky-toothed carding brushes. Then she had spun it into yarn on her spinning wheel. And now that yarn had been knitted into a pair of stockings.

"Charlotte looked at these stockings, flat and soft and gray in Mama's hands. It seemed to her they were made of more than just wool. There were words and thoughts knitted into them like the tiny prickles of grass seed that sometimes stayed stuck in the wool even after it had been washed and carded and spun. All the words that had been spoken while Mama's quick hands made the needles cross and uncross around the endless strand of wool -- all those words about the war, and Mr. Madison, and the cannon-heavy ships -- they were all there, knitted into Papa's stockings."
(From Little House by Boston Bay, by Melissa Wiley)

I imagine the stockings in the book looked a little like this.

Reading that passage inspired me to start a pair of sensible socks. I have no sheep, no roving to card, no handspun wool, so I picked a sensible-looking skein from my stash, in this case some Regia:



I think knitting toe-up socks is ever so much more sensible than top-down. Top-down always strikes me as backwards and queer.

In any case, if these socks could talk, I don't know what they'd say about the sheep, or the spinning with polyamide. I imagine the conversation would be in German or Italian, though. The skein travelled through WEBS yarn store, so it was in the same state (Massachusetts) as the stockings in the above passage.

And those green needles? I don't even know where they're from. I got them from my grandma, who got them from another lady at the Assisted Living Facility. They're not even a matched set anymore.

As I knit, the socks are now able to quote from Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra (don't knock it -- that episode features Picard doing an extemporaneous telling of Gilgamesh, and also shows him reading the Homeric hymns in Greek -- a classical ed. goldmine!). They've been to dance class and met a woman who spent $800 on Sonlight curriculum for 2 of her kids this year (she was carrying a very nice Sonlight tote bag; the socks were the conversation starter, but that tote bag got us into the homeschool discussion). They have been to the playground.

Today they will go to swim class. From there, who knows? The world is open.

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have a 10yo and a 6yo who have average math ability.The 10yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

On Tuesdays I upload an update of what we did in math for the week.

RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 53 Connecting Midpoints in a Triangle

This ended up being the only math lesson done all week (due to a field trip and then illness). It ended up being a doozy, though.

The worksheet has a triangle on it; the student is supposed to find the midpoint of each side of the triangle, then connect the midpoints. Kid1 quickly found the midpoint of the base, next found the midpoint of one of the legs, then collapsed into tears of frustration trying to find the midpoint of the other leg.

She cried for help (in a very specific way -- the directions to parents say that the student should ask specific questions, not just a general “I don’t get it”). I, of course, have no memory of how to find the midpoint of anything other than just measuring the line and dividing by two. I absent-mindedly roated the T-square around while contemplating how to approach the problem. Kid1 huffily pointed out that the T-square is to remain in the same direction through all the work, and that had been taught in one of the early lessons (subtext: get a clue, Mom). Then I had the brilliant notion to ask her to show me everything she’d done so far.

“Well, I found the midpoint of the base, then of this line....”

“No, show me step by step. Be specific.”

She showed me. Aha, now I sort of remember how to do this. It’s a matter of using the 45 angle, dropping down to a line parallel to the base, make a new triangle, then drawing a line back from the apex of that triangle back to the line you’re bisecting. Kid1 had neglected that last step of going from the apex back up to the line; actually, I wasn’t sure this was exactly how you’re supposed to do it, but it appeared to work.

Next she connected the midpoints. She was supposed to discuss whether lines in the new triangle were parallel to the lines in the outer triangle. “Some lines seem to be parallel; you can check it with your drawing tools.” The book cheerfully prompted, “If you’ve forgotten how, look back to Lesson 33.” We dutifully turn to Lesson 33, and discover that it’s about Area of a Triangle. Huh?

I know there’s some way to use your drawing tools to figure out parallel lines, but my memory of it is as hazy as my memory of how to bisect a line segment. I suggest she eyeball it. Actually, her lines are a bit off due to the imprecision of her work. I suggest she just go with it because it makes sense to me (some sort of distant memory of 10th grade geometry, I guess) plus I peeked at the answer page.

The rest of the lesson went okay -- just a matter of figuring ratios. Well, it went okay once we had a quick review of what ratios are.

Braced for the onslaught

This week marks the beginning of extracurricular activities -- all of them. This means hours upon hours of sitting and waiting while kids swim, dance and sing.

This is what I've got so far:



Two portable projects -- a Klein bottle hat, and a toe-up sock.

Last year we didn't sign up for any outside classes since we were in the midst of moving. Oh, the glorious freedom of not having to rush to anything at 4pm every single weekday! On the other hand, it was sort of lonely and isolating.

This year we have a modest schedule. Each child has church choir (meets concurrently on Sunday), a dance class, and a swim class. They have also signed up for Scouts, but as Juliettes, which are the independent scouts. This area apparently doesn't have any Interest Groups -- all the troops here are associated with schools. Kid1 used to belong to an awesome Interest Group troop full of homeschoolers.

Kid1: "I don't want to join a troop. They might want to work on different badges then I want to work on. But I still want to sell cookies."

Me: "Ummm. Well. I don't think you can sell cookies if you're a Juliette." (Exit to scream and jump with excitement at the prospect of No Cookie Sales.)

Kid2: "I don't think this is fair. I should have a chance to join a troop. I never got to belong to a troop."

Kid1: "Oh, for pete's sake. The meetings are boring. You wouldn't like them anyway."

Which is true. Kid2 likes the concept of being around other kids, but often finds the reality of the other kids downright annoying. I think she is a Highly Sensitive Child. Or maybe she's just a control freak. In any event, three programs a week is plenty for her to deal with.

That feeling you get when you finish a great book in the middle of the night, and want to tell someone about it

I got a copy of Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief yesterday. On a whim, I started reading it after the kids went to bed.

I finished it at 2a.m. Y'all gotta know, I never stay up after 10p.m. Never. But, well, I kept thinking that in a few more pages I'd get to a good stopping point....

No, that's a lie. It was pretty apparent early on that this book was non-stop.

I'd love to write the witty, wonderful review this book deserves, but I'm operating on way too little sleep. Let's just say that I wanted to bounce into Kid1's bedroom as soon as I finished the book, wake her up and tell her about it. That's how excited I was.

Greek gods! Olympus! Hades! New York! Las Vegas! Los Angeles! A quest! Characters swearing at each other in ancient Greek, and the occasional Latin! General goofiiness!

Wafting around the internet this morning, I see that people are drawing comparisons to Harry Potter. Pshaw. I'd compare it more to Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld.

You need to go read it. Really. It's vital to your classical education.

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have a 10yo and a 6yo who have average math ability.The 10yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

On Tuesdays I upload an update of what we did in math for the week.

RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 49 Other Congruent Triangles (SAS, ASA)

The Student is to start off by doing 4 problems on the worksheet, then reading the lesson, then finishing the worksheet. The final problem makes use of the recent lessons on transversals and alternate angles (lesson 47). Kid1 gets a different answer for the last problem then that shown in the book. We look it over together, discuss why various answers may be true. I tell her that she will eventually be able to write up this discussion as a “proof”. I mean to email Dr. Cotter and ask if the answer sheet should list the alternate answers, but forget about it in the hurleyburley of life.

Lesson 50 Side and Angle Relationships in Triangles

Read about half the lesson, do the worksheet, then finish reading the lesson. The student should’ve discovered the relationship between angles and sides while doing the worksheet. I like this set up. It’s a nice change from the “we’re going to tell you about it, then you go drudge through a bunch of problems practicing what we just told you.”

Lesson 51 Median in Triangles

Major typo on this page. First there is a picture captioned “Line segments ME, DI, and AN are medians.” Then there is a blank space captioned “Line segments AR, EN, and OT are not medians.” Well, yes, given that AR, EN, and OT don’t exist, they certainly aren’t medians. But we can only speculate what other non-medians might look like.

On the worksheept the student is to draw a trinagle and construct medians, then compare answers with classmates. Sigh. Not only do we have nonexistent medians, we have nonexistent clasmates.

Lesson 52 More About Medians in Triangles

This lesson is one of those “1 or 2 days” types of lessons. Kid1 doesn’t notice this designation, and struggles through the entire thing in one day. It starts off with a materials list that requires a pencil with a new eraser, a craft stick (we cannot find any of the dozens we swear we have, and consider eating popsicles to liberate some more; in the end, she uses a pencil with flat sides). The odd materials are used to try balancing triangles on various points and lines -- a triangle can balance on a meridian, and also on its centroid point.

The worksheets require much measurement. She is to find areas of various triangles. She has forgotten how to find the area of a triangle. She is wailing and gnashing teeth. I remind her, “Remember that thing with the parallelograms?” That’s enough to remind her of one way she had derived the method for finding area of a triangle (frankly, I couldn’t remember the formula either after a 20 year lull in my need to know it; the parallelogram example is how I derive it).

But, oh, the anguish ... many of her measurements are a wee bit off from the measurements used in the book. I remember this sort of thing happening with earlier levels of RightStart -- we would often find ourselves a bit off, a millimeter here or there, from the book’s measures. So frustrating. I look at her worksheet, look at the answers, say, “Look, do you understand the point they’re trying to make? Okay, then. That’s what’s important.”

(For the record, she usually checks her own answers. This turned into a tandem math lesson, though.)

Picovoli and other disappointing things

Pattern here.



Debbie Bliss Cathay, size 4 needles, knit in size 32.

My impressions? Eh. I like the shaping. The picots ... the picots are annoying. They're made by yarn overs/knit 2 together for a row, then 2 rows of stockinette stitch, then folding along the yo/k2tog row and sew down the live stitches. This makes for a bulky picot. Also, check out how this top hugs that flab roll on my back. Yikes, I didn't know I had a flab roll there!

Overall, I didn't feel like this item deserved more effort in the picture-taking department, because I'm wallowing in disappointment right now.

I blocked it by immersing in water, rolling up in a towel to blot excess water, then laying out on another towel. The Cathay bled a periwinkly outline on the towel I laid it on. The blocking helped the picots, but they still need to be beaten in submission with an iron or something. I suspect that it will take another session with the iron after every wash. Bleh.

Someday I might unsew the edges, unravel the picots, and put a smoother edge on it. Sheesh, sounds like a lot of work.


Other disappointments:

We just finished reading Charlotte's Web. Charlotte died, once again. We all sat on the couch, bawling. Do you know how many times I've read that book? How many times I've heard it? My mom used to read it to me when I was little. We cried every time Charlotte died. I don't know how many times she read it to me, but I felt like I had nearly memorized it by the time the fateful day came that I picked it up on my own (we owned a hardback copy). I had been working on those uber-boring reading exercises in school, probably first grade, and just happened to pick it up ... opened it ... and started reading. "Where's Papa going with that ax?" Oh my gosh, I was Reading. Reading a Chapter Book! On My Own! It was one of the most exciting moments of elementary school. And catapulted the book to the category of Sacred Text in my mind.

These days we have it as a book on tape read by the author. He does an excellent job, and never starts sobbing inconsolably when Charlotte dies. The kids have listened to it about a billion times. You'd think we'd be hardened to it by now. But, no, I got out the hardback from the library to read to the kids because it's the August selection in The Arrow, from whence I get our copywork and dictation selections. The kids had never seen the pictures! Amazing! But, you know, I had never read it aloud to them.

Another disappointment is our water heater. It was installed in 1980. It's feeling its age, rather like Charlotte did there at the end when she couldn't climb down to go back to Zuckerman's farm. It's so old that the parts aren't made for it anymore. It's so huge that it's going to be a massive PITB to get it out of the basement if we need to replace it. Sigh.

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have a 10yo and a 6yo who have average math ability.The 10yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

On Tuesdays I upload an update of what we did in math for the week.

RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 44 Measure of the Angles in a Polygon

Now that the student understand the idea of supplementary angles, she can start applying that knowledge to polygons. Well, theoretically she should be able to do this. In reality, the student is a bit surprised that she’s actually doing something with all that rigamorole about supplementary angles from the last lesson.

My personal favorite part of the lesson is the paragraph that begins with bold type: “A tough question” and goes on to say, “You can skip this paragraph if you aren’t curious or already know why you can’t divide the quadrilateral into three triangles.” I think it’s daring and wonderful to tell kids they can skip parts of the math book, and customize what they learn.

The worksheet instructions casually mention that “there is a little algebra.” Hey, no big deal. By now the student-reader realizes that “algebra” isn’t something to worry about.

Lesson 45 Classifying Triangle by Sides and Angles

After a review of equilateral, isosceles, scalene, acute, right and obtuse triangles, it’s time to play little math games. You’re given measures of some angles of the triangle, and need to find the rest. I think stuff like this is fun. Kid1 doesn’t immediately catch on to how it’s done, but eventually gets into the swing of it.

She claims she doesn’t know what complementary angles are. I point out the definition back in lesson 43 (the front of the book lists when all vocabulary is introduced, so it’s easy to look up).

Lesson 46 External Angles of a Triangle

More fun figuring out angles, adding up to and subtracting from 180 in your head. Remeber in earlier years of math when that was a big deal -- adding and aubtracting 3 digits in your head? Now you barely notice you’re doing it, you’re so swept away by the fascinating angles.

Kid1 thinks she’s found an error in the book. When we look at it together we discover the book is correct.

Lesson 47 Angles Formed With Parallel Lines

“Mommy, this book makes angles so much more fun than any other math book!”

Take that curriculum review for what it’s worth -- she hasn’t seen that many other math books, particularly any that have much to do with angles. Today’s lesson is all about corresponding, interior, exterior, and alternate angles, as well as what a transversal is. The tone is light and fun.

Lesson 48 Triangles with Congruent Sides (SSS)

“Here you get a chance to use those inequalities you have been writing since first grade.” Yep, it’s time to use the greater-than less-than signs. The student cuts out strips of paper, then plays around with them to see what triangles can be formed. I happen to be working nearby, so have an opportunity to discuss that sometimes it seems other triangles can be formed because the strips she’s using are actually rectangles instead of lines.

My favorite line in the book: “You don’t have to memorize this, just think about what happens when you try to make a triangle.” Once again, RightStart emphasizes understanding a concept over memorizing it.

Tuesday Teatime

Tuesday Teatime was held outside in our play fort. We grabbed popsicles and a book of poetry, climbed up, hunkered down, and read.

Our book was Cynthia Rylant's Boris. Boris is a cat, and cats are always popular subjects for poetry at our house. Cynthia Rylant has written an entire book of free verse about Boris and her relationship to him.

Several of the poems were above 6 year old Kid2's head. When we read about Boris in the vet's office swaggering out "with the latest copy of Cat Fancy in one paw and a martini in the other," she wasn't quite sure what was being described. "Is that a kind of doggy treat?" she asked. No, honey, it's a drink, a human drink, and don't worry if you don't quite understand - it's a little old for you. The point today is to enjoy the parts you do understand, and also see that people write poetry about everything, simply everything. And there are many silly, enjoyable-by-a-6-year-old moments in the book.

Kid1, at the sage old age of 10, declared that she really "got" the imagery. Hmmm, I wonder. I silently mused that good poetry (and prose) tells us something new year after year as we grow older. For now, though, it's okay to enjoy the bits and pieces we understand, sitting in a fort high above the ground with lemon popsicles in hand.

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have a 10yo and a 6yo who have average math ability.The 10yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

On Tuesdays I upload an update of what we did in math for the week.

RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 40 Area of Octagons.

Lesson 39, area of hexagons, took a long, long time -- over an hour. Lesson 40, area of octagons takes minutes. The student is simply to demonstrate ways it can be done -- no actual measuring takes place. It’s a fun lesson, stretching the imagination as Kid1 tries to come up with various ways to divide an octagon into triangles and rectangles.

Lesson 41 Ratios of Areas.

This gets off to a rocky start, as Kid1 is to draw a rectangle the same height as the one given, but twice the area. I pause to demonstrate how I would do it, a skill honed through years of laziness (“I would just take my T-square and draw a long line here ... and here ... see, I don’t even measure, I just use the lines they used for the top and bottom of their rectangle as my guide ... okay, now you’re ready to figure out how to make the area twice as large”).

I notice she has learned that tick marks can denote equivalent lines. Cool.

Lesson 42 Measuring Angles.

Kid1 is measuring the angle of her elbow with the goniometer. “This book is a lot less stuffy than a lot of textbooks, Mom.” Later she is flipping the goniometer around carelessly. I ask her to stop, not wanting her to ruin it. She replies that the book tells how to put it back together if it breaks. Yeah, well, it’s still not a good idea.

Lesson 43 Supplementary and Vertical Angles

Kid1 come bouncing into the room: “I thought this was going to be a long, boring hard lesson, and I was going to have to ask you for help, but it wasn’t. It was really good.“

“So, was it good because it was easy, or short, or what?”

“It wasn’t exactly easy ... it was just really fun. It wasn’t the most fun of any lesson -- I liked the lesson that was 2 worksheets where you had to name figures better.”

She shows me the worksheet. “Look, here I had to figure out this angle without measuring.” The picture shows various lines which would add up to 360 degrees; I can see that you could easily figure it out using the idea of supplementary angles. “My explanation of how I did it was a little different than their’s. I didn’t understand that I was supposed to write it out step by step as I went through it.” Yes, the students are supposed to be writing out how they arrive at some of their answers. And, yes, this one sounds like an informal proof.

I comment, “Someday you’ll learn to do this in a formal way ... it’s called a ‘proof’. You’ll prove that this angle is a certain measurement.”

She softly sighs, “Oooh,” her eyes shining with anticipation.

Sewing

Sewing Project 1: Sewing down the picots on Picovoli.

Oh, those picots. So many little picots. All those little live stitches in need of sewing down.

I've separated the Debbie Bliss Cathay into plies, and am sewing with about 3 plies at a time. I'm starting to get the hang of it; I started with the bottom hem, which came out sort of lumpy, and then did the neckline. Both areas stick out (the hem looks like a miniature tutu). I hope blocking will take care of that. I still need to do the armholes.

I still love the shaping on Picovoli -- those lovely princess darts in the front and back thrill me.



Sewing Project 2: Making hot pink fuzzy cushions with pale pink cording.

Since MrV was away doing Guy Stuff all weekend, we did Girl Stuff here. This included trashing the dining room by cutting out and sewing fuzzy, fleecy hot pink knitted fabric for cushions for the top of Kid2's toybox. The raw edge of the fabric drops fuzz everywhere; the fuzz clings to everything it touches. Kid1 said it looked like we'd had a pink snowstorm strike our house. I'm sure it will clog my vacuum cleaner.

The fabric was a horrible choice for sewing cushions -- it crept and crawled all over the place. It was quite stretchy -- a 60 inch strip I cut to encase cording would suddenly blossom into a 68 inch strip. Yikes.

So far I've only completed one of the two needed cushions. The seams are wobbly. The cording is crooked. I swear it is a different shape than the 15 by 17 rectangle I carefully measured out. But Kid2 is enchanted. Hot pink! Fuzz and fluff! It just screams "this belongs with Hello Kitty decor!"

Tuesday Teatime

This week's menu: Banana "ice cream" topped with fresh raspberries, with strawberry-kiwi juice to drink. (To make banana ice cream, peel and freeze chunks of bananas. When frozen, grind in Champion Juicer fitted with blank plate.)

We read Celia Thaxter's poem entitled August, and also Leisure by William H. Davies. Both can be found in Favorite Poems Old and New.

After that, we went with a back-to-school theme, since the local public schools started up this week. Favorite Poems Old and New supplied School-Bell by Eleanor Farjeon. Then I read selected poems from "Wahoo! Elementary" by Hudson Harrison. Honestly, I wasn't that thrilled with some of the poems in this book. I didn't feel a deep need to read a poem about head lice, for example (at least not today -- let's not rule it out forever). Kid1 had alread read the book to herself earlier in the week, so we discussed our thoughts on the various poems as we went along.

We finished with our traditional taking-turns-blowing-out-the-candle. This week we managed to make it through this without wax splattered across the tablecloth. Woohoo! Just goes to show that practice makes perfect.

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have a 10yo and a 6yo who have average math ability.The 10yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

On Tuesdays I upload an update of what we did in math for the week.

RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 35 Converting Inches to Centimeters. I noticed a sidebar on this lesson that gave a mnemonic for the conversion: 1 inch = 2.54 cm is like $1 is 25(quarter) times 4. Hmmm, how clever. I memorized the conversion through brute memorization of using it so often, although I typically use 1 inch equals 2.5 cm when I’m in a hurry (a 4 inch by 4 inch swatch of knitting is the same as a 10 cm by 10 cm swatch, as knitters all over the US are well aware).

After Kid1 completes the lesson I ask if if she remembers the conversion factor. She says, “yeah, it’s 2.75 ... wait, that’s not right ... .” “Wrong number of quarters, I think.” “Yeah, I knew it was something to do with quarters.” I start to pontificate that it’s better to remember it in regards to knitting swatches, and am about to start in on converting seam allowances in home sewing, but she wanders off.

Overall, though, I think maybe the the straight forward memorization is better than the mnemonic. I think she’ll eventually remember it the way I do, through extensive use in sewing and knitting.

Lesson 36 Name that Figure. Fun little game of naming figures which introduces the practice of using letters to indicate vertices. Also has a clever way to remember how to spell Isosceles. Sometimes she simply can’t remember the names of these figures. I worry about that -- does this mean she doesn’t “get” geometry?

Lesson 37 Finding the Areas of More Triangles. The worksheet includes the Guyana Flag problem, which was also in Level E. For some reason we did not do that lesson in Level E, so Kid1 is stymied ... she is trying to measure the sides of the flag in millimeters, and figure out the conversion ratio to give her the measurements given on the worksheet. I point out that she has everything she needs to know without measuring -- the worksheet says the left side is 26cm, the upper edge is 33.8cm, and point E is the center of the flag; we should assume it’s a perfect rectangle.

“Oh!” she exclaims, “that means these 4 triangles have the same area!” Ummmm, does it? I’m not sure off the top of my head, so I cover my confusion by pointing out that we know half the side will be 13cm, etc. etc. so we can find the area of all these other triangles.

As she gets to work I pull out Level E and flip to the lesson. I notice a sidebar: “A gifted child might notice that the triangles each take up 1/4 the rectangle.”

“Hey, guess what! According to this you’re gifted!” Ho ho ho, we laugh. After all, Kid1 is thoroughly convinced she stinks at math ... at least she was until we got involved in RightStart. I guess my worries yesterday were a bit unfounded -- some stuff she’s really good at, some stuff she still needs to work on.

Lesson 39 Area of Trapezoids. First problem; we also didn’t do the Level E lesson on distributive property. Although the geometry book explains it well, I give her a quick rundown (“Pretend I have the invecta balance here and I’m hanging those weights on it....”) and assure her that kids who never saw Level E or any RightStart whatsoever can figure this out. She runs into problems with the worksheet. The book has shown one reason the area of a trapezoid can be expressed as w1 plus w2 times h over 2. She is supposed to discover and explain another way of understanding it: 2 identical trapezoids, rotated and shoved together, make a parallelogram; if you find the area of the parallelogram and divide it in 2, you have the same formula.

She looks frustrated by the concept -- what the heck does the book want? What are they getting at? I say something to the effect, “they just want you to say that since you have 2 identical trapezoids of course you can divide the answer in half. I think maybe it’s so obvious you don’t understand why you have to say it. It’s that ‘gifted child’ thing from yesterday, you know.” She giggles, the mood lightens, and she continues with the lesson.

Lesson 39 Area of Hexagons. She starts off commenting, “you know what? There was another worksheet in the last lesson I didn’t do.” “Are you going to do it now?” “No, I don’t think so.” Thank goodness, because this lesson took at least 1.5 hours as it was. Of course, within that time we ran into a whoppin’ huge fight on the definition of a trapezoid -- for some reason she had concluded that an isosceles trapezoid wasn’t actually a trapezoid, possibly because all the trapezoids she’s been working with are non-isosceles. Thankfully, I found one pictured in lesson 36 (under the lesson on how to spell “isosceles”). Also, she’s quite peeved that 1.2 times 1.4 doesn’t equal something bigger than 1.68 ... pesky decimals.

The final problem involves measuring stars that she had drawn in earlier lessons. I’m glad I’m on hand to demonstrate that you round off the measurements quite a bit to get the ratios needed.

Knitting Notes

How's Picovoli going, you ask?



Fa bene. Tres bon. Muy bien, gracias.

(I just realized I have no idea how to say "very good" in Latin or Mandarin. How embarassing.)

I love the darts. I don't think you can see them in this photo, but the waist nips in, then back out via decreases and increases. They look like the darts on June Cleaver's dress bodice. I love the effect. Then again, I'd like to prance around my house in those oh-so-structured dresses and high heels, with my hair done. (I just got in from mowing the lawn. I am sweaty and skanky. I never, ever saw June Cleaver look how I feel right now. But this is the only time I can grab the computer between Kid1's work on Rosetta Stone and her typing program.)

I loved all the stockinette. I enjoy stockinette, particularly on circular needles, because I can read while I knit. I have a huge pile of lovely, lovely books from the library right now. Picovoli is reposing on one now -- it's an Interlibrary Loan, with huge notices of NOT RENEWABLE all over it. (This, of course, simply means that my local library doesn't want to mess with renewal requests. I used to be in charge of ILL at a university library. Most lending libraries will grant at least one extension.) So, I must get this book read NOW. This has been a great knitting projecct under the circumstnaces.

Unfortunately, I'm now faced with sewing up all those picots. I don't think I can do that and read at the same time. I shall have to turn to watching television. Fortunately, we just discovered that we have access to 7 hours of Star Trek every week day -- 2 hours of Deep Space Nine, 5 hours of Next Generation. (Classic Star Trek is available on Saturdays.) So there's hope.

Overall, though, I'd rather read and knit than watch TV and knit. I used to knit in my college classes. Being a goody-two-shoes, I always checked with the professor first to make sure it was okay. This was back before knitting was trendy, so it was some weird, bohemian thing I was asking. And, hey, it kept me awake in class. I should've tried it in Soil Science, which had the very poor schedule placement of right-after-lunch. I mean, it's not like I consider Soil Science scintillating to begin with (there are those who do, I know). And right-after-lunch was the death knell. I always sat right in front, in hopes that would help me stay awake. Nope. Zzzzzz. Too bad, because now I'm not sure what to do with the clay soil on the front slope of our yard. (My mind wanders a lot when I mow. Consider a sampling of what it's like to be in my head whilst I'm pushing my mower, which, by the way, is not self-propelled. And have I mentioned how hot and humid it is today?)

The other BIG knitting news was reported to me yesterday afternoon by a very excited 6 year old ... the next American Girl movie will be about Molly. Now, Felicity and Samantha undoubtably knew how to knit, but Molly actually had a story line about knitting in one of her books. As I recall (amazingly, we own no Molly books) the girls in her class at school were trying to knit socks for the (WWII) soldiers. Molly sensed this would be a Bad Idea, probably because she didn't want to turn the heels (coward). So, they turned their knitting into a patchwork afghan. I've always wondered about this -- how can the cuff of a sock become an afghan square? Did girls back then typically work socks flat, then sew them up? Did they fearlessly cut them open? If they could do that, why couldn't they turn a heel? Was the author just sort of clueless about knitting? I need to re-read the book -- maybe I'm remembering this wrong. I'll definitely be watching the movie, though. We might get some kid-sock-knitting action going, or maybe some afghan-square-knitting action.

Tuesday Teatime

For a total change of pace, we used suppertime as Tuesday Teatime.

MrV was out of town, so we had the supper table to ourselves. I pulled out a copy of Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends. Many of those poems have to do with eating, such as Hungry Mungry, and Pancakes. We also read some non-food poems, like Afraid of the Dark.

I would read a poem, then pause to eat while we would discuss what I'd read. Often the discussion took the form of giggling and repeating favorite lines. Long after the meal was over I overheard lines and images repeated. On the other hand, some of the poems seemed to make no impression at all. That was okay with me -- I didn't like all of them either.

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have a 10yo and a 6yo who have average math ability.The 10yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

On Tuesdays I upload an update of what we did in math for the week.

RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 29, Area of Consecutive Squares. Attention please: this is a very bad place to take a break of several months! Really! Lesson 28 goes with lesson 29! If you take a couple of months off, it can get really weird, particularly if your student has issues with the concept presented anyway.

In our house tears soon welled up. She moaned, “I don’t understand this equation!” Pointing to w squared plus 2w plus 1, she read, “width squared plus 2 width plus 1.” I suggested that she read the w as “whatever number you want” instead of “width” -- does that help? Yes, for some reason it does. Or maybe it’s just getting a grip and realizing that yes, she will do this math and survive.

The question at the end of worksheet 29-2, “on what worksheet did you work with that relationship?” is tough, considering it has been several weeks since she did ANY worksheets. I give prompts.

Lesson 30 Perimeter Formula for Rectangles. In this case w is width. She likes perimeter, and would rather do it than area.

Lesson 31 Area of a Parallelogram. While working on the worksheet she calls out to me, “what are factors?” I walk in and glance at her paper, discussing that factors are the things that are multiplied to make a number. The question says that the preceding problems should’ve reminded her of factors. Hmm, that’s odd -- how would the perimeters that’s she’s been doing remind her of factors? But I have something else on my mind, and wander off. She complains that she got the next question wrong. I look at the sheet and, AHA! This was all about area, not perimeter! Egads! I brood because my child can’t remember the difference between perimeter vs. area. Overall, this lesson took an hour and a half, including discussion about whether to erase incorrectly drawn rectangles (based on perimeter) or throw the whole thing out and start over.

Lesson 32 Comparing Calculated Areas of Parallelograms.. Piece of cake. It’s amazing -- days in the depths of despair over math are followed by days of absolute confidence.

Lesson 33 Area of a Triangle. Yes, we did these lessons back in Level E, but still, this lack of interaction is scary. She gets out math, does it, puts it away. Is she learning anything?

I can't resist discussing the sidebar comment, just so I can feel involved. "Remember, formulas should not be rote memorized. Thik them through so they make sense."

"Did you notice that comment? Eh? Eh?"

"Yes, Mom." Heavy sigh, eye roll.

Lesson 34 Comparing Calculated Areas of Triangles. One great feature of RightStart Geometry is that if the hypothetical homeschooling parent decides to join the Self-Inflicted Injury of the Week Club, the parent can sit with her hypothetically bandaged ankle propped up, writing in her hypothetical homeschooling log that they just had an impromptu First Aid lesson while at the same time the student can do math! Cool!

When I hobbled in to see what Kid1 was up to I discovered she was jotting down a list of mistakes she had found so far in the book -- the time the book didn’t list one of the worksheets to be done, the time the materials list didn’t mention a calculator, and today’s snafu -- part of the worksheet was left off. She suspected that there should be another problem on the worksheet; when she checked the answer sheet the answer was there, but no corresponding problem had been on the worksheet.

"Warning,"

the writing on the box declared, "Contents may cause dizziness, faintness, and shortness of breath due to happiness. Sender is not liable if recipient ignores children and husband as a result of opening."


(With a little sub script declaring: "Post office people, this is a joke. Contents are benign.")

Yes, it's another fabulous Secret Pal package from TheDenimJumper homeschool Secret Pal Swap.

This one features 2 boxes of tea, including one from Germany called Sommernachtstraum/Summer Night's Dream. Did my Secret Pal realize that we're about to start reading A Midsummer Night's Dream for our Shakespeare play this year? I have the video out of the library -- we can sip this tea while watching, then have some more while reading the play.

A Lord Peter Wimsey book was also in the box. I just finished my first Amelia Peabody/Elizabeth Peters book, and this will be the perfect follow up.

Lip balm -- can you ever have enough lip balm? I can't. And hand balm, too! Both in cute little containers I can pop in my purse.

The yarn is Lana Grossa, Meilenweit Cotton Spirit, a blend of cotton, wool and polymide. Oooooh, this is going to make some nice socks! Kid2 saw it and instantly asked, "Can you make some socks for me out of this?" No, no, no. This is for me!

And the hot pink trim -- you should've seen Kid1's jaw drop when she saw it! It's so glitzy and fun.

I think the hot chocolate mix proves my Secret Pal's sense of humor; I've decided it's never going to be cool enough to drink hot chocolate again. Although, really, we seem to have acclimated to the heat -- we can be out in 95F/35C and feel quite comfy. We figure we're going to need heavy coats if it ever dips down to 65F/18C. Hmmm, maybe that hot chocolate is a good idea after all.

Post it notes -- don't homeschool without them! And such big, fun ones!

A ringbound quote book that my Secret Pal made for me. This is so cool! MrV wants one, too! My current favorite quote: "Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands and then only eat one of the pieces." (Judith Viorst)

And also, a bag of Mozart Kugeln candies -- chocolate, marzipan and pistachio praline. Mmmmmm, I'm waiting to open this so I have appropriate time and privacy to swoon.

The Secret Pal game is wrapping up now. It's been great fun. I think another will be starting, so if you missed out on this one you can keep on eye on TheDenimJumper for the next. Heck, keep an eye on TheDenimJumper anyway -- it's a great place to discuss homeschooling.

First Week Back to Homeschooling

Back story: I've been talking about Latin-centered curriculum with my kids all summer, emphasizing how wonderful it will be to pare down the number of subjects studied. Kid1 seemed on board with the idea, especially ditching Rod&Staff grammar which she has grown to loathe as much as I do.

Last week Kid1 announced that she would like to start school this week because "there's such a thing as too much free time," and the days seem to pass more quickly when she's busy. My brow furrowed; an entire conversation about her (failed) resolve to do math or spelling every day all summer hung palpably in the air. I said,"well, you could figure out things for yourself to keep yourself busy, you know." The conversation died. I assumed she meant that she wanted me to be responsible for keeping her busy. I am her accountability partner, it would seem.

So, okay, we would "start school" this week. I suggested a light schedule -- our key subjects are Latin and math, so maybe just some Latin review and math every day.

"Spelling -- remember that I want to do spelling." Kid1 has a deep love of Spelling Power. I am not so thrilled with it, but it's only 15 minutes a day, so it doesn't really interrupt my Multum non Multa groove.

"And I want to learn about the Romans in Britain this year."

"????. You hated the Romans, remember?" Really, we had to skip the last several chapters of Story of the World vol.1 because she was fed up with the Romans.

"Yeah, well, now I want to learn about them." On the other hand, starting Latin this week has been voted down. Go figure.

Kid2 took this as a signal to announce, "I want to learn about the Egyptians this year!" Kid2 had never ever expressed any interest whatsoever in the Egyptians, and I have an unsettling feeling that "learn about the Egyptians" really means "mummify a chicken." Yikes! I said nothing in reply, fearing what I would hear if I probed.

Oh, and the Classical Writing books suggest that kids learn to type so it's easier for them to write out their papers. So, we'll throw typing onto the stack of things to do.

And, coincidentally, Mr.V just got Rosetta Stone Spanish levels 1 and 2, and "Mommy, I've really been wanting to learn Spanish. Can I go ahead and try this?"

At this point the Multum non Multa idea is out the window. Heck, "Latin-centered" is out the window. Kid1's schedule for the week has been spelling, RightStart Geometry, Rosetta Stone Spanish, and typing.

Kid2 has done a bit of phonics. Later in the week she realized that one of her dolls wants to learn to read, although apparently the doll had vision problems and needed reading glasses (for the record, none of us wear glasses, although I've noticed some short-arm-syndrome creeping into my vision). We found a pair of doll-glasses in the basement, and Kid2 has been teaching phonics rather than learning it herself.

Our read alouds have been Norse Myths, King Arthur, and the Little House in the Highlands series.

Honestly, the biggest chunk of time this week has been spent on this:



The origami stuff was in the basement. The weather has been stinkin' hot. The basement is cool.



I love the elephants.

Random Knitting Thoughts

I took Picovoli and the coordinating knitting bag to a kid-thing yesterday. I was so impressed with myself -- I was going to sit in the background, knitting away, looking coordinated even though I didn't attempt to match my clothing to the knitting and bag (mostly because I didn't think of it until just now). The other moms were going to be So Impressed.

When I got there and pulled out my knitting I realized that I had lost my beginning-of-row marker some time in the last 34 rows of knitting. And, since it was time to place new markers based on the position of that marker, well, hmmm, not much I could do.

I think the problem was that I used official stitch markers. I usually use hair elastics I find down the side of the couch, or old twist ties that are littering the floor. Hair elastics and twist ties have more zing. One sees them and thinks, "what is all that crap hanging on my knitting?" and then recalls that one is marking one's place. Regular stitch markers are so anonymous, they quietly drop off into oblivion.

So I'll have to wait to impress that particular group of moms. One of them impressed me -- I overheard her comment that her choices in medication for a particular condition were limited since, "I'm still nursing," and she gestured to her 2 year old just like it was the most normal thing in the world to be nursing a 2 year old. Woohoo.

In the meantime, I keep popping up with new things I want to start knitting NOW. I found some green merino laceweight in my closet, purchased to knit myself a shawl. I look hideous in green, but this is yarn is so very pretty I might just cast it on and knit a ... thing. A lace thing. A lace thing that exists simply to be soft and lacy and green. Also, I was looking through my Mason Dixon book and was overcome by the notion that I can knit that rug we need for the back door on big, stocky needles. Plus, the new Interweave Knits arrived, full of patterns I could actually picture myself knitting and wearing.

I've also been thinking about sewing. I've spent the morning pondering a subscription to Burda Moden, or maybe re-subscribing to Ottobre. This reminded me that I used to buy Mon Trictot magazine at that dirty little grocery store out past the dorms at college. Does Mon Tricot still exist? I got rid of all my old copies in a fit of decluttering -- I'm not sure why, since the patterns were no worse (and often better) than those in all those old copies of Vogue Knitting and Easy Knitting I kept. In college I knit myself a sweater set out of Mon Tricot, using Unger Cruise (the owner of the nearby yarn store was quite a fan of Unger Cruise or any other acrylic yarn -- she liked the fact that she could break off the yarn by melting it with her lit cigarette, freeing her of the need to keep track of scissors). Gees, those were the days, knitting crappy acrylic just because it was there and I felt like knitting, even though knitting wasn't fashionable at the time. I think I've become overly pragamatic as I've aged.

Tuesday Teatime

Kid2 appeared in the kitchen yesterday morning brandishing all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth. I told her that I wasn't going to read it aloud at the moment since I was about to eat breakfast, but, hey, it's Tuesday! How about we have a Tuesday Teatime?

She danced out of the room, re-entering a few minutes later to announce that she'd found a poem that she wanted to share at our teatime -- Sea Lions. She had pre-read it, and could read all the words (at age 6 she still finds some words rather shifty and prone to playing tricks on her).

Gratuitous picture of our dining room:



It spent most of July in a jumble of drop cloths and icky sticky bits of wallpaper. Two layers of wallpaper were removed, taking off some of the drywall with it. Drywall was repaired, ceiling was repaired (former owners were quite fond of massive draperies that hung by bolts from the ceiling), walls painted, ceiling painted, queer assortment of electrical outlets replaced. We still need to rip up the ugly grey carpet, install a wood floor, purchase a rug and a sane window treatment ... but in the meantime, it's actually usable as a place to have tea.

I had a niggling feeling there was some festival yesterday or today. A quick look at our plethora of festival books showed that it was Lammas, which is also Loaf-mass. Well, it was waaay too hot to bake a loaf of bread to celebrate the beginning of the harvest, so we stopped by Trader Joe's and got a Lemon Crown Cake and a bottle of pineapple juice -- both were a golden yellow that put me in mind of the end of summer.

Kid2 led off our teatime with her reading of Sea Lions. Next, I shared some of the information I had found on Lammas. One of the sources I read noted that bees were busy this time of year, so it seemed quite appropriate to read The Queen Bee from The Brothers Grimm. That led naturally to reading the poem Hurt No Living Thing by Christina Rosetti. I also read How Doth the Little Busy Bee by Isaac Watts, and Go to the Ant from the Bible (all three selections found in Favorite Poems Old and New ).

Next, I read a version of the Sumerian myth of Inanna and her trip to the Underworld, which bears a resemblance to the tale of Persephone and Hades.

After the story was finished, Kid2 gave us a reprise of Sea Lions. This time she concentrated on reading it "poetically".

A great start to another season of teatimes!

It's the little things

Here's my knitting set atop my knitting bag:



Note how the purple yarn I'm using exactly matches the purple flowers embroidered on the bag. Isn't that cool? Do you think people see me knitting and think, "Wow, what a pulled-together woman -- her knitting matches her knitting bag!"?

Probably no one has noticed at all. That's why I'm pointing it out to you, so you can know that for one brief, shining moment I was that pulled together.

The knitting is Picovoli. I didn't rip it out last week. I found a schematic for it which showed that it was really shaping up just fine. Also, I got an email intervention from veteran Picovoli-knitter Poppins who told me something to the effect of "trust the pattern" (which reminded me of bit in Mason-Dixon Knitting where they say they want to have an Outward Bound-type event with linen yarn and everyone will "start crying because we all trusted the yarn" -- God help me, I think that's hilarious, which probably proves to y'all I need to get out more). Anyway, I'm trusting and knitting. I really didn't believe the pattern-writer, Grumperina, would have a major booboo in the pattern, so it's a relief to forge ahead.

Someone at Mothering.com was posting about knitting a wedding veil. I'm seized with a sudden urge to knit something large and lacy and stupidly complex. It occurs to me that I have at least 8 years before Kid1 will need a veil -- should I start now? What if she never marries? What if she marries, but doesn't want a veil? Should these considerations stand in my way?

How the Non-homeschooling Majority Lives

Last week the kids went to yet another Vacation Bible School, put on by the church we were attending last spring. This one was Group's Fiesta. Group VBS tends to have better music than other brands, and this was no exception (interestingly, the church putting this VBS on has really crummy music). Also, there was a smattering of Spanish to learn, although Kid2 tended to shout "Vita!" instead of "Viva!" If Group decides to have a Toga Party-themed VBS she's ready.

The significant thing about this VBS was that it ran from 9am to noon Monday through Friday. This would be a week like "normal" people have, dropping off kids in the morning and picking them up later.

Monday: The kids got up at 7am, anxious to start their first day. This totally messed up my morning routine (I expected to drag them out of bed at 8). After dropping them off, I scurried home, exercised and cleaned. Woohoo. Mr.V thought this was a total waste of a free morning ("I would've taken a nap."). Picked up kids at noon, discovering that I am the only mom there not wearing either dark brown or green. I am so out of touch with what is trendy. Spent afternoon at swimming pool.

Tuesday: Kids again up at 7am, but this time I expected it. Dropped them off (still not wearing trendy-mom-type outfit), and ran errands. Realized the last time I was out doing adult-type stuff at 9am on a weekday was sometime in the early 1990s. I purchased a copy of Bust magazine and a cream cheese brownie to celebrate my adulthood. The celebration lasted about 15 minutes, then I had to go pick up kids. Spent afternoon at swimming pool.

Wednesday: Kids up a little later, but still determined to go (I had emphasized that they didn't really need to do this, and I have no problem whatsoever with ditching VBS). I needed to mow the lawn, but instead concentrated on paperwork, and things that work better without extra people constantly chattering in the background. Afternoon spent with tradesman coming by house to work on sprinkler system.

Thursday: Wrenched upper back while taking out trash at 6am. Managed to get the kids to VBS, stopped by vet's office for cat medication. Made cupcakes for VBS snacks on Friday. Somehow managed to pick up kids at noon, although it was becoming obvious I really shouldn't be driving around. Fed them something for lunch, although I didn't feel like eating. Afternoon spent lying on the floor with ice packs, wallowing in self-pity. Mr.V arrived home to announce that people at work are sick with stomach flu. Aha, that explains why I don't feel like eating.

Friday: Kids are still getting up at 7am. Dropped them off, then came home to watch a video while propped up with pillows. Hey, it's like lying around watching TV while eating bonbons -- isn't this what everyone else is doing?

Observations: Kid1 has decided that it's nice to have something to do in the morning, so she wants to start math and spelling. I was amazed that Kid2 lasted the week, although she was getting pretty ragged around the edges by the end. Both kids tended to fight and snipe quite a bit when they got home -- although they really enjoyed the VBS, they needed quite a bit of "decompressing" time.

Now it's Mondya morning, and we're back to our family's version of normal -- the kids are just now getting dressed at 9am, we'll read some books over a leisurely breakfast, maybe I'll finally get around to mowing the lawn. We'll still be spending the afternoon at the pool, though.

Knitting Angst

I hate it when this happens:



This is Picovoli in purple. The length between my thumb and finger is the length from the neckline to the underarm ... except that it obviously isn't enough, as you can see from the Green Gable sweater under it (unless the neckline is meant to be almost in my armpit, which really wasn't my vision for this garment). When I knit Green Gable (also a top-down knit) I had to add a couple of inches to the length from the neck to the underarm. It was a tedious process of knitting, putting stitches on waste yarn, trying on, putting the stitches back on the needles, knitting a few more rows, waste yarn, try on, etc. etc.

It seems to me that someone somewhere has written a schematic on how to alter sizes for top-down knits, and hasn't really taken into consideration that shoulder-to-armpit measures don't change at the same rate that the bustline measures change.

I've found a Knit Along for Picovoli. I should probably scan through it to see if others have offered a "fix" for the problem. Really, though, I don't want to deal with it. I'm tempted to just rip it back out and do something else with the yarn. Something non-raglan and non-top-down. Something I can knit while trying to figure out how to teach Classical Writing Aesop (yes, that is what the knitting is piled on). The kids want to start school next week, and it's really too hot for a dark purple handknit top.

I would continue in this grumpy vein of thought, but I just realized that I put cupcakes in the oven to bake and forgot to set the timer, so I need to go watch them bake.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Fill in the blanks: I will do something productive when I finish messing around with this meme.

Soup
Name something you use to make your home smell good.

Right now I have a bouquet on my table (thanks, L!) but usually it’s herbs and elbow grease. I can’t abide synthetic fragrances, including those in most cleaning products.

Salad
If you could receive a coupon in the mail for 50% off any product, what would you want it to be for?

A generator. Or at least a box of popsicles.

Main Course
Besides sleeping, what do you spend the majority of the hours of your typical day doing?

Being awake. Was this a trick question?

Dessert
What can you hear right now while answering these questions?

The wonderful woosh of the air conditioner. There are 500,000 people in our area without power during this sweltering heat; those of us with electricity are aware of our blessings.

Show-off moment of the week

For years we have used Story of the World, complete with Activity Guide. I have used the review question in the Activity Guide orally, emphasizing that we need to be able to answer the question in complete sentences. We do not answer in phrases, no sirree, we use subjects and predicates. If we forget this rule (which happens, oh, 50 percent of the time) Mommy says, "answer in a complete sentence, please," and we must restate the answer.

At Bible School the other night an adult asked, "Who remembers what our mission project for the week is?" She randomly picked 6-year-old Kid2 to answer, thrusting a microphone in the child's face. Kid2 stated in calm, measured tones, "Our mission project this week is to raise money for an orphanage in Mexico so the children can have uniforms and look like the other kids in their school classes."**

People were stunned. I think they expected some mumbled little, "ummmm, for kids in Mexico," as a reply.

Of course, it helps that Kid2 has a natural language acumen that befits a future attorney or politician.

But I prefer to pretend that it's all because of our homeschooling.

**The 30 kids in the orphanage typically dress in white shirts and blue pants to attend school. They would like to have uniforms like the other school children have so they are not so set apart as "those orphans".

VBS

The church we're currently attending is having VBS this week. It's Gospel Light's Son Treasure Island, and they're doing both a morning and an evening Biblse School. We chose the evening because parents are invited to attend with their kids. So I spent yesterday evening running around in a field shouting "Aargh, aargh, aargh, " (pirate talk) while playing tag.

We have met another family with kids the same ages as ours, which is really cool. The parents are math types, which provides great opportunities for us all to be geeky together. It also provides great opportunities for me to stick my foot in my mouth regarding public schools. For example, the dad was commenting that he thought if great that his daughter had a chance to do PowerPoint presentations in 4th grade. My natural inclination was to burst out with something like "any idiot can learn to use PowerPoint; the problem is that the kids are probably developing a tendency to think slick packaging is everything in a presentation and content is nothing." The dad in question was spared this speech, but Mr.V got an earful in the car on the way home.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Name one thing nice that you could do for someone else today.
What an intriguing thought. I do nice things for people all the time; it just sort of happens spontaneously. I let people go ahead of me in the grocery line if they're in a hurry, I stop and help people who are in need. It doesn't often occur to me to make a plan for niceness. Okay, here's the plan: I'm going to say (or type in comments) something encouraging to someone. Maybe it will be you.

Soup
When was the last time you were frightened by the weather?
Last year our house in Ohio was up for sale and Mr.V had already moved to the new location several states away. A huge rainstorm hit one day (I think remnants of Katrina). I walked into my daughter's bedroom and heard dripping ... the roof was leaking and dripping right through the ceiling. Aaaargh! After the storm was over I had it patched, got bids, had the entire roof replaced (the interior dried out quickly -- no major damage to repair). But during every subsequent rainstorm I would start to panic. I would lie in bed at night watching the weather channel obsessively. To this day I'm skittish about big storms, worried our new house might spring a leak.

Salad
What would you say is the most useful website or blog that you visit?
Tough call. I use Amazon.com a lot for book reviews. On the other hand, interacting on Mothering.com is certainly a sanity-saver some days.

Main Course
Who was your favorite singer/group when you were a child?
I was sure I would someday be Mrs. Donny Osmond.

Dessert
Do you have any rituals? If so, what are they?
You know, the wording of this question is interesting. Are we to differentiate between routines and rituals? The word “ritual” implies a sacred quality above and beyond a “routine”...but, then again, ought we not imbue much of our day with the sacred? Shouldn't we approach our tasks with mindfulness, rather than mindless rote duty? The Tea Ceremony springs to mind -- serving tea can be considered a routine, or it can be elevated to ritual.

I deal with children and small animals all day long. We have myriad rituals. We have the morning Opening of the Cat Food Can. We have the Offering Up of Methimazole (thyroid medication) Hidden in Treat Food twice per day for our geriatric cat (I often feel like I am propitiating a deity when I set that saucer in front of her, whispering a prayer that she will find it worthy and not display her wrath by peeing all over the bathroom rugs). We have the Quiet Time Before the Kids Are Up during which I do QiGong. I have my personal care rituals. We have mealtime rituals -- we pray certain ways before certain meals, for instance. We read certain books aloud at certain times. Bedtime rituals. Cleaning rituals (why settle for cleaning routines when you can have rituals?). Weekly rituals, including attending church.

Life with kids and animals is chock-full of the unexpected. Many days these rituals don’t quite spring into full-flower -- someone will throw up, lose a tooth, bleed profusely, have emotional meltdown over a lost toy -- and the particular ritual of the moment will be abandoned to care for the trauma. But, there’s always the promise of the rituals that occur later in the day or later in the week to soothe us and let us know that life goes on in spite of these temporary setbacks.

The Knitting Slump is Over!

First, let me tell you the depth of the slump: I had finished knitting a scarf and bound off down to that last stitch on the needle -- you know, the last one where you need to simply snip the yarn and draw the yarn through. It sat there with that one lonely stitch on the needle for 3 weeks. I would think, "gee, I should go snip that yarn and get that off the needles (if for no other reason than to put the needles away so this scarf is no longer cluttering up the nightstand)." I would head upstairs ... and decide to clean out the litterbox instead.

Yes, I preferred cleaning a litterbox to performing even the simplest of knitting tasks.

But then, something happened. The new Knitty appeared (good thing I get email notification, because I cared so little about knitting that I wasn't checking the Knitty website). And the new Knitty had a pattern for (drumroll) a Klein bottle hat! Do you realize how much I have longed for a pattern for a Klein bottle hat? It's like opening up your cupboard and discovering that a houseguest absent-mindedly stuck the Holy Grail inside.

I really knew The Slump was over when I checked out Wendy's blog and saw Sizzle . Wow. What a pattern. It would look hideous on me, but I found myself really really wanting to knit it.

So. I got out my Debbie Bliss Cathay in purple and started swatching for Picovoli. Pretty pretty yarn. No pics, though, because I have about 100 photos to download into iPhoto and I just can't face iPhoto right now. I'm in a photography slump. It's like a roving cloud of apathy must settle over some portion of my life, and right now it's photos.

And that scarf? Blocked and mailed to person for whom it was knit.

Poetry Memorizaton and Recitation

I'm taking the summer off from poetry recitation for my kids.

This has turned out to be dangerous. Mr.V has rushed in to fill the gap.

So, while y'all are helping your kids develop linguistic patterns through poetry memorization , my kids are memorizing the Crackerjack jingle. Both verses, plus chorus.

This is accompanied by shopping trips to buy Crackerjack. I keep finding candy coated popcorn stuck to the carpet.

Postcards

My Secret Pal from The Denim Jumper homeschool forum has been sending me wonderful postcards. I really wanted to share at least one of them -- it's a picture of sheep (I lucked into a Secret Pal who both homeschools and knits). But, in order to share it here I needed to have the scanner, iMac and Blogger all work together. They're refusing to cooperate. Blogger pretended the scanner doesn't exist, then iMac started ignoring it, too ... the scanner descended into depression, and started blinking incessantly that it was "warming up". Hah. I slapped around the iMac a bit, and showed the scanner who was boss (I unplugged it -- let it try warming up now, by gum). Unfortunately, I have less control over Blogger.

The postcards have been a bright spot in my days.

Other excitement: I received a copy of The Golden Children's Bible to use in our Christian studies this coming year, as outlined in The Latin Centered Curriculum . It was 22 cents with $3.50 postage, purchased used from Amazon.com. It's in excellent condition. The postman did an admirable job of jamming it into our mailbox, but I managed to extract it with having to hacksaw the mailbox or the book (I think the postman resents the number of packages he has to deliver here, and this is his passive-aggressive way of dealing with it).

I celebrated by ordering Classical Writing Aesop . I'm nervous about this. It's one thing to spend about $4 on a children's Bible and end up ditching in lieu of something better (whatever that may be). It's quite another to buy an entire writing program that you may ending up hating.

I have been reading quite a bit about Traditional Chinese Medicine lately. Apparently one's ability to be decisive is related to one's gall bladder. Well. Hmmm. I think my gall bladder has made just about enough decisions for one day.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
When was the last time you visited a hospital?

A couple of weeks ago to have a mammogram.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you?

It depends. I’m about a 2 on the ambition of “getting ahead” and being considered swanky, sophisticated, and in with the in crowd. On the other hand, I feel called to eradicate wallpaper from the world, which is a fairly ambitious goal

Salad
Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukelele tings healthily.)

Did Nigel answer?

(I spent quite a while trying to come up with something for spleen, but it never really coalesced, so I grabbed my 6yo’s Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body and vowed to write a sentence for the first thing I saw. It was a picture of the DNA ladder. I thought about doing a paragraph using sentences based on the nucleotides, but decided that was too showy and ambitious.)

Main Course
If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it?

It would be dedicated to knitting and wearing Klein bottle hats . We would simply call ourselves “geeks” or perhaps “Purdue alums”.

Dessert
What color is the carpet/flooring in your home?

Dirty grey and dirty brown. I think the previous owners thought it would hide dirt. Mostly it just looks ... dirty.

Noeo Science

I know I've declared our homeschool a Multum non Multa zone, but the kids kept talking about the science they wanted to study.

Kid2 is obsessed with weather. Mostly she's obsessed with weather disasters, especially weather disasters that may impinge on her personal territory (specifically tornadoes, although any sort of storm is good for a panic attack). And both kids have announced that we need to study the human body during the next school year.

I was noodling around on the computer, looking at curriculum websites for no particular reason (Multum non Multa! We don't need your silly little curriculums for every cotton-pickin' subject! We are free from curriculum-purchase frenzy!**), when I happened upon Noeo Science .

Hold on, folks ... look at that Biology 1. Is that ... could it be ... they start the course with weather, then move through various biology topics including the human body? And it's all laid out for me week by week? In a nice, neat little package?

I kept coming back to the website, intrigued. Who starts a biology course with weather? What a concept! And all in a package, sort of like a Sonlight history program, but for science. And with a hefty discount for buying the package.

I took the plunge. I ordered. It arrived quickly at my door. Oooooooh, a box of books and experiments to open!

Kid2 said she didn't want to start right away. She first wanted to get used to the idea that it was here in our house (an interesting comment for a 6 year old to make). So we let the box sit for a week.

Yesterday I announced that we were going to "do" weather. We read the first assignment, which was about the layers of atmosphere and about how the Earth moves about the sun giving us our seasons. Then we did the assignment, which was to draw the Earth in 4 positions around the sun, illustrating the seasons. I had thought through this process, and decided to approach it much the same as our Christopherus drawings. I got out the "good" crayons (Stockmars, a tin each of block and stick). I drew a sample picture myself, discussing how and why I decided to draw certain things certain ways. Then they set to work.

Kid1 completed the assignment quickly and easily. She's been through this Earth-tilt-makes-seasons business numerous times, including in her recent astronomy studies. Kid2 was surprisingly confused. I was holding a paperclip on the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth-drawing she had made, saying, "Okay, now it's pointing towards the sun so we have summer here. As we go around the circle this was we end up at winter [moving paper clip through the various drawing]. What season is in between?" She kept answering, "Spring!" Hmmm. I really thought she understood this better than she did. Just goes to show that there's something to this narration and picture-drawing business, if only to remind me that a 6 year old isn't quite ready for so much abstract reasoning.

**The Rainbow Resource catalog arrived the other day. I simply threw it in a pile of catalogs. No desire to skim through it looking for cool curricula that would revolutionize our lives. I'm over that mania, at least for now.

RightStart Geometry

Yes, it happened. It was a rainy afternoon, and the kids were so bored that they pulled out school books to do school work. Kid1 really wanted to do spelling, but I was busy so she ended up doing math.

Lesson 28, Product of a Number and Two More

This is an incredibly sneaky lesson. It started out explaining that there's a relationship in multiplication between numbers like 2 times 4 and 3 times 3. This was followed by a brief discussion of "squares" and exponents.

Next, Kid1 started drawing rectangles ... first a rectangle that was 2 by 4. She then made this into a square by taking the 2 unit-squares off of one end, swinging them around the side, and adding another unit-square. Et voila, a square of 3 by 3. (Really, this is easy-peasy when you see the diagram in the book).

The worksheet involved drawing various rectangles, swinging the unit-squares around to almost-but-not-quite make a square, adding another unit-square to complete the square. Next, she wrote out the formulas for the various rectangles and squares (2x4=8, 3squared=9, 3squared-1=8). Then, a little nudge to go further ... without drawing rectangles or squares, try figuring out 6x8 and its "near square" (which is 7x7).

After a few of these problems, she was asked to put the concept she had discovered in her own words. This resulted in much moaning and gnashing of teeth. I suggested she tell me ("pretend I'm absolutely clueless -- how would you explain this to me?") then write out what she had said.

Next, more complex problems -- apply the concept to equations like 19x21, 49x51. This would've worked better if she were better at basic multiplication (sigh). She kept muddling up place value.

Then, a drum roll for the final problem: (n-1)x(n+1). More weeping and wailing. She was sure she couldn't do it. I read over what she had so far. She had been using the term "the middle number" to explain how to work the problems, so I suggested that a lazy person wouldn't want to write out or say "the middle number" each and every time they wanted to refer to the middle number ... maybe they would call it TMN. And, if that person doesn't feel like even writing out TMN they might choose to simply call it ... N. Or maybe it's too much trouble to even capitalize, so it just becomes (yes, you've got it) n.

OOOOOOH! OKAY!

When Mr.V got home from work I announced the Kid1 had figured out (n+1)(n-1)=n squared - 1 (NB: obviously I need to figure out how to do exponents in this wordprocessing program before I write much more about this math program). Mr.V was blown away, totally excited. Of course, he was assuming that she had derived it algebraically. Upon finding that she hadn't, he insisted that we all spend the evening, yes, deriving (n+1)(n-1)=n squared -1.

Kid1 commented as she was brushing her teeth at bedtime that she doubted she would remember all that they went over. A lot of it was on the order of "what is chair times 1? Chair. What is cat times 1? Cat. Okay, so what is n times 1? N." And the more complex "chair times negative 1 is negative chair. Cat time negative 1 is negative cat. So what is n times negative 1?" And the slightly loopy "chair times chair is chair squared. Cat times cat is cat squared. My foot times my foot is what?" "Are we including your big toes in this? Because your big toes squared are sort of gross with that damaged toenail that's peeling off." It was sort of like being in an Italo Calvino short story, like something out of t zero .

At least, if you're slightly warped out on math it was.

The Rhythm of Our Days

We spend the mornings in doctors' offices.

We have lunch, during which I read aloud from An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott, and something else. The "something else" has included things like Kevin Crossley-Holland's Norse Myths, Roger Lancelyn Green's King Arthur, or maybe some Shakespeare since it's the solstice and therefore time to read Midsummer Night's Dream once again (although the version I copied off the Internet had annoying typos, including in Oberon's famous line "Ill met by moonlight, Titania").

Then we go to the pool.

Somewhere during all of this I realize that I forgot to get various necessities at the store (toilet paper, popsicles). So, we stop by the store, get ONE item and forget all the rest.

I think my brains are melting in the heat.

Still no sign of Geometry

Plenty of action here, but most of it doesn't have to do with school.

Kid1 got a new bike. It's a Jamis, and has handbrakes and gears. You really need gears around here with all of the hills. Much time has been spent riding bikes.

It's incredibly hot and humid. Disgustingly hot and humid. We go to the local pool a lot. It's the one without all of the big fancy slides and water sprays and tunnels and towers and huge Lazy River. We tried one of those, and we didn't like it. It was too loud, busy, noisy, and annoying, sort of like the water version of Chucky Cheese. The pool we go to has a couple of moderate slides, a little Lazy River you can walk through, some sprays, a couple of diving boards, and lots and lots of flat water.

Gardening is lacksadaisical, and occurs in the early morning or late evening. At this point the landscape needs more ripped out than planted.

We've been going to various doctors' offices, establishing relationships with physicians and getting tests and checkups done for our HMO. This is incredibly tedious and annoying. It takes way too much time. It's one of the worst things about moving -- having to find doctors.

We continue our mission to rip all the wallpaper off the walls. Some rooms have multiple layers of wallpaper. Sometimes the layers all come off at once. Other times it's a long, long process of excavating through the layers of paint (waterproof) and paper.

Knitting? It seems to have gone the way of RightStart Geometry for now.

Friday's Feast

Feast Ninety-Eight
Appetizer
What is a word that you use that would not be considered common?

There are several, but what comes to mind today is "hock" as in "watch out, the cat just hocked a hairball on the stairs."

Soup
What theme of calendar do you have on your wall this year?

No wall calendar is on my wall; a very generic calendar put out by Corporate Express is on the desk.

Salad
Name 3 people you speak with by telephone a regular basis.

Sales people from Dish Network (I can't wait until our Do Not Call status kicks in so they stop calling), and Mr.V. In that order. I can't think of a third.

Main Course
If you could buy a new outfit for someone you know - who would it be and what would you purchase for them?

Oh, I'd love to buy something new for KidV1. Something trendy, but not over-the-top. Something to take her mind off the fact that I said I'd sew a pair of pants for her, I've bought the fabric, and the fabric is languishing on the table right now with no scissors or even a hint of cutting out and sewing up in sight.

Dessert
What is the last beverage you drank?

Green Magma in about 10 oz. water, right before I started writing. I drink it every morning.

EDITING BY POPULAR DEMAND: Here's a link to the Magma stuff. It's a green powder you mix in water. It sticks to the side of the glass, and you'll have to handwash rather than put it in the dishwasher. It also sticks to your lips, so you'll have to wipe them, too, unless you want people staring at you. It tastes sort of like liquid salad (lettuce and greens only). It gets a serving of green leafies out of the way early in the morning. You might want to bear in mind that although I'm okay drinking this first thing in the morning, I'm also able to use words like "hock" first thing in the morning without gagging.

Read-o-mania

We stopped by the public library yesterday and signed up for Summer Read. Both kids were given a Summer Reading Club Reading Log, which is a large sheet of paper with shelves full of books drawn all over it. For every 20 minutes they read or are read to, they are to color in a book on the shelf. They get little prizes at 280 minutes, 700 minutes and 1,300 minutes.

Ever since we left the library they've been reading maniacs (and yes, it started as soon as they got in the car on the way home).

KidV1 has been reading a fictional story about the cotton mills, Trouble at the Mill, which she reviewed for me by announcing, "Mommy, you can't be mad at me about reading drivel when I'm reading this because I've learned more about the mills reading this than I ever did in (SOTW) history ... I think in history I was trying to not pay attention." I got an unsolicited review of not only the book in hand, but SOTW. Hmm.

Mr.V has been reading Racso and the Rats of NIMH as the evening read aloud, so THAT COUNTS. Woohoo.

Morning read aloud has been Eight Cousins. Alas, this didn't last 20 minutes, so I also threw in a chapter from Tales of Tiptoes Lightly . I had meant to read this to KidV2 a few months ago, but it was a victim of The Move -- I couldn't find it. The other day I was looking for another book and found it in my nightstand. Why did I put it there? Gees, no wonder I couldn't find it. So, I stuck it next to its companions by the same author.

Of course, a chapter of Tiptoes Lightly only takes a minute, so we needed still more. I picked up Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Norse Myths . KidV1 had been asking to read some Norse mythology. I associate them with snow, and sort of wanted to wait until winter to read them, but I think she might be onto something here -- we entered a world of "rivers turned into ice", and it was sort of nice to look up from the book and realize that it's actually sunny and hot. We had quite a discussion about the phrase "an unending dismal hagger", as we didn't know what "hagger" meant, but puzzled it out from the context (I tipped them off to "rime" as I read it, so that helped with "hagger").

KidV2's solo reading has been simple picture books, as that's all she can manage. I did read a Junie B. Jones book to her. Coincidentally, there's yet another thread in the MDC Homeschool forums about how awful Junie B. Jones books are. I think they're a hoot. And if we sandwich them in between Alcott and Norse Myths, they're sort of like that bit of junk food you slip in every so often in the midst of your organic, balanced diet. Phooey on the nay-sayers.

I had intentions of noting all the books we've read over the past 24 hours. Really, I can't remember. Suffice to say that KidV1 has almost reached the 280 minute mark already. I suspect that if I went upstairs right now I'd find an unmade bed and clothes thrown all over her room, but she HAS managed to eat, sleep, bathe, and wash the breakfast dishes.

I wonder if it will occur to her that reading the RightStart Geometry book counts as READING.

RightStart Geometry? What's that?

KidV1 was the one who chose to continue RightStart Geometry through the summer. Then, after seeing Akeelah and the Bee, she decided to alternate a week of math with a week of spelling.

I got tired of saying, "Okay, dear, why don't you go ahead and do your spelling/math now." Hey, I want some time off, too! So, no mommy-nagging about schoolwork. She decided to do this, so she can do it without my constant reminders.

And as soon as I started my vacation-from-nagging POOF! the schoolwork stopped. No spelling. No geometry.

I have kept my mouth shut for days about this. Even when she's wandering around the house with that I-don't-know-what-to-do look I have refrained from saying, "gee, if you're looking for something to do you could ...." Does she remember that she wanted to do math? Did she change her mind? Is she trying to drive me nuts? Seeing how long I can go before I crack?

Bits and Pieces

KNITTING

Much knitting is happening. But it is Stealth Knitting. Surprise Knitting. Gift Knitting. About all I can say it that it involves very soft yarn and Addi needles. Someday I may be able to post pictures about it, and rave about the yarn.

HOMESCHOOLING

It's summer. KidV1 said she wanted to alternate weeks of working on math with weeks of working on spelling. I decided to let her set her own pace. I've kept my mouth shut (this is absolutely amazing in itself, and possibly the most startling statement I will ever make in this blog). She has done ... nothing. Well, nothing insofar as math and spelling. She's been reading quite a bit, and was toting Using Latin Book One around for several days (it's an old textbook, of course, and has writing in it ... her favorite part so far has been a handwritten note in the back with the old poem "Latin is a dead language, As dead as it can be; First it killed the Romans, And now it's killing me."). But spelling and math? Nope.

OTHER STUFF

I just got a free 3 month trial of Amazon Prime. It's exciting, but a bit useless. I usually ponder book purchases for several weeks before actually submitting them, so speeding up the delivery process isn't particularly helpful. Now, if I'd gotten a notice more along the lines of "we were going to offer you Amazon Prime, but decided instead to give you an extra 50% off everything on your wishlist" THAT would be news.