International Quiz Finals and College Life...

I'm not ready for this! Tori will be twelve next week and she spent last weekend on a college campus, staying in a  dorm. We did drive up to South Bend and stay nearby to watch her compete but it was still really, really weird to leave her at college when we left in the evenings. While her team didn't do that well overall, Tori had some good moments throughout the competition and honestly just loved her college experience.

This moment in particular really just hit me hard. There she is sitting on a wall studying. I have more memories like this of college life than I can count, and it was just so weird to see my girl like this! I know we have six more years before this is real life but this little glimpse into the future was amazing and hard all at once.

I wasn't quick enough with this shot, but she had just got a right answer and was headed back to the bench. I feel like quizzing fits in so well with a classical education because much of the focus is on the same things--memorization and public speaking. At first I thought that trying to quiz and also working towards Memory Master would be too much, but it wasn't. As it turns out, the more you use your brain, the easier it becomes to use your brain. Who knew? Haha. But seriously, she rocked both challenges this year. In her division in her district, she got third place individually for the year. This weekend was a bigger event with five different districts all coming together to compete. 

Also we ate in a McDonald's CASTLE! Because when you just finished cycle 2 of CC, how do you NOT stop at a castle!??! To be honest, it was one of the worst McDonald's I've ever been to. We waited longer than you can imagine for a very simple order. The guy in front of me had already paid and ordered before I walked in and he didn't even get his hot chocolate (the only thing he ordered) until five minutes after I finally got my hash brown. But still, we ate in a castle and bad service can't take that away! 

What We're Listening To

We have made a move towards audiobooks in the car--not just on long trips, but every time we get in the car.  Time in the car is a great educational opportunity for all of us, I try to never let it go to waste. We started out with Story of the World (SOTW) and still listen to them often but then we discovered that the narrator of SOTW also has countless other CDs of historical events told in a similar story style. We have been grabbing them all from the library and listening constantly. You know something is really great when your nine year old is sad to get out of the car because he wants to know what Lewis and Clark are doing to do next.

Abraham Lincoln and the Heart of America

We are currently listening to Abraham Lincoln and the Heart of America. Jim Weiss, the narrator, has such a gift for making the story come alive.  I did not have a classical education. I learned about Lincoln the same way I learned about all history. It was dry, dull, and didn't matter and didn't affect me. Obviously in classical education, history is the exact opposite. It is exciting, and full of life, and it matters. This audiobook really helped us all see Lincoln as a real man, with rough times and heart aches and struggles. 

Another cool thing for us was  that we visited Lincoln's boyhood home last summer. It was actually not completely planned. We were headed to Holiday World in southern Indiana and we realized that we were going to arrive 3-4 hours before we could check in at the cabin we rented. I started googling like a crazy person and discovered that on the very same road as Holiday World was the Lincoln's Boyhood Home, which is a national park. (Check it out here.) We were completely unprepared that day and found ourselves in clothing that did not even remotely pass for hiking clothes--and the walk from the parking lot to the site of the home was quite far, up and down hills through the woods with many areas unshaded for long stretches. We were a mess! But it was really cool. And now listening to the audiobook about Lincoln, when the narrator is describing where he grew up, we can picture it! We've been there! We know how far out in the middle of nowhere it is so we understand when we hear that Lincoln walked two miles to school, that wasn't an easy walk. It was hilly and uneven. 

Lucas was so inspired by our experience last summer that he chose Lincoln for Faces of History this year. He did a great job on his first research paper and dressed as Lincoln to read it to a room full of people. And now he's really enjoying getting to know Lincoln even better on this CD.

Most of the audiobooks we listen to lately are historical non-fiction rather than fiction. Although we did interrupt our historical adventures to try a 'Shakespeare for Kids" CD. It didn't go over that well. I had a hard time focusing on it despite the stories being familiar to me and I am pretty sure the kids checked out and didn't listen at all. We may attempt to listen to all of the Narnia books this summer, though.  We have a total of 2100 miles in the car in a couple weeks, and I think we will cover a lot of books in that time!

Pinewood Derby

My middle child Lucas is a cub scout. He has intentions of working his way through it all to be an Eagle Scout. I have a love/hate relationship with Scouts. I love the things he learns and the fun he has. I hate the way it feels like Scouts sometimes takes over our calendar. But as any home school mama will tell you, we can take anything and make it an educational experience. At first I tried having him read books and blogs about how to make the fastest car but it wasn't holding his interest and a lot of it seemed complicated. But then last year at Pinewood Derby time, I took Lucas to the Scout store to buy a few things he needed. He had some questions so he went and talked to the man who runs the shop. That led to a forty-five minute discussion in the middle of a school day on the absolute best techniques for a winning car. He soaked it all in, went home, and followed those instructions to the letter. He took home a first place trophy at his first competition and then went to the district race and won third place.  And then he did it all again this year and took first and then third again!

Lucas with his car and third place trophy at district. Notice that Patriots sticker on the car? I made it for him with my Cricut. What a headache!  He was very particular about how it needed to look and watched over my shoulder and bossed me around until it was just how he wanted it to be. I tried to take credit for him winning that trophy but he says the sticker didn't affect the speed. Well, boo! ;)

A Few Glimpses at Our Recent Days

I don't think that in home schooling there is a such thing as a normal day. We might stay at the table doing book work all day. We might find ourselves helping a fellow home school family move into their new home and discover baby bunnies along the way. We might go to the library and accidentally choose 42 books we just have to take home TODAY.  We definitely have plans and goals for academics but we never let a checklist get in the way of learning out in the real world if an opportunity pops up (and they pop up so much more often than you'd think!). Here's some quick glimpses into the random adventures we have had the past few weeks.

 We found the best climbing tree in the city (possibly the world!). :)

 We took home so many books from the library that we could barely carry them out to the car!

 We spied on some baby bunnies tucked away in some tall grass in a friend's yard. 

I am always amazed at the strange ideas this child comes up with and follows through on. He found a few leftover paper plates from when we had visitors and decided to make a suit of armor. I don't know. I can't explain it. Like I said, delightfully weird. :)

Willy Wonka: Live on Stage! (Well, sort of!)

A couple weeks ago my kids got together with some of their CC friends and put on their own version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I can't tell you which version they were trying to copy. The old movie? The new one? The book? I have no idea. But regardless, it was a hilarious and lovely night watching the kids put on their show. One of them wrote a script, another was in charge of costumes. There were sets and props and much, much laughter. And most kids played more than one part. They had five kids to cover the entire cast. Again, much, much laughter.

 I think Tori was narrating at this point, but I am not 100% sure.

 Evey was Violet. "Violet, you're turning violet, Violet!" (My favorite line from any movie ever.)

 Lucas as Mike TV. He also played Augustus, and several other parts. I can't remember it all. It was a whirlwind. Did I mention they condensed the entire story to under ten minutes?

 Keira and Avery. Avery was a squirrel, which is from the Johnny Depp version of the movie. But I feel like some other aspects came from other sources. It was all mixed up and perfectly entertaining!

I am not really sure what was happening here. Tori was Wonka I think and I am not sure what Lucas was doing.

I think sometimes the biggest worry we all have with home schooling is friendships. You have to try harder to be around people when you have the option to be home all day. But this night was a beautiful reminder to me that my kids have wonderful friends who are as delightfully weird as my own kids. And I don't say weird as an insult. Not at all. In fact, I mean it as the highest compliment. These are kids who just have never even remotely worried about what others thing of them and who they are. They are so comfortable just being who they are, and they all just accept each other, quirks and all. I could not wish for better friends for my kids than the ones they have had at Classical Conversations this year.

Falcon Naming and Banding Ceremony!

Last week, our home school group was invited to be a part of a naming and banding ceremony for some baby falcons who were hatched on top of one of the tallest buildings in our city! I am going to be honest and say that I was dreading this trip. I don't like parking downtown and I don't like birds or heights. This trip seemed like a big disaster for me!

But we decided to suck it up and go. To make it easier, we parked at the downtown library and walked over to the building where the ceremony was held. As it turned out, we got to stay safely inside the building on the second floor and only a couple of the falcon experts headed up to the roof. Whew, what a relief! Also, baby falcons are kind of cute... but they are still birds, so I kept my distance.

 In order to make parking at the library legal, we stopped and had breakfast at the Dunkin Donuts inside the library. No one complained about getting a donut! And it was probably cheaper than paying for a parking garage. It was definitely less stressful. Plus, it was a nice walk downtown.

Our home school group kids had come up with names for the babies and we all voted on them ahead of time. The man from Soarin' Hawks (A hawk rehab group) removed the birds from the nest and banded each one, took a blood sample for the state's records, and then the names were announced. Baby falcons are cute and fluffy but they squawk and make insane amounts of noise. They were not pleased to have bloodwork done. Their mama was not pleased that they were removed from the nest and did swoop at the Soarin' Hawks man a couple times. (Don't worry, once they are banded for identification, they are put back in the nest and everything goes back to normal. This is done to help the birds, not harm them).

 There were three baby hawks and one egg that never hatched. The man in the back on the right was the one who got them from the nest. He also removed some of the gravel so he could identify what their diet had been based on the, um, leftovers found in the nest. Falcons like to nest on gravel so when he returned the birds, he said he was also going to put in fresh gravel for next year.

The falcons return to that nest on top of the power company's building each year and the power company has been really great about making them part of the company! When we left the ceremony, they gave the kids bouncy balls that light up, flash lights, and night lights. Here's Oliver loaded down with goodies!

My three kiddos with our beautiful city behind them. We were only on the second floor of the highest building in our city (from what I was told that day, anyway) but the first floor had really tall ceilings so the second floor was probably more like a 4th floor of a normal building. 

There were several newspapers and news stations at the ceremony. Here are links to the articles I found written on this event.

Journal Gazette Article

News Sentinel Article

I forgot about this blog...

I decided I needed a place to start recording the different things we do for school. I had intended to start a new blog but logged in and saw that somewhere along the way, I started one. I just didn't keep it going. I really want to start keeping better track of the different things that we are doing so I am going to try desperately to keep this up. :)

 So where are we right now and where are we going?

We've just finished up fourth and sixth grades for the big kids and Oliver is about to turn four and have his first year of pre-K.

The past year of school was successful. I think it is rare for a home school mom to look back on a school year and confidently say, "Nailed it!" but that's what I'm saying. Sure, it wasn't perfect. There were hard times and there were days that the checklist wasn't checked off. But ever since we joined Classical Conversations, I don't doubt that we are doing enough. I don't worry. I don't stress so much about what they are learning. My oldest was a memory master (a Classical Conversations title given to kids who can recite the entire year's memory work) and my fourth grader wrote his first research paper with NO TEARS! No. Tears.

There are big changes coming up next school year. Tori is moving from Foundations and Essentials on to the Challenge program. I am moving on with her to direct Challenge A. Lucas won't be making any changes but Oliver will be officially enrolled in Foundations for the first time! Wow, I am nervous about that!

I am going to back up and spend the next few (many?) posts writing about some of the experiences we've had this school year.