New Blog

Well, we are home owners. Yay!

And to mark this new stage in our lives I have started a new blog - Here It Is

It is still in it's beta so please let me know if you experience any problems or notice any issues.

You may have noticed I haven't been posting as often since we started getting ready for the move but I am going to try to get back to posting once a day a.s.a.p. So bookmark the new site!

friends and the fair

Listen to ipod


dinner with bestfriend


all the girls playing


saying good-bye


last piano lesson


dinner with her other bff "E"


at the L.A. County Fair on Sunday


In the Little Red School House


Making a rag doll


Z and her Raggedy Ann


The 15 story ferris wheel


Top O' the World

Come one, come all

Well we have now been able to visit most of our friends. There are a few that we will have to wait to see when we come back. The week before last we had five playdates with friends and this week we had four plus a visit to our old homeschool park group where Z got to play with about fifteen very good girlfriends she had made over the last two years there. That day worked out really well.

I am so happy and grateful that both Z and I got to spend so much time with our good friends here. It makes me sad to leave a place with so many cool, supportive, like-minded and kind friends.

I am really excited and gratified by how many friends are already planning trips to come visit us this year. So far three of our very good friends are making plans to come visit us while they are visiting other family in the midwest. We have one family coming in October, one in May and one without definite plans but a lot of enthusiam. *smile*

I had to explain to Z that Indiana is not a place most people can justify going to on vacation unless they are bundling it in with a trip to see family or a cross country drive or something.

I am so happy to be able to say we have a guest room now (plus Z's trundle bed and a futon in the basement.) And, of course, all my good internet buddies should totally let me know if they are in the area so we can meet up in real life.

Today is a big day - I have finally finished packing and the movers are coming within the hour.

Homeschool schedule

Z and I can't wait to start homeschooling!

Today I rewrote my schedule and I feel like everything looks really good though I still need to do a bit more research.

We are going to do classes four days a week.

Math - 30 mins a day - using Livingmath.net books and games working on concepts from Everything You Need to Know About Math Homework 4th - 6th Grade

Language Arts - 30 mins a day - using Classical Aesop curriculm but using Beatrix Potter instead of Aesop and working on concepts from Everything You Need to Know About English Homework 4th - 6th grade

Social Studies - 30 mins a day
Day One - Reading from Renaissance era biographies
Day Two - Finish Reading if necessary, make a Bio Page for history notebook and add words to Renaissance Glossary
Day Three - Geography work book or Geographunny book
Day Four - Reading a story from a different culture integrated with geography

Science - 30 mins a day
Day One - Nature study with journaling
Day Two - Continue with local flora and fauna study
Day Three - Science Experiment and Log
Day Four - Other

Reading - 30 mins a day - Reading classical stories, biographies and poetry

Japanese - 20 mins a day - I am still not sure what we are going to do for Japanese... :(

Then sometime in the afternoon Z will do an "enrichment" class - art, crafts, cooking, and "other"

Then one day will be our field trip day. There are so many new things in S.B. that we want to see. In the winter that day might be for projects or movies or something indoors and warm.

I am not sure about her classes yet. She will still take piano and hopefully voice, but I am unsure if she will continue with gymnastics or start dance. I am not sure if we will take anymore classes as I don't want to get over committed.

a house is a place to hold your stuff

I spent five hours packing Z's room today, and I am not even done yet (!!!).

I had to work on it by myself because I wanted to throw a lot of stuff away and Z would never let me. She is very attached to her junk, I mean... her priceless items.

Honestly, she feels a very strong attachment to everything she has ever made, every piece of paper she has ever written on, any toy anyone once gave her that she played with one time before forgetting about it, and most items of clothing she has ever worn including handme down boy's pajamas that are at least four inches too short for her.

But it is not fair to only make fun of Z.

Pere and I have a ridiculous amount of kitchen items for a tiny 8x8 kitchen. I was packing them tonight and I couldn't help but think "What the hell are we doing with all this stuff??"

We have all the normal stuff like

The Kitchen Aid


Food Processor


Blender


The Crock Pot


Rice Cooker


The Electric Mixer


We got the fancy stuff

The Good Silver


The Crystal



The Cake Set


The helpful stuff

Lots of twine



The Hand Blender


Mortar and Pestle



The Japanese cooking stuff

Sushi Maker



Special bowl to cool sushi rice


Steamer



and all uber necessary

Hello Kitty Waffle Machine



Fondue Set


Cake Decorator


Canape Bread Molds



Pasta Maker


Creme Brulee kit


Apple corer, peeler, slicer


and, of course, S'more Maker


And that's not all of it... thank God I am getting a bigger kitchen.

byes

I was thinking I would write about how Z received a "talking to" tonight regarding how she is not the parent and she is not to tell us what to do or speak to us in a sassy manner.

But instead I remembered the nice time we had at a friend's house today. Z's little friend made her the sweetest going away picture book that she illustrated herself. Z and I both got to talk with our friends and then we all played the fun new game Whoonu together. It was hard to say good-bye so instead we all went and had ice cream at one of the places our families had first gotten together at.

Finally when it was time to say good-bye there were tears on Z's part. This is all very hard for her. She had to say good-bye to many friends the last few days.

As far as our moving goes we have one week till the moves come and 13 days until we fly away.

Look, and aqueduct

Nine hundred and ninety-nine books on the wall, nine hundred and ninty nine books.,, take one down, stick it in a box, nine hundred and ninety-eight books on the wall.

Guess what I have been doing today?


Also there has been some stress and I pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve or somehow otherwise royally frakked up my neck on Monday. Since they I have been doing ice and heat and massage and stretching and now beer. I am really hoping this whole beer things works... I don't have time to be injured.

Pere has officially started working from home. It is really wonderful to have him home again. The arrangement is not ideal at the moment since we are packing so he is set up with his computer right in the thick of things at the dining room table. Z and I are trying not to be too distracting. But in our new house he will have pretty much have the whole basement to himself.

This morning Z was eating her peanut buttered toast and she holds it up for me to look at, "Mommy, look an aqueduct."
And yes, her toast resembled the Roman water conveyer. I had to laugh. It felt like something I should share with Carolyn at Hoagiesgifted for her YKYTPOAGCW...page.

Z is also obsessed with time these days. She really needs to wear her watch instead of asking me the time every 3 and a half minutes... But I am not sure that would really be much better because when she is within sight of a clock she gives me constant updates on how much time we have until the next event in our lives, "Only four minutes to lunch", "Seventeen minutes until time to leave for gymnastics", "Only eight minutes until daddy is done."

To end on another Z quote, today I heard her say "He looks a fool", which is a very old-fashioned way of saying "He looks foolish," which in itself is an old-fashioned way of saying something much more crude. ;)

Living Math

Today I would like to share what I think is one of the best resources for math on the net livingmath.net

I found myself on this site again today after Z and I reread four of her old math themed picture books

One Grain of Rice by Demi



The Big Buck Math Book



Millions to Measure



On Beyond A Million


Z has had all these books for several years and already learned their concepts. But we like to revisit her favorite picture books.

She really loves learning about math by reading about it. She or I make up word problems as we go along when we are inspired by ideas in the books. For example, she mulitplied 250 million by 500 million to find out something about people eating popcorn in America... (I forget what the problem was exactly.)

Also, when she was younger, her most favorite Math books were from the Time Life Series "I Love Math"

Anyway Livingmath.net has many great lists of math books by concept and grade level as well as inspirational articles and even their own math/history lesson plans.

I was searching there today because Z loves learning math this way so much that I am rethinking my idea to use EPGY. EPGY was great but also expensive. It would be more work for me but I know I could put something really great together using the living math approach that Z loves so well.

Labor Day

Yesterday we went to the Channel Islands house to get together with friends and family for Labor Day. Pere brought his homemade chili and fancy macaroni and cheese (fancironi). We had our Pale Ale and Arrogant Beer. We played board games with Z and walked to the beach and talked and ate and had too much chocolate cake.

It was a really great party. Of course I forgot my camera...

The night before we had our friends A and M and their daughter E. Z and E played a game in her room for hours! We four adults talked and talked, and as always, had to end the party before we were ready to be done.

We are really going to miss everyone. But I am trying not to think of it too much. I trust that I will see everyone when we come back for visits. I know it won't be exactly the same. We won't be in their lives every week. But that will make the times we get to see them during visits even more special. Also it is so easy these days to keep up with friends over email.

I really appreciate how supportive everyone has been even though it is hard to leave one another. Last night some friends that we really respect were so happy for us that it really warmed my heart.

Teaching Meme

I got this idea from Patience at Homespun.

I am a good teacher because ... I really value knowledge. I love to learn myself. I care that my child is emotionally safe and I believe that to really learn she should be excited by and engaged with what we are doing.

If I weren't a teacher I would be ... A writer or a trainer. I wrote professionally before having Z. I love doing the research that comes with writing on a new subject. I also used to train adults when I was an efficiency manager. I enjoy developing training materials and helping people figure out how to make it work for them.


My teaching style is ... academic and old fashioned in someways. I read all six of the original Charlotte Mason volumes when I just started learning about homeschooling (Z was two) and her old-fashioned yet highly sensible approach really appealed to me. On one hand it was quiant, with the handicrafts and daily exercises, but what she said about parenting and the nature of educating and learning really spoke to me. (At this time I also read Maria Montessori's books, and John Gatto. I checked out teacher's textbooks from the library and read Vygotsy, Dewey, Skinner, Gardener, Piget, Erickon, etc.)

I learned a lot and developed a style that is based partly on what I learned from my readings and partly from what I learned just by teaching Z.

My classroom is ... the dining table, the couch, the car. I keep things organized, I am more comfortable that way.

My lesson plans are ... also organized. I want Z to have a lot of free time in the afternoons to expore things on her own and follow her own passions. To give her all that time we need to be efficient about our lessons in the morning. I have definite ideas regarding what (and how) I want her to learn in every subject. Since I really believe she learns best when she is excited and engaged I search far and wide for just the right resources for each subject and then I present them in the order that I have learned will draw her in.

We certainly go "off track" sometimes but I don't sweat it. She is far enough ahead and those days are a nice change of pace.

One of my teaching goals ... is for Z is enjoy her education. I want her to be excited to do her lessons. I would say I have two "foundational" goals. One is the "plan" of what I want her to learn and the other is that she likes what she is doing.

The toughest part of teaching is ... trying to be in good temperment all the time. Day after day after day everything goes swimmingly. Z and I get along very well. But some times our stars get crossed and things are difficult.

The thing I love about teaching is ... being with Z. And the planning. *wink*

A common misconception about teaching is ... that only teachers can do it. I think any reasonably intelligent person who is also mentally sound can educate their child. The way I do it takes energy and patience and creativity and consistency. But there are lots of way of doing it.

The most important thing I've learned since starting teaching is ... that there are a lot of important things to do doing school hours that aren't "lessons." We like to get together with friends, go to LEGOland or the Zoo, have lunch with grandma, go on walks, etc.

Friends

We have a full schedule ahead of us playdates and parties with friends.

Today is Z's bestfriend's birthday party. I realized last week that this girl is an amazing artist.



Tomorrow we are having family friends over for dinner. Z calls their daughter her "evil best friend." Not because the girl is evil but because when they used to play pretend the friend liked to play the "bad guy". All of Z's other friends will only be the "good guy." This girl can be anthing she wants to be. I can see her being some kind of writer or Literature professor.



Monday we are getting together with another "best friend" for a labor day party. She wants to be a marine mammal trainer.


Tuesday we having a playdate with a little boy that Z has been friends with for two years. He is going to be a rock star.



And then Wednesday we are having another playdate with another little girl "bestfriend". I could see her being an actress or writer, she makes up great stories.



Thursday she has classes.

Friday I am hoping to set up a playdate with our friends in Camarillo. (Hmmm, writer, diva and athlete? wink*)



(and of course I am very good friends with all the moms)

We have our move date and only 19 more days before we move. Homeschooling can wait. Being with friends is what we really want to do.

gifted & homeschooling

Since this blog is supposed to be about homeschooling my 6 year old gifted daughter I guess I should actually write about that every once in awhile...

Z has been very good lately. She has very helpfully been going with the flow while I try to get so many things done. (Including feeding a stray cat and her two newborns that we found in the parking lot...)

All Z's teachers know now that she is moving.

Her gymnasics teacher, of the last two years, has been testing their class for "level four". Z is doing cartwheels off the balance beam now.

Today Z did great at voice. Her singing was noticably better than even last week. She did Honey Bun so well her teacher said that if Z made a demo that she should definitey use that song. I don't see why Z would need a singing demo at this age but it was an interesting thought. Z did have a demo for voice over work but she was actually working as a voice over actress then.

Her piano teacher was very sad. But she told Z "You have to practice very hard before you leave so that you can show your new piano teacher all you can do." And Z has been doing so. Piano is one of the only things I am making sure she does everyday.

I admit we haven't been doing Japanese. I haven't really been doing much with Z at all. I am driving around quite a bit so we are listening to the second book in the Indian in the Cupboard series. At home she is also reading the Spiderwick books, some poetry books, and HP5.

I am itching to start homeschooling but I think we are going to wait the three more weeks until we get to Indiana. We will spend the rest of our time here visiting with family and friends when we are not running errands and taking care of business.

I should say again how proud I am of her and how easy she is being while I am trying to deal with all this other stuff. Tonight, for example, she played with children's toys in the lounge at CarMax while we took care of selling the Jetta. We will only need one car in S.B. and we have chose to ship the BMW.

She also kept herself busy playing with her fairy dolls in ehr room while I was on the phone booking a flight for the cats. :)

quotes and pics

As you can imagine I have been running my rear off the last two days getting papers signed and faxed, visiting the bank and the UPS store, etc

But it is ever so much better to be busy like this then to be waiting to find out where my life is going like I was for almost the last two months.

It might seem like this is all coming together fast but in reality Pere and I have been working hard behind the scenes to make this happen since July 1st. It included a trip where we left L.A. at 11:00 at night on Friday and didn't arrive at our destination in Indiana until 14 hours later (we couldn't land in S.B. due to bad weather so we had to drive) and me having to actually yell at Enterprise rent a car for 15 minutes straight in a room full of people who couldn't help but listen.

Oh yeah and looking at the most disgusting house ever. Imagine if you locked 20 cats in a house for 20 years and let them use the carpeting for a litter box... *shiver*

I have to try not to think about that... yikes!

Well anyway I am very busy and I don't have that much to write about as I am sure you don't care to know how much it is going to cost us to ship four bedrooms worth of furniture and 85 boxes of books over 2000 miles... double yikes!

So Instead I will share some recent pictures of my favorite girl

Here is she in her nightgown cutting up pictures for a "new home/new life" collage.


Here she is resting on a George Seurat bench at the O'Hare airport


This one is of her with a "Detective Kit" she put together with help from her Nancy Drew books




Yesterday we went with Z's piano teacher and some students to the Hollywood to hear the Philharmonic practice. Here is a pic of Z at the bowl and Z wth her teacher.



Now for a couple quotes

Yesterday she was play fighting with her Pere and she said "Ill met by moonlight proud Oberon!" The thing is that she knows the correct quote but she said Oberson because Pere is a man, of course.

Also she was sitting a reading quietly next to me and she exclaims, with exasperation "I can HEAR my EYELASHES!" Apparently her eyelashes make too much noise when she blinks. LOL!! If you have seen her in person it is even funnier because she does have these huge long eyelashes... *grin*