Home schooling for homebodies

It's hard to home school when you're not home much. I wrote last week that "I'm hoping to get back into a homebody routine again, with plenty of time for schooling at home (instead of out and about schooling, as we've been doing)". With various lessons, rehearsals, and meetings (usually mine) occupying our Wednesdays and Thursdays, the rest of the week has become more precious.

We've fallen into a comfortable routine on the days we are at home, well, not including the hour or more it takes us to do winter livestock chores. Davy has been interested in learning more about Natives; what he would really like is to wake up one morning in an Iroquois longhouse c1600, but there's only so much I can manage. Instead I pulled out Evan-Moor's History Pockets: Native Americans. The kids work on their pockets while I read aloud, the latest installment of Paddle-to-the-Sea or some of our Lewis and Clark books. History Pockets has sections on eight nations: Inuit, Tlingit, Nez Perce, Maidu, Sioux, Navajo, Iroquois, and Seminole. Because I always need to fine tune and fiddle, I'm adding extra pockets -- as well as increasing the challenge for Laura -- by incorporating material from Donna Ward's Canada's Natives Long Ago and focusing on the nearby Cree and Blackfoot nations. The kids thought it would be fun to bind their pockets, and also their pocket dictionaries, with strips of leather from the deer and moose hides we've had tanned over the years. And Davy hauled back a deer skull found in the woods near our corrals so that he can make something (I hope not a candelabra for his mother for Christmas) out of it. And arrowheads out of the rest of the skull. As long as it all stays out of my house, I told him.

The kids have been going hunting with Tom early every morning just after sunrise, and again before sunset in the evenings. One morning the boys were trailing Tom when they came upon a doe and a fawn. To their great surprise, and the boys' initial concern, the doe started approaching them, stopping when she was about 20 feet away. So far, no doubt to the great disappointment of my venison-loving mother, these have been more extended nature walks than food gathering expeditions.

Davy found a pair of homemade traditional mukluks, complete with fur and decorative beading, at the Goodwill shop, and I was happy with the price of $5. But he wants to be able to wear them outdoors and they have the same leather on the bottom as on the top, so we found a cobbler who is able to add rubber soles to the bottom and also warm liners. We visited him at his workshop yesterday, and he reports that they should be ready by next week, in time for Davy's birthday.

There were a couple of warm days, but it went right back to being cold enough to skate on the slough, and when the kids finally make it back in the house we drink hot chocolate and eat Anna's Swedish spiced biscuits with almond (thank you, Ikea). We've found that the slough is enormous, covering the better part of our neighbor's pasture, meandering around for over a mile, past muskrat lodges, dried cattails and reeds, the occasional startled deer and snowy owl.

I'm rearranging the linen closet, still moving books around on the new shelves, helping the kids boil and shape their new mouthguards (I learn something new every day), and planning Davy's festivities and figuring out when to cook the turkey, next Thursday not being anything approaching a holiday around here.

To make the most out of all of our time in the truck, we've been listening to audio CDs, including

Story of the World: Early Modern Times, volume 3 (I see a new edition is coming out in January)

Naxos Audiobooks' Famous People in History, volume 1 (Alexander the Great, Queen Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Columbus, Horatio Nelson, Shakespeare, and Mozart) and volume 2 (with Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, George Washington, Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and Ghandi); and if you're as nutty as I am and can burn CDs with your computer, you can remix the two volumes so that all the stories are in chronological order.

And, because you're never too young for Stan Freberg, Stan Freberg Presents The United States Of America. I finally broke down the other week and moved it from my wish list to my shopping cart and hit "send". And am I ever glad I did.

New from the Edmonton Public Library system

I heard on the radio this morning that the Edmonton Public Library system has started offering OverDrive, so that patrons can download hundreds (I think 700 or so) of audiobooks and music CDs from home: "Browse and search hundreds of great titles from OverDrive and download them to your computer, transfer them to a portable device, or burn onto a CD for your reading and listening pleasure anywhere, anytime. You can also find these titles in the EPL Catalogue." A recent addition to the list includes the unabridged edition of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson, and also see on there Catherine Bruzzone's French on the Move for Kids.

Unfortunately, OverDrive works only with Windows, not Macs, so if you have an iPod or Apple computer at home, you're out of luck. And even if you burn your selection to a CD, it "expires" on your MP3 player after three weeks: "At the end of the loan period, titles will expire and be automatically 'returned' to the library. At this time, you can delete the expired file(s) from your machine."

I don't know how popular OverDrive is in North America or if it's the only system available, but I can see, especially when the weather is lousy or the family schedule busy, that it could be a handy way for some patrons to get audiobooks and music.

"Island Story" at LibriVox

While discussing Charlotte Mason, Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall, and other history books for younguns with a new internet friend the other day, I stumbled across the news that Our Island Story is now available, since September, as a free audiobook from LibriVox; part one is here and part two is here.

Rather more economical than the pricey (around $30 a pop), though no doubt gorgeous, professional alternative from Naxos Audiobooks, which is offering the unabridged story on CD in three volumes and as a one CD abridged Best of Our Island Story collection.

Eminently suitable

I don't know what JoVE thinks yet about The Voice since she's still travelling, but our complete unabridged audio CD edition of Sir Ernst Gombrich's Little History of the World just arrived, and I'm thrilled to find that The Voice of Ralph Cosham is just right, which isn't always the case with audio versions of beloved books. My reservations have been dispelled after listening to the first two discs. Well done, Blackstone.

A wonderful addition -- dare I say a must-read and must-listen -- for any home's world history shelf.

Back-to-school goodie bags

I have to admit that while I can't stand the provincial public school system, I love the idea of school. In fact, I think I wrote recently that one of the reasons we pulled Laura out to homeschool is that Tom and I each loved school so much (I used to cry on the last day of school because I was so sad to find it over) that we wanted our kids to feel the very same way about school, education, and learning. Not all the same, but all good things in their own ways.

I love school supplies, and to me the excitement of a new beginning in September has always been better than anticlimax of the post-holiday new beginning in January. Call me crazy. And part of that crazy excitement bubbles over into new books, art supplies, CDs, and movies I can share with the kids. By the way, even though the CDs and movies are put in individual bags, it's understood that they're all for-sharing-with-the-whole-family items. I'm nuts but I'm not that nuts.

For Davy, five-and-a-half and in 1st grade:
all first graders around here get a Timex learner's watch (this one has a dinosaur design) and a good quality set of colored pencils (Laurentian "Studio", new this year and so far so good);
small Lego "Racers" kit, with small car (since Lego counts as both a science kit and a math manipulative around here);
Lentil by Robert McCloskey (for music appreciation);
George Shrinks by William Joyce (to make new reading lessons fun);
Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather and Eric Sloane's Weather Book, for my weather nut who was wearing out the library's copies, and because anything by Sloane is wonderful
American Tall Tales audio CD by Jim Weiss, to go along with our continuing American history/SOTW3 studies
stickers/tracing paper/notebook/cardmaking bits and bobs

Daniel, edging closer to seven-and-a-half, 2nd grade:
"Building Big" DVD series by David Macaulay, definitely a big ticket item and one that's been on my Amazon wish list for years, both for Tom and for the kids. Based on our first viewing tonight, I'd say it's a big success, too. Ten thumbs up. Even if I can't expense it for Tom's construction work...
Burt Dow, Deep Water Man by Robert McCloskey
Emma's Strange Pet by Canadian author Jean Little, an I Can Read book for my lizard lover and new reader
Lego "Racers" kit, with small car (see above)
Abraham Lincoln and the Heart of America audio CD by Jim Weiss (see above)
stickers/tracing paper/notebook/cardmaking bits and bobs

Laura, nine years old, 4th grade:
School Smarts planner from American Girl, discovered by Laura in a summertime AG catalogue, and upon reflection decided upon as a way of moving her to more independent work, with (first) reading and then writing assignments. I'm hoping yesterday's excitement about the planner and extra responsibility continues;
Kaya's Story Collection by Janet Shaw (which Laura is enjoying immensely)
"Living Adventures from American History" CD from Eye in the Ear, another companion resource for our two-year SOTW3 studies, and something I'm eager to hear myself after reading the write-up in the Chinaberry catalogue several years ago;
The Burgess Seashore Book for Children by Thornton Burgess, to take along when we visit my parents in the West Indies in the new year;
Thomas Jefferson's America audio CD by Jim Weiss (see above)
"Handwriting by George: Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company & Conversation", a cursive writing workbook to take advantage of Laura's American Girl/colonial America fixation (I'm sure you're noticing an AG trend here in my Canadian girl); that's George as in Gen. Washington;
The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson, which I'm hoping Laura will let me read aloud to the three of them;
a few bookmarks I made with a line for the day's date and "I need to read ____ pages by _______" to keep track of her new independent reading assignments; we'll see how this works and I'll keep you posted;
stickers/tracing paper/notebook/cardmaking bits and bobs