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| Big Science Fair! |
| 04.30.04 (9:57 am) [edit] |
Today Betsy and I are heading off to the Engineering Department's open house at the University of Washington. I've never attended this event before, but I've heard it's great! It's like a big interactive science fair where kids get to try out lots of experiments that will teach them about applied science.
I just added a link to my Blog because I've created a Webpage for raising funds for the Dublin Marathon, which I'll be walking in October with the Arthritis Foundation Joints in Motion team.
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| Strawberries! |
| 04.29.04 (9:01 am) [edit] |
Betsy is more involved with gardening this year than she has been in the past. This year she has her very own strawberry plants. I used to grow some strawberries years ago before I realized I was allergic to them, so I have this nice strawberry pot. Betsy actually DID MATH to figure out how many plants she needed and how many packs of strawberries we had to buy and how much it would cost.
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I am now officially committed to raising $4900 for the Arthritis Foundation for the privilege of participating in the Dublin City Marathon with the Joints in Motion team. I am very excited about this opportunity. I'll get to train for about 20 weeks with a coach and walking team. I'll learn lots of new things and meet people and lose weight and have a blast, all while raising money for an excellent cause.
I'll be doing lots of fun things to raise money, besides simply asking people to donate. I'm going to see if my local grocery store will let me set up a booth in front of their store on the 4th of July. We have a big old-fashioned small town Independence Day celebration with a parade and everything, and our town doesn't allow individual fireworks. But I'm thinking there are a lot of fun things that kids might like to have with them during the parade--flags, stickers, noisemakers, etc. I'm going to see what I could buy at Oriental Trading Company for resale on the 4th of July.
I'm also going to have a garage sale and get rid of some of my eBay inventory that hasn't sold. I'll be asking friends to donate stuff they no longer need, too.
Any ideas along this line would be greatly appreciated!
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| Bugs! |
| 04.27.04 (5:27 pm) [edit] |
Boy, am I glad we got out and enjoyed the sunshine yesterday, because today it was chilly and windy and threatening to rain all day.
We did nevertheless spend some time outdoors today because we went to an Entomology class at the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation. We recently joined this organization because they have so many great classes for homeschoolers. And, fortunately for us, these classes tend to be very small and attended by younger kids, so Betsy is able to handle them okay. It's one of the few places she, as a kid with Aspergers syndrome, has been able to successfully participate fully in a class.
Another benefit of these Adopt-a-Stream classes is that they often include labs that would be difficult to do on your own. Today, for example, we went out and dipped pond water. Now, we could do that any day on our own, but we wouldn't know what we were finding...at this class, there were several naturalists who could point out various types of insects, larvae, egg sacs, polliwogs, shrimps, etc. that showed up in the pond water.
So I learned a basic thing about bugs today. I always thought "bug" was just another word for "insect," but today I found out that bugs are a genus of insects...so there are some bugs that are insects, but many more insects that are not technically bugs. :shock:
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| Can You Canoe? |
| 04.26.04 (6:35 am) [edit] |
One of the things I absolutely love about working only part-time and home schooling my daughter is that sometimes on a Monday, when everybody else is headed to their office cubicles, we are off to do something fun.
Monday morning has always been my favorite time to go to the beach, for example. There's just something so delightfully decadent about being able to do that.
Today is my payday at the University, so we will go pick up my check, run a few errands, and then head to the school's boat rental facility to go canoing. We can paddle over to the Arboretum, where we can visit some other ducks besides our usual gang at the park near our home. There are also a lot of great blue herons that nest there. And, since it is supposed to be at least 80 degrees today, we might also see turtles sunning themselves on logs.
I'll bring my camera and will add pictures to this blog later!
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| Urban Herd |
| 04.25.04 (4:05 pm) [edit] |
My husband has started to mow the lawn most weekends again, and his dog Jack is so funny! Jack is a Schipperke, which used to be a herding and ratting breed in Belgium, and he definitely has the herding instinct. In fact, he tries to nip at our heels to herd us over to the cupboard where we keep the dog food.
When Larry mows, I have to keep Jack inside because he barks incessantly whenever the lawn mower stays in one place for more than a moment. Jack doesn't have any problem with the mower while Larry is pushing it around, but when it stops, he thinks he needs to herd it back into action.
He's the same way with the vacuum cleaner. When I clean, I have to put him outside, and he looks in through a window and barks at the vac if I stop to dust or move furniture.
Lately Jack seems to have transferred this need to herd to just about anything that has to be plugged in, including my iron. When I bring my ironing board into the family room to iron Larry's work shirts, Jack starts to get excited. Then when I actually plug in the iron, the high screechy barking starts.
Maybe we should get him a sheep?
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| Homemade Candy! |
| 04.24.04 (8:14 am) [edit] |
Betsy's favorite home schooling project right now is making candy. She loves candy, and I don't like to just buy it for her all the time for no particular reason. So I told her she should start making some, and she has. She made one simple recipe almost completely by herself, and they turned out great! Here's a picture and the recipe.
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CHOCOLATE-COVERED PEANUT BUTTER BALLS
Mix in a bowl: 1 c. softened butter, 2 c. peanut butter, 3 c. powdered sugar. Refrigerate a little while. Then make this into small balls.
Drop the balls into melted chocolate (you can use melting chocolate that comes in blocks, or chocolate chips--just melt them in the microwave). Set the candy on wax paper or marble. Eat when the chocolate has dried. YUM!
My husband took about half of these candies to a meeting the other day, and everyone agrees that the home school candy making class MUST continue!
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| Earth Day! |
| 04.22.04 (6:43 am) [edit] |
Betsy and I are celebrating Earth Day by going to visit the fishies at the Seattle Aquarium. It's one of her favorite places, and we don't go there often because it's pretty expensive. However, I have an Entertainment Book so we have coupons for aquarium admission AND lunch!
It's only about 6:40 a.m. and I am about done with my morning computing (email, eBay sales, etc.). So I get to take a long walk this morning before waking up my homeschooler, and it's a great day for it.
Added later: Here's some cool stuff I found on my walk this morning...
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| Volunteer Work |
| 04.21.04 (11:48 am) [edit] |
Today Betsy went back to volunteering in the special ed kindergarten class that she had been a part of many years ago. (She'd taken a break from volunteering while she was attending a different school herself--but now that we're back to homeschooling, she has time to volunteer.) Betsy loves little kids, and they love her, too! Today she brought one of her homemade sock puppets with her, and the kindergartners made paper bag puppets so they could all talk to each other. The kindergarten teacher said she will let the kids do a lot of pretend and acting out on Wednesday morning when Betsy is there, because she's a good leader in this area.
This is a great tie-in with our own homeschooling! I can encourage Betsy to write skits or stories or come up with other projects that she can share with the kindergartners. Betsy is also free to plan an art activity for the kids to do or teach them a new song. The teacher is open to just about any activity that Betsy wants to bring in. She's known Betsy a long time and really likes having her there!
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| And Then There Were Two... |
| 04.20.04 (7:04 am) [edit] |
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We bought a triops kit at a local natural history museum's gift shop about a month ago. Triops are these little shrimp-like creatures that have a very quick life cycle. They usually live only 30 to 60 days. They've survived here on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs. They only come to life during rainy periods in very dry climates...so when there is a tiny pool of rain for a month or two in a dessert, these little critters hatch out of their desiccated eggs and live their entire lives before the pool dries up.
The kit was supposed to have 20 to 30 triops eggs that should successfully hatch. I think we got five or six initially...but soon there were just three, one of which was a huge (well, huge for a triops, anyway) guy whom we named The Hulk.
I spent the last couple of weeks just a little nervous over whether The Hulk was going to eat his smaller siblings. I need not have worried. Evidently he reached old age faster than the others, and they did the natural thing (well, natural for a triops, anyway)--they ate him.
Fortunately we were away while this was happening at another science event, so we didn't see it happen. We attended a class on aquatic insects at the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation yesterday. It was last night, just before I was heading to bed, that I realized we were short one triops. Betsy was pretty devastated, and I'm sure we'll have to do some debriefing on this today. I will suggest she write a story or poem about The Hulk, in order to get some closure on his passing. We can't really have a funeral, since there's so little left of him in the tank.... Rest in Peace, Little Big Guy!
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| Unschooling Ella |
| 04.18.04 (8:23 pm) [edit] |
Betsy, my best friend Helen, and I went to see "Ella Enchanted" this afternoon. It was a very fun movie, and it had lots of educational value.
If you read a classic version of "Cinderella" to your kids before you go, then you can have them do a comparison and contrast of the classic fairy tale and the movie. (School-at-home type home schoolers could do this as a written assignment; we will probably just discuss it.)
You can also talk to them about values and speaking up for what you believe in. That's what Ella did!
Obedience takes on an interesting twist in this movie. Poor Ella is under a spell which requires her to do anything anybody tells her to do. When she is told to do bad things, obedience isn't exactly a virtue. There's a lot you can explore with your kids about thinking for themselves and judging what's best.
Helen introduced Betsy to the concept of an "anachronism" over the dinner table after the movie. There were lots of fun ones in the movie! If you teach your kids what an anachronism is BEFORE they see the movie, they could be watching for them. (My favorite was the medieval escalator....)
I just love using entertainment as part of home schooling. Tomorrow night we're going to stay up very late and watch "Diary of Anne Frank."
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| Frog Stories |
| 04.17.04 (8:51 am) [edit] |
Last night Betsy and I went to a slide show and lecture by a herpetologist about Pacific Northwest amphibians. It was pretty good--it could have been GREAT if the guy knew how to use his computer's multimedia tools to coordinate his photos with the various types of croaks.
On the way home, I reminisced with Betsy about the various times frogs have been important to us. Here are our frog stories.
[b]BETSY'S TOAD TOURS $1[/b]
One time about five years ago, back when I still worked full-time and sent my daughter to public school, we actually had enough money to take a vacation to Maui! It was a magical vacation--too short, but wonderful things happened. For example, Betsy, who had been resistant to learning to swim, taught herself to snorkel.
We went on quite a few tours during our week in Maui--to a pineapple farm, some historic buildings in town, etc. This inspired Betsy to offer a nightly "toad tour" at the condominium complex where we were staying. She made signs and posted them on the fence around the swimming pool.
Nobody ever showed up except Larry and me, but we had a great time! After dark, if you walk from the condo to the beach, there are about a bajillion toads in the grass. We brought a flashlight with us. It was really fun!
[b]WHAT CROAKS IN THE NIGHT?[/b]
On another vacation, Betsy and I were taking our little travel trailer on a trip to Mount Rainier, Portland, Eugene, and the Oregon Coast. Our first destination was a fishing resort on a lake near Mount Rainier where we camped for several nights.
The first night at the lake, Betsy woke me up at about 1:00 a.m. and asked, "MOM, WHAT'S THAT SOUND?!" I listened and laughed--it was a sound that was familiar and even reassuring to me, as a transplanted Midwesterner--the sound of a chorus of bullfrogs croaking in the rushes. But, if you've never heard it before, I can imagine how scary it would be!
So the next night, we stayed up late and took our flashlights to the shoreline and looked at the bullfrogs in action. I think the rest of the campers thought we were nuts, but Betsy and I had a great time.
At the lecture last night, we learned that bullfrogs are not native to this part of the country, and that they're a problematic introduced species that tends to eat much of what the native amphibians need to survive. Bummer. The professor told us how to identify bullfrog egg masses so we can report them to the authorities for removal from local wetlands.
[b]ZEKE, THE PERPETUAL POLLIWOG[/b]
Several years ago, Betsy's last goldfish perished, and she wanted to replace it with another pet. In the meantime, however, she had acquired a cat, and the rest of the members of my household had acquired yet another cat, plus three Schipperkes. That's a story I will have to tell here sometime. (Actually several heartwarming rescue stories...)
At any rate, Larry really didn't want to deal with any more pets, since he was the one that usually ended up feeding them, walking them, cleaning their habitats, etc. He even went so far as to make a deal with Betsy...a Nintendo system, in exchange for no additional pets.
However, a friend of Betsy's gave her a Discovery Channel frog habitat, and, since we were home schooling and it seemed like an educational activity, I went ahead and sent in for the mail order tadpole. When he arrived, Betsy named him Zeke. We kept his little tank in the kitchen so that I could be the one to supervise his care; not burdening Larry with another animal's upkeep was part of the deal.
At first, Zeke grew steadily, and it looked as if he was getting little buds on the sides of his torso where his limbs would eventually develop. But then he stopped growing. No matter what we did--feeding him regularly, keeping his water at the correct temperature, cleaning the tank, etc.--Zeke did not develop. Larry began to call him "Peter Pan."
Eventually, poor little Zeke began to actually get smaller. I think he had what pediatricians would call "failure to thrive." Fortunately for children, pediatricians don't prescribe the treatment we finally resorted to with Zeke.
Despite the tadpole's lack of development, it did turn out to be a very educational experience. Betsy is well versed on the arguments for and against euthanasia.
Inspired by last night's lecture, Betsy wants to go out this weekend and see if we can find some frog eggs and try again to raise a tadpole to maturity. I haven't specifically said, "No," but I've arranged a play date for her for most of today, a movie with her dad tonight, and another movie with me and Auntie Helen tomorrow....
I'd like to avoid getting tadpoles until we are at least done with our triops experiment! But that is truly another story.
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| Snails and Stuff |
| 04.16.04 (3:25 pm) [edit] |
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Yesterday when I went out on my morning walk, I found a snail on a daffodil stem, and I brought it home to show Betsy. It was big! We kept it in the house for about an hour, then let it go in our front yard.
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Betsy usually sleeps in later than I do, and I get a few things done before she gets up. We are going to try something different next week, though. She wants to get up early and spend some time on her computer before we start homeschooling. I am willing to give this a try. Maybe she'll have an easier time getting to sleep at night if she's getting up earlier.
Today I picked up a used copy of "Summerhill," the 1960 book about education and child rearing by A.S. Neill. I read this book probably 25 years ago and have wanted to reread it recently. The author's stated aim is to create happy, contented people, and that's what I hope to do with my child, too.
Gotta go...the sun is shining and we need to go read outside!
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| Piece of Cake! |
| 04.15.04 (7:12 am) [edit] |
Today is a great one--no particular commitments or plans until this evening, when I'll attend my homegroup.
Help yourself to a slice of virtual cake!
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| Slippery When Wet! |
| 04.14.04 (8:22 am) [edit] |
OK, I learned something today. Those traffic cones and signs that they have in stores that say "Slippery When Wet" after a floor has been washed should probably be taken seriously.
I put some cupcakes in the oven this morning and then washed the kitchen floor. When I went back to remove the cupcakes from the oven 20 minutes later...yikes, the floor was slippery!
The reason for this flurry of activity today is that Betsy and I are having some friends over for a birthday lunch. My friend turned 47 while she was in the hospital recently, and she didn't get to have a birthday party, so we're doing one today while her kids are on spring break. I will go out later this morning to The Dollar Tree to pick up some fun birthday cups, plates, etc.
Yesterday I included some pictures of the ducks that Betsy and I are watching at a local pond. I had her do some research yesterday about when we can expect to see the baby ducks, and she concluded they'll be hatched by April 41st...guess we'll work on that a bit more today!
Last night I went to the information meeting about the Half Marathon that I'm planning to walk in the fall, and I am very excited to be participating in this event. It will be a great fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation. Depending on my level of fundraising, I may even be able to go to DUBLIN, IRELAND, for the marathon there, instead of staying home to do the one in Seattle. So I am going to try to get very organized in my fundraising efforts and see what I can accomplish.
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| Ducks! |
| 04.13.04 (6:42 am) [edit] |
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One of the ongoing home schooling projects that Betsy and I have this spring is to observe the ducks at a local park. We started watching them a couple of months ago. At first, we saw lots of pairs. Now we are seeing mostly males, so we think the females must be nesting in hiding around the shores of the lake. Today I will ask Betsy to research how long it will be until we can expect to see the baby ducks!
There are interpretive signs posted along the pathways, so each time we visit this park, we learn something new about it. Yesterday we realized that the boardwalk that surrounds the lake is actually floating on a bog, and that there could be up to 50 feet of water beneath us!
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| Burning Ambition...Who, Me? |
| 04.12.04 (6:49 am) [edit] |
I have the funniest horoscope in the paper today. It says burning ambition could set me off on a militant track in which I try to get organized and set higher standards for myself. Evidently, the people who write this stuff don't know me!
Last night after Easter dinner, my best friend, my family and I were discussing "Type A" and "Type B" personalities. My best friend, who has known me all my life, says I am probably a "Type C" or "Type D." Trying to be a Type B would be pretty ambitious for someone as laid back as I am.
This is not to say I'm lazy. I am involved in interesting pursuits from early morning until late every night. (Well, okay, I do usually need a nap in there somewhere.) But the kinds of pursuits that I relish are not always the most productive ones. I garden, I educate my kid and myself, I wander...stuff like that.
Wandering is a favorite activity of mine lately. When I went on the 10K Volksmarch on Saturday, I saw parts of the University campus that I'd never seen before. I've been associated with the University as a student, alumnus, library user, and more recently an employee for close to 20 years altogether. Yet there is much more to see and do there than I've experienced so far.
I go to the University campus once or twice a week to pick up or drop off information related to my part-time telecommuting job. I've begun to incorporate these campus visits into our home schooling activities. For example, one day recently we went to the Art Library and looked at Japanese artwork that is the inspiration for today's manga and anime, which my daughter is really into. I've also begun taking her to lectures and concerts on campus.
There are lots of great home schooling opportunities at colleges. Our University has a canoe rental shop, an active astronomy department that invites the public to use the telescopes, and several science departments that have yearly open houses that are like interactive science fairs. And simply wandering a campus can yield lots of interesting nature watching and people watching opportunities, plus build a sense of belonging to an academic community.
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| I Did It! |
| 04.10.04 (1:21 pm) [edit] |
I walked a Volksmarch 10K this morning! It was my first attempt at doing anything like this since I was a teenager, and it was a piece of cake!
Today I can take a nap, knowing I really deserve it.
No particular home schooling plans for the weekend. Betsy and I are reading several books together...and I'm sure we'll catch the new episode of "Animal Face-Off" on the Discovery Channel tomorrow night. We'll celebrate Easter tomorrow with a nice dinner. Betsy no longer believes in the Bunny, but expects to have a scavenger hunt to find her Easter basket, anyway.
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| Busy Friday! |
| 04.09.04 (10:27 am) [edit] |
I got an invitation from another homeschooling mom to go spend the day on the beach at Alki, and it would be a beautiful day to do exactly that!
Unfortunately, I have a lot of stuff I gotta get done today. Larry comes home tonight from his roadtrip, and I'd like the house to be in good order when he gets here. Plus it's payday, so I need to go to work. (Isn't it great that I have a job where the only time I have to go to the office is to turn in my timesheet or get paid?!) And I sold a bunch of stuff on eBay this week, which I must get in the mail.
Finally, the garden needs attention. The weather has been so beautiful lately, with all sunshine and no rain, that I actually have to get out and water! This is unusual for springtime in Seattle. Usually Howard (as in "Howard be Thy name") takes care of the watering for me.
Oh, yeah, and we have to home school a bit, too. I've been learning that some of what I do with Betsy might be called "natural learning." This week I found some really cool used books that encourage natural learning. For example, one is about "how to be naturally geographic," in other words, how to be very aware of your surroundings and their significance. This book teaches all the same stuff that an ordinary geography textbook would teach, but takes a less "blah blah blah" approach to the subject.
Yesterday Betsy picked out a cookie recipe and did almost all of the mixing and baking by herself. This is a big step. Pretty soon she'll be able to do a task like this completely on her own. Our dogs always love to be in the kitchen when Betsy is baking, because food tends to fall on the floor. Here are some pictures of Lucy with flour on her face.
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I am really excited about a couple of things today. First, Larry is getting home, and it will be good to see him and also I am ready to pass the leashes back to him and let him walk the doggone dogs. Second, I'm going on my first 10K walk tomorrow with a local Volkssport club, starting my training for the Seattle Half Marathon in November.
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| Bleeding Hearts |
| 04.08.04 (4:39 pm) [edit] |
Here are some beautiful perennials in my garden.
Bleeding Hearts
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Tulips
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Rock Garden
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Here's a Vinca groundcover:
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And here's the beautiful foliage of our Japanese maple:
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| Indigo Kid |
| 04.08.04 (10:16 am) [edit] |
Yesterday was kind of a frustrating day, because Betsy had stayed up all night the previous night and was in no shape for doing any meaningful educational activities. You can't learn when you're sleep deprived and cranky. My own attitude did not help at all. I was mad at Betsy because she'd told me to trust her, she would not get on the Internet in the middle of the night. But, of course, she did. So now I have really no choice but to unplug the cable at night, every night. I have to make it a habit, just like setting up the coffee to start in the morning. (I can hardly complain about my kid's Internet addiction, given my own caffeine addiction....)
By late afternoon, I was able to reorganize my thoughts and feelings. I sometimes forget that Betsy is a very special child...labeled "autistic" or "Asperger syndrome" by the medical community, or perhaps "Indigo Child" by the New Age spiritual community. If you're wondering if your own child is an Indigo, check out this Website: [url=]http://www.metagifted.org/top... [/url]
When I remember that my kid is unique, I am able to put aside my anger and be accepting of her, just the way she is. That doesn't mean there should be no discipline. It just means I need to make sure that the consequences for her behavior make sense. Getting angry at her for being insomniac and unable to control her behavior is natural, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. Taking away her access to the Internet at night, so she won't be tempted to get online if she can't sleep, [u]does[/u] make sense. It sometimes just takes me a while to work this through.
When I can remember to be accepting, we manage to create learning opportunities, despite Betsy's tiredness. Last night we were having a great time figuring out how animal names are used in different ways in the English language. For example, "Don't [u]bug[/u] me," "Here it comes, you'd better [u]duck[/u]," etc.
Larry and David are having a wonderful time in Big Sur. They're taking lots of great pics. Here is one that my husband calls "Groovin' Larry," and he says if you were in Big Sur, you'd be groovin' too! It's nice that he still makes me laugh after all these years, don't you think?
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| Outdoor Living |
| 04.07.04 (8:44 am) [edit] |
We did most of our home schooling outside yesterday. It was just too beautiful to be indoors. We went to the library and picked up a stack of interesting books, then came home and read them on the sunny front deck. Betsy also played with Stewie, our old outdoor cat.
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Betsy is very interested in crows right now. We have some crows that visit us every day, trying to get Stewie's food. I'm not sure whether it's the same crows, or different ones, that show up on our deck each day. I'm going to ask Betsy if she can figure out an experiment to test this. She's reading everything she can get her hands on about crows these days, and we also went to a lecture on crows and ravens at the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation. Betsy loves to tell me when there is "a murder of crows" in the yard.
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Last night, after the sun went down, we watched an episode of "Animal Face-Off" on the Discovery Channel. We are totally hooked on this new show! It's like a cross between "Wild Discovery" and "Monster Garage." Scientists build working mechanical replicas of animals that are unlikely to ever meet in the wild--such as a hippo and shark--and then use computer animation to determine what would happen if they were to fight. It keeps you guessing right up to the last minute.
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| Garden Art & Vermiculture |
| 04.06.04 (9:45 am) [edit] |
Yesterday was another gorgeous sunny day here in the Seattle area--such an unusual spring for us! I got Betsy away from her computer and outside to do some fun things several times during the day.
We dug up another small area of the vegetable garden and planted some carrots. I used to have Larry dig up the entire vegetable bed every spring, all at once, but then I would feel overwhelmed by how much needed to be planted and by keeping the garden weed-free until I could get it all planted. The last couple of years, I've taken more of a piecemeal approach, and I just prepare small planting beds, one at a time. Eventually the whole garden gets done, anyway, and it's a more easy-going approach. I only have to weed the parts that I've already planted.
After we planted the carrot seeds, Betsy decided our garden needed some new signage. So she made some.
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My neighbor called this morning to complain that my worm bin, which is next to her property, smells bad. I need to go out and mix it up with my trusty pitchfork. Also, I think after Larry gets back from his roadtrip, I'll see what we can do about moving it away from the neighbor's fence and closer to the vegetable garden.
If we get another sunny day this week, I can empty out my worm bin and separate the finished compost from the worms and the unfinished compost. This is always a fun homeschooling event. What you do is set out a tarp or newspapers and make some piles from the contents of your worm bin. The worms work their way up to the top to enjoy the sunshine. So you pick them up and put them back in the wormbin with whatever stuff still needs composting. The end result is you've got a lot of great black worm casings that really enrich the soil. Betsy loves playing with the worms; I love getting the compost.
Today is pretty cloudy so far, and I have to go to the dentist and also do some work for my part-time job. I think we'll be going to the library this afternoon, where I can do a little work while Betsy finds new books to read.
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| Someone in My Bed! |
| 04.05.04 (8:30 am) [edit] |
My husband left yesterday for a roadtrip, so imagine my surprise when I turned over in the middle of the night and found out I wasn't alone in my bed!!!! Fortunately, it turned out to be my daughter Betsy who had crawled in with me, rather than some sex offender who had come in through the window. Sure made me jump, though!
Normally I get up really early when Larry's alarm goes off. This week, no alarm clock! This may have an effect on homeschooling this week. Last night, I let Betsy stay up late to watch a Discovery Channel show about Noah's Ark. Some fundamentalists probably would have been very offended by the show. Marine engineers have established that there was no way a wooden vessel of the size described in the Bible could have stayed afloat. So a lot of scientists who have studied the situation think Noah probably only gathered up animals from the area in which he lived, which might have been Syria. Maybe 250 animals, not the millions of species that exist worldwide. It was an interesting show. Instead of disproving that the Noah's Ark story could have ever happened, scientists established a plausible theory of how it might have really occurred.
With Larry gone this week, I have a few additional responsibilities around the house...so I think Betsy and I will be homeschooling at HOME a lot, instead of making many daytrips. That's okay...the house and garden need attention.
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| Emotional Intelligence |
| 04.04.04 (9:25 am) [edit] |
Yesterday Betsy and I decided to go find out about Dragon Boat racing. It's an interesting sport, and it's growing very fast worldwide. It started in China; the races commemorate an event 2000 years ago, when a bunch of fishermen tried to save a suicidal poet who threw himself into a river. There is a lot of ceremony and spirituality involved in the races, plus it looks like fun! You have 20 some people paddling like hell in a 42 foot boat. The teams travel all over to compete. I think I'd like it a lot.
Betsy, however, is autistic and is sensitive to noise, crowded conditions, and getting too wet or cold. She recognized immediately upon seeing pictures of Dragon Boat racing that it was NOT for her! I was kind of disappointed (I could envision some fun times going to races in British Columbia, etc.)--but I was really proud of Betsy for recognizing what she can and cannot handle, and I made sure to let her know that. A lot of people don't gain self-knowledge about their own interests and limitations until they're much older, if ever.
Besides the sensitivity to sounds, temperatures, etc., another challenging part of autism is handling emotional frustrations. Yesterday Betsy was pretty disappointed that our Dragon Boat outing was a bust, and we had nothing else really fun planned. I had to run some errands while we were out, and she felt like she'd just gotten dragged along for a bad time, so she was in a pretty foul mood by the time we started to drive back home. However, she did really well at comforting herself by putting one of her favorite CDs on in the car, and, by the time we were close to home, she was feeling a lot better. Again, I made sure to praise her for showing such emotional intelligence. Many people--not just autistic adolescents--have trouble finding healthy ways to comfort themselves when they're frustrated. I think it's amazing that Betsy can sometimes do this. It's taken a lot of training and practice, but she is getting better at it all the time.
Today my husband and stepson leave for a weeklong roadtrip to Big Sur.
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They are both crazy about Miatas, and Larry has managed to get some of his friends and coworkers driving Miatas, too! Our driveway has begun to look like a upscale used car lot on Saturdays when the guys get together to detail their cars. I think it's a great hobby. I always encourage my husband to pursue his interests, so he'll do the same for me. Occasionally our interests coincide--we had a great time last night seeing "The Ladykillers." What a hilarious, quirky movie!
I have no particular plans for home schooling the kid today. Weather dependent, we'll probably do some vegetable gardening or maybe catch another flick.
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| Spring is Sprung |
| 04.03.04 (7:22 am) [edit] |
I can hardly believe it, we have yet another nice sunny day here in the Seattle area. This is so rare...usually this time of year, it is constantly raining. It's really important here in the Great Grayness to take advantage of these days...make hay while the sun shines, as they say.
Well, no hay for me, but I am going to concentrate on the garden a lot over the next few days. I've planted peas so far, and Betsy and I will do more veggies as part of our home schooling. I'm also going to research making some pathways through our backyard--we already have some that are worn in by the dogs, might as well make them look nice with some sort of stone or perhaps cedar chips. Figuring out where they ought to go, how much material we'll need, etc., sounds like another good math project for Betsy.
You know, they [u]make up[/u] problems like this for the WASL, which is our state's testing that's now required for high school graduation. Sometimes I've looked at textbooks and workbooks that purport to have "real math" problems in them...and they are still just made up situations. I really prefer working with real life situations, where you can see the results of your work...a new planting bed or quilt or pathway or whatever.
I'm up really early again despite not having an alarm clock go off today. As a mom who always has her kid at home with her, it's nice to have some time to myself in the morning before everyone else gets up. I've already read the paper, had some breakfast, and next I'm going for a long walk. I'm thinking about training with the local Arthritis Foundation to walk in the Seattle Marathon in November. I'm going to an informational meeting about this in a couple of weeks. If I do make this commitment, it will be a big one! Lots of fundraising, lots of training time, etc. But it could be a great outlet for me.
Springtime brings so many great educational opportunities--today Betsy and I have our choice of places to go and things to do. I'm leaning towards going to see some sheep getting sheared at one of the local parks that has a farm, but there is also an organizational meeting for people who want to row a big Dragon Boat...choices, choices!
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| Critters and Fiddleheads |
| 04.02.04 (7:24 am) [edit] |
I had the opportunity to sleep in this morning, but FuzzButt started barking at 5:20 a.m. and then the other dogs chimed in, howling. Perhaps they sensed my distress--I was having a nightmare about getting a really bad stateroom on a cruise ship. It's funny how the subject matter of nightmares changes as you age. Anyway, I am up early and it's another sunny day in Seattle. Sometime when I have nothing else to write about, I will describe our menagerie of pets and science projects.
It never got warm enough yesterday to pinstripe my car. However, we did get out and enjoy the nice weather. I noticed while I was in the backyard feeding my pet worms that the ferns were at the perfect stage for harvesting, so I took Betsy on a fieldtrip to the neighborhood park to forage for fiddleheads. We found enough to have them as a side dish with dinner last night.
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Fortunately I had the foresight to fix another vegetable in case we didn't like the fiddleheads. And we didn't! Ewwww...they were bitter enough to qualify for the "Eat What You Hate" diet. Not at all how I remember them from my years in Alaska, where fiddlehead pie was a featured item on several restaurant menus. Oh, well, culinary disasters are an ordinary part of home schooling. At least this wasn't as messy as last year's donut debacle!
Cooking is one of the most fun parts of home schooling. Last week we were reading a Bunnicula book, and Betsy suggested that we use the Juiceman to make juice before we sat down to read. It was great!
Well, I'm off to an Economic Summit with my husband...we're between vacations right now (mine and his) and need to review budgets before he and his son zoom off to Big Sur in the Miata this weekend.
Later today, Betsy and I will venture down to the University of Washington campus because I have some work to pick up (I have a very flexible part-time telecommuting job there that complements home schooling very well)...and we're going to visit a U District art gallery that has an interactive installation. Tonight we'll watch "Apollo 13"--movies are such a great way to study history.
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| Driving the Unschool Bus |
| 04.01.04 (8:00 am) [edit] |
This is a new blog about home schooling a kid who can't tolerate school. I've been doing this for about 4 years. My daughter has Asperger Syndrome, a mild sort of autism. She is very independent and likes to direct her own learning. Since our schools in Washington State mostly teach to a standardized test these days, home schooling out in the world seems like a better option for us. We do a variety of things at home and in the community, and we take interesting educational trips. This blog will tell you about it.
I named the blog "The Unschool Bus" because I have a frequent daydream of buying an old school bus, painting it purple, and driving home schooling families to interesting destinations. However, I have a home, a job, a husband, and a lot of other blessings that make it unlikely that I'll be doing the bus trip for a while...so this blog is my virtual unschool bus journey.
Today there is a "Great Blunders of History" marathon on The History Channel all day. We really like to watch The History Channel and The Discovery Channel on rainy days, which are most of the days around here in the Pacific NorthWET.
However, today is a rare sunny spring day in the Seattle area. It might actually even get warm enough today to pinstripe the PT Cruiser. Pinstriping is a great math project.
So is building a shoji screen, another project we have on tap. We need two shoji screens to keep the sun off our computers and out of our eyes while we compute. Right now I'm wearing Larry's straw hat to keep the sun out of my eyes while I blog. I think shoji screens would be more attractive.
We also need to buy some strawberry plants and do some other gardening projects. Betsy has a bug kit that will probably be useful today.
And there is a big blowout sale at a local thriftshop. I buy low and sell a bit higher on eBay. It's a great way to finance staying at home with the kid.
We're also reading "How I Became an American" by Karin Gundisch, a well told story about a young Austria-Hungarian boy whose family emigrates to find work in the steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio.
As usual, we have more to do than we can possibly pack into the day. But we don't have to rush around like many families do. It's all good.
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