Conifers

My mother should have been a botanist. If she had been born twenty years later she probably would have been, but girls in the 50's had limited options for careers--secretary, teacher, nurse, waitress, flight attendant, wife, mother. My mother chose teacher, and she was a fabulous teacher, but now that she is retired, she is a master gardener, volunteers at the Japanese Garden, is starting to dabble in bonsai, and is impossible to take a brisk walk with. She is constantly stopping to look at the plants and collect them in the plastic bags she stuffs in her pockets to start in her garden at home.

I had an idea to make her a mobile out of the various cones in our area, identified, for a birthday present for my mother. I thought it would look nice in my mother's sunroom, she would like it, it could help her remember the names of the conifers we have around here, and Mi'ita would learn a little about the identification of plants.

Pulling teeth!

Mi'ita was warmish about the idea. Yes, she thought Oma would like it. No, any time I found a cone on our many walks she didn't want to stop, collect some, look at the trees, or identify them. The morning of the day that my mother was scheduled to arrive, we sat down with our Audubon field guides and tried to identify the cones, write labels, and assemble the mobile. Yes, she did it. No, it was not fun.

My mother did indeed like it. Since her birthday is so close to Christmas, Oma suggested that we continue to add cones and re-gift it to her for Christmas.

"Sure!" I grinned through my teeth, knowing that this would not be popular with cantankerous junior.

And sure enough, I'm the one collecting the cones, identifying them, and assembling the mobile.

But...I am learning my cones! Mi'ita can identify some of them, too. We go on our walks and I can glance at a cone and say Sitka Spruce, Shore Pine, Douglas Fir, Red Alder, Cedar, and Hemlock without even blinking! I am impressed with myself. I've lived in this area for over twenty years and I've never been able to do this. And cantankerous junior did learn how to do it and knows some of her cones, too.

How to Make a Cone Mobile

Materials:

1. Fishing line, twine, or string

2. Ribbon

3. Glue

4. Permanent marker

5. Tree identification guides (available at many libraries) such as National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees.

Directions:

1. Find a lovely stick, about 2 feet long and an inch or two in diameter, preferable with moss and lichen.

2. Find a bunch of different kinds of cones.

3. Use your field guide to identify the cones and write their names on ribbon.

4. Hang the cones from the stick with the fishing line. Glue the identification ribbon to the line above each cone.

5. Tie a length of line to the top to hang the mobile.

Tip: You can identify the mosses and lichen, too, for extra credit.

A kinder, gentler business world

Do you remember playing Monopoly when you were a kid?

I played with my two brothers and it was painful. Literally. It was this cut-throat game where if someone landed on your property with motels on it and went bankrupt, there was dancing on the living room carpet. I remember land minds of built up properties with only a few safe zones that you prayed for. If you landed on luxury tax, you celebrated because you got off cheap. I got stomach aches from it.

Mi'ita saw Cat-opoly in Sandcastle Toys the other day.

Sandcastle Toys is the best toy store on the planet and it's right across the street from the lizard store (herpetology.) Since we have to buy crickets for our lizard once or twice a week, we've been regulars at Sandcastle Toys. It is full of educational toys. Smart kid toys. I've been hemorrhaging from the wallet there regularly since we've started homeschooling.

Cat-opoly is Monopoly with cats, and it is math. Adding, subtracting, percentages, large numbers, small numbers, mental math, using a calculator. It has cats all over it and Mi'ita is a cat girl.

We bought it, of course. Mi'ita had $20 of her own money to spend, it was 20% off, and I made up the difference. (Having a coupon for 20% at a toy store when you have money to burn in excellent math!)

I was nervous when we brought it home. I was hoping that we could figure out a way to play it so that I wouldn't get stomach aches. Mi'ita, either. She hadn't ever played Monopoly so this was new.

It was weird. Seriously weird. Perhaps not having siblings has its good points. I don't know.

Mi'ita was sweet. "Oh, mommy, you landed on my property! You owe me $14, but you can just pay me $10." "Oh, mommy, you landed in Water (jail) and you don't have much money. I'll pay to get you out." "Oh, mommy, I have fishbones (a hotel) on that property and it's $1160, but you don't have it. Don't pay it this time, and when I land on your fishbone, you can let me off."

Um. Is this a good thing? I certainly didn't get a stomach ache. There was a lot of kisses and hugs involved. How did she get this way? Not having siblings to get competitive with? Seeing me with money being generous with people?

It is certainly how I'd rather live my life, but is it good business?

Mi'ita's Day Off

Yesterday was Veteran's Day and we had a friend spend the day with us. Basically it was Friday Field Day on Wednesday. Boy did they work me! Horseback riding lessons in the morning, mucking out stalls after, home for showers, off to pizza for lunch, the aquarium to visit the new buzzards, the pet store to see the puppies and fish, off to the Bayfront to shop, walk the dog to the rope swing, dinner, and then play practice. They were on the ball from 9:30-8.

Today was supposed to be a regular day. After 10 minutes of her 5 math problems (to prove to me she doesn't need more) we were going to do a math game, Swahili, and latin. She had her nose in her book, though, so I let her finish it first. After 15 minutes of uncooperative Swahili, I asked her if she just needed the day off. Yesterday was so much. Relieved, she agreed.

Her day off? She spent the whole morning reading. She finished an entire collection of Norse myths and a book about The Medieval World. Then we went off to school to learn more about rocks and start a project on the Clatsop Indians. Then ballet.

That's her day off.

Whew! I read somewhere that the only way to teach TAG (Talented and Gifted) kids is to unschool them. I am not ready to say I am unschooling yet, but her freeschooling is getting looser and looser.

A couple of years down the road

Husband and I have a different idea of the future of our child.

We both agreed that the schools right now are in bad shape with class sizes in the mid to upper 30's. That's why Husband agreed to homeschool, which surprised me. When I found out that Mi'ita's grade level, 4th, by some strange blip in the demographics has class sizes in the mid to upper 20's, I didn't tell him right away. It was already a couple weeks into school when I found out and more than a month before I told him. If we had known that, we probably would have enrolled her but we were committed, had bought the materials, everything was going well, etc. We decided without even discussing it to stay the course.

The more I find out about homeschooling and the more I do it, the more I am convinced that it is a better education both academically and socially for children. Teaching and going through the school system myself has left me with at best luke-warm feelings about k-12 schools.

The HSLDA report also said that homeschoolers that continue their whole career through high school have the highest academic scores of all.

I am ready to do it.

My own middle school and high school experience were what I consider the low point of my life. I was a stringy haired, chubby, bottle thick glasses, nose in a book, honors classes, socially awkward but friendly type of kid that was skewered by the social elite of school. My hair was pulled, I was taunted, things were thrown at me not daily but often enough that school has no allure to me. I found my education mostly in the library and in history discussions with my father.

Husband had a different experience. He was in band, on the football team, and in all the honors classes, so though he was not in the social elite he was a part of three clicks. Asides from being paralyzed by the thought of girls, most of his school days were all right. He did do a brief stint in an inner city LA high school, lasting less than a month, had a gang after him, and refused to go back. He moved back in with his stepfather to the little rural school he was used to.

Husband understands a bad high school and would be willing to homeschool if we had one. But we don't. The local high school, right around the corner, is a good one. Not the best one on the planet, but good. We even have a charter magnet school for science as an option for middle school. It has an excellent reputation as does the International Baccalaureate tract at the high school.

According to HSLDA, though, homeschooling does better. Even with the parents not knowing everything.

Husband is not looking at just academics, though. He remembers band and football and wants Mi'ita to have the same fun opportunities that he had. I remember spit wads thrown at me during class in front of teachers who were too busy grading papers to stop my tormentors.

Every state has different rules about how much homeschoolers can ask of the local schools. Ours is very generous and Mi'ita can be a part of high school sports, music, and whatnot. I don't want her to miss out on the opportunities of high school if she wants them. I envision her cherry picking her classes--having music before lunch and chemistry after it, having lunch with her friends, then homeschooling the rest, or some such. She would have the social scene at school, have friends to go to the football games with, proms and boys and whatever else floats her boat, but getting her real education at home.

I have no idea what will happen. I have a feeling that in two years, Mi'ita will be enrolled in the magnet middle school and we'll give it a whirl. If she has an experience like Husband's, she'll stay. If she has an experience like mine, we'll homeschool.

Or maybe not. Maybe in two years Mi'ita will like homeschooling so much that she won't have any desire to go to regular school and it will be two against one. She does like it.

Footing the bill

By far the most expensive part of homeschooling is a stay-at-home parent.

Almost 98% of homeschoolers come from a two parent household, most are taught by their moms, most moms either don't work at all or have a part time job.

Homeschooling is a full time job that doesn't pay diddly squat. I can't imagine doing it as a single parent.

I don't work. Asides from the two years I took off when Mi'ita was born, this is the first time in my adult life where I didn't have a job or wasn't in school myself. It's a transition for me. I quit my job not to homeschool but because I hated the school district I worked for and the regulations around ESL teaching. Then the schools around here went belly up from budget cuts caused by the economy. Class sizes were heading over the mid to upper 30's, and I just decided to pull her. I'd been thinking of homeschooling for a while now as I have heard homeschoolers doing amazing things. I thought now was a good time. The perfect storm, to use an overworked cliche.

I've been trying to figure out how to work a tiny bit, though. My husband makes enough, thank the good Lord, that I don't have to work at all. I'd like to pay for two things, though: 1) her homeschooling materials and trips and 2) the $200 I've been putting aside for her college since she was born. I've been paying for those things out of my savings so far. As a certified teacher, I could sub, which pays well ($200 per day before taxes) and is very flexible. I'd only have to sub 2-3 days per month to take care of those expenses.

The only part I can't figure out is where to stash Mi'ita. At nine years old, she is too young to stay at home by herself those days. In a couple years I could see doing that and I think she'd do fine. But not now. She is too old to go to daycare.

I've been trying to jobshare with other homeschoolers. I've approached two other moms. Both agreed to try. One flaked. The other is going to try it out with me. She has a son 6 months older than Mi'ita. Tomorrow he is going to spend the day with us. If it works out, I'd like him to come once a week and I can then stash Mi'ita with his mom to homeschool for the day when I get jobs.

Wish me luck!

Friday Field Day

Our Fridays were supposed to be field trips to see museums, zoos, field studies in forests and swimming holes. I know we live in a tiny town 3 hours from the major metropolis of less than a million people in a biggish but sparsely populated state. But still! Even our little burg has a few museums...that we've seen ten times already and go to every time we get visitors.

What have we done on Fridays? Well, we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium last week to watch the daddy scuba dive in a Halloween costume for their festivities. That was cool. We started a hideous papermache Cerberus the week before that. My aunt and uncle were visiting from Thailand before that and we showed them around town (remember those museums?) She got some cool paper money from Thailand, Oman, Qatar, and Egypt for her coin/money collection.

There's this wildlife safari down near Roseburg that biologist friends have said is worth going to, but it's three hours away each way and my rear is not up for the drive yet. I wanted to get to Mt. St. Helens before the snows hit, but that didn't happen. We probably could still get to historic Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood built in the 30's as a depression era work project. It's a ski resort so the roads are well plowed, but I'm a wimp and I know that plowed roads can still be dangerous. We'll probably wait until the snow leaves.

We always do something.

Today? We're headed over to my friend's house. She's a marine biologist who's going to show me how to pick chanterelles. I have had a burning interest in mycology for years, but never took the time to get going on it. Then we're headed over to Facets, a gem store to look at rocks. Mi'ita just did a rock report for the 4th grade class we visit Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. She did a good speech on obsidian--well planned, well researched, well organized, well delivered. I'm proud. I'm hoping we get a video watched today about Alexander the Great, too.

I am not interested in rocks, but will go to Facets if she goes mushroom picking with me. She's not interested in mycology, but will go if I take her to Facets afterwards.

It's a done deal, bear!

Finally, finally, finally some science!

I have been waiting impatiently for Mi'ita to turn to science. We have been saturated in history since August! I like history, don't get me wrong. I would be sad if she were so interested in science that she ignored history. But I've been worried.

This morning I gave up my hands off approach to science. Freeschooling is supposed to force feed only the basics of math, reading, and writing. All else is interest driven. I've been suggesting this and that scientific activity all along, but so far her interests led her to history.

Today I pulled out Usborne's How Nature Works and said that we really need to do a little science. She was finally nonresistant and we sat down and "looked for good experiments." Of course the experiment that she was interested in was getting a pet turtle. We headed over to the Wee Beasties reptiles pet store and talked to Brenda the herpetologist for a good hour about turtles and tortoises. We finally decided it wouldn't be a good pet for us, but we learned a ton and a half. Did you know that Darwin got a tortoise in the Galapagos Islands named Harriet that just recently died, over 200 years old? Apparently they don't really get old, like we do. They die of other things, but not old age.

After the herpetologist, we had some down time and I found her nose deep in How Nature Works again, learning about skeletons. I pulled out a pamphlet about fossils on Oregon beaches and we headed down to the beach to look for fossils. We looked at a lot of rocks, I read the pamphlet out loud while she built a sand castle, and we found a rock that some tube worms had burrowed in, but no fossils. Found some bivalve and gastropod shells, though, and talked about that.

Bedtime story tonight I gave her the choice of a science book and a history book. She chose a different science book about snakes. Now she has her hopes set on a pet corn snake.

I am so relieved that science has made a comeback.

A slap in the face to teachers

I have to tell you right off the bat that I admire teachers hugely. I was a teacher for 13 years and know the system from the inside. Almost all teachers that I have known over the years are well educated, care about their students tremendously, spend money from their own pockets for materials for their students, work long hours, and are just really nice people. They are working from the heart and doing the best job they know how to do. I can count the number of teachers I have met over the years who don't fit that stereotype on one hand with fingers left over. Seriously.

That said, I've been reading some information from HSLDA, Home School Legal Defense Association. They have done research studies on the academic achievement of homeschoolers over the years. The latest one, Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics, had some really interesting statistics. Mostly it says that homeschoolers out-perform public and private school educated students by leaps and bounds. The average performance of public school students in the major academic areas is 50% (duh) and for homeschoolers it's in the mid 80's. That's pretty significant.

The study goes on to break down the achievement by race, educational level of parents, how much money is spent on homeschooling, etc. Most of those statistics are pretty consistent across the board. For example, people who spend over $600 per year are only 3 points higher than people who spend less (89th% to 86th%.) Interestingly, homeschooled minorities score very similarly to whitebread folks, but they languish horribly in public schools.

The most interesting statistic for me was whether one of the parents was a certified teacher or not. Being a certified teacher, so many people say that it should be easier for me because "I know what I'm doing." Makes sense. I've done it before. 24% of homeschoolers are educated by a certified parent. I guess we feel more confident that we can do it. What is fascinating, though, is that students of parents who are NOT certified teachers outperform those whose parent are certified teachers!

Whoa.

It's not by much. Certified parents hit 87% and non certified parents are 88%. I don't even know if that is statistically significant (statisticians reading this, please comment!)

That is why I said that this is a slap in the face for teachers. Oh my.

My thoughts? I think it has to do more with the way teachers are educated themselves. In college, we learn educational theory, human development, and more than you'd ever want to know about racism and minority students (minority students languish horribly in public schools, remember?) We learn very little about how actually to teach. School librarians (as I was) get a little more practical in that we are taught how to run a library and teach library skills. I actually think my school librarian courses were better preparation than my regular ed classes.

And I think that teaching is an art. It takes talent. You can certainly learn and get better at it, but it is not really something that you can study, so much. That's why non-certified parents are just as good at it as teachers.

I am grasping here. I don't really know. At least I can say we are on par.

My husband is a better parent than I am. I thought I would be because I had read so much about childhood development and parenting, and I have been in the field so long. Before I was a teacher I was a nanny and preschool teacher. But he is better--more patient, more logical, more consistent, gets better cooperation. He's good. And he's an engineer that works with computers and boats all day.

Shifting gears again

Mi'ita's thoroughly sick of ancient history.

We were going to study Africa because we're going, then the Persians, then the Romans, then the Mongols, then China, etc, heading forward and around through history. But she has no interest in ancient history anymore.

I forgot a simple fact of children. They need variety. Sustained interest in a subject is rare. We've been studying ancient history since August and it's almost November.

I thought for a change we could head into science. I've been feeling terribly guilty at how piecemeal our science study has been. She is interested in Nazi Germany and the middle ages, though. I wanted to get out of the Euro-centric history, too. Oh well. One of the tenants of freeschooling is following their lead. I'm not really ready to teach Nazi Germany to a 9 year old, but we can do it.

A schoolroom of one's own

When I told my friend, a Title I teacher, that Mi'ita and I were going to homeschool this year, she gave me some advice. "Have a schedule and a specific spot, not the kitchen table, to do your work."

She then went into detail about a fourth grade girl she had taught who had been homeschooled up until that point and then enrolled in school because she still didn't know how to read. She blamed it on the mother not actually teaching anything ... because she didn't have a schedule and a spot.

I then dutifully went home and transformed a section of my thankfully large living room into The Schoolroom with a whiteboard, bookshelves, two desks, and a lizard cage. The Schoolroom is now the Keeper of Materials.

Where do we actually work? We do latin in front of the TV and on the coffee table, because it's a DVD program. We do German, Swahili, and Carmen Sandiego Math Detective on the computer. We do history and writing in bed. We do science in workshops, on walks, at the pet store, and at school. We do math at the kitchen table with breakfast. We do art on the dining room table because it is big. We are actually papermacheing Cerberus in The Schoolroom because he is a long term project that needs his own spot.

What is our schedule? We get up and get breakfast and math done. Then we do latin. Then we do whatever it is that we want to do for the rest of the day. We are not often idle, but we definitely meander throughout many things--library, math games, writing, art, history. I let the day play out and only impose an activity if we find ourselves at loose ends, or if a Halloween party is looming and we need to get some stuff done for it!

What have I discovered? You definitely do not need The Schoolroom, but you do need a Keeper of Materials space.

Next language: Swahili

It's always handy to have a rich grandmother in the wings.

Homeschooling is not cheap. Books, field trips, , stay-at-home mom, private lessons, manipulatives, computer programs, travel... Other people have figured out how to do it on the cheap and I could do it in a pinch. But there are sooooooo many cool things out there to buy!

My mother loves to travel and has said that as soon as Mi'ita is old enough she'd like to take her on Safari to Africa. Oma was in the peace corps in Swaziland in the 70's and has been back to Africa at least once since. She mentioned again that as soon as Mi'ita was old enough... and I said that now might not be a bad time. She is old enough to remember the trip and to endure some uncomfortable things, and young enough not to be an obnoxious teenager.

So we're off to Africa this spring! My mother is springing because I have no where near the $5000 plus each ticket price. Wow!

On the curricular table now is: Swahili, Tanzania, African history from ancient to modern, ecology, wildlife biology, biomes, global warming, poverty, AIDs, and I don't know what else yet but I know that's not it.

M&M Geography

I've talked a lot about M&M geography, so I thought I'd put you out of your misery and explain it. It's my mother's idea, again, and very simple.

Break out a map, globe, atlas, or whatever you have handy.

Have her find a geographic region, feature, state, nation, body of water, etc. I always quiz Mi'ita on whichever area we are currently working on. We've been covering Egypt, Greece, and the Middle East, so I have had her find Macedonia, Troy, Suez Canal, Nile River, etc. etc. etc.

Give her a minute piece of candy for each correct answer. It's called M&M geography, but I let her choose whatever treat she likes. One candy bar survives several bouts of M&M geography, usually more than a week. Any time she wants some bad for her item, I make her work for it during M&M geography. She is on the chubby side, so I make her work very hard for her sugar.

Whenever we pick up her friend after school and have an hour to kill before we need to go to ballet, we've been doing M&M geography. They get really good very quickly.

Math advice heeded and appreciated

Improvement in math attitude!

I synthesized everyone's input on my math dilemma and came up with a strategy.

We are sticking with Singapore Math, but if she can do the first five problems with good explanation of what she is doing and accuracy she doesn't have to do the rest. This morning she did five word problems and successfully identified how to approach them and completing them correctly, so she didn't have to do the last two. She has a strong grasp on how to approach a problem and solve it. She is still weak in her basic arithmetic (multiplication tables.)

I have ordered some math games. One is called Wrap Ups and works on basic multiplication, division, and fractions. The other is Carmen Sandiego Math Detective, for 1 cent on Amazon (plus $4 shipping.)

We did a math mystery for bedtime last night. She requested more and solved them all.

She was enthusiastic about doing her math this morning!

Y'all are brilliant. Thanks for your help.

Talented and Gifted

Mi'ita was identified as TAG, talented and gifted, last year in 3rd grade. I always thought she was precocious, learned everything quickly, talked very young and constantly, etc. I was in a hurry to get her identified, feather in my cap to have a smart kid and all that.

Isn't it amazing how parents get all wrapped up in their children's achievements? I mean, having a TAG kid doesn't mean that I'm smart.

I haven't studied TAG kids much. I know they have a set of social problems that are pretty standard for them. They gravitate towards older kids and have low tolerance for kid who take a while to get things. You would think they would make good tutors for lower academic kids, but the opposite tends to be true.

That sure is evident at the homeschool group. The group has a bigger number of younger kids and they have divided the kids into two groups for instruction: 4th grade and lower are the younger and 6th grade on up are the olders. There are no 5th graders.

Mi'ita does fine with the other 4th graders and there is a bunch of girls her age that she likes well enough. She has no patience for the younger kids. Since homeschooling includes the whole family, there are a number of toddlers, preschoolers, and babies that are included, too, and those just about drive her nuts. (I like them.)

An example. The first day of homeschool they divided up the two groups to play dodge ball. Mi'ita was in the younger group that included tiny tots so the teen aged teachers had the youngers roll the ball to play so the little ones wouldn't get hurt. Mi'ita just about blew a gasket.

Another example. Mi'ita's cousin came to visit and we were playing M&M geography. Mi'ita was getting things like Macedonia and Tunisia. If she didn't know where these things were, I was giving her clues like, "It's in North Africa on the Mediteranean Sea." It would take her two seconds and she would slap her hand down on the country. Her cousin, granted in 2nd grade, was getting things like the United States and Mexico. She would find the United States on her previous turn. Then she would get Mexico and I would say, "It's right next to the United States, down lower." And she would look and look, off in a completely different part of the map. Mi'ita had no patience for this.

Perhaps I should be more focused on getting her to be more tolerant of younger kids. I admit, though, that I'm not particularly worried about it. Just being in the homeschool group is giving her way more exposure to working with multi-age kids than being in a class with kids all one age. She wants the kids to be split three ways and get those tiny kids into another group. That's not going to happen. I've suggested that she choose to work with the older kids. She does have the option and I'm sure she will try it, but I doubt it will help. She doesn't particularly want to be with the older kids, she just wants to be away from the kindergartners on down.

I hate school!

That is so weird for me to say.

I was a teacher for 13 years. I loved school all the way up to 5th grade and then again in college. I volunteered in Mi'ita's classes every year. When I was asked once what I liked best about my job, I said I loved all the hugs I got from my students. I only decided to homeschool because the local public school options tanked and there are no private school options here.

Mi'ita and I were roped into joining what would have been her 4th grade class on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Mrs. M is a great teacher. They are doing the fun things when we come--science and social studies. It's just that it's a scheduled activity that interrupts what we're doing. Today we were papermache-ing our 3 headed Cerberus for our fabulous Halloween party. I wanted to get some poster sized drawings of the different gods of the dead going and some captions to explain all this stuff. But no, we had no time because we had to go to school.

Mi'ita was ready to quit this morning, too. "Do we have to go?" I should have jumped on it and said, "NO! Let's just quit." But no, she had her TAG class (talented and gifted) that she loves and that I want her to continue, and then I said that we would go to Mrs. M's class one last time and tell her that we were quitting. Of course they were starting a new unit on rocks, which Mi'ita adores, strange child, so now she wants to continue again. And really, I know nothing about rocks (no interest, I confess) and I'd really like her to get more systematic and scientific about her interest in rocks--identifying them, classifying them, organizing them. Mrs. M is a big science teacher and so this is all good.

It's just that it interrupts everything!

Where's my schedule?!

I find myself panicking regularly about the lack of organization of our homeschooling.

I had such a lovely plan laid out in the beginning. I had the white board easel all set up with math, Latin, spelling, handwriting, dictation, science, history... It was beautiful. Granted I felt a bit uneasy teaching such rote work like grammar and spelling. Those things are hard to learn and there is tons of evidence out there saying that memorizing lists of spelling words helps no one. I figured those details could work themselves out, though, as we progressed.

My little Mi'ita blew the little white board easel out of the water after two days. It took a week before it was abandoned completely, but abandoned it is.

What is our schedule now? Well, we do math and Latin first thing in the morning. We read history at night in bed. On Mondays we spend the afternoon in the library. Other than that, we do this and that, depending on our moods. I have my list of "weekly requireds" for ice cream on Mondays. She needs to have 4 math lessons completed that week, 4 Latin, one science, one history, all her library books read, and a new writing posted to her blog with art (photography accepted.) German and guitar are on the list, too, but her guitar teacher has yet to start lessons for the year and the German program just arrived and we haven't installed it yet. She always earns her ice cream, my greedy Gus, but she is usually finishing her story Sunday night.

Our days are full, for sure. Today we did math and Latin, then spent the morning setting up our El Dia de los Muertos ofrenda. She did some writing for it, and we discussed a lot about Mayan culture, and about the Greek display we're planning. In the afternoon we went to the library, played in the park for an hour, worked on a papermache three headed dog Cerberus, then went off to play practice for the play she is in. Since she is only an extra, I am teaching her how to knit between scenes.

We have a Halloween party coming up and we've planned an ancient cultures' view of the dead theme. Mayan, Greek, Egyptian, Celtic, and Japanese displays will be set up with their views of the afterlife, their various gods of the dead, their ceremonies and food. We've tossed all "regular" schoolwork out the window until November 1st. Except math and Latin, of course, and writing.

My friend told me that I would "have a blast" homeschooling my kid. I didn't to begin with, but it sure has been fun lately. But I worry and I fret. History has become our overreaching theme that everything else fits in. I love history, of course, and so does Mi'ita. But what about science? We are learning science as it relates to history. Early hominids, Neanderthals, Euclidean geometry, and how that Greek guy measured the earth, radiocarbon dating. All that is tangential to learning the history. And what about writing? Can writing once a week really be enough? I can't think so, but I can't get motivated to push it more.

I'm reading her My family and other animals, a book about an English boy growing up in Greece in the 40's or so and being very lackadaisically homeschooled or taught by tutors or left to run amok. His running amok is quite educational as he was a budding zoologist and spent all his time studying the fauna of the island. I read it and think that his math lessons are really distracting him from the real lessons of learning zoology.

I am also reading The Dan Riley School for a Girl, a book about a father who homeschooled his daughter for a year because she was lazily and unconcernedly floundering in middle school. He had a schedule, with times on it no less! Which his headstrong and rebellious daughter followed! I am jealous.

And I am torn. My daughter is learning. She is playing to her strengths--reading and history and curiosity about the world. She is busy with ballet and a play she is in. She goes to once a month all day science workshops taught by experts. She is learning Latin, for gosh sakes!

But we don't have a schedule. And I gave up trying to get her to memorize spelling. I worry and I fret.

Friends

Last year Mi'ita had a lot of trouble with friends. There was a group of girls she played with and sometimes they would all play nicely together and other days they would exclude one or another of them. The saga took many forms and I had many a tearful updates. There was one particular girl that held friendship over everyone else's heads. She had "meetings" that only some kids were allowed to attend. It went on and on until I finally told her she couldn't play with that girl any more. Boy was that popular, but it did ease the situation.

I wasn't sure what this year would bring. I was hoping that she would discover a homeschool girl her age and they would become fast friends and that would be the end of her friendship worries.

That hasn't happened. What has, though, has been interesting. She invites all the girls that she used to play with over, one at a time and not the one that she had so many problems with. Since there is no pressure to look cool in front of others, no one excludes her. Everyone has joyfully excepted her invitations. One girl comes over several times a week.

Outside school these little power struggles are rare. I suppose there are still triangles and clicks in the adult world but I have never come across them myself. I avoid drama like the plague and if I find myself in a situation like that I just find new friends.

When you aren't trapped in school, you don't find yourself trapped in situations like this.

State Report: California

Remember all those state reports you had to do in school? State flag, state bird, state flower, state capital, most populous city, major industry, year it became a state.

How much did you really learn about that state? What would I know about South Dakota, where I have never been, if I could list for you all those details? Anything important?

Mi'ita drove the whole length of California, down I5 starting with an agricultural inspection and explanation on why California does agricultural inspections and other states don't. Past Mt. Shasta and little Shasta, and the little volcano to

the south of them, through their deciduous forests. Swiftly we hit the scrublands, overnight near Chico, past the state capital of Sacramento, explanations of what Sacramento means, why it's in Spanish, and why California has so many Spanish names and especially cities named after saints: San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, San Diego...

Spent the weekend in the Los Angeles metropolis, in two completely different neighborhoods: Burbank and Seal Beach. Swam in the Pacific Ocean, southern California style (very different than Oregon style.) We stayed with friends and family, seeing how middle class Americans live in one of the most expensive places in the country. Did Knott's Berry Farms on a Tuesday in October and almost never had to wait in a line. We got to go twice in a row on the log ride, which Mi'ita deems not as good as our own Enchanted Forest. Skipped Disneyland.

Her auntie gave her a tour of her work, a metal spring company where they fabricate springs using electricity to cut the metal. She explained why electricity is better than laser or water, which they used to use. Fascinating.

Headed north along the coast now, to Salinas. Had a good conversation about Cesar Chavez, migrant farm workers, unions, United Farm Workers, hunger strikes, sanitation services available to workers and how that effects food consumers, and immigration. Saw the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, signed an electronic post card to protect the sea horses, got a good lecture from her father about how to balance marine reserves and fishing rights. Headed over to see a protected forest for migrating monarch butterflies. Saw sea otters in a kelp forest in the bay. Discussed why California has sea otters and Oregon used to but no longer has. Our friend gave us a tour of her work as a plant pathologist for the USDA. We are still growing bacteria skimmed off Mi'ita's fingers in a petrie dish that we are going to look at under a microscope soon.

Saw the King Tut display at the de Young Museum in the Golden Gate Park. Saw the Golden Gate Bridge. Didn't stay as long as I wanted. Talked about Chinatown and Chinese immigration, but didn't get to see Chinatown, much to my disappointment.

Headed north along Highway 1, right on the Pacific Ocean, all the way to the Redwood Forests. Beautiful. Camped. Saw the Trees of Mystery, drove through a tree 2100 years old. Spawned a discussion of the crusades.

Spent the night in Crescent City, shaped like a crescent bowl ready to scoop up tsunamis started by earthquakes in Alaska. Talked about the tsunami that hit Native Americans 300 years ago.

Now that's a state report.

Taking a page from my mom's book

My mother was a 3rd grade teacher for a hundred years before she finally retired. When she started she was terrified of teaching science because English was her forte. She had never taught science before. She eventually lost her fear and became Washington State's Science Teacher of the Year (go mom!) She had this lovely philosophy--if you don't know, make it up.

Well, I didn't know a lot of stuff driving eight hours through Oregon and northern California. I wanted to drive so that Mi'ita would get the scope of our country. California is huge. We live in a temperate rain forest and driving down I5 is showing her the land. So, here I am talking very knowledgeably about forests when I know diddly squat.

"We live in a temperate rain forest, Mi'ita," I intoned pedantically. "This area in southern Oregon is a semi-arid mixed deciduous and evergreen forest. See the oak trees and the ponderosa pines? Semi means half and arid means dry. It isn't a desert here, but it's much drier than where we live."

"See that stand of dead trees, Mi'ita? There are some pine beetles eating the trees. Loggers took out the mixed trees and planted a monoculture. Mono means one and culture means the plants that live there. The pine beetles eat the type of tree that the loggers planted and since there's only one type of tree, they are wiping out forests. If there were ten different kinds of trees, then only one tenth of the forest would be damaged and the animals would still be able to live there."

"Look at this dried up riverbed, Mi'ita, and how low Lake Shasta is. California must be having a drought. It's probably global warming."

Go ahead and laugh. Then tell me what I got wrong so that I can straighten her out.

On the road

We're off to California tomorrow morning, bright and early.

As much as it pains me to say it, no math is coming with us.

We started homeschooling a month before regular school started with the excuse that we were going to take this two week trip in October. I would like to homeschool year round, taking time off for trips as they come up rather than taking the whole summer off. Really, all our vacations are educational since we all love to learn. This summer Mi'ita went to fossil camp for a week, chemistry camp for a week, and theater camp for two weeks. She loved them all. This trip is no less educational, even if it is unofficial. We will be seeing friends and relatives to be sure, but we are also going to the King Tut exhibit in Golden Gate Park, the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, and camping in the redwoods. I hope to squeeze in a Shakespeare play in Ashland, a trip through Chinatown and Alcatraz in SF, and maybe the Steinbeck house in Salinas. My friends are going to show us around old Hollywood, too.

In the spring I want to visit my brother in Nebraska. He lives right across the river from the start of the Oregon Trail. On the way back home, I'd like to travel the Oregon Trail, walking some of it even. Mi'ita's teacher tried to foist a geography book on us the last time we went to school. Mi'ita said, "no, thanks." Mrs. M. voiced her concern that we needed to cover the Oregon Trail as it is 4th grade stuff. I think we'll be fine, thanks.

We'll see how this trip goes.