4th Year Q&A, Science

If you're interested in Oakmeadow, their book list is in the bookstore, just go to oakmeadow.com, hit curriculum under the bookstore heading, then go to view directory on that page.

Do you know about Ambleside Online? Their History & Geography, as well as their Lit curriculum are phenomenal. It's a literature-based program (very Charlotte Mason), and it's FREE. All you need is a good printer, and a few purchased books. There is no study guide to speak of, but there is a 36 wk lesson plan, and you probably know how to ask narration questions at this point. If not, just peruse their site and you'll get the jist of it. Some people really like the Beautiful Feet guides for the Holling Clancy Holling books and history, including states' history. It's a religious (Christian) publisher, but I haven't found it overbearing.

Ambleside also goes in-depth on the nature study how-to. It's really the only science they do though. Some of the readers in Oakmeadow's fourth grade are on Ambleside's first year list as read alouds, by the way. I would recommend going ahead with year 1 for anyone 5th grade or lower, because the books are classics and the plans are rigorous. Even if it's just as a supplement.

For more science you may want to check out The Young Scientist Club (secular) and/or Sonlight (Christian creationist content, but uses Usborne books mostly). And Lyrical Life Science (secular) is hilarious and wonderful as a supplement, you can find it on Amazon or at Rainbow Resource Center (Christian, they have other hs stuff too, so may be more convenient. Also good prices). Tops Science really rocks the hardest, though.

Re: state history, just as a supplement, are you aware of the state/world postcard exchange? A friend told me about it. It's at Vegsource, a primarily vegetarian resource, but the homeschool boards sort of took off without vegetarians! You also may be interested in Audio Memory which has recorded memory songs and lesson booklets.

I do understand about needing to let go of the lesson planning piece of homeschooling. We're using bits and pieces of Ambleside and WTM, but use Sonlight as the skeleton. It's too hard to plan every little thing, and much easier to pick and choose from something already planned out than to re-invent the wheel. Especially with a business to run!

I'm interested in hearing about your experience with OakMeadow thus far. I'm also curious about your time involvement with planning and the lesson time itself.

Hope all this helps and I look forward to hearing more.

Harry Potter Sorting Quiz

We had fun with this quiz, and tried all different ways to get all the badges. Both kids ended up Gryffyndor, natch. They know how to answer...



be sorted @ nimbo.net


Fun on a rainy day for the HP fan! Also includes scripts/codes for putting the badge on your/your kids' website. Incentive?

http://nimbo.net/quiz/houses.html

It will go on all day tomorrow, possibly for days, the never-ending Harry Potter game. Which badge will it be today?



be sorted @ nimbo.net


I s'pose we better pre-order HBP (nerdy shorthand for the new book) somewhere and get a nifty backpack or something.

"Which one should I be tomorrow? Mommy, which one do you think? Not Slytheryn."

Mostly Science & A Little Raw Food

Haven't been sure what to do about science for this coming year. Not crazy about the year two Sonlight Science because of so much creationist content, and we've already really read a bunch of the other books. Maybe I'll buy the general ones and Marie Curie. So then I was thinking we should go for year three science, but that could be more than we want to tackle, what with travel to Denver in Aug/Sept for six weeks, maybe a few hurricanes, maybe buying a place in New Mexico, then holidays and the Brits coming for T's 40th, etc. I want to take it a little easy this year with school and concentrate on my health.

Incidentally, I've been prescribed a raw-foods (with grass-fed creatures) diet by my allopathic CNP. That's the second time an allopathic CNP in a specialist's office has steered me that way. I have to say, when you're persistently, mildly ill for soooo long, it gets pretty old, and there are even forays into scariness, and at this point I'm willing to consider all sorts of things. (That's what I get for my belligerence in my last food post! Maybe it was an oversight, but least I wasn't prescribed crow!) So I bought Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, by Gabriel Cousens, per CNP's orders, and started making some of the things. They're really yummy, actually. And even though I'm still eating all the other food I usually eat, as replacing and reducing is all I've committed to, my nose and lungs are clear for the first time in years. Hmmm.

Back to kids. I think we're going to go with The Young Scientist Club this year. We've already done kits 1-11, very slowly as a supplement, but this year we'd just bang through the remaining kits, 12-36, and add supporting literature. That way we use the kits we have, get away from so much biology, which K is very strong in, and cover our bases.

Every year I check our progress against the Nobel-authored California science standards, so I'll fill in with things that aren't going to be in Sonlight three. Check out Mathematically Correct's science section. I was lucky enough to download a copy of the standards while they were still being debated, and now they're not online anywhere in that form...

The lit we'll use for kits 12-23 will be Fairy Land of Science, the Taro Gomi books on digestion, maybe the Body in Action series from the library, Magic Schoolbus...Taking Flight video, First Flight: Tom Tate...Wright Bros. (I Can Read It), D'Aulaire's Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison bios, perhaps some Explorabooks, perhaps some Krampf experiments and Handbook of Nature Study.

I do love the Ambleside books. If you look up Fairy Land of Science on Amazon, you'll find some other lovelies as well, but for the real deal, you'll want to see the AmblesideOnline website.

Episcopalia, Integrity, Apology

I have to say my last post regarding Integrity sounded a bit sour & dramatic. It's how I felt at the time, but I feel like I should apologize.

So much has happened that is good and whole and true since then, that event is dwarfed in comparison, and I feel petty for having engaged so deeply in that one small thing.

I also was a bit hard on the vestry. Each individual is coming from his or her own frame of reference, and a beating over the head never convinced anyone to change. It's also not my job to change people's way of thinking. I think it's very important to engage in active silence, sometimes, and allow grace to do it's job.

Action, without the chest-beating attitude I displayed, is vital. My example in the Guess Who's Coming to Dinner post left much to be desired. It was sensationalist and really rather pointless venting. I apologize.

On the brighter side, things have not only calmed down for the better, but the group is finding great support. There was an announcement in this Sunday's church bulletin (and it was sent out to all of the local Episcopal churches), we've put a similar one in the Southern Cross (!), and, are you sitting down? The Bishop has offered to be Celebrant at one of our meetings. True. T asked him at a church dinner, and he said yes! And, though many have gone North for the summer, each meeting has had new faces. An abundance of both active and retired priests, several supporters from other faiths, a friend of ours has added her trangendgered voice to the mix, and everyone seems enthused. Doug and Frank (both officers in national Integrity) are really so informed, and confident, and are sweet to call me acting president, but they're really doing everything. We're so lucky as a fledgling group to have them.

I feel very blessed to have fashioned out a ministry for myself in the Episcopal church. It was tough going there for awhile. Some miscommunications, some conflicting agendas, even hard feelings. They nearly lost me again. But if it's not my church, I'm not sure who's it is. Baptised in as a babe, Mom was active in lay-ministry all the time I was growing up in NYC (started the AIDS group at St. Luke's & did hospice, taught photography to kids in the South Bronx, curated many art shows regarding art in sacred spaces and fundraising for soup kitchens), and now I'm married to a Brit who, at the very least, knows all the words.

My take on Episcopalia is valid, in spite of my sometimes deep lack of confidence because I rejected it in my teens. In spite of my occasional dubiousness about the whole of JudeoChristianity. In spite of my muttering through the creed sometimes at the only begotten son part. In spite of my replacing "Father" with "Mother" about half the time. In spite of my fascination with Mary. Or maybe because of all those things. Maybe because I can relate much of the mysticism to Indian mysticism, maybe because I feel called to help with Integrity, maybe because I'm all for the KJV and the Inclusive Bible. Maybe.

Food Thoughts

I was perusing the web for a good nutrition lesson, and some lunch ideas a few years ago, when I discovered these. I decided to re-visit the site and found not only some truly sensible pyramids, but a great lunch planner for kids.

On the homepage in the "wise eating" section are "traditional diet pyramids" and "school lunch plus" sections positively rock. Don't be intimidated by the form you have to fill out to get the high-res downloads of the pyramids. I have never recieved anything from Oldways I've not requested.

I did ask them why there are no Northern diet pyramids, and what someone of mixed Northern Euro and Native Amer heritage is supposed to eat. I'm guessing the answer is Mediterranian. Go figure. I asked them if they could do one for informational purposes only, and if raw meat (see link below) was the problem. I didn't bother to ask why dairy is in the pyramid for adults. I actually eat some dairy, but not for any good reason. Let's see if they get back to me.

For more radical and somewhat dissenting ideas you may be interested in http://www.price-pottenger.org/. Less accessible, but really compelling ideas.

I found out about both of these resources from a cookbook called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. It has perhaps the worst cross-referencing, index, and bibliography I've ever seen, and some of her arguments and bolstering quotes are flawed or dated, but with that said, her recipies are waaay cool, especially the fermented ones. (So that's what chutney is really about!)

Another book I like is called Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. She's coming from the Natural Gourmet Cookery School (where I studied, incidentally) so it's foundation is Vegan Macrobiotics, but it's much looser, with a little fish/poultry/egg content. Her dessert section positively rocks. Try her version of rice crispy squares, oooohhh. I like them with almonds. What fun!

P.S.-- No, I'm not a vegetarian, but was one for 9 years, five as a macro-vegan. Then I got hungry. So I went to (the now defunct) Katz's Delicatessen in NYC and ordered a gigantic hot pastrami on rye. Mmmmm. And no, it didn't make me sick, but I could only eat half of it. It was $9 in 1989, so that gives you some idea of how huge. At least four inches tall, just pastrami and mustard. I spent the next few years eating breakfast with my bacon and re-learning how to roast beasts and bake potatos. (Pork, and beasts, and nightshades! Oh, my!)

P.P.S.-- I miss the homeschooling gang. We'll try to make it to something soon. We're on a magazine ad deadline for mid-June. Wish us luck.