Davidson Homeschool 2014-2015

Forward: OKAY. I wrote this post a long time ago...and never posted it. Obviously, moving gets the best of me. I just can't deal. So read this with the frame of mind that these things have all already happened. It was LAST school year, and now it's summer. :) Which means I'll be posting about the new school year VERY soon!! (sheesh)

Little Atticus began Kindergarten this past fall. Can y'all believe that?! He's officially a homeschooler now. Watch out, world!!

And Gabriel is in first grade this year. 

Just these two littles would be enough to keep me very, very busy, but that's not all!!

Saylor is a 4th-grader...

and my Noah is doing the whole 6th grade thing.

Well, I say that, but oftentimes with homeschoolers, there's no such thing as grade levels. We just work on what we work on and prefer not to be labeled.

New house still in early, just-moved-in stages

As far as curriculum choices go, things look and feel significantly simpler than they have in the past for me, as I began transitioning about a year and a half or so ago to a Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. What that means for our day is that we do most of our schooling all together. We are currently reading through Book One of The Story of the World series, though it is written for the classically-trained child (NOT the same as Charlotte Mason, by the way). But it has been interesting, so for now we will continue to work our way through that book. But I am considering returning to My Father's World again at some point. Just not sure. There are so many decisions to make--constantly! And that's just history. :)

Language arts is a bit of a hodgepodge, I'm afraid. I still believe in the Shurley Method for diagramming sentences and learning to structure writing, but I find that it is completely impractical to have each child in a different level of Shurley. Who has the time?! So I have left off with Shurley with the intention of coming back to it occasionally for review and/or introduction of concepts, especially for the little boys. We will see. In the meantime, I have truly enjoyed Emma Serl's Primary Language Lessons for my big kids to review old concepts. I'm planning to move them on up to the Intermediate version eventually and then begin the Primary one with my little boys who are currently working through Language Lessons for Little Children. I also have Ruth Beechick's Language and Thinking for Young Children as a backup resource.

Math, as always, has me all flustered. Even though it was my SPECIALTY as a classroom teacher, with homeschool curriculum, I just haven't found anything that's actually any good. (!!!) Right now we have a little bit of Singapore going on, which I'm not very impressed with AT ALL. And we use Khan Academy as well. We also enjoy Life of Fred for a nice change of pace and a fun way to explore concepts. And I've got the little boys getting started in some Math-U-See. Not real sure how I'm going to like that program either. It doesn't seem like my style. I can't help it--I still think Marilyn Burns is the be-all, end-all when it comes to math instruction. I just have to figure out how to make it all jive with all the levels of mini-mathematicians I've got in this household! Ha!-the story of my life. I'm so excited to try out a new program called CTC Math now that I've got four peeps needing math instruction. I'll keep you posted on how it goes for us.

The rest of our day is filled with Ambleside Online, which is our list of literature, including Bible, which is chock-full of history, geography, the arts, science, and everything else you can think of. We thoroughly enjoy Ambleside books. We are currently reading Aesop's Fables, Parables from Nature, Paddle-to-the-Sea, 500 Famous Stories Retold, poetry, and The Island Story, among other things. And then, of course, we strive to have plenty of independent reading time each day.

When we read Shakespeare, we have these guys, among others, to help play the parts.

We are also involved in a Charlotte Mason co-op here in Dallas, which meets every other week. (More than that would KILL me!) There, the children are studying Shakespeare, hymns, Spanish, folk songs, artists, composers, and we do nature study as well. They've enjoyed meeting new friends there, as have I! Speaking of, we are so blessed to live near one of the families in the co-op (the one who invited us to the co-op in the first place). My kids love to play with her kids, and I love getting together and talking about homeschool with their mom. Ha! Homeschool moms are such nerds.

The little boys and our sweet friend

Now. My goals for the future are to be on a more efficient morning schedule to allow time for the kids to explore activities of interest to them in the afternoons. I'd like to do more crafting with them and more group projects. But two moves in approximately two years has left us with some bad habits and a major lack of routine. Shocker, I know. We all still struggle to get up in the morning and no one feels like starting school first thing. Just going to have to work on that. And while I'm at it, maybe I'll get back to taking pictures and blogging, huh?!

Homemade Laundry Detergent - UPDATE

This is an update to the post from here, which I wrote way back in 2010.

I STILL use this detergent, guys. Still love it. HOWEVER, I accidentally discovered one day that there is an easier way to do it. It is much quicker than all that stirring I used to do before. The ingredients are the same, but the order in which you mix them is what has changed.

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

1. Baking soda

2. Liquid castile soap  (I use Dr. Bronner's and purchase it wherever I can find it on sale at the time. Sometimes Drug Emporium, sometimes Whole Foods, sometimes Azure Standard, sometimes Amazon, etc.)

3. White vinegar

4. Washing Soda (made by Arm & Hammer, or you can just buy soda ash; I can get this at both Wal-Mart and Kroger where I live)

Measure 1 cup of baking soda and 1/4 cup of castile soap and mix together using a pastry cutter in a large bowl. 

Mix well.

Then, add 1 cup of vinegar. Pause a moment while it foams up. It is MUCH foamier doing it this way than the way I used to do it! Sort of swish/mix it around with your pastry cutter. It should feel like the baking soda has turned into bubbles.

I will have to add a picture here later so you can see all that foam.


NOW add 1 cup of washing soda. This will begin to calm that foam right down. Work the soda into the mixture using your pastry cutter. It will begin to take on a pasty consistency. Stir until thoroughly incorporated and then give yourself about a three-minute break. 

Maybe wipe the counters. Put away all your ingredients, etc. And then chop and mix a little more with the pastry cutter. 

Eventually (and not long at all!) it will begin to dry out and break up into a powder. Just repeat the wait-a-few, mix-and-chop pattern until you are ready to transfer it into your container. (By the way, this does not need to be kept in an air-tight container.)

 
I don't worry about clumps, but you can if you want to. 

Y'all, I think it works great! And it is low/no-sudsing, so it is perfect for HE washers. 

Use anywhere between 1/8 to 1/2 cup per load. Depends on your washer and how large/how dirty your load. I tend to use about 1/4 cup. I have a friend who uses much, much less than this! So far, I've been too chicken to try it. I so hate doing laundry. I sure don't want to RE-do any of it! 

Here's the recipe one more time:

1 cup Baking Soda

1/4 cup Liquid Castile Soap

1 cup Vinegar

1 cup Washing Soda

That's it!!

Vacationing in Colorado: Part 4, The End

So I'm finally wrapping up the posts for this trip we took FOREVER ago to Durango, Colorado! Please enjoy the exciting conclusion.  ;) Previous posts, in order, are here, here, and here.

Day 9:

We used our last day in Durango as a bit of a rest day. We went into town and stocked up on snacks, bought some yummies for our campfire dinner, replaced our portable DVD player for the car ('cause Momma wasn't about to drive sixteen plus hours without a working one!), and just generally piddled in Walmart. Then we had a delicious lunch at a "real food" pizza restaurant. 

And, lucky for us, Durango was having some sort of community mini-fest that day, so we were more than willing to participate in a little bounce house fun. Don't mind if we do!

Once we got back to the cabin, we spent time just enjoying the great outdoors. Noah did a little hunting for bones while the others did some finger painting. We made a cute, life-size thank you note for our host, the owner of the cabin. Saylor picked a bouquet for dinner. And Mommy and Daddy got dinner going.

It was a lovely evening.

We are all very happy to be saying goodbye to these guys, though.

The next morning we headed out for the verrrrry loooonnnnnggg journey. For fun, we did stop off in New Mexico to see The Blue Hole.

A two-day trip in the car with four littles takes creativity. Here's how we manage.

1) The aforementioned DVD player.  :)  Currently out of commission yet again.

2) Activities of interest. (Coloring books, car games, scavenger hunts, library books, small action figures, LeapPads/V-tech devices, etc.)

3) Snacks galore...and always apportioned out in serving-size paper cups or baggies. Must. keep. the. snacks. a'coming.

4) Pit stops during which we s-t-r-e-t-c-h and do whatever we feel like doing, even if it makes the car look streaked and horrible, and take our time doing it.

5) Audiobooks and/or Adventures in Odyssey. Daddy doesn't appreciate these as much as the rest of us.

6) Ear buds for at least one parent (you know who you are), sometimes both (if I'm lucky).

7) Kid songs. Daddy definitely doesn't appreciate these! (We like KinderSongs, Veggie Tales collections, anything Disney; we especially like the Backyardigans and the Phineas and Ferb stations on Pandora.)

Even with all that, let's face it, it's exhausting to travel, period. Add kids to the mix and the chances are very great that both parents will be near tears by the time they roll into their long-awaited driveway. Which we were. But it was all worth it! 

Vacationing in Colorado: Part 3

I was looking through old posts and JUST realized that I never finished our Colorado trip from 2011!! What in the world?!
Alright, I've been a bit behind schedule in every.single.aspect.of my life, I guess. So in case you've forgotten where we left off, here are the first two installments in our vacation series: Parts ONE and TWO. Go review. We'll wait.

Day 7:

We needed a more restful day today, considering the LENGTH and the physical strain of yesterday's train adventure. Today we decided to DRIVE into Silverton, as we didn't see much of it the first time around. You know, besides the inside of a semi-warm restaurant where we scarfed down some grub during our very limited allotted time. So today on the way into Silverton, we stopped at a little place called "Honeyville," because we knew our little bee lover would love it.

Yes, those are bees in that tube.

Their hive is in the middle of the little store.

Honeyville makes and sells all kinds of honey-related products. And if you time it right, you can watch something being made.  That is, unless the worker is busy being puppeteer.

There's no better role player than Atticus, so he just naturally decided to join in on his side of the glass.

Poor things. It was a little bright out.

Then we headed on to Silverton. The drive is...well...scenic. To say the least.

There's the old mining town of Silverton nestled in the valley there.

The "Old West"-looking part of the town is kinda cool to see.

And y'all, there wasn't much to see here whatsoever. In fact, at one point I looked at Paul and said something to the effect that I just don't understand why the entire nation likes to pick on Arkansas being so po'dunk and backwards...when, man alive!  Paul then said he was JUST thinking the same thing!!

Anyhoo...our final destination was yet to be reached, as we were just traveling through Silverton to go on up the mountain to an old gold mine there.

Two thumb-suckers and their "silkies." Necessary for going into a deep, dark hole in the side of a mountain.

Panning for gold. We left disappointed.

On the way down the mountain??? It snowed. Shocked our socks off! I mean, it was September 15th, for goodness' sake! And it was actually not that easy to drive the winding roads. Scary!

But. We also saw a rainbow. Beautiful, adventurous day.

We finished this day with Mexican food, and the kids had their very first sopaipillas.

Day 8:

Another must-see in the Durango area is Mesa Verde. Do NOT miss it. Astounding is what it is. It was only a forty-minute drive, and I'm so glad we made it.

He didn't want in the group picture.

Once the monkey, always the monkey.

Precious.

Underground.

Atticus and I had some work to do on the path, while the others explored underground.

Is it just me, or are the clouds prettier in Colorado?

Again--only 3/4 of the group.

We were in Colorado one more full day and then began traveling back to Arkansas. I'll post the tail end of our trip tomorrow. Promise.