Blooming Moose

A Serious Dilemma

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:58:00 +0000

Aku: I have a serious dilemma. I don't want to do school, but I don't want to be an idiot when I grow up either.

What value this? Finding balance

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:05:00 +0000

I had a call scheduled for this morning, one that occurs weekly. Typically during this time the kids do whatever - finish morning chores, play, read. I had the *great* idea to schedule "Art" for this hour and fifteen minutes I'd be on the phone.

Aku decided to paint warhammer. Ayeka and Sasame both chose to work in Fimo. When I arrived at the end of my call all three were deep into their projects. Aku couldn't decide between a head or a helmet for his Fire Warrior, Sasame had only the stand, legs, and torso for her Ood, and Princess Ayeka had only the stand and one foot of her miniature Master.

(Ayeka has been making an entire collection of Dr. Who characters in miniature. So far she has two Tardae, The Doctor, Rose, three pig-slaves, a dalek, and an unfinished Cassandra. Master's legs and stand have at this point been baked and she is working on Martha's legs.)

By my schedule, it was time for clean up, to be followed by Math, and Math by Science, and Science by - but I couldn't do it. I value art, the whole process that leads to creation. But it goes beyond that. I have a weakness for the learning that takes place unforced, unplanned, the moments (hours) where my children follow their own paths unencumbered by grade requirements, state tests, and my desire that they be Latin scholars. And yet -

They have goals beyond this day. The oldest have goals for high school, thoughts for college. Meeting grade requirements is good. Doing well on tests is good. Knowing Latin (a subject they bloth love) is good.

I would like to end this post by telling you how we follow these passions and it all works out, it always does. Or perhaps the ending where I explain how we balance these hours of self chosen exploration and expression by making the time for studying subjects and meeting pesky grade requirements on other days, weekends, the oddest and most incredible moments. But it wouldn't be true. I am constantly striving for balance.

We're doing something different these days

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:53:00 +0000

We start with a magazine article. Our current selection of magazines includes Popular Science, Equus, National Geographic, and Horse Illustrated. I thought we'd cycle through the magazines, one article per day. Ha! Little did I know how much would come from this simple exercise.

Day 1: We read about SpaceX's new Falcon 9 in Popular Science. Not only did we learn really cool things like SpaceX was established in 2002 with the goal of increasing space travel by decreasing cost (Come on, just how cool is that?), that the same flight which costs $120 million on the Ariane 5 costs only $58 million on the Falcon 9, and that SpaceX has a contract with NASA for at least 12 launches to carry cargo to the International Space Station, but it brought up the questions, "How big is the International Space Station? How many people live on it? What do they do?" I wrote the questions down then we continued to read from Popular Science. (We read about a cell phone with a built in projector that can project a 100" image, and a fish that utilizes mirrors to see what's to the side and bottom of it - the brownsnout spookfish.)

Day 2: We looked up answers to yesterday's questions, but our list of questions grew. "What's the longest space stay? How do they go to the bathroom? How did the ISS start and when?" At 45 minutes I had to call an end to ISS research as Math was calling. (Okay, it was calling me.)

The plan is to wind up ISS questions tomorrow and move on to an article in one of the horse mags, or National Geographic.

Overheard today...

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:40:00 +0000

7 yo daughter: "You're a boy, she's a girl. Completely different species."
12 yo son: "We're the same species."
7 yo daughter: "But different sex." (Said as though that explained everything.)

By afternoon

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:14:00 +0000

Crystal clear skies and unexpected warmth led to time outdoors loving on the horses and bouncing on the trampoline.

Our Current Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Snow with a chance of more snow.

Seamus and Oliver on snow watch. Yes, Oliver is lying on Seamus.

Today in Home Education

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:42:00 +0000

We took a six week break from Latin. Because of that we have started back at chapter one and are reviewing. This has made for some wonderful Latin time. The kids always enjoy going back because the work is relatively effortless. The review is good too. Besides reading passages in Latin in ease (such a boost for moral) the kids get a thorough review of past vocabulary and grammar. Yesterday we started chapter one and today we finished it.

Here's Tuesday:

Meditation
Parables From Nature read aloud
Latin
Math
World History
Chemistry
Penmanship
Logic
Spelling

While the older two were writing in Latin (yes, I love that they are, enough that I'll write it again, the older two were writing in Latin) the youngest did phonics and penmanship. She does Math when the older two do, though not for as long, and she sits in on History and Science. In the afternoon she gets another read aloud, currently book one of The Boxcar Children.

Today in World History we are starting a set of DVDs from The Great Courses, aptly named World History. As our study of Roman History involves a lot of writing and map work, my plan is to keep World History relaxed and go for exposure. We'll also continue reading from Van Loon's The History of Mankind.

From chickens to this...

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Yesterday my youngest took two empty gel caps (she's in charge of putting digestive enzymes on the cat's food and had saved the gel caps) and inside one of them she put a small piece of cat food. I was curious but went on with what I was doing. A few minutes later she called me over to see her dinosaur nest. On top of several silk flower petals she had place both gel caps.

"This is my dinosaur nest. Look, it has two eggs. One is fertilized, one isn't!"

This is not defeat

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:37:00 +0000

But it is a new year and we need our table back. This beautiful puzzle was a gift from Uncle David and Aunt MT. It's All The World's A Stage, by Christensen. We couldn't bear to take apart what we'd accomplished so it was carefully laid in the box until next time.

Aaaaaaa!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:24:00 +0000

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! I'm so unprepared. Ha. Like I could prepare for the madness of both adults and all three children participating.

I have been helping my children, utilizing the stuff available on the young writers site. (Oh yeah, I'm expecting brilliance from myself, especially after having used "utilizing" and "stuff" in the same sentence.) Here are our word count goals:

Ayeka: 15,000
Aku: 5,000
Sasame: 1,000
Steve: 50,000
Me: 50,000

I've committed to writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I feel there are a few other commitments I need to make, now, while sanity has its hold.

I will feed my children at least one hot, home cooked meal per day.
I will continue to home educate 5 days/week, with the emphasis on Latin, Math, and Writing (Science and History may just get the month off.)
I will continue my Latin studies though I am going to adjust my schedule and allow two days for each assignment instead of one.
Oh, there should be more, but panic set in when Anneliese told me this morning, "Tomorrow is NaNoWriMo!"

What can I let go for this month? Or rather, what am I willing to openly confess I will let go?

Hang Tags for Hats

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:06:00 +0000

These are for my dreadlock hats. What do you think?

I Love Latin

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:30:00 +0000

We don't hit, but that doesn't mean the kids don't get frustrated with each other at times and have some wishful thinking. Last night my 6 yo was reaching overload when her 11 yo brother had to open his mouth just one more time. Her reply?

Hedera Severum pulsat!

It was a great tension breaker as even she laughed about it.

On my list of things to do: Find more ways to expose my youngest to spoken Latin, so she can continue to keep up on the vocabulary. The older two have the oral exposure plus oodles of reading and writing.

The kids' current location in Lingua Latina? Capitulum IV, Lectio I.

Kittens!

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 05:35:00 +0000

What's to say? On to the pictures...

Oliver

Seamus

Another excerpt from our Latin journey...

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:41:00 +0000

Lingua Latina, Day 17

Here's the pattern I've adopted. On day one of a new lectio we TPR the vocabulary first, then I read it out loud while the kids follow along. Next we take turns reading it, or take parts and read it together. Somewhere in there we listen to our CD and follow along as Oerberg reads it.

That's it. I STOP. We have wonderful days where they grasp the vocabulary and understand the lectio, and I want to gain even more ground, but I've learned the best thing I can do is STOP. Just stop. Let them have a day (or sometimes a weekend) and then after we TPR, read, and listen, all to the same lectio, they do the exercitia. And it goes so much better.

Today we had TPR'd all the new verbs and that left just two words I was pretty confident they would get from the text, but it never hurts to be introduced to vocab before you read it. So enter the halo and the horns. It was fun seeing how the kids acted out being good and being wicked.

We read scaena secunda and they had no questions and begged for more. I caved and we read scaena tertia too. Only 40 minutes had passed and a part of me wanted to push on, to put in a full hour of Latin. I gathered up our books instead.

Of Latin and House Points (LL Day 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:26:00 +0000

My kids wanted house points this year and so have them. Each their own house, they enjoy gaining points by answering review questions correctly, and occasionally they lose points for not having chores done on time, or for distracting a fellow student. The ones most often to lose points are the 6 year old and the 10 year old. They know each other's buttons and love to push them. The newly turned 6 year old does not like to be referred to as little or young.

We were reading together from Capitulum I, Lectio II:

Me: "Nilus fluvius magnus est." At magnus I opened my arms wide to indicate large. "Tiberis non est fluvius magnus, Tiberis fluvius parvus est." At parvus I indicated small with my fingers.

10 year old to 6 year old: "Hey, you're parvus!"

6 year old to 10 year old: "I am not! You're parvus."

I was about to deduct points from both houses when I realized, "They're insulting each other in Latin!"

Each house was awarded 3 points.

Our Lingua Latina Journey, Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:12:00 +0000

In the middle of reading Capitulum I, Lectio I, my 12 year old looked up and said, "I'm reading this, and I understand it." Wonderful. And the ease with which the 10 year old answered the exercitia let me know that he understood it too.

A beautiful sight...

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:56:00 +0000

That is one gallon of yogurt being strained to make cream cheese. Yumm.

We've been gluten free for over 5 years, but recently we had to go SCD for my oldest. So we all did. (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) Part of it is eating home made yogurt full of all those good gut bugs. It also means not eating commercial cream cheese, yogurt, or milk. Therefore it means making oodles of yogurt. With honey added and diluted 50% with water, it makes a nice milk substitute. Strained and I have a very nice sour cream. Remove even more whey, add a little honey, and it's a delicious cream cheese, or icing for carrot cake.

Yogurt, for yogurt and "milk", I can make with store bought whole milk. But not the cream cheese. Why? Ultra Pasteurization. And the ONLY milk available on this peninsula is UP. It makes a very nice looking "cheese" right up until you touch it, or stir it, or add anything to it. Then it becomes a runny product. (See the Cheese Lady's explanation at www.cheesemaking.com Click on FAQ and then on All About Milk.)

Dry milk to the rescue. Turns out with Carnation Dry Milk and some added cream one can make a very nice cream cheese. Substantial enough to even be used as icing.

I love Home Education

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:37:00 +0000

Yesterday we reviewed Life Science, Chemistry, and Roman History via a game board and questions I'd been writing down as we progressed through each subject. My six year old was paired up with her dad for help. Help she didn't want. Help she most often didn't need. We've been doing a lot of reviewing of Roman History as we progress, but we hadn't been doing much of any in either Science subject. (Only the older two are taking Chemistry, but the six year old is a full participant in Life Science.) We'd already been surprised by how little help the youngest needed by the time she got the question, "Name 5 of the 8 characteristics of living things."

"Eats food," she said.
"Takes in energy, right," I replied.
"Moves. Gets rid of waste. Grows."

As she struggled to remember another one, her father whispered to her, "Makes babies." She looked at him and said, "I can't say that!" Then she turned to me and said,

"Reproduce."

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:24:00 +0000

I should clarify that the following is concerning a novel I'm writing, not my blog. I'm pretty carefree about my blog and will be happy if people considering reading a post even once! ; )

The other day when I told my friend Lara that I had some books on writing in my cart at Amazon, but that I was hesitant to spend the money whereas I wouldn't be if it were fabric for quilts, or wool for rugs, she emphatically told me not to buy them. She was worried that if I read about writing it would mess up my writing.

In response to what crossed my face she said, "That's not what you wanted was it? You wanted me to encourage you to get the books." I only replied, "No. It's not that."

What I was thinking and didn't voice was, it's not the stories, it's the sentences.

I want my sentences to sing.

What has caused me to give place to those thoughts here, now, are the words I read this morning by Francine Prose in her book, Reading Like A Writer:

"...to talk about sentences is to have a conversation about something far more meaningful and personal to most authors than the questions they're more often asked..."

I want to write beautiful sentences. I want my stories to captivate, but I want my sentences to evoke a pause or a sigh, a second or third reading, and a longing for more.

~ Rhea

Barn To Be Wild ~ Or At Least Pretty

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:59:00 +0000

This year's theme at the Kenai Peninsula State Fair (or biggest little fair in Alaska) is Barn To Be Wild. Mermaids have nothing to do with barns, but they are born to be wild, not domesticated and definitely NOT kept as pets. Or are they? (That quilt isn't finished yet.)

This quilt was auctioned off as part of the annual fun raiser, and is going home with Angela, or perhaps to Angela's business as her logo is a mermaid.

I actually took her to the fairgrounds before getting pictures. That's how excited I was about the event. It was our second year having a celebrity waiter dinner. It went great thanks to the wonderful waiters, the generous people who donated desserts for the silent dessert auction, and the guests who freely spent their money to support the fair.

But back to the mermaid... She was caught decorating her hair with fish eggs. Don't judge - different culture, different standards of beauty. Besides, I like to think she's doing her part for environmental diversity by keeping some of the eggs protected. :) Here's a close-up, though sadly, since I had to make do with the lighting at the event, the fish eggs don't show up very well.

(Click on any picture to see a larger view.)

I have been creating...

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 20:13:00 +0000

With one mermaid complete I altered the pattern again and made another. This one went out in a swap. I had planned to have her hiding a gift behind her back under all that hair, then I decided the box would be in front filled with pearls, but with time running out her gift became a string of pearls.

The first mermaid was fuller of waist, hip, and tail. Which one looks most like she'd be found in Alaskan waters? Hard to say. I know my inclination is to put on padding for warmth. But this one reminds me of an arctic eel and a beluga whale and I have no doubt that she's lived lifetimes without being spotted, except for a flash of her tail as though she's any other beluga touring Turnagain Arm. Her sister however has probably been the cause of more than one accident on Seward highway, while sun bathing on a rock.

I also sewed up an apron for myself, the day after ruining one of my favorite shirts while cooking. I love aprons, especially unusual aprons, and yet I had never taken the time to just make myself one. This one is reversible but my husband complains that the green side is blinding. : )

My daughter received fat quarters for her birthday from several generous sewers and while I sewed up my apron, she made one for a Barbie - on her very own birthday sewing machine. I was a little worried as tiny curves are harder to sew than large, but she really wanted to do it and did a great job. The only part she didn't like was hand sewing the inner neckline. Here is the first thing sewn on her sewing machine. (It also gives you an idea of how fantastic I look in mine.)

I've put it off, now to act

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:21:00 +0000

While sewing like a mad thing for a local play, my thoughts went again and again to clothing I want to sew for my girls. I was especially looking forward to making a Redondo skirt for my 5 year old. However, she got her hands on Ottobre 03/06, the same one I found in a rubbermaid tub of her toys awhile back, and asked me to PLEASE make her #23. This was quite the surprise.

She's a skirt girl and only wears pants when I insist on it because we've got grungy work to do outside, or because of the weather. (Currently 27 degrees F.)
This pant style just doesn't get me interested in sewing. It's cute in the pic, just nothing I want to make.
It's WINTER! Those pants are for summer sun.

I thought about making them out of warmer fabric, but that would rather ruin the look I think. And I thought about lining them with flannel, but IF she likes them, she's going to want to wear them to the contradance, and flannel lined pants would be too warm for that.

I've looked over my fabric to find something that will work, and more importantly, something that I won't mind giving away since I figure the odds of her actually deciding she likes these pants is at about 50%. Ha. It's not easy parting with fabric, especially as I love them all. Here's what I've decided on. The darker print is for the pants, and the striped one will be for a top of some sort.

They are both from Rebecca Carter's Florentine Roses line and came from www.fabricmatchmaker.com

Whales like attention too

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 21:10:00 +0000

I do wish I'd gotten better pictures of Whale before he went out the door to the baby shower. He, Mr. Moose, Starfish, and Seagull were decorations on a branch for a little baby-to-be. They are also toys-to-be for when the little one is older. Mr. Moose may have his antlers and curly legs going for him, but Whale has his tail. (Seagull has feathers and Starfish character, but sadly they didn't get their pictures taken.)

What's in a blog name?

noreply@blogger.com (Feeling groovy...) — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 07:31:00 +0000

Everything, if you're like me. "A name? I have to pick a name? Will I have it forever or will I be able to change it later, and how much effort and time would that take and will I lose data? " If I'd had to choose my own name upon reaching a certain age - forget it. The stress alone would have done me in. Happens I love my name so that ended well. And as for my blog name, time will tell.

Here's a moose I made for a baby shower. I'm now preparing kits with hand dyed wool felt, patterns, and instructions for Mr. Moose, Whale, and a mermaid who I believe is behind the disappearance of the digital camera all because she doesn't have her hair on yet and doesn't want me taking pictures. How am I going to show the steps along the way if I can't take pictures of her until she's completely done? Ooooooh, that's like a major life lesson coming at me from a doll I created. Can't think about it too much, must stay sane.