First Day of SPRING

No, that's not a typo.

Yes, I know for most of you reading this, it was the first day of Autumn/Fall yesterday; for us, in the Southern Hemisphere, it was First Day of Spring.

The changing of the seasons is a barely-noticed event where we live; we're inside the Tropic Zone (we're less than 100km north of, or above, the Tropic of Capricorn), so seasons are very much the same from one to the next. Around here, it's mostly Dry Season (which we're leaving behind) and Rainy Season (which we're heading into). 

Winter to spring is not marked by melting snow, shedding of jackets, the appearance of buds or blossoms, the greening up of the landscape or even more sunshine. No, for us, winter to spring is noted by vacuuming the dust off the fans and bringing them out of hiding, running the dryer at night so as not to heat up the house during the day, the presence of the umbrella salesmen on the side of the road (and of our umbrella always in easy reach), and the return of the few migratory birds who visit our feeders.

Still, it is now officially spring time. And, stealing an idea from  joining my good friend GfG over at Morning Star Academy, I decided to celebrate spring with some fun crafts for the boys. A great time was had by all.

Don't they look like they're having a blast?

We made rain pictures -- coffee filter umbrellas with craft stick handles; aluminum foil puddles (or darkness, if you're The Adventurer), and blue fingerprints for raindrops. So fun.

Didn't they turn out great?

We also made toilet paper tube parrots, to symbolize the return of migratory birds. Since we do feed the birds in our backyard, and some of them are migratory, I thought this was an appropriate one.  We don't get these kinds of parrots, not in our part of Brazil, but they sure were fun for the boys to color.

Lastly, The Writer had the great idea to do rainbow handprints. He suggested, and I consented, that they each dip their hand in the plate full of paint, and then leave a handprint on the brown paper we were using to protect the table. What a great idea!

So, they did, and I now have perfect little captures of just how small (or big) their hands were on the first day of spring, 2010. We'll pretend the rainbow colors were on purpose to remind us of the many rainbows we'll see during the sometimes dreary (but not usually) rainy season.

Cute, huh?

Best of all, we had a really fun day. Look at these smiles -- totally worth the mess, right?

Did you do anything to celebrate the changing of the seasons? What do the changes look like where you live?

Well, that didn't last long....

The blackberries, that is.

I thought we'd make a pie this weekend.

I thought we'd have blackberry pancakes for dinner.

I thought we had plenty of blackberries to do both of those and still let the boys eat as they wished.

I was wrong.

In three short hours, we went from 12 cups of blackberries to 4 and a half cups of blackberries.

Between The Writer and The Artist, 7 and a half cups of blackberries, gone. Disappeared. Eaten, just as nature made them, straight from the bowl to their mouths.

And just like that, plans for blackberry pancakes flew right out the window.

I tried. I really did. I wanted blackberry pancakes for dinner, and do an apple/berry pie or a peach/berry pie. I even have a recipe for apple/berry in a Jamie Oliver cookbook, but even that didn't persuade the boys. I guess their gorge on pure blackberries did two things - satiated them for now, and made the thought of corrupting their pie downright atrocious sounding.

The remaining four and a half cups are thus safely reserved in a baggie, waiting to be turned into pie sometime this weekend, right after I buy a pie pan and a pie crust. Because I know better than to try and make my own.

I guess I don't need those recipes after all.....

Blackberries

When The Writer was 5 and The Artist was 2, we moved into the first, and only, home we'd ever owned. The first thing The Chemist did was buy fruit trees and bushes. We had a peach tree, a plum tree, an orange tree, and four blackberry bushes, all of which we planted in the backyard.

The boys watched those bushes like hawks, or, well, like some berry eating type of bird, just waiting to nab the first berry. Once the bush produced, watch out. The kids would be purple for weeks. They loved the things.

When we moved from that house to a rental an hour & a half away, because The Chemist got the job that led to this job, we planted blackberry bushes in the flower beds out front. I'm sure our landlady was thrilled. The boys certainly were.

Berries, berries, berries. The two oldest boys grew up on a steady diet of blackberries, from the time they were 5 & 2 until the day we moved to Brazil, when they were 10 & 7. 'Twas a sad thing to realize that, in this land of the most marvelous fruits ever imagined, there is a serious lack of all things berry. No idea why that is, but on the rare occasion I find blackberries in the market, they run at outrageous prices. We're talking, if memory serves, R$15 for roughly one cup of berries. Seriously.

Well, folks, The Chemist last night struck gold, more or less. He discovered (how he's been unaware the past three years is beyond me....) a blackberry tree on the grounds where he works. Yes, I know blackberries don't actually grow on trees. But mulberries or boysenberries or something or other do, and I don't remember which, and they look, smell and taste just like blackberries, so, indulge me, okay? The point is, The Chemist saw a bowl of blackberries, inquired as to their origin, was told they grow on the grounds and encouraged to help himself, and that is just exactly what he did. To one heaping bucket full.

AFTER the boys ate their fill today

I dumped the contents of the very  heavy bucket into my colander to rinse the berries. Only, they overflowed the thing. Still, I rinsed, and tucked the colander into a bowl to catch any juice and then put the whole mess into my fridge, thankful for empty space since the milk man didn't come on Tuesday (national holiday and all). Well, I'd have tossed the milk to store the berries, no doubt, but I digress......what was I saying?

Oh yes, the berries. The boys were shocked. Stunned. Thrilled. This little surprise of their father's blessed their socks off. Seriously. In ways you cannot imagine. Being mostly deprived of your favorite food for the past three years, and then being given such a bounty as this.....they didn't know what to do. It took them half of today to overcome the automatic Ration The Blackberries response and accept the fact that they could eat fully and still not make a dent in our supply.  Even after their over-indulgence, we still have 12 cups remaining.

Not one cup.

Not two cups.

Twelve.

Very full, very rounded cups.

I have never seen happier boys.  Or purpler ones.

 

 

Except for The Adventurer. You might recall he was only 2.5 yrs old when we moved to Brazil, and as such, he'd not really tasted a blackberry before. Ever, I don't think.  So when The Artist offered him one today, relishing in this bounty after a three year drought, The Adventurer declined.

Aghast, The Artists insisted. He practically pushed the blackberry into The Adventurer's mouth, against much protest.

The Adventurer promptly spit it out, declared, "I feel sick!" and came crying to me. He wanted nothing to do with this very foreign food. This happens when you've spent more than half of your life, and all the bits you can remember, in Brazil instead of the USA.

Perspective, folks. It's all about perspective. The Adventurer happily chooses rice & beans over a hamburger, and apples or oranges or any other fruit at all so long as he doesn't have to eat a nasty blackberry.

The Big Boys however are hoping we have enough left for pie (umm, pretty sure that's a yes), while secretly really hoping that means they can continue to eat freely and still get a pie out of the deal (again, boys, pretty sure that's a yes....) and I am wondering what on earth we are going to do with all these berries. And how I'll ever get my dishes unstained...

Now, the boys have already eaten roughly four cups, or 60 Reais worth of blackberries, but still. I've got 12 cups, 180 reais worth, left.....no, we're not selling. The boys won't let me; I checked. (conversion rate: roughly 90 dollars......)

What's your favorite way to eat a blackberry? Or a couple of kilos of blackberries? With 12 cups yet to consume, and fridge space that needs vacated ASAP (the milk man comes in the morning...), I need all the suggestions you guys can give me.

School Room Redo is Done!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was planning and working on a school room redo; well, it’s finally done.

We do  not have a dedicated school room, so it has been a challenge to combine school items and an efficient layout with an aesthetically pleasing dining room, the first room you see when you enter our home.

When we first moved into this house, approximately eighteen months ago, we set up the computer desk, the book shelves, and the dining table; they’ve not moved from their original positions. Filling the shelves, and keeping things neat and organized as our school has morphed and grown over the years (remember, we now have all three boys doing formal schooling, not just the two older boys) has meant the contents of the bookshelves get shuffled around, often.

Lately, though, I’ve been itching for change. Everyone back home is starting a brand new school year, while we are about half way done. The professora particular was antsy to mix things up, bring in some freshness to our year, and rejuvenate her spirits. Redecorating and reorganizing always helps with that, I find. Apparently, the professora agrees. ; ) A few changes, and I’ve finally found a set up that balances useful with pretty.

The first step to the redo was to purge the shelves of books the boys have finished using for this year. Those all moved up to my closet, shown in a previous post. I also added plastic tubs (to be replaced later with something prettier) where the older two boys can each store their workbooks; this keeps them from flopping over, keeps the shelf looking neat, and keeps things from getting all jumbled and messy on my shelves. I also rearranged the decorative touches, and added some framed scripture to serve as mood setters, reminders, encouragement, etc. during our school days. I did the scripture frames a while ago, but never put them out. I used scrapbook papers and pens; cheap and easy and fun.

 

 

*the scriptures are I John 2:10; Romans 12:10; Psalm 127:3; Psalm 119:66 and Philippians 4:8-9.

Next up, I found a way to hang our maps. We bought this World Map Shower Curtain a few years ago, at Target, but The Chemist has not wanted to hang it where it will be seen. I suppose I can’t blame him. Luckily, I found these oversized hooks which allow me to hide it on the curtain rod, behind the curtains when not in use, and then pull it out when we need it. I also hung this lovely National Geographic map; that keeps little cat paws from dirtying my wall, is a beautiful piece of artwork, and soothing for the boys to look at; the colors are very calming.

the world map, when in use, also gives us a buffer of privacy without loss of natural light, since our window faces the street.

  National Geographic map, computer desk, shelf & display hooks (explained below)

After I got the bookshelves organized and the maps hung, I asked The Chemist to hang my shelf. He did. The printer, previously homeless, moved up there, and I was able to move my teacher’s manuals up there as well. I cleaned an empty ice cream tub and put the boys’ quality art supplies in it; these are the supplies they use when they do art class, not the materials they use for every day stuff.

The other half of the shelf holds various games, things that I use with The Adventurer as part of his class time or things the older boys use while they are waiting to move on to the next subject. The games include things like Boggle, Memory games, Rush Hour and Block by Block, Dominos, and other single-player games that occupy hands and minds. Last but not least, my camera finally has a place to live, at the end of the shelf.

Above the shelf I hung three clothespins, which I will use to display the boys’ school work. Currently there’s a painting by The Artist and one by The Adventurer. The hook for The Writer is empty at the moment, but that’s bound to change soon.

 

The last three changes are minor and stuff no one will really see but us; I moved the boys Portuguese materials into the closed cabinet in the computer desk, along with their everyday art supplies which were already there. Then, I hung our ABC Scripture Memory Verses posters up, on the side of the bookshelf that faces the table. Guests to our home won’t generally see that, but the boys can read it easily from their seats at the table. Lastly, I tucked a chalkboard, some educational placemats, and some additional maps into the space between and beside the bookshelves. I also put my scrapbook papers on the floor next to the desk, but I’m not sure yet if they’ll live their forever. They are sorted and organized into a rotating desk caddy, but The Chemist is not fond of it being visible, so we’ll see what he says.

Overall, we came up with a look that is nice and unobtrusive, keeping the “school room” look to a minimum while still providing wonderful functionality for us. Thanks so much for stopping by; the professory really enjoys giving little tours of her school! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope any of you out there currently homeschooling, but in a small space (like mine) found it encouraging to see a small space that works well. Happy Schooling, everyone!

Favorite Sonlight Book? An Impossible Question....

Luke, over at the Sonlight Blog (Sonlight Curriculum being our curriculum of choice for the boys), posed a question on his blog today -- What is your favorite Sonlight book? He challenged us, his readers, to blog the answer.

I told him I can't do it.

See, the thing is, Sonlight books are amazing. Wonderful. Awesome. Choosing a favorite is like choosing a favorite child. I can't do it. I love all my boys, equally. In different ways, yes. Different things about them, yes. But do I love one less than the other? No way. Not possible. Not even on the worst of days, when I was sleep deprived and stressed and depressed and angry and completely not enjoying motherhood -- not even on those days would I have said with any honesty that I loved any one of my children less than the others, even the one who was the source of all the stress at the time.

So it is with Sonlight books. Some days, I've wished we weren't reading about the Civil War - again. Still. For the hundredth time. Some days I wanted to chunk a book across the room because I was sick of crying every time I turned the page. Some days I admit to being bored, even while my boys absorbed information I knew they needed. Some days I admit to being driven to distraction by the cartoon style, 'jump around the page' layout of the various Usborne books that Sonlight includes in their curriculum, nevermind those are the very books my boys go back to over and over and over again. And yet, ask me to choose a favorite and I can't do it. There's not a single one I love any more than any of the others.

We have used 8 different programs (called Cores) over the years. Each one of those programs includes roughly 50 books. That's around 400 books I've read over the years, all as part of school for the boys. To choose a favorite is impossible. In fact, it is easier for me to tell you books I didn't like --I can count on one hand those titles-- than to name books I loved more than the rest.  But that's not what Luke asked, so I'll try and do the impossible.

Now, the favorite book I've ever read, of all time, is To Kill a Mockingbird. It does happen to be a title that Sonlight uses, though we aren't there yet. Anyone who's read TKaM though knows it is fabulous. Still, as I read it outside the scope of Sonlight, I don't feel it's fair to talk about in this post.

Instead, I sit here looking at my bookshelves, full of Sonlight Cores. We're currently using three programs - Core K, Core 3 and Core 5. I see so many favorites.

From Core K - Twenty and Ten, a story of school children helping one another during World War II. Or The Hundred Dresses, a story of a little girl, growing up in poverty but choosing to create her own contentment rather than be saddened by the reality of her situation.  Or Capyboppy, a fun tale of a boy and his very strange pet. Or Fun Tales, which are helping The Adventurer realize that each letter does make a certain sound, and will one day (soon?) give him the confidence that he can, in fact, decode those mysterious letters and turn them into words.

Or from Core 3 - Johnny Tremain, which I loved so much when I was a child that I couldn't wait for my boys to read it. Or Calico Bush, so heart-wrenching I bawled like a baby. Or Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which weaves a lesson on daring to challenge the norm, be a problem solver, use your brain even when people are skeptical, and the ability to succeed if you put your mind to it - all set in amongst life, and family, and friendship and the stark realities of life on the seas and the tragedy that so often befell sailors of years gone by. With a history lesson thrown in there, too.  Or how can I forget a seemingly boring book called "If You Were There When they Wrote the Constitution," full of facts and knowledge and information, but presented in such a way that The Artist has this week drawn a picture for art class that depicts the revolutionary war and just last night said, "I can't wait to learn about the revolution...." -- all sparked by one little "boring" book about the Constitution.

And then there's Core 5 - The Hobbit. The Incredible Journey. A precious gem called The Cat Who Went to Heaven. Aladdin and Other Favorite Arabian Night Stories. Books so good and so well known they need no description.  And on it goes. You see how hard this is - the books just get better and better each year.

The best part is, they last. The appeal crosses over the years. A book that was a "read aloud" in K will be read again, on the child's own choosing, in later years. Our "books the kids read" shelves contain Sonlight books from all across the ages. Greek Myths for Young Children, scheduled in Core 1, is currently being devoured by both older boys. Usborne Book of World History, also from Core 1, is one of The Artist's favorite books to read and re-read. The many delightful treasuries chosen as part of the earlier Cores get re-read so often I can't keep them on the shelves.

So, Luke, I'm sorry, but I just can't answer your question. I simply don't have a favorite Sonlight book. There are scarcely any I didn't like and way too many I did. Just mark my answer as All of the Above, if you would.