What does April 1st Mean at Your House?

Around here, it's not "April Fool's Day" (I've never liked that whole idea....), but is "Sonlight Catalog Day." That is, April 1st is the day The Catalog goes "live" on-line, and a homeschooling mom can begin drooling over next year's planned purchases. The day I can start looking at what we might purchase for the upcoming school year, dreaming about what we need, what I want, and what we'll actually get. Planning out the long-term plan for each boy......except this year is different.

For starters, since we switched to a Brazilian schedule, we started our new school year in February. Which means I don't need new materials until next February. Assuming we homeschool next year.

Yes, I hinted at this before, so I suppose I'll talk about it now. We have found a school that has a Brazilian + American program, and they reportedly hire teachers & teachers' aides quite often, particularly native English speakers. Supposedly they hire said folks regardless of whether the person has a valid work visa or not.

So, we are thinking about sending my resume' to them, in hopes of me being hired so the boys could attend school there. Employees' children get to attend the American program (which combines the Br. + Am., for half a day in Portuguese & half in English) for 20% of the cost of tuition, which makes it actually affordable for us to put all three boys in school.

Why would we put the boys in school when we love homeschooling so much? That's a good question, and I have three good answers: Language Acquisition, Friends, and Getting Ready for High School.

So, we're considering it. Some of us are more reluctant than others, but all of us are open to what is best for the boys. Of course, by "all of us" I mean Quentin & I. The boys have mixed feelings about it. Or, rather, some of the boys are excited and some are not.

So, there it is. The new term would start in August, so we have a bit of time before any sort of decision needs to be reached. And a great deal of what-ifs about the whole thing. IF I were to get the job, IF they are even hiring, IF they are willing to hire me without a work visa, IF we decide the benefits are worth getting up at 6:00 a.m. every morning, IF we can line up transportation, IF, IF, IF.......

While we wait on all these "IFs" pray for us. Pray for Quentin & I to be absolutely united on what is best for the boys.

It's That Time Again....

...Time once again for The Sonlight Order.

In case you are reading this and, umm, not a Sonlighter, Sonlight is the name of the home schooling curriculum we use. Sonlight is a literature based program, using wonderful "real" books to supplement and provide the bulk of the history, reading & literature courses. Sonlight also gathers science materials (and writes their own), math materials, language arts (again, also their own), and extra-curriculars to provide a wonderful one-stop shopping experience for home schoolers.

We have used Sonlight from the beginning, from the time Timmy was 3.5, using what was then called Basic PreK (and is now called something like Core P4/5, if I have the correct catalog...). That first order was only a few hundred dollars, and our order size and price have gone up every year since.

This year we were looking at $1200 for all three boys, before Quentin made me cull down to the bare minimum. Once we did that, we were "down" to "just" $1015. GULP.

With the exchange rate the way it is (insanely unfavorable to the Real), that was just a next-to-impossible number. And so I did, at Quentin's prompting, a very humbling thing. I checked eBay.

Ebay didn't work out, but in the process, I happened to mention it on the Sonlight forums. And a mom just happened to have the main thing we were needing, which was the bulk of the cost. And she just happened to be willing and able to sell it to me very cheaply.

I love how God "just happened" to work all that out. Her generosity saved us right around $400, bringing our total down to about $600, including what we paid her. Amazing.

I hate that we had to buy used. I am grateful for Sonlight, which offers a Used For Sale Forum on their site to make such transactions possible. I am grateful for Sonlight being a curriculum that doesn't get used up, so that it *can* be passed down. I am grateful for people, perfect strangers but virtual friends, who see a need and are moved to meet it.

I am deeply humbled at us being in this place of need, and at God, meeting us here. Just at Thanksgiving I posted that I was thankful we could homeschool, had a great curriculum and the money for it. And then, we didn't have the money. Not without shuffling some things that we didn't think it wise to shuffle. And then someone stepped up, and we didn't need as much money after all. Did I mention how humbled I am by this??

Thank You, Father God, for providing for us through this fellow child of yours. May we return the favor one day soon. AMEN.

The Big Read: The Top 100

Okay, I'm borrowing this idea from a friend's blog, so, indulge me. It's an easy post, and fun, and ties in with our last conversation, and my goal to read more purposeful books. That goal was sparked by this list, so I thought I'd share it with you. Maybe you'd like to read some of these?

These are the top 100 books printed, and according to one website, most American adults (or the average Joe, anyway) has read 6 of the 100. Six. That's it.

So, here's my list. How do you compare? (I've read 34 of the 100, so far....)

KEY:
* = a book I've read
% = a book I plan to read
** (or more) = a book I LOVE
# = a book I HATE
? = a book I'm not sure if I've read or not


The Big Read – Top 100 Books
Pride & Prejudice -- Jane Austen
** The Lord of the Rings -- J. R. R. Tolkien
*Jane Eyre -- Charlotte Bronte
**Harry Potter series -- J. K. Rowling
*****To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee

**The Bible

*Wuthering Heights -- Emily Bronte
*1984 -- George Orwell
His Dark Materials -- Philip Pullman
?Great Expectations -- Charles Dickens
**Little Women -- Louisa May Alcott

Tess of the D'Urbervilles -- Thomas Hardy

% Catch 22 -- Joseph Heller

*% Complete Works of Shakespeare -- (have read some, not all, but want to read the rest)

Rebecca -- Daphne du Maurier

*The Hobbit -- J. R. R. Tolkien

Birdsong -- Sebastian Faulks

%Catcher in the Rye -- J. D. Salinger

The Time Traveller's Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger

Middlemarch -- George Eliot

% Gone With the Wind -- Margaret Mitchell

% The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Bleak House -- Charles Dickens

*War and Peace -- Leo Tolstoy

% The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams

Brideshead Revisited -- Evelyn Waugh

*Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

?Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck

*Alice in Wonderland -- Lewis Carroll

The Wind in the Willows -- Kenneth Grahame

%Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy

%David Copperfield -- Charles Dickens

**Chronicles of Narnia -- C. S. Lewis

*Emma -- Jane Austen

Persuasion -- Jane Austen

*The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe -- C. S. Lewis

**The Kite Runner -- Khaled Hosseini

%Captain Corelli's Mandolin -- Louis de Bernieres

*Memoirs of a Geisha -- Arthur Golden

*Winnie the Pooh -- A. A. Milne

*Animal Farm -- George Orwell

*The Da Vinci Code -- Dan Brown

*One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A Prayer for Owen Meaney -- John Irving

The Woman in White -- Wilkie Collins

*Anne of Green Gables -- L. M. Montgomery

Far From the Madding Crowd -- Thomas Hardy

The Handmaid's Tale -- Margaret Atwood

*# Lord of the Flies -- William Golding

Atonement -- Ian McEwan

Life of Pi -- Yann Martel

Dune -- Frank Herbert

Cold Comfort Farm -- Stella Gibbons

Sense and Sensibility -- Jane Austen

A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth

The Shadow of the Wind -- Carlos Ruiz Zafon

*A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens

Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon

Love in the Time of Cholera -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

%Of Mice and Men -- John Steinbeck

Lolita -- Vladimir Nabokov

The Secret History -- Donna Tartt

The Lovely Bones -- Alice Sebold

%Count of Monte Cristo -- Alexandre Dumas

On the Road -- Jack Kerouac

Jude the Obscure -- Thomas Hardy

%Bridget Jones's Diary -- Helen Fielding

Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie

*Moby Dick -- Herman Melville

? Oliver Twist -- Charles Dickens

Dracula -- Bram Stoker

**The Secret Garden -- Frances Hodgson Burnett

Notes From a Small Island -- Bill Bryson

Ulysses -- James Joyce

The Bell Jar -- Sylvia Plath

Swallows and Amazons -- Arthur Ransome

Germinal -- Emile Zola

Vanity Fair -- William Makepeace Thackeray

Possession -- A. S. Byatt

*A Christmas Carol -- Charles Dickens

Cloud Atlas -- David Mitchell

The Color Purple -- Alice Walker

The Remains of the Day -- Kazuo Ishiguro

?Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert

A Fine Balance -- Rohinton Mistry

*Charlotte's Web -- E. B. White

The Five People You Meet in Heaven -- Mitch Albom

*Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

The Faraway Tree Collection -- Enid Blyton

*# Heart of Darkness -- Joseph Conrad

****The Little Prince -- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The Wasp Factory -- Iain Banks

Watership Down -- Richard Adams

A Confederacy of Dunces -- John Kennedy Toole

A town Like Alice -- Nevil Shute

The Three Musketeers -- Alexandre Dumas

*Hamlet -- William Shakespeare

**Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- Roald Dahl

**Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo

We interrupt this blog for a commercial announcement....

....today is a self-declared "School Holiday" in our house. It's Catalog Day.

This will not appear on any calendars or anything, but it is the day we set aside for the reading & perusing of the Sonlight Curriculum Catalog. It is an annual event, but the date varies depending on the speed of the US (and in this case, international as well) Postal Service. It comes sometime after March 15 every year, though, and is greatly anticipated & looked forward to each year.

Well, today is the day, so there will be no blogging until I am done with The Catalog.

I had Sonlight send it to my mother-in-law's address, and she got it and sent us a box of goodies, which got here today. (Have I mentioned how much I love my MIL???? I hope to be just like her when the boys marry a million years from now).

She sent freezer pops, the liquid kind that you then freeze -- these are soda pop flavored, with reportedly DR PEPPER!! and A&W ROOTBEER flavors!!!!! Oh, I can't wait!!!

(I did resist the urge to just open one and drink it as a liquid.....)

One of the freezer pops busted but fortunately it soaked all into the cardboard and did NOT mess up my SL Catalog. Whew!

She also sent other yummies and toys for the kids -- mini lego kits, Butterfingers (I had no idea I missed those so much!!!), and Bubbles, among other things.

Zach is on the balcony dumping & re-filling his bubbles container. He is no longer dumping the contents over the edge of the balcony. At least, not in the last 5 minutes.

So, I am off to sit on the balcony, maybe sip on a Dr. Pepper flavored ice-pop, munch on a snack sized Butterfingers, and enjoy my Sonlight catalog....man I love Catalog Day!

The cost of homeschooling......and what it's worth.

Since it's that time of year again --the time of year during which I eagerly await my new Sonlight catalog-- I thought I'd share with you some of the nitty-gritty details about homeschooling: what it costs, what that gets us, and what it's worth. If that thought bores you, well, I'll be back in a day or two with something more interesting : ) If not, read on.

First you should realize -- a Sonlight catalog is a coveted item among Sonlight users. There's a frenzy on the forums as we all wait, wondering who will be first, who will be last, and hoping we fall somewhere in between. People make up songs as they wait, declare "catalog day" a school holiday, rant & rave about how long it is taking, and toss out conspiracy theories about their mailmen, positive that said mailman is holding the catalog ransom, awaiting payment in chocolate chip cookies before delivering a certain piece of mail. Yes, we get that excited about a catalog. No, I will not admit which of the afore-mentioned activities I've engaged in.

With that out in the open, it should not surprise you to learn that once the catalog arrives, we spend hours pouring over it, eventually getting around to planning the coming year and even the many years ahead. It is that long-range planning I'm involved in now which prompted me to write.

You see, I just totaled up our cost for next year.

The number surprised even me.

$726.63 -- wow. That is, no matter how you look at it, a lot of money.

Or is it?

Okay, okay...I know what y'all are thinking. Yes, I admit, $700 (over! $700) is a lot of money. But, perspective does make a difference. I couldn't pay for even a semester of private school for one of the boys for that amount of money. Public school lunches alone for both boys would cost almost that much, in fact. So, comparitively speaking, it's really a small price to pay for the boys' education.

Maybe you'd like more info? You're asking me what, exactly, do I get for my money? Let me tell you.....I think you'll be surprised.

For my $727, I'm getting 104 separate pieces of media (82 books, 9 text books, 8 workbooks, 2 CDs, 4 Instructor's Guides, a DVD and a CD-ROM). That's an average of $6.99 per item.

Now, to be fair, I must admit -- not all 104 of those items will be newly acquired items this year. Twenty-three of the books and one of the Instructor's Guides (IGs) will be re-used items; items originally purchased for Timmy and next year being used for Caleb. Although, to be totally fair, I should also let you know -- to repurchase those materials would add $208 to my total.

Okay, that's the bottom line. $727 spent on 59 books, 9 text books, 8 workbooks, 2 CDs, 3 IGs, a DVD and a CD-ROM. And $208 not spent on the 23 re-usable books and 1 re-usable IG from when Timmy did the level Caleb will be doing next year. Pretty good bargain, don't you think?

If that doesn't convince you.......well, go back and re-read the previous post titled Homeschool Bliss. Or even the one from way back called Homeschool Chaos. Because on any given day, be it a day of chaos or a day of bliss, I am getting more than my money's worth.

Not only are we building a library of real books, books that the kids will (and do already) read over & over again on their own, but we're also growing little boys who will one day (some already becoming) be young men who love to learn. Who understand that the United States holds both a giant and a tiny place in the world. Who understand that Christianity is the one right way, but also understand a bit of how other people come to their beliefs; boys who will be well-equipped men, ready to take their place in the world when the time comes.

And so....the cost of homeschooling and what it's worth:
one year's curriculum for 2 boys......$727
boys who love each other & love to learn.....priceless.

A Day in the Life....Homeschool Bliss

One of my earliest posts was entitled Homeschool Chaos; today I bring you Homeschool Bliss.

For over two years now, we've done "fire drill school" -- ready to school at the drop of a hat, or nap of a baby/toddler, as the case may be. We've reduced our schedule to the bare minimum, those "3 Rs" of "reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic". None of the great history & literature that distinguishes Sonlight from other curriculums. Just the basics.

No longer. Finally Zachary is able to play independently, we've found activities in the house that occupy him while still keeping him out of trouble, and we've picked up our beloved Sonlight again. I expected a little balking as we resumed daily history, assigned reading, & assigned "read-aloud" time (when I read to the boys), but I was pleasantly surprised. It has been pure bliss.

Today (getting to the "day in the life" portion....) was a great example. We thought we had a lunch date with Quentin, so we got going bright and early, right after breakfast. Zach played in the boys' room, and I handed out math assignments. Caleb had 2 pages, 1 of addition and 1 of subtraction. He did great -- 100%! Way to go, Caleb! From there he moved right into his handwriting, eagerly underlining the words he was to copy and even giving himself extra times to write the word than what I usually give him. Alright!! This is what homeschool should look like.

Timothy had one page, reviewing multiplication facts. He breezed through it, pausing on only 3 problems. I talked him through those (8x6? Well, let's see....what's 8x5? Okay, what's one more 8 added to that? Good!) and he triumphantly moved on. He started his handwriting and I moved into the living room with Caleb for his history reading.

Today Caleb was learning about how clothes have changed in the past century. We've learned about the clothes worn in Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the French Court, and now, America in the 20th century. Fascinating to see the switch from the long, full dresses of the early 1900's to the mini-skirts of the 1960's. Caleb was curious about why a war affected fashions, so we talked about that for a while (fabric shortage and all....). It was so rewarding to see him asking questions and actually interested in a topic I thought about skipping. Thanks, Sonlight!!

I finished up with Caleb, and he went to play with Zach. I returned to Timmy and we did today's spelling, reviewing the rule about dropping the -e to add -ing. We use a program that groups words by family (all the -ode words, for example) so today covered words from "rode" to "exploding". We finished that and moved on to Timmy's history, a look at King George III as a child. Timothy was fascinated to hear about young George writing notes of frustration on his school papers, much like Timmy does himself. I of course pointed out the lone sentence that mentioned that George mostly did what was asked of him without sulking....we'll see if that sticks or not, LOL! As we finished the day's portion of history, I could see that Timothy was still interested; I debated going on, but remembered something someone told me once -- "Always leave them wanting more." So, we stopped, and he's already asked about tomorrow.

After history, we went to our last together activity of the day, his read-aloud time (or, as he calls it, his "you read to me" book). I picked up our book and opened to the current chapter, a short one. He begged for one more. And then one more. After three chapters, I was ready for lunch and a break, so I made him wait. Besides, Caleb was listening in (on his own volition, he'd stealthily crawled down the hall from his bedroom and was lying in the hallway absorbing every word...) and I knew he wouldn't last much longer with such a long stretch of reading. I could tell he was listening, though, because he asked a few questions about the story along the way! I put the book away until tomorrow, and the boys reluctantly (!!!) went off to play while I fixed lunch.

After lunch (not with Quentin; that's tomorrow) they had to do their independent reading, so Timmy closed himself in his room for a few chapters of a book he'd initially declared "boring" and "sooooo hard" -- I challenged him to give it at least 3 chapters before he declared it unreadable; if, at the end of the 3rd chapter, he still felt that way, I'd allow him to set that book aside. He's now nearing the end, and has decided the book is "okay" and even "kind of interesting".

Caleb took his book into the living room and read, surprising me with how comfortable he is now with reading. In September he was just barely beginning to sound out 3-letter words; today, he read a Disney "Winnie the Pooh" book, with a reading level of approximately 2nd grade or so. He's regularly reading 2nd-grade level readers now, books he chooses himself and finishes quickly.

As the boys read, I tried to get Zach to take a nap....nope, he's having nothing of that. Instead we played with water together and had a snack, then played with his toy animals. He really enjoys bringing me animals and showing me how smart he is by making the appropriate animal sound. He really enjoys when I make the sound in return. Hard to believe that it's just been (this past weekend) two years since he came home from the hospital.....I still can't believe how far we've come.

The rest of the day went smoothly as well; I let the boys watch a movie while I did dishes, cleaned the school room and tossed in a load of laundry. Gave Zach some motrin for a fever trying to creep up (oh, dear...) and snuggled with him on the couch; he watched Pooh and I read my Reader's Digest. The fever crept back down, and I relaxed as another great homeschool day came to a close.

A Day in the life....Homeschool Chaos

Jan 16 '07

Today is more about life as a homeschool mom, and not so much focused on the upcoming move.

We were supposed to have an ice storm come through last night/today. We didn’t. However, our temp is going to hover at freezing through tomorrow, with the “feels-like” temp hovering around 26 or so – those are both day & night temps.

As such, to prepare for the ice storm, we (read:I) did 3 loads of laundry last night, pulled the sleeping bags in from the garage, located all the blankets in the house, the kids built “warm forts” to huddle in, and everyone (except me…) bathed in case we lost power & thus lost hot water. (fortunately, we did not lose power, so I can bathe today!). We also discussed that, in the event of ice on the roads, Dad would be staying home. Of course, the ice did not materialize, so he went to work, leaving one very forlorn 6 yr old at home, quite upset with me that the ice went away already and Daddy went to work. Oh, if only I could control the weather…..

Today, then, has been a hectic day. The laundry all got folded last night, and all put away except the hang-up stuff. It’s still waiting. Today I have had chaos. Lovely chaos, and I am reminding myself to cherish the little blessings that are the kings of chaos in this house.

What chaos?, you ask…? Well. Let’s take school – convincing 2 young boys that yes, despite the fact that they were shivering, we were doing school today. We’re still on a light schedule after our return from the holidays, so I didn’t expect too much fuss. I got Caleb situated with his math, got Timmy started on his, and then was reminded by the boys that there was still the matter of the dog poo in their room. Oh, right.

Cleaned that up, frustrated with the dog who has gone out many times this morning yet not found the courage to do her business out in the cold and instead came in to the warmth of the boys’ carpeted floor. Frustrated I didn’t catch her in the act so I could have at least scolded her for it. But thankful that it was an easy mess to clean, and thankful for the little steam vac that we have, which does such a good job on these types of things.

Returned to the school room to find Timmy doing the coloring puzzle that was the “after you are done, color this in to find a hidden message” – he was doing it one answer at a time. I redirected him to complete all the answers, then color the puzzle. Oh, okay.

Caleb piped up that he was done with his math. I check, find he’s done one column of the problems, and direct him to finish the other column. “Are these the same?” “yes, dear.” “But this one has……..” …sigh…. So I walked him through that and reminded him of the math rule he was working on, and he settled down to work. Timmy finished his, and asked if he had to simplify the fractions; I answered yes. (Well, what he said was: “do I have to see if there’s a same number that goes in both of them….you know, like 6 and 12; 2 goes in 6 and in 12…..”).

Math out of the way, the boys moved on to handwriting, and I tried to eat something really quick before Zach woke up from his nap. Having Zach around, school takes on a very informal approach. We call it the fire-drill approach. The boys have free play in the mornings until Zach goes down for his nap, about 3 hrs after he gets up. When I sit down to nurse him, the boys do their school reading for the day and know that school work follows. When Zach is successfully laid down, we do our seatwork and I try to find food for me before the lunch rush after school. So, I did that, and just in time – Zach woke up, the boys finished their handwriting, and lunch officially began.

I try, not often successfully, to have all 3 boys eat the same thing for lunch. Today I tried spaghetti-o’s. Zach ate some, Caleb ate some, Timmy refused. Okay, no problem. Ramen noodles coming up. So, for the next 30 minutes I shuffled between feeding Zach in his highchair, boiling water for ramens, adding the ramens, making hot chocolate for Caleb, who was done with his lunch, turning off the ramens, rescuing the spaghetti-os before they got fed to the dog, getting marshmallows for Caleb’s hot chocolate, putting in Timmy’s hot chocolate, serving the ramens to a now starving 9 yr old, dishing out marshmallows to Timmy’s hot chocolate, and, oh yes, there goes the timer – time to check on the ice cubes.

Oh, didn’t I mention the ice cubes yet? We’ve only been checking on them every 30 minutes since 10:30 this morning. You see, my husband the scientist decided the boys (read: me) should put ice cubes outside and see if they melt. He instructed us to put one in the laundry room and one on thr front porch. Just to be safe, we put 2 in each spot, plus one inside for a control. And, knowing he wouldn’t be happy with just a yes or know answer, we (me) decided to time each and see which melted fastest and which melted slowest. So, every 30 minutes we check and then chart the results. So far, very minimal melting on the outside ones, and we’re at 3 hours & counting.

In the midst of this chaos, I also put the dishes away that were clean, and talked to a dear friend on the phone. I will, as soon as the boys are settled with their science video, put away the laundry & do the dirty dishes. Oh, and I started a loaf of raisin bread in the bread machine as a surprise for Q. It should be done by the time he gets home from work.

Well, sounds like the video has their attention and now I need to do those afore mentioned other jobs….’till next time,
Frazzledly yours,
TexasHeather