California, Here We Come...This Blog is On Vacation

This blog is going on vacation.

We are doing laundry and packing. We are getting instructions ready for the housesitters.
On Friday, Bruce and I are taking N. out to California for his Coyote Tracks camp experience.

But we are not going the most direct route. We did that going to southern California in 2004 for a family wedding.

Instead, we are taking the northern route. We will drive up to the Four Corners monument. I am ashamed to say that N. has never been there! We will drive on up from there through Moab, Utah and Arches National Monument. Or we will cut through Canyonlands National Park.






From there, it's over the mountains to I-15 and from there to America's Loneliest Road to Ely, Nevada and then across that state to Reno, where we will meet up with I-80.






I am very excited about this, because I have never driven across the Basin and Range country in Nevada. My previous experience with I-80 was from Illinois to Salt Lake City, where we then went north to Idaho for field work.

We will drive into Oakland and San Francisco to visit Bruce's friends and family. On Sunday, we will drive across the Golden Gate to take N. to the camp, which is located at Commonweal Gardens near Bolinas.

While N. is at camp, Bruce and I plan to drive up to Oregon to visit his brother and then over to Susanville to see some land Bruce inherited from his parents.

We will be camping on the road and I am not planning to take the computer. We will be back in about 10 days.

As the "govenator" says: I'll be back. Somewhere around the 20th!

Countless Reasons to Homeschool! COH # 84

Nerdmom over at Nerd Family is counting blessings despite a little stomach bug at her house.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Nerddad and the Newest Nerdling, too!

And she got the Carnival of Homeschooling # 84-- Reasons to Homeschool edition up on time despite nursing, and Nerds with stomach aches.

Homeschool moms are made of the sternest stuff!
So go on over and count the blessings of homeschooling and discover reasons in common.
And best of all, Nerdmom is decidely "pro-nerd." That really touches the heart of this science geek.

End of Summer: Tu B'Av and August's Cross-Quarter

Night turns to day, evening follows morning, and the season turn around the year.

Today, August 7, is the astronomical cross-quarter day. This is the day that we are just as close to the coming northern hemisphere Autumnal Equinox as we are to the Summer Solstice, celebrated in June. The time at which the earth is exactly half-way between the point of solstice and the point of equinox is at 18: 25 MDT.


Above is this morning's sunrise taken from the top of our driveway. I have trying to get a sunset position picture, but I have been "skunked" by the monsoon.

This is the sunrise taken from the porch. The sun rose this morning in exactly the same place as it did for the May cross-quarter.

This cross-quarter day has a number of cultural associations. In the old calendar, it is Lughnasad (often celebrated August 1 rather than on the cross-quarter day itself), which is a time to celebrate the beginning of the harvest season. It was the beginning of fall. When Christianity came to Europe, this feast became 'Lammas,' a contraction of 'loaf-mass,' the celebration and consecration of the first grain to be ground into to bread. This is also the time when "corn" dollies were made of the wheat stalks in the fields. In Spanish, the day is known as El Tiempo de la Segadora, the time of the reaper. This again commemorates the early harvest, and also denotes the height of the dry season in Mediterranian climates.





In the Jewish calendar, a lunar calendar cognate was celebrated on Tu B'Av (the 15th of the month of Av), the wine harvest, when the marriagable young women of Jerusalem would dance under the full moon in the vinyards. Dressed in borrowed white dresses, they would put vines in their hair, and entice the young men, singing:

"Young man, consider neither silver nor gold,

nor the beauty of these maidens.

Consider instead the good families

from which they come,
that they may bring you worthy children."

They would then trample out the first grapes, staining the white dresses purple.

The next morning (Hebrew days start at sunset the evening before) was considered the last day of summer--the last day on which wood could be harvested for burning sacrifices in the temple, and was therefore known as "the day of hachets" because after this day, hachets were no longer needed for the year.

In modern Jewish culture, Tu B' Av has become a day to celebrate love and bring your "m'tuket" ('sweetie' (f)) flowers and sweets. It is kind of like the Christian St. Valentine's Day.

Tu B'Av was the evening of Sunday, July 29. We ate red grapes and my Sweetie gave me some flowers from the fields.

Here in New Mexico, we notice that although the shadows are still long, the summer heat is abating before the monsoons. The sky in the mornings is blue and white with the humidity of the previous evening's rains. The ground is wet, and the vegetation is glistening with dew. On our morning walk, we feel the the chill breeze of the coming autumn on our bare arms. We could almost wear jackets, but we don't want to give in to the end of summer quite yet.

The change of seasons is upon us and has become noticeable.
We begin to accept that there is no "endless summer."

More Floorz: Two Hundred Forty Plus Square Feet Down

The hallway got completely finished today. Bruce and N. glued down the last six rows. That's 51 feet long by 18 " wide, plus a little in the corner.

Well--their job is finished. When the glue had dried--probably Sunday morning--it is my job to take up the tape and clean the floor. I have ordered a special vacuum attachment to dust and polish hard wood floors. And you thought it was only the guys who get new tools for each project! ;)

Here are the guys gluing in the hall between the kitchen and the living room. Bruce is spreading the Bostik, and N. is putting in boards.




Here they are 'finageling' boards at the edge of the living room and the hallway to the bedrooms.

Finageling is a term that in this context means using force to push the boards as close to each each other as possible once they have been put down on the glue. Once the boards are in place according to engineering (read "perfectionist") standards--that is 'finageled' into place--then the blue painter's tape is put on in order to hold them there until the glue has dried.

We will use our stocking feet in the hall until then.





Here is the corner where the last hallway board will be laid. Bruce had cut the last rows on Sunday and Monday.
But the gluing takes a good long time and must be done in one fell swoop, so he waited 'til today to do it.

N. has been a tremendous help with the gluing. It is going faster with his small hands contributing to the job.

My guys do a lot of talking about life, the universe and everything while they work. It is fascinating. When they are seated at the table, for example, facing each other, the talk is all joking and teasing. But when they are working side-by-side it becomes the deep, heart-to-heart talk that women do at the table. It's another "guy thing" that I can't even pretend to understand.



Since N. has been such a trooper--today's work was over six hours total--he got the honor of laying the last board for the hallway.

Viola!

That's one corner board for the boy, finishing about 240 square feet and one "room." At last.

And just in time for Shabbat to start. We'll have a prayer of thanksgiving tonight. One room down.








This is the completed hallway looking from the bedrooms toward the dining room. The living room is on the left. The blue tape is temporary and will be removed soon.

Here is Bruce checking the work for the last corner near the master bedroom door. We are looking from the dining room toward the bedrooms. The living room is on the right.

This is sure taking a long time. Bruce thinks the dining room will go faster because the room is regularly rectangular and he won't need to make so many strange cuts.

The guys deserve a pat on the back. The hallway is done.

And N. has earned money for his camp fund. He doesn't know that yet.

Keep it under your hat.

That's a surprise. His staying power has been astonishing.

SHABBAT SHALOM!

This Just In: Blogger Reflection Awards

Crimson Wife over at Bending the Twigs has given me the Blogger Reflection Award along with five others.

Blogger Reflection Award: this award should make an individual reflect upon five bloggers who have been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, and who have provided an example. In other words, five dear bloggers whom, when you reflect upon them, you are filled with a sense of pride and joy. . .of knowing them and being blessed by them.

I am honored, Crimson Wife! And I will be in the Bay Area week after next. Maybe I can buy you a cuppa and some of that wonderful San Francisco Sourdough Bread!

And there are some blogs that come immediately to mind when I think of "encouragement" " source of love" and being "blessed by them." This community of homeschool bloggers has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to this! So here are my five, though it could easily have been more!

First, is Megan from Down Under, who hosts Imaginif... She is also author of Homeschooling Aspergers blog (on hiatus at the moment), and she was one of my first friends in the blogosphere. Although she is currently hit a rough patch in her life, she is still the dear, unfailingly loving, person she has always been. She is a blessing, a person who puts her heart and soul into advocating for abused children and for the safety of every child. Megan, I am still saving my pennies (and airline miles--does United fly into Brisbane?) for that trip down under, so that we can sit by the pool with a cuppa and solve all the problems of the world.

Another is Woman of the Tiger Moon. Beth is a single mother who has homeschooled one child to adulthood and is homeschooling two others, while continuing her own education. She is a person who is very accepting of differences and talks to her readers from the heart and with beautiful phrases. And her pictures are amazing! I come away from every post with a feeling of joy and wonder at the way she finds "serenity and grace" in her life.

And then there's Kathy Jo over at Barefoot Meandering and her husband Ernie at Deliberate Wanderer. Just the name of her blog makes me want to take my shoes off and go wandering over the green fields of Tanglewood Farm. They are people who inspire me because of how tenaciously they go after their dreams. And as they learn how to farm, they see every day as an adventure and every setback as a learning experience. Kathy Jo's joy in life is a pleasure to behold. And she has a wicked sense of humor as goes about her days homeschooling her boys. And Ernie is always ready to share his wisdom and advice and humor on his blog, making me think and providing me an example of someone who lives what he believes.

And, of course, there is Miranda up at Nurtured by Love, blogging from the beautiful wilds of British Columbia. It is so much fun to check in and see what she and her tribe of unschoolers are up on any given day. I take joy in the beautiful music she and her daughter make using the Suzuki method (Miranda posts snippets to give readers a listen) and laugh about how they deal with life, wild (bears and wasps) and domesticated (the AD). This is one of the blogs from which I have gained the courage to move toward unschooling. N. thinks this is the greatest blessing of all!

That's five. And there could have been more. But really, two posts in one day? Neither of which are about the COH?

Boy are my hands tired.

It's Rainin' All the Time...

Weather Forcast for Sedillo, NM 87059:
Thursday: Partly cloudy in the morning, afternoon thunderstorms, highs in the 80's.
Friday: Mostly cloudy, afternoon thunderstorms, highs in the 80"s
Saturday: Mostly the same...

Every afternoon for the past week we have had afternoon thunderstorms. Our rains in the east mountains have been moderate, but ABQ is getting flash flood warnings every afternoon now.

Not that we're complaining, mind you. Our fire danger is much reduced. No forests are closed.

Monsoon precipitation at Los Pecos Homeschool:

Monday: 0.15 inches
Tuesday: 0.15 inches
Wednesday: 0.14 inches

The monsoon has not only blossomed, it has exploded.
And up here, the ground is more capable of absorbing the moisture than it is in ABQ.

Our roof sheds the water quickly. We really need to think about putting in a rainwater cistern to help in the dry times. But right now, we still have to finish the floors. Maybe next spring?


This monsoon has been behaving normally.

In the afternoons, the thunderheads build over the mountains. The storms move in between 3:30 and 5 PM.
We get thunder and lightning ahead of the rain. The air cools quickly by about 20 - 30 degrees. Yesterday, it went down from about 80 degrees F to 52 degrees F in a few minutes.

Then the rains come in waves, lasting 20 - 30 minutes each. The more waves, the more precipitation we get of an evening.

And then about 8 PM, the clouds lift and the stars come out. Although it may stay partly cloudy all night.

This morning, we woke up to partly cloudy. There was mist in the relatively low places in our hills. We can expect more of the same for the whole seven-day forcast.

This is such a nice time of the year. We are "weather people." We like to observe, record, and have a storm or two big enough to call the weather service with an on-the-spot report.

Hmmm...the clouds are rolling in early today.

Gotta go!

Homeschooling Four Seasons: Reflections on the First Year's Journey

Fall 2006

From School-at-Home to Homeschool

When we moved into our mountain home last year, I began thinking seriously about homeschooling. We bought our house from homeschoolers and I was intrigued by the idea. I had threatened several times to pull N. out of school when we were having difficulty getting his needs met in the very large district in town. I frequently escaped the chaos of the moving process by browsing in the peace and quiet of the bookstore. There I began reading a copy of The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I opened to the first chapter and read:

"The first day I taught my children at home, I cleaned up the playroom and set up three desks. I hung an American flag at the front of the room and led them in the Pledge of Allegiance. I was shaking with nervousness..." (Bauer and Wise, 2004, p. 3).

I was hooked. Jessie Bauer's story brought back to mind many of the questions and concerns I had pondered about my son's school education. It reminded me of how many times, as I worked in my classroom with gifted kids, I had said to myself, "This would be fun to do with N." But there was never time. I was spending a tremendous amount of energy just managing N.'s special education, his difficulties in the general education classroom, and the amazing amount of busy work he brought home--work that neurotypical kids could complete in half-an-hour but that took N. untold hours of frustration and tears.

As the start of the school year approached, I was accepted into the doctoral program in Special Education at UNM. I was thinking about an ambitious plan of study, one that would combine special education/gifted education with psychology and neuroscience. And I could not imagine how I would teach in the public schools, manage N.'s increasingly complicated Individualized Educational Plan, and pursue my passion--the education of gifted children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. I realized almost right away that teaching under those conditions would do my students no favors. When I resigned my teaching position, I realized that I had made space to more effectively manage N.'s education. And the more I thought about it, the more I believed that he would benefit from a home education. His disabilities would become simply differences, and in some cases, even strengths, outside the noise and confusion of a large school. And I would be able to provide the challenges his gifted mind required; the need for a gifted education that I could not get the public schools to acknowledge or meet.
I broached the idea with N., telling him that he should take some time to consider the option. He took about 30 seconds, saying, "I always hoped you could teach me like you teach those other kids."

So in August of 2006, on the cross-quarter day that traditionally began autumn in the old calendar, we began. Being a teacher, I could not imagine starting without all the "stuff." So I had put together a schedule and a curriculum for N.'s sixth grade year. Using TWTM, I made an ambitious schedule that would keep us busy six hours a day, four days a week.It was definitely school-at-home complete with lunch and recess breaks. We were definitely "getting a lot done," whatever that means. As we continued, I began to notice that I was getting that intense, nervous feeling in the gut when we got "behind" our schedule. And I began to wonder: what does "behind" mean in this context anyway? And N. began to chafe at a schedule planned down to the minute: 20 minutes for this, 15 for that. He began asking to spend more time in order to finish some activities that took more thought, and he wanted less of others. If he was in the middle of a chapter when "free reading" came to an end, could he continue to read to the end of it? Well--yes. That's the point of homeschooling, isn't it?

At six weeks in, we took a break for the Jewish High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and then, during the eight days of Sukkot (Festival of the Ingathering), we did a unit study that included study about the Sukkah, building the Sukkah, cooking, and harvest festivals across the world. When the holidays were over, we had reached our first turning point. I relaxed, N. relaxed, and we morphed from school-at-home to homeschooling. We still had plans, but they were made together and altered as we went. We still had a schedule--in that we did certain things on certain days, but the structure was looser and open to senrendipity. The boundaries of our days became praying the morning and evening services, reading aloud and Bar Mitzvah study, since the big day was fast approaching.

Winter 2006 - 2007

Unscheduling: Learning from Life

In the last weeks of November, we took a travel break to go to Illinois to spend Thanksgiving with family. There, I noticed that learning was taking place, but it was not formal learning in any sense. Rather, N. was experiencing the end of harvest time in a farming community, he learned about culture and climate, ran in the Turkey Trot, and spent time socializing with cousins.

When we returned home at the beginning of December, we reached our next bend in the road of our homeschooling journey. We began five intense weeks of study as Bar Mitzvah preparation swung into high gear. We had four meetings with the rabbi to get guidance on N.'s D'var Torah (literally, "words of Torah"--a sermon). N. had to perfect his Torah chanting skills and learn to chant his Haftarah (prophetic reading). During this time, N. took over the leading of the morning service each day. He also had to complete his service project. We had to send out invitations, plan meals and the celebration which required budgeting and finding information. We had decorations to think of, hotel reservations to make, all manner of preparations to attend to. During this time, I realize now, we had another intense session--the Bar Mitzvah Unit Study. And it was very unconventional and very successful, too! I really don't know how we would have managed all of this intensity if N. had been in school.

After the Bar Mitzvah Unit, which consumed all of December and into January (the Bar Mitzvah was on January 6th and we entertained relatives until the following weekend), we took another break. N. did start a homeschooling science class at Explora! Science Museum, and I started classes at the University, but other than that, we just sat back and caught our collective breath. For three weeks. And during that three weeks, I realized that we had "unschooled" the Bar Mitzvah. And that in the process, N. had made a great change in demeanor and maturity. He seemed to have taken a great step toward Jewish adulthood. And as I reflected on this, I began to "grok" how much more powerful process is than product.

Spring 2007

DeSchooling

As we moved into February, N. began to de-school himself. Other than his science class and
the Brain Engineering exercises that intrigued him so, he expressed no interest in traditional academics. Together, we determined that his religious education needed to be unschooled, too. After the powerful experience of his Bar Mitzvah, he wanted more control over his Jewish learning and he determined the setting.


We still had a schedule, of sorts. We had library day, we had Boy Scouts, we had Chabad classes. And I let N. lead me in terms of what we would read and discuss and do. He spent three weeks watching the movie Titanic, over and over. I began to realize that he was using it to figure out

sequencing and I supported this by suggesting that we make a Titanic PowerPoint. We began with the basic sequence of the sinking of the ship, and then I encouraged him to elaborate. What was the captain doing at each point? What were the characters doing? In this process, I was learning to let go of control, to let him lead, to become what Elizabeth Nielsen calls "a guide on the side." N. was determining the goal, and I was showing him what I know about how to get there.

And I began a second round of reading. Typical "gifted kid" that I am, books have always been my best friends when I need to know something. I read a good many books from the beginnings of the modern homeschooling movement. I read the books of John Holt, including the updated version of Teach Your Own. I read David and Micki Colfax's books, and I read Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves. That book made me realize that the journey of the year so far had been a process of unschooling myself. It was not just N. who was changing his relationship to learning. By necessity, it was me, too.

And I read And The Skylark Sings with Me. This book brought us the gift of The Wilderness Awareness School and the Kamana Home Study Program. As we moved into preparations for the Passover season, N. began the Kamana program. This included a unit of study that required research, writing for reflection, listening to stories, and reading. And while I was practicing the art making Pesach, N. was taking the nature awareness trail. Again, I was the "guide on the side", rather than the "sage on the stage." When N. finished Kamana I, I noticed again how much the process changed and matured him, how much he took responsibility for his own learning. And I noticed that his learning was very successful when it came from his passions.

Summer 2007

Unschooling

By May Day, the traditional beginning of summer in the old calendar, we had come to our "summer mode." Summer mode is that relaxed, let's-go-outside-and-let-our-hair-down way of life that had previously started when school let out in May. It is the time of the year when we all say, "thank goodness another school year is over and we can actually live our lives freely for awhile." We had never thought of learning in the summer, although, of course we have always done it.

We do have a summer curriculum. But it was not a scheduled set of lessons in the traditional disciplines. Rather, it was--and is--a series of summer projects and travels in which learning is going on continuously. It is not that it is effortless, it is that it is that the effort is expended in living and doing our lives. And N. made his own plans and presented them to us. And we added our own projects. In May and early June we planned and build steps in the side garden, and planned for and ordered carpet for the master suites and wood flooring for the house. N. went to Boy Scout Camp the last week of June and earned four merit badges. In July, we began the flooring project and N. traveled to Illinois where he spent time in the city and the country, learning all the time. Now, we are still doing projects, including the flooring with N.'s help. And we are preparing for N.'s Coyote Tracks Camp experience--the last part of his summer "curriculum."

We have come a fair distance on the path of homeschooling. And I have learned so much about my son and about myself. Oddly enough, the changes have not been abrupt or disorienting. They have come naturally from learning together as we live our lives. They have been the subject of reflection and discussion. As we look toward our second year of homeschooling, I see more changes coming. We have plans--but I know they are there for the changing. N. has determined his goals for math and science study for himself. And I know that I am along for the ride.

And as the traditional school year draws close, I do not feel the same sense of sadness that summer is also drawing to a close. That is because we will go on living our lives and learning as we go. I guess we are now unschoolers. Unschooling does not mean that there is no structure or plans. It is just that life happens to the plans and the structure, and living life and learning take precedence over the plans.

I am satisfied with where we are. And I am curious and excited about what's around the next bend in the road. And I love the joy of living our lives in the now.