Weekly Homeschool Wrap-Up–February 14, 2010

 

Am I late or what?   If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol at ThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.  

 

 

From where I sat this past week,

 

As an individual, I…

am feeling exhilarated, yet mildly anxious, about a new project I took on for the church.   I know, I know.   I need something else to do like I need a hole in my head.    I laughingly remember bubbebobbie sharing with me years ago that when you are faithful in the kingdom of God, your reward is that you are given more to do.    I didn’t want to hear it then, but I embrace it now.    I have learned that when you are operating within the gifting that God has given you, you get so much more done, and you’re nowhere near as fatigued as you would otherwise be.

 

The way this happened was so uncanny, and so in line with what I already do and enjoy, that I couldn’t help but think that it was a God moment.   One of our associate pastors was sharing with us some work he wants to accomplish in educating our teachers on how to teach others.   Then, in all of his gregarious splendor, he invites himself to our home for dinner!   HA HA!     For anyone else, I would have thought that this was so nervy, and when he shared the story with others, even his wife said, “No you didn’t.”    True to his personality, he told her, “What were they going to do—say that I couldn’t come?”    Anyway, I’ve found him to be a bit pushy  assertive about getting the project done, but he’s so jovial about it until I work hard without feeling overburdened.    As I write, I’m chuckling about our interactions with one another over the last couple of weeks.

 

 

As a wife and homemaker, I…

am coming into a real-life understanding of what I value and having to hold to it amidst some challenges.   We continue to have our differences with our new co-teacher for Sunday school.   Unlike before, however, I simply accept them as differences, and that is, again, forcing me to be more in touch about why we make certain decisions as a family.   I’ll choose to gather my thoughts before I try to articulate them—right now I have a very talkative six-year-old in my ear!

 

 

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

 

 

One of the challenges that I’ve been working through all year with the oldest is the transition from writing about what happened toward writing about how what happened makes you think and feel.    My thoughts right now are that years of written and oral narration have probably engrained that “what happened” mentality in mind.   Her question is, “But if I like to do a summary, what’s wrong with that?”   I contemplated that question for a while, in part because I didn’t feel like arguing about it every week.  Then the answer hit me: ‘Because as you get older, you won’t be asked to repeat what you read, you will have a discussion about how what you read made you feel.’   Mortimer Adler speaks to this quite simply in presenting his rules for reading in How to Read A Book.   He says that once you’ve figured out what point an author wants to make, what of it?   These words, and my explanation, have yet to really sink in, but she gave it a try.   I again introduced her to the reader response bookmark, which she swore didn’t work even though she hadn’t used it much.   Teens.   I am convinced that there is something in them that resists an admission that Mom and Dad might not be completely crazy.

 

These have been some of her latest commonplace book entries:

 

Prince Telemachus was frustrated with the suitors invading his father’s mansion.   He also felt hopeless on his journey to find Odysseus and bring him back to Ithaca.  But despite Prince Telemachus’ emotions, he was still very brave and courageous on his quest, with Athena’s help…

 

Penelope was quite the rude and cocky queen.   I know there wasn’t much Penelope could do to keep the suitors away.   But it still wasn’t that clever of her to say she’d pick one to marry as soon as she had finished her weaving and undo it again every night.   Obviously, someone would get suspicious at some point and reveal her secret…

 

Athena was such a nice and beneficial goddess.  She encouraged Odysseus and Telemachus and kept hope alive for the both of them.   She also gave advice and put Penelope in her place.  Pallas Athena loved Odysseus and Telemachus like her own and tried to keep them on Zeus’ good side.   Even though she couldn’t necessarily stop the obstacles that came in Telemachus and Odysseus’ way, Athena still set the way for them and made sure they stayed on the right path…

 

We continue to work on elimination of slang, but I felt good that she took a leap away from the traditional written narration.

 

 

One thing puzzles me.   Our son loves Greek mythology, and listens attentively to Homer’s Odyssey even now, so I’m already thinking about how we might adjust our reading for his first year of high school.

 

 

The youngest continues to do well.  I’m still at the same place with those studies that require something more than a workbook on my part, but I’ll get there—maybe.   True to her budding personality, her favorite math problems involve counting money (LOL).    I’ve not yet figured out how to teach quarters other than memorization.   Any ideas?

 

 

As a business owner, I…

I finally got all my orders out—Hooray!!!!!!   I have learned a thing or two about customer service when you have low/no inventory.   Praise God, I only lost one order. 

 

Next week is A Woman Inspired’s Virtual Homeschool Refresher Conference—have you bought your ticket yet?

 

  May the Lord bless your week as well.