1 day down, 179 to go!

OK, actually it's more like 163 days to go, but who's counting?

We had a great first day. Nicholas enjoyed his workboxes, but he really liked playing with Duplos when he was done. He makes these great symmetrical spaceships that he keeps shifting and changing.

Here's Katie Grace doing copywork. You can see her workbox number strip which I borrowed from here.
Here's the completed, albeit washed out, copywork. Tomorrow we'll be focusing on not making backward Ss.
Daniel even had three little workboxes with surprises for him. He especially liked his own little Light Saber.
Is he not the cutest little Jedi ever?

Another box had paper and crayons.

So far, they seem to like the new Story of the World book. We're on Volume 3.
Michael made a great drawing of Charles V.


After school was finished, we had a lot of marketing to do. At Target, Nicholas declared himself to be a hamster on its wheel!




They're strange, but they're all mine!

First day of school!

OK, not really. We actually already have about 20 days logged. But tomorrow is our first official day of school, and we're ready... I hope!

Tonight was very sweet. Before Nicholas went to bed, I snuggled up with him on the sofa and told him that I had a very special story to tell him. Then I told him Star Money, which is our fairy tale this week. After, I gave him a kiss and said "Goodness, this is the last night I'll kiss my preschool Nick. Tomorrow you'll be a kindergartener!" He looked so proud.

I spent most of today getting the school room ready. Here's the ten cent tour.

My new cubbies that replaced my ratty old shelves. On the very top are supplies I don't want Daniel getting into: regular crayons, the supply caddy that sits on the table during our school day, colored pencils, and beeswax crayons.

Top row of cubbies is math materials: Michael's, Katie Grace's, and Nicholas's. Next row, language arts. Finally at the bottom are main lesson materials. Michael will be starting off the year with a review of fractions and moving into decimals, Katie Grace will be reviewing the four processes with an emphesis on multiplication, and Nicholas will be doing a fairy tale/letter each week, starting with Star Money and the letter A.

Next to the cubbies in the shelf that stores our games. And a dangly power cord, apparently. Obviously, I need to clean this up.
The second set of cubbies has our nature table on top, away from little hands. Then we have: Row 1, seasonal cubby with lacing cards and worksheets, Christian Ed materials, and a little altar. Row 2, art (Still Life by Cezanne this week), reference and writing materials, and music appreciation (Mozart). Row 3, the first cubby is adjacent to Nicholas's main lesson cubby and I'm thinking we'll use it to make a little display that tells the story, then science, and finally, Story of the World.

Here's a picture of how they look together. Next to the cubbies is a four shelf unit that has other notebooks and mail lesson books, and then our paper bin with the finished work box on top, as shown below.
Note to self: empty trash.
This shelf is stocked with toys to keep Daniel busy. I even have three little workboxes for him, just in case he wants them.
Nicholas's workboxes to keep him busy while I work with everyone else. Unfortunately, the numbers are messed up because I thought I had velcro and didn't. On top are the legos, which Daniel still manages to get into, and the dry erase boards.
A little workspace for Nicholas with the chalkboard, including the Star Money picture, and some seasonal books. My ugly little portfolio box is on the floor. The pockets on the side of the cabinet hold various forms and Katie Grace's files, and the cabinet has materials and supplies I don't want the kids to touch.

It does feel like we have so much stuff. I don't know what I'd give up though. It all seems essential. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Wish us luck!

"Mom, help!!! He just passed out right on my lap!"

Stuff for Sale

Heads up! I have lots of books for sale over at my yard sale blog. Tons of homeschool materials, picture books and fiction and non-fiction for kids, and books for grown-ups.

Lest you think our vacation was only about Harry Potter...

We did do some other things.

Here we are taking off.


And here we stopping 5 minutes later for some Dunkin' Donuts.
We stopped in Grove City to see friends but didn't get any pictures. Doh!

Chip and our big guys and the Jones boys went to the Football Hall of Fame.



But it was what came after that really stuck in the boys' mind.

Here it comes!
The kitchen sink!
They put forth a good effort.

Michael quit first, but Joshua was still going strong.

Finally, they both had to give up.
Our last night there, Michael went with the Jones's to a Scouting event, and we went to a great park.

We're on vacation!

We've been here, there, and everywhere. OK, actually, we've been to:
1. Grove City, PA to have lunch with college friends
2. Wadsworth, OH where we stayed with college buddies for a few days. The boys visited the Football Hall of Fame and the girls (and Daniel) had a lovely tea
3. South Bend, IN, where we visited an awesome bookstore (only a homeschool mom's husband truly appreciates a good bookstore!) and the campus of Notre Dame
4. On to Strawberry Point, IA for five days with good friends from Seminary. Daniel got to meet his godfather for the first time, and we got to visit many places, including a Laura Ingalls Wilder museum, the Effigy Mounds National Park, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's homes, and the Dubuque Aquarium. The last day was my birthday, and it started with breakfast in bed, a bounty of homemade cards, and an "Angel of Learning" Willow Tree figure from my family. We had ice cream cake the day before.
5. Chicago, where we celebrated my birthday by visiting the Chicago Institute of Science and Industry
Ah, but it was not simply for the interactive exhibits that we came and bought a family membership. It was for the Harry Potter Exhibition.




Unfortunately, this was the only Harry Potter artifact we were able to take pictures of. There was a strict "no photography" policy, but the Flying Ford Anglia was out in the lobby and fair game for pictures.

I took three of the four kids in with me-- my ten-year-old son, eight-year-old daughter, and extremely distractable five-year-old son, whom I threatened with loss of a treats and a days stuck in the toddler's stroller if he did anything to cause us to be removed from the exhibit. He behaved, and didn't touch anything he shouldn't have, which is more than I can say for myself.

There was Harry Potter trivia in the entrance line, and my two oldest children acquitted themselves very well. Then Michael and Nicholas both got to try on the sorting hat. I was so upset that I wasn't allowed to take pictures. After, in the gift shop, a nice lady came up to me and showed me a picture she had taken of Michael. I gave her my email addy, so hopefully she'll send it. *crosses fingers and toes&

There was a little video-type dealio, which was cool, although it freaked out my five, who hasn't seen anything past the second movie. We got rushed past the Hogwarts Express, which made me crabby, but from there on it was sheer magic.

The detail was absolutely amazing. I may have touched some stuff that, strictly speaking, I wasn't supposed to touch. I loved how they kept the magic-- they didn't dissect things or bring them too much into reality. My kids got to pull up mandrakes, throw the Quaffle through the hoops, and sit in Hagrid's chair.

The workers were all friendly and helpful. One told us that Remus and Tonk's costumes had been removed (Remus's was replaced; Tonks's was not) and sent back to England for filming. They answered my kids' questions (and mine!) with grace and good humor, which, as a mother, I always appreciate.

The only thing that disappointed me was that we weren't allowed to take pictures. It isn't even really that I wanted pictures of the exhibit, but I wanted pictures of my little ones enjoying the exhibit. And the website said there would be postcards of the Exhibition available in the gift shop, and there weren't. The post cards were just movie post cards and not of things specifically in the exhibit.

On our way out, we noticed this sign advertising the Half-Blood Prince movie at the IMAX.

I broke my own rule and took Katie Grace even though she hasn't read the book. She didn't see the two PG-13 movies, but she really liked this one, and we both loved enjoying the movie in the IMAX format.

We bought a family membership because, even had we only gone one day, it was less expensive to do so. We decided to go back a second day rather than going to the children's museum as we originally planned. We didn't even come close to seeing everything the museum offered in one day.

But the best part? The very, very best part and the most wonderful birthday present ever?

I got to go through the Harry Potter Exhibition again, by myself, with the audio tour. It was wonderful. As detailed as the Exhibition was, there were a billion more details with the audio tour. The attention to detail that went into making the movies took my breath away. I'm truly in awe at the human drive to create. The only downside was that, after listening to some of the commentary, I'm still not convinced all those involved with making the movies have actually read. the. books. Case in point: the costume designer referring to Hermione as "the school sweetheart." Blargh.

Still and all, it was an amazing experience, and definitely one of my best birthdays ever!

Examination of Conscience

We leave for vacation tomorrow, and the house is, predictably, a mess. This isn't hyperbole-- two months of morning sickness followed by recovery from a miscarriage has left things in a pretty awful state. As I was cleaning this morning, I started having these weird little ticky things that I always thought was just one more weird thing about me, but turns out they are actually juvenile partial clonic seizures that I have been having since the eighth grade.

Generally, they're not a big deal. But when I am particularly tired or sick or stressed, they start coming one on top of the other, and that seriously wrecks havoc with my quality of life. I didn't understand why I was having them though. After a week of no sleep, I've actually gotten two solid nights of eight+ hours of sleep. And my body really does seem to be healing, especially after I visited the chiropractor, so it wasn't that I was feeling ill. Then I realized-- STRESS!

You see, I don't particularly want to go on this vacation. It's not that I don't want to see my friends, because I do. Nor is it that I don't want spend time with my family, because I love the long talks my husband and I have in the car and seeing my kids experience new things. I've just had a rough summer. I had great plans-- by the end of the summer I was supposed to have accomplished a years' worth of homeschool planning, a summer's worth of Camp Half-Blood, and four month's worth of gestation. Instead, I have no planning done, we did little-to-no camp, and the baby is gone. Before I knew I was pregnant, I had planned to paint all the walls this summer, as well as the planning and camp. And like my other plans, those disappeared.

So you see, it's not that I don't want to go on vacation. I just have this terrible feeling of a wasted summer. My original plans, I was happy to set aside in the hopes of a baby. But now that dream is gone too, and I feel like three months have gone by with nothing to show for it. Instead of a vacation, I feel like what I should be doing is scrubbing floors and painting walls and planning units and organizing school stuff. And these feelings lead to stress, which, in my case at least, leads to seizures.

When I sit down and breathe and pray, I know it's not for nothing. I know that in God's economy--which, thank goodness, is nothing like my own--sacrificing my own wants and needs for those I love, even a tiny unborn baby, isn't wasted. I know what God says in Jeremiah--"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Knowing and feeling are two different things, unfortunately, and I find myself with feelings of sadness and despair.

It's hard to know what to do with these feelings. So, I do what I can today. I tidy up the school stuff. I build the other set of cubbies. I wash a hundred loads of laundry. I help the children pack. I breathe. Much as I did a little over two months ago when I first found I was pregnant, I surrender myself to the moments. I set aside my plans, and accept what the Lord has planned instead. Apparently, the Lord planned for me to go to vacation in Iowa. He wants to me to be with the family he blessed me with, and to have a wonderful time.

See you in two weeks!

Loss

I'm sorry; I haven't been around again.

I was pregnant, or at least felt so, right up until Thursday night, when I began bleeding. Our baby died five weeks ago, and I had a missed miscarriage.

We've named him Samuel, because like Samuel, he was a gift from God to us, and like Hannah, we gave him back to God, all too soon.

God, gods, and The Lightning Thief

Fantasy literature has always been a bit of a conundrum for the Christian reader. Throw small children into the mix, and it's positively controversial. When we did Hogwarts Summer School several summers ago, the question "What does a Christian do with Harry Potter?" is one that came up quite often. In a way, J. K. Rowling made it easy-- God is barely mentioned in her books, unless someone is taking His name in vain. Nevertheless, the Christian message in the series shines through, especially in the last book, and the story told mirrors The Story. After reading the series for myself as well as the thoughts of other authors (John Granger's (no relation to Hermione) Looking for God in Harry Potter comes to mind), I felt perfectly comfortable inviting Harry Potter into our Christian home.

This summer, as we enjoy our own version of Camp Half-Blood, the question comes up again. This time, it's "What does a Christian do with the Olympians series?" Fortunately, Rick Riordan makes it a little easier for us by addressing the situation in his first book.

"Wait," I told Chiron, "You're telling me there's such a thing as God?"

"Well, now," Chiron said. "God-- capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."

"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about--"

"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors; the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."

"Smaller?"

"Yes, quite..."

--The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

A smaller matter? Well, yes and no.

It would be easy to say that Mr. Riordan packs God-with-a-capital-G away in a nice little package and tucks Him off in a closet for the remainder of the series, but of course, that's never the way of it. The children ask questions, they seem the similarities and--more importantly-- the dissimilarities-- between the Greek gods and their God, and they ask ponder the answers.

How can a god be so fickle?

How could a god break his promise?

Why can't a god do what he pleases?

And with all of these questions, they're scratching the surface, getting at the nature of the God they love and worship. This is what good books help us do.

In Book Two, The Sea of Monsters, Chiron is explaining to Percy his place in the grand scheme of things.

"...Humans don't exist on the same level as the immortals. They can't even be hurt by our weapons. But you, Percy-- you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be harmed by both, and you can affect both. That's what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal. Monsters never die. They are reborn from the chaos and barbarism that is always bubbling under civilization, the very stuff that makes Kronos stronger. They must be defeated again and again, kept at bay. Heroes understand that struggle. You fight the battles humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human. Do you understand?"

-The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan

Heady stuff for the 9-to-11-year old set.

I don' pretend to know what Mr. Riordan's particular brand of spirituality is, if any. I've read his blog a bit, and can't really get a feeling for it. Honestly, I don't think it really matters. I've always been a big believer that Truth-with-a-capital-T can make itself known through just about anything, and I believe that Greek mythology in general and the Percy Jackson books in particular speak some real Truth about the nature of humans and the nature of God.

Rick Riordan's words echo the sentiment put forth by Michael Card in his song "Joy in the Journey":

To all who are born of the Spirit
And who share incarnation with Him,
Who belong to eternity, stranded in time,
And weary of struggling with sin--
Forget not the hope that's before you,
And never stop counting the cost.
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost.

In God's kingdom, we're all called to be heroes. We're all called to fight the demons, the monsters, the darkness, time and time again, because monsters never die. In Christianity, as adopted daughters and sons of the true Immortal One, we take up our arms, not by our own wits or power and not abandoned by a fickle god, but supported by the one true God, and we fight against the chaos and barbarism that has been part of this world since the Fall.

Pretty heady stuff for all of us.

Magic Items

If you've read the Percy Jackson books, you'll recognize the concept-- many of the demigod's have "magic items," gifts from their immortal parents or someone else who cares for them. Annabeth has a magical Yankees cap that renders her invisible, Percy has his sword, Riptide, and later a shield created for him by his brother, Tyson. It's a fairly common convention in stories (Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak, anyone?) but still one that captures children's imaginations.

One of Nicholas's favorite pastimes lately is to cuddle up with me and say "Mama, let's think of magic items." Some of my favorites so far:
a blanket that makes you have sweet dreams
a comforter that, when you throw it on your enemy, makes them fall asleep right away
glasses that help you see through things
earrings that allow you listen to other people's conversations
a magic cup that always refilled with whatever you were thirsty for

He also thought of a magical laptop, even though he hasn't gotten to that book yet!