New! Improved! Up-to-the-minute posts!

I've been changing things up here today. The biggest change is that I've figured out how to post by email from my cellphone, as you can see below. So, maybe, since my cellphone is with me virtually 24-7, I can keep this a bit more up-to-date. Correspondingly, I also may be transitioning more to a scrapbook format, with more pictures and fewer words. On the other hand, since previous posts have been few and far between, maybe (hopefully) with more frequent posts, there will actually  be more words. Time will tell.

A few words about the past week;

Today we enjoyed going to the nature center for a pancake breakfast and to see how maple syrup is made. Did you know it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of syrup? And that syrup can be made from any of the trees in the maple family, including the box elder tree? Just a few of the pearls of wisdom we gleaned today. Another: pancakes come slowly at all-you-can-eat fundraiser breakfasts. Oh well, they tasted good.

Friday I took Viktor to the children's museum in Milwaukee for his "Valentine date". We had a lot of fun, just the two of us.

Tuesday, Eddie and I saw a local performance of Treasure Island, and had a grand time. It has been quite a while since I saw a live play ... and the Q&A after the performance was almost as entertaining as the show itself.

Some other things we have been talking about this week ... fish, what kinds there are, and whether yellowfin tuna would make a good pet (not unless you have an aquarium the size of a house).

We have been playing a lot of computer games lately. Some of our most recent favorites are at physics.com: Civiballs, Castle Crusher, Roly Poly Monsters, and more. As seen in one of the photos below, the whiteboards at our house also get a lot of use, often to create games that are variations on the theme of our most popular computer game of the day.

We visited the bookstore Thursday to pick up the last two in our current series of warrior cats books by Erin Hunter. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to pick up some games, and toys as well as a math workbook for Remy. He picked it out all by himself. It has a shark on th front. Okay. I wonder if it will be used at all? I also grabbed a tidbit from the checkout line that showed how to make Kirigami flowers, which we had fun cutting yesterday.

It takes a long time to make a pearl

It's been a long time since I posted, but I've been inspired. And I sense that there are many waves thrashing about in my head, energy that needs to be released before I drown in the hurricane. This is always my way - to come and go - and while it may not leave me much readership, the most important audience will always be here.

School days are nearly here

Welcome to my home school blog. Here I intend to chronicle the ups and downs of our new endeavor together as a family.

Three beautiful boys will be learning at this school, in addition to mom and dad.

R, age 7, is the impetus for us to start homeschooling. He is very bright, but apparently, as often happens with bright children, his development is somewhat asynchronous. He loves science, particularly space science, and math, and is a good reader. Writing is more difficult - I don't think it is the physical act of writing so much as figuring out how to organize his ideas so that they can be written down. He is a visual-spatial learner. Along with difficulties in writing, he also follows the V-S profile in that he has a hard time attending to and following directions. Not a good recipe for doing well in traditional school, especially when he finds the subject matter extremely easy. Strong-willed as well, he will make home schooling an adventure for sure.

E, age 4, was bored with preschool last year by March. And with his brother homeschooling, there just wouldn't be any way to send him to pre-K. He is extremely observant, loves to tell stories - there are entire universes inside his head, it seems - and lately has become very interested in reading.

V, age 1.5, will probably be our motivation to think creatively (as to how we can include him) more than anything else. I'm sure he will not abide being kept out of the "action". He seems to say and understand a lot for his age, but is more interested in ripping books than reading them.

I've been doing some reading to prepare me for this new endeavor. I recently completed Linda Dobson's Homeschooling: The Early Years, and Homeschooling, The First Year. I am currently working on Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner by Linda Kreger Silverman. In my queue are also Teach Your Own by John Holt and Patrick Farenga, The Edison Trait, by Lucy Jo Palladino, and the unschooling handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom, by Mary Griffith. Phew! That's a lot of pages. How will I manage it all while caring for, teaching, and encouraging three young boys? I suppose I will soon find out.

The Oyster School official starts September 1. We don't have any curriculum planned, just some idea that we will study science, math, and cooking, and take swimming lessons (per discussion with R - needs to be updated also with E's input!). I suppose I am aiming for an eclectic/unit studies/unschooling approach. (If I make the target that big, do you think I will hit?)

We also have a general agreement that video games will have to wait until after "school". But if we don't have anything concrete planned? Well, I think learning to organize our time will also be a very good lesson for the first few months.

Wish us luck. We're off on a great adventure.

Edited to fix spelling.