June 27, 2007

Some days...

June 27, 2007/ Elizabeth Foss

...you wonder if you can do one more thing, wipe one more tear, pat one more back. Some days start after you've spent the night rocking a feverish baby and you know from the dawn that there will be no nap. And you ask yourself if anyone notices that you're giving so much and working so hard and loving so completely. And once in a lifetime, on a day like that, your baby looks at you and says "Mama" for the very first time. And you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that someone does.

June 27, 2007

Tastes as good as it looks!

June 27, 2007/ Elizabeth Foss

There is an absolutely beautiful Strawberry Festival at the Virtual Kitchen today! Thanks so much to Suzanne and Kristen for this visual feast--I'm hoping to turn it into the other kind of feast.

June 26, 2007

Rambling Conference Musing...

June 26, 2007/ Elizabeth Foss

As Karoline wrote, our conference experience began with severe sleep deprivation. After three days of serious crisis and not a little trepidation about leaving in a state of crisis, I flew west. For me, this was a big deal. I don't leave my children easily. But I'm so glad I went to Denver and I think my husband is, too. The gaggle we left behind? Rumor has it they ate chicken wings and pizza and ice cream, played incessant games of Wii, and watched four movies (and yes, I did leave them with grownups--just way more fun grownups than your average;-). It's all good.

It's been three years since I've been to a conference and that time, I just buzzed in, gave my talk, and buzzed back out. The year before that, I spent hours and hours signing books between talks. So, it's been a very long time since I've had time to actually peruse vendor tables. I kept sending people over to see Nancy MacArthur at Catholic Heritage Curriculum, so I wandered over to introduce myself. What a warm, lovely lady! I placed my order for essentials for the year and I had a chance to peruse some new items. Two thumbs up on the new level of Language of God. The high school literature study guides looked wonderful.

There are new Latin readers and some new features in the preschool curriculum. I was disappointed not get a peek at Alice Cantrell's promised Tea and Cake with the Saints but Nancy assured me that it would be available as we plan our fall teatimes.

I paid a visit to the Institute for Excellence in Writing as well. What additions they've made in the past few years! I was tickled to talk Thomas Jefferson Education with the representative there and I was particularly pleased to find American History themed lessons for Patrick and Christian. I like to introduce Structure and Style lessons after my children have demonstrated that they can narrate easily and fluently in writing. Then, the structure suits the child and they appreciate the style techniques. We are going to focus on American History as a family this year and these lessons will take quite a planning burden away from me.

I also had a lovely conversation with Linda Nelson from Sacred Heart Books and Gifts. She told me some stories of things she's done with my book that humbled and inspired me. There are some very good people in vendor halls of homeschooling conferences!

While I was scheduled to talk for two hours, once on Friday and once on Saturday, I actually talked more last weekend than I did in the entire two weeks prior. I listened a lot, too. I heard parents tell me that they were grateful to have finally discovered that they can relax and trust their instincts a bit more when it comes to educating their children. I heard them tell me that they are just beginning to understand that they don't need an accredited school to hold their hand--sometimes that it's not hand-holding at all, but bondage. I heard them tell me that they love nature study and they want it to be the centerpiece of education at least for a season (and who wouldn't with the Rockies out your back door?).

I heard the hard stories about trying to educate at home while being called back into the workforce. I heard from the lady who put all her children in school two years ago following the birth of a baby and sold all her curricular materials. The next year, she was buying all new materials and hoping for another baby! I heard about a miscarriage that left deep and painful scars that would not heal. Those are the stories that have been committed to my rosary.

And engraved on my heart.

I had the opportunity to meet some 4Real friends and have them become "for real" friends. I felt like I'd known MaryM all my life and I wanted to take her home with me. Sometimes you know, you just know, that someone is as kindred a spirit as they come and time and distance seem huge and not so big at all, all at the same time.

Kim and I have been at a conference together before this one--many, many years and many children ago. This time, we sang the same song and found ourselves echoing each other. Our husbands and babies got to know each other and we celebrated the end of a glorious weekend by going out to dinner in Downtown Denver before going home. Karoline was enchanted by the street band, the robot, the horse-drawn carriages and the Chinese food .

The unexpected beneft to the weekend was the time I had with my husband and baby. Believe it or not, we don't talk all that often about home education. We've worked out a lot of the big questions for ourselves and Mike leaves most of the day-to-day decisions to me. This was a rare weekend of total immersion in my world. I think he really enjoyed it. And rarely, do Mike and I have Karoline all to ourselves. She floats from one doting sibling to another and our attention is diverted and dispersed among eight children and our other responsibilities. But on this weekend, she was in my arms or her Daddy's arms at all times. She was pretty high maintenance. As long as she was held, she was happy--but there was no putting her down! Mike fell utterly and completely in love with her all over again. On our last night in Denver, I put her between us in the bed to nurse to sleep. She nursed briefly and then turned to Mike, who was sitting with his laptop. She scooted in towards his elbow and tried mightily to continue nursing. I gently turned her back toward me. She nursed again briefly and then scooted back towards her Daddy. She was certain she could find with him a comfort she had heretofore only found with me. It was difficult for Mike to leave her to go to work on Monday morning.

It was such a huge effort to prepare to go and there were mountains made of laundry that rivaled the Rockies awaiting me when I got home. But, oh, I'm so, so glad we went!

(Many thanks to Mary for the pictures.)

June 26, 2007

Jennifer! Thank you!Crafts! Lots of Organized Crafts!

June 26, 2007/ Elizabeth Foss

Look at this! Jennifer has a plethora of great craft suggestions all the way through December!

June 26, 2007

Handout from the Denver conference

June 26, 2007/ Elizabeth Foss

Pioneer Stories

Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

(Cherry Jones audio version is great!)

My First Little House picture books

The Little House prequels by Melissa Wiley

Inside Laura’s Little House

A Pioneer Sampler

Pioneer Girl

My Great Aunt Arizona (Houston)

Pioneer Life from A to Z (Kalman)

Warm as Wool

Nature Study

Read Alouds for everybody:

Caddie Woodlawn

My Side of the Mountain

Where the Red Fern Grows

Paddle to the Sea

Minn of the Mississippi

Owls in the Family

Upper Level Study (middle and high school)_

Black Hearts in Battersea

Nightbirds on Nantucket

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

Michael O'Halloran

Freckles

The Keeper of the Bees

The Harvester

The Best of Beston

Girl of the Limberlost

Elementary

Trumpet of the Swans

The Herriott Treasury for Children

Autumn Moon

One Day in the Woods

One Day in the Alpine Tundra

Kildee House

Owl in the shower

The Blue Hill Meadows

Tarantula in my Purse

Winter Moon

Picture book biographies to share:

Into the Woods

A Man Named Thoreau

Black Whiteness

Pond Watching with Ann Morgan

Bug Watching with Charles Henry Turner

Bird Watching with Margaret Morse Nice

Nature Art with Chiura Obata

Flower Watching with Alice Eastwood

Fish Watching with Eugenie Clark

Exploring the Earth with John Wesley Powell

Wildlife Watching with Charles Eastman

Girls Who Look under Rocks

Picture Books (but I really

think everyone should share them):

Henry David's House

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg

Henry Builds a Cabin

Louisa May and Mr. Thoreau's Flute

Joanne Ryder

Eric Carle:

The Very Quiet Cricket

The Very Lonely Firefly

The Very Clumsy Click Beetle

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Mixed up Chameleon

The Grouchy Ladybug

The Honeybee and the Robber

Cynthia Rylant

The Wonderful Happens

This Year's Garden

More good stuff:

America the Beautiful (W. Minor illustrator)

Salamander Rain: A Lake and Pond Journal

Crinkleroot's guide to Knowing the birds

Crinkleroot's Guide to Animal Habitats

Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Trees

Resources and books for Mom and/or high schoolers:

The Amateur Naturalist

Golden Guides: Pond Life, Insects, Birds

Wild Days

The Curious Naturalist: Nature's Everyday Mysteries

Reading the Mountains of Home

Writing Naturally: A down to earth guide to nature writing

Fun With Nature Take Along Guide

More Fun with Nature Take Along Guide

Drawing From Nature

Keeping a Nature Journal

A Crow Doesn't Need a Shadow—great for writing nature poetry

Hurricane

Reading

Peter Spier's Rain

Galveston's Summer of the Storm

Hurricane

Magic School Bus inside a Hurricane

Rain Makes Applesauce

Come on, Rain!

Down Comes The Rain

One Morning in Maine

Picture Study

Thomas Locker:

Cloud Dance

Mountain Dance

Where the River Begins

Helpful booklists:

Reading Your Way through History

Sacred Heart Books and Gifts

First Communion Book Pages:

What my name means (Patron Saints)

God made the World and He made Me

Creed (memorize and copy)

God gave us the Bible

Guardian Angel

Original Sin

Gospel of Children (JPII)

My Baptism

Deuteronomy (Our family’s verse)

Noah's Ark

The Ten Commandments (re-state in my own words)

The Prodigal Son

The Vine and the Branches

The Lost Coin

The Lost Sheep

The Steps to a good confession (cut apart and paste them in order, with my own definition of the steps)

The Act of Contrition

Old Testament foreshadowing of the Eucharist :

Manna from Heaven

Ark of the Covenant – the tabernacle is our new ark of the covenant

Paschal Lamb (the last plague)-prefigurement of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God

Psalm 110. M both priest and king who offered a special sacrifice of bread and wine. Christ offered an unbloody sacrifice at the last supper.

Malachi 1:11. “From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, a perfect offering will be made.”

Universal Church

New Testament:

Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. He is divine. He forgave sins. He worked miracles.

Wedding at Cana

narration John 2. Jesus changed water into wine and showed that he had power over material elements

Loaves and Fishes (Small Gifts in God’s Hands narration) again, showing power over material elements

Jesus walked on water—showed power over his own body

Resurrection—again, power over his own body

Storm on the Sea—when Jesus speaks, it becomes a reality

The Last Supper—all the miracles rolled into one miracle.

Road to Emmaeus—the disciples did not recognize him until the breaking of the bread. We might not recognize him but he is really present. Because Jesus is glorified, he is not limited to normal physical limitations.

(1Corinthians 10 and 1: 1 Christians who do not recognize the Body and Blood of Christ.) No narration but discussion.

John 6: I am the bread from Heaven