Yea! Tomorrow, I get to be a grown-up all day!
I brought the kids up to my mother’s this afternoon so I could have the day off tomorrow to go to a symposium on the future of Vermont’s economy.
I am very excited to be a grown-up for the day!
I’m off to go read my dictionary to brush up on using big words. 
Hey, look. I am actually doing a homeschooling post!
Okay, so here is my situation - I hate teaching the kids math and they hate the way I teach them math.
This sitch (that’s Kim Possible slang for situation) is so weird because they are like mini math geniuses and I have my BA in math. You would think that we were a match made in Heaven, but alas, we are not.
I can kind of relate to their issues because I HATED math when I was in school. Pretty much up until the day I changed my major to math my junior year in college, I hated it.
Then I realized that I loved it. It totally puts the world into a logical context. Everything around us has a math based order to it. It is just amazing to get into the higher level math, but I am getting way off topic here.
I think the reason I always thought I hated math was the way it was taught. I also think that I am killing the boys’ interest in it with the way I teach it.
I bought Saxon because I thought they could teach themselves with it now that they are in 54 and 65, which to an extent they can, but not fully.
One day I was thinking about how much Bill Nye totally makes our science learning so much better because I can alternate between Bill Nye DVDs, which come with PDF quizzes that I can print out for them, and the lessons and experiments that I do with them. It’s a good balance. We all love it.
I wish that there was a Bill Nye for math.
Then I discovered D.I.V.E into Math. It is a CD ROM that has some guy’s voice teaching the Saxon math textbooks on a digital white board. They can go at their own pace, pause, rewind, etc, until they understand what they are learning. And each lesson is a separate file, so it’s easy to find their place.
This sounds like what we are looking for, but before I spend $50/grade-level (I have two), does anyone have any experience with this?
I finally got around to updating my blog rolls. I am sure there is still more to do. If your blog is not on there, it is not because I do not love you. I am just really slow about adding links for some reason.
A couple of blogs from my feed reader that I just added are: Life Nurturing Education and Mama says… Both are great blogs. Stop on over and say hi, if you aren’t already reading them.
Sorry that it took me so long to link to you, ladies.
I also updated my links to reflect the fact that Melissa Wiley has stopped blogging at the Lilting House. She can be found at her other blog Here in the Bonny Glen.
Last year, the kids and I made these charming Ribbon Candy Ornaments from Martha Stewart.
You can view the video instructions here.
In my search for the link to that video, I also found that Family Fun has a simpler, yet less elegant, variation that does not use the beads. You can find that here.
Here is one I made last year.
I just discovered a fun new way to play with Blogger - Blogger in Draft.
Blogger in draft is a special version of Blogger where we try out new features before we release them to everyone. Come in and see what we’re up to!
Go check it out at draft.blogger.com. You log into your dashboard there and you can access the new features, such as a search box like the one on the sidebar of my blog.
You can find out more at the Blogger in Draft blog.
For more Works-for-me Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer!
The 100th Carnival of Homeschooling has arrived! Can you believe it?
Well, I can’t, but that’s partly because I missed the 99th and 98th.
Congratulations to the Cate’s, who started the carnival, and to all of you us homeschoolers who keep it going!
Here’s to 100 more!
My father-in-law gave us some cinnamon and cardamom when we were visiting last month, so I decided to make a cake using those spices to bring for Thanksgiving.
I made this delicious Applesauce Cake from MarthaStewart.com. It was a big hit. Everyone was raving about how wonderful it was.
I think this would make a wonderful addition to any holiday meal.
Serves 10
I made mine in a Bundt pan, so I did not serve it top side up.
Here is Little E showing off our creation.
On our way to visit my parents-in-law once, we listened to the story “Chasing Vermeer,” by Blue Balliett on CD. It is an interesting mystery about two kids trying to find a missing Vermeer painting.
I thought it would make an interesting Christmas gift for The D - who loves books and loves puzzles - to put together a “Chasing Vermeer” gift set.
I will start with the book Chasing Vermeer
Some other suggestions for addition are:
- The book Problem Solving With Pentominoes
- The sequel to Chasing Vermeer: The Wright 3
- Pentomino Pattern Cards
You can also make your own pentominoes out of wooden cubes or print them from this PDF available from Scholastic.
Scholastic also has some lesson plans to use with the book, if you like to do tie-ins like that.
This book is secular. It is written for children, but there is some name calling and deceitful behavior.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time to start thinking about Christmas - if you haven’t already. Since I am making a lot of gifts, I have been thinking about it for some time, but it seemed way too early to post about it.
Now is the time, however.
Over the net month, I will be posting recipes, crafts, gift ideas, and other Christmas delights.
I already have a Christian Book Distributors affiliate account, and I just signed up for Amazon, so I will be posting affiliate links where appropriate. Of course, there is no pressure to shop from this site, but if you do, I will get a small profit, which I would greatly appreciate.
I felt like I should disclose that information.
Some of my recommendations will be Christian materials, some will not. I will indicate that in the posts. I want to make sure that all my readers know whether or not the items I recommend are suitable for their families.
I also created a new category: Christmas 2007 Things, so you can easily find any Christmas post you are looking for.
We are back from visiting my husband’s family for Thanksgiving. It was wonderful, but it always is. I love his family.
The kids were great. On Wednesday morning, after a dreadful first few hours, The D decided that he was tired of being angry all the time and we have had an amazing several days, for the most part. I am resisting the urge to think about the fact that it will likely not stay this way forever and am trying to just enjoy being a “normal” family for now.
I never got a chance to post about the results from his doctor, but for the most part, there were no results. She said that normally there are more people filling out the questionnaires, ie teachers, so the results were inconclusive. There was concern about violent behavior, hyperactivity, and depression, based on my answers, so now he needs to go to a psychiatrist for an evaluation.
We live in the same city as a medical college, so I called there, but they have a 6-8 month waiting period. The pediatrician recommended someone who can get us in for the middle of December, so we went with that.
He said there would be one meeting with Bob and I, followed by two with The D, then another with Bob and I. Hopefully, I will know by the end of January what is going on.
I have more to say, but I need to go lie down. I have a sore throat, complete with little white sores on my tonsils. Fun, fun, fun.
Little E was sick all weekend. He even threw up at the kids’ table at Thanksgiving dinner!
