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I'm a part-time clinical psychology researcher and full-time mother to Alex (4/05) and Colin (2/09). We are secular homeschoolers following a modified neoclassical curriculum.
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Current Read-Aloud
The Borrowers Aloft
Mary Norton-
Category Archives: stuff we’re reading
Saturday.
Alex has taken a principled stand, in recent months, against any suggestion that we might do something a bit school-ish on the weekend. Not that I suggest bringing out the spelling book on Saturday, obviously, but she has flatly rejected … Continue reading
Posted in stuff we're reading
4 Comments
Tea and poetry.
We try not to be quite as educationally anachronistic as we could be, as classical homeschoolers. Okay, so we’re studying Latin and ancient history, and Alex only wears dresses, and I don’t ever plan to give her a “make a … Continue reading
Posted in language arts, stuff we're reading
25 Comments
Hanna’s Cold Winter.
We’re doing a Five in a Row book this week, our first title from Volume 4. Volume 4 studies are supposed to be more in-depth and extended, but we’ve been a little haphazard about it so far. Alex loves the … Continue reading
History planning, and travels in ancient China
We made a big change at the New Year. Instead of using Five in a Row as the core of our curriculum, we’ll be doing a FIAR book once every five weeks. I’m still trying to figure out how the … Continue reading
Posted in policy & planning, sotw vol. 2, stuff we're reading
7 Comments
Magic Tree House book club update.
I’ve been waiting up to see if Hurricane Irene is going to do anything here. It looks like the answer is no, but my time hasn’t been totally wasted – you guys get a post before I go to bed. … Continue reading
Posted in art, BHCC, language arts, stuff we're reading
4 Comments
What happened to the buffalo.
I am so incredibly busy and tired that I’m not sure I’ll post much this week. Sorry. We’re doing something a little different this week. I originally picked Buffalo Song, by Native American author Joseph Bruchac, to be the subject … Continue reading
Posted in five in a row, social studies, stuff we're reading
5 Comments
Magic Tree House book club: Venice.
Yesterday was the second meeting of our Magic Tree House book club. Six kids showed up again. This time they had all read the book! So that’s definite progress. This week we discussed Carnival at Candlelight, which takes place in … Continue reading
Posted in BHCC, stuff we're reading
4 Comments
Magic Tree House book club!
This summer, I’m running a Round-the-World Magic Tree House book club at the Baltimore Homeschool Community Center. It’s a coordinated activity with an older kids’ book club reading the 39 Clues series, which also involves world travel as part of … Continue reading
Posted in BHCC, geography, stuff we're reading
8 Comments
Immersing ourselves in Beatrix Potter.
I make stupid assumptions sometimes. This week, they sent me back to the library by Tuesday. See, when I was a kid I never cared much for Beatrix Potter except for The Tale of Two Bad Mice. I figured that … Continue reading
More travels in the less-newsworthy Egypt.
We had another fine day of Egyptian studies. I’m amused, because just after I bought Story of the World: Ancient Times Alex told me that she was tired of Egypt and didn’t want to learn anything about it. I thought … Continue reading
Posted in math, social studies, sotw vol. 1, stuff we're reading
1 Comment
Polar bears and facing fears.
I’m probably jinxing myself by saying this, but I think that we’ve all been sick now and that it’s time to things improve. We haven’t gotten much school done this week, and what we have done has mostly been reading … Continue reading
Free time.
One of the benefits of homeschooling is that Alex has a lot more free time than many other kids her age. What sorts of things does she do? Lately it’s been a lot of crafts, such as this layered cut-paper … Continue reading
Posted in art, music, stuff we're reading
2 Comments
Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.
Yesterday morning I woke Alex before dawn. Colin had to go to the ER because his stomach flu had led to serious dehydration. We spent a few hours there getting him tanked up with fluids. Then we came home and … Continue reading
Posted in music, stuff we're reading
1 Comment
Cranberry Thanksgiving.
Like virtually every other Five in a Row family in the United States, this week we’re studying Cranberry Thanksgiving, by Wende and Harry Devlin. Maggie’s grandmother prides herself on her secret recipe for cranberry bread, and she fears that Maggie’s … Continue reading
Five picture books about slavery.
I don’t usually do book review posts, and even the page on which I planned to briefly catalog supplemental books for Five in a Row is sadly out of date. But this week my “go-along” book bin had several excellent … Continue reading
Paul Revere’s Ride.
Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. This week, we’re studying a picture-book … Continue reading
Northern and southern seasons.
For our final day with My Rows and Piles of Coins, I asked Alex how she would explain an illustration in which Saruni is engulfed in a man’s overcoat handed down by his father “for these chilly July days.” July … Continue reading
Posted in experiments, five in a row, music, science, stuff we're reading
Tagged my rows and piles of coins
2 Comments
Maps & U.S. Geography unit study.
We’re putting Five in a Row aside for a couple of weeks to focus on Alex’s intense interest in maps and U.S. geography. Michael and I have had a lot of fun planning out what we want to teach. Alex … Continue reading
Posted in geography, loot, stuff we're reading
1 Comment
Racing through reading.
Alex has taken a big leap forward in reading in the past few weeks. Motivation and skill have both increased dramatically. (Understandably, given that they feed into each other.) We had been in a struggling place with reading, in which … Continue reading
Posted in reading, stuff we're reading
5 Comments
Fifty nifty United States.
About a month ago I grabbed a library book on impulse because I thought Alex would like it. I was unprepared for quite how much she would wind up loving the book and its sequel. In The Scrambled States of … Continue reading
Posted in social studies, stuff we're reading
4 Comments
