the sleppys

Ty’s birthday was on Monday, the 14th, so we went camping on Saturday, the 12th. We headed out in the morning to Everglades National Park, where else? We took hikes around the usual places and saw the usual wildlife. Many Black Vultures sat along the trails. They migrate here from the north during autumn. They are friendly, curious birds. Turkey Vultures are quite a sight to see soaring and gliding, but they are not curious but nervous and will fly away if people approach. At Royal Palm, the babies walked around, which was different because I would carry them when they were younger. Now that they are a bit older than the last time we were at Royal Palm, they were safe as long as they were holding someone’s hand.

We hiked to the Mound from Gate 15 and saw that it was covered in broom sedge. We had been seeing the sedge grow and become more established during the past seasons, but this time, it was tall. Not just the sedge but the trees were taller, too, of course. Though it is expected to see taller plants, it also is a bit disappointing to see a view blocked by them. We were standing 50 feet above the Everglades waters, but the view was covered by these plants. Eh. The wood storks and vultures were pleasant to witness as they flew low to the water, almost at our eye-level as we stood on the Mound. The boys took their usual trip around the Mound while the girls sat around and daydreamed.

We made it to Pine Glades Lake where we ate lunch and presented Ty with his birthday present: a fishing rod. The boys fished for a couple of hours, and the girls waited in the van. I was sleepy, so I napped. But that made it difficult to keep the girls entertained in the van. Eventually, they napped, too. I tried my arm at casting and fishing but caught nothing. Everyone caught nothing.

We set up camp at Long Pine Key. It was a busy weekend, the day before being Veteran’s Day. Our usual campsite was occupied as was our second-usual site. Not that we have rights to them, but it’s always reassuring to be in the same place. We found a site on the border of the forest and the Road Closed sign, and had only one neighbor. Eventually, the Road Closed signs were taken down to accommodate for the higher demand of campers.

Night fell, and the mosquitoes buzzed and bit. I put on my mosquito net because they absolutely are in love with my blood. Kendall, who has the same attractive blood, also wore hers. Still, they bit her hands and legs. Annoyed by them, she climbed into her car seat in the van and kept saying, “Skeetoos hit me. I outta here. I home.” Hot chocolate made her and everybody else feel better. The children brushed their teeth and went to bed in their tents.

Dad and I stayed up to watch the fire. There was also some commotion at the camp site about a hundred yards to the west. I’m not sure what was going on, but the Park Police showed up on foot and spoke to the campers. I was trying to pay attention to the voices, but the mosquitoes were incessant, no matter how close I sat to the fire. I crawled into my tent at about 10:30pm, which is awfully early: Dad and I usually stay up past midnight. The crowd was very different that weekend. I heard a man a few sites over shouting “HIALEAH!” which is a town northwest of Miami proper and almost directly north of the international airport, heavily populated with loud people… I think because they have to shout over the sounds of landing 747′s.

At 12:30am, I was woken up by the sounds of clanging bottles.

At 5:00am, I was woken up by a bat’s squeaks, and I stayed up, listening to nature, which included mosquito buzzing.

We had a pancake breakfast with coffee (or water, for the children) and headed back home.

We are getting hurricane shutters installed on the windows. Two men came to do the job. Ty hung around them, asking if they needed help. At first, I was concerned that Ty might be getting himself in the way, but the men would ask him for a nail or a bit or whatever.

Ty offered them water. They said they were fine. They do this kind of work all the time, windows need shutters on the outside. Around lunchtime, Ty asked them if they wanted lunch. They said that they had all they needed. Ty made them peanut butter sandwiches anyway. He presented it to them. They were, of course, grateful, but being that they had their own provisions, they didn’t eat the sandwiches right away. Ty told me that he put the sandwiches in their cooler.

After two days of shutter installation, the men were done with what they could do (we are still waiting for a track part). Dear Husband talked to them in the shade of a neighbor’s tree. One of the men told DH that we have really great kids.

Thanks, Ty, for representing our family.

Last weekend, Dear Husband came home with a chess set. We have a few chess sets (or have gone through a few sets) in the house, but this set has a sheet of metal under the board to keep the magnetized pieces on it. It’s useful if your children don’t have iPods to listen to in the car or want to wander around the house with the board ready to go, asking people if they want to play.

Ty and Kyle took the chess set into their room and began to play. A few hours later, Kyle asked if I wanted to play with him. “Okay,” so I watched him set up the board, and he played white.

He moved his pawns sideways. He took pieces that his “horse” jumped over.

“Kyle, I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to play.”
“Oh, Ty and I were playing like this.”
“It’s not checkers, and your pawns can only move forward.”

So I explained to him how the pieces move. He really enjoyed the lesson because he’s an expert at battles and knights and guards and kings and stuff like that. I started with the pawn, telling him that he carries a shield and moves forward easily but because he’s carrying a shield, he can only attack diagonally. A knight can jump over pawns and other fighters because he’s on a horse. And a rook, well, a rook is a favorite in this house because he’s an archer. He, along with the fellow rook and the queen, can hit an enemy from far away.
After a game with Kyle, Ty and I played.

When we go outside to the front yard, I usually practice a musical instrument that’s not the piano and the children climb trees or play tag. After we started playing chess, the boys began pretending that they were chess pieces, rooks and bishops and all, and ran aorund the yard pretending to shoot arrows and run diagonally and capture each other.

Dear Husband turned on the Mac computer and introduced the boys to the chess software. They played and played for hours. They were hooked on it. Of course, the computer wins every game. They also found out how to play against each other and watch the computer play itself.

The next time that I played Ty, he beat me! My only excuse was that I was playing white pieces, which I never practice. But that’s a weak excuse.

I later played Kyle. Although I won, I did notice that his game got better. He did put up a good fight. Days went by, and I practiced my music while the boys slashed with their swords and hid behind trees. Yesterday, Ty and I played again when we were outside. He beat me both times.

That’s it!
Instead of practicing the violin or guitar while I’m outside, I’m going to start pretending that I’m a pawn or a rook.

Dad has been catching frogs and lizards, snakes and butterflies and keeping them in the house for a few days (or hours). Several weeks ago, a lizard was caught and kept in a five gallon bucket. It has its tail missing, and we watched the regeneration. The boys named it BlackTail. We buy food for them at the reptile store, usually small crickets.

On April 3, after some heavy rains, Dad mowed the lawn, moved some crates around the backyard, and did some general “Spring” maintenance. I was getting ready to play the piano at the church, so it must have been around 10am. That afternoon, the children’s maternal grandfather came down to visit. He was in the backyard wit the children, playing “Blobberball” (a game they invented that’s a little like dodgeball) when Ty discovered freshly molted snake skin. He came into the house, very excited about his find. We all went out to the air conditioning unit to take a look. And what a sight! It really was freshly molted skin, with the eyes and mouth intact. The loud noises of the lawn mower and the moving of materials did not deter this snake to do his business. All of us were in awe of this, even though it is just skin. Grandpa was slightly confused about what had happened, having never seen snake skin in his many decades.

We have seen an Everglades racer around the property. A few months ago, we found some broken skin under the Suriname cherry hedge. He was spotted crawling outside the window of the girls room and took refuge in the cherry bush for a few days. This could be the same snake that was seen by Dad in the front yard with a mouse in its grasp but fled as Dad walked up. (The mouse stood in fear for a moment before running away). We could only assume that this was the same snake.

Some days ago, Taylor picked up a mason jar and its lid, walked to me and said, “When I come back inside, you’re going to see what I just caughted.” Crazy thoughts ran through my mind… until she came back with a little sprout. “I’m saving it from the mulch.” Looks like she found a sunflower seed that fell out of the bird feeder and began to sprout. Dad knows that sunflowers don’t like being transplanted, so he told her to put it in the compost pile, where it would be useful.

David and Jonothan, Cima da Conegliano, 1505.
This is one of my favorite paintings concerning David and Goliath. The first time I saw this, I was appalled, but the image grew on me. I like that his sling, the weapon that he used to slay the giant, is at his waist.

I get very excited about all that we learn here at The Greenleaf School. I make the lesson plans to accommodate both our family’s standards and the standards of the state. Each child receives instruction tailored to his or her own abilities and acquainted knowledge. I delve deep into the current subjects and see that information touch all aspects of my own life.

This month, we are learning Old Testament stories. Our boys have always enjoyed reading and learning about the multitude of men who find themselves alone in battle against vicious beasts or entire armies. The Bible is not lacking in such stories. We start with Noah, who is bullied and mocked by his neighbors for building an ark. But that is not so much a war battle as it is battling peer pressure. But God is on his side, so he wins. We later read about Moses, who stutters and needs his brother Aaron to speak for him. He can’t believe that God chose him to lead the people out of bondage, so that’s more of an internal battle. But God is on his side, and he prevails.

After the death of Moses is when we begin to read of bloody battles, real conquests in which warriors die, kings are run off, and lands are seized. Young men are tested, and with God’s help, they pass the tests.

My favorite story so far is Gideon, who was just minding his own affair when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and called him to take up arms against the Midianites, the oppressors. God said to Gideon, “Do not be afraid. You shall not die.” What more armor does one need? Those words alone, from the Almighty Himself, are the shield and the sword, the coat of mail and the helmet of brass. That’s like having Saint George, Beowulf, Cú Chulainn, Thor, and Robin Hood all in one squad. I couldn’t stop smiling when I read those words. That is truly awesome stuff.

David, son of Jesse, reminds me of Arthur, son of Uther (but before he knew he was Uther’s). Both grow up to be kings. Both do awesome things as young men. But before that, both are young lads, serving their brothers who are actively involved in fighting. Kay, Arthur’s brother, sent him to grab a sword. He grabs Excalibur. David runs to send cheese to his brothers. He slays Goliath! (Of course, David knew he could do that because God was on his side… and he had smote and slain both a lion and a bear with his hands. So he wasn’t just a young lad but a mighty powerful one.)

After school, while I’m getting ready to go to work, I pass by the boys’ room and see that they have set up thick walls with building blocks, lined up their Playmobil guys, and perform re-enactments of Joshua and Battle of Jericho. The walls of the city come tumbling down. They know that they are like Samson because a razor has never touched their heads, so they have the strength to pick up the gates of the city and walk away with them.

When they study classical literature, they will understand the Biblical references. They may even remember the details from their re-enactments… because that’s how we learn: by doing.

I don’t know when they started doing this. It was either during or immediately after blinking. Both Kendall and Talon, who are two and a half, climb up the “monkey bars,” which aren’t your normal playground equipment but are metal bars and poled fixed in concrete. They stretch their arms up to the second bar while standing on the first bar, which is only about two inches off the ground. They each climb in unique ways but both end up with their feet on the second bar and hands on the third. It does scare me, but I recall Taylor’s ability to climb those bars when she was about that age, maybe even earlier.

Taylor is among the population here that can maneuver straight across the bars at the top. Originally, the structure was a shed, with canvas draped around the bars, so the top is the roof. Sometimes she cries for me when she finds herself stuck at the top, but I simply tell her that she has to get down. She always finds a way down where I don’t have to touch her, not even guide her steps. She just needs encouragement, and she finds a way.

She has also acquired the beading bug. Well, the arts and crafts bug. She’s always been a pretty good artist, in my opinion, chosing crayons over colored pencils. She once drew herself walking with Daddy, holding hands, toward the van, and looking at each other. One can clearly tell that she was looking up while Daddy was looking down. I think that’s pretty amazing. She’s now into beading and jewelry making. I finally found a good elastic material that doesn’t fray as the bead is inserted.

Kyle is playing the piano behind me. He’s using the book that my brothers and I used for piano lessons, the book that Ty used. The same exact book. My name is in it along with the dates that I learned the pieces. My brothers’ names and dates are written in, too. Ty, well, I didn’t write Ty’s name. I’m thinking I should have. Anyway, he’s preparing for a recital in the spring. He’s going to play “Hunting Song” and…. well, I’m still not sure what else he’ll play.

Ty is learning the “Star Wars” theme on the piano. He reads music better than I did at his age. He doesn’t practice as much as he should, being that it’s a difficult piece, but when he does play it, it sounds about what it should.

He’s also teaching himself third grade maths, including equivalent fractions and mixed numbers. I never know what to give that boy to challenge him. His cursive is perfect. His narrative paragraphs are descriptive. His knitting is a little tight, which is his only current flaw. That, and he likes to take initiative and do things his own way, which are not the way he was instructed.

I love that the play “Hide and Nature Seek.” The three older children are so sweet and fair with the young twin girls. Well, not always, but for the most part, they let them win or make it easy to find them or something darling like that. And other times, they fight the way siblings do.

ANNNND….. we have built our portfolio of English, American, and German folk songs:
Seven Joys of Mary
Greensleeves
Wayfaring Stranger
Blue Tail Fly
Fiddle Dee Dee
Ballad of the Boston Tea Party
Hopp, Hopp, Hopp
Bakke Bakke
O Tannenbaum
Es war eine Mutter
Ich bin ein Musikante

I think our next song will be “Swanee River.” I just have to find and write down the verses because I know only the piano melody.

They also sing solfege, the octave, third and fourth intervals along the octave, arpeggios major and minor, and chords in solfege I, IV, and V7. I’m so glad we home school. I can’t imagine how ignorant they’d be if they went to government school!

This post has been sitting in Limbo for two weeks. I don’t know how to finish it, so here it is, with frays and everything:

Since the first week of October, we have been learning Geography in our home school. I started the first week by looking at the globe. I reminded the boys of the poles, equator, and meridian. We looked at the oceans, compared their sizes to land. Then I introduced to them the desk atlas. Ty was all over the table of contents, flipping pages back and forth, looking up state capitals and African rivers. Kyle, being quieter and more low-key, watched Ty. So I took the book back and explained how to read natural vegetation charts, climate charts, and sea and ocean currents. Aside from their regular home school work (maths, English, piano, knitting), they studied maps and the globe.

The second week, I started our geography lesson by telling them a story:

There were two brothers who grew up in a fishing village. All they knew was how to fish and camp. They had acquired some skills such as navigating, rope making, and small game hunting because they never had to go to school, so they spent a lot of time with their parents and learning their livelihoods.

These two brothers, who knew nothing about anything except a few stories and how to survive, told their mother and father and sisters that they were going on an expedition to learn about their land, to see how far Wardead Field extended, and to see if there were any other villages on the land.

Kyle and Ty decided that the two brothers lived on an island, so I drew a circle on a sheet of paper. They drew coves, other forests and fields, deserts, mountain ranges, one volcano, capes and bays, a few more islands, a gulf, and peninsulas. Now the two brothers had somewhere to go on their expedition:

Of course, their parents were very worried for them, but the two brothers already knew so much about life that they allowed them to go. Together, they walked thirty miles a day while staying along the shore.

Ty and Kyle mapped the brothers’ progress on the map that they had drawn, marking an X on every campsite. It took us five days to track the two brothers’ progress. On the last day, we decided that the two brothers’ younger sister would go with them, being that she knew how to sail and could confirm their suspicions of their land being alone in the sea.

The third week, I taped four sheets of watercolor paper together and drew the outline of the island to scale on the large surface. Ty and Kyle used watercolors to make their map of the island. I supervised their labeling the names of the forests, rivers, and other landforms.

I still have to take a picture of it, a decent picture because my own camera phone is low quality. And we have yet to name our island.

Not saying that ALL home schoolers are lazy. We certainly are, however. I don’t like getting up early to run around the house, brushing people’s hair and making breakfast and yelling at people to brush their teeth. I don’t enjoy coming home from work, hungry and sleepy, to check homework and plan the next day’s clothes. I don’t have the energy nor the desire to make my children’s lunches the night before and nestle them in their lunchbags. By the end of the day, when we’re all back home, neither Dad nor I want to be deprogramming our children from the non-academically related information they would be acquiring from ill-mannered children in school. School didn’t suit me as a child, and it certainly doesn’t suit me as a parent.

On the other hand, we aren’t “lazy” home schoolers, really. I spend most of the summer researching our state’s education standards per grade and subject, looking through the materials that are in our private and public libraries, and, finally, drawing a general outline of what our school year will entail based on holidays and seasonal changes. On the weekends, I put in at least three hours’ of deskwork, writing in detail what each child will be learning on what day in the upcoming week. Every home school morning, I wake up, do my exercises, make breakfast, and have everyone ready to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at 8:20am. The children do three to four hours’ work before lunch with a ten to fifteen minute break.

But this past weekend, I just didn’t feel like making lesson plans. I was being lazy. I woke up early on Saturday to go to work. I came back and sewed a Link costume for the boys. The children and I spent time outside, sitting in the breeze, eating carrot bread. Monday morning was suddenly upon our household, and I had no plans for the week!

Thank goodness for comprehensive curriculum workbooks. If we were really lazy, we’d purchase thousands of dollars of prepared curricula for each of our students, but we’re too poor to be lazy. So we’ll keep writing and drawing in our composition books that we bought for a quarter a piece.

This is a list of the subjects and content that the children have mastered or completed during the first four weeks of school.

Math ~
Ty: Place value through 100s, addition and subtraction using two-digit numbers and regrouping.
Kyle: Place value through 10s, addition and subtraction through 15.
Taylor: Counting, one-to-one coordination

English ~
Boys: Narration and copywork of fables, poems, folk tales
Taylor: Beginning letter sounds,

Health ~
Boys: Nutrition, food pyramid, creating square meals; Safety, personal choices; Hygiene, hand washing, dental

Art ~
All: Horizontal, vertical, diagonal lines; Straight, curved lines; Positive, negative space; Working with primary colors

Phys. Ed. ~
All: Ballet, five positions of arms and legs; Workout DVDs

German ~
Ty: Copywork lyrics
Kyle: Narration lyrics
All: Singing children’s songs

Penmanship ~
Ty: Lowercase letter refinement, preparation for cursive
Kyle: Capital letter refinement

Music ~
Ty: Technical drills on piano; C, F, G, D major chord studies
Kyle: Technical drills on piano; Middle C position and G Major pieces
All: Scale and arpeggio solfege singing.

Handicrafts ~
Ty: Knit and purl
Kyle: Knit
Taylor: Finger crochet to make ropes

This morning, the boys woke up a little bit earlier and were reminded to get ready for their first swimming lesson. They did their chores, had their breakfast, and donned their swim trunks before 7:15am. We piled into the van with Taylor, who wasn’t having a lesson but went to accompany me, and pulled up to the pool ten minutes to eight. The boys went into the locker room that leads to the pool deck. Taylor and I went around the pool and watched the lesson from the bleachers.

Children started showing up just before eight o’clock. Ty prayed with Kyle next to him at the edge of the pool. “Dear God, please make me and Kyle brave so we don’t drown. Amen.” The children sat on a green bench facing east and were instructed to sit at the edge of the pool when the instructor called their names. She called a few names, and the children did as they were told. She called Kyle’s name but mispronounced his last name, so no one answered. She continued to the next name. “I’m not sleepy. Just the sun’s hurting my eyes!” Kyle got up and sat at the edge. A few names later, Kyle announced that he had “to go pee,” and the instructor pointed the way. He was struggling to get the storage room door open when the instructor called to him, “Kyle! What are you doing?”
“I have to pee.”
“The bathroom is in the locker room.”

Then came the evaluation: Neither Kyle nor Ty could swim from one end of the pool to the other, so the instructor asked them to blow bubbles under water. When the class divided into groups based on swimming skill level, Ty and Kyle were in their own group with the same instructor.

With the help of a blue float board, the boys practiced their kicks with straight arms, and they traveled a few feet in the water that way. Ty was instructed to float in a star shape (with straight arms and legs), head down, and blow bubbles. At first, he was scared, but after the second time, he hid his fear. Kyle also floated in the star shape but was only a little scared.

At the end of the lesson, Ty asked the instructor her name. She said, “Miss Dee.” Both boys thanked her and went to change in the locker room.