digit magic

Even though the digits are only zero to nine,

They make up every number, each and every time.

-from "Digit Magic", Enki Education Grade 1 Movement Activity

Getting back into the swing of our curriculum, we started our our new math block with a review of the digits, via reading "The Story of the Sun Dance", a legend from the Blackfeet tribe. Here, in J's story drawing, he shows the hero of the tale, Scarface, along with one of the four sweat lodges (with 2 colors) that he built, and his 3 healers (the Sun, the Moon Woman, and Morning Star, who, by the way, has 5 points).


Zoo Boy's story drawing. (He says that Scarface is INSIDE the sweat lodge in this drawing. Makes sense to me. But he did add an earthworm -- that squiggle towards the bottom of the page -- to represent the "1".) He asked me to write his title for him, but showed me where he wanted it to go.

Today we wrote out a chart with the 10 digits -- there was a space for each numeral from 1 to 9, and I let them draw the "0" wherever they wanted it -- J's is obvious (his is the bottom sheet), Zoo Boy's is harder to see, it's in the margin above the 2. We then discussed the fact that these digits are the only digits there are, and that every number in the world is made up of these 10 digits. We did a few of the rhymes and movement activities from our first Math Block as well, as a review and to help "reawaken" the material.

Then we moved to the floor with two sets of digit cards, and the kids played around with combining the digits to make numbers. They were extremely enthusiastic about it, and spent half an hour coming up with two, three, and four digit numbers, finally pulling out an encyclopedia and recreating dates from history.



My version of the Sun Dance drawing, for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing. I included the 4 animal helpers and the 7 wolves that make up the Big Dipper as well.

It feels GREAT to be back to our regular rhythms again. I've finally broken out of my January Inertia (only because the kids insisted -- I would have been perfectly happy wallowing for another couple of weeks) and feel like a normal human being again. What IS it about January?!?!

Oh, and as a quick addendum to yesterday's post about my kids' inaugural experience, the boys were both thrilled to recognize the melody of the Air/Simple Gifts rendition performed by the quartet before the Oath of Office was administered -- we used "Simple Gifts" in our last adventure circle! Zoo Boy planted himself directly in front of the TV for the actual swearing in, then when it was over, came to snuggle in next to me, saying "This is NICE!" Both boys listened very attentively to President Obama's speech, and when it was over, J said "Malia and Sasha must be so proud of their Dad!" It was a wonderful experience to share with the boys, I feel so fortunate to have them at home with me so that we can celebrate our living history together.

history in the past and in the making

I toted my camera along with me today, snapping photos of our new 10 inches of snow, the boys studying geography under the covers while I was out doing chores this morning, cavorting down the hall during our new adventure circle, and baking bread this afternoon, fully intending on documenting and posting about our triumphant return to schoolwork today. Then I sat down this evening to discover that I didn't have my memory card in the camera. Danged camera, you'd think it would be smart enough to let me know that all those great pictures I was taking were going nowhere!

But anyway.

This morning Zoo Boy woke up to a cleverly folded little stand-up paper sign created by J, which said "Good Morning and Happy M.L.K. Jr Day". Zoo Boy read it, and immediately asked "What do we do on Martin Luther King Jr day"? Both boys turned their attention on me. Tempted to provide them with more information than they are developmentally prepared to handle, I reined myself in and answered simply, "We remember an important man who had a wonderful dream." "Martin Luther King, Jr?" J asked. I nodded. It was all they needed -- all they could understand right now. In years to come, we will study the man and his life and times, and read his inspiring words. Plenty of time for that.

But what about history in the making? The history of OUR times?

It's tempting to provide more information than the kids are ready to process. Understanding WHY this is such a big deal in the history of our country depends a great deal on understanding where it is that we came from. And I just don't think it's in my young children's best interest to know the darker parts of our history just yet. So while I have a burning desire for my boys to be a part of this, to have that understanding, it's just not the right time for them to be made THAT socially aware.

So we'll have the TV on mid-day tomorrow, a great rarity in this house. And I will allow my kids to experience this bit of history on whatever level they are able to. I will save the analyzing, the details, for future study, when they are old enough to truly understand the history of our country and all the twists and turns in the road to get here, to this place. They've already picked up from the climate around this house that this is an important event, something that their parents are thrilled about, and they are every bit as excited to watch our new President sworn into office as we are. For now, it is enough.

easing back in

The north wind doth blow, and there shall be snow....

And what will my family do then?

They'll snuggle in tight

And sleep through the night

And dream of an early spring.


Ok, so I couldn't resist sharing this photo (and being a little silly with the rhyme from one of my kids' new favorite seasonal poems/songs).

It's true, it's hard to deal with all this cold and ice and snow. But we can't help but smile a little at this VERY typical winter. The past several years (or longer!), it's been abnormally mild in January. It's much easier to plan snowy themes around January the way it's SUPPOSED to be -- cold, white, and semi-miserable. It's just not January without a touch of frostbite....

Seriously, though, I've been spending the week planning out our next couple of blocks. We'll be starting our 2nd Math Block of the year on Monday. During this block we'll be introducing the concepts of greater than and less than, and odd and even, amongst other things. These topics are typically covered during the same block at the numerals, but I decided to split up the material into two blocks. For my kids, I felt that the extra attention on comprehension and moving at a slower pace is a good choice. Add to the fact that Zoo Boy really isn't old enough for first grade yet, I thought the way the curriculum was written moved a bit fast for him. I'm in no hurry to get through the materials, and taking care to establish a deep understanding of the concepts is very important to me. No need to rush things!

Today I put the finishing touches on our new Adventure Circle (with a Snowy theme, of course!), which I'll share once we actually start using it and I can get some pertinent photos to go with it. I still have a couple of manipulatives to make and activities to plan out for the math stuff, but I will feel ready by Monday. Unlike this PAST Monday, when my kids were clearly ready to get started again, but I was not. Instead, I ramped up our daily rhythms a bit in preparation for next week.

So this week we're getting up at our "normal" time (rather than whenever we felt like rolling out of bed, like the past couple of weeks), which means that I've got breakfast on the table right at 8:00. We're doing some sensory-rich relay races instead of circle at it's assigned spot in our rhythms, and playing board or card games in place of story work, but it's giving our mornings a more structured feel. We're still having the longer rest (2+ hours) during the afternoon (which I honestly wouldn't mind keeping as a permanent part of our rhythms), but we've added Reading Practice time back into our afternoons again. (The kids wouldn't allow me to put that off any longer -- they insisted on starting with that again by the end of last week.)

So we're getting ready. Which means I'll soon have a reason to update the blog more regularly. Thanks for your patience in the meantime! I've needed the break, and have been quite enjoying being away from the computer a bit more than usual.

ice and cold

We're struggling to drift ourselves back towards a more stable daily rhythm, while buried beneath a heavy blanket of ice and snow. (Gotta love January -- um, not.) I'm also gearing myself up to start blogging a bit more regularly again. But in the meantime, enjoy some photos I snapped while out doing chores the other morning, before our most recent snow storm:

five goals for 2009

Ok, Blogger fixed their photo upload problems, so I figured I'd celebrate by sharing the pics I was going to in my last post, while, keeping with my tradition the past several years, I list (and explain) my top five goals for 2009, a few days later than I traditionally would have posted them. (I've been distracted.) These goals are in no particular order. (But this particular kid-on-a-sled is J.)

Goal #1: Get Healthy. (No gagging on the stereotypical resolution allowed!!) Oh yeah, I know, we all SAY we'd like to eat healthier, exercise more, lose weight, yadda yadda yadda. I was no different, I said that every year too. But now that I no longer HAVE health, I really NEED to do something about it, rather than claim to want to do something about it. Psoriasis, body cramps, joint problems (nothing new there really, but still), and a return of migraines (oh joy) spattered across this past year, and it's time to DO something to stop the madness. It's time to get my body back on the health bandwagon -- lose some weight, see a Homeopath for some constitutional help, and get my diet back on something resembling made-for-human-consumption.


(Zoo Boy, trying to stay warm in the woods. Hey, it was at least 18 degrees F this day, which felt balmy compared to the previous several days....)

Goal #2: Set my priorities. I started to word this "simplify", but after having used that particular term for several other years, and feeling fairly unaccomplished at it, I thought I should step back a bit further and just figure out what it is that actually WANT out of life. For me personally, for the kids educationally/developmentally, for our family as as a whole. Should we make more of an effort to grow more of our own food? Go on a real family vacation? Which museums/organizations do we really want/need to be members of? How many classes is too many for the kids? I'm trying to strike a balance between taking life slow enough to deeply appreciate and enjoy it, and running around making sure that we're not missing out on every experience this amazing life has to offer. The vast array of what's available to do is enough to drive a homeschooling mom insane! Especially a homeschooling mom who, somewhere in her depths, truly believes that less is more, even though she seems to have a lot of trouble actually living that reality. I figure setting my priorities is a pretty good step in the right directions of sticking to those things that lead towards accomplishing our individual and family goals, and weeding out those things that detract from that.


(Today's ice storm -- nice, huh? Answer: NOT)

Goal #3: Climb out of our financial abyss. Five years of Autism Remediation and related therapies, almost entirely paid for out-of-pocket, has wreaked understandable havoc on our financial plans and future. We're already taking steps to remedy that, and I feel fairly confident that we'll be able to put a nice fat check-mark in front of this goal when I look back on this year in December.


(The kids play a game of "Zooreka".)


Goal #4: Add foreign language to our homeschool program. I'm going to begin including Spanish in our curriculum this year. I'm not 100% sure exactly HOW I'm going to do that. I DO know how I DON'T want to do it. So that's a start. I DO know that I'm going to start by incorporating some Spanish songs and games into our circle. Er, um, strike that. I'm going to start by LEARNING a few Spanish songs and games myself. Er, um, strike that too. I'm going to start by actually buying a CD of Spanish songs -- something that comes with a songbook so that I have half a shot at learning the words with something close to proper pronunciation. From there, who knows. Learning Spanish myself would almost certainly be a step in the right direction....

(I told you it looked like a major toy chain got sick in here....)

Goal #5: Learn more about Adult ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Because, as some of you may have already figured out (since most of my friends and family did long before I ever considered the possibility myself), I have recently come to realize that I, in all likelihood, have ADD. In fact, I seem to pretty much be the poster child for Adult ADD. Easily (ha!) distracted? Check! Extremely disorganized? Check! Problems prioritizing? Check! Intense focus on areas of interest? Check! Inability to complete menial or uninteresting tasks? Check! Like many of my big epiphanies over the past few years since turning the liberating age of 40, this realization has had a certain freeing effect. As in, oh, so you mean my brain is wired differently than other folks? What a relief! I thought I was just certifiably nuts. And now that I know that I'm not going to suddenly, magically be able to organize my life and household, I can commence with reading up on coping strategies for Adults with ADD. I'm actually pretty stoked at the possibilities!

So, there it is. Tune in about 12 months from now to find out how it all went....

vacation and vampires

Yes, yes, I hear the complaints loud and clear -- why has a week gone by without a post!

Well, you're not bound to like this much better -- for some reason I'm unable to upload photos today due to an "internal error". Whether it's my computer's internal error or Blogger's, I'm unsure (nor do I know how to figure that out!), but I'm going to hold to the faith that by the time I actually have photos worthy of posting, it'll be all straightened out. For now, all you're missing is my kids sledding, playing in the snow, playing games in the house, our current ice storm, and my living room looking like a Toys-R-Us store threw up on it.

However, that is not my excuse for not posting.

My reasons are two-fold:

First, we're still on our winter break. Not that that stopped me from posting up until this point, but truly, there's not much to report. My kids have been busy redecorating the living room to look like it does in it's present condition (something I really need to take some time to remedy one of these days), which, while amusing to them, isn't really something worthy of documenting.

And second, and the real reason for the absence of posts, has been my absorption (obsession?) with Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga. You know, the teen vampire books that have been all the rage -- Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

One of the kids got me the first book for Christmas. I made the mistake of picking it up on Friday morning. I finished it around midnight, with not much of anything getting done around here between those two points in time. The dastardly publishers had printed the first chapter from the next book at the end. I resisted reading it. Until morning.

So then I had to run out to the bookstore to buy the 2nd book, using a grocery shopping trip as an excuse as to why I was going to be out ANYWAY. I started the 2nd book at about 4pm on Saturday. And finished it about 4am. Which would have been OK if I hadn't had to work on Sunday. And if they hadn't, yet again, included the first chapter of the next book.

As luck would have it, I had 2 hours to kill between students on Sunday. I discovered I forgot a few items in the previous day's shopping trip and ran out to pick those, and the last 2 books in the series (I wasn't naive enough to think I wouldn't just run out for the 4th after finishing the 3rd, so figured I'd save myself another trip out).

I started the 3rd book on Sunday evening, but was dozing off about mid-way through it around midnight, so forced myself to put it to one side, where it sang out lovingly to me all Monday morning while I actually caught up on laundry and animal chores. By the time I got the kids fed with an early lunch, I'd run out of excuses to avoid it, and jumped back in. I finished up about 4:30 in the afternoon.

I showered.

I started into the 4th book about 10 minutes later.

Fortunately, there was just NO conceivable way of reading the last book all at once -- it's over 700 pages, for goodness sake. So I had less trouble putting it down at my self-imposed deadline of midnight and getting a semi-reasonable amount of sleep. I allowed myself a few hours of reading time Tuesday morning, but needed to take the kids to therapy on Tuesday afternoon and forced myself to leave the book at home -- I remembered what a mush my mind was at the grocery store on Sunday, entirely consumed with the characters and story line, and decided that a little coherence would be good for dealing with therapy homework instructions, as well as making the long drive to and from the office. And I resisted even looking at the cover when I got home, as I gathered dogs and trotted off to classes with them, getting home too late to consider picking it up again.

So it was with a sigh of relief that I picked the book up again this morning. And with even more profound pleasure that I thumped the cover closed at about 3:30 this afternoon, sighing the deep sigh of satisfaction that only comes from a story well told from first page to last.

Do you like vampire stories? How about stories of forbidden love? Or just romance in general? How about anything written by an author who really knows how to develop characters that you care intensely about, and how to weave them around a mysterious and intriguing story line?

Yes? You'll love it.

But make sure you can afford to take a week out of your life before you read the first paragraph....

Happy New Year!

In contemplating this new year, this 2009, on what I feel is sure to be the cusp of changes for our country, our world, my attention is drawn to a song (from 1992) that embodies all that I hold in my heart and hope for in the coming year, that we can finally get on the path to making this dream a reality where we all can truly be free. Quoted from the lyrics of "We Shall Be Free" by Garth Brooks:

When the last child cries for a crust of bread

When the last man dies for just words that he said

When there's shelter over the poorest head

We shall be free

When the last thing we notice is the color of skin

And the first thing we look for is the beauty within

When the skies and the oceans are clean again

Then we shall be free

When we're free to love anyone we choose

When this world's big enough for all different views

When we all can worship from our own kind of pew

Then we shall be free

And when money talks for the very last time

And nobody walks a step behind

When there's only one race and that's mankind

Then we shall be free

Stand straight, walk proud, have a little faith, hold out

We shall be free