A little bit of October there and here...

A patch full of cousins

A face full of smiles

A heart full of love

A life full of lovely craziness!

“State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett

“Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.”

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, 2011

After rediscovering Barbara Kingsolver, author of one of my favorite books in high school, The Bean Trees (the other was Richard Wright’s Native Son), through her mesmerizing, wrenching, hopeful novel The Poisonwood Bible, I was swooning to read Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder.  Also set in a jungle among native people (though South America as opposed to Kingsolver’s Africa), State of Wonder lacked the gorgeous prose that is native to Kingsolver’s storytelling, but what Patchett lacks – or rather neglects – as a wordsmith she dazzles with in storytelling.  Both writers leave you with the taste of the jungle on your tongue and the slick of a foreign, yet so tangible, environment pressed against your skin.  State of Wonder is as much a title as it is a description.

“The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield

“All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes - characters even - caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.”

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, 2006

A gorgeously written modern-day gothic novel about family secret, crumbling stone manors and strangers in the woods, Diane Setterfield’s debut novel comes highly recommended, especially as the days grow shorter and nights of reading stretch longer.  Any story whose setting involves dark, velvety libraries set against the din of country rainstorms and the talk of vivid reminiscences that seem like they’re just outside the doorway is my kind of tale.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…”

When you have such an amazing, fun, wonderful father, not even being only five weeks old can stop your burgeoning football love!

Philadelphia Eagles frenzy times one…

Two…

Three!

Fly, Eagles, fly, on the road to victory!

E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!

Reflections on the start of the homeschool year…and cake

Isn’t this charm-alicious cake by my mom just super cute?  My parents and my sister and her family came to our home on Labor Day for a little party, and my mom, my children’s Gigi, made her famous chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and decorated it it for Grace and Libby beginning homeschool, Emmeline turning one-month-old, and Dominick, my sister’s adorable son, getting his first tooth!  When Labor Day rolled around, we were just into our second week of homeschool.  In January I began homeschooling Grace in Kindergarten early (she was 4.5 years old) because she was so interested in beginning a school program and already was at a Kindergarten level (I’m a former Kindergarten teacher, so that helped me know that she was developmentally ready).  She’s currently doing first grade level work but we’re maintaining this “level” as “Kindergarten” and calling it her first official year of being homeschooled.

Because we’re super duper busy with a brand-new baby, homeschooling two children (Libby is doing preschool at home) and trying to keep the washer, dishwasher and trashcan all empty (and then full again…and empty again…and full again…and, well, you know…), here are some thoughts on the first two weeks of our adventures as a homeschooling family:

Homeschooling is not “doing school at home”, it’s a lifestyle of learning! While we don’t ascribe to the unschooling approach (which has attributes that I love), we also do not fit in with a rigidly scheduled school day, either.  Our schedule is flexible so that my children don’t miss out on activities and opportunities to learn and enrich their lives by meeting people, being with friends, going places and exploring their world.  However, a typical day has a “routine” – after getting dressed and eating breakfast, we begin our day with prayer and devotions, move onto math, and then we segue into literature-based history, science, social studies, the arts or language arts.  Afterwards we have lunch and then Libby naps while Grace works on phonics, reading and/or writing.  Because of the job that my husband is so blessed to have, he’s able to be home with us during the afternoon, and if the girls are playing with him or we’re out doing something as a family then we’ll work on Grace’s “afternoon work” when dinner is finished in the evening.  There has to be a balance between the variety of ways that children learn, and it’s not always through formal lessons.  I’ve found, both in traditional classroom education and homeschooling, that appreciating learning in both contexts – in a classroom setting (by which I also refer to a homeschool as a classroom) and in daily life – creates the most fulfilling view of education for students and teachers.

Back to school party with friends at the park

Caring for your children – and the purpose behind it – is educational!  I know what you’re thinking, “Helping to do things for younger siblings is great and all, but…”  But nada.  Sure it’s wonderful to learn hands-on what it means to take care of a family, but one of the best things about homeschooling is intertwining formal education with the education gleaned organically through daily life.  When your kids see you working together to meet the needs of family members, even if it means postponing a lesson plan or stopping  to change a diaper, wipe a nose or hug away some tears, you are modeling the way that our Father cares for us.  His attention comes lovingly, patiently, and wholly.  Joyfully caring for your family and not relegating them to the sidelines in the name of “getting school done” teaches a repeating lesson in understanding what is most important.

Holding a baby all day long is not a hindrance to teaching…and it’s an amazing arm work-out to boot.  Yes, I’m one of those parents who hold their baby pretty much all the time or wear their little darling in a wrap (a totally uh-may-zing sleep wrap from one of my most darling friends, Brynna @ Joyfilled Living!) all day long.  I’ve never had a baby who lets you lay her down willingly, and I won’t get into doing the Let Me Tell You the One Million Reasons Why I’m Not Exaggerating thing, but let me just say that Emmeline will totally know her addition facts by the time she’s four months and has already participated in abstract art projects because she’s a very present presence in our homeschooling.  Like Grace enjoys telling me, we have three students in our school…but only one is allowed to eat while doing her lessons.

That about wraps up (sparkly bow-style, of course) some thoughts about the first two weeks of being a homeschooling family.  I guess what I’ve discovered so far is that, 1. we’ve been a homeschooling family all along, because a grateful, open heart observes and enhances the learning experiences that daily living provides, 2. putting the child before the plans is the foundation of a loving homeschool experience, and 3. doing everything one-handed ain’t so bad.  You may just become ambidextrous.  Iced coffee grippage from any direction, plus!

A day in the life of Emmeline Charlotte

Includes lots of smiles

Plenty of sister togetherness

Mucho style

(This fabulous look courtesy of the extreme talent of my dear friend Melissa!)

Pondering life’s bigger questions…

”Should I spit up on this onesie now or later?”

Oodles of chunkarific bows

And I’m pretty sure that I mentioned gazillions of smiles!

“Bed” by David Whitehouse

“Life trundled along with a steady momentum.  And though I thought about Lou, I was happy.  Just as I knew in my heart and my bones and the fibers of my being as a child when Mal would turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary one, I knew it would happen again.  And it would shake this steady ship, this steady boring ship, until we all fell off it.  The sailor’s life was not the life for us.  I wasn’t sure if I cared whether I’d drown.  Maybe I already was.  Just bobbing, waiting for the lifeboats to be deployed by whatever Mal did next.  I knew that if this was how I felt conformity’s dull itch, in Mal it was an agony he couldn’t let persist.  We were just waiting for the need to scratch it to become too big to take.” 

Bed by David Whitehouse, 2011

Nursing at the keyboard means relying on cut-and-pastes here and there, so instead of going on and on about how engrossing and marvelous Bed is, but this review from Publisher’s Weekly is a great synapsis:

“A masterful balance of displaced emotion, black humor, and reportage, this accomplished debut offers an offbeat insight into the lives of a family dealing with morbid obesity. Malcolm "Mal" Ede is the ultimate nonconformist, and, on his 25th birthday, he decides to go to bed and stay there--forever. His increasingly newsworthy protest of the idea of "a mediocre existence" of work, bills, marriage, and kids, and his slide into stasis-induced gross obesity is told from the point of view of his unnamed younger brother, who treats readers to a glimpse of the lives that are touched by the enigmatic Mal. In each of the members of Mal's immediate family, his avoidance of life is reflected--his mother, who thrives on martyrdom; his engineer father, who carries with him guilt for a fatal mining disaster; and his brother, stoic in every regard except his unrequited love for Mal's girlfriend, Lou. The central question of the novel is "why?" asked by the journalists who call for interviews, the gawkers who camp out on the lawn, and by those closest to Mal. Whitehouse deals with material that threatens to tip into the overwrought or clownish, but he maintains a tone of subtlety and grace, pulling a distinguished and accessible story out of a profoundly strange experience.”