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So I’m trying to be a better piano teacher this year. To that end, I was searching for free printable music sheets that we can use for sight reading, since what I’ve been doing is hand-printing sight reading sheets myself. Making Music Fun has many that we can use. They have several levels available. I also found the following online sight reading practice tools, if you would prefer to forego the paper practice sheets. Finishing up Migi’s course plans for the year. I’ve got several book studies lined up for him, but he wants to round it all out with some Ranger’s Apprentice material. And Harry Potter, but I think I may have to come up with those myself (more on the HP subject later). I did find these, yay! Random House Australia’s Teacher’s Guide for Book 1 (The Ruins of Gorlan) Guides for Books 1 through 6 at the official site If you’ve got teen boys and you haven’t read the Ranger’s Apprentice series yet, I’d highly recommend you do it and SOON. I judged most of the books appropriate for my 11-yo…. up to Book 6. I let him read Book 7 though I think it’s got way more violence than I’m comfortable with at this age, but we did it with lots of (continuing) discussion and guidance. Our 14-yo has read all the books as well and the 19-yo. Excellent series for dinnertime discussion, except we try to avoid that as the 8-yo feels left out. I’m usually not into stories about knights, etc. but this series got me. I’m so glad my 14-yo convinced me to read them all. Tried to read RA Book 1 several times and couldn’t get past the first few pages, but after that hurdle I am so addicted myself to this series and can’t wait for the next one. October 5, Halt’s Peril comes out! Whew! Finally, after weeks and weeks of not having phone, internet, and a few days where I didn’t have my right thumb (long story), we are ready. Paco is enrolled at Kolbe Academy shooting for Honors. I’ve got his curriculum figured out and agreed upon (very important
+ he’s shooting for several merit badges on his way to Eagle Scout. It’s about time I switched. This is the first time I’m able to blog in WEEKS!! My laptop is always at 100% CPU usage, it’s driving me crazy. Something that used to take 10 minutes to do now takes me 3 hours. This is our third Dell. Hubby’s on his third too…. but his is company-issued so any problems that he encounters he just has to take it in and they take care of it. I don’t have that kind of luxury and I’m tired of spending time and money on repairs. So I’m making the switch. I figure better do it now before I’m old and crotchety and refuse or unable to learn new tricks. _________________________ Some notes:
Tuesday. Paco interviews us about marriage and how we live our lives… and basically how we swim against the tide in a culture of death. Gave thanks once again for the gift of scouting and the Ad Altare Dei program. Wednesday. Met with Colleen for AAD graduation and prayer service. She informs us that she’s leaving St. M to be the new director of the Family Life Office for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. We will dearly miss her but so glad to know that she’ll be working for pro-life, pro-ministry, domestic church and basically strengthening the family! Thursday. Many pro-life thoughts, esp. connected to recent Google Reader posts. Looking for pro-life doctor. Discussion with hubby and kids about pro-life matters, esp. about where the country/society is headed. Friday. Many pro-life thoughts, more Google posts on pro-life issues. Planning next pro-life items to accomplish, wondering how family can get more involved. Researching Creighton specialists. Found Dayton’s Drs. Moell and their story. Phone convo with my mom about vaccinations and pro-life issues. Saturday morning. Cleaning house. Rosary. Meditation. Many many more pro-life thoughts, leading to post drafts. Saturday evening. Doris and Leo asked us to be the pro-life contact for CFC-FFL-Cinci. I guess I’ll be giving Colleen a call sometime soon. Frustrating. Looking for a pro-life doctor within an hour’s drive of Cincinnati who’s willing to order vaccines for us, not cultivated using aborted fetal cell lines. We went back to our old pediatrician when we came back to Ohio. He doesn’t know a thing about aborted fetal cell lines and asked me to send him an e-mail with information. I sent it to him more than a month ago. No response. Oldest dd saw a NAPRO doctor a week ago for a cyst issue and I find out he also does pediatrics. (I would have taken her to see my ob-gyn who is (mostly) pro-life, but they would have prescribed BCPs. No thanks.) Today I phoned to find out if he would order the pro-life vaccines for us, but no, his nurse hasn’t ever heard of this either. They do space out vaccines which is what some families I know do. I googled “pro-life doctor Cincinnati” and found one in Dayton, about 45 minutes from here. Called his office. Disconnected. Eight years ago when our then 2-month-old was diagnosed neutropenic, she had to stay away from vaccines for 1 1/2 years. A good thing because that was about the same time I learned about Children of God fo Life. I spent quite some time researching and decided that we needed a pro-life doctor to administer her next shots when the right time came. Four years ago we went back to Cincinnati and the first thing I looked for was such a doctor. I got 2 recommendations. One wasn’t taking new patients. One never responded to voice mail messages that I left. We ended up taking her to our old pediatrician, letting her receive the regular vaccines and just prayed that nothing untoward would happen and that we weren’t culpable — he did say the vaccines are now cultured “synthetically” — whatever that means. I’m not a science person so my understanding is limited. I’m concerned about both the religious and moral implications as well as the health implications, autism on the rise and all that….
I may just have to opt for St. Louis, and time it for when we visit my folks. Pro-life resources: Read aloud: Galimoto Art activity: Make your own galimoto with different grade wires from the hardware store. More ideas here. Read and narrate: Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. (3rd grade and up) Continue to work on African Saints today. Mom: Food Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa provides a wealth of information that can be used for the African scrapbook — can also be used as a jump-off point for further unit studies/rabbit trails. Today’s Menu, from Food Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Green Plantain Chips, p. 21 or Akara, p. 22 (optional — a more involved stew maybe for dinner: Palaver Sauce, p. 31) Fun Read Alouds or for Beginning Readers: What’s Cooking, Jamela? Fun Read for Older Kids: King Solomon’s Mines (Mom, pre-read please). For discussion: Should fiction be included in a serious study of history? Why or why not? In reading King Solomon’s Mines, what did you learn about Africa that you did not learn from other sources we’ve used? Reading and Narration: St. Augustine and His Search for Faith. Don’t forget to add St. Augustine to our Saints section! Revisiting Ancient History: Today’s Menu, from A Taste of Africa: Shiro Wot, p. 69 Mom and older kids: Saints of Africa. Can also read aloud certain sections. Pick 12 saints to include in our Africa scrapbook. (Note about this book: It is a worthy compilation of well-known, lesser-known and obscure African saints. What bothers me about it (so far, and I’m only into the first few pages) is that the author chooses to put down other saints while lifting up others. I understand that the saints weren’t perfect, and that all of them had their own inner demons to deal with, but I’d rather read biographies of saints that highlight their particular strengths and challenges they had to overcome, without resorting to criticizing their “fellow saints” in the process. For instance, I did not like the author’s reference to St. Jerome being “acrimonious”. I tend to regard the saints as somewhat like my parents — I know they’ve got faults, but I love them anyway, and would prefer to focus on what’s admirable and inspiring about them.) Read Aloud: The Day of Ahmed’s Secret Study questions: 1. What was Ahmed’s secret? 2. Do you remember the first time you learned to read? 3. Describe in a few sentences what it felt like to finally be able to read. Add notes to the Egypt section of our Africa scrapbook. Today’s Menu: Tomato Confit (p. 56) At the beginning of this week, my mind was all set to do a VENT post. As things turned out though, there was no time to do a vent post and instead I have time today to give thanks. What did I need to vent? Oh, the usual. What I thought of on Sunday as “financial woes”. A couple of months ago, the van’s windshield cracked. Just like that, no warning. Two weeks ago, the windshield on the car cracked. It made me want to pull my hair and blurt out my 19-yo’s current favorite, “REALLY!!!???” But that’s not all. The van’s brakes also needed fixing, and there were a number of small expenses that just couldn’t be helped, kids needing shoes, clothing, etc. Oh, and how could I forget the oven that died last week and needed a repair? And on top of all that dh’s mom is recovering from surgery and she needs extra care so there go some of the savings….. (I am not complaining at all about that, though — we are half a world away and the least we can do is send some much needed cash to her caregivers to whom we are indebted much!) But yeah, you could say my head was spinning a bit watching those savings dwindling right before my eyes…. and especially since I’m hoping we can save enough money soon so dh could get a new (old) car. Not that he wants one — he’s not the type to complain and he’s the type of guy who will drive a car to the ground — maintaining it as best he can — you wouldn’t hear one peep from him about liking this or that model, though I know he notices some of the spiffy ones, him being Mr. Engineer and all. But his car is a ’93 model and it’s rusting a bit in places and if I could go out and get him a trusty little Honda right now I would. But…. So, my fingertips were itching to type exactly that and many more little grumblings about this and that and how life is unfair sometimes and how the secular world is driving me crazy — between the oil spill and Lady Gaga and Kagan and the lawsuit against the Vatican and various other things I had gotten wind of somehow even though I don’t spend nearly as much time as I did a month ago online…. okay, Stef, breathe. Sigh. Let’s try this again, shall we. I said this was NOT going to be a vent. So I’ll stop right here and instead ask you, dear reader if you’re out there, to pray with me for several families who need MANY MANY MORE PRAYERS than we do.
And I should have done this first, but I have a LONG list of Thank You Lords that I’m trying to focus on instead of doing the pity party:
…. and which brings me to: THE PLANS! - dear youngest brother requested a picnic, so we’re having one this weekend! At one of our favorite parks! Okay, gotta go. I’ve got laundry to finish up, two loaves waiting to be baked, and almond butter to be whirled in the Vita Mix. (The Thank You list is actually much longer, but I had to stop typing at 10 to get to the end of this post.) I finally found *the* one…. and realized just how visual I am. at Folded Space — a png file It’s tempting to do a post on “GTD for Homeschoolers”… except I wouldn’t know where to begin. Last year, I made a resolution that we would shoot for “optimum” in our diet…. meaning 7-9 servings of vegetables and fruits a day. And I was successful. Note the *I*. For a couple of weeks there I was able to get my servings of veggies and fruits. About half-way successful with the hubby. Not so with the kids. When I gave them the option, they always chose the meat and carbs, mostly ignoring the array of veggies and fruits on the table. (We still stick to the one-bite-of-each rule, so they did get *something*, just not a full serving.) This week, I embarked on a self-designed program that I put into the calendar a few months ago, but never really followed, afraid it wouldn’t work. Day 2 was yesterday and it just might work this time. Mostly it requires a mental switch that I had to flip — the “I need to give the kids some meat!” switch. Here’s how it works: Our daily menu goes beef-vegetarian-chicken-vegetarian-fish-vegetarian-pork-vegetarian… and so on. Which means we have beef, chicken, pork or fish only ONCE a week. Which cuts down on red meat intake drastically and not just for us but for the kids. Part of the difficulty before was that I knew hubby and I had to be more careful about our red meat intake, so I tried to limit *our* servings, but the kids always got their fill, *and* hubby’s notorious about eating little ones’ leftovers if any. Now, on vegetarian days, I’ll serve NO MEAT OR FISH, not even leftovers. This is where I failed before. I would serve leftovers so that the kids would have *some* meat, but they would usually opt for mostly meat and hardly any veggies/fruits, even if it meant minuscule amounts for each of them and leaving the table hungry. Yesterday, they were forced to partake of whatever was on the table, and get their fill from that. So what was on the table?
All of these, except for the rice, were organic and/or local. And I resolved to not worry about whether they had their fill or not, I just made sure the food was there and that they ate *something*. No one complained about being hungry at bedtime, so it must have worked. Two kids asked, “Where’s the meat, Mom?” but I stood firm Read Aloud: A is for Africa. Add notes to the Nigeria page. Read Aloud: Moja Means One. Copy and illustrate the numbers in the book. Older kids: Read African Fractals. Take note of interesting information and include in the Math section of the Africa scrapbook. Print out banknotes to add to your country pages. You can find them here, and here. Or use the Rand workpages here. Read Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, pages 332, 343, 362-363. Make entries into Book of Centuries/Adventure: Africa scrapbook. Today’s Menu, from The Momo Cookbook: Zaalouk, p. 63 Just some musings through the past few weeks.
More to blog, but it will have to wait. Big plans tomorrow. |
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) and here it is:
but he preferred to use Kolbe’s suggested texts. I might supplement with a 
I’ve allowed Migi, who’s 11, to read the books up to Book 7, which to me is quite violent… but no further, at least for another year or so. I’m *so* tempted to order that book on Amazon that someone brought in to the US from Australia. But. I will be patient and set a good example.
In mid-May the whole family dug out one of our garden plots, cleaned, weeded, and prepped it for planting. In the middle we put in a bunch of gladioli, the four corners got dahlias, and the sides got lilies. We’ve been waiting for them to bloom and finally the gladioli are showy in all their tall pink creaminess… the lilies are still hanging back behind the wings. Rather disappointed in the dahlias as they’re not as big as we had anticipated… but the kicker is that when dh mowed the lawn Friday he got overly enthusiastic with the weed whacker and cut down two of the dahlias too. WAAAAH. I *almost* threw a tantrum. Then he treated me to sushi, so now we’re friends again. Besides, it’s Father’s Day. 
