Grab Bag of Ideas (like always!)

(These pictures were taken a while ago, we went to the midnight sale of Brisingr at the local bookstore. One of the girls' friends went with us. It was also a dress-up event so thats' why they look a bit 'odd'! hehe. We had a nice time, how could we not in a store full of BOOKS?!)

I changed the layout of the blog, if someone finds the white on black to be difficult to read please let me know!

IT IS, IN FACT, NOTHING short of a miracle that the modern methods of education have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe that it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected accordingly. - Albert Einstein

This might be long. Stick with me. Charlotte came to me a little while ago to have a conversation about college and school in general. She has some niche interests that she'd like to explore more, so we started talking seriously about curriculum in general. She will be in 8th grade next year and I can't imagine not letting her have a hand in all of this, isn't that the point of homeschooling? So, she's going to be doing the basics, along with a focus on computer-related subjects. Bethany also has some interests that she wishes to explore more.

So, we will be stopping Tapestry of Grace. I like the program. A lot. But we seem to do just fine with covering the basics with a variety of curriculums (Teaching Textbooks for math, various grammar sources, Apologia science, etc.). Bethany is currently studying anatomy terms and botany because her major interest is later doing a course by Shonda Parker - www.naturallyhealthy.com (or it might be .org). She has been invited to attend a midwifery skills weekend with me because we'll be discussing herbs, making tinctures, etc. So we're back to basics and lots of trips to the library!

The other fun thing is Charlotte has asked to start devotionals with me. I've never been a fan of canned devotionals, I'd rather break open my Bible and read it. I tried, really tried, to get into some of the "how to study" books, but the Bible and a good program like www.BlueLetterBible.com was enough. C loves the Do Hard Things book, is involved in their forum, and wants to do their printable devotional together, so we are. There's another that we plan to go through together as well. I guess because this is her interest -and- it feels like the time is right for it now.. it's natural and doesn't feel forced at all. I am excited about having this time with her to have these deeper discussions. She never fails to amaze me as she matures into a wonderful young lady. She knows that without her I could *never* do the doula work and midwife studies, at least not yet. But instead of the "woe is me as the overburdened oldest" she finds it laughable to read about some of the things listed in Do Hard Things as examples of what low expectations are had of teens. She's grabbing her life by both hands and I'm whole-heartedly encouraging it.

This is a major reason why I was attracted to homeschooling in the first place. While I don't believe we'll ever be true "unschoolers" I do know that I'm fine with child-led learning. The only place where that isn't true might be math - we do typical work, although Teaching Textbooks is geared towards homeschoolers. Also, in science in the older grades because I like the way Apologia covers 7th-12th grade.

I spent Friday & Saturday at a local midwife skills weekend. It was really nice and overall refreshing. We ate great vegetarian food (all took turns making a meal) and the midwife opened up her home to those of us that were a distance away. She has goats, ducks, beautiful gardens, and a very artistic/decorative home. Two pregnant women (and families) joined us for Friday's dinner and let us practice basic skills on them - baby positioning, heart tones, measurements, and blood pressure. We talked about birth, ways to have an easier natural childbirth, and then watched videos later that evening after they'd gone home. We did bookwork the next day, along with discussions. Many shared birth stories and experiences, which was invaluable for learning from other student midwives. I brought home ....

Eight duck eggs! This is our unexpected spring project. They're in the incubator now and we should have ducklings by early May. The boys are eager to help me build a brooding pen and I think it'll be an especially nice project with James and his new toolset from Christmas. The children and I will be headed to Virginia for a long weekend next month and a local friend has offered to duckling sit for us. We have hatched guinea hens in the past, but ducks are a bit different. Their eggs require a misting or dunking daily - we're doing a dunking 2x's/day - and the eggs are much larger. The midwife uses her duck eggs for cooking and I was pleasantly surprised at the taste (I was expecting it to be strong, but it was fine). I'd love to get to the point where we have duck eggs and more ducklings. The ducks have lovely personalities and I think they'd be a better fit for us overall than chickens. The big test will be teaching Kuza (great pyrenees dog) how to protect them and making sure predators don't get them.

Off to bed! This week should be much less chaotic than last, yay!