The Nose Knows

I've come to realize something about myself that's rather quirky:  certain smells make me super-abundantly happy.  Sure, I love to watch a pretty sunset, I love to taste great food, I've cherished the ever-so-soft skin of my three kids when they were babies, and there's no other sound I love best, I think, than the sound of ocean waves crashing on a beach (although, listening to my toddler breathe while he sucks his thumb is pure heaven).

However, while all well and good, and admittedly these things make me very, very contented, nothing comes close to invoking such strong reactions in me than certain aromas.  Good reactions.  And those reactions happen quickly.  I smell, I smile, I'm exultant.  My olfactory sense must dominate the others, I guess (hey.....no jokes about my nose being big!).  

Here are a few of my favorite smells:  pine at Christmas time (thus, nothing but a live tree in this household!), sheets after hanging outside to dry (one of my favs), sauteing onions and garlic, freshly mowed grass, the ocean, fresh-baked goods, my first cup of strong black coffee in the morning, my toddler's head (he's outgrown the baby smell, but has developed a 4-year old smell that only his Mama could appreciate :).)

What does all of this have to do with homeschooling, you might ask?  This is supposed to be a blog about our homeschooling days, right??!  Well, even if it had nothing at all to do with homeschooling, I'd still want to blog about it.  Just typing all those decriptions out made me smile; I think I perceptibly inhaled with each and every keystroke.

This has EVERYTHING to do with homeschooling because my favorite euphoria-invoking smell has to do with.....BOOKS.  Surprised???  :)

I love the smell of new books, I especially love the smell of OLD books (yes, I'm one of those geeks that opens old books to the middle, shoves my nose in and inhales.....and sighs).

I love the smell of a room in our house that we have dubbed the "library".  It is a long "room" that houses our sump pump at the end and around the corner.  It has built in bookshelves.....oh what bliss for a homeschooling family to find when househunting!  The smell, believe it or not, actually is a result of two runner-style rugs we have put down to cover the cement.  It's an odd smell to relish in, but I do.  Because that smell means "books" to me.  I inhale EACH AND EVERY TIME I walk in that "library".....I love it.

I also inhale each and every time I first walk into Barnes & Noble.  Ahhhhhhh.....the smell of coffee AND books, mingled into one.  What could be better?  The aroma portends a wonderful time ahead:  wandering, browsing, dreaming, most likely while holding a yummy cup of brewed goodness.

Boy, I am a geek, aren't I??  (don't answer that)

A Minor Victory, or So Far, So Good

Sarah is currently working through Saxon's Algebra I text.  She's doing well.  It's one of two courses she's taking this year that will earn her high school credit.  Whew!  It's started!  Kind of daunting!

I loved Algebra in school.  I was pretty smart in math, getting bumped up a year ahead at some point in my schooling (don't remember what grade that was).  So when I was an 8th Grader, I, along with three other students, got bussed to the high school to take Algebra with the 9th graders (back in the day, Algebra was a 9th grade subject; seems like everything has been bumped up a year nowadays).  I loved it!  Fun, like a game or puzzle.

One big question that comes up when discussing homeschooling high school is how I might manage the upper level subjects (chemistry, calculus, trig).  I always say that my desire to homeschool the kids through high school is not a declaration of my possessing infinite stores of knowledge; I don't pretend to know everything about every subject they'll encounter through high school.  However, I can help them find the answers, or reach out to people who do know those subjects.  But one day, and it will be sooner rather than later, I will have to throw up my hands and say, "That's it.  I don't know this stuff.  Let's go find someone who does."

Well, I'm many years removed from my math successes in junior high/high school!  Before Sarah started Algebra this year, I admit to being a bit nervous and queasy about fielding a question to which I didn't know the answer.  But, boy oh boy, did I hope and pray that I could at least get her through this year's math!  As a fallback, though, we do own the Saxon Teacher DVDs that will work out every problem in every lesson and test.  So far, we have not had to pull those out!  :)

So my minor victory occurred on Thursday morning, as Sarah was reading her Algebra lesson for the day.  She looked up, had a bit of a frustrated and blank look on her face, and asked if we could go over the lesson together; she wasn't understanding one particular concept of the lesson.  Well, my heart kind of skipped a beat, and my mind reeled and queried, "Is this the moment?  Will I get this stuff?  Will we have to get out the DVDs?  Or, even more drastic, will we have to call someone and get help?"

I read the text, looked at an example, looked at the answer to the example, looked at the example again, pondered, thought, panicked, thought some more, and then the light bulb went off!!  Aha!  I got this!  I can do this!  But, wait......I still have to "teach" this to Sarah, I have to explain this in a way as to get her 13-year old math light bulb to go off.  Aha!  I did that, too!  Whew!

Yes, so far, so good, indeed.

P.S.  In case you're wondering, and want a heads up on what you're in for when YOU have to teach Algebra to your child, the concept was adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, with the unlike denominators being unknown terms with exponents (having to determine the LCM of those algebraic terms).    

Sunday Evening Musings

I'm supposed to be prepping; prepping for our homeschool co-op tomorrow.  I teach the 6th and 7th grade book club, and we're reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson right now.

I've gotten side-tracked.  Read a couple of e-mails (B&N and Amazon e-mails that I get detailing the "Best Books of the Week"; this one from Amazon, though, was the "Best Books of the Year"........wouldn't that sidetrack you, too??!); from those e-mails stumbled on a few blogs about books; from there spent some time adding a silhouette picture of our family to the bottom of my blog (isn't it cute?).

*SIGH* (not in a good way)

I ALWAYS dread Sundays because invariably I have put off planning for our book club class.  I shouldn't admit that publicly, that I go into planning kind of dreading it.  But I also want to share the rush I get as I start to delve into the assigned chapters, and begin jotting down notes and questions (with the help of a couple of free, on-line teachers' guides).  I start to envision the lively discussions we will have, the quoting of the book that will occur as support for an answer to a question, the analyzation of characters.  I love this! 

This class has been a lot of work, but I really, honestly, and truly love to teach a book this way.  Never done this before, so went into it with quite a bit of trepidation.  Each and every Monday actually produces a bit of anxiety.  But then something happens......class begins, we get in a groove, and then, class is over!  It flies by!  Great discussions (mostly with my 7th graders), good times, laughter, ponderings.

*SIGH* (in a good way)

So after I finish this post, I'll get back at it; I'll have to face the prepping, the anxiety, the work.  But rest assured, that rush will come, the anticipation of a great class day will see me through yet another Sunday night.

More book recommendations

A couple of books the kids and I have shared recently:

         

Also, Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.

We currently are reading:



Jeremy is reading:

         

And Sarah just read:

Keep it going

So, I thought about my blog earlier today, and as usual, I felt panic about it.  Had the same pattern of thoughts:  "you should really give it a go today", "come on you can do it"; then the anxiety about blogging, then the negative self-talk:  "you're going to skip today....AGAIN; you're a putz."

But then I got to experience sheer bliss when this thought hit me:  I had blogged last night!  Nah-nah-nah, boo boo!  (wait.......who am I telling off with that juvenile refrain???!!  MYSELF?)

And all of this occurred within a nanosecond.  But I really did enjoy the bliss.  It was heaven.

But then I had to face the thought that I had to blog TODAY.  Well, I didn't have to.  But I am really trying to tackle this "practice makes perfect" thing that I'm so good at spouting to my kids, but rarely exhibit myself.  So new anxiety.

But here I am......I really think it has boiled down to this:  I just don't feel like I have much to say on a daily basis.  So what do I blog about today?

When in doubt, blog about books!  :)

So my latest obsession is reading books about how reading and books have influenced others.  Like I'm way crazy about this right now.  Here's a couple I've read recently:

   

Both fabulous.  Highly recommended.  

Let's Try Again

Okay, so apparently I'm not so good at this blogging thing.  I REALLY WANT TO BE.  Don't know why I can't pull this off.

Why am I intimidated by blogging?  Yeah, I guess that's what I feel when I think about sitting down every day and blogging.  Truth be told, I would love to be a writer, a pontificator, a say-er of all things mundane; kind of like that guy on "Northern Exposure."  You remember that show about the smarty-pants doctor that ends up in Alaska for his residency (or something like that)?  Do you remember the radio DJ guy that used to "ramble" over the airwaves about everything and nothing....at the same time? 

Like, I was in awe of him (his character), his job; I thought, "I'd love to do that!"  I did grow up wanting to be a DJ, and nowadays, I realize I couldn't pull off that kind of DJ-ing.  I'd ramble too much (as my friends can attest to!), my thoughts are too scattered.  And, anyways, as I've grown, as much as I enjoy conversing and speaking about all matters in life, I do much prefer the written word.

But what I've come to learn about myself is that I love the printed word more than I thought I did.  Of course, it goes without saying.....I love books.  Yes, I said it yet again.  I probably can't go a day without thinking that thought.  But I've recently discovered that my amorousness goes beyond books per se.  It is the written word, the expression of thought, the expertly crafted sentence/paragraph/publication.  It is the time, energy, love, blood, sweat, tears that I can tell an author has put into his work; I am left so humbled by that effort.  And I am utterly grateful to be the Dear Reader that gets to inhale the finished product.

Some people are naturally gifted by God with this ability to wow with words; for these lucky ducks, the writing process is like walking or breathing.  For most of us, not so much.  But that doesn't mean we can't creep towards that goal.

It's like I tell Jeremy all the time about art.  You see, Jeremy wants so bad to be good at drawing.  But he's impatient; he wants to be good RIGHT NOW.  He hasn't really been naturally gifted by God with drawing talent, but I keep trying to get him to see it's a process.  It's a training of the brain; like his co-op art teacher has said, it's training yourself to see in a new/different way.  It's the long exercise of getting your hand to draw what the eye and brain see.  AND IT DOES TAKE TIME.  And practice.  And sweat.  And patience.

And so it goes with writing, I think.  I certaily have not been naturally gifted as a writer.  I think I'm decent, but I ramble (have I mentioned that already?)  So I will end now, realizing that I need to take my own advice.  I have been caught in a "Do as I say, not as I do" moment.  With my desire to write/blog more, to create well-crafted sentences/paragraphs, Jeremy could easily say, "But, Mama, you just need to practice.  It takes time.  Like you've always told me.........right?"

"Yes, Jeremy."