10 days: Holiday Nights

It has been a tradition for several years now to go with good friends to the Greenfield Village Holiday Nights event. Prior to this year we've carted the kids off to grandparents' houses for the night and enjoyed ourselves until long after bedtime, but this the year we finally bundled them up and took them with us. Like anything else that was once yours alone, seeing it through the younger set of eyes was like renewing the event. "Oh, wow!" was a popular exclamation for the evening, and the giggling almost never stopped. We were fortunate in the weather; although it had been kind of rainy all day, it didn't rain while we were outside at the event until the moment that we were walking back to the cars, and although we would have gladly taken snow, it was probably easier to enjoy it with the younger set while temperatures were in the mid-forties.

Saint Nicholas

As any parent will tell you, things can change in the blink of an eye, as did our son's toothy smile in a brief moment of clumsy exhuberance yesterday at HAA. One fall (and I don't mean the season) and those two front teeth will never quite look the same. Of course, eventually they will fall out anyhow, but loose teeth give a parent some time to get used to the upcoming awdward grin and the lisp that accompanies it. Our change was a bit more sudden, a bit more bloody, and required an unexpected visit to the dentist. The teeth are still firmly rooted, though, and the dentist assures us that, not only will there be no permanent proglems, they might even slowly slide back into place. That would be good, because there are cookies to eat this season, and a play to perform in next week, lisp or no.

With an injury like that of course come tears and lots of hugs. I will say that for once I understood the "it takes a village" mantra, as the other mothers at HAA descended upon us with ice, phone calls to dentists, and a multitude of reassurances. With children of all ages involved in a homeschool gathering, there are mothers at all stages of parenthood available for advice, those who know what you are going through right now, and those who have been there before.

Calvin rebounded amazingly quickly. Though the dentist promised at least a week of needing soft foods and pain medication, as of yesterday morning it was like nothing had ever happened. Which was good because, or possibly encourage by, yesterday marked our annual celebration of Saint Nicholas Day. Oranges, pajamas, coins, and one gift (a Christmas felt set) in the ol' wooden shoe, Christmas songs galore, and dinner with family. The dates didn't align with the weekend this year so we're a few days off the official target, and we dropped the traditional fare for a more flavorful menu, but it was still the pre-party of our season, the kick-off to a landslide of events that will continue snowballing until they explode some time around New Years and we are left with the dark days of winter and an empty calendar stretching out before us for months.

We are here (a homeschooling map)

A tree, some ornaments, some grooving animatronics...it's Christmas at our house. Plus I have four or five projects going at once, the kitchen table has become craft central, and our calendar is full from now until kingdom come (and beyond, if you listen to the Mayans). And all of that, more than the twinkling tree and lights, implies the fast approach of the merriest holiday of the year.

But we are still keeping up, for the most part, with our school activities as well. In math Calvin is learning division and finding the area of odd shapes (Math-U-See Delta). In spelling he's learning some tricks for understanding, or in some cases merely memorizing, vowel digraphs and diphthongs (Spelling Workout D). In grammar we've just finished talking about the different parts of speech (First Language Lessons Level 2) and will be moving into diagramming sentences next (FLL Level 3).

We spent the last week reviewing previous works heavily. This was not a planned hiatus, but arose out of necessity. Since beginning our trip through history with the big bang last year we have used large timelines, hung on various walls in the house (here and here), to help us visualize the journey. The older timelines we made were felt with felt critters to play with, but the most recent timeline, the one that corresponds to the emergence of ancient civilizations, was made of paper, and paper hanging on the hallway wall does not stand up well to the violence of a dog's tail. A few months in and our timeline is ragged with tears, so we've begun the process of remaking it in felt like the others, with laminated dates and happenings fitted with velcro to put on and take off (it helps also that Calvin, to my surprise, is still excited about playing with his felt, and asked for an ancient civilizations felt set for Christmas).

All that to say that, since we had to remake the ancient civilizations timeline we've spent the last week in a really thorough review of the years between the invention of the wheel (around 3500 b.c.e.) and the emergence of Classical Greece from the dark ages (around 800 b.c.e.). And since we were in the mood for reviewing, we traipsed back through all our science studies from the past few months. And what the past week or so has taught me is that a child's memory is surprising both in its capacity and capriciousness; he'll remember the oddest things, the most obscure things, and sometimes forget the most obvious, but then the next time you ask, there they are in full detail.

We've also added two new things to our regular repertoire—art and foreign language. For foreign language we were torn between things like Chinese and Spanish, so we went with the next best thing: ancient Greek. Our interest was, of course, inspired by our arrival in history at the dawning of the Greek classical age, at the writings of Homer, at the dialogues of Plato, not to mention that in all our documentary viewing, it has become clear that our hero, Michael Wood, speaks Greek to some degree. Come to our house these days and you're likely to hear us singing Alpha Beta Gamma in place of the ABCs (Song School Greek).

And for art we are practicing line drawing techniques, the kind that have me (the non-artist in the family) quacking in my boots, but the book we are using is titled Drawing With Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too, by Mona Brookes, so you'll notice that it names me specifically in its target audience: adult beginner.

Calvin's lion and background...

My lion and background...

And that's were we are these days on the homeschooling map. This season lends itself to lots of distracting activity, of course. Tomorrow we will be going to a stage production of A Christmas Carol, and next week it will be The Nutcracker, followed by Calvin's own performance in Alice in Wonderland, the holiday party with HAA (our homeschooling group), the piano recital, and our annual trip to Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village, this time with kids in town. We have cookies to make, and cards, and a gingerbread house. There are packages to wrap, presents to make, videos to watch, music to play and listen to, and all the beautiful sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas await us.

Calvin's artwork from his last art class with HAA...

Bucking tradition

I love tradition, but there are times when feeling bound to it can become cumbersome. That's why, after years and years of cutting down our own Christmas tree, we found ourselves shopping trees at a trailer alongside the highway this morning in a barely relenting fog. And in fact, it turns out that isn't such a bad way to go. The variety of trees available was mind boggling, and not only did they shake and bale the tree for us, but they also secured it to our roof rack. Plus the smell was phenomenal. Walking through a tree farm is pretty, too, but the smell amidst so many already cut trees is a powerful thing. It made Christmas come alive the way only a Yankee Candle can, even in the fifty degree drizzle.

Plus PLUS, we finally got to ask someone, strings of illuminating bulbs overhead and all, "This isn't one of those trees where all the needles falls off, is it?" and have it fit. Really, I heard my dad ask.

Of course, bucking tradition only goes so far. Even surrounded by so many choices we still came home with our beloved scotch pine. Now, after a day of countless frustrations over hundreds of little lights ("the lights, they're not twinkling"), and scratchy needles, and worn out batteries, and impatience and nagging, that little scotch pine, green and pungent through it all, stands happily lit in the corner by the fireplace. The stockings are hung, half the outside lights are up, and finally it's beginning to look like December around here.

Now the challenge remains: how to balance school with the mile-long to-do list staring me in the face and distractions up the wazoo? More on this tomorrow (if there's time, of course).

"The first ornament of Christmas!"

December 01

December came on with a blast today. Strangely enough, neither the post-Thanksgiving dates, nor the cold weather, had helped bring on a sense of Christmas, but today's festivities moved things along a bit.  I've been working a lot over the past two weeks, with Calvin's help, to prepare for a special holiday book sale at the library, and Calvin's been looking forward to Santa for a week. Today was the culmination of both our hard work and our hard wishing. The book sale at the library, which was a great success, had me busy all day, while Calvin and Jon started decorating at home and located a Victorian Santa at the manor house in our little village. Following the sale the boys cheered me on in a holiday charity 5k.

So it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here, but today's balmy, foggy weather still doesn't look like the white holiday we're hoping for. Thankfully we have a few more weeks to wish and hope. All I want for Christmas? Snowflakes.

Photography by Calvin

Photography by Calvin

Photography by Calvin

Photography by Calvin