One good sentence means one good paragraph

On this wet, sloppy day papa, Dean and I pulled on our rubber boots and slushed into the van for a homeschool nature study of Zilker park.
This is my day of 9-8-2010. And it was a very very nice one!
Written by Lucy and Bernadette

Cooking with Martine

Yesterday we cooked with Martine in her kitchen. We started off with a shop at HEB and a discussion of ripeness, cost, and spices and flavors. A list of Highpoints for cooking...


Highpoints

• Learning about cooking
• Using cool utensils
• Martine telling us ways to tell if something is ripe or not
• Enjoying the delicious meal that we made
  
• Talking about the meal
• Learning about ways that we can... wash our hands like using hot water instead of cold, double check the temperature of the oven before you put the object in, get out all your materials out before you start cooking or baking, never put weight on a knife only saw, and when your scooping a cup something always us the opposite hand meaning if your left handed then use your right and if your right handed use your left hand

This experience has and will be so awesomely awesomely awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to do next Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Onward we go to an almost schedule

Wow. What a week.

Cooking rained out on account of a flooded house at our dear cooking friends.

Kindergarten assistance in the classroom for Lucy.

Sewing instruction for the other kids after a walk over to the upholsterer for some fabric scraps and a discussion on abundance.

A walk through South Austin's rock and roll car museum right next door to Austin Amp where we were all blown away by the collection. Mind boggling to me.

Writing project for the Day of the Dead altars the kids will be making to honor their grandparents.

Golf on Thursday a.m.

Math with Kenny on Thursday afternoon.

The kids went to the Town Hall meeting on the state of Lake Travis and the drought and though it was an interesting topic, the dry language left them a little fatigued.

Farm on Friday, pulling weeds, rounding up goats, adding up feed costs, mulching, discussing organics vs. non, the benefits of mulching, beneficial bugs, bad bugs, sweet peppers vs. hot peppers.

And a little babysitting in the week too for Lucy which she loves - both for the kids she gets to tend and the money she gets to make.

But aside from the logistics and the curriculum and the schedule, what I have realized is that for the most part life is stress free for our 6th grader. She is happy, satisfied, challenged and loving all the things she's learning. How's that for a 6th grade experience??

studying children

Lucy's working in one of the kinder classrooms 2 mornings a week and is loving it. She rides over with us in the morning. Then bikes home just after lunch. The teacher is loving her help and the kids are loving having her in there too! It's a win/win/win situation if you ask me. And Lucy gets a chance to study the thing she loves best: little kids!

The first week

We officially started our homeschool journey this week on 09/09/09 at 9:09 a.m. and after 3 full days the reports are in that all is well.

I'm too tired to write beautiful prose and share with you our journey so instead, in bullet form, our week...

Wednesday: we met at Austin Amp's warehouse with our friends Martine and Felix and Kain, another new to homeschooling lad, who will be schooling with us. We did a circle of introductions and a round of what we hoped for in the coming weeks and months of homeschooling. From there we did some writing about self from some prompts I had put together - all under the main theme of Who Am I? The prompts were things like what are my roles, what do I like to do, what am I really good at, what would I like to learn, etc. We interspersed discussion with writing until Frederico ambled into the warehouse and hung upside down on the inversion chair. Of course the kids were totally intrigued by this so Frederico, a filmmaker who uses the Amp space, gave the kids an intro to the whys and ways of inversion and gave us a all a try.

We ate lunch at the round table and then took an urban hike gathering seeds along the way and even stopping to talk to a neighbor about his very abundant OLIVE tree. We walked to the creek and threw a few rocks, sailed a few sticks and then wandered back to the warehouse for a discussion on the drought. While we talked we did a collaborative drawing which we passed around the table. We'll do one each time we have a group discussion with a shared theme.

Okay, back to bullets, I forgot how tired I was!

Thursday: golf in the a.m. with Eric as the adult leader. A small round at Butler Park's public 9 hole course. Then to Martine and Eric's for lunch, an intro to the kitchen. Then back to Amp for some math work with Martine.

Friday: Green Gate Farms! For some weeding and planting of potatoes in the first cool, wet day. Truly the first non scorching day in months so a perfect day to head to the farm. Martine drove the kiddos out to Erin and Skip's urban farm and Erin led them in their chores. Martine thinks she's going to be sore tomorrow!!!

So truly all is well and all are enjoying their time together. Next week we'll have one more girl joining us and a couple others perhaps popping in here and there.

It really is feeling just how I imagined it could feel!

And I am interested in...

following Lucy's lead. That's my intended goal this year. I want to watch and listen and tune into her needs, wants, likes and areas of interest. I'm trying to step back a little bit this year and allow HER desires to unfold without mine getting in the way. Partly that's hard because she is my daughter and I want to share with her things that I like. Which I do. But I must also be prepared for her to not like them too. Partly it's hard because sometimes we just think if I am interested in something, it'll just take time for her to be interested too. Not always the case.

And I am reminded of my mantra... She is she and I am me. She is she and I am me.

The she that is her is unfolding into her almost 12 year old self so beautifully and clearly and passionately too.

I am interested in this journey we are on. The good and the difficult too.

What am I interested in for my homeschooling

I am interested in...

• The cooking that I will be doing
  
• The tiling
• Welding
• Babysitting
• Making new friends
• Learning more about babys
• Helping out in Mrs. Ornes class
• Riding my bike with Dean, my little brother

I'm sure there is alot more that I will be interested in but can't think of.