Sprite and I have a new hobby.

We are amassing a collection of river rocks. We spend hours on the shores of the river, washing rocks and evaluating their charms — an interesting shape, beautiful colors, a smooth texture.

Then we look through them one more time to make sure they are worth carrying all the way up the bank and back home.

When we get home, we wash them properly, allow them to dry and spray them with clear paint to make them look just like they look when wet. It’s such a simple hobby. We feel like we’re finding treasures for free on the ground. You just never know what the next rock will look like. It’s actually a popular hobby where we live, here along the Yangtze River. Some rocks are quite amazing and sell for equally amazing prices. Of course, we don’t look to get rich except in enjoying God’s creation among the river rocks.

We both think that it’s a true gift to be able to get so much joy from such an ordinary thing — a rock.

This rock below is one of my favorites. This spotted texture is called “grape stone” in Chinese. They are somewhat rare and rock collectors love them.

We are trying to come up with ways to display our rocks so we can enjoy them frequently. Here is one idea:

If you have other rock display ideas, please let me know. We are starting to get quite a collection.

Related posts:

1. Another Walk at the River
2. Countryside River Nature Study
3. Nature Study at the River

Spring is here, and what a relief to be able to go outdoors without thermal underwear and a thick coat. In fact, we wore our Chacos to the river this weekend for our first official nature walk of spring 2010.

The change of seasons and some comments I’ve gotten on my blog got me thinking about seasons in homeschooling. I don’t mean the seasons that we naturally pass through when our children move from preschool into early elementary or from elementary into more independent learning. I mean those seasons from week to week and month to month when our focus shifts slightly.

Take, for example, my rock post where someone asked me, “Do you do science every day?” I can see how reading that long post may lead you to believe that we do a dozen science activities each day. You may think, “How can she do all that science and do math and language arts and art and so on….?” The answer is that we don’t, at least not daily.

You can’t do everything everyday. **

Instead, we tend to study in seasons — a season of intensive math history, a few weeks of in-depth science study, a time of  extended poetry reading.  If you look at one day in our homeschool, you may get worried because of all the things we’ve left out. Even looking at one week may not give a balanced picture. Instead, you would have to look at a few months, or even an entire year, before you would see a balanced picture emerging from our homeschool.

**Actually, when your children are very small, and you do very short lessons, then you can do a smidgen of everything everyday. At that age, doing long lessons will be counter-productive.  I remember clearly when Sprite “told” me she was ready for longer lessons. She was getting very frustrated by my constantly closing books and moving on when she had just started to become engrossed. I was trying to obey the Charlotte Mason recommendation for short lessons. But her maturing attention span was ready for longer lessons.

Take nature study as another example. I know you can do nature study in the city and also in the miserable days of winter. But I admit that we just aren’t as motivated unless we have a truly wild place to go and the weather is bearable. So instead of feeling guilt about it, I’ve come to accept that we probably will not have consistent nature walks every week. But we are good at having a nature weekend every few months. And so it all balances out in the long run.

So if you’re feeling like you “can’t fit it all in each day,” stop trying. Look at your homeschool planning from a broader perspective and consider the seasons concept.  It works really well for children (and moms!) who have robust attention spans and like to dig deeply before moving to another topic.

When I shared about how to organize notebooking pages, Mary commented, “I struggle with keeping a ‘planning book.’  What does yours look  like and contain?  Currently I use a regular teacher planner, but it is not ideal. I’d love to know how you do it.”

I’ve got all kinds of things in there. Here’s a list:

• blank weekly planning sheets (I write my plan on these each weekend.)
• book lists for my various curricula
• teacher guides for various curricula where applicable (for example Noeo, livingmath.net or Winter Promise)
• one page yearly calendars (from when Sprite started K until 2013)
• math curriculum focal points
• Write from History 6 Year Writing Plan
• timeline figures, printed out
• table of contents for various notebooking pages sets
• two math articles that I like to reread periodically (A Generous Education in Mathematics by Alice Horrocks — join this group to access it; A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart)
• list of public domain books at MainLesson.com
• my own year long plans for things like artist study, composer study, and hymn study

It’s a hodgepodge of resources that I turn to often. The weekly plan pages go on a clipboard to use all week. Behind the page I add in any other materials we’ll be using that week. I don’t work/teach/learn from my planning notebook. I only plan from it or reference it. So during homeschool time, I rarely take it out.

Do you have a notebook like this? What do you keep in yours?

illustrated math

I think it was the word illustrate that got Sprite. She sincerely thought this was what the question wanted her to do. And I guess on one level, she actually did follow the directions.

I asked her why a math test would want her to draw faces on the numbers. She agreed, “Yeah, I thought it was strange, but I did what they asked me to do. I illustrated it.”

Yet another reason to take these tests every now and then.

We’re about halfway finished with our study of Matisse, our artist for the term. There’s no real reason why this term is Matisse except that we had an over-sized Matisse art book on hand.  I just randomly choose artists for us to study. And I think that if you’re trying to begin artist study, it doesn’t really matter where you start. Just choose an artist and plunge in. The artist doesn’t have to tie into your history lessons at all.

Sprite has asked me several times why Matisse and Picasso were always painting nudes. So she noticed. Yes, well, I’m not exactly sure myself. (But I ventured a convoluted explanation anyway.) We tend to skip over the nude paintings and sculptures for our daily art narrations. I don’t go so far as to rip out the pages or black them out. We just flip over them and get to a piece that doesn’t cause so much discomfort.

Books

Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors (Smart About Art)

I love, love, love this series of books. They are so interesting and full of graphics.

Henri Matisse art spine

CM said to study one artist per term with one painting every one to two weeks. But we do a painting daily.

Notebooking

Artist biography page from History Scribe.

Activity

Since Matisse did some of his art by cutting out shapes from painted paper, we chose to do a collage style reproduction. To make it really interesting, Sprite chose one of Matisse’s paintings to reproduce from cut out paper shapes.

Sprite’s is the smaller one on the left. Mine is the larger one on the right. It was a really fun activity, and far more challenging that I imagined.

Matisse Reproductions

See how simple artist study is? Actually, you don’t even have to do the notebooking page or the reproduction at all. Just a regular exposure to the artwork of one artist each term is all you need. [By the way, this post compiles many weeks of study, so don't think that we do this kind of in-depth art study daily.]

Related posts:

1. Artist Study Wherever We Go
2. Picasso Artist Study
3. Cassatt Artist Study

Living books plus hands-on investigation are hallmarks of a Charlotte Mason (CM) education. Our study of rocks & minerals was right along those lines.

I wanted to start off with something that would immediately get Sprite enthusiastic about the topic, so I assigned her to choose any four rocks from our collection and fill out the Rock Detective page from Considering God’s Creation. CGC is a wonderful resource for elementary level science and nature study. You can read my review of this curriculum here.

Hands-on study of rocks and making notes.

Testing hardness with a scratch test and a steel file.

Sprite adored studying the rocks in this way and did more than the four I asked her to do.

Then we did some reading from living books, tying in the facts in the books to what Sprite had already experienced with her rock exploration.

Books

• Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia (yes, the new, used, library discard one!)
• DK Eye Wonder Rocks and Minerals
• My First Guide:  Rocks and Minerals

I’m so glad we had the Kingfisher Encyclopedia because the two other books, although good books, are a bit too simplistic for 5th grade Sprite.

Then Sprite compiled all she’d learned into this brilliant notebooking page.

Next we went back to some hands-on work. Sprite used a flow chart from Earth Logic: Our Dynamic Earth, part of the Science Logic curriculum, to identify some rocks I selected for her.

Careful observation.

Testing a reaction with vinegar and more filing.

And of course, documenting it all in the science notebook.

Next step was focusing on the Moh’s Hardness Scale. Sprite did a fantastic job on this notebooking page. The part that most impressed me was her chart at the bottom. I noticed rocks there that were not in the hardness diagrams of our book, and when I asked her how she chose them, she said she tested the hardness of the rocks herself. I was so excited that she trusted her own observations and didn’t feel a need to simply copy the book.

We then shifted to the computer for watching some great visuals of the rock cycle.

Excellent Websites

That image was a good base, but it was a bit tiny, so I started to whip up some printable rock cycle pieces using Publisher. Voila! I had a moment of inspiration. Instead of giving her the pieces, I should have her make the pieces herself.

When I was a public school teacher, I heard a lecture by another teacher who asked a very penetrating question, “Who is doing all the work? You or the students?” This was Charlotte Mason’ s problem with unit studies, too. She felt the teacher did too much digesting and repackaging the information rather than letting the child do that.

So instead of giving Sprite pieces to cut out, I gave her directions for making the pieces. And then she used them to demonstrate the rock cycle. This is her finished product. Then, of course, I asked her to use her diagram to explain (narrate) the rock cycle.

I now feel confident that she understands the processes in the rock cycle. And she told me (again) that she loves making things like this. I know that not all children enjoy creating with paper, but this style fits Sprite to a tee. The document I created can be downloaded on the Freebies page or directly from here.

The document does include the printable pieces which were my original idea. Feel free to use those if your child does not benefit from or enjoy making things himself.  We are all different, and you may not want to invest as much time in the rock cycle as we did.

Related posts:

1. Unit Studies and Charlotte Mason
2. Lapbooking and Charlotte Mason
3. Charlotte Mason Carnival

I’ve discovered a wonderful shopping option that has almost anything conceivable – Taobao.

So far I’ve bought an oven, an oven thermometer, a camera bag, permanent markers, coffee, and audio books. These are all things I can’t get in my city which I can now buy online and have delivered right to my home. I am so thrilled with my new skill. It’s not easy to do. Setting it all up is a nightmare, and reading the Chinese requires a lot of help from online translators, but it’s worth it now that I can buy hard to find items right from home.

Take a look at my wonderful Colombian coffee, ground for free, and shipped right to my apartment entrance.

At the top it says Enjoy Your Life. Well, thanks, Coffee. I will, especially with a cup of YOU in my hand.

Then I see a very classy crest which certainly proves the pedigree of my fine Colombian coffee beans. Under that I learn that these are not ordinary coffee beans but Professional Coffee Beans. My apologies, Dr. Coffee.

And then to top it all off is such a moving statement from Dr. Coffee. Just let that soak in. Does your coffee speak so tenderly to you? Oh, no. This is special coffee. Professional coffee.

Oh, Dr. Coffee, I am moved by your touching sentiment. And even though we’ve just met,  I feel the same about you. I can’t wait to brew you tomorrow morning!

Related posts:

1. Chinglish Fun
2. Hotel Chinglish
3. Airport Chinglish

This post isn’t about how to organize the completed notebooking pages. Instead, this is for mom, the lesson planner and materials organizer.

I’ve got two main tips for managing and organizing your notebooking pages.

1.   When you buy retail sets, print out the table of contents and add that page to your planning notebook.  (You do have some type of record/planning/idea book, right?)  As you plan, you’ll have the list available for quick reference.

I always think that I’ll remember what I have on my computer, but I never do. So go ahead and use that paper and ink. It’s worth it.

2.  Create a file of blank notebooking pages that work with any topic. Print several copies of your favorite layouts and store them with your child’s homeschooling supplies. Then when it’s time to create a page, your child can flip through the choices and select an appropriate page. I like to print these generic notebooking pages onto a variety of colored paper plus white. Can you see how thick our stack is? There are dozens of choices in there.

It’s convenient to have the pages ready to go because we don’t have to stop studying to go find the file and print it out. This strategy is similar to what I do about minibooks, that is, create a whole slew of them and store them for long-term use.

My favorite set of general notebooking pages come from Notebooking Pages and is called Basic Lined Notebooking Pages. I turn to that set of 200 pages time and time again.  If you don’t want to invest the $13 for that set, be sure to download the  Free Notebooking Pages which are samples from the larger set.

Of course, making your own notebooking pages is not terribly difficult. I use Publisher, but some people use Microsoft Word. Either will work. Here are some blank pages that I’ve made myself. (I use Cute PDF or Primo PDF, both free software, to convert the Publisher file into PDF.)

Related posts:

1. Notebooking Links — Free Notebooking Pages
2. Deals at Notebooking Pages
3. Civil War Lapbook plus Notebooking Pages

grilled fish with tofu

Emily asked a great question, “Does it insult the hostess if you are not interested in trying one of the dishes?”

Short answer — Yes, of course. (I always have to deal with my own hurt when local friends turn up their noses at my carefully prepared casseroles or desserts. “Cheese is gross!” “This is too sweet!” or of a salad, “These vegetables are not cooked!”)

But it’s not quite that simple. There are some loopholes you can use.

In our family, we believe that overall, we should eat what is offered to us. (There is some wisdom in a very popular book to that effect.) But as we’ve lived here longer, learned the language and culture, we’ve learned acceptable ways to refuse things.

noodles with beef

One popular strategy in my family is to focus on what you LOVE while avoiding what you find gross. That is, keep saying over and over, “This vegetable is delicious! What’s it called? How is is cooked? What’s it good for?” (Everything is good for some body part, and they always know.) This is in contrast to saying, “EWWW!!! Goat blood vessels! How repulsive. I would NEVER eat that. We don’t eat that in America. We throw that away!”

It also seems that if at least one of us eats something, it’s okay. If we all refuse it, that is bad. Between the three of us, we are able to manage to have at least one representative to taste an odd food.

Recently I  ate ocean sand worms. Not bad actually, but I did force myself NOT to picture them in my mind or to look too closely at them. Just eat and keep on moving. Thinking is what gets you in trouble. I could look at the cook and give him some positive feedback, and no one seemed to notice that Sprite didn’t taste the worms.

Here are some of the odd things I’ve eaten in China:

• duck tongue (yes, they are awfully tiny)
• wild cat
• dog
• snake
• eel
• fungus
• pig stomach
• tiny frogs, whole
• rabbit
• pig tongue

eggplant

I need to explain an eating custom in China. It’s a sign of care and hospitality for people to serve you. That is, they use their own chopsticks to select a choice bit and put it into your bowl. Uninvited, unasked. They just do it. And it’s a sign of being polite to serve others in this way. That’s when it gets tricky. What your friend is selecting for you is surely in her mind the best thing on the table. But all you can think is, “Ugh, not more boiled eel!” So you either leave it in the bowl, or choke it down,  or as a last resort use the “oops chopsticks” strategy.

I’ve also discovered that once people truly get to know you and realize that you do appreciate Chinese food, they are more accepting of your personal tastes. I think that if we complained about most of the dishes and hated everything, they would not be as willing to accommodate us. In fact, they would be offended. Most Chinese people take pride in their cuisine, so to reject their food is akin to rejecting them.

And Sam I Am is right. If you try it, you may like it. I’ve become a huge fan of tofu since living in China. It’s not simply because it’s so much better here (although it is). It’s also because I’ve consistently eaten it over many years. Over time, I truly did grow to love it. Now I actually crave tofu and order it at restaurants.

Now you can chime in with your sympathies or your own adventures in eating.  And to comfort some of you who think, “I could never eat some of those things!” just remember that people all over the globe generally like to stick with familiar foods. It’s not really that Chinese people are more adventurous with their foods. These foods are common for them, so they enjoy them. When I offer them something radically different from their usual fare (say pizza or a chicken casserole or a very rich dessert), they tend to merely tolerate it just like I do with the duck tongues. So be comforted that those of us who are adventurous in eating — and I do consider myself one –are in the minority.

Have you seen HOTM’s latest magazine? The March 2010 Edition is entitled Focus on Reading. There is a long list of quality entries, dealing with all aspects of teaching reading.

And don’t forget to go on to the next page of articles.

I contributed two articles myself:
Vocabulary in Your Read Aloud Books
and
How to Painlessly Add More Books to Your Reading Schedule.