Math - Algebra word problems
L.A. - Vocabulary test, Correct Essay Structure, George Orwell and Thomas Paine
Writing a essay on wordiness.
History - Puritans, the Massachusetts School Laws, education in Puritan settlements, and blue laws
History test - miss two about the Mayflower Compact so we went back and studied it more.
Music - Trills, connecting octaves, super drill, Arthur Rubenstein and Picasso, repertoire
Science - Einstein, George Washionton Carver, Problem Solving, Mazes, Patterns, the theory of multiple intelligences and logic.
Japanese - Kanji Test (100%) and more Kanji
Literature - Symbolism in The Christmas Carol and the Hobbit, Lightening Lit webinar
Lafcadio Hearn - Reflections, video, vocabulary and lesson on symbolism
Lunch - Dr. Who and Looney Tunes
Reading - Little Women
Read Aloud - Poetry - Robert Burns, Lord Byron
Hebrew
Mommy Time - Little Big Planet
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
the last decade 00 - 09
New Years Eve '00 - I spent it with friends at Pere's house. We weren't dating yet but by March we were together.
In 2001 Pere and I were living in Virginia. I was doing copy writing and tech writing. I gave up my job to become a stay-at-home mom when we had our miracle baby, our precious Zoe.
In 2002 we were living in Los Angeles. Over the next six years we lived in the city, by the beach in Oxnard, on the grounds of what used to be the Camarillo State Mental Asylum (now it is a University), and in The Valley.
In 2003 and 2004 we lived a block from the beach and on a water channel and Zoe and I spent many afternoons watching the sunset over the water. The pace was slow and the living was easy.
2003 was when I found Hoagies Gifted and realized what my problem was. ;)
Summer of 04 I bought the bookstore and named it Book Nation. Do you remember it Wendy? Did I still have the bookstore when we met?
Zoe tried out a year of preK and really liked it. Except for that mean faced girl... That was her only foray into a school setting. It wasn't one of those academic preschools but one where they sing songs and bake and take nature walks, etc.
In 2005 I got Zoe tested, we were thinking about sending her a the school for Highly Gifted children. The tester recommended her for Davidson and we realized that school wasn't going to be a good fit.
I also sold the bookstore in 2005. When I was working I felt like I was a bad mom and when I was with Zoe I felt like I was not getting enough work down. I realized that having a start up retail store that is open 7 days a week and trying to homeschool a PG four year old was more than I could handle.
2006 we moved to The Valley and made a lot of new friends. We went to our first Davidson Gathering and made even more wonderful friends. Zoe turned five and I started blogging.
I finished Nanowrimo and wrote my first book!
The highlight of 2006 was vacationing in Paris and Antibe, France. It was the trip of a lifetime!
Zoe started acting and by Jan 07 she had been in 2 commericals, a print ad and two voice overs.
2007 we moved again, this time to the Midwest. We bought a beautiful house in a historic neighborhood, one block away from my mother to the west of me and one block away from my older sister to the east. A couple months later my oldest niece and her son came to live in our little Midwest town too.
With my mother's help I made our first Halloween party. We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house and I had my mother, father, sister, BIL, two nephews and several other family members filling up my new big dining room. That Thanksgiving was also our first snow.
07 was the first Christmas with my family altogether. But already the cracks were starting to show.
In 2008 my mother wouldn't stay in town to celebrate Zoe's birthday. In May, on Mother's Day in fact I remember sobbing in the shower and wondering why, Why, WHY did I ever move to live near my family. Mother's Day is when it all started to go bad, and it went bad very quickly.
In September I confronted my mother (first time in my life) and was painfully punished for stepping out of line.
September 08 - July 09 - Those 11 months were very dark times but I was changing for the better almost everyday. It was struggle. It still is. But I have become much more the person I want to be.
I went No Contact with my mom when she left town Nov '08. I broke No Contact a few times since then. No Contact has lead to me not being able to talk to or see my step-father. One casualty I should have predicted. My mother is the gatekeeper. Since then I have also gone No Contact with my sister.
The official decision for total NC came in the summer of '09 and by that time I had worked through most of my situational depression. I realized at some point that I was able to stop obsessively thinking about them and start thinking about my future.
In 2009 I started writing the novel that I have been developing since 2003. I started running. I started protecting my time and my feelings. I stopped having time and patience and endless amounts of understanding and forgiveness for people that just weren't going to change.
Fall of 2009 I was finding my happy self again. I, not only came out from under a cloud of grief over losing my mother, I also came out from the cloudy thinking she had oppressed me under for 36 years. I saw that I was lovable and realized the goals I had gone to therapy for.
So 2010... On New Years Eve I was driving to Chicago and thinking. Thinking, that is what I always do. I am always analyzing, picking apart, wondering, theorizing, predicting, and fixing. I ask a lot of questions and diligently find the answers.
But I realized one thing I rarely ask is "What do I want?" Really, I don't. I ask "How should this be? 'What would make this better? "What is the right thing to do?" "What do I believe about this and given that what is my next step?" and "Why would someone do something like that?"
But I never ask the simple question 'What do I want?" And it is simple. At least the answer is.
What do I want?
I want to love my husband. I want to treat him well so that he knows I love him.
I want to spend time with my daughter and give her a joyful childhood. I want to share life with her while I still can.
I want to spend time with good people.
I want alone time to write my book.
When I ask that question and listen to the answer I find that things can be much simpler than I have ever allowed them to be.
So, my resolution is to remember to ask myself what I want. It is such a simple question. I am kind of shocked I never really thought to ask myself that before. It is simple question but it is a big one.
In 2001 Pere and I were living in Virginia. I was doing copy writing and tech writing. I gave up my job to become a stay-at-home mom when we had our miracle baby, our precious Zoe.
In 2002 we were living in Los Angeles. Over the next six years we lived in the city, by the beach in Oxnard, on the grounds of what used to be the Camarillo State Mental Asylum (now it is a University), and in The Valley.
In 2003 and 2004 we lived a block from the beach and on a water channel and Zoe and I spent many afternoons watching the sunset over the water. The pace was slow and the living was easy.
2003 was when I found Hoagies Gifted and realized what my problem was. ;)
Summer of 04 I bought the bookstore and named it Book Nation. Do you remember it Wendy? Did I still have the bookstore when we met?
Zoe tried out a year of preK and really liked it. Except for that mean faced girl... That was her only foray into a school setting. It wasn't one of those academic preschools but one where they sing songs and bake and take nature walks, etc.
In 2005 I got Zoe tested, we were thinking about sending her a the school for Highly Gifted children. The tester recommended her for Davidson and we realized that school wasn't going to be a good fit.
I also sold the bookstore in 2005. When I was working I felt like I was a bad mom and when I was with Zoe I felt like I was not getting enough work down. I realized that having a start up retail store that is open 7 days a week and trying to homeschool a PG four year old was more than I could handle.
2006 we moved to The Valley and made a lot of new friends. We went to our first Davidson Gathering and made even more wonderful friends. Zoe turned five and I started blogging.
I finished Nanowrimo and wrote my first book!
The highlight of 2006 was vacationing in Paris and Antibe, France. It was the trip of a lifetime!
Zoe started acting and by Jan 07 she had been in 2 commericals, a print ad and two voice overs.
2007 we moved again, this time to the Midwest. We bought a beautiful house in a historic neighborhood, one block away from my mother to the west of me and one block away from my older sister to the east. A couple months later my oldest niece and her son came to live in our little Midwest town too.
With my mother's help I made our first Halloween party. We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house and I had my mother, father, sister, BIL, two nephews and several other family members filling up my new big dining room. That Thanksgiving was also our first snow.
07 was the first Christmas with my family altogether. But already the cracks were starting to show.
In 2008 my mother wouldn't stay in town to celebrate Zoe's birthday. In May, on Mother's Day in fact I remember sobbing in the shower and wondering why, Why, WHY did I ever move to live near my family. Mother's Day is when it all started to go bad, and it went bad very quickly.
In September I confronted my mother (first time in my life) and was painfully punished for stepping out of line.
September 08 - July 09 - Those 11 months were very dark times but I was changing for the better almost everyday. It was struggle. It still is. But I have become much more the person I want to be.
I went No Contact with my mom when she left town Nov '08. I broke No Contact a few times since then. No Contact has lead to me not being able to talk to or see my step-father. One casualty I should have predicted. My mother is the gatekeeper. Since then I have also gone No Contact with my sister.
The official decision for total NC came in the summer of '09 and by that time I had worked through most of my situational depression. I realized at some point that I was able to stop obsessively thinking about them and start thinking about my future.
In 2009 I started writing the novel that I have been developing since 2003. I started running. I started protecting my time and my feelings. I stopped having time and patience and endless amounts of understanding and forgiveness for people that just weren't going to change.
Fall of 2009 I was finding my happy self again. I, not only came out from under a cloud of grief over losing my mother, I also came out from the cloudy thinking she had oppressed me under for 36 years. I saw that I was lovable and realized the goals I had gone to therapy for.
So 2010... On New Years Eve I was driving to Chicago and thinking. Thinking, that is what I always do. I am always analyzing, picking apart, wondering, theorizing, predicting, and fixing. I ask a lot of questions and diligently find the answers.
But I realized one thing I rarely ask is "What do I want?" Really, I don't. I ask "How should this be? 'What would make this better? "What is the right thing to do?" "What do I believe about this and given that what is my next step?" and "Why would someone do something like that?"
But I never ask the simple question 'What do I want?" And it is simple. At least the answer is.
What do I want?
I want to love my husband. I want to treat him well so that he knows I love him.
I want to spend time with my daughter and give her a joyful childhood. I want to share life with her while I still can.
I want to spend time with good people.
I want alone time to write my book.
When I ask that question and listen to the answer I find that things can be much simpler than I have ever allowed them to be.
So, my resolution is to remember to ask myself what I want. It is such a simple question. I am kind of shocked I never really thought to ask myself that before. It is simple question but it is a big one.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
2009 Year in Review
A long but not exhaustive list of our doings and learnings in 2009
Zoe
Music
Achievement in Music Test - Got the highest score you can get
Choir concerts - June, September moved up to Concert Choir
Piano Recitals - April - August - October
Started with new piano teacher - Nov
Mary Poppins musical
Talet show - solffeggeito
Sang and modeled at Asian Festival
Languages
Started Hebrew School
Japanese - moved up to year two college text
Physical Education
Promoted twice in Gymnasics
New
OnlineG3 for Lightening Literature
Continue the Story and Mini-World
First role-playing game
Saw
The Miracle Worker and asked a question of Sean Astin
Star Trek original series and all the movies
Children's Film Festival
Native American Pow Wow
Folkloric Dancers
Shakespeare Festival
Farscape (censored for content)
Firefly (censored for content)
The Language Arts - some of the things she learned with Michael Clay Thompson
Poetry- simile, metaphor, rhyme, end rhyme, internal rhyme, eye, rhyme, masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme, near rhyme, end stopped and end jambed, iamb, trochee, personification, dactyl, anapest, spondee,
The 5 paragraph essay, formal writing, sentence diagramming, mood and tone, show, not tell
Vocabulary - placate, retort, benevolent, importune, tacit, sanguine, mortify, ignominy, verdure, orthodox, ostentatious, inexorable, obsequious, and equivocal.
Latin stems - vita, paterm pop mar, luc, tempor, curr, migr, plu, germ, rupt, junct, amat, stell, tang, clam, medi, grat, trans
Literature - Lightning Lit with OnlineG3
G.K. Chesterton, Issac Singer, Robert Louis Stevenson, Nathanial Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Gerald Durrell, J.R.R. Tolkien, and lots of poetry
Wrote a book called The Two Stars
Reading - Treasure Island, A Day of Pleasure by Issac Singer, Wakefield by Nathaniel Hawthorne, A Christmas Carol, My family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell, The Hobbit, Julie of the Wolves, From the Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Westing Game, The Moffats, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Swallows and Amazons and Peter Duck, The Name of this book is Secret and If you're reading this its too late, the Percy Jackson series, Anastasia Krupnik, The Children of the Green Knowe, Five Children and It, The Sword Thief, Odd and the Frost Giants, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables
Social Studies
History - Ice Age in the Americas, Inuit, Anasazi, potlatches, Plains indians, The Mound-Builders, The Indians of the Eastern Forests, Iroquois, Vikings in America, Gutenberg's printing press, Christopher Columbus, Zheng He, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Mesoamerica, Conquistadors, Cortez, Aztecs, Incas, Coronado, Queen Elizabeth, Roanoke, Sir, Francis Drake, Protestant and Catholic religion, Martin Luther, Jamestown, Caesar's Rome, Attended seminar on history of Panama and Costa Rica
Culture - Aruba, Panama, Costa Rica, Columbia, Mexico, Australia
Geography - Kentucky, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, the 50 nifty United States, map skills, Caribbean
Research report on the endangered koala
Traveled through the Panama Canal
Science
Water Cycle, humidity, states of matter, freezing point, boiling point, melting, condensation, evaporation, plant reproductive cycle, developing a hypothesis, measuring data, writing a lab report, the scientific method, chromosomes, DNA, RNA, Ethics in genetic modification,
Critical thinking, energy sources, solar energy, Industrial Revolution, the nervous system - autonomic/somatic, meiosis, eukaryote, prokaryote, four phases of mitosis, passive transport, genetics, solstice and equinox, Brain (and nerves, neurons, sight sound, taste and smell), digestive system, 6 kingdoms, Thomas Edison, extremophiles, types of rocks, mineral identification, crystals, space, photosynthesis, respiratory system, cellular respiration,
Math
Summer Math Academy - Solved Rubix cubes, Origami, base 5, base 2, binary calculator,
Math Center - two math presentations: Fractals and Binary
Singapore Math (decimals, percentages, angles, average and rate, data analysis, geometry, measurement, )
Go Figure,
Life of Fred Beginning Algebra- (numbers and sets, integers, equations, motion and mixture
Technology
Voice Threads, Glogger, Xtimeline, Eluminate, Garage Band
Art
Space, line texture, form,shading, value, local value
Other
Asked the four questions at our Passover Seder
Shooting an air rifle
How to whittle with a knife
How to make soup out of a can
Got a new bicycle
Open Book Festival volunteer
Met Mary Jo a.k.a. Mrs. Puff from Spongebob
Astronaut theme birthday party
Pere:
Was accepted into Notre Dame MBA program
Wrote 5 songs
Learned to bake bread
Won singing competition on cruise
Attended seminar on MBTI
Attended seminar on history of Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica
Successful year at work
Mere:
Hosted niece's graduation party, Passover, Halloween Party, Astronaut theme birthday party
Started writing novel
Painted the castle lavender
Researched Myers Brigg Type Indicator, INTJ, HSP, Dabraowski's theory of Positive Disintegration, Dabrowski's overexcitabilities, Introversion, Gifted Women, Dreams,
Blogged
Attended seminar on MBTI
Attended seminar on history of Panama and Costa Rica
Volunteered as a Wild Thing for the Open Book Festival
Happy year homeschooling Zoe
All of us.
Travels
Florida - Kennedy Space Center, Los Angeles
Shedd Aquarium in Chicago
South Bend Zoo
Tubing down Turkey Creek River
Lake Michigan Beach
Cruise - Arbuba, Cartegena, Columbia, Panama Canal, Panama, Costa Rica, Hayltaco Mexica, Alcapulco Mexico, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - Saw howler monkeys, iguanas, crocodiles and a Coati on Jungle River Raft in Costa Rica
Jet Skied through Lands End in Mexico
Harry Potter exhibit in Chicago
Informal Davidson Gathering in Chicago
Got a baby grand piano
Planted a Hemlock Tree
Finished Zoe's castle
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Avatar and Sherlock Holmes reviews without spoilers
We don't celebrate Christmas. So this year it is a nice four day weekend for Pere.
We saw Avatar on Thursday and Sherlock Holmes on Friday.
Avatar was worth seeing. It was very beautiful. We saw it in 3D which I was worried about at first because 3D usually gives me a headache. But this 3D was really clean and really good. Almost every scene was 3D, but not really "in your face."
The story of Avatar was only okay. Nothing new or original, no new ground broken. But you can say that about a lot of enjoyable movies. It is too bad that James Cameron didn't give us a storyline as elevated as the visuals.
Friday we went to see Sherlock Holmes. I am such a fanboy! I have read all the original Sir Conan Doyle stories more than once (and now I want to read them again.) I love Holmes. And this movie made me love Watson even more. Watson was always capable of being played like Jude Law did it, it is in the television and movie versions that we get a comic relief Watson. But in the books he was always a capable guy and into the ladies.
Sherlock was pretty crazy, according to Watson, and I loved the way Robert Downey Jr played him. He showed Sherlock as a genius that is close to madness, his bad ass skills with fighting and detecting (yes Sherlock did now boxing, sword fighting, etc) and my favorite was showing his confusion in trying to deal with feelings.. RD jr. did a really good job with that, it was all in his eyes.
The villain, Lord Blackwood, was not atypical for a Sherlock Holmes story but I really wasn't that worried about him.
Sherlock Holmes was also a very visually attractive film, the dark streets and waterways of London were like Gothic paintings in some scenes. The fights scenes were visceral and easily navigable by the eye (in so many movies these days you can't realy tell what is happening during fight scenes.)
I like S.H. more than Avatar, but that could be because I am such a fan of the former.
We saw Avatar on Thursday and Sherlock Holmes on Friday.
Avatar was worth seeing. It was very beautiful. We saw it in 3D which I was worried about at first because 3D usually gives me a headache. But this 3D was really clean and really good. Almost every scene was 3D, but not really "in your face."
The story of Avatar was only okay. Nothing new or original, no new ground broken. But you can say that about a lot of enjoyable movies. It is too bad that James Cameron didn't give us a storyline as elevated as the visuals.
Friday we went to see Sherlock Holmes. I am such a fanboy! I have read all the original Sir Conan Doyle stories more than once (and now I want to read them again.) I love Holmes. And this movie made me love Watson even more. Watson was always capable of being played like Jude Law did it, it is in the television and movie versions that we get a comic relief Watson. But in the books he was always a capable guy and into the ladies.
Sherlock was pretty crazy, according to Watson, and I loved the way Robert Downey Jr played him. He showed Sherlock as a genius that is close to madness, his bad ass skills with fighting and detecting (yes Sherlock did now boxing, sword fighting, etc) and my favorite was showing his confusion in trying to deal with feelings.. RD jr. did a really good job with that, it was all in his eyes.
The villain, Lord Blackwood, was not atypical for a Sherlock Holmes story but I really wasn't that worried about him.
Sherlock Holmes was also a very visually attractive film, the dark streets and waterways of London were like Gothic paintings in some scenes. The fights scenes were visceral and easily navigable by the eye (in so many movies these days you can't realy tell what is happening during fight scenes.)
I like S.H. more than Avatar, but that could be because I am such a fan of the former.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Winter Traditions - Wishes and Candle Light
Yesterday we made a Wishing Tree out of my seasonal tree
I made cards tied with ribbons to write the wishes on with glitter pens
Here are our first wishes
Today for Winter Solstice, at sunset, I lit candles all over the house and turned out all the lights.
We ate dinner by candlelight, we lingered and told lots of jokes. We played games, then Zoe went to bed with a candle.
Merry Solstice!
I made cards tied with ribbons to write the wishes on with glitter pens
Here are our first wishes
Today for Winter Solstice, at sunset, I lit candles all over the house and turned out all the lights.
We ate dinner by candlelight, we lingered and told lots of jokes. We played games, then Zoe went to bed with a candle.
Merry Solstice!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Zoe's bedroom
Zoe and I cleaned her bedroom today. She did most of the work.
She has so many treasures.
This room really shows her personality.
She has collected many little things over the years; erasers, penguins, Hello Kitties, masks, and more.
She was so happy with how clean it is that she wanted me to take a picture of her.
Then she just got silly. :)
She's a happy girl. :)
She has so many treasures.
This room really shows her personality.
She has collected many little things over the years; erasers, penguins, Hello Kitties, masks, and more.
She was so happy with how clean it is that she wanted me to take a picture of her.
Then she just got silly. :)
She's a happy girl. :)
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