Month: April 2009

I have a serious problem with pronouncing words correctly. I know what they mean, I can (usually) use them in context. The problem is I read them before ever having heard them so I constantly mess up. For example adolescent. Until today, when Dad corrected me, I’ve always said it uh-DAWL-uh-sent. Same with mature. According to Dictionary.com, the official pronunciation is ma-toor, but I’ve always said it ma-chur. Gambol is Gam-bowl. Sanguine is San-gwine. And tacit has always been tack-it to me. Wanton is supposed to be WON-tn, but I say it Won-tawn. Victuals is Vick-chooalz. Cached is Cash-ayed. Egregious is uh-GREE-gee-ous. Chagrin is shuh-GREEN. The list goes on and on. There are lots of words that I have butchered even more than those listed above, but I honestly can’t remember them. This butchering happens a lot, and sometimes it’s pretty embarrassing. 🙂 But honestly, why can’t people just be reasonable and pronounce words like they are written?? Yet another reason to move to Mexico.

Today I went to the doctor and got my decennial tetanus shot. I was slightly apprehensive (it’s ap-ri-hen-siv isn’t it???) because I seem to remember a horrible sting not unlike that of a hornet, 10 entire minutes of bawling and a cruel doctor who gave me an ugly dinosaur sticker. Girls of five have no use for dinosaur stickers, especially when there are Barbie princess ones nearby. My fears were in vain however!  All it was was a little poke, and a band-aid, and then I was through. This time I didn’t get a sticker though. I don’t know what those people at the doctor’s office think. Girls of fifteen want Princess barbie stickers just as much as girls of five do. 😉  On top of that, my own family didn’t even offer me a balloon or lollipop, or even a sympathy hug!! Even when I flopped onto the couch and sighed loudly, and looked mournfully at my bandaged flesh wound, they did nothing . What kind of a supportive family is that? I ask you!

Luke Holzman from the Sonlight blog wrote a very interesting post today about math.  He describes a post by another blogger in this way:  “Cherish has a very interesting post on our aversion to math which is often linked to school teachers.”  Both posts rang very true to me and got me to thinking about why I love math.  I think much of the reason that I love math is that my dad loved math and expected I would do well at it.  Also, I had a great Algebra teacher in the ninth grade that made it seem elegant and interesting.  Because my parents expected I would understand math and do well at it I expected I would understand it and do well at it.  Both of our kids do well at math.  They are not Newton, but they do very, very well.  Lorena and I both grew up around people who understood math.  My sister and I both have engineering degrees and Lorena has three brothers with engineering degrees.  Our expectation of our children was that they could excel at learning math.

Because we knew math was possible, we were very careful in the selection of homeschool materials for that subject.  I wrote about why we switched from Singapore Math to Teaching Textbooks when the kids got to Algebra.  It was specifically because the kids started to struggle with that material and we knew that it was not necessary to struggle.  It was not the kids fault that they struggled to understand.  They worked hard at their math, did everything the program asked, yet they were still not getting it.  So we did a little research and switched.  The same thing happened again when we switched from Teaching Textbooks Precalculus to Thinkwell Precalculus.  The recommendations provided by Sonlight for when to start using Teaching Textbooks and when to start using Thinkwell have been spot on for our kids.

Still, there is an even bigger point in all this.  It is not just about understanding the material.  Sure it helps that we know Kelly is smart enough to understand precalculus, but it is just as important that she derives some joy from her studies.  We could have stuck with Singapore Math when she got to Algebra and Teaching Textbooks when she got to Precalculus.  She would have eventually gotten through the material with a good level of understanding, but we saw the joy of math dying.  That is the beauty of homeschool.  When we saw the joy dying, we could actually do something about it.

Luke left this link in the comments.  It was too good not to put up:

The kids spent a good chunk of the weekend playing with the neighbor kids.  I think this summer has the potential to be even more eventful than last and last summer, with the swim team thing going on was quite eventful.  There were two more kids to add to the mix of those playing in our yard most of Saturday and then again on Sunday afternoon.  The two new ones are from out west like us.  The boy wore a BYU t-shirt if that tells you anything.  Lorena and I had quite a thoughtful weekend with a couple of walks–one of them pretty long.  Time with Lorena really helps me sort out my priorities.  Sometimes, with all the business of life and the competing agendas of those around use, we forget who we are and why we are here.  I think my big take-away thought for the whole weekend is that, to be a friend, you have to make yourself friendly.  In some cases, that does not work, so (and this is the hard part), it is important just to stay out of the way and be happy anyway.

This morning, after we returned from Costco, Christian and I ran down to Lowes to pick up a chop saw and a stand to put on it so we could build a a raised bed.  We bought the wood and screws for it last night after work.  We had originally planned to build three, but we decided we should build only one first so we could see if we could do it right.  Lorena bought a pickup load of bark dust while we were at Lowes.  Then, while I assembled the saw and stand, Christian cut the lawn for the first time this year, while Lorena put down weed barrier plastic in the flower bed in front of the house.  When she was ready, I shoveled the bark dust where she wanted it.  We still need another pickup load, but we made good progress for one day.

Bark dust

Chop saw

Raised bed

When we were in Albany, we bought a house with absolutely no lawn.  We were able to turn it into something we really liked.  It was quite a bit of work, but it was very rewarding to us.  It is one of the things that made us saddest about leaving Oregon.

Back patio

Side view

View from the front

Although the climate and soil where we live in North Carolina is not quite as optimal for growing a lawn, it is pretty good.  We have a lot bigger lawn now than we did in Oregon so the task is a little daunting.  Nevertheless, we have made our start.  A fertilizer service came last week for the first time.  We plan to put down bark dust this on Saturday.  We all want to do some gardening, so Christian and I are going to construct some raised beds toward the back of the property for both flowers and vegetables.  Kelly is investigating seeds and tomato starts.  Lorena has been hard at work pulling weeds in front.  The good news is that the front of the house will be in pretty good shape after the fertilizer/weedkiller starts working and we get some weed barrier plastic and bark dust down.  The back is another story.  We have to decide how much we are going to manicure and how much we are going to maintain.  We have to put in a bunch of trees (when we can afford them).  We have to put down some contour barriers.  The other good part to all of this is that it is good exercise.

I have been writing so much about homeschool over the last month, that I will make this months summary brief.  The main accomplishments this month have been the completion of another round of CLEP tests and the moving to more math for both the kids.  Kelly finished Geometry and moved on to Precalculus.  Christian finished Intermediate Algebra (well, almost, he has a few corrections to complete as he starts into Geometry) and moved on to Geometry.  We are in the throes of preparation for another round of CLEP tests.  Kelly will take here US History II test on April 15 (tax day!) and then here Introductory Sociology test on May 20.  Christian’s next CLEP test is his US History I test on May 20.  He will wait until later this summer to take his Spanish test.

We have consolidated some materials and added new materials for each of the kids.  Each day now, Kelly will be drawing her comic strip as part of her homeschool work rather than as a hobby.  Christian will now spend 30 minutes each on C++ programming and 3D animation creations with Blender.  Science and Music continue to be both enjoyable and educational.  One thing I have noted is that both of the kids are enjoying the progress they are making in Physical Education even though it is hard work.  Kelly is pushing up toward 4 miles per day on the elliptical machine with and average of around 300 calories per session.  Christian does 100 pushups four days per week in about four sets.  He is working on doing that many pushups in one set.

What Earth Day? April 22d is National Jelly Bean Day. possibly my favorite holiday after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and National Pink Day (June 22d) I will celebrate this momentous holiday appropriately. They don’t call me Kelly Jean the Jellybean for nothing you know!

I have nothing deep or insightful or extremely interesting to say today (as if I usually do) so I’m just going to write about my Auntie Julia’s cool new idea.  Aunt Julia started a Google group challenging various of her friends and family members to “Work out every single day for 20 days” for at least 30 minutes a day.  I’m excited about it because we usually don’t go to the Y on Wednesdays or weekends, so this will really force me to be creative and play a game of soccer with the neighbor kids or do some crunches. Fun!

Jenna and Nathan brought over a baby doll yesterday. It’s Jenna’s school project. Basically the doll cries, sleeps, drinks, and wets (why is this reminding me of something Christmas-y???)  Her name is Sophie Margaret. She is very cute, but her perpetually-open eyes and crying noises are slightly disturbing. Thankfully she has an off button.