Monthly Archives: November 2010

Homeschool, National Blog Posting Month

The study of cakes, cats and composers

NaBloPoMo 2010This week’s “Five in a Row” book was “The Duchess Bakes a Cake,” about a bored duchess who bakes a ridiculous cake that’s so full of yeast it carries her up into the sky. Ridiculous, but Poppy thought it was pretty funny. We talked about feudal society (while Pete wore the knight costume he got for his birthday), alliteration and baking. We tried to make a tres leche cake, but something went amiss. It didn’t home/schoolabsorb all the milk and ended up looking like a cake that someone had spilled a cup of milk on. Rockford says he’ll eat it anyway, so I’m going to pour off the excess later today and let him try it for dessert.

In that-which-we-do-every-week news:

  • Poppy is pages away from the end of her handwriting book. Happily, Zaner-Bloser has a great tool available for making your own copywork pages. I’m using lines from the poems she’s memorized, songs she likes and movies she loves.
  • Speaking of poems, this week’s was “The Cat of Cats” by William Brighty Rands, which naturally became “The Marsha of Marshas” or some such derivation.
  • We read chapters three through seven of “The Water-Horse,” and I still haven’t decided whether or not to put the movie on the Netflix queue. I’ll be googling at some point to find out how it stacks up to the book. Have you seen it? What do you think?
  • Once again, Poppy finished her BookIt challenge this month with weeks to spare. Her assignment for November was to read 100 pages. It’ll be 200 next month. I don’t want it to be insurmountable, but I’d like to find a number or a book that will actually take her through the whole month.

    • We did start something new this week. I’ve been thinking about doing composer studies for awhile now, but I don’t have much classical music on hand. But I was given an iTunes gift card for my birthday (thanks Chloe!), so I downloaded a Mozart compilation. On Monday we listened to the Classics for Kids “About Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” podcast and then spent a little while actively listening to some of his works. We usually have music on in the background as we go about our day. This week, it was mostly Mozart. Pete enjoyed it even more than his sister did, even if he was disturbingly fixated on the composer’s fate. Nearly every time I turned it on, he’d walk into the room and say, “Is this Mozart? Mozart is dead.” At least it’s proof that he was paying attention to the podcast.

    Family matters, National Blog Posting Month

    Failure to launch. But it’s mostly OK.

    4 Comments

    I alluded the other day to my plans for the weekend. I was supposed to be doing something like this:

    Photo courtesy WomenOfFaith.com
    Photo courtesy WomenOfFaith.com

    Instead, I am doing this:

    That's me, sick in my bed. With awesome sheets.
    That's me, sick in my bed. With awesome sheets.

    My new friend Cintia, whom I met at the Type-A Mom Conference, invited me to go with her to a Women of Faith event. I went to one quite a lot of years ago — eight or nine, maybe — with a group of women I hardly knew NaBloPoMo 2010at the time. I don’t remember much of the event itself, but I do remember the very emotional prayer- and tear-a-thon we had in the hotel room. It may not sound all that lovely, but it really was.

    I was looking forward to sharing that sort of thing again. But then I woke up this morning feeling like a flaming bowling ball had lodged itself in my midsection. I’m not sure if it was nerves or something I ate or a bug. (I’m leaning toward Something I Ate. Rockford thinks I might be lactose intolerant. He’s usually right.)

    Whatever caused the problem, though, I spent most of my morning laying in bed, shaking my fist at my bad luck and being angry at myself for being too weak to power through it. Then my daughter came in to bring me a drink, pat my head and tell me she hoped I was feeling better. And I realized this: If I couldn’t be there, at least I am here with my sweet family.