Category Archives: homeschooling

Apr 19 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 16 – Stories of Composers

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Stories of Composers For Young Musicians by Catherine Wolff Kendalls makes for great bedtime reading. (I have been reading to my children since they were infants. We read before going to bed but we also read throughout the day.)

My children take violin and piano lessons and my goal is to make classical music a delight for them. As such, we play classical music during our meals and we read as much about composers as we can. I have invested in some CDs about composers’ lives but my children were still too small at the time – we are talking preschool age.

Stories of Composers

They are now 6 and 8 and these stories seem to go over better. It will be an interesting test, after reading this book with them, to re-visit the initial CDs and see if the kids have a better reaction to them.

Because they did enjoy this book. It was a bit boring for my six-year-old in the beginning, because the book has no pictures beyond a portrait of the composer. But she soon realized these composers fell in love and married – well, most of them did. She is in this phase of awakening to romance.  Continue reading »

Apr 12 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 15 – Mommy, Can We Practice Now?

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Mommy, Can We Practice Now? by Marie Parkinson is another helpful book for parents whose children are involved in music lessons. Paying for violin or piano lessons is one thing. Making sure the kiddos practice every day at home without losing one’s temper is another thing altogether.

First, let me tell you a story. I have a friend who puts her children in a public school. She does not understand why I homeschool. That’s fine. We respect each other and have wonderful conversations about being a mom and cooking and life in our small town.

Mommy Can We Practice Now?

She definitely does not understand why I pay somebody else to teach my children violin and piano when I can play violin and some piano – albeit not at a concert soloist level. Indeed, it may seem inconsistent. To say “I am not a violin teacher by training” is the same as to say “I am not a physics teacher by training.” Which means I really have no business tackling my children’s education as a homeschooler, overall.

But this is where I disagree. Physics or chemistry or reading or any other school subject are very different from the arts. Music and art are best taught by somebody who is trained as an artist and, even better, as a teacher of artists.  Continue reading »

Apr 5 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 14 – About Grace

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About Grace by Anthony Doerr is really not just about a girl name Grace. It is about fathers and daughters, runaway fathers, separation and psychology, precognition, dreams, Alaska, and the Grenadines. And, mostly, it is about snowflakes and insects.

This is Doerr’s first novel and critics agree that it is something special. Personally, when I read it, I felt transported and enlightened. I felt inspired even more to invest in family.

About Grace

David Winkler, the main character, learns the hard way that family is not so much what you are given but what you are able to keep. He also said something that touched me so much, I put the book down and went to a different place to cry. He said that grandfathers are successful fathers who have been promoted to the next level.  Continue reading »

Mar 29 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 13 – Four Seasons in Rome

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Anthony Doerr is quickly becoming my favorite writer. Last year, I read “All The Light We Cannot See” and was really touched by it. Now I know it was not just the plot, it was also the way Doerr writes. Because “Four Seasons in Rome” is very different from “All the Light…” You see, “Four Seasons…” is a travel memoir, while “All the Light…” is a work of fiction, a novel.

Two very different pieces, connected by the same author. It is clearly his writing that can turn any story, true or fictional, into an experience that enriches life. His writing grips me and haunts me and helps me see life differently. It inspires, energizes, and changes my perspective on the banal details of life. No wonder Doerr has received several literary awards, including the Pulitzer for “All the Light…” and no wonder he was named one of the 20 best young American novelists by Granta. He is that good.

Four Seasons in Rome

The subtitle of “Four Seasons in Rome” is “On twins, insomnia, and the biggest funeral in the history of the world.” So what is going on? The day Doerr’s wife gave birth to twins, they received an envelope in the mail, offering him a fellowship to live in Rome for one year and write something. Anything. The offer came from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. How could they say no?  Continue reading »

Mar 3 2016

Buy Local

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About ten years ago, I became aware that the US was going green. It was a recycling revolution. Words like “going green,” “sustainability,” and “recycling” entered the every day banter in mass media. Then, of course, “buy local” followed closely behind.

Well, we have been travelling to Knoxville for four different activities for the past three years. We are getting tired of the drive. It is two hours both ways, but, of course, you have to also consider driving between the activities once we are there.

Anna Porter Public Library Story Time

We have been attending Story Time at our local library for seven years now.

It’s not the gas money. It’s my emotional fuel. I get tired and then I bring the kids home late in the evening, around 9pm, and by the time we get to bed it is 10pm. The next day, we are dragging and it takes us another 24 hours to recover and get back on schedule.  Continue reading »

Mar 1 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 9 – The Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s masterpiece is set in Puritan New England. If you, like me, have only seen the movie, you should really consider reading the book. I have said this before and I will say it again: there is no comparison between immersing yourself in a book and watching a movie adaptation thereof.

The Scarlet Letter

 

This is only 272 pages, so it’s not as intimidating as Don Quixote or Anna Karenina, so really there should be no problem from that standpoint. If you are familiar with King James Bible language, again, the dialogues in this book should not pose a problem. It is actually very neat to read something in that kind of English which is not the Bible – though Scriptural references are peppered throughout.  Continue reading »

Feb 23 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 8 – Three Deuces Down

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For this month’s book group selection, we had to read Three Deuces Down by Keith Donnelly. This is a thriller set in East Tennessee. Knoxville, TVA, the Smokies, Tri-City area, I-40 and I-81 get mentioned quite a bit. But our PI protagonist, Donald Youngblood takes us all over the world, from New York to Ireland and then to Colombia.

Keith Donnelly and Adriana Zoder

Keith Donnelly and I at the Anna Porter Public Library Book Group meeting

If you like thrillers, this is a good one. Of course, with this genre, you will have to expect that somebody disappears, somebody gets killed (at least one, right?), somebody hooks up, and somebody gets philosophical.

This is the first in a series of mysteries featuring Donald Youngblood, a Wall Street whiz kid turned private investigator in a small town in East Tennessee.  Continue reading »

Feb 14 2016

Subtraction with Borrowing

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It took me three days and several methods to teach my son subtraction with borrowing. Math has never been a tough subject for him. He understands place value and trading one ten for ten ones. He just did not understand why we did all the maneuvering around.

So I backtracked and showed him some cute videos on YouTube: this, this, and this. He thought the Khan Academy’s video on the subject was too dry and boring and still did not get it. I usually scoff at the idea of Sesame Street style teaching, but desperate situations require desperate measures. I knew I would stoop to this level just so my kid would get it. And then we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming, to use terminology from the oft-despised world of television.

43-26 shown with dimes and pennies; 10 pennies waiting on the side to be traded for a dime.

43-26 shown with dimes and pennies; 10 pennies waiting on the side to be traded for a dime.

I got online and looked at some videos on how to teach subtraction with borrowing myself. Some of them bored me to tears, but I appreciated the efforts of all these math teachers out there who took the time to offer this online for free. Thank you.

In the process, I learned that borrowing is considered antiquated now as a term. We now say “regrouping.” Both terms are incomplete, in my book, because the operation involves borrowing first and then regrouping.

I also learned that Common Core advocates call this “granny math.” The way to do subtraction with regrouping under Common Core Standards is to count up to the nearest number that ends in a 0 or a 5, like giving change. Excuse me?

If that’s not a way to create a generation of dummies which can be easily controlled and manipulated by a technocratic state, I don’t know what is. What’s wrong with the old way? It teaches children to think. Ironically, Common Core advocates state the opposite. They claim their way of doing math is the way to get a child to think. I disagree. Continue reading »

Feb 9 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 6 – Jane Eyre

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Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is a masterpiece. No wonder then that of all the things the Bronte sisters wrote, Susan Wise Bauer included only Jane Eyre into her list of 32 novels produced by the Western world since the genre was created, around the 1600s. Jane is way ahead of her time. She makes herself the equal of a man (a wealthy gentleman, too) – great feat in 1847! – through conversation and wit and attitude.

Jane Eyre

But Jane Eyre is more than just an early feminist. She is a Christian who is grappling with injustice, hypocrisy, delusion, and missionarism in the people around her. Some have said this book is anti-Christian because of characters like Mr. Brocklehurst and St John Rivers. These men seem more like caricatures, but have you not met hypocritical characters in your local congregation? Have you not met exalted young missionaries who are deluded into thinking they are doing God and the world a favor through their daily sacrifices? I know I have met my fair share of such people. So this book spoke to me on a very personal level.  Continue reading »

Feb 8 2016

2016 Ski Season

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Last year, my son and I started taking ski lessons. These lessons are offered for homeschoolers but we have also met public school children. The lessons happens on Sunday mornings, so it really is an accessible time for everybody. One must be at least seven to start.

Mom and son on the ski slopes

My son and I at Ober Gatlinburg in February 2016

We were both beginners last year. I had been on skis twice before, but without much success. So I really was a beginner as well. This year, we are taking intermediate classes. Riding the chair lift was really scary for me in the beginning, especially when it gets really high in places.  Continue reading »