I had an opportunity to review the book, The Man in the Moon, by William Joyce, and I think it’s fabulous. It’s a part of a series called, “The Guardians of Childhood” and promises to become a major motion picture as well. Joyce has previously lent his creative expertise to the feature film world by creating characters in Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, as well as others.

The Man in the Moon tells the story of life on the moon, with the “guardian” who made the moon bright, to provide a global “nightlight” for the children of the world. The illustrations are detailed and beautiful, and give the curious reader plenty to look at.

This dramatic tale is a beautiful explanation of the legend, and gives an idea of the serious stories future “Guardians of Childhood” books may describe (with Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, etc.)

Ages 4-8

My seventh-grader is doing a project in school where he describes with fond memories our homeschool experiment from five years ago (could it be that long?) We had fun reading my old blog posts from that time. I thought I would repost this one.

January, 2007
It has now been nearly three months since beginning my homeschooling experiment. And I’d be lying if I said it was all “peaches and cream.”

We’ve experienced the ups and downs that one might expect from any experiment. I’ve modified curriculum constantly, in an attempt to figure out what works best for each child’s learning style and level. I can see that there are very good reasons for using excellent homeschool curriculum, rather than that designed for a classroom.

But I don’t have time to both design curriculum and teach my kids, (let alone write a book.) So very soon now, I’m going to settle down on my picks and quit changing streams in the middle of a horse. (You can thank my mom for that whacked-out expression.) I’ve spent extensive time on selecting curriculum, and keeping track of my evolving curriculum here.

We’ve also dealt with stressful relationship dynamics. Homeschooling accentuates personality conflicts, and I find we lock horns more often than we would if the kids were out of the house for nine hours per day.

As their teacher, I need to enforce a whole new set of expectations, which makes me the “bad guy” in even more instances than I was before. This is troublesome, but we’re working on it.

But as a whole, what I’ve discovered most, is that I WANT it to work. My kids WANT it to work.

We won’t know if it’s successful until the end of the experiment, because that’s the way experiments are.

So far:

I’ve discovered that, although 2nd grader excels in 3rd grade math, and my 4th grader reads more than 500 pages per week, my kids are not gifted in every subject.

I’ve witnessed the very different ways in which each child processes learning.

I’ve watched C find out for himself how fun reading can be.

I’ve naturally integrated learning into our daily life, because I know what they’re studying and what they’ve already learned.

I’ve photographed them conducting science experiments and loving it.

I’ve learned subject matter that I swear I never learned when I was in school — and I think it’s a gift to have this opportunity.

And, in-between the arguments, I’ve come to know my kids better, understand them better, hear them more, sit with them more, relax with them more, play with them more,

love them more.

And I’m remembering, that in all things,

PROCESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PRODUCT.

Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones:
The Beginning
Week One – Starting with a Frazzle
Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff
Week Two – Just when I thought I knew what I was doing
Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS!
One-month Review
D’s Review at One Month
Week Five – Stress and frustration
Week Seven – Flip-flopping curriculum
Note to self – Consider having low expectations some weeks
Two-Month Review — Some aha moments
Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream
Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history
Five-Month Review — What I underestimated
Six-Month Review – Let’s Just Skip this Month
Seven-Month Review — Curriculum Review
D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig
All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS!

HOMESCHOOL EXPERIMENT RESULTS SERIES:
WHY WE STARTED
the JOYS
the STRUGGLES
the FUTURE for us
Update – Since we Quit Homeschooling

(Photos: conducting DNA and bacteria experiments at the Science Museum of Minnesota.)

In honor of my daughter’s birthday, I thought I would share the birthday invitation she gave to her excellent and understanding friends. I had to admire her snark and their sense of humor.

CONGRATULATIONS

You Have Been Invited to
Darla’s 15th Birthday Party!

On Saturday, November 12th, this 2011 year, you have been invited to this very formal birthday party. It will be a sleepover, from Saturday at 4:30 pm to 10:00 am the following morning.

Late guests will be ignored and left at the front door.
Early guests will be faced with death by guillotine.

We will be secluded in the basement all night, playing my new Just Dance 3 game and drinking soda. Pizza is for dinner (we have cheese pizza for certain vegetarians) and for breakfast we have fancy waffles. (The special kind that has syrup.)

My mother and I argued for a long time, but apparently I have to feed you, and it isn’t an option. I am, however, charging $8.00 a bottle for water.

Please RSVP through call or text.

Note that invitation criticism is strictly disallowed.

Failure to be present at this party will result in death by Alyssa’s mysterious school lasagna cheese.

P.S. My mom says $8.00 water falls in the refusing to feed category… so I guess I will share…

All guests were greeted with a clock and a stern look

Happy Birthday!

Ten years ago, I started my company, Empowering Youth, Inc, which means the SPARK Peer Tutoring Manual has been helping schools train peer tutors for a decade!

To celebrate this accomplishment, we’ll release a new electronic version of SPARK Peer Tutoring – so be watching for this in the coming weeks!