The fate of The Homegrown Sampler

After nearly five years out of the workplace, four years of SAHMing, one economic recession and a lay-off, I'm going back to work. That said, I'll be taking down this (well-intentioned-but-never-left-the-ground) homeschooling blog in the next few days... Or at least taking it offline for the time being. If D decides he wants to keep blogging (since he'll be continuing on with homeschooling the girls in my absence,) I'll leave it to him, but it looks like I'll be hanging up my educator's hat (at least in the role of full-time school marm) for a while, at least.

If you want to keep touch, please feel free to follow me on my main blog, immaculate eclection. With all the new stuff (or at least the stuff I've forgotten about in the past half-decade) I'll be exposed to in the work-a-day world, I might actually have something interesting to write about... who knows!?

So there you have it. Wish us all a smooth transition - we're gonna need it!

Hands-on Learning

The inadvertent theme of last week seemed to be 'learning by experience'. It started Monday, when we decided that for our virtues project ("Helpfulness" for the month of March) we'd put the value in action. A friend of ours was recovering from surgery, so N and I made dinner and a few baked goodies together, then she accompanied me for the drop-off later that night. It was a great opportunity to show and tell, and I believe she learned a very valuable lesson through it!

The second experience was more on the catastrophic side - N suffered an accident involving a toddler with a knife, a scary trip to the ER and five stitches in the fleshy part of her palm/thumb. While it was definitely not an experience any of us care to repeat, we did manage to turn it into a fantastic learning opportunity, right in line with our Human Body Unit. Even now, with all the wound care and maintenance, she's learning firsthand about blood cells, scabs, and the body's ability to heal itself.

Menu Plan Monday: Week of March 2

Since we'd been sick the previous week, I just recycled that week's menu last week (we still had all the ingredients needed and fortunately they were all still fresh.)

Here's this week's menu:

MONDAY
(B) cold cereal
(L) hard-boiled eggs, English muffins, plums
(D) homemade chili w/corn dumplings, green salad

TUESDAY
(B) otameal
(L) pb&j sandwiches
(D) leftovers

WEDNESDAY
(B) corn grits
(L) soup & quesadillas
(D) loaded baked potatoes & green salad

THURSDAY
(B) crepes w/berry compote & cream cheese
(L) soup & quesadillas
(D) Spring rolls & quick Asian salad

FRIDAY
(B) bacon egg & cheese muffins, fresh fruit
(L) leftovers
(D) veggie omelets & hash browns

SATURDAY
(B) pancakes
(L) light snack (cut veggies, etc.)
(D) French onion soup, green salad

SUNDAY
(B) cold cereal
(L) light snack (cut veggies, etc.)
(D) easy spinach lasagna, green beans

*recipe has been modified to replace packaged or processed ingredients with comparable whole, fresh and organic choices.

Accidental videoschooling

A (the baby) came down with this vomit-y yuckiness first, followed by my husband, followed by me (DH and I are still in recovery mode after 24+ hours of nonstop upchucking.) N has yet to come down with this nastiness, and while the rest of us have been incapacitated she has been left to entertain herself, unfortunately. Or, I should say, she has been left for long stretches in front of the DVD player. Not at all my babysitting method of choice, but in cases like these what does one do?

The up-side of this is that we'd rented a video from the library before we were all taken out of commission: Ping and Pong Learn About the Body (ISBN 1-60288-394-7.) It's a DVD full of short vignettes (geared toward children in the neighborhood of 3 to 6 years old) about the human body and includes subject matter such as bones, scabs, etc. So while the rest of us have been puking, N's been educating herself about sweat and germs, over and over (and over) again. This morning I was greeted by a big, fake sneeze and a matter-of-fact commentary, "my nose had some impurities in it, Mommy, and I had to get them out - that's why I sneezed."

Stumbles of the Week: February 9-15, 2009

Due to a nasty bout of the stomach 'flu that has ravaged our household, combined with the fact that our school district is observing President's day all week long this week and I will be watching my youngest brother for the most part, posting for this week and last have been a little sparse - I apologize!

I have, in the random spare moment, come across some really great blog posts here and there I thought I'd round up in one spot:

The Great Backyard Bird Count - nature studies from your own backyard.

The Homeschool Preschool, a three-part series (linked within her blog post) worth reading!

Raising Readers - a fantastic resource guide for early literacy and instilling in kids a love of books.

Are Books Dangerous? the CPSIA is in full-force as of this month, and we're already seeing its catastrophic results.

Climbing Mt. Homeschooling gave me inspiration and encouragement this week when I really needed it.

Not necessarily on-topic, but still relevant: Children and the Pressure to Buy.

And... for you fellow homeschooling bloggers who might be interested in guest-blogging somewhere else, two "help wanted" posts came to my attention just this morning: The Homeschool Classroom is looking for guest writers, and Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers is kicking around the idea of adding in a guest poster here and there.

Menu Plan Monday: Week of February 16

MONDAY
(B) cold cereal
(L) vegetable pot stickers, leftover chicken-lentil curry
(D) carrot-ginger soup, spinach salad w/hot bacon dressing

TUESDAY
(B) otameal
(L) hard-boiled eggs, bread, apples
(D) leftover chicken enchiladas, green salad

WEDNESDAY
(B) French toast w/maple syrup
(L) pb&j sandwiches
(D) bbq ribs, sweet potato fries & apple-baked beans*

THURSDAY
(B) corn grits
(L) soup & quesadillas
(D) Spring rolls, curried rice, green salad

FRIDAY
(B) cold cereal
(L) leftovers
(D) omelets & hash browns

SATURDAY
(B) pancakes
(L) light snack (cut veggies, etc.)
(D) French onion soup, loaded baked potatoes

SUNDAY
(B) muffins, fresh fruit
(L) leftovers
(D) spaghetti, green beans, green salad

*recipe has been modified to replace packaged or processed ingredients with comparable whole, fresh and organic choices.

Our virtues project

Some time back, during one of my random blog-hopping excursions, I came across The Virtues Project and Virtues in Us: The Children's Virtues Development Project. The more I browsed, the more it occurred to me that while the best method for instilling virtues is by daily example, there is also an element of intentionality and verbalization to teaching children values. So in the beginning of 2009 I set out to more consciously do that.

We set out this month to focus on the value of Thankfulness. We chose to begin with this particular value because I noticed an escalating trend surrounding supply and demand around our house; the more DH and I supplied, the bigger (and more frequent) N's demands. I know much of this is just general 3-year-old-ness, but I also figured it's never too early to start trying to counter the undesirable mentalities society will attempt to program into my kids as they get older. Given American consumer-centric ideology and our current economic crisis, thankfulness seemed like a good place to start.

From The Family Virtues Guide: Thankfulness is being grateful for what you have. It is also being grateful for the little things which happen around you and within you every day. To be thankful is to have a sense of wonder about the beauty of this world and to welcome all of life as a gift. It is a way to grow when painful tings happen, by looking at the gifts which are always there, even when they seem hidden. Thankfulness is a path to contentment.

I should take a moment and tell you a little bit about the aforementioned guide. It really is a fantastic resource for helping parents think through this process. It not only suggests and outlines roughly thirty virtues that many cultures and most religions hold in common as a starting point, there is an entire section in the back about how to incorporate values into moments of discipline (not in the sense of punishment, but as teaching opportunities) and other tips for instilling virtues through everyday experiences.

As for the specific topic of Thankfulness, here are the books we've used so far (appropriate for younger children, ages 3 to 6:)

Thankfulness (Learn About Values)

The Child's World of Thankfulness

We've read both multiple times and they always spark really great discussions.