nudgeschooling

The school year is upon me! We don’t stop schoolin’ in the summer. As unschoolers we neither stop nor start the whole “formal learning” gig, but keep about the same non-pace throughout the year. However, when the conventional schools are in session, I try to get a little more nudge-schooly in my approach. I like the kids to do something measurably academic each day, and if they don’t do so themselves I nudge them into it. Hence, nudgeschooling.

I’m definitely going with Teaching Textbooks for Faith’s math. She wants to stay at grade level for math and not fall behind her friends who are schooled, and she really enjoyed the website preview for Math 4. When we can afford it we’ll be getting it, probably early October.

Abby liked it as well, but she’s a little behind Faith in math. She likes Miquon and hasn’t yet finished the whole set of books so that’s probably going to be her thing this year.

Everyone else will just tag along and do what they do with no formal plan. We’re still working through the Sonlight Core 1+2 we started in February, so I’ll pick back up with that. We all love it since it’s reading together and discussing stuff as a family. I kind of forget it’s “school”, frankly! It feels like we’re cheating. Abby’s favorite thing to do for dinner conversation is “Let’s everyone tell about the book they’re reading, and why you like it.” Love me some Sonlight.

Bede has been wearing clothes (!!) I’m still processing. I told Tabitha now he won’t be the weird naked kid, he’ll be the weird kid who wears men’s trousers belted and rolled up at the cuffs. An improvement!

ICE AGE: a desperate plea

My oldest son, Bede, has developed a deep and abiding passion for all things ICE AGE MOVIE. Most super especially SCRAT, the little acorn-obsessed squirrel. Bede is 6 and a half years old and is autistic, and has *never* had this sort of reaction to anything traditionally child-oriented. (His usual thing is fonts and type design.) I am also excited about this because he wants to wear clothes with ICE AGE themes and he does not usually want to wear clothes at all. (He has been naked 90% of the time for the last 3 years. No kidding!)

We are Very Very Poor. We own both movies on DVD. BUT. If anyone has any ICE AGE stuffs they want to get rid of I would love to have it. Any toys, from Happy Meal on up, any clothes (adult sizes fine too), any books… anything! I can’t pay you a single cent because I don’t have it.

A million thanks in advance. I can be reached here or at phoebe@gleeson.us

(crossposted: like whoa, sorry)

tidiness is not among them

My darling husband has many sterling qualities. He is a wonderful father who reads to his children every night before bedtime. He makes excellent rigatoni.

He is a really great kisser.

But the car he drives hadn’t been cleaned since before Gloria was born in January 2008, coincidentally the last time I rode in it. I just cleaned it out though, lots of bits of paper and empty cigarette packages and old Weekly Standard magazines. Why would I undertake such an endeavour, you may ask? Why, because I will be riding in it again this very evening, thanks to two facts.

Fact the First: Under Oklahoma law, only front-seat occupants and children under 13 need wear seatbelts.

Fact the Second: My oldest child is over five feet tall and therefore big enough to sit in the front seat, even with an airbag.

Leading us to the conclusion: I will be sitting on the floor of the van, recklessly but legally unbelted, as we drive to my parents’ house for dinner. I feel like a sixteen year old, only with grey hair and no abdominal tone.

(Don’t worry, we won’t make a habit of it. It’s just one drive a week.)

midsummer, math musings

I love midsummer. The cicadas are crooning in their robotic way, the air is viscous with heat, the days are long.

I don’t like my electric bill, which was obscenely high. I mean, it was bad. I have not been as good about hanging laundry as I could be – mostly days where it “looked cloudy” – but even accounting for that it was awful. I’ve renewed my dedication to not using the dryer and we’ll see if August’s bill is less than July’s. Dude.

In other news I’ve been geeking out over Doctor Who, listening to indie rock, and planning our school year. I’m leaning toward Teaching Textbooks for math since it’s self-taught and on the computer, both things Faith and Abby appreciate. It is a bit pricey though.

We’ve become sort of Charlotte Mason unschoolers. I coined the term “nudgeschooling” and it seems to fit. As always, it’s a journey.

How are you?

indoctrination

I was seeing if a pea coat that was too small for me in the sleeves would fit Sophia (sadly, it did not.)

The children wanted to try it on too, of course:

And my geeky fangirl heart swelled when Trixie said, “Look, I’m the Doctor!”

IMG_0402

Gilbert the Doctor:

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And, for reference, the Doctor:

04

lazy Sunday

I’m sitting at the table with Gloria, Abby and Gilbert. Gloria is drawing. She has a good feel for color for a toddler and will ikely be another artist like her dad. Abby and Gilbert are drawing and playing a game with convoluted rules and it’s fun to listen to them. Beatrice just wandered up and handed me a pushed-in cowboy hat and asked me to fix it. I did, she put it on her head, and immediately added another cowboy hat and a tricorn. “I have three hats!” she declared. Bede is watching the Monsters Inc. bonus disc animatics, one of his current favorite areas of study. Faith is playing Webkinz and telling me all the trivia questions she doesn’t know the answers to. “Mommy, did you know that Cleopatra’s favorite color was purple?”

They’ve all been watching Doctor Who with me. I am of course happy to re-watch older episodes and it’s fun to see how the history in them sticks with the kids later. Faith and Abby and I are reading the American Girl Molly books, which are set during World War II. I heard Abby tell Faith “That’s when Rose met Captain Jack, during the Blitz!”

Abby told me what kind of boyfriend she wants. At eight years old this kid has some priorities. She informed me that she wants a “tough” boyfriend, and showed me a picture she had drawn of a skate punk kid with a spiky hairdo and a skull on his shirt, smirking and making a muscle with his arm. I said that tough was fine but funny was better, because funny meant smart and smart always beats tough.

She sighed.

“You sound like Faith,” she said. “She wants a computer geek boyfriend.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes and went back to the drawing.

Hee hee!

Four by Four



DSCN0382, originally uploaded by feebeeglee.

Tagged by Dawn.

1. Open the fourth picture folder on your computer
2. Select the fourth picture in the folder
3. Post the picture to your blog & explain the picture
4. Tag 4 people to do the same

That’s the Indomitable Bede, at 15 months old. I was trying to get a picture of the lovely purple gifts he was wearing: a soaker from Pamela and a shirt from Shelly. Then, as now, he was always in motion. And very cute.

Tagging everyone! Tag, tag tag tag!

cookie coma

Bede asked me to bake cookies yesterday, so that’s what we did today. He asked me by placing a storebought cookie on a baking sheet and declaring “make cookies HOT!”

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Large Family Edition)
Makes About 100 Cookies

4 sticks butter, room temp
4 eggs, room temp
3 cups brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 cups oatmeal
1 package chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Mix butter and sugar, then eggs and vanilla. Add flour and baking soda, mix well. Add cinnamon and oatmeal, oatmeal in two parts. Rest your hands from all the stirring to make sure the cookie sheets are clean cause at my house they never are, they’re on the stove still dirty from the garlic toast. Finally, add the chocolate chips. Drop rounded spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes. They’ll be lovely and flat and chewy with crispy edges. Then eat so many you pass out.

They taste the best if you have a little autistic boy capering about chortling and saying “cookies HOT! ee hee hee hee hmmhnn!” but I understand that may not be possible, pity.

feeling a little nicer now

I feel better. I think I have mood issues midcycle anyway, and an especially rotten day makes it so much worse. You’d think I’d know about the whole cyclical nature of woman stuff, but I forget. At any rate, I’m improved now.

I’m reading to Trixie. She sure is cute. She thinks everything is “a great story! Let’s read ‘nudder one!”

So far we’re up to ten, but she seems to be wandering off for longer times between each book. I need to get out a bunch that were put away because they’ll be new to her.

rant

The six year old is regressing and pooping and peeing on the floor again, after 2 months of not doing so.

His brother has become a pathological liar at four and a half.

The baby is infuriated at all times by our refusal to allow reckless climbing practices.

The three year old is a solid wall of either sobbing or defiance.

The nearly-eight has gained a previously unseen attitude of “OKAY! FINE!” eyeroll,  sigh.

The nine year old is either daydreaming and vapid or being a pain to the youngers.

When will the grown-ups get here to take over for me? Cause baby, I am SO OVER THIS.

summer

I know it won’t be summer here in the Northern Hemisphere for a few weeks more but I can sure feel it coming. We got out the easy set pool we all loved so much last year and it’s filling up. I need a smaller blow-up pool for G-Lo cause she’s too short for the easy set. We’ll be spending some time in the pool(s) every day, if last year is any indication.

I got the big girls swimsuits from Lands’ End. They are well made and have good coverage. Highly recommend. I got them on sale and free shipping but they’re worth full price and paid shipping. I swear, swimsuits these days! I was both unsurprised yet faintly disappointed to discover that my suit from last year fits fine. It is a little big, but not enough to replace. Ah well.

sustainability thoughts

So, my unconditional Rule is “If I’m running the air conditioner, I won’t run the clothes dryer.” If it’s hot enough for the air to be on, it’s hot enough to dry clothes. I also hang clothes on days we don’t run the air, but I don’t feel as guilty running the dryer then. And I run the dryer exclusively from November through early March, since I don’t have an easy way to dry eight folks’ worth of clothes and cloth diapers inside.

I had planned this long rambly post about crunchy conservatism and now Trixie is being very uncooperative and loud and I can’t think at all. Pity.

Reckon that’s why I only blog once a month these days.

from my backyard

We’re outside today, it being near-spring weatherwise, but without the inconvenience of bugs. Ah! These few weeks each year are among my favorites. The number one attraction in our backyard is the bare earth area under the big tree where everyone goes to Dig in the Dirt. Dirt Digging is a Very Important Endeavor, you see. This year, Gloria is old enough to join the fray and toddles around with a stick and a smile.

Everyone is happy and well! Bede has his yearly check-in with his psychologist next week. I’m looking forward to it. He’s made such great strides in his development this year. He’s gone from the second most dreaded autistic behavior – poop play – numeous times a day, to zero play with poop and well on the way to toilet trained. (The most-dreaded autistic behavior is self-injury, of course, which we have not dealt with here.) He also is learning Arabic (!!) and working on first-grade math.

The other kids are great too. Faith and Abby and I have been doing something academically structured every day, with great results. I worked through a period of Great Navelgazing Angst as I dithered over whether or not I was an unschooler, and gave too much thought as to what you, the internets, would think of me. Then I decided I don’t care what you think, because my kids love it and are thriving and begging for more. So there. Now we’re extremely relaxed Charlotte Mason people.

This is already so long, I don’t think many will read it.

Gilbert and Trixie play together all the time. At 4 and 3 they are delightfully matched and often argue but always make up. Gilbert is very interested in ballroom dancing and airplanes at this time, and Trixie likes teddy bears and Mickey Mouse. They are so cute.

Gloria wants whatever anyone else has, and they tend to give it to her because she’s so darn adorable. Ah, to be the youngest with five doting siblings.

It’s getting a little chilly outside, must be a cold front. Time to head in!

update

I realized yesterday that not only does Bede tolerate our singing, he actually likes it. A far cry from the boy who used to scream and put his hand over our mouths. We stopped giving him corn a month ago and I don’t know if it’s connected but he is much less irritable since. I don’t care to find out by testing it! We’re not avoiding all corn anything, just actual corn flour and corn meal. I get a terrible stomachache when I eat corn so we decided to give it a whirl after noticing his mood was horrible on Saturday afternoons – after a 4 bowls of corn based breakfast cereal.

Gloria has three new signs: milk, drink and more. She says mama, dada and points to other things when asked where they are. She has figured out how to push dining chairs over to a low alcove so she can then climb on the chair and reach a shelf. Sigh. It begins.

Abby and Faith will be taking acting and dance classes this spring. And maybe art.

Trixie is adorably contrary.

Gilbert is why? how come?

And now I am needed again!

brief notes

  • seeing Bede strip down and DEMAND his new Batman underwear immediately
  • Faith’s tears of joy upon opening her Molly doll
  • Gloria preferring the packaging to any toys
  • Trixie’s love of her new pink sparkly bowler hat
  • Gilbert in his new Star Wars PJs, cradling his first Webkinz ever
  • Abaigeal in pony fairy heaven

Pictures to come. Merry Christmas everyone!

Gloria walks!

just shot this – she just figured out how to stand up without help tonight. She’s 11 months and 3 days.

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more about "Gloria walks!", posted with vodpod

three down, three to go?

Abaigeal is the third Gleeson kid to be stricken with the mystery illness. It’s marked by a sudden high fever, complete lethargy, a sore throat, and mild nausea. But it only lasts for a day. Weird. So far it has hit Gilbert, Bede and now Abby. I expect Faith, Trixie and Gloria to succumb soon. I hope Faith lasts through til after tomorrow night though, as she has an elaborate Christmas Show planned for Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. We managed to scale her back to two songs – down from five. It has choreography and everything, and involves Faith, Abby, Gilbert and Trixie. Whew!

Anyway, my sweet Abby is sick today. She hasn’t been bringing me pictures she’s drawn all day, which is her usual pastime. Instead she has been a sad lump of girl child shivering on her bed. I miss her! I hope she feels better tomorrow.

meltdown

Meltdown: Informal. An emotional breakdown.

Bede had one tonight, and it was a doozy. We were getting ready to leave my parents’ house and he fell apart. Wouldn’t get dressed. Couldn’t tell me what was going on. He did manage to say “I DON’T WANT SHOES!!!” but nothing more specific. He sobbed, he wailed, he flailed, he moaned.

It was exhausting for everyone involved.

He kept scripting from his current favorite alphabet video, “Richard Scarry’s Best ABC Video Ever” “Oops, sorry Miss Honey! T is upside down! Waaah (sob!)” so maybe something was wrong like that. I don’t know.

He cried nearly all the way home. But when we got home, he was fine. He fell asleep about ten minutes later and is sleeping soundly on the futon.

I’m still a bit shaken. Whew.

Have yourself a gloomy little Christmas

I found these dolls looking for “organic doll” on Amazon: Planet Pixies!

They’re cute little Groovy Girl-esque soft dolls, and I was thinking of suggesting them for out of town relations as gifts for the kids. Then I read the description:

All over the planet, Pixies are losing their homes due to pollution, deforestation, and global warming. Now these Pixies need good homes and friends that will care for them and for the environment. Together you & your Pixie can learn about the environment & what you can do to protect it to ensure no more Pixies lose their homes! Planet Pixies are made with all natural and organic cotton. Each adorable Pixie provides information about a specific endangered region of the world from which they’re from, along with tips on what you can do to help.

I get that we need to teach children to be good stewards of the Earth. I’m all for it. But I think the effect of all this crud is going to be DEAF EARS and a strong sense of futility.

Can’t we just have little chemical free pixie dolls without the guilt? Please?