Newberry Winner 2009

If you've been following FunSchooling for a while, you'd know that I've compiled a To Read List of historical fiction, fiction and sci-fi books for my print-thirsty son.

Well, thanks to a timely update from my friend Susan at Chicken Spaghetti, I've just added to my list this year's Newberry Medal winner: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, who also wrote Coraline.

Although the premise (a boy growing up in a graveyard with ghosts and ghouls--the book is targeted at 9-12 year olds after all) may be a little eerie and possibly above the sensitivity level of an almost 6-and-a-half-year-old, DS has surprised me before now by taking stuff like murder, death and loss in the books he reads in his stride. And the coincidence of it all is that just yesterday he asked if we could visit a cemetary!

I've just experimented with A Series of Unfortunate Events (Book 1) and he's been fine. We may try The Graveyard Book if I can get it from the library. Maybe he will be ready for Harry Potter in a couple of months? He's been dying to raid my collection and I've been holding him back. Anyone have experiences to share regarding HP and their younger ones?

Anyway, here are the four 2009 Newberry Honor winners. Please note Amazon's age recommendations.

• The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by David Small (9-12 yrs)
• Savvy by Ingrid Law (9-12 yrs)
• The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (young adult)
• After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (Definitely young adult! Emphasis mine)

To read more about this year's ALA Youth Media Awards winners, click here.

My Someday...

I've been a little quiet lately. Researching home listings. Viewing homes till my feet were practically yelling in pain. Submitting offers and refusing to give in to higher counter offers. Gosh...home hunting isn't such a piece of cake after all is it? LOL.

Anyway, a girl can dream and if you do wonder what I dream of, here's a snapshot...




...and another...




...and another.




Can you tell what they all have in common?

Image credits: The BHG Decorating Gallery

Picture Study: Week 22

Adelaide Labille-GuiardMarie-Josephe-Felicite de La Rochefoucauld, Vicomtesse de Gand, 1787

One of his initial observations: "She looks just like Grandma!"

I couldn't agree more. I almost had a shiver of recognition when I saw this portrait for the first time.

The Vicomtesse and my mom are dead ringers born about 200 years--and continents--apart.

I was delighted to discover more of Ms Labille-Guiard's portraits here. And a biography of the fiesty artist here.

Picture Study: Week 21

Sometime last December, I had purchased The National Gallery of Art 2009 Engagement Calendar at Borders. My hope was to incorporate some sort of picture study into our days beginning Jan 2009.

The calendar features one masterpiece a week. There's an inset with the artist's name and title of the piece on the left and a full-page color plate on the right. I liked that we could use this handy tool to remind him of the date every morning and have a pretty piece of art to study for the week. That's me...I need a multi-purpose tool or we'll never get it done.

My aim is to have him record just one simple observation per day.

Well I forgot all about the calendar amidst the holiday frenzy. So instead of beginning at January 1, we're beginning with this one from Jan 12 - 18.

Jacob van Walscapelle
Still Life with Fruit, 1675

Till now, DS has made the following notes:

Tuesday, Jan 13 - It's very still.

Wednesday, Jan 14 - There's a pomegranate.

He, he, he...well that's a start at least.

A biography of Walscapelle here.

A professional opinion on this piece (verbatim but formating mine):

...the artist has conveyed a monumentality of presence usually found in much larger and more complex still lifes. Bathed in soft light, every figural element quietly asserts its essential properties. The façon de Venice glass filled with wine sparkles against the somber dark background.

The pomegranate bursting with seed invites the viewer to imagine its ripe taste, as do the grapes spilling over the parapet...the grapes as well as the wine had eucharistic associations, while the pomegranate had symbolic associations with the Resurrection. In this sense, Walscapelle's painting would have encouraged the viewer to contemplate Christ's sacrifice and eventual rebirth.

Narration Cube

Here's a pretty cool narration cube I found on the web some months ago. Unfortunately I didn't bookmark the site and am not able to credit the creator. However, her name appears on the pdf file.

DS and I sometimes use the cube after reading a few paragraphs (for more difficult books), pages (easier books) or chapters (the really easy books). We take turns. He throws the cube and answers to the best of his ability and then it's my turn and so on. Sometimes we play till the both of us have answered all 6 sides. Sometimes we play by time we have left. Either way, it's been fun so far.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-To Guides & DIY narration

Feeling like cabbage

I've been vegging out.

We took an extra week off after the Christmas and New Year holidays. And this week I'm slowly stirring out of my festive + house-hunting stupor.

I don't know about you but I feel like declaring a longer holiday. A much, much loooonger holiday. I actually dislike holidays. I dislike slowing down our pace because it's such a hassle for me to get back into tempo. Once I lose rhythm, it takes me ages to get back in track. I feel like I'm on holiday withdrawal...yearning for more days off, dreading having to shift gears. Anyone else feel like this? (laugh...yeah, probably the rest of the world eh?)
Another thing about holidays is that I always get that little thrill of "curriculum-switch" or "method-switch" syndrome.

Right now I'm thinking, "Oh to the h#*k with it and let's just unschool him". I'm thinking of having just literature and living science read alouds, doing some math every morning and then getting audiobooks for every thing else. I'm thinking "I could do with the extra time planning my new kitchen or how the yard will look". I'm thinking DS will love having more autonomy over his day. I'm thinking "oh I just want to read a book and have ice cream right now."
We seriously need more sunlight in our home. All the black bookshelves are draining the light out of our already cluttered apartment. There's no way the kiddo is going to lend me his energy. They need to invent some way for us parents to get some juice out of wall sockets. (By the way, what happened to the weather today? It's like summer here in the middle of January!).

On the other hand, the kiddo has been rather restless over the holidays. He's just twitching to begin co-op classes this week. I guess that's one of the clearest cons of being a very bouncy only child (his other nickname is Jumpy-of Curious George fame-Squirrel's younger brother). Holidays can't be all that fun when you spend the whole day with two cauliflower-paced parents.

We have a nice plan for the co-op this semester. He'll have two science classes (Biology and Earth Science) and will be continuing his Magic Tree House-themed history/ geography class. Which leaves us with at most 3 days a week to do school.

I think I'm done planning how much we're going to get done every year. We're still in Egypt but happily so. And we're still crawling through Cyber Ed Biology and also happily so. We are enjoying a page or 2 a day of Secret Treasures and Magical Measures for math and DS is getting better at figuring out measurements.

His music teacher has praised his sight reading and playing skills and he practices without even thinking about it now. He's loving the 2009 Origami calendar I got him for Christmas.

I like to think of all this as digging deeper instead of rushing to cover everything the state expects us to.

He's happy. I'm happy. I look at me now and think
"What happened to that harried woman who began homeschooling 18 months ago?"

Aaah, but don't worry...I'm not going to be confidently lethargic for long.

Sometime in February (or sooner) I will begin panicking. Just you wait and see.

Homeschooling statistics

Finally! Some stats on the number of homeschooled kids in America.

"...percentage of the school-age population that was homeschooled increased from 2.2 percent in 2003 to 2.9 percent in 2007...data from the 1999 NHES showed an estimated 850,000 homeschooled students in the United States—about 1.7 percent of the school-age population..."

Read it here. I won't spoil the suspense for you by declaring the actual number of kids :) I do however, strongly suspect there are even more home-educated kids in the US of A than the article proposes.

Yes...homeschooling is growing...and growing...and growing. Now why would that be, hmm...?

Oh ok, here's why:

"The three reasons selected by parents of more than two-thirds of students were concern about the school environment, to provide religious or moral instruction, and dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools..."

June 5, 2009 update: See other positive data on homeschooling here.

A memorable year end

Although I can't for the life of me remember how we began 2008, I am quite sure I won't forget it's end.

After years (at least 12) of living in miniscule rented rooms and tiny flats, apartments and condominiums, we just may move into our own home in 2009. A proper home. With a garden/yard. And the possibility of more bookshelves! (laugh).

I will remember December 2008 as a month filled with late night house hunting on the web (how did our parents find homes?), viewing an I'd-rather-not-say number of "handyman special" fixer-uppers and gathering all my old dog-eared IKEA catalogues. As troubling as the economy is, it has given some of us a second chance to afford a home in the Bay Area.



DS writes a pictograph code for our realtor's husband.
It is an exciting time for my family. But it humbles and saddens me that thousands have been forced out of a home they probably spent their entire life savings buying and remodeling. My joy comes at the cost of another family losing theirs. All the more reason for me to treasure the property we will finally choose.

On a happier note, we have a new year and new beginning to look forward to. Things may get worse before they get better but at least there's hope. I have not made a bunch of resolutions. I quit doing that ages ago but I do have aspirations to be an earlier riser and to make healthier dietary choices (laugh). To listen more, speak less. (chuckle...or "Gor!" as Miggery Sow would say).

How will you spend 2009? If you homeschool, what changes (if any) do you have planned? I would love to know :)