definitely not normal

My friend and I were talking about how, in a way, it is nice as homeschool families to just look "normal" ... you know, not stand out or, more preferably, not stick out.  I agreed and we continued on in our happy conversation.  I certainly had visual images in my head of not-normal homeschool people, having either met some, or just using my imagination.  It wasn't hard to do. 

Then this morning happened.

I decided to "look it up" as my daddy always said, and this is what I found ...

Normality (behavior)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

In behavior, normal refers to a lack of significant deviation from the average. The phrase "not normal" is often applied in a negative sense (asserting that someone or some situation is improper, sick, etc.). Abnormality varies greatly in how pleasant or unpleasant this is for other people; somebody may half-jokingly be called "pleasantly disturbed".

From the Latin Normalis (f).

For example, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim indicated in his Rules of Sociological Method that the most common behavior in a society is considered normal. People who do not go along are violating social norms and will invite a negative reaction from others in the society.

Ok.  Me and mine are definitely not normal.  We may look it on the outside at a glance, even if we do dress a little differently than many of the parents we know, but we are anything but normal on the "inside", regularly violating social norms (even within the "church", oh my).

• we homeschool,  but not like the other parents in my local group who use recognized material.  I am even branching out by writing my own curriculum and selling it to other suckers people

My Name is Asher Lev

It is funny how you find yourself doing things at times without knowing why, or if you are even enjoying yourself.  I was driving the boys to do their papers last week, and tuned in to the tail-end of a discussion about a novel I had quite forgotten aobut.  I cannot even remember when it was I decided I wanted to read it, but it was brought to memory that afternoon in the car, and I quickly wrote the title on my hand (lest I forget it again).  Yes, I do that often ... yes, I mean both writing on my hand and forgetting.

It seems many habits are hard to break.

The story of Asher Lev is a beautiful torment to read on paper, and to imagine in reality.  I do not know how many of my friends and acquaintances would relate to this novel, or even want to in truth.  Asher has been given a tremendous gift in his art, and is understood by very few.  There are parts of me that "get" him completely and parts that hope I never will.  It is a strange ride of swells and sick turns ... sometimes staring into seemingly limitless depths, and other times awed by the beauty of the atmosphere you become a part of in the reading.  It must be like mountain climbing, if you don't look down.  Jonam repeatedly asked me how I liked the book, and I would constantly reply "it's depressing".  I even thought I had  "lost" it for a number of days until I searched the underworld of my bed, and re-discovered it.  Jonam joked that I put the book far under the bed in my sleep, on purpose, because I didn't like it,  but I was riveted and unable to simply walk away.  Each chapter would build upon its predecessor with more fascination for both the anguish of the artist, and the intricasies of Hasidic Judaism.  It is masterpiece and mournful, both.

I suppose I liked this review enough, if you care to read it instead of the novel.  I am not much of a book reviewer.  I have been left, though, with a lot to ponder.

violet

I sat here for a while thinking about what I should like to write about ... my first thought was a description of my home, but nothing clicked.  My second thought was something about how everything in this place squeaks, but, again, no real "fit".  Maybe it is because I am busy reading some pretty heavy novels alongside the writing of my latest curriculum guide.  It is going quite well, and I tend to forget about my blog fairly quickly at times like this.  So, for whatever reason, I began thinking about the colour brown and how I wondered if it could at all describe me.  So I did one of the things I like to do at moments like these ... I did a meme.  Brown wasn't me.  I am fairly certain, though, that if Neal did this meme, he would be some earthy colour for sure ... if not brown, then definitely green.

I came out very impressed with the "diagnosis" ... it was right on the money.  In fact, if I could choose to be anywhere today but here, I would choose to be in Berea, on the lawn, drinking a wonderful Organic Chai, with my sketch pad and one of my favourite violet pens (which I am sadly out of at present).  The boys would be at an art lesson with someone wonderful, and Neal and I would be sitting comfortably on a blanket, with our drinks and some yummy pita, and hummus and fresh veggies and fruit.  Hmphh ... and to think ... I do not even own anything of this colour other than a pretty set of sheets.

You surround yourself with art and music and are constantly driven to express yourself. You often daydream. You prefer honesty in your relationships and believe strongly in your personal morals.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

 

Monday, June 18, 2007

in answer to a tag

My husband tagged me because our son tagged him.  Here it is:

1 Pick up a book that is near to you
2 Go to page twelve in the book
3 Read the first two sentences and post it on your blog
4 Also post the book title and the name of the author
5 Tag 3 other People : )

I had to wait a while on this one, since none of the books I was reading had anything I thought HSB would deem appropriate (not on page 12 anyway).  You needn't be wary of the types of novels I read, it just happens that the first two sentences of the three I currently have on the go don't necesarily meet a family friendly rating.  For those of you who are totally nosy-heads, like me, I am reading My Name is Asher Lev, How to Get Pregnant Naturally, (courtesy of my Mum), and Crunchy Cons.  So, I will quote from page twelve of The Swiss Family Robinson, which I am also reading and writing curriculum for ...

          As soon as we could gather our children around us on dry land, we knelt to offer thanks and praise for our merciful escape, and with full hearts we commended ourselves to God's good keeping for the time to come.

          All hands then briskly fell to the work of unloading, and oh, how rich we felt ourselves as we did so!

Seriously, how beautiful and all-encompassing is that ... for daily living, for homeschool encouragement and for pressing in to win the prize. 

today ...

today I feel strangely homesick, except I cannot figure out what that means.

I love my home.  I love my husband and my kids.  I drank in the presence of my best friend, even if it was just a few minutes.  I thought of my other best friend and her expanding belly, and knew that I was loved despite the distance that prevents any face to face.  Our house guest is adapting to "us" incredibly well, and his independence is an added blessing I thought I could only wish for (after the guest we had last summer).  So, what is it?

perhaps you know ...

 

Friday, June 15, 2007

basic class

This post is completely for bestsister who, bless her heart, tried so hard to help me with my bread problems.  So did Tara ... even reading over the phone from her Bread Bible.  I liken this to the time in High School when I realized Advanced Math was no longer working for me (not even close) so I had to transfer down to General (mortification at the time).  This is a no-knead recipie for whole wheat bread that FINALLY worked for me.  All I needed (not kneaded!) to do was go from the Advanced advice of my expert friends to a General version I could actually succeed at.  I am sure you are riveted to this post.



Now, notice that THIS loaf is actually white ... because we just picked strawberries and you cannot have a strawberry sandwich on brown (in my house).

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Press Release

 
FOR RELEASE ON June 13, 2007

ONfire Publications Signs on to HomeschoolEStore.com

Petrolia, Ontario — The era of digital delivery is here and ONfire Publications is at the forefront. (that's Neal and Kristina in case you didn't figure it out!)  You can now easily download our education material 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at HomeschoolEStore.com

We are happy to announce that we’ve teamed up with HomeschoolEStore.com and can now offer you, our customers, homeschool and educational products as secure eBooks on this exciting, new site. Check out our eBook educational products right now by visiting www.homeschoolestore.com.

HomeschoolEStore.com is the only eBook and audio book site specializing in Homeschool curriculum. This dynamic and user friendly site employs the latest Adobe server technology, allowing us to make our full line of products available to you easily, instantly, cheaply and completely free of shipping costs. HomeschoolEStore.com takes extra books off your bookshelf and puts them on your computer or CD-Rom, saving you much needed space. No longer will you be plagued by broken or missing audio cassettes and CD’s, or drink-stained workbook pages! Your books will now be effortlessly stored, as small, easy-to-use files on computer or disc, to be viewed or printed at your convenience.

Don't miss this exciting opportunity: ONfire Publications and HomeschoolEStore.com will be offering one of our products for download absolutely free during one week coming up shortly.  (More details to follow so check back here).  Be sure to download this and check out our other great products at HomeschoolEStore.com where you can always get Tomorrow’s Lesson Today!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

growing strong

or at least in close up we are.  Here are the latest pictures from our yard that Neal took last night.  Still only lettuce on the menu, but we are hopeful, and, really, what else are we doing right now?  Swimming lessons don't start in Ontario until July 1st (Canada Day) and no one will be done Public School until the last Thursday in June.  My oldest declared summer "great" because " I can go to the Library every day and finally learn what I want to learn about"  because, as you already know, I force my children to learn only what I think is important all the other days of the year.  Here is what I call lettuce updated

This next one is entitled new view because we decided at the last minute Sunday night to take out the middle part of the dumb dividing fence.  No real reason other than it bugged me because it served no purpose except to let people know we have three yards in back instead of two.  The hardest part will be when the old owner comes by to see what we have changed.  Too bad.  You snooze, you loose.



These peas are so the Queen can see what's popping up green.



Here are some beets that I plan to pickle ... this because way back when, I was in a 4H group that was on canning.  We were supposed to enter at least one canned item into the fair, but I was lazy and, instead, took a jar of my Mum's pickled beets from the year before and entered them.  Wouldn't you know it, Mum took first prize, only the tag read "showing signs of age" ... you think?



On Saturday I finally took the time to properly prune back the lilac tree and Neal helped prepare the ground for some wood chips as the grass is perfectly pathetic.  My reward?  Within days the peony bush that my Mother-In-Law was afraid would never bloom did my hard work justice.  Sweet smells for outdoor dining ...

Fun ... for "Cheaper"

This Cheaper by the Dozen Study Guide is 35 pages of the following fun:

Questions, such as “what does the word apportion mean?”

Using Dictionary skills

Using the Encyclopaedia for research

Using the internet to discover little known facts

Internet links

Ideas for studying different languages (in brief, of course!) like Italian, French and Greek

Geography questions

A touch of math

Lots of creative writing ideas

Questions for discussion as a family

And, mostly, a way of approaching the novel from a Christian point of view (introduction to a Christian World View)
Cheaper by the Dozen deals with prejudice, coming-of-age, family size and topics that a Christian might otherwise choose not to deal with in their school. I decided to have disclaimers written at the start of those chapters, so you could choose to skip them, or you could have the tools needed to cover the chapters without sacrificing anything.

This is a wonderful homeschool novel as a whole, and I know you would not be disappointed in reading it to your children!

Saturday, June 9, 2007

garden progress

Well, it ain't no Tennessee here, but it finally warmed up, and has not dipped below freezing for a number of weeks now, so the garden is shaping up to be quite the thing.  I see no signs of any herbs yet, which depresses me, but then again, the seeds did specify they were to be planted by 2006 ...  So, the boys and I have been weeding and seeding and praying and hoping.  We even enjoyed our own lettuce on the weekend.  The picture below is totally  "BEFORE" ... we sprinkled wildflower seeds on the part that looks like a telephone receiver, and planted four vegetables in each "square" of garden



this iris was a surprise from Neal ... and smells like the sweetest candy ever!



and a picture from a couple of weeks ago ...



I planted the "old lady", as Neal calls it, geraniums in the front to dissuade the bunnies from dining on my plants.  Oddly enough, this year anyway, they have decided to eat just the geraniums.  Perhaps that is still success.  It will be some time before I have tomatoes or peppers, zucchini or spinach, but when I do, I will have satisfaction and will have justified all the back-breaking work my husband endured to "go with" his wife's latest interest.  At least everyone in the family gets the benefit!

Now to fix up the "real" bed in the next room.  A bonafide actor is coming to rent it from us for the next theatre production in town.  He is coming from the big city of Toronto, and is actually famous, for real!  I hope he likes his room ... and I hope I can find a dresser between now and then ... ahhh, my family is famous for our experiments.  I guess we like to share.

what is happening to me?

I don't know what all you all have done to me, but just this hour, out with Neal at a tea room (where he happens to have a mini art show!)  I said the following:

" I'll have a hot tea, please."

good thing we Canadians (not Canucks) are bilingual.  heaven only knows what I might have had to drink if we weren't.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

pictures of the chaos

You have heard it said that a picture paints a thousand words, so I will simply post the ones we took and let them speak for themselves.

this first picture was AFTER I was going to take photographic evidence, so it got worse before it got better (just to know)









Can anyone else see what some of these bags are labelled?  One is "stuff" and another is "random" ... does this give me licence to "stuff" as many "random" items I find laying out on the floor into said bags and, I dunno ... "bag" them for good?  At least they wouldn't find themselves back on these floors.  Boys, boys, boys, boys, boys.

Monday, June 4, 2007

my boys actually think they do chores

OK

I am not even sure where to start this post except that I went upstairs to do some more laundry (I spilled Alpha Bits on my white cut-offs.   White cut-offs because I could not find the jean ones in my size in the store Sarah recommended I check out while we were in Tennessee ... and I wanted to look just like her back at home, and Alpha Bits because I spent $5.99 on a light blue delphinium instead of on more food, and the flower got so rained on yesterday that it actually snapped in half and now all I have is a stem, some leaves and some potentially stained cut-offs)

anyway ...

I went upstairs to start the next load so I could hopefully salvage my totally current cut-offs when I stopped to actually look around me.  I was not surrounded by laundry ... I was surrounded by STUFF!  I do not even know who owns all this but it was vomitted all over the floor and all over the sinks and it MUST be Neal's fault because he tucked the boys in last night and HAD to have seen their room, too, but he said nothing!!

If I had the camera at home I would load you with pictures ... but it belongs to Neal's boss, and he kind of uses it during the day for work. (whatever).  Evan clearly is not wearing clean clothes today because he has a big target taped to the dresser drawers, and there are elastics and spongy disk things all over the floor and down the hall and in my bedroom.  His laundry bin (which was going to be THE thing that finally made laundry happen) is full of clothes, but they are usually just the things he didn't feel like putting anywhere else ... except it is on its side on the floor and I don't know what is clean or dirty because they supposedly do their own laundry (I do try to be firm).  His bed looks like it was hit with a low-flying tornado, but I think he slept ok last night.

While I was yaking to Neal on the phone, Evan walked by my room and announced that he has finally found his Abeka math book ... the last time he worked on math was last Tuesday he thinks.  Don't ask me ... I just live here.

Jonam had large, labelled Ziplock bags all over the bathroom floor from his Scouting canoe trip.  He filled the bags with clothes and necessities in case the canoe he was in tipped.  It didn't.  BUT his camping stuff is all over the place and someone is totally going to wipe out on the Ziplocks!  Someone has dragged a comforter into the doorway of their bedroom (they share a room which just makes everything look way more messy ... I think).  Jonam keeps covering himself with Calomine lotion for all the bites he got on the trip, and then whenever we ask him to do something, he yells "argghhhh ... mosquito bites!!!" which is code for something that Neal and I have yet to decipher.

Miscellaneous cups and bowls and spoons even though MY children NEVER eat anywhere but at the kitchen table.

All of Jonam's paints in the corner of his ... wait a second ... those are MY paints that I use to make my altered books ... and he is using them because he is going to be a special effects guy, making good, Christian movies when he grows up, and then he can always have yogurt in his fridge and he can finally be allowed to make that chocolate "toilet" cake that I never want to bake ( cake shaped like a toilet with stuff in the "bowl" part, iced white  ) Oh, yes, and the cheese will never run out and will always be for eating right now.

More clothing behind the door to their room ... cats laying atop the laundry I HAVE managed to get done so far ... I totally have to post pictures later, when Neal gets home because I am sure none of it will be changed from now until then (even though it will be 4 1/2 hours till we see his handsome face).

This all to say that I had a "conversation" with Jonam in the bathroom that questioned how it is that these disasters come to be in our home with such frequency when my well-trained son calmly agreed with me and said "I know, Mom ... we have such a high maintenance house"

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Thanks for stopping by! My name is Kristina Campbell and I have worked in special education since 1986, with a special interest in Autism, Dyslexia and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Currently I am a self-employed, certified NILD educational therapist, supporting both adults and children with learning disabilities.Let me know how I can help! I'm always available for presentations through open houses and teacher training seminars.

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