Old Time Summer

Author: Maisy

  • Summer H-School

    Summer is fast approaching. It’s been a tough Spring around here. Our HVAC is out of order, no A/C all year, we’ve needed it since March. We are getting a new system installed in a couple of days, and that will unleash a new lease on life in homeschooling endeavors. 🙂

    I suffer in heat and heat/humidity combinations. I can do very little without losing most motivation, and even desire to move at all, let alone cook dinner … schooling suffereth.

    What goes on is still educational, just nothing terribly official. So the Summer is make-up time, which is always is, there is always something that makes it necessary around here. I’m a year-rounder anyhow, take time off here and there happily. There is education in every part of life, so it’s not really that there is any time off.

    I’m hoping for more $ to put towards some things for my eldest, programs that he can go fully into himself. Then I can put more of myself towards my younger 3, especially the two younger boys (10 and nearly 4) My 12 yr. old daughter needs a little help, push here and there, but she’s pretty self-motivating as long as she has something to do.

    We have house issues to conquer as well. Drywall projects, and finish flooring, then PAINT, PAINT, PAINT! Then hopefully it’ll be clear where my educational stuff is, and we can use it and flourish.

     

  • The year progresses with less progress

    I’ve been working with my two oldest to get them using blogs to write things about their schooling. It’s not always easy to get them doing things, and I figured this would help them. Well, it did and didn’t.

    One thing it did that is BAD is makes them think they can be on the computer all the time, or whenever they want. We have two older laptops that aren’t “owned” by an adult, so in the a.m. they open them up and search for stuff, look on their kid’s forum I let them go to sometimes before, and for my daughter, 12, she’s claiming the computer that is a tablet laptop, and draws most of the time anymore. My 14 year old loves to search for all sorts of information, but doesn’t write much of anything. He has written several things about LBP2 though. What is that? Oh, a game, Little Big Planet 2.

    My daughter will write something if I get on her case, she’s not so bad, but given her own way, she rarely writes much of anything, may write a post, give it a title but no body, and save it. Or write such a nothing summary of something, that’s it.

    My daughter used to be the one ahead in Math-U-See, but my son is now quite a few chapters ahead. They gave themselves a haiatus on it for a few months, for some reason, but I’ve gotten the whip out lately about it. So they are both forging ahead again. My other son, the 10 year old, is reticent to do any Math-U-See, he’s on the older level all by himself and just isn’t wanting much of anything to do with it, or with reading or writing or anything that isn’t a cartoon, video game, outdoor something or other. He can read now, but it’s so difficult to get him to do it “I already read that” is his answer when I ask him to read something aloud, or to read it by himself and tell me about it afterward. “Yes, but I want you to read it again, it’s not a bad thing to re-read something.” is my response sometimes. Of course there are a myriad of responses I could give him. He’s different, I know. He’s not into books as much as electronic usage. Thankfully he’s not into the computer much yet.

    A major thing that I’m including in their education is chores (Home Economics for ALL!)  More fun than “chores” is actual helping with cooking, and it’s a great help for me. My daughter can make a few things for dinner by herself, aide me in other things, is learning along the way. Right now she’s learning why drop biscuits are better when I make the exact same recipe as she does.Mine are light and fluffy … good really good, her’s less good, more dense, much less good.

    My 14 year old helps more than cooks. Helps with prep and taking care of some things that I’m cooking, breaking up ground meat as it browns, for example. Also gets pre-cracked spelt or kamut into a dish with the right stuff to soak it overnight for hot cereal in the morning, I pre-crack the grain and keep it in the freezer. He gets it prepped and cooks it the next day.

    The examples above are not all they do, they are becoming very capable about the kitchen, and will both be able to feed themselves and others when they are adults. That’s something that everyone, no matter what their sex is, needs to be able to do. Gender Roles aren’t so great all the time. In my case it’s exactly that. I can cook. I love to cook. I don’t love to cook all the time though. I get weary of it fast when I feel I’ve been cooking a lot. No set amount, it just is part of who I am, I enjoy it to a point, then need some time off. I would LOVE to do Dinner’s in the Freezer, but I haven’t been able to get it planned out and get the help I need to make it work at the right time to do it. It’s exactly the kind of thing I need, but I also do have lower energy than a lot of people and it is OVERWHELMING to do even three meals in a weekend to put away in the freezer.

    Sometimes I get all into it and make double of what I would for just a meal (to put half away for another day) and then it doesn’t work out, like part of it gets ruined, or my bigger guys eat more than usual, or … I’m so tired by the end and don’t get it put into the freezer, then ….

    Then I can’t cook for a couple of days and … it’s just frustrating.

    So, Spring is here. Trees are blooming early, way early, it’s been hot, chilly, warm, chilly, hot, nice, hot, chilly … just not COLD anymore. Hot and warm I could do away with. Our A/C isn’t working (not the first time) and it’s bad on the hot days. I don’t function at all when it’s hot.

    I need to function more to get more educational things done. I’m awaiting building a new desktop computer for me to use, and once that is in place I can sit at a desk with a keyboard and do much more than I can manage to do with my laptop. It’s a matter of many things, my laptop is capable of much, just not as much as my desktop will, and with a desk and desktop I’m more functional. My laptop could be on a desk, but it still doesn’t go as well for me as a desktop computer on a desk.

    I’m guessing this is the same thing as the children. The old desktop is monitorless now. I have it connected to the TV and it’s nowhere near a place to sit with a mouse and keyboard, have to stand and weirdo do stuff, so the laptops … well they need to do their Latin on the desktop, math-u-see videos … and maybe they’d be better with writing more …

     

     

     

     

  • Math

    Math-U-See Gamma is the next level of math we are conquering. The DVD’s never play on the desktop computer that I use with the children for their educational stuff. Thus I have to always make a new version of that resource for them to use. I used Handbrake yesterday to create a file they can watch in QuikTime & access the different chapters. I’ll make a better version of it sometime soon, with chapter names & also a version like I did before, a click home version kind of movie… and also may split it up into pieces so can put it on my eldest’s PSP. 

    Gamma is a level I want them to get through quickly then move on to next one early 2011.

  • Autumn Session begins

    Today begins a more full start of our home schooling. Having two eldest write a lot on computer. Need to get them at the kitchen table with paper, pencils, pens and have them work on a more artistic rendering of their handwriting, and get them more comfortable with a cursive version of writing.

    My middle child is finally reading. He started to be more interested in it at 9 1/2 but struggled mightily with reading anything. He’s very smart, intelligent, had the tools he needed, just wouldn’t go all the way. I got him a few more books, pointed things out to him, he started being more receptive and before he turned 10 just a week ago he “cracked the code” and is now a bit more than an early reader. He’s fastly growing up. Now he can get into more schooling that’s for him to do (less instruction from me.)

    My two eldest finished their Beta Math U See before summer was over.  They’ll be starting the next level this week. They have a tendancy to race through it, which is fine, just that I want them doing more than just Math U See, there are other subjects, also, they can half-race through as long as I can afford the next pkg when they are done … we aren’t always fluid with fund to buy materials. There are other things I need to buy still as well. I have to go through what I have and what I need with my Simply Charlotte Mason planning materials. I have been toying with the idea of some other things, not sure what to do.

    First off though, I need money. So right now it’s what we have is what we have.

    I have an art program online for them. I need to get them using it. (I started last year but they balked and things from other subjects and family life covered over it. So it languishes.)

    There is Bible, History/Geography, Catechism, Latin, Nature, Technology, etc.

    I need to get some science pkg for my eldest.

    I need to get some books and maps to go with Bible, History, Geography. I can do with what I have for now, but it’ll be better with more stuff.

    My toddler is the monkey wrench in all of this. He’s more mobile and gets into trouble easier than ever now, he’s 3. With 3 older ones that’s tougher than when my eldest was 6 and the other two younger … they’ve grown, and having a baby later is great, but it’s all the toddler stuff all over again. I’m pretty good at getting pre-school at home oriented. But my older children need more than that. I need to divide and conquer.

  • Summer about over: Exploring future

    Our summer wasn’t much of one. It’s been hot, muggy, dreary, allergy-prone most of the time. When it’s not gray and overcast it’s super duper hot. When it is overcast it’s not AS hot. In any case it’s the house that makes it what it is, on sunny days it’s hard to keep the house cool, keeping it “cool enough” is nye impossible. On dreary gray days it’s hard to move. So let’s explore what each means.

    Too hot in the house: nothing much gets done.

    Too dark in the house: nothing much gets done.

    That’s the truth.

    It’s always something that I’m trying to get done, more productivity, more educational stuff going on. I’ve let it go this summer, though I did want to press on and get even more done. Basically I’ve gotten my DD to embrace writing about things she’s learned, some. My DS no. He wrote a little early on, then nothing.

    Video games and cartoons take higher precedence for my boys. My girl, she’d lay in bed reading all the time, or drawing, or painting, or creating with clay.

    I see value in all the things my girl does, less value in the things my boys do. I do not dis-value video games and cartoons, but I do know it’s only something that should be in a model of many things, less time with those things and more time with un-named things (things that have more reading and thinking involved, historical, nature, human study, mathematical, language, Biblical …)

    All my children need to spend more time with the books, software and such that I have for them to learn with, instead of just the video gaming side of things, or just the artistic side of things. The middle is where there is need of deeper exploration, and that’s what I’m trying to get to happen soon. The meaty middle of educational concerns is coming up soon (after “Labor Day” and then it’ll be all that other stuff is the dessert, and I’m going to get them going on the meaty stuff sooner than that, but it’ll be a tasting affair until September, when the real eating starts.

  • Getting things going better

    Spring and the coming summer ALWAYS make me feel more into “schooling” for some reason, as does the Christmas Season, which is kind of strange when I think about it. Anyhow, I do know somewhat where we live has to do with it, the weather and seasons, Spring & Summer very hot and sunny, or rainy, but humid and miserable. Good for inside living, doing educational things. Christmas coming is after Thanksgiving, so I get into the stuff of Christmas, the weather may or maynot be winter-like, but the sun goes to bed early, comes up late, and that gets me feeling that education is needed to be more formal, and crafty … so when others are off, I like doing stuff. Also, I prefer weekend educational more than weekday, not that hubby has to be around, I just have a hard time motivating things along and getting anything else done at all.

    So to bring this post to a point, it’s mid-Spring, first birthday of the year is over, Mother’s Day is over, now we have a month before Father’s Day, Summer Solstice and another birthday. So now is the time to get head over heals into everything that we can educationally minded.

    One thing will be Math-U-See, I’m pushing my two oldest to complete their terribly low level (Beta) to get to the new package we are picking up today (Gamma) level & get going seriously to get up to par.

    No more messing around not getting the right stuff into our home when it’s needed. $ is needed, doing it on purpose instead of looking for extra $ when it sometimes comes around.

    There are other things I need too, literature, geography & history kinds of things to go with my Bible, History, Geography Charlotte Mason sort of program. I have some of it, need some more to really make it fly.

    I also want more literature for the sake of literature. (I mean good books, not pamphlets from some company.)

    So it’s tough too then when I have 4 children that get up at different times in the morning. Eldest sleeps too long, teen already. Second oldest doesn’t get up early, but sometimes gets up early, or too late, or something. Mostly they both are sluggish in the morning and so nothing gets done fully enough until afternoon, that doesn’t include schooling.

    My 9 year old boy is struggling to read still. He CAN do it, just hasn’t gotten to the successful stage of “I can do it!” so we are going to get him Brain Safari software, see it it can motivate and progress him.

    Right now things are between pay times, so I can’t get the program through my online co-op, hope it’ll be around when I can safely order the product.

    I don’t look at the homeschool co-op site often enough, so I miss good deals, don’t know what some of them mean since I didn’t see when it started to understand what they are doing with it near the end of it’s run “extended a month” with no dates on the page at all. FWIW

    I think I write on this blog more about trying to get going, rather than what we are doing, have done, etc. I need to change that.

  • Life is busy with learning without formalness

    I realized today that I haven’t written here since December 2009. Whoops!

    Things have been busy, trying to keep the house clean, updating some things in the still not finished kitchen. Getting some things for scrapbooking area for me setup (still a work in progress.) A visit from Papa (hubby’s father) which coincided with some of the kitchen stuff.

    “Schooling” hasn’t gone so well all of the time, but sometimes it’s been ‘chores, OK. Schooling, alright, back on track, for a few days here and there.’ It’s not a pretty picture, it’s been more un-schooling than anything, but they are learning.

    My Asa is still not really reading, but getting closer, able to read SOME things, just not confident to read most things, thinking it’s supposed to be magic or something super easy, he just isn’t into putting in the “hard work” to get there. He’s 9, it’s time. By the time he’s 11 I want him to catch up to where his siblings were at 8/9 years of age. Read LoTR at least.

    The feral cat that hangs around our house was pregnant again in early 2010. She birthed 6 kittens in our basement on March 9, 2010, which was a nice experience for my Victoria, 11 years old. Previous feral litters were born in our crawlspace. We’d tamed the mama cat enough to have her let us get her in the basement for a few days before the kittens were born. We have kept her in since then, going to get her spayed in the next few weeks.

    Of her kittens one had a birth defect and while I pondered what to do about it mama cat took it somewhere in my basement, we’ve never found it, nor smelled anything weird. Strange. Five kittens left after the first day then, A very cute bunch. Three black and one a black & white tuxedo, and one a classic tabby tuxedo sort.

    Mama kitty has only had black kittens previously, minus one DM/LH mackerel spotted tabby. Some have had smoke-like look in some places, a few white patches on throat or lower belly on many as well, but overall mostly all were black. One litter she brought to the house with her late 2008, the first time we saw her was with three older kittens, all short haired, but her, feral mama, is long haired (with a straight nose, tall round ears, muzzle a small square.)

    Of those kittens one was super friendly, one super scared and ran away eventually, the other not scared but a rover who eventually must have gotten killed. The super friendly one lived most in our backyard for a long time, but we found him dead on the road down a few houses in the past couple of months. Very sad.

    Spring of 2009 that mama feral had gotten into our crawlspace and had a litter of 5 kittens. We couldn’t get in there close enough, she was scary, crawlspace scarier. Eventually we were able to see the kittens when she left to eat, get rest away from them, etc. She moved them a few times, one time to the concrete structure that is under our “porch” a horrid space that no human can get into but stick a camera or mirror in to see what’s there. Thankfully she got them out and put them elsewhere. We did get to the kittens as often as we could, to make sure they were socialized. All 5 of them lived and I was going to keep two of them as my cats, but they became so awful, overly friendly, the one, TOO friendly, or just plain weird. Too many of them, we had them in a room in the house, but 5 teenage kitten/cats is just too much. We finally got them spayed/neutered when they were 8 months old or so. All the time we had them we had contact with adoption groups and no one would take them, we asked anyone we knew if they wanted a cat(s) but no one did. So we put flea collars & their rabies tags on them and put them in the backyard. It was our only choice. Anyhow those are different sorts of long haired DLH’s with large square muzzles that have a broad straight nose, and large ears. (Think black Maine Coons or something similar)

    In August 2009 that feral mama had another litter of kittens. This time she had them in the crawlspace again, but we brought them into the basement and persuaded her to come in and take care of them there instead. She tamed a lot by then and more-so during that time. Unfortunately the beautiful litter of 6 long black newborn kittens became 5 by a couple of days, one died. Those next 5 went one at a time up to 6 weeks of age. It was the saddest thing for us. I loved one of those kittens, named him Claude, and really liked another, named Spooky. At the end there was one that seemed to be dragging, though she had progressed to using the litter and eating dry food happily, she just got so obviously downhill looking. Spooky & Claude looked fine at that point, 5 weeks old and cute as buttons. One day though we found her dead behind a bookcase. Then the other female died. Then at 6 weeks Claude was fine, ran across my bed to me, leaps and bounds, then later was weird, like had a stroke or something, and never regained consciousness and was dead before sunrise.

    So, obvious to me, those kittens were not going to live to adulthood, they had something wrong inside, though they grew up, most of them, to the running around stage of 4 weeks, looking healthy.

    We wanted to get mama feral cat spayed, but didn’t after that, and as fall and winter set in I knew she’d not be pregnant until closer to Spring. Winter was fairly Mild and indeed she did wait, but not quite as long as I’d hoped, she gave birth on March 9th as I detailed earlier in this post. These kittens are now 8 weeks old. We have two of them, three others were given to an adoption organization, pronounced healthy. The two I’m keeping are King Arthur and Red Queen. King Arthur is a beaut and Red Queen is very pretty. Of every litter mama cat ever had she never had any like these two. Both long haired, with doll-faced-persian-like faces. King is the B&W Tuxedo. Queen is a black/smoke mixture. They are gorgeous.

    I’ve looked at the other cats we have and the cats outside and pictures of cats and none have the faces that these two have, not smooshed noses, but shorter a bit and pushed up, not straight like all the others. Their three other litter mates, the DSH classic tabby tux one had a general straight nose. The two others were black, one DSH one DLH. Both the DSH kittens were boys, and had super thick with a tinge of maybe some long fridges of hair growing out from their coats, but overall their coats were super thick and spongy like good quality velvet. (I speak in past tense since I will probably never see them again since they are in the adoption system.) Those two black kittens had a somewhat modified nose, half straight/half-smooshed like King/Queen, if that makes any sense.

    Also my King & Queen kittens have cute ears that are really pointed, like a leaf, curved up on the sides to that point, spaced out further on the sides of their heads than the other kittens (who also mostly all had more round tip ears) yes, as if they are melting into their heads. So very cute they are, not full breed of anything, but somewhere in mama’s past must be some persian, and she must have met a very nice persian/persian-mix gentleman cat (father) that fathered these or some of them. The mother cat is DLH but hints at Maine Coon or something similar, but she has much less of a Maine Coon look than her April 2009 litter does (They are big and hairy and very outdoorsy, they NEEDED to be outside, the one of them that is male is HUGE, the other females are different sizes, one bigger but not as big as the male, and all are still growing, smaller females growing more getting bigger than a lot of cats.)

    All in all this cat thing has been a great education for the children, never before had we had a non-neutered cat … I’m an adoption rescue kind of cat owner/fanatic, but love having kittens born in my house (I grew up with that, prevalent in the 1970’s) has always been something I love, and missed for many years. The thing is, something my daughter and I have pondered of late, is that if we had that Mama Kitty spayed in 2009 we’d have missed out on the prettiest kitties born to anyone from regular domestic cats, that includes anything I’ve had since … ever, ever seen in adoption places, ever. That’s something to think about. Good things coming when birth ability would have been stopped through surgery but then wasn’t. Implication of that thought process for cats and humans alike. What if we’d never had King & Queen, we’d never know what we’d have missed. I had a baby at the age of 40, when most people would have turned off their birthing ability by then. Life without our Quentin is unimaginable (especially now at his toddler nearly-3 horrible stage [read: anything can be thrown])

    As that goes, Quentin is progressing, processing language better, repeats anything that anyone says, often so very funny, the way he does it, and also shows he “gets it” a lot in the process. His new one in the morning for the last week is ‘I’m hungry’ … vast improvement to previous ways of letting us know he wants food. 🙂

    Russell just turned 14. He’s got much to work on, still plays like he’s a lot younger most of the time, but is sleeping like a teenager for the last year. I need to get him into more formality for his own sake … getting too old to be the playmate all the time, 9 & 2 year old brothers … a difficulty for me organizing him to get chores done and sit down to do anything on paper or computer that isn’t a game or involving some toy’s website or book website with a forum, or researching about Toys histories … so along those lines I’ve decided to let both Russell & Victoria have blogs to use, invoked July 2009 but never did I get them to use them. This past week I decided to finally show Victoria how to use it and set it up with categories for making it their homeschooling work place. Book Reviews, Audio Book Reviews, Creative Writing, Copy work of sorts that I want them to remember … Research of topics into reports, etc. A blog is a CMS, great for homeschooling this generation. Why not just get it going, truly work it as a tool for an all in one place organizational place for well formatted document storage, printable too. Available anywhere there is a computer. It’s online, on my hosted sites.

    Then at that point I can monitor their work since I have them setup to write, but not fully administer their posts. I publish when I see they have something done enough. Other than all that, I still want them to hand write and learn better writing on paper. The other things are Math and all the stuff that isn’t a report of some kind. It’s makes me feel better to see it this way in my head, all those book reports and research of things and writing of thing will be much easier as a separate one source with multiple ways of using it, totally separate & user friendly since it’s a monitor and keyboard that will connect them to it, more likely that all will get done now instead of NOT get done. 🙂

  • Know Thyself

    It’s Monday, time for “official” education-ing to be happening. I’m getting “them” to do their Latin on Tues. & Thurs., and every day do their “Grammar” & “Spelling Wisdom” & “Creative Writing” & “Math-U-See” & “Catechism Q & A” (Westminster Shorter) …

    Just for starters, trying to get THESE things happening regularly. Hopefully I can get the rest of the art things I need to employ the Art program I have sooner than later. Also need to get some more things to use the Bible/History stuff I have.

    I’m using the rest of this month to get on track and catch-up the very basics, then begin again in January and February with the other things I don’t yet have.

    I’m also using this month for crafty-ness, creative writing, special audio books (holiday stories) and whatever else that happens and is a “learning moment” or whatever.

    One thing I did for my two eldest in early November, I got them each their own day-timer from Target, the made by Franklin-Covey student spiral bound sort, so it started in August. I’m trying to get them to record things they do, places they went, things they NEED to do, etc. Start getting themselves accustomed to organizing themselves in a book. I like it for a semi-journal recording of what I’ve done. I haven’t had one every year, but I have used different calendars similarly, cramming things in here and there, though I haven’t done it to the extent that I have wished I would have through the years.

    Part of what I want my children to learn is “archiving” what they do, learn, read, like, etc. through the years, on paper.

    I found two things of mine from when I was younger in some things I went through in our storage area last week. One is a “slam book” that I started in 1981. I actually only had one friend “sign in” and log her answers, then the other “sign ins” are all me from 1981 to 1990. I had forgotten about it. I’m going to have my children make their own versions later this month.

    The other thing I found is a small spiral bound notebook with 1-year of my life at a church my friend and I started to attend and decided to join, but waited a year to officially do it. I wrote about the people & things we did for that year. I had forgotten about that as well. It’s funny to look back on these things.

    I never had a “diary” that I kept up with. I found them too emo-stupid usually to be able to write one as was thought of should be in a diary when I was young. Like, I looked back at what I wrote the day before or the week before, and felt embarrassed, couldn’t stand what I had written, how childish it seemed afterthefact. Sometimes I feel like that about blog posts, or forum posts, but I don’t actually post as much as I write, because of that I decide while I’m still writing that it’s too NOT what I want to post, so I stop/delete it. I at times am able to just look at it as an editor and re-write it, but usually I don’t. I find that tedious.

    Many times I do write things and then don’t do anything with it, feeling satisfied that I got it organized in my head by writing it out, and don’t save it. I would like to keep a better record of myself …

    I would like my children to keep a good record of themselves through their life. So the things I like to do and want to do I will start doing and have them do them too. It’s good to know where you are and how you got there. Personal journaling/notebooking of life can aide in that journey of understanding.

  • Creative Writing

    I’ve not posted for quite awhile here. Instead I’ve been trying to get the children to do their chores without being prompted daily, a work in progress, slow, if any progress, on most fronts. I’ve also been trying to get them interested in doing the educational things that I have for them in their main binders, which has all the information they need to self-kick themselves into doing things Mon-Fri, but yet they rely on ME to actually push them into doing anything.

    I’ve been busy with two birthdays and thanksgiving and now it’s Christmas season. I’m always having problems getting enough school work out of the children that I have to make it keep on going through Christmas season, though I’d rather be able to take-off. There is plenty of extra-stuff at Christmas time for educationalness, official and not.

    So I’m writing here now to kick-start ME to get MORE done with them now. To buckle down and force the issue to use what we have, even if we don’t have all we need to do some things. I’m definitely requiring betterment of handwriting from my children, since I have a good handwriting ability and want them to also have that in this computer age. Hold an old-fashioned value for the hand written things, notes, letters, lists, stories, books, scrapbooking, crafting …

    Education is something that can be measured from many angles, and I prefer to have one of the measured angles be “an ability to clearly put down ones thoughts to paper with ink flowing from a pen in hand.”

    Also, the use of computer is to be learned fully. The handwriting is also part of “art” as it IS an art-form to have legible, even beautiful writing ability.

    Another thing that I’m starting is having my two eldest write something creative every day, in a section of their “Grammar Notebook” — to have a place to practice better grammar in creative writing, a place to think creatively and have constructive criticism about how to up it together better, for grammar and flow of thought, and beauty in the turn of words.

    Moreso it’ll be they will try and write well as they can. I’ll be a light-editor and try to spark them on to better writing and self-editing. To spot the errors themselves afterwards, to be able to read for editing sake, what they themselves write.

    I can do that myself but don’t always put it into practice. Too oft writing something so long that I look at it and delete it (mostly thinking of things I type on the computer) instead of editing it. Or I post it without editing and am very embarrassed of myself when much later I read it when searching for something and am then faced with what to do with it. It almost haunts me that there are things of mine out there totally un-edited.

    So I want to teach them that they can write and edit and write some more, and finally edit completely and be satisfied with it. Making it a good habit from a young age. I didn’t. I often just wrote and still do, fast and free. Though I know better.

    Right now I do have my eldest sitting with his notebook looking blank as he embarks on this new creative writing. All he has to do is write something. Just anything OK. Nothing wonderful. Just anything OK, not perfect, just idea put into form. Just a start. It all starts in the head and that is the hardest part. What to write about.

    I have lists of “camera activities” from a scrapbooking magazine this past year that I think are great jumping off points for creative writing as well. I know how hard starting things can be. I used to struggle in elementary school when I was supposed to write a poem. I couldn’t ever think of how to start. So eventually my mother would write a line or two, and from there I every time was able to fully write the rest of it by myself, even change something my mother wrote and make it my own from start to finish. It was a writers block I always had.

    I find it interesting since I also have that same sort of thing in music, but it’s more so what I consider my “gift” –I am more an arranger than a writer or original music. I create by recreating. It doesn’t matter if one doesn’t have absolute originality in them. Creativity is being “creative with what you have” and if it’s recycling, it’s very green and very 2000’s. 🙂

    Creative writing is about writing creatively. Making something, anything, interesting. Making the reader interested in what is written so much so that they want to finish reading it and feel some sense of understanding and thankfulness for the writing afterwards. That’s all. It’s something to work on and make something of some little thing. It doesn’t have to be a big important topic. Just anything. Like, why I like what I like. Just make it interesting with the way words can work with each other to be entertaining, informative with a twist of whatever it is that makes them sing.

  • High Museum Family Membership

    We just purchased a Family Membership at Atlanta’s High Museum. I’ve wanted to do this over the past several years to enjoy myself, and also to show art to my children as part of their education and also to learn to enjoy it fully in their lives.

    What made me do it finally and fully is that the other day I saw a billboard with a Monet background of “Water Lilies” for the High Museum and I knew I had to go see whatever it was, but forgot to check it out online by the time we got home. I fleetingly thought of it but never a full enough thought to go to their website at any time. Not until last night.

    My husband was planning what to do on our Anniversary (which is this coming Saturday, August 22) and had decided on dinner and a movie. I liked the dinner idea, but wasn’t thrilled with what movies are out there. So during the night I thought it through in my dreams and recalled the Monet billboard and looked it up this morning.

    I saw that this is the last weekend of the Monet Water Lilies exhibition and knew that had to be what we did … and I knew we’d enjoy it more than a movie, especially since there aren’t any movies out we really want to see that much.

    I’d like to go back with the whole family on Sunday afternoon, so that we can share the Monet exhibit with them (he’s one of my absolute favorite artists) thus we can go and enjoy it as adults on Saturday, and also know what’s what before taking the children the next day. Not our usual MO.

    [dual posted: oldtimesummer blog & pastoralfarms blog]