I have a boy, he's 6 and he owns a measuring tape!

June 13 2011. Josh asked me how many months old I was. Naturally I did not know. I gave him a very reasonable grown up answer like..."when I teach you how to multiply big numbers, we can then count how many months old I am." Then he said, "well, I'll count."  A few minutes later he came  back and told me that I was 408 months old. I thought, "what?" Pulled out my little calculator and multiplied 34*12, turns out it's 408. I asked him how he figured it out. He said..."it's easy. I used a measuring tape. If one foot has 12 inches, that is the same as one year having 12 months. So I just know how many inches are in 17 feet and then I just did it two times since 17+17 is 34."

He is on his third construction tape. #1 and #2 were worn out and #3 is going down fast. His idea of art is drawing a ruler and calibrating the inches and centimeters just right.

12-Mile Walkathon 8am-3pm

OFFEND not- DESPISE not- HINDER not- one of these little ones

⁶But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
⁷Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! (Matthew 18:6-7, King James Version)
¹⁰Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 18:10, King James Version)

^{Matthew 19: 13-14 (NIV 1984)}

¹³ Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
¹⁴ Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Seasons...by Anna

January brings the snow

That, we all know

And we play, play, play

All the day!

February there's frost,

I feel lost

And all the ice,

That feels nice.

March there's wind,

My nose feels pinned,

I try with all my might,

And come by the light.

April feels good,

I walk in the wood,

With my friends,

But this is not the end.

May is soft,

I lay in the loft,

And look into the sky,

As I lay.

June is cool,

I hear my dad's tool,

On the board it rings,

And the birds they sing.

July is hot,

I'm sitting with Tot,

We gaze up ahead,

And watch the horses being led.

August is fine,
I feel that things are mine,
I have pleasure,
That no one could measure.

September is cold,
I play as bold,
The grass has dew,
That's something I never knew.

October is great,
I'm the Mate,
I can jump in piles,
And look for miles.

November is fun,
I like to run,
And pretend to race,
In all our space.

December has its fame,
I feel the same,
I dream and dream,
As I beam.

If there is a design, there is a Designer!

Yes We Wouldn't Miss It and Yes It Was Simply Gorgeous

Yes, we homeschoolers are notorious for never missing a fieldtrip or virtual fieldtrip and this one was well worth waking up at 4:00 am. Of course besides the grandeur of it all what struck me so poignantly was the timelessness and beauty of the explicitly Christian service and the slightly modified Anglican Solemnization of Matrimony. I transcribed it for ye all...

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony; which is an honorable estate, instituted of god Himself signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and His Church; which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence, and first miracle that he wrought, in Cana of Galilee; and is commended in holy writ to be honorable among all men: and therefore is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, but reverently, discreetly, soberly, and in the fear of God; duly considering the causes for which Matrimony was ordained.

First, it was ordained for the increase of mankind, according to the will of God, and that children might be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of His Holy Name.

Secondly it was ordained in order that the natural instincts and affections implanted by God, should be hallowed and directed aright; that those who are called by God in this holy estate should continue therein in pureness of living.

Thirdly, It was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity. Into which holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined.

Therefore if any man can shew any just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.

I think this is a very well executed document and vow to God and we will milk this for all it's worth in book reports, discussions, world view, history etc. We'll definitely keep coming back to this one in future years with the girls. The first hymn they sang, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah by Williams and Hughes will work for our monthly hymn. Somedays school is so easy, it's like someone just hands it to you on a plate all packaged and ready to go.

the Hebrew God, the one represented in the faith on display today at the royal ceremony just struck me as so magnanimous and there! Just there: He is God and that’s all there is to it. The scriptural reading done by Kate’s brother, (It was Romans 12) was just so refreshing and he did an excellent job of it. This is our God and this is our faith that was, and is, and forever will be! We may not be practicing Anglicans but we know of our God and His ways wherever we hear them.

I will have the girls memorize Romans 12 for their memorization this week and our history lessons in on the roots of Western Civilization via An Island Story by H E Marshall (We are currently at the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty) is all the better for this pleasant distraction. I say bring on unit studies, drag out the century books and timelines is the Archbishop Thomas a Becket's descendant or not, how old is the abbey and just how many feet high is the ceiling...bring it on! Of course one of our favorite Year 1 poems is Buckingham Palace by A A Milne:

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
"A soldier's life is terrible hard,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We saw a guard in a sentry-box.
"One of the sergeants looks after their socks,"
Says Alice....

If all the words which they spoke-most of which were straight from the scriptures verbatim) were true; then what an awesome God we serve. May the Lord bless them both and keep them and make His face to shine on them and be gracious to them and give them peace…peace.

James Middleton Reading Romans 12 (Revised Standard Version) Minute 0:23:23

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect............... 9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

We Were Going to Get an Education If it Killed Us

Maybe the memory of kneeling on kokoto is fading; wewe umechelewa may no longer set your nerves on edge. But yes, we were going to get us an education if it was the last thing we did!

The glory days of the raggy [for all you sophisticates that was the only backpack to have] It was a book bag that gave us the dash of military men and gals with the easy-go of commercial travelers. The utter genius of stuffing these book-bags with books that we took home, did nothing with, and carried back to school the next morning will soon be explained...by a philosopher.

The next morning when, had it rained, the rich would come in unscathed with gumboots and the richer still would be dropped off in their dad's Toyota. For the other unwashed masses who had to walk, the mud was simply afraid of us, else how would we manage the rugged muddy terrain?

Hata tu ni break time and we would be unleashed to buffet the poor canteen lady with jostling of warm bodies with hands upraised whilst levitating as needed. If your body, attached to your arm, clenching five kashatas and two mabuyus and five ten-cent buns has never felt the sheer thrill, you have not yet began to live. In this case as well the rich would send the 'less-rich' at a premium named by the former and would gladly miss out on the aforementioned rush of adrenaline.

We had struggling, undiscovered 'artists' who due to scarcity of art supplies, an uncouth sense of art, or something worse entertained one and all with their muses on the bathroom walls! One gets the fleeting idea that maybe even then artists needed to get a real job.

We were where the life was; as a matter of fact, fiction writers had nothing on us, we were stranger than fiction itself: Breezing through the pledge of allegiance on Friday assembly; singing "I am happy today" and "father Abraham, had many sons, many sons had father Abraham..."; sticking out our fingernails to the merciless teacher/inspector who for some reason forgot that after all, we were children and whacked us with a ruler for long/dirty fingernails...or was it because we had failed to apply the second coat?

Mrs. K, demanding that you splain' a math concept that you couldn't if your life depended on it, proceeded to beat you with that electric or water pipe as if that would jack up your IQ a few notches. We were forced to bear these teachers with a thousand servilities and bury our anger in dumb stoicism.

The class of wajinga and the class of waclever was an enigma wrapped up in another enigma...oh, the arrogance of it all!.

We had an education-in-a-can that was supposed to work for all and if someone did not measure up they were labelled as mwendawazimu or mujinga....and beaten some more. Within any human being, right beneath the surface is sterling stuff and it's not all subject to KCPE filters. Students were reduced to standardized tests and insults were heaped on the pragmatic, kinesthetic, artistic who in all honesty were a lot more than martyrs to their own nerves. Only the theorists and scientifically inclined were exalted as if everybody's dream was to one day sit in a lecturer's office or a laboratory. A cheerful, hardworking disposition not marred by any superfluity of theories and beakers is cheerful and priceless nonetheless-don't crush it!

If on closing day you were "wanted" you groveled at the mercy of the 'first-body' to save you from the 'second-body'. Of course this 'first-body' was saving you from silly things you said during the term like: "Asubuhi asubuhi kwenyu tu mnasosi magoti ya dede na maji moto". or "Kwenyu nyinyi ni wapoor sana mpaka mkipika chapo fathe yenyu tu ndiyo anakula original. watoi tu wanakula photocopy za hiyo chapo moja."

Yet in all honesty, asubuhi asubuhi we all came: Some were hungry others were full; some were clean, others did their best. Most of us walked to school to face our fears or our fear-generating teachers who would punish someone's child for not having proper shoes as if the child had anything to do with buying a pair of shoes! Look for the parent and punish the parent, you heartless cowards! You wise educators whose pedagogy managed to drown out primitive reasoning powers. We had teachers who did not have or care to feign a heart, or polite thoughtfulness for that matter, honest enough to look at different economic situations in their classrooms as a fact of life and not as a weapon to intimidate and harass children. These unreasonable teachers would enter the room and our entire nervous system seemed to be stirred up with a pole. I wonder if they are very proud of their actions today.

The same variety of teachers that, during class while you were struggling with those decimals from hell, would dine a few feet from you. With a cold heart of stone, they would unleash a thermos with piping hot tea, with masala, and bread with jam and proceed to prepare themselves a table in the presence of their enemies...enough said. Well, not quite enough- that, in my opinion, was bordering insolence.

Enter the préfet...ata Maina ana stars ngapi? It was bad enough that Maina was on the noisemakers list, but Maina's name was adorned with stars that depicted degrees of evil-doing. Mere noisemakers were not the thing to be, you've got to have your star on the noise-makers walk of fame!

And for the oblivious creatures who dared raise a hand to ask a question after bell ya 3:45pm ishaa ring, somebody save them from themselves! How dare you retain a teacher to elaborate a point about a sheep with an obscure English name after the official bell has rung? What did you say? Agriculture lesson? What is that? Knowest thou not that samo zitaisha canteen? We did not mean it our dear brainiacs, we were just hungry or restless but you should have known that the bell was almighty.

The tone of the week was set by whatever teacher was on duty. Mteeche mgani yuko on duty? as that could mean merely kneeling down or kneeling with your hands upraised above your head-and that was not to firm your triceps either! Or it could be the kind that cleared the hallway with the sound of their pumps. Too exalted to be magnanimous to you who had to walk home and wait for the mfanyi-God bless our maids, past and present, they were saints- to finish making the ugali. No, the teacher on duty would look at you with an indulgent air and in the rare occasion that she forgave you, her affected magnanimity would set your blood on fire. All that escaped your plight this time around, all your fellow student's watched, listened and felt your pain with silent applause.

Nigay, nigay, nigay hata tu kidogo, woishe tu, Njeri went the singsong chant between the borrower and the buyer and the beggar and the beggee'. It was a tear-jerking display that could break the will of the strongest and coldest of hearts. Of course the bludgeoning blow of poverty had not wholly scorched in us a human weakness for break-time snacks.

To say nothing of the ilk that would engage in the illicit comportment known as copying; that copied everything including the name of the copyee' in the test.

After the end of term exams, we spent the week before closing day in unimaginable self-importance and complacency. The bold among us did not even bring our back-packs to school and we went on to play endless rounds of 'start-stop'. We 'helped' the teachers mark our desk-mate's exam papers and we could be persuaded to divulge who got 92% if the price was right. During this brief rendezvous with freedom, we engaged in overly exaggerated school cleaning activities or anything-idle. After all, we were well-oiled, 'test-taking machines' and when the tests are over, what to do?

Those were the days, but today the untouchable washees na madems back then have become gorgeous women who hold their own and break a few hearts along the way. The 'first-bodies' and the fellas have transmuted into men in whose company we are all proud beyond degrees. We were the ones we had been waiting for-well before Mr. Obama ever coined the phrase- and thank God we made it men!...and gals!

MODERN SCHOLAR...a Resource well worth my time

• An exerp from the Modern Scholar Blog. I am a HUGE fan and looking forward to their new course while dissipating on their current courses.

  
  

  Rose M, on June 11, 2010 at 11:13 pm said:

  A course on children’s literature would be most fascinating for me too. Maybe the classics that have endured and fascinated children and most definitely adults as well over many years would seem to me a better way to go as opposed to focusing on Harry Potter. Rudyard Kipling comes to mind. I have Prof Drout’s “Way with Words” series and I am a huge fan. I also homeschool and The Modern Scholar Series have been a godsent for me.
• 

  themodernscholar, on June 14, 2010 at 9:03 am said:

  Hi Rose,

  We will be doing a course next year on classical children’s literature from one of the world’s leading experts Kim Reynolds, Professor of Children’s Literature at Newcastle University (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK). For more information on her experiences in the field as an indication of what you can expect to see in her course, visit her website at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/staff/profile/kim.reynolds. We plan on recording her next summer for a Fall 2011 release. We think she’ll be well worth the wait!

Cast Thy Burden Upon The Lord

Cast thy burden upon The Lord and shall sustain thee

He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved

As for me I will call upon God

And The Lord will save me

Evening and morning and at noon will I pray

And cry aloud

He shall hear my voice.

Psalm 55:22

Art in the Park

He Percheth Himself on a High Stool and Singeth a Song While Strumming His Toy Guitar

God has been good to me. They call him JJ, he is three and that's where the trouble begins...

I have great readers, numbers buffs, nature aficionados among my lot but hallelujah, I have a poet and a singer. He is our delightful, fearless JJ. He hears a song once and repeats it almost perfectly days later. When the Father was dispatching this one from heaven, He must have thrown in some extra energy for good measure. He tires not, keepeth quiet not, loveth conversation and chaseth anyone in sight brandishing a book and demanding, "read et!". He seeks out company ALL THE TIME and will usually find someone sitting on a chair and force you to scooch over and engage you in conversation with perfect tense and a brilliant use of the English language.

He walks right up to his dad and says in a matter of fact way, "Hey ma daddy, what are you doing?" He used to call me "my mummy" just in case I was being mixed up with other mummies. His smile is eternal and as unceasing as is his energy. He is the owner of the infamous red shoes that have a rather menacing something about them. When he pulls one of his college level feats of the English language, we laugh to which he chides "What are you laffing about? It's not funny."

His forbearing sisters spoil him, his brother fires him up, his dad lays down the law and I am caught in-between hysterics and bewilderment.

He is my littler boy-wonder, brother to the other boy. While the feminists in the past 4 decades have tried to promote a silly idea called "unisex" nonsense, my boy and his brother are all boy not because anyone socially influenced them...silly social engineers....they were born boys. To them, a Barbie doll comes in quite handy as a cudgel or perhaps a good target for....what do soldiers use targets for?

Daily I have my hands full just to keep them from marring each other's stunning good looks!...were they twins 'twould be the Comedy of Errors. And JJ was not influenced to play really rough tumble and 'jump off anything that will stand still', he was just blessed to be born a few months after his brother and had a ready-made partner with whom to "live it up" with. He daily reminds me of my big brother and acts like it too-so sayeth my mom.

But today, he is my little boy. Loves to be read to, wields his charm like a weapon and is quite difficult to a wear out. God bless our JJ, my rough riding songbird. He is my (baddery)battery-thirsty lad whose love of motor-cars would suit Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows just fine.

His name became Joseph and The Lord hath added and will increase him and us all the days of his life and indeed double the pleasure of this comedy that is the life of our son.

Here are some JJisms:
August 18 2011... When the day jumps into the dark, the dark will spoil
August 26 2011...You need to make a happy face and don't have a stern face and don't use that angry voice because I am behaving
August 30 2011...Mommy, I have a job for you: go upstairs and get those clothes in your room and wash them. They are half dirty
October 2011...JJ was asked what the thing for putting air into an air bed is called. His answer.."the air putter inner"
December 26 2011Cucu jokingly asked JJ whether she can bring him a live chicken, so he can kill it (my apologies to PITA-NOT) and then we can cook it. JJ's reply: "But we don't have a killer"
January 2012 What's these hairy things on my doen doen? Eyebrows?
April 2012..."JJ, what do we call these?" JJ's reply? "Bun honeys"...oh, for the love of honey buns. 

Violin @ Century Center

The Return to Treasure Island...Delightful!

radical homemaker extraordinaire...

This is one of those books that will not only be a fixture on my bookshelf but I do agree with what Shannon Hayes says to a very large extent. One of those things where you stumble upon kindred spirits and my reading of the book has both thrilled me and infuriated me.

Snow!

2011 Begins...

Going forward into 2011, home-schoolers marching right along. I think the banner under which we will march this year is...."if you don't write it down, it probably wont happen". We probably dissipated a little too much on field trips last year and were therefore scrambling to get caught up, whatever that means. Home-school provides an amazing amount of liberty but also comes a sometimes daunting amount of responsibility. As a homeschooling parent, one of the options we do not have is failure. The stakes are too high and sometimes too many people looming all over the place waiting for you to stumble and best of all, no remedial classes. One pretty much makes the rules and changes the rules just as often as one goes. There is no particular road-map or bureaucracy to define what you do and when and so we innovate as we go. I like to say we are the moms who live on the cutting edge of the cutting edge. With our eclectic curriculum choices, field trips galore, public libraries, plac cards, Interlibrary loan connoisseurs, you-tube, Google, Wikipedia, YMCA, homeschooling co-ops, whoa! We juggle and give multitasking a whole other life.

Then also etching into stone things like weekly hiking and the YMCA for swimming and nap time and a clear cut focus on the children's passions as we discover them along the way. I think as a parents, we have a real opportunity to direct our children to follow their passion and hence be truly happy. You are happy if you do what you love and it amazes me how easy it is to see what my children are passionate about before money comes into the equation. That is, before they follow a career simply because that's where the money is, they are so transparent as to what they are naturally good at and what they truly love to do. So far I have a librarian, a nature enthusiast/farmer, a mathematician, a singer, a poet, a naturalist, a photographer, an author, a pianist and an up and coming violinist, a bird expert, and most importantly lovers of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:24...a man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too I see is from the hand of God...

I am a believer in the idea that learning happens during the quantity of time and not particularly in the quality of time as we perceive it. Both kinds of time are equally important. If you hang around your children long enough, they are an open book and so-

Psalm 127:3

³ Children are a heritage from the LORD,

offspring a reward from him.
⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their opponents in court.

If you have an arrow you shoot it straight directed to a target. You don't just shoot it and hope it lands somewhere and holds on to something, whatever it is.

Also,

Proverbs 22:6

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The training up a child bit has been proven beyond the shadow of a shadow in my own life, a testament of my mother's training, and so far I like what I see in my own children.

And so on this note we embark on 2011 Jesus, to have you lifted up in our homeschooling experience and adventure and to go further in all things based not on our limitations, but on the amazing possibilities in your word ready to become realities through faith.

Bigger than my insecurities.

To the God that is bigger than all my fears and insecurities, bigger than my past and looming large into my future, to the only wise God be glory both now and forever!

Sights around my schoolhouse