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marihalojen
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 6:53am | IP Logged
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Cay, thank you for the poetry jolt!
Last year I combined dictation and memory work and poetry and it was fabulous! DD really did memorize some great poems and can still recite most, the day she forgot one line from her favorite poem was the day her berth got a thorough cleaning until she found last year's copybook and could remember the line!
This year with my DH working from the boat all Fall and then getting a new job during the holidays and then moving last month - poetry fell off the radar.
But. Our new studies (it's almost like a new year around here! Oh, the excitement!) are all based on our new locale, Key West. There are so many literary figures who have lived here to choose from, from kid lit (Shel Silverstien) to heavy lit (Hemingway, of course) but the Robert Frost Poetry Fest is coming up in April. So this week I threw down a Poetry for Young People copy of his works during breakfast Monday and just told her to read through it. We'd choose something later. I would have chosen something short and sweet to intro with but she loved The Birches! It's practically the longest poem in the book and one I would have eased her into. She's not memorizing it (that I know of!) and I'm not requiring her too, but she is enjoying it tremendously.
I think poetry needs to be included in our schedule, no matter the season.
__________________
~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 9:14am | IP Logged
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Jennifer,
Refresh my memory please.
Is there anywhere that you have a random schedule of your day? Or a list of your curriculum? 
Is it at your blog? Or here somewheres?
What do you and Marianna do when you aren't out and about town or working on the boat.
I'm just dying to know how you do it. YOu make it all seem so easy and lovely and, even, glamourous.  I really want to be you in my next life. 
__________________
Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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marihalojen
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 4:48pm | IP Logged
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Cay Gibson wrote:
| I'm just dying to know how you do it. YOu make it all seem so easy and lovely and, even, glamourous. |
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Well, Cay, this morning I read that and my fingers were itching to get started typing! Right as I was beginning Marianna burst into tears and I spent the morning reviewing how to Reduce Fractions instead. That entailed going back to Lesson 16! But you know, I really think she got it this time! She totally missed the section on how to reduce before multiplying or dividing the first go round and working with the ever increasing numbers just stressed her out. Figuring out that it is okay to reduce before even beginning to work the problem flabbergasted her today - "You're kidding! Are you sure it's not cheating?!?" So today we did Math and Robert Frost. Right now she is writing a chapter by chapter summary of a simple book I had her read for studying Calusa Indians this week.
Did Spelling happen today? Spanish? Latin? Not today, but we hit on each of those things this week. Nature Study I adore, but we rarely actually seem to sketch in our Notebooks. Do we want to? Yes, both of us talk about it all the time! Just never get around to it as much as we'd like. Marianna even suggested the other day that we stop at a park every time we go to Key West and sketch something, anything! (we keep our sketchbooks in the car) So I think the desire is there, I guess I just need to apply the brakes!
Nature Study happens all day every day though. The tarpon are back and are they huge! As long as my husband is tall. Little Green Herons must have hatched right before we arrived here, at night they line up in the mangroves alongside our boat. A Barracuda (small - 1ft maybe) likes to hang out right at the edge of the cut into the flats. We see all this as we walk up to the heads here.
There's the non-glamourous part of my day, I suppose! We're constantly trudging up to the shower house for a bathroom break. I estimate it takes 15 minutes minimum and that is without stopping to chat with neighbors, or watch a crab on the wall, or a pelican plunge into the water. Oh my gosh! The other day we rounded the corner in the part of the dock where it is railed and an immature pelican was perched right on the top rail and decided to take off 2 feet in front of us!!! I thought my heart stopped! They are so prehistoric looking, like pteradactyls. We could feel the wind swoop over us from his wings.
To get back to your question of what we use for school and all, I really try to find things that apply to our life, for instance "school" was put on hold basically in February while Marianna and I were taking Scuba Lessons, some Math from Saxon was done, but so was a lot of dive table math (which blew my mind for awhile!), lots of reading, we made a few notebook pages and fun games to help with remembering stuff and a bunch of Science. How your body reacts to pressure, atmospheres above and below water, tides and currents and waves and sea life...and lots of Art Studies! Last Fall one of our main topics was the State Boater's Safety Course. She passed and can take her own little inflatable out now, once we reinflate it that is! To explore our new location is the topic of school right now. This week is local Indians, next is Pirates, the following is Wreckers!
So I try to find things that are very applicable to our life and fit the real schooly things around it. We read tons and tons of books, some fast, some slow and thoughtfully, some together as a family, some by herself. I'll ask for a written narration every now and again, but mostly hear a neverending commentary on what she is reading and what she thinks about it. Every single day for years and years now she has written in her diary, one page a day. That is a habit I am so glad I decided was important enough to enforce in the beginning, now she doesn't remember not ever writing in it!  I hope she keeps it up forever and ever. It is something I wish I did.
Did I answer your question, Cay? Are the glamourous glasses smashed on the floor now?  All this typing!  I hope it is a somewhat coherent read.
__________________
~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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marihalojen
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 5:17pm | IP Logged
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Gosh, since it took me all day to type that, what with interruptions and bathroom walks and all (!) I posted it at my blog too, Boat Schooling. I also thought of 4 things we use that are not from the library
* Saxon Math
* Webster's 1865 Spelling Book
* AVKO Spelling
* Winston Grammar (completed recently)
And now my dh is home and we're off for Sunset Cocktails and a Conch blowing contest, A dock against C dock. Wish us luck!
__________________
~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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Helen
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 5:27pm | IP Logged
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marihalojen wrote:
| And now my dh is home and we're off for Sunset Cocktails and a Conch blowing contest, A dock against C dock. Wish us luck! |
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 Definitely glam!
Have fun!
Let us know if you are in the winning Dock!
__________________
Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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msclavel
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| Posted: March 31 2007 at 8:22am | IP Logged
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Jennifer, you are living the life I dreamed of as a little girl! May me feel good just reading about it.
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Paula in MN
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| Posted: March 31 2007 at 8:26am | IP Logged
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marihalojen wrote:
| So I try to find things that are very applicable to our life and fit the real schooly things around it. |
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THIS is what we are missing! Off to plan...
__________________
 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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marihalojen
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| Posted: March 31 2007 at 8:37am | IP Logged
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Helen wrote:
marihalojen wrote:
| And now my dh is home and we're off for Sunset Cocktails and a Conch blowing contest, A dock against C dock. Wish us luck! |
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Let us know if you are in the winning Dock! |
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Woo-hoo! A Dock rocks! We had 9 conchs and one bosun's whistle going at once! C dock had 4 conchs and an air horn, desperate cheaters that they are.
But the truly cool thing? We called a manatee or a turtle in! Everyone is still fighting over which it was, as it stayed about 20-30 feet out. Broad tannish-grey back, and a flat squarish nose (if manatee) or head (if turtle). I'm torn, I didn't see a beak-like bit on the front if it was a turtle, and don't most sea turtles have rather sharp mouths? On the other hand, the last time it dove I thought I saw rectangular markings on the back. Could have been prop scars on the manatee's back, I suppose.
Either way, it made for a perfect sunset.
__________________
~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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Mary G
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| Posted: March 31 2007 at 9:01am | IP Logged
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marihalojen wrote:
Helen wrote:
marihalojen wrote:
| And now my dh is home and we're off for Sunset Cocktails and a Conch blowing contest, A dock against C dock. Wish us luck! |
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Let us know if you are in the winning Dock! |
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Woo-hoo! A Dock rocks! We had 9 conchs and one bosun's whistle going at once! C dock had 4 conchs and an air horn, desperate cheaters that they are.
But the truly cool thing? We called a manatee or a turtle in! Everyone is still fighting over which it was, as it stayed about 20-30 feet out. Broad tannish-grey back, and a flat squarish nose (if manatee) or head (if turtle). I'm torn, I didn't see a beak-like bit on the front if it was a turtle, and don't most sea turtles have rather sharp mouths? On the other hand, the last time it dove I thought I saw rectangular markings on the back. Could have been prop scars on the manatee's back, I suppose.
Either way, it made for a perfect sunset. |
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Hey Jennifer -- do you adopt? I want to come live with you and boat-school, too.....
__________________
MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 31 2007 at 9:17am | IP Logged
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That does sound awesome!
Seriously, though, that thing you said about finding topics that are applicable to your lives-that is the real ticket, I think. This is what we strive for as well, making things as "real" as possible. It gives us a reason for doing what we do-not just some arbitrary scope and sequence chart made up by folks that know nothing of our lives. And I think this will look different for each of us because of our different situations. You take scuba diving, we do stream studies, others plant gardens or immerse themselves in service projects close to home. We have to find what suits us where we are both physically and mentally.
(That being said I was just sitting here wishing we were in FL this week because "Palms" would make a perfect nature study topic for the week.)
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: March 31 2007 at 9:24am | IP Logged
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Jennifer,
I wish I had time to address your post and pick your brain some more but it might have to wait till past Easter since the boards will be closed then I will be going camping.
I wanted you to know that I it. You answered all my questions and more. Thank you.
__________________
Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Topic: Organic/Seasonal Learning
