tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63148812006-12-08T18:44:36.538-08:00MirandaBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-34241752912622472072006-12-06T11:38:00.000-08:002006-12-08T11:40:40.650-08:00

Today, on my way to put up the Christmas lights, I discovered this guy perching outside on a beam about 18" from one of our windows. He's a saw-whet. The kids were able to get soooooo close and were completely entranced. This picture was actually taken from inside the house, through the aforementioned window.

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-23973116756787151052006-12-05T21:06:00.000-08:002006-12-05T21:09:21.860-08:00

We have a fairly long driveway. Three hundred metres or so, downhill and fairly straight from the highway, taking a little dip, then leveling out and diverging into a short lane heading for the carport and a turnaround circle. Since we don't have a 4WD family vehicle, we depend on conscientious snow removal -- otherwise we don't go anywhere (and despite our conscientiousness, that does happen

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-45935986782894414252006-12-01T11:40:00.000-08:002006-12-03T11:51:24.636-08:00

Here is where Noah worked tonight on Rosetta Stone Japanese. For years my workspace has been a 2 sq.ft. space at the end of the kids' communal desk. First I had a laptop there. Then I upgraded to a desktop computer, but tucked the CPU and keyboard underneath my little single-place-setting of desk space. Then, with the re-assignment of room roles necessitated by the arrival of our new piano, the

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-48951544519544866212006-11-22T19:34:00.000-08:002006-11-25T19:42:54.439-08:00

We're now four weeks into Science Club. We meet for two or three hours on Wednesday afternoon. I'm preserving my optimism with effort. We've done some fun things, from the planet walk to the 'elevate an apple' challenge, to printing evergreen foliage on clay tiles. We've touched on principles of gravitational acceleration, solar system orbits, taxonomy of trees, convection and plate tectonics.

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-19082897077870268602006-11-25T11:16:00.000-08:002006-11-25T11:20:24.508-08:00

We've not had a public gym in our town until today. During WWII a Sanitorium was built here for Japanese internees who had TB. In the 1950s the San was converted to a reform school for school-refusing Doukhobor children (who were actually just being educated at home). A gymnasium was added at that point. Then when the government stopped apprehending Doukhobor kids for homeschooling, the reform

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-16474295494151860672006-11-17T19:33:00.000-08:002006-11-22T19:34:17.875-08:00

Fiona is reading. Not only that, but unlike my other (previous) 3-year-old reader, Erin, this one's doing so quite unabashedly, stumbles and mistakes and all. Mostly just three- and four-letter words with short vowels and the simplest of consonant blends, but she's doing it, and building on her progress as the days roll by. Her printing is almost as good as Noah's was six months ago -- and she

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-80900847525411427462006-11-15T20:06:00.000-08:002006-11-22T19:33:57.922-08:00

Windy sleety day. We have Science Club scheduled. It's at our house, because the power is out at the place where we usually hold it. We go on a planet walk, pacing out the scale distance between a soccer-ball sun and the various planets. We give up after almost a kilometer of walking when we're still only at Saturn. They sure are small and far apart, and, as we head into a wicked sleet-laden

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-66259087921353346932006-11-12T19:13:00.000-08:002006-11-12T19:23:19.081-08:00

I'm one of those people who is full of brilliant comebacks ten minutes after the situation where I needed them. I don't think on my feet very well. I'll blame it on my poor social skills, courtesy of my public schooling . It's been quite a while since I've needed to cope with a rude almost-stranger criticizing our homeschooling, but I've got one more "one size fits all" response in my armory,

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-19503864486865494852006-11-12T15:03:00.000-08:002006-11-12T15:24:31.909-08:00

We were in a concocting mood, and stumbled on the recipe for "gak" or "elmer's slime", which just happened to require two ingredients we had on hand -- 225 ml of PVA glue (Elmer's Glue-all) and 1 tsp. of borax. Actually, we have about 1000 tsp. of borax on hand, but we only needed one. We mixed the glue with an equal amount of warm water, added some food colouring and then stirred in a

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1163133470870921852006-11-07T19:06:00.000-08:002006-11-10T13:33:01.886-08:00

First it seemed like a great idea to continue to get the homeschooled core of GRUBS together for a weekly co-op learning venture during the cold months. I talked to the other mom-of-many about it and we talked to the kids. Everyone thought it was a good idea. Then I got cold feet. I didn't want to be saddled with the organization of yet another weekly activity that my kids ended up feeling was

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1163127945468579972006-11-09T18:59:00.000-08:002006-11-10T13:33:01.810-08:00

Fiona has been busy writing lots of letters and numbers lately. Today I found a 'spent' Singapore Primary Math workbook which she had commandeered for her own uses. She made me take an eraser to most the previous pencil work a couple of weeks ago and has been having her own way with one of the word problems. This page was lying open. She had used enough appropriate numbers and symbols that I did

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1162619118286844402006-11-03T21:23:00.000-08:002006-11-10T13:33:01.722-08:00

Noah has been really reluctant to go to his viola lessons lately. I mean, as a huge homebody who doesn't make transitions well at the best of times, he normally doesn't like to go, but usually once he gets there and gets in the groove, he's okay. But lately he's been articulating clearly a sense of not feeling adequately prepared. We talk about it a bit at his lesson this week. "I think maybe

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1161302113044322072006-10-09T16:27:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.552-08:00

The GRUBS held their 2nd annual Harvest Festival last weekend. It was a chance to celebrate another successful growing year, to have a feast, to have fun together and to thank the community at large for its support. We churned butter, made herbed garlic butter which we slathered on French bread and warmed beside the bonfire, we prepared a massive harvest soup, we laid out samples of our sweet and

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1161227113146859392006-10-18T19:46:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.479-08:00

Parents are supposed to obsess over their firstborn's milestones, but I am obsessing over Fiona's. I suppose it's because with the first three I didn't realize how fleeting all this early developmental stuff would be, and now I know it's the last chance I'll have to marvel over these tiny, wonderful accomplishments. And maybe it's because she's so delightfully observable, with none of the

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1161225989204462792006-10-17T19:21:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.414-08:00

Erin has fallen in love with the Sibelius Romance Op. 24 No. 9. She heard it played by a fellow student during the summer. It's a significant step up in difficulty for her. While she has a precocious ability to play quick, bright baroque and classical pieces, the Sibelius is stretching her ability to play chordal passages. It's a piece with a virtuoso-style Rachmaninoffesque middle secttion, and

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1161224452851404702006-10-16T18:59:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.340-08:00

Noah has been agitating for a while about wanting to learn to program games on the computer. I know enough about programming to know that programming a decent game, by contemporary standards, is an incredibly complex task requiring years of experience and months of code-writing. So I confess I didn't do a lot to encourage his interest, not wanting to put him through the disappointment of

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1159500590735803892006-09-28T20:18:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.265-08:00

True to character, Noah wanted a birthday celebration that was "family only". Fine. But he wanted to do something memorable too. So we decided upon a formal restaurant meal -- at home. With the parents waiting on the children. Very fun! We moved a table into the living room and covered it with our best (read: only) tablecloth. We added napkins and full place-settings for four. The kids arrived

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1159421668567546092006-09-27T22:31:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.193-08:00

Fiona was the only one who wanted to come to the GRUBS garden with me this afternoon to do a bit of digging. I wanted to make some progress back-filling the marsh-garden-in-progress. She watched, and dug, and scrabbled around a bit, got hot, sat in the shade, came back, got bored and asked to go home. "Yeah, okay," I said. "In a few minutes." I finished levelling out the rim where the liner

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1159421494243778782006-09-27T22:29:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.121-08:00

Sophie started knitting this week. Almost a year ago she learned a basic knit stitch and was keen for a week or two, but never really developed the skill and stamina to find it gratifying to continue. This week she decided, on her own, that she wanted to do a practice project just a few stitches wide, so I cast on 10 for her and she set to work. By the end of three days of on and off work, she

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1159421212094343982006-09-27T22:07:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:01.051-08:00

Sometimes you know things but you just need a nudge. I know Noah has difficulty creating structure and consistency for himself. I know loses confidence very easily when he falls short of his own expectations -- expectations that can only be reached with some consistent application to the task. And I know that when his confidence ebbs, his motivation bottoms out in ways that begin to affect all

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1158554562444404402006-09-17T19:51:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:00.981-08:00

On the SuzukiChat List a year or so ago someone posted about nursing a toddler who was predisposed to hum Suzuki's "Allegro" whilst nursing. A similar post had been made three or four years before. Having had a similar experience with both Sophie and Fiona, I commented that the group of moms who have nursed to the humming of "Allegro" by a nursling was a very special and exclusive club. Now

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1157038449893736822006-08-31T07:58:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:00.895-08:00

Fiona's had an amazing week on violin and she knows it. Last week at about this time she was showing an interest in teaching herself some of the upcoming Suzuki repertoire. I attempted to redirect her into non-Suzuki pieces, since the Suzuki repertoire is usually approached with very specific teaching goals in mind and with specific sorts of emphasis. I wanted her to leave that music to be

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1156397230880723392006-08-23T22:12:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:00.793-08:00

Why is most high school science so dry and uninteresting? Why do students lose interest in science? Why is science achievement in North America (in the US especially) so poor? Even when the courses are rigorous, why do students retain so little and feel such scant excitement? Well, first, I'm not sure that most higher level science requires as much mathematics as is commonly assumed. I think

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1156296936964678492006-08-22T18:30:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:00.686-08:00

On Day 4 of the Suzuki Valhalla Institute, the pianos arrived at the school for the following week's piano summer school. They come on loan from a piano store, but are all on sale while here. Two of them were nice used baby grands with nice sticker prices, further discounted and with free delivery. Out of the blue, my mom came up to me and said "I think you need one of those grands." Not only

Mirandatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314881.post-1156097051147552192006-08-13T10:56:00.000-07:002006-11-10T13:33:00.593-08:00

We just finished our main week of music summer school. I'm heavily involved organizationally and had all four of my kids enrolled in the Suzuki Valhalla Institute, a family-based week-long music workshop for Suzuki violinists, violists and cellists in our little town. Last year the program attracted 41 students, this year 69 with a waitlist, so things were busy! Erin had 5 hours, Noah and Sophie

Miranda