Homeschool Curriculum Shopping

Yes school is officially over - but now I have begun the task of hunting down all the books we need for the fall.

A good portion of the homeschool books we have purchased over the past few years, I have been able to find used. Used = cheap. There used to be a great homeschool bookstore about a 1/2 hr from our house...they sold new books plus used and I always found a lot of great deals there.

Until they moved to a new location. Actually their first move was not too bad - it was further from home, but they still had a nice selection of used materials. Then after about a year, they moved again. Closer to home - but when we went there today, a very poor selection of used books. Sigh.

I did get some good deals...I spent about $40 on curriculum that had a retail price of approx. $140. So I'm happy about that. But as I said, the selection was poor and I'm still on the hunt for quite a few books.

There is a used curriculum fair that I usually attend in June, but I just realized that it is on the same date as an out-of-town wedding I'll be attending.

I still have a few months left to look but now that I have started hunting - I want to get it all done quickly. I do check out eBay for books, and did find one tonight that I bought, but the problem with eBay is that you pay for shipping, you can't physically look through the book to make sure it's exactly what you want, plus you have other people bidding against you. Also a year or so ago, eBay quit allowing the sale of answer keys.

In case you are wondering, I use Saxon for math and A Beka for all the other subjects. I'm not too crazy about A Beka, but I continue to use it. Some of it is useless and boring. I need to keep reminding myself that I do not have to follow things exactly. I don't even have to give all the tests or reviews or assignments. If the next chapter is on birds and my daughter thinks it's boring - why not move onto something else. Sure kids need to realize that even if something is boring they may still have to do it - but there is plenty of time for that later! Now if my kids didn't know a cardinal from a duck, that would be one thing. But if the kids already know something - why spend time on it over and over.

I do supplement all the subjects with whatever we find at the library or from various other resources. If the children are interested in a subject that we are not currently studying - it's easy enough for us to find information about it on-line or at the library.

My Own Two Feet and Cold Feet

During a random library search this week, I picked up what I thought were two children's biography books.

The first was a picture book biography, suitable I thought for my kids ages 6 & 8. "Cold Feet" story by Cynthia DeFelice. I liked the story because it was about a Scottish man who plays the bagpipes.

I began reading the story to the kids and quickly it appeared rather grim. The bagpiper is wandering around in the forest, in the winter, and his feet are frozen. "Luckily" he stumbles upon a body of a dead man with good shoes. Unfortunately the man's feet are frozen into the shoes - but "luckily" as bagpiper drops the man's feet down - the feet break off from the legs and so he takes the shoes w/the feet still in them and goes along on his merry way. Yikes!

A grouchy farmer lets him spend the night in his barn with his cow and to get back at the grouchy farmer, the bagpiper removes the now thawed feet from the good shoes and puts them on. He puts the thawed feet into his old bedraggled shoes and places one in the cows mouth so the farmer with think the cow ate the bagpiper.

See I said it was all pretty grim. I kept thinking - well something good has to happen this is a true story...maybe he'll meet up with the dead man's family who'll recognize his shoes and they'll have "peace" in knowing what happened to him.

Well I had almost finished reading the book to the kids when I finally realized ummm this is not a child's biography book - it must have been filed incorrectly - b/c next thing a ghost appears wanting his feet back. I skipped the end of the story and we quickly went on to something else.

I know some kids like scary stories like this and I know I did as a kid (minus the ghost part) - but I sure wasn't prepared for this book. And my kids DO NOT like these kind of stories. I guess I need to better review the stories before I begin reading them to the kids.

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A much better book (and it really is a biography) is "My Own Two Feet" a memoir by Beverly Cleary. Beverly Cleary is the author of much-loved books such as Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ralph S. Mouse, The Mouse and the Motorcyle, Henry and the Paper Route etc.

I have enjoyed reading this memoir. The book deals primarily with Beverly's years at college and her work as a children's librarian. Beverly, an only child, grew up around the time of the Depression. Her parents didn't have much money - but they did have enough to partially pay for her college education (supplemented by Beverly working and $ from her grandfather).

It wasn't always easy coming up with the money Beverly needed for college or for a place to live - but she persevered. She had a mature attitude about her future and her education.

I didn't realize until I was almost finished reading "My Own Two Feet", that Beverly also wrote a book about her life prior to college. It sounds interesting - so I have it reserved at the library.

A Visit to the Zoo

Golden Pheasant - this photo doesn't do it justice - this is one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen. The bird just kept walking back and forth very quickly and so it was hard to get a good photo.

Yesterday, we visited the zoo for the first time this year.

Since we live within about 1/2 hr of the zoo - we don't feel like we need to go and spend an entire day there...rather we take a 2 or so hour visit. Actually I don't know how folks can spend the entire day there. I saw a middle aged woman appear to be sleeping on one of the park benches. This wasn't a "homeless person" scenario - she looked like a tourist that had had just a bit too much zoofulness.

I wish I had a camera that was a bit more "incognito". Like one of those "spy" cameras they might have used on "Maxwell Smart". I could have filled this blog up with some interesting pictures of the non-animal mammals at the zoo. I would have enough fodder for a years worth of posts for Mrs. Fussypants "Fight the Frump With Fussy".

Anyway, here are some of the "nice" photos I took.

I wish I could have got a better picture of this baby elephant in the water. But the sun was behind him, so what you see is one of the better shots I got of him. There were about 4 or 5 zoo employees watching the elephant and one had a camera. I thought I overheard someone say that it was the first time the baby was going swimming. Have you ever noticed that the mouth on an elephant always seems to have a smiling expression?

Rambutan "Hairy Fruit" - Thailand

Ever since I first saw a picture of these little fellas, I've been wanting to find one to try. I wish I could have found a fresh one - but canned Rambutan will have to do.

Rambutan is a tropical fruit and the name actually means "hairy fruit". The fruit is a reddish color and is covered in little spines. Here is a photo of the fruit - very beautiful.

I liked the taste - it was soft and chewy and reminded me of the flavor of canned mandarin oranges.


Dd took a small bite and said it tasted like lychees and water chestnuts. Well she has never tasted lychees so she must have it confused with some other fruit. She does love water chestnuts and can eat an entire can of them. When I was putting the groceries away yesterday I noticed a can of chestnuts and I know I did not place them in the shopping cart.

Ds thought it tasted kind of like apple juice (which he likes) "but at the same time terrible."

If I think the kids' adverse reactions might affect one another - I try to get them to taste it independently of each other. Otherwise if the girl hears the boy spit it in the trash, she might be more hesitant to try it.

Koska - Traditional Floss Halva ...Turkey

Halva is a type of sweet confection found in the Middle East. Most of the confections are quite dense and are sweetened with sugar or honey.

From Wikipedia...."Floss halva is a traditional sweetmeat, prepared in Turkey, made by flossing thin strands of halva into a light confection. Made primarily of wheat flour and sugar, the strands are continuously wrapped into a ball shape and then compressed. The result is a halva with a light consistency, similar to cotton candy."

This box of floss halva contains 12 little "bundles" of compressed floss and cost approx. $3. The texture is very similar to typical floss except it does not melt as easily in your mouth. Whereas it seems candy floss melts as soon as it comes into contact with your mouth, the halva takes a bit more moisture to dissolve and feels heavier. Halva also seems to have thicker strands that remind you of wig hair or yarn.

The little bundles have what appears to be crushed up nuts sprinkled on top.

I thought the flavor was good - sweet and nutty. My daughter did not like it almost instantly. Barely a taste in her mouth and she says "tastes chocolatey and nutty". The boy said "The same. Give me more". So the boy loved it and would have eaten as much as I gave him, and the girl would barely take a bite.

The ingredients are: wheat flour, sugar, vegetable fat, nature-identical aroma (vanillin), acidity regulator (citric acid).

A Good Question

As we were having some tea with our waffles this morning, ds asked how tea was made. I told him it came from leaves that were dried.

He then wanted to know how they knew it was OK to use the leaves b/c of course if they were not OK, they would die.

My answer was that they just saw animals eating it and they didn't die, so they tried it. My explanations are not always the best.

Here is a Wikipedia description on how tea is made/where it comes from. I'm going to print it out and read it to the little fella. Well I guess the kids will have a little lesson on tea today.

It reminded me of one of my old favorite Calvin n' Hobbes comic strips. Calvin is asking his dad how they know the weight load limits on bridges so they can post the signs. His dad replies that they just keep on running heavier and heavier loads over the bridge and when the bridge breaks, they weigh the last truck and re-build the bridge.

I am not big on reading "The Funnies". Sure they were entertaining when I was younger - but now it seems like there are few that really are humorous. At one time I cut out and collected some of my very favorite ones and put them in an album. Over the years I've included some of my favorites in letters I was writing to friends and family - so I don't have many left. And the ones that are left - I'm not sure where they are.

A few I remember:

A man with a large smile, trying on big bunny slippers in a shoe store. Young boy is in his mother's arms crying while mother tries comforting him with, "Now, now son - daddy saw them first."

Another

A boy is pushing on the door and pushing on the door of a school, trying to get the door to open. You see the sign on the door that says "PULL". Then you see the name on the building "Midvale School for the Gifted".

Or

A man is inquiring about something at a desk. The man behind the desk replies "You say you'd like to take a Q.I. test? I think you just did."

Or

There is an uneven "panel" in the sidewalk and you see a lady tripping. Behind the building is someone recording how many people have tripped.

Should I Be Concerned?

I think children left to "their own devices", can be a good thing. It gives them an opportunity to create and learn.

First the boy comes in this afternoon to show me a leaf he burned an "H" into with a magnifying glass. "I did get some little burns on my fingers" he said cheerfully.

Just now he came in very excited with an impish grin on his face. "Do you think my experiment will be successful?" he asks me. "What experiment is that?" I replied. "Oh didn't I tell you - I'm making gunpowder. I found out that gunpowder is mostly made of water and charcoal and so I thought maybe I could make some. But I'm using some already burned up charcoal so it's not as flammable."

Hmmm - maybe I ought to go out and check. Hopefully he knows that the gasoline for the lawn mower is off limits.

...I did go out just to remind him that he is not to touch gasoline or matches. He seemed surprised that I would even THINK he would be messing with that kind of stuff.

The picture above was from the weekend. The fire had been put out the night before and was still smoldering a bit in the morning when ds came across it. He had fun poking around it with a stick...finding bits of charcoal etc. I normally would not let him mess around with a fire pit - but I was right there keeping an eye on him. I have always loved fires, so I don't blame him for being interested.