A Common Shepherdess

From Ambleside online I get our weekly schedule. Our school year has three terms, each 12 weeks long. Here is how I divided up the work into a daily schedule: Monday: Bible reading Math Copywork Spelling (a spelling, reading, penmanship curriculum) Music: Hymn (this month's hymn is Praise To The Lord, The Almighty) History Outside Literature (Poetry: this term's poet is Walter de la Mare) Free reading Spanish (a children's Spanish class at the library) Tuesday: Bible reading Math Copywork Spelling Music: Classical (this term's composer is Mozart) History: history of England Outside Literature (Historical Fiction) Free Reading Wednesday: Bible reading Math Copywork Spelling Music: Folksong (this term's folksong is Cockles and Mussels) History: world history Outside Literature (Pilgrim's Progress) Free Reading Thursday: Bible reading Math Copywork Spelling Art (this term's painter is Pieter Brueghel) Geography Literature (Pilgrim's Progress) Free Reading...

The hardest thing about homeschooling, to me anyway, is consistently staying the course. We started school on Monday and we've already taken one day off. My husband's days off are Thursdays and Fridays. Usually he still goes to the office in the mornings, which gives us time to finish our schoolwork so we can be free by lunchtime when he comes home. But on Friday he took the entire day off. Of course, one of the perks of homeschooling is being able to do schoolwork whenever. But it's not fun to do schoolwork in the evening after a busy day. I hope to make up the work we missed on Friday over the weekend so we can start next week without feeling like we are behind. Days off with Dad aren't necessarily wasted school-time though. We visited Lake Pleasant, a man-made lake north of Phoenix. A great opportunity for a nature study! Now, if only I had thought to bring their nature notebook... We got to the visitor center just in time to watch the park ranger feed the t...

On Monday we started our new school year. The summer days have been getting too long and boring for the kids. We needed to do something, so why not start school! This year we are doing something completely different. I'm scheduling the kids' year using Ambleside Online . This is an amazing resource. It is a full, free curriculum based on Charlotte Mason's method of teaching. We are discovering all kinds of wonderful books. I've also discovered another wonderful resource: LibriVox . It is a collection of free online audio books. The goal of LibriVox is to make all public domain books available as audio books. This has been a great time saver for me. Our curriculum this year is heavy with literature. Much of it would take my oldest son a very, very long time to read on his own. He depends on me to read aloud most of the stories. A couple of the books we are using can be found at LibriVox: Our Island Story (the history of England) and the Burgess Animal Boo...

As I sit here typing, the rain is pouring down. Earlier this afternoon the kids and I had fun watching the giant, puffy white clouds in the sky and pointing out the shapes we saw. I told them, "They will just go around us like they've been doing for the past week." Well, I was wrong. Finally, a real thunderstorm! A big wind came through, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and then the rain started. We were at the pool when the dark clouds began to fill the sky. We had only been there about 20 minutes. Then when the lightning started, the lifeguards closed the pool. The thunder has been booming non-stop. The monsoon season was officially called over the weekend. I guess that is what the rain was waiting for.

Another gluten-free find at Wal-Mart: DeBoles gluten-free rice pasta. I found it next to the regular pasta. There was spaghetti-style and penne. Both boxes were 8 oz and cost $1.47. It tasted pretty good. I cooked it slightly al dente and it tasted a little raw and starchy. But when it's covered with Newman's Own Marinara sauce ...yummy! DeBoles also makes pasta from corn flour. I'd love to try that. I've tried corn pasta before and it tastes more like regular pasta than rice pasta does.

Monday night a haboob moved through east Phoenix. Haboob is a fancy way of saying dust storm. Actually a haboob is much bigger than the little dust storms we have seen. They occur when thunderstorms create strong downdrafts. These winds pick up dirt and start moving. Winds can reach as high as 60 mph and the storm can last as long as three hours. We are on the west side so we didn't see anything. Check out the BBC report on YouTube. It has some cool pictures. We've had a couple of small thunderstorms but the official monsoon has not started yet.

Last night we had a Bollywood moment. At the beginning of Lagaan there is a scene where the villagers see clouds appear on the horizon and break into song. (You can watch the opening song here .) Last night when the winds picked up and clouds started filling the sky, I wanted to sing and dance! After 24 straight days of above 100 degrees temperatures, I begin to understand a little how those villagers felt. (Of course, I'm thankful our very lives don't depend on whether or not the rain keeps our crops from dying.) I was cleaning up after dinner when my two middle kids rushed inside, yelling "Dust storm! Dust storm!" My husband and I went outside. Dust was blowing everywhere and dark clouds started filling the sky. "This is it!" we thought. "The monsoon is here!" My 3 yo daughter twirled around in her princess dress and my 6 yo son started throwing rocks into the air. "I want to hit the rain," he explained. "Because it...

Our 15-month-old daughter finally got her first pair of shoes. My other three kids rarely wore shoes as toddlers. My now 6-year-old's favorite pair of shoes when he was small was his pair of rubber rain boots. During an Oregon winter, rubber rain boots are the only pair of shoes a person needs. Arizona is much different though. When it is 110 degrees outside, the ground gets pretty hot too. Besides the heat are nasty little stickers. They easily puncture the sole of your foot. Ouch! Our little baby loves her new shoes. She wants to sleep with them and she is constantly taking them off and putting them on. She wants to walk everywhere now. Yesterday at the community pool, she fussed because I took them off of her. Since they are so lightweight, I let her keep them on in the pool. She took them off and tossed them in the water. She squealed with delight when I carried her close enough to reach them as they floated in the pool. I hope we haven't created another Imel...