And Another Thing...

The Minotaur By Ben

 

The Minotaur

By Ben Stanley

One of the kings of Crete was named Minos.  One day, there was a storm at sea and  Minos asked the god Poseidon to bring his fleet home safely.  In exchange Minos would sacrifice his best bull.  Poseidon agreed, however, when the fleet came home Minos sacrificed the smallest bull.  Poseidon was furious so he decided to take revenge.     

 

Minos wife was expecting a baby, when it was born it was half man half bull. The Minotaur, meaning Bull of Minos, was very ugly to look at and the people were afraid of it.  It had a nasty habit of eating people!  

 

Minos told Daedalus, who would be called an engineer today, to build a labyrinth that was big, treacherous and so complicated that no one could find their way out.  It took many year to complete.   When it was completed, Minos put the beast in the labyrinth so it could not find its way out.  Minos then demanded tribute from islands and cities, including Athens, in the form of young men and maidens.  

 

The king of Athens was named Aegeus.  He had a secret son, named Theseus who grew up on an island called Troezen.  Even as baby he was fearless, when Heracles came to their town he laid his lion skin over a chair.  Theseus thought it was a real lion so he attacked it with and axe.  Heracles said Theseus would be a hero just like him when he’s older.  

 

When Theseus was 21 he left his mother to see his father, Aegeus in Athens.  When Theseus heard about the Minotaur he wanted to kill it so he went to Crete.  The princess of Crete, Ariadne wanted the Minotaur dead too, because she thought it was cruel. So she gave him a ball of gold thread and a magic sword because it is the only sword that can kill the Minotaur.  Theseus went in to the maze, tying the rope to the door knob and unwound it as he walked through the maze.  When Theseus got closer, the Minotaur smelled him and attacked him.  Theseus grabbed its horn and cut off it’s head.  

                The next morning Minos went to get the prisoners to put them in the labyrinth and he found their beds empty and a boat missing.  During the night Theseus and Ariande had helped them escape and get back to Athens.  

The Trojan War by Braidon

After watching this video, Braidon wrote a short paper about the Trojan War (thanks for the idea Jenn M.!).  I'm hoping that this will be a weekly project for both boys for the next couple of months.  The boys have not really done a lot of formal writing, so I'm also hoping that their style will improve as we go.

 

The Trojan War

by Braidon Eikenberry

   The Trojan war was between the Trojans and the Greeks.  The war was ten years long.  Zeus called on Paris of Troy to decide who was the fairest between Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. He chose Aphrodite because she promised him the most beautiful woman on Earth to be his wife. He  took Helen  of Sparta from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta.

Helen daughter of Zeus and Queen of Sparta was known as the most beautiful young lady in the world. Her stepfather saw how many men wanted to marry his daughter so he held a competition to see who should marry her.  The one who won the competition was Menelaus.    

                There was an epic battle between Hektor of Troy and Achilles of Sparta.  Achilles the son of Zeus was made invincible by putting him in a river called Styx,  except for his heels.  Achilles won that battle because of his invincibility.  Then after the battle Achilles dragged Hektors body around the city of Troy three times to show that he had killed him.  

Troy withstood the siege  for ten long years.  The final Greek victory came when the Greeks made a huge wooden horse that could hold twelve soldiers.  One night all the Greek ships sailed off so the Trojans thought they had won the war.   The  Greeks put the horse outside the gates and the Trojans thought it was a gift, so they took it in the gates.   The Trojans had been celebrating and became very drunk.  While they were asleep the Greeks came out of the horse, down the the ladder, and killed the Trojans in their sleep.  Then they got Helen and went home after ten long years. 

My Not-So-Perfect Plans...

Last week I had great hopes for getting back into a routine and getting back to "school."  Well, you'd think I would know better by now.  As I was sitting at the table drinking my coffee and alternately reading a book and knitting, the girls sauntered down the stairs and into the kitchen.  I cheerfully informed them that we would be buckling down and getting things done today.  They un-cheerfully growled at me and I chalked it up to a lack of sustenance so I fed them breakfast.  While they were eating, I went back upstairs to get dressed and make my bed, thereby setting a good example of getting back into the routine.  When I came back downstairs, this is the scene I found.  Olivia decided to write a book, Anna thought illustrating a graphic novel would be a good use of her time and Saragh was designing the ultimate weapon to take over the world (Her words, not mine.  No joke.).  Well, of course their plans for the day sounded way better than what I had dreamed up.  I mean, seriously, if Saragh's going to take over the world, her future is pretty much set, right?  It will certainly save on college tuition.  It's times like these when I wonder why I ever doubt their ability to navigate their own way in this world?  If they can come up with this kind of stuff, it would be almost cruel of me to make them abandon it.  So, I definitely learned my lesson, at least for the time being.  I'm going to continue to sit back and enjoy the ride they are taking me on.

Instead of school...

Olivia started writing her first book entitled "The Missing Tiara".  She is currently working on the first chapter after creating a rockin' front cover.

Anna drew illustrations for her own book, most likely a graphic novel. 

Benjamin created another HUGE LEGO vehicle.  It's so awesome, he looks up pictures and videos online to get an idea of construction and then he disappears for several hours and comes back down with a perfect replica.  Amazing.

Braidon continued working on his snow structure, which is beginning to resemble a small city and he also cleaned up the yard without being asked.  He's my favorite today ;o)

Saragh did all the things that Saragh does best, no one is quite sure what that is, but she was quiet and engaged and the house is still standing, so I'll take it!

They always come up with activities that are WAY better than anything I could have dreamed up.  I love our life and I'm so glad we chose this path!

My Reading Girl

If you've known me at all for the last few years, you'll know that I have been worried about Olivia reading.  After her baby and toddlerhood where she excelled and was often far ahead of her peers (she was speaking in full paragraphs at a year), I assumed that she would keep up that pace as she grew and was surprised when she didn't.  Not disappointed, just surprised.  I had to learn to be patient with her and let her go at her own pace, because she will accept nothing less.

However, we learned back in August that she had a pretty strong eye prescription and her pervious lenses had not been helping at all.  Once we got that issue fixed, she took off like a lightening bolt and is now reading every word she can find.  Phonics lessons are almost obsolete at this point.  Almost. 

Last week while we were wandering around the Henry Ford, she read this sign with almost no help.  I know that for some of you, this does not seem like a big deal at all and maybe you're right.  But for me, and for Olivia this is huge.  This opens up a whole new world to her and to both of us.  We can share things that we couldn't before and we can communicate in a whole new way. 

Olivia makes it clear, everyday, that she is growing up, with or without my permission.  I love watching her discover new things and I can't wait to see what she does next.

 

Letting go of math

I have known for years that I am an unschooler at heart.  It feels so right to me and anytime we have tried anything more structured, it just doesn't fit.  But I have a secret shame that I hide from the world.  I very often make my kids do math.  From textbooks. With worksheets.  And I check them.

I know, I know.  It's awful and I can't believe I'm sharing it with the world.  I hope that none of you decide that I am a complete fraud and never return to this space, but I will completely understand if you do. 

So here's the problem, and I will gladly accept advice if you have any.  I am not a math person, at least not in any sense that one normally thinks of.  I like patterns, I like music beats, I like to count things, but if you ask me what 6x7 is, I'm gonna have to stop and think about it.  Probably I'll have to use paper and pencil, maybe even a calculator.  All those years of memorizing multiplication tables (Yeah, years.  I told you I'm not a math person) were completely wasted on me. 

Since I am not a math person, I have a really hard time encouraging my children to think about things in math terms.  I don't come up with nifty math games or remember to have my children add prices up at the grocery store.  So even though I know the years of textbook math that I was forced to do were totally pointless, I feel a strong, undeniable urge to sit my children down at the kitchen table and make them "do math".   What on earth is wrong with me?  I know that at least two of my children are just like me in this regard, but I still force this endless torture on them. 

I end the day, everyday, promising myself that I will not do that again tomorrow.  I assure myself that I have not squelched any budding love of numeral things and that they will be just fine.  But I know that both of those things are lies.  Yet I can't stop myself, it's a sick obsession.

Here are my questions, folks.  How do I let go of math?  How do I learn to trust that they will learn what they need to know when they need to know it?  This concept speaks to my very soul, it feels utterly perfect.  But for some reason, I can't follow it when it concerns math.  How do I engage them in the numerical world and help them see all the wonderful things that I know are there?

Science Friday :: Milk Swirls

What you need:

• A saucer
• milk (not skim)
• food coloring
• dish soap

What to do:

Pour a bit of milk into the saucer, add several drops of food coloring in different colors. 

 

Carefully pour one drop of dish soap into the milk and see what happens!

You can add more drops of dish soap and/or more food coloring to get different effects.

 

What happens:  The food coloring sits on the fat molecules in the milk.  When you pour the dish soap in, it breaks up the fat and the food coloring along with it.  We tried this several times doing something a bit different each time and we got really cool effects!

My Must See

I have been hearing a lot about this documentary and I am anxiously awaiting it's release.  I am very interested to learn what solutions are suggested.  This documentary could go down two different roads , in my opinion. 

The left fork (my preferred route); they could tell us that the entire system needs to be razed and built back up from scratch, using the children as our waymarkers, focusing on individual needs and encouraging a lifelong love of learning. 

The right fork (my worst case scenario); they would tell us that we need to do more.  More testing, more worksheets, more hours, more days, more money; that we are just not pushing the kids hard enough.  

So, now I'm waiting for fall and the release of this documentary.  Will you take the pledge to watch this movie?

Why?

I don't watch the news very often, but I happened to see a report about this incident last night. 

I am shocked and outraged that this kind of thing could happen.  What is equally disturbing is that not one of the students in the class did anything to stop this.  One kid took a video, but no one ran to go find another adult, no one stepped in to help.  Some of the kids are even laughing in the background.

What in the world is going on in our society?  What was going on with this teacher that she was so angry and violent?  What tripped in her brain to allow her to treat a child like this?  Are the pressures to achieve and conform so great that it leads to this?  This is giving me lots of food for thought.  I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Not-Back-to School Blog Hop - School Room Week (late)

I just found out about this blog roll, so I am a little late with the school room week pictures.

This is our dining/craft room where we spend a big portion of the day.  Please excuse the photos, it's a cloudy day, so they're very dark.

This is the craft cabinet that my fabulous hubby put together for us.  It's an old cabinet from our kitchen that we removed when we put a pantry in.  He repainted it and put a nice new counter top on it and wha-la! We have a great storage space for our oodles on craft supplies!

This is our library/family room.  We just switched our house around so that the books would be in the bigger, brighter room.  We're loving all the space we have to spread out and read and play games.  This room is really warm in the winter when we have a fire going.  We almost never leave it. 

Since we're mostly unschoolers, we don't really "do" school.  When we do work on something, we just find the place that is the most comfortable and well suited to our project and set up shop.  Sometimes that's at the kitchen table, sometimes it's snuggling on the couch and sometimes it's sprawled out on the floor.  I think it really suits us to be flexible and respect the different work needs of each member of the family.