Norah made paper bead necklaces to go along with her study of ancient Africa in history. These necklaces are still being made today and they are very beautiful. We used construction paper this time but I think we will try this again soon with some old, glossy magazine pages and then cover the beads with a mixture of glue and water to varnish. Here's a tutorial if you are interested in making some yourself.

Norah put together a puppet show for Avril one afternoon while Avril napped. She sang "Old MacDonald" and made all the animal puppets appear when it was their turn to make their noises with a "moo" or a "neigh," etc. Only problem with the whole idea: Avril wanted to be with Norah on the other side of the curtain and didn't understand why she was being forced to sit in the audience. She whined and/or cried through the whole thing. I think we will try this again soon. Maybe Avril will enjoy holding one of the puppets and I will just fill the audience myself.

After we picked apples on Saturday, Norah and her dad made two pies that evening. Dwayne did an incredible job with Norah. I overheard him saying things like, "1 slash 3 means one-third of a cup. Look for the cup with 2/3 on it. Okay. Half of that cup or up to that middle line is one-third. Fill it up to there." and "Packed brown sugar... What do you think 'packed' means?" What he covered with Norah in that one evening puts her so far ahead of where I was when I started baking and cooking.

I spent my free time this afternoon listening to a lecture called "Teaching Students to Work Independently" given by Susan Wise Bauer. It was only a few dollars to download and it was well worth the cost, in my opinion. I probably had to pause it fifty times to deal with the kids and the phone, etc. But it is nice that I own it so I can listen to it again in the future.

While some of the content of this lecture didn't exactly apply to us right now (she speaks about how to teach all levels of students from elementary through middle and high school), I found that it was a good reminder of why I am trying to do all that I am doing now and how it will "pay off" for Norah in the future. So much of what I am doing now is training her to be capable of so much more later on.

I think I will try and listen to all Bauer's lectures available online here. It's certainly more productive and inspirational than watching crap on Hulu with my free time!

Here's a short quote from the lecture that I really liked. So many people are critical of schedules and plans. Sometimes I even wonder whether they don't just squash all joy and creativity in the learning process. I guess I want both the academic rigor and freedom that's possible with home school and it's hard to know how to create an environment to allow for both. But Bauer answers this concern well, I think, when she says:

"If the kid gets really into one subject and wants to keep doing it all day, absolutely, this is the point where you ditch the schedule. The schedule is not your master, it's an aid. What you do then, if the kid does history all day long, is that the next day you say, 'You can't start with history today. I'm going to pick your first subject today and it's going to be math.' You do have to be the one to keep the balance during the week. But, yes, absolutely, why are you home schooling if the kid can't grab something and run with it? You should always let them do that."

We took the kids to the apple orchard today.

We shared one apple among us all while we picked.

We got two bags full of apples: one bag to bake with, one bag to eat fresh.

Avril is not the most cooperative kid when taking photos. "Avril, Look at Mommy!" and she looks straight down. These pics were the best out of all I took today.

Avril reading to her babies. (These were my babies first. My mom gave them to me back when I was Norah's age.) She set them up like this, leaving room for herself on the pillow and then grabbed a book, crawled onto the couch, laid back next to them and covered her legs with a sheet she dragged out of Norah's room. She'd chatter for a little and turn a page and then ask, "Okay Babies?" I guess she wanted to make sure they were getting it all.