This week in homeschooling: The history of pinball and the absence of Shaq

11/13/2015 Nichole 2 Comments

Most of the games at our local pinball museum are also for sale, and I was saddened today to discover that they’d sold both Shaq Attaq and Bride of Pinbot. They were, respectively, my second-favorite and Rockford’s very favorite pinball game in the building. I had neither a favorite nor a second-favorite pinball machine until a few months ago, when one of Pete’s friends invited him to his pinball birthday party. After that, the Butterscotch Sundae family went to the pinball museum several Sundays in a row before finally and sadly concluding that our budget could not support that much pinball.

Today the children and I returned after a weeks-long absence. We went with a few other families from our Monday co-op, and the owner gave us a presentation on the history of pinball before setting the kids loose to play for awhile. Poppy threw him off a little with her question: “What’s with all the ladies on the pinball games?” He explained that it was because the makers of the machines were advertising to boys, since boys were the ones with the freedom to go gallivanting about playing pinball, thus we have ladies on the pinball displays. The burgeoning feminists in our crew were not impressed.

So we started the week with no school at all, because we were all sick and tired, and we wrapped it up with a field trip to the pinball museum. It was kind of a weird week, I guess. Here’s a bit of what the kids did this week beyond recreation history:

History

This week’s “Story of the World” chapter discussed the Trail of Tears. The kids listened to the chapter several times and did some map work, and today we made Cherokee Fry Bread:

Cherokee Fry Bread
adapted from the Manataka American Indian Council
1 cup flour + extra as needed
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup milk
cinnamon sugar
honey

Mix ingredients, adding more flour if necessary to make a stiff dough. (I needed an extra half cup.) Roll out the dough on a floured board until very thin. Cut into 2- by 3-inch strips and drop in hot cooking oil. Brown on both sides. If your oil is quite hot, it’ll only a minute or so. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve hot with honey.

I thought it was delicious, but Poppy didn’t care for it and Pete wouldn’t even try it.

Language Arts

Reading

Poppy has started reading “Serafina and the Black Cloak” for our book club, and Pete has been re-reading one of his “Star Wars” universe graphic novels. I’ve been sick all week, and when I get sick I lose my voice. So our “Harry Potter” read-aloud has fallen by the wayside a bit.

Vocabulary

I gave each of the bookclub girls a notebook to jot down thoughts as they read, and one of the other moms suggested that we also have them use it to record words they don’t understand. They’re going to share one new vocabulary word at our next meeting. So far Poppy has written down “camaraderie,” but I don’t think she’s looked it up yet.

Poppy and Pete are also continuing their WordlyWise 3000 studies.

Writing

Pete is still very reluctant to do much writing on his own, so it’s nice that his WriteShop curriculum has me doing most of the physical writing. This week he was supposed to dictate to me a memorable holiday event, and he told me about the time his sister accidentally punched him in the face and knocked out a loose tooth on his birthday. Sweet, sweet memories.

Grammar

We’re near the end of the Grammar Island practice book, and I’m impressed at how well the kids are retaining the information. They get especially excited when they identify a pronoun, or as we like to call it — “a noun that’s lost its amateur status.”

Memorization

The kids have been working on memorizing the names of the US presidents in order. We’re up to Grover Cleveland, but I think we probably need to go back and review Harrison through Lincoln because we didn’t spend much time on that segment.

Math

I’m thinking about getting Beast Academy for Pete to try out once he finishes his current curriculum. I think Poppy might enjoy it, too, but I’ll probably just go with the first level and let her use it as review.

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

Diversions, National Blog Posting Month, Social Media

What we read about when we read about Butterscotch Sundae (or: let’s visit Google Analytics)

11/12/2015 Nichole 1 Comment

The most visited posts on the site from November 12, 2014, through today are as follows:

1. How to throw a “Star Wars” birthday party and turn a bunch of kids into Jedi knights. This is also the top Butterscotch Sundae post of all time. Clearly I need to write more “Star Wars” crafting posts.

2. The complete, mostly unadulterated story of my troubles with the Mirena IUD. This one is also from 2012. Every now and then someone emails me to say “me too.” So while I wouldn’t want to experience it again, I’m glad I wrote about it.

3. The fulfillment of a dream I didn’t even know I had. Oh, you know, just that time in April when I shook hands with the President of the United States.

4. Tactile tactics and other activities for the reluctant speller. We’re still using a number of these spelling activities, and I’m still adding to the list whenever I see a promising technique.

5. What second grade and fifth grade look like at our house. This was my homeschool curriculum post for this year. It’s always interesting to go back to those and see what we ended up dropping. This time, we ended up dropping the outsourced science and art classes, but everything else has stuck.

6. From here to there, from there to here. Rockford’s job takes him to exotic locales every now and then. On this particular trip, we did a photo project to compare our days.

7. Here, there and everywhere, a continuation of the previous post.

8. How far will $64 go at Harris Teeter?, in which I spent $64 for a week’s worth of groceries.

9. Four fun places in Atlanta to visit with your kids. That was a great trip. I’d love to visit the Georgia Aquarium again one day.

10. Maybe FDR was right about that unreasoning, unjustified terror. I’m still wary of sinkholes, but the airplane fear has abated a little.

Not surprisingly, the top search queries since last November are mostly about stormtrooper balloons and “Star Wars” birthday parties. Other inquiries of note include “broccoli vs. ice cream sundae,” “how much does p90x cost?” and “fabulous dinosaur.” I’m not sure what this means, other than that I do not have a clearly defined niche. But I think we already knew that.

National Blog Posting Month, Reading

I’ve always wanted to be in a book club

11/11/2015 Nichole 5 Comments

A few months ago, Poppy and I discussed the idea of starting a mother-daughter book club with some of her friends. We pulled a small group together, and we’re having our first meeting tomorrow evening. We’re still working out exactly how the group will work — that’s what we’re meeting about tomorrow — but we have decided on the first book. We’re going to read “Serafina and the Black Cloak” by Robert Beatty. It’s set at the Biltmore Estate, which is a nearby tourist attraction. I always thought it would be a great setting for a mystery novel, and I’m a bit jealous that Mr. Beatty got around to writing one before I did. (Here’s the “Serafina” discussion guide from the author’s web site.)

Here’s a partial list of the books I’ve come up with so far, along with links to discussion guides and lesson plans:

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Multnoma County Public Library
Shmoop.com
WebEnglishTeacher.com
Scholastic

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Jacqueline Kelly
MacMillan
Multnoma
Nicole Politti

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
Study guide from the author.
Readers’ guide from Cheryl Passavanti and Marshall George of Albert Leonard Middle School.

My Life with Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall
BookRags.com study guide.
A study guide with an unknown origin.

My goal for the book club is to read titles that might prompt some deeper discussion with the girls on social topics, etc. My plan — which might not end up being what we do at all, seeing as our organizational meeting isn’t happening until tomorrow — is for the moms to come up with a few titles for the girls to choose between every few months so we don’t end up reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” every time. Not that there’s anything wrong with those books, but Poppy’s already read them all 578 times, and I was hoping this would encourage her to expand her literary horizons somewhat.

Are you in a book club? How is it run?