The field day is up over at By Sun and Candlelight. My post about the trip last week is in it but I bet there is lots of other great nature stuff (I’ve got a fresh cup of coffee in front of me and am going right over but thought I’d let you know, first).
I suspect many of you think I’ve been taken over by aliens or something. Erratic posting to multiple posts on one day. Hmmm.
I have had reason (not a very good one but …) to go looking up this programme. What a great resource. The classical homeschoolers will particularly like it but I bet even those of us who are more eclectic (or just plain disorganized) will get something from it, too.
I ‘discovered’ this programme when we were in the UK in December just by turning on the radio as we were driving somewhere. It was the one on oaths. Really fascinating. Had me wondering what the collective noun for classics scholars was. Though you don’t often get them collected like that in public places (more’s the pity).
But when trying to find the link to that, I discovered that there is a whole archive of stuff in there. The history of negative numbers! The history of magnetism! Mathematics and music! various thinkers and writers and wow, just STUFF. And that is just the current season. I’m definitely going back there and checking out what else is there. Usually with the BBC you can listen to a show anytime during the 7 days after it is broadcast (good to know if you are in another time zone or if you just like to listen to comedy quiz shows while you cook dinner) but with this one the whole archive is there for the listening.
Now if only I could figure out how to do it in iTunes I could listen in the living room using the wireless network. I guess I can’t have everything.
(with apologies to Ronseal)
I’m sitting hear surfing around and following links from other people’s posts and generally seeing what is out there and I came across this article on (not) teaching writing over at Guilt Free Homeschooling.
I had been thinking that one of the things I needed to make sure Tigger did more of next year was writing. I have been worried that she doesn’t write enough. I feel so much better now.
Although I have never been a SAHM and have only taken up homeschooling recently, I thought some folks might be interested in things we did when Tigger was small that really helped with number skills. Tigger is bright and it is entirely possible that she just picks this stuff up quickly (she taught herself to write at age 3, much to my surprise). That said, what we did might make a good addition to your math program or even a good basis for early number skill work with young children.
We are a game playing family. From when Tigger was very young we played games every day after dinner and before bed. We had some kids cards (with Pooh on them, I think) and played a version of Go Fish with her. This sort of game is very good for pattern recognition and matching, key skills behind both math and reading. There are all kinds of cards for kids out there with just pictures on them and most come with instructions for a few games.
We found that the cards were kind of large for her to hold. Our regular cards were a much better size and as soon as she could count to 10 we switched to those. She was in day-care at that time and I had an excellent provider. The learning to count thing came through general counting things with her and whatever they did at day-care (pretty unstructured at that age, she was pretty small). The key point is that to use a set of normal cards, a kid has to be able to count to 10 and distinguish between 4 different symbols (for Go Fish, you don’t even need the symbols yet). Using the cards will help them associate the counting with the actual number because there is usually a set of objects in the centre of the card and the number in the corner. You could take the face cards out initially if you found them confusing. If you are not a card playing family, there are good books out there with instructions for basic card games. Don’t look in the kids section of the bookstore, look in the games section. (the one linked is just a suggestion)
We quickly moved on to Crazy 8s. You need to be able to distinguish the suits at this point but it is very good for recognition because you have to match either the number or the suit. While many of us play a rather complicated version, for small children, just go with the basics — match the suit or the number, 8s can change the suit.
When your kids are a bit more comfortable with numbers and suits you can move on to rummy where you have to build sets of 3 numbers or sequences of 3 in the same suit. Start with a basic version. Don’t worry about things like keeping score.
Now that Tigger is older and can add, we have started playing cribbage. This takes longer and is not good for when kids are tired. But it is a great game and provides lots of practice in addition. Because we play cards, she asked to be taught this (she is also learning to play Bridge but that is a whole other story). But you could introduce it when your kids are able to add the numbers you find in a deck of cards (getting to 15 is important) and able to see how several numbers could add up to something.
The other game that was very helpful was Yahtzee. She learned when she was 4 (which is younger than recommended on the box) but was very comfortable with numbers. It is basically about getting several of one number or sequences so the number skills necessary to play are quite basic. Initially an adult will have to keep score but if the child is paying attention they quickly learn how to add up the numbers of 5 dice and grasp some basic multiplication facts. The top part of the score sheet will teach multiplication facts up to 5 x 6.
And for just counting, any game involving dice and a board is a good bet. Little kids sometimes have trouble rolling dice so get a cup or something for them to use or play those games with the pop dice in the middle (we liked Frustration). Snakes and Ladders is a classic for good reason and has the added advantage that the numbers are written on the squares so when your child starts learning addition you can get them* to predict where they will land by adding the number on the dice to the number on the square they are on. Moving their piece illustrates the concept of addition.
The key to using games like this is that they are games. We regularly play games as a family. We enjoy games. We play games because we like to play games. The fact that someone might learn some math facts along the way is incidental. It might take ages. It might not. But you’ll have lots of fun along the way.
*I use the new convention of the plural third person as a gender neutral. Some people don’t like it but it is considerably less awkward than the alternatives. Yes, it is now considered proper usage, because English is a living language.
We’ve been away for a couple of days. On Tuesday we drove down to the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary and set up camp. It was about a 90 minute drive with ominous clouds but no rain until we got to Morrisburg (14 km from our destination). It was lunchtime so we stopped at a Tim’s and had some lunch before continuing on. Although it was still raining it looked to me like it was letting up and as we went down the road it did.
The Sanctuary has a rather nice campground right on the river (the St. Lawrence) with the non-serviced sites closest to the water. It isn’t that busy this time of year so we had a beautiful site with shade and not too far from the toilet block (I’m not that rustic, you know). There are also 4 marked trails through the woods up nearer the visitor centre.
We walked two of those trails Tuesday afternoon. Although Tigger likes bird watching, nature, hiking, etc. she decided on this occasion to be difficult about it and a tantrum ensued part way around. Apart from that it was fine though and she did enjoy it, mostly. We saw a few birds, including what we think might be a pie-billed grebe and her chicks, plenty of red-winged blackbirds, a common tern, lots of swallows (the bird list says that there are several varieties and they move so fast it is hard to tell what is what), and an oriole. My photography skills aren’t up to photos of birds. They move too fast.
But I did get a few of wildflowers, turtle nests (overturned by racoons or skunks or something for a bit of lunch), and a frog. We’ve been looking up the former in our wildflower book but there are a couple of things we can’t find. If you have any ideas, do leave a comment.
First the frog. A bit hard to see. His head is sticking up out of the water towards the right of the photo. (do click for larger)
Then turtle eggs, AKA racoon lunch. These were along the path. Lots of them. Evidently the snapping turtles lay a lot of eggs. And the racoons and skunks eat well.
Near where the frog photo was taken, Tigger spotted this really lovely lichen. Actually I think there are 3 or 4 lichens in there but the red one really stands out. If you know anything about lichen, we’d love to hear about it.
The wildflowers we saw are pretty familiar. Daisy fleabane (according to our guide book) against a fern which I have no idea of the name of and would love to know.
Dwarf cinquefoil (I see in the book that there is a Canadian dwarf cinquefoil as well distinguished by whether the flower comes from the first or second leaf. I didn’t have the book with me at the time so I have no idea.) which has little strawberry like leaves and pretty yellow flowers. Silverweed is right next to it in the guide and we saw lot of that, too, though I didn’t take any photos. The flowers are almost identical but the leaves are somewhat different. 
Cow vetch 
Vipers bugloss (blueweed), which is in the borage family and is the blue thing in the middle of all the daisies.
Milkweed in flower (this one on it’s own but we did see at least one with a monarch butterfly on it, which is the only thing that feeds on milkweed, apparently). 
Now here is a thing I need help with. I saw it in a conifer forest and I apologize for the blurriness of the photo of the whole thing but I was being eaten alive by mosquitos at the time. The single bell-shaped flower is below the leaves on the stem. The second photo is a close up of the flower and is somewhat better, though not great. I cannot find this in my wildflower guide and would love to know what it is.
The next day…
On Wednesday we walked along the St. Lawrence Recreational Path to Upper Canada Village. This is a good 5 km walk but on a good, well maintained path. We saw some more interesting birds including cedar waxwings and a common yellowthroat. Tigger was very interested in Upper Canada Village, particularly given all she has read about pioneers lately (e.g. the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and other similar). We spent the whole day there and elected to have a ‘proper dinner’ at Willard’s hotel and then make something light for supper back at the campground.
Tigger was particularly interested in the dressmaker and is now wanting to learn all the stitches a ‘young lady’ needs to know (we got a booklet) and make quilts by hand. She is also very excited about the possibility of spending a week there in period dress (see the Time Travellers thing on their website; apparently it is quite hard to get into but the dressmaker gave her some tips about the application form).
Mat had to inspect every garden and speak to all the gardners he met, of course. We came home with some Egyptian walking onions which looked interesting (and are the kind of self-propagating vegetable he likes), and some dill one gardener was weeding out that day.
Other interesting things were the woolen mill, in which a long conversation was had with a man who evidently worked in a textile mill locally before all that sort of manufacturing went elsewhere. Kind of interesting to see industrial drum carders even of the late 19th century variety. There were also barn swallows nesting near the loom and we spent some time looking at chicks open mouths protruding from the nest.
The flour mill can be run on water or steam. They have a very spiffy steam engine that they run for a couple of hours a day. Also had an interesting conversation with the man in the saw mill.
And there were cute piglets, some running free.
After that full day, which involved a lot of walking around the village, we walked the 5 km back to the campsite. And promptly went wading in the St. Lawrence which is just the right icy temperature for tired feet. You can bet we all slept well that night.
Thursday we mostly packed up and came home though we tried a more scenic route to check out the friendliness of a future cycle trip down there. All in all, it was a great trip and I think we will go back again. Any part of that could be done as a day trip from Ottawa.
This is another blog carnival and full of great stuff. Go take a look over at Doc’s
The other thing I have done is start on some lace. Some of my WIPs are just not appropriate for hot days. Who needs a wool sweater on your lap when it is 32C outside?!
A while ago my friend Ray sent me some of his laceweight yarn to try out. He’d like comments and a sense of what it’ll look like knitted up (and he doesn’t knit lace). I’m ambivalent about knitting lace with multi-coloured yarn but when I wound it into a ball, I became more interested. The colour is in really short lengths on this and the skein as wound really didn’t give me a good sense of how it would look. (He’s now rewinding his skeins so the mix of colours is more obvious.)
Yesterday I started the Concert in the Park shawl from Two Old Bags. I’m knitting the square, partly because I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it and there is a good chance it will go to a child to be used as a blanket. I had several false starts mainly related to manipulating 4 dpns with 2 stitches on each at the beginning but the shawl is growing nicely. I had the presence of mind to take a photo while I could still spread the stitches out on the dpns.
I’m still ambivalent about knitting lace in multi-coloured yarn. I think that what’s happening with the colours can distract the eye from what is happening with the stitch pattern. But I’m going to stick with it and see how it goes. I chose this pattern because it had some large blocks of stockingnette (those L shapes) that I thought would be bold enough to compete with the colour. Also, I’m kind of liking the way the colours are coming out and keep thinking it would go really nicely with jeans. And when I went shopping the other day, there seemed to be lots of t-shirts in that coral/watermelon colour
This may also be a personal preference and other folks might really like to see how this yarn knits up in lace. The Two Old Bags patterns (I bought several last summer) seem to have 2 photos on the front –one in a solid and one in a multi-coloured yarn — suggesting that there are lace knitters out there that use multi-coloured yarns.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress, keeping in mind that photographing lace in progress is always a bit hit and miss.
I’ve been knitting more. The cotton-lycra socks are coming along nicely but I think of socks as a handbag project for knitting on the bus, at the pool while Tigger has her swimming lesson, and so on. So I pulled out some other projects recently.
First up, the Mission Falls cardigan. It looks from the date stamp on that entry that it has been a while since I’ve worked on this, though now that I’ve reread it, I had knit on it considerably after that post. When I picked it up the other day, I was well into the left back and almost to the armscye.
Although I drew a schematic the last time, I took a photo the other day of my progress. (the colours are more pinky than this photo suggests)
I have done some knitting since this was taken. I’m now at the point where I need to decide whether the aubergine should go to 3 ridges and then back down under the arm or whether I should go up to 5 ridges under the arm.
As I was contemplating this, I thought that one option would be that the aubergine was symmetrical with the other side. So I’d go down again after 3 ridges and back up to produce a 5 ridge aubergine strip on the left front that matches the one on the right front. The white and the red would do different things on the left than on the right as they have been so far. I am not so good at random so this bit of symmetricallity is a bit tempting.
The other option is to put a 5 ridge aubergine stripe under the arm and then see where we go from there. I think this could produce a left front with lots of narrower stripes to balance the wide stripes (one of each colour) on the right front. That also appeals as I think with the aubergine around the edges, having two 5-ridge stripes at the front will be too much.
After I make that decision, I will have to decide about the sleeves. As I knit (and this is garter stitch so it doesn’t require much mental energy), I occasionally contemplate what to do with them. The main question here is whether I should knit them from the wrist up, and thus have stripes going around them. Or knit them from side to side so that the stripes go down the sleeves.
I guess there is a separate question of whether I should use the same sort of sequence on the sleeeves that I’ve used on the body or just pick one width and stick with it. All comments and suggestions gratefull received. I am also going to look more closely at the stripey garter stitch cardigans that M-H has knit.
Tigger can knit. She learned quite a while ago and has knit a few things including a hairband for her best friend in Koigu. She knits really well with a very even tension. She can knit and purl.
But a few months ago Tigger announced that she didn’t want to knit. Knitting was my thing not hers. She took up needlepoint. She talked a lot about weaving, like gram (my mother). She did some weaving when visiting my parents recently and my mother even has a table loom that they will bring up for her when they come at the end of June.
She also liked spinning and the fact that I also did it didn’t seem to bother her. We got a second spindle at Rhinebeck last year. And then she got a new one in New Hampshire in May. She also learned to spin on a wheel (thank-you Cate). She’s been spinning a lot since she came back. And, as I said yesterday, she now wants to knit a bunny with some of her handspun.
She cast on yesterday and has been knitting reasonably steadily. Today she informs me that maybe she just needed a break from knitting. She realizes that she really wants the bunny and that is a motivator but it has moved beyond accepting that she’ll only get that if she knits it herself. She now has further knitting plans.
This afternoon she asked me if I have any flowery fabric, to make a dress for one of her dolls. I took out the quilt fabric stash (yes, I have a small one of those) and we found some suitable fabric. I also have a pattern for doll clothes that I used to make a dress for one of her dolls to match her outfit for a friend’s commitment ceremony (for want of a better term) a few years ago. The dress pieces are now cut out and she has started working on that project. But in the course of the discussion she also brought out a leaflet of knitting patterns for doll clothes (yes, I have been known to knit those, too) and indicated a few things she would like to knit for this same doll. The dress will be first because it is too warm to need a sweater right now (her words, not mine). But it seems that maybe knitting is back on the agenda.
You may wonder what all this has to do with the title of the post. The title comes from the call for entries to the Carnival of Unschooling. And those folks will be wondering why I’m talking about knitting (or maybe not, knowing some of the unschooling folks out there).
Basically, we got into unschooling because it is the only thing that works for us. Tigger doesn’t want to sit down with a bunch of workbooks and ‘do school’ for so many hours a day. And sometimes she gets into something and wants to spend lots of time on it. I don’t feel like I could force her to learn something she doesn’t want to learn and it makes much more sense to help her learn the stuff she does want to learn and make sure she is exposed to a lot of different topics that she might want to learn about.
The ability to spin is probably not a necessary skill. And it may even be one that is considered a little bit weird. But the narrowing of the curriculum is one of the reasons that we decided to homeschool. My desire for Tigger not to lose her love of learning is very important. And if what she loves learning right now is how to spin, so be it.
As for knitting, that just shows me the importance of patience. Of not worrying about her dropping something that she is good at and seems to like. Like math. Sometimes she just needs a break. And a new reason to take it up again.
More math seems to be happening here. We got a few of the Sir Cumference books out of the library along with Mathematicians are People Too. And I have been giving Tigger one problem a day from the nrich website. She seems to like it and is particularly interested in Geometry so I printed out the Geometry e-book from HomeshoolMath. Interesting problems and not too much seems to be the thing.
We played cribbage today too and her mental addition isn’t as great as it could be but heck.
Tigger has been spinning up a storm and was even teaching one of her friends at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning (after a sleepover). She wants a bunny and I told her that she was perfectly capable of making one so I wouldn’t do it for her. So Tigger is knitting even though it isn’t really her thing. Using handspun Romney. She also gave her friend a skein of Romney she had spun and the instructions so her friend could make bunnies.
I, on the other hand, haven’t been knitting much of anything except socks. That trip to Edmonton was good for sock knitting anyway. I finished up the wool/silk lacey ones (though I have yet to weave in the ends) and started some cotton/lycra ones using the Broadripple pattern. I decided to just follow the pattern which means knitting them top down with a heel flap and gusset. I do not like this method of construction. It just looks odd. Too much of the heel is just plain. I did the socks shorter than specified (partly because I wasn’t sure I was liking them and partly because I thought summer socks were good at a couple of inches) so the proportion that is heel might look a bit worse than normal but I am going back to the short rows, I think.
Anyway, I tried the first one on and Tigger thought it was really nice and that has given me some motivation to keep going on the second one. And I’ve taken the bus a few places (not having those 4 hour plane journeys plus airport time) so maybe… I got some Koigu in NH so maybe that will be next. Or maybe I’ll do some stripey cotton/lycra socks since summer isn’t really wool socks time.
I’ve not been spinning much either mostly because some short person has been hogging the wheel. I did do a bit the other night. I decided to spin up one of those sample packs I got in England at Xmas. Massam mid-grey. Scratchy but sturdy is the verdict but a good colour. I really ought to do more than contemplate doing more of the silk on the spindle.
Things have been a bit nuts around here. I’ve had work to do and things to do for the non-profits I volunteer for. And we’ve had stuff on in the evenings. A friend is here from out of town for a conference so I’m trying to find time to see her. I’m not sure that my diary is that full, actually, but I feel as if there are lots of things I should be doing when I want to be taking it slower. Makes me a bit less patient with Tigger and feeling a bit like she only wants to do things with me when I have other things to do. Oh well. It will probably work out. And in a couple of weeks I’ll be single and childless for a bit and wondering what to do with myself.