Christmas Eve

Hello from snowy Michigan! Dagfari got back to his viking roots this morning, playing in the aftermath of yesterday's big snowstorm at Grandma's house. Presents tonight, more presents tomorrow, and lots of snow and cousins to play with. Life doesn't get much better than this when you're nine years old.

Christmas Preparations

Lots of holiday preparations going on at SGS this week. The Christmas tree is up and decorated, and E.B., the little cat, is having fun whacking at ornaments and drinking out of the tree stand. We're reading Dickens's Christmas Carol for our literature study this week. My favorite CC trivia so far: in Dickens's early drafts, Tiny Tim was called Tiny Fred, after one of Dickens's own siblings. Dagfari finds this quite amusing, since our Fred is a very chubby guinea pig. I fear D may be inspired to film a piggie version of CC!.

Lost Colonies and Nutcrackers

Field trip weekend at SGS! Dagfari and I accompanied ProfDad and some of his Honors history students to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, where we saw the Lost Colony exhibit. Most impressive for D were the 70 John White watercolors and Theodor de Bry engravings on loan from the British Museum. I found White's (completely fanciful) paintings of ancient Picts and Britons especially interesting, since I'd never seen them before, and since we're reading up on ancient Scotland for our Macbeth study.


White's Pict has no basis in historical fact, but he puts modern tattoo enthusiasts to shame! White supposedly included these pictures in his album on the Algonquin to show his British audience that their ancestors were even less civilized than the North American "savages". Whatever you make of his premise, the pictures are fascinating.

On Sunday night D and I attended NCSA's production of the Nutcracker (poor ProfDad had to work). Tchaikovsky's holiday confection is wonderful performed by young, talented, and energetic NCSA students. Dagfari staged his own version next to our Christmas tree when we got home. Unfortunately he only got to do the first half, before his philistine parents insisted on going to bed. He was most indignant, but the suffering is probably good for his art.

November

It's been a busy month here at SGS. A few of the highlights:

• Dagfari finished his drama class with a performance of a very short play, written by the kids in the class, and very loosely based on Fiddler on the Roof. The community theater group which sponsored the class was doing FotR this fall, so we got tickets to the real performance too. A decent performance, with some good singing talent... and a Cossack sheriff played by what looked and sounded like Barney Fife's first cousin :). D is now taking another acting class, this one in W-S, with a Commedia dell'Arte theme. It seems to involve a lot of improv and boys being silly, so of course he's having a good time.
  
• D's art class has also finished up for the semester. He had a really good instructor and has been inspired to do a lot of drawing and painting recently. His current interest is the Surrealist movement, especially Dali and Rene Magritte.
  
• We're winding up our study of Beowulf with a foray into Monster Theory. D is greatly enjoying this, as you can imagine. We won't bother seeing the new Beowulf movie, however, since my favorite Anglo-Saxon expert says it's not very good. Next up in literary studies: Macbeth, King James, and witchcraft in 17th century Britain.
  
• History studies have been eclectic this month. We've done some research on prehistoric humans (I guess this is technically anthropology), and have also dabbled in study of the Crusades. Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, has a good series out on video.
  
• I still want D to start piano lessons soon, but the piano repair person stopped answering my emails after I told her the make (Remington) and condition of our piano. Apparently the Remington is kind of the Yugo of pianos. So I guess we got what we paid for there (it was free). From a musician's standpoint, we should probably chop it up for firewood. But since it's here and it sort of works, we'll use it for beginner lessons anyway.
  
• Math is still done infrequently and under protest, but D has decided that his new pre-algebra workbook is much better than the multiplication/long division he had been doing.
  
• Dagfari's current reading list:
• Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. I'm reading this aloud as our bedtime book. It's about a flock of intelligent sheep who try to solve the mystery of who killed their shepherd. Very entertaining, not really a kids' book per se.
• Valley of Secrets by Charmian Hussey. I haven't read this one, but D says its good. The cover says it's an "ecological adventure fantasy".
• Macbeth by You-Know-Who (no, not Voldemort!). A re-read, but always good. The American Shakespeare Theatre is doing a production this winter.
  
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. D just started this. He says it's good, although it's got the ubiquitous Dead Mother theme. This doesn't bother D at all, though. Indeed, he claims that killing off, or at least dispensing with, the main character's mother is necessary for a good kids' book. Agree or disagree?
• Cats in Ancient Egypt by someone whose name I can't remember. This is research for a proposed documentary on Cats In History. If this project comes to fruition, we'll at least have plenty of actors.
  

Dagfari's Book Reviews: Mattimeo

Mattimeo
By Brian Jacques

Mattimeo is at first a naughty young mouse who is always getting into trouble. Even though his father Matthias, who learned what it is to be a warrior through battling Cluny, a terrible rat who tried to conquer Redwall Abbey, tries to pass his knowledge on to Mattimeo, the spoiled little rascal won’t listen. And so he has to learn the wisdom of a warrior the hard way, through slavery and hardship.
All through his perilous journey, Mattimeo’s friends look up to him as their leader, and even though he struggles to live up to their expectations, he succeeds in standing up to Slagar, their captor. Mattimeo even gives his companions hope while they are imprisoned in Malkariss, a place which is dreaded by all creatures, even the rats of Slagar’s troop.
After his terrible journey is done, Mattimeo finally is able to take up the role of protector of Redwall Abbey, like his father before him.
I enjoyed this heroic tale because of its wonderful characters. Slagar makes a very interesting villain, because he is much more intelligent than your usual villain, and he has a secret identity as one of the more minor characters from Redwall.

Halloween

We all had a good Halloween. The weather was perfect, as it usually is this time of year in NC. Dagfari finally decided to be a Redwall vole (see photo). This caused some confusion among our neighbors during trick-or-treating, which I think was his intention.

D also decorated the yard extensively. See here for more pics. Now that Halloween is over, he wants to build a model of the Mayflower to put in the front yard for Thanksgiving. I think this is somewhat beyond my crafting skill level. We may have to make to with falling leaves in the yard, until Christmas season rolls around.

Field Trip: Baltimore

We visited cousins near Baltimore last week, which means that we're playing catch-up this week. But Dagfari had a great time with his homeschooled cousins Jorunn and Godfred (we had to put them through the Viking Name Generator too). We visited a wildlife center and hiked in a state park, and then toured the National Aquarium in Baltimore (we're in the Australia exhibit in picture). D had plenty of time to play stuffed animal football and swordfight with G (J is way too mature and civilized for this sort of thing!). J and G's parents were very gracious hosts, especially considering that they had to make a fast trip to Michigan the next weekend.

Having seen what J & G's mom has to go through with Maryland homeschool regulations, I am very appreciative of NC's minimalist oversight. I would be in trouble if I had to keep a portfolio and fake an organized curriculum!

We stopped in Charlottesville on the way home and spent too much time and money in bookstores there. Heartwood Books, one of my favorite used bookstores, is still in business and remarkably unchanged from my days as a grad student at UVA. Dagfari has added UVA to his list of potential colleges (along with WFU, HPU, William and Mary, and UNC-CH).

Back on the home front, D is enjoying is art class at the Sawtooth Center, acting out the plot of Beowulf with Playmobil, and finishing up an essay on The Book of Three. Oh, and agonizing over his choice of Halloween costume, which is still up in the air at this writing! Stay tuned for more information.

SGS Fall Catalog

Last week Dagfari decided we should make a course catalog for Stratford Grammar School. With a few notable exceptions, the classes are of his design.

Here's what we came up with:

Stratford Grammar School
Fall 2007 course list

Art
Drawing and Painting 101. Students will learn basic techniques of drawing and painting and will also do special projects. Offsite location: Sawtooth Center.

Nature Photography 102. Students will learn basic techniques of nature photography with a digital camera. Includes field trips.

Computer Science
Keyboarding 101. Introduction to basic keyboarding. By the end of the class, student should be able to type with all ten fingers.

Web Page Design. Create a personal web page using Dreamweaver.

English
English Lit 101. Survey of literature in English, beginning with Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poetry, through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Student will be expected to do daily reading assignments and write weekly short essays.

Modern Children’s Literature. Student will read and discuss a series of modern works of literature for children.

Foreign Languages
Intermediate Albanian. Continuation of Introductory Albanian, taught by native speaker. Student will learn the basics of oral and written Albanian and experience Albanian culture.

Introductory Latin. Introduction to classical Latin language and grammar.

History
World History 101. History of the world from prehistoric times until whenever. Student will write and produce a documentary.

Barbarian Europe. Study of indigenous European peoples from prehistory through the fall of the Roman Empire.

Home Economics
Cooking 101. Introduction to basic cooking techniques. Student will learn to make green and fruit salads, scrambled eggs, and a variety of sandwiches.

Mathematics
Mathematics 4A. Continuation of Mathematics 3B. Student will learn and practice a variety of mathematical concepts, while whining and protesting loudly. Student will be expected to have mastered multiplication tables 1-11 by the end of the class.

Architecture 101. Student will practice building structures with Legos.

Music
Music Appreciation. Student will listen to a music from a variety of classical composers and discuss the historical influences and qualities of each.

Piano Lessons 101. Student will begin study of piano.

Philosophy and Religion
World Mythologies. 2 semester course. Historical survey of mythology and its influence on human thought. Student will begin research on topic of choice, on which he will write a term paper during the spring semester

Physical Education
Bicycling. Weekly biking trips, including field trip to New River Trail in Virginia.

Swimming. Recreational swimming at Wake Forest pool.

Psychology
Introduction to Cognitive Science. Study of how humans develop thought processes and acquire language. (Course dependent on instructor’s ability to brush up on Noam Chomsky, Stephen Pinker, et al. May have to be postponed until Spring semester.)

Science
Animal Husbandry. Student will learn about animal care and behavior through interaction with guinea pigs and cats. Occasional dogsitting also involved.

Robotics 101. Student will build mechanical stuff with Legos and other kits.

Darwin and Evolution. Study of life and work of Charles Darwin, including the impact of evolutionary theory on modern thought. Probably a 2 semester course.

Theater
Introduction to Theater. Students will learn basic acting and playbuilding techniques. Offsite locations: High Point Regional Theater, Little Theater of Winston-Salem.

Shakespeare in Performance. Student will study Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, and will make a field trip to see a performance at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton, Va.

Writing and Rhetoric
Creative Writing 201. Continuation of Golden Paper Clip Award series. Student will work on weekly story or chapter of creative writing of choice.

Fall Happenings

I've fallen behind on blogging-- and on most other things, for that matter. This is typical of September, which tends to be quite busy for those of us in academia. By October, things have usually settled down into a routine.

This seems to be true of our homeschooling venture too. Our kid-minders are all working out well, and various classes are underway. Dagfari goes to work with ProfDad on Tuesdays and Thursdays, even though his homeschool drama class in High Point was canceled due to lack of enrollment. He's going to a class on Saturday mornings now, which he likes for the most part, even though they're not doing Shakespeare. Art class starts this Thursday afternoon. And on Fridays D is with his Albanian "Nona", learning unusual language skills (I'm told he has an excellent Albanian accent!).

Dagfari is still loving the homeschool thing and doesn't miss school a bit. We've been very unstructured for the past few weeks (mostly out of necessity), which D has enjoyed. He has learned to ride the spiffy new bike that he got for his birthday in April. And he's gotten into Lego in a big way, which is a new thing for him. He's also made progress in his typing tutorial , taken lots of pictures of the guinea pigs, and finished the new Spiderwick book. D has actually requested that we get a bit more structured in our study of literature, mythology, and history, so we're working on that. Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth is proving to be right up his alley, so we're using that as a jumping-off point.

We've also had time for some not-so-educational activities, like the Dixie Classic Fair! The guys liked the funhouse, as you can see.

We met up with the secular homeschoolers group again last Friday afternoon. There are a bunch of boys ages 8-11, and Dagfari had a good time. The only problem is that D appears to be the only 9-year-old boy in the universe who has no interest in video games. This was an issue at school too. Maybe somewhere out there is another boy who can't partake in a discussion of Halo 3?

Field Trip: Chicago

We just got back from a stay in Chicago. I attended the Society of American Archivists annual conference (more interesting than it sounds!). Dagfari and ProfDad spent two days at the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium, which D loved. Especially the Field Museum. There were special exhibits on Charles Darwin, the Maori of NZ, and new dinosaur discoveries. I now need to find a good kid book on Darwin/evolution for our science "curriculum", since that's what D seems most interested in.

We also spent quality time with D's aunt, uncle, and dog cousin, and we attended a RenFaire with the whole family. D is now planning a RenFaire for our backyard. This has been his major project since we returned. He's also writing a graphic novel, starring his guinea pigs and stuffed animals.

We're definitely unschooling this week, since ProfDad and I are dealing with the beginning of semester craziness. I'm also on the programming committee for the BookMarks book festival http://www.bookmarksbookfestival.org , which takes place this Saturday.

Muppets and Museums

Well, Dagfari is pretty much over the fascination with workbooks and to-do lists. I figured it wouldn't last long, and frankly, I'm a bit relieved. I mean, if he wanted to math problems and analogies and books reports all day, there was no reason for us to overhaul our lives in order to homeschool him.

For the past week and a half, D's time has been devoted to watching Season 2 of The Muppet Show (got the DVD set cheap at Costco), and turning the upstairs into an art museum. He's back into drawing, and even painting, which he hasn't done much of for a while. And he even unearthed the bin of plastic dinosaurs, which haven't seen the light of day in about five years (the dino era came to an abrupt end when we started reading Harry Potter, the week after D's 5th birthday!). He's spent a good bit of this week watching his old favorite video, Walking With Dinosaurs, and setting up dino exhibits. I figure this counts as science.

We also survived two visits to the dentist, the first a checkup, the second a cavity filling. D wasn't thrilled, but he was 100% more tolerant than last time we attempted the dentist (which, was, ahem, nearly four years ago). Nitrous oxide was a bad idea, though. It seemed to have the same effect on D that it does on me-- increases anxiety, rather than the reverse.

In critter news... we have acquired two more guinea pigs, Fred and George. These came from a person on the local homeschool list, who needed a home for her two female guinea pigs. Thinking that Robin and Percy might like to have girlfriends, and maybe eventually father a few baby pigs, I volunteered to give these pigs a home. D tentatively named them Petunia and Lily... until a look at their back ends necessitated a name change. Robin and Percy were not at all happy with the idea of two much bigger roommates, so Fred and George now have their own cage, and half of our kitchen is now a pig farm. D finds this all very amusing and thinks we should now get four female pigs. I'm not sure I'm ready for quite that much of a biology lesson.

And here I worried that science was going to be the weak point for our homeschooling!

Pictures of Summer

Summer 2007: Dagfari discovers that the diving board is fun!

More photos on the flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7332078@N02/

It's Official

We received our little orange card from the NC Dept. of Non-Public Education last week, which means that Stratford School is officially open for business.

I was assuming that we'd just continue on with unstructured summer vacation until after Labor Day. But Dagfari was eager to start "doing homeschool" last week, since all his summer camps are done. So we devised a daily list of stuff for him to do-- a bunch of reading, a page from a couple of math/logic and analogy workbooks that I'd picked up, some Minimus Latin, etc. Our "unschooling" is looking pretty schooly at the moment, but this is entirely at D's insistence. I guess this is what happens when two geeky academic types reproduce-- you get a kid who learns Latin for fun.

D is also heavily involved in a project of filming Shakespeare plays using his many stuffed animals as actors. You haven't lived until you've seen Marc Antony played by a stuffed sheep! I think we'll soon need some video editing software, which I know nothing about. Any suggestions are welcome.

ProfDad and I are gearing up for the start of the fall semester and trying to stay cool in the east-coast heat wave. We're hoping D's enthusiasm for the homeschooling project continues next week, when college classes start and the new schedule is put to the test.

Back to School

Dagfari attended the last of his weeklong summer camps last week. Fifteen kids and one incredibly patient teacher came up with a screenplay of sorts and filmed a movie on school grounds. The result was entertaining, as one might expect, and D had a great time.

(The photo above is D at the Borders Harry Potter party. He's dressed as Nearly Headless Nick.)

Now summer camp is over, August is here, and ProfessorDad and I are headed into the always-busy beginning of another academic year. It's going to be strange not having D headed back to school too. But our homeschool curriculum is starting to take shape.

ProfDad ordered a laptop for D to use, so that we won't have to fight for computer time at home. I've ordered Singapore Math materials. This will probably be our only "canned" curriculum, and I chose it because it seemed to have the least bells and whistles of any ones I've seen recommended. D's school used Chicago Math, and he hated all the games and group activities. This is typical of D-- hates the things teachers do to make school "fun" (I was the same way as a kid). Must be darned annoying for the teachers.

We're also going to get some keyboarding software (again, he doesn't want any games!), so that he can learn to do his own typing.

I guess D and I will probably come up with a reading list of some sort. He's been very interested in myths, folktales, and fairy tales, and he wants to do a research paper on the Grimm brothers. I found a nice bio of them by Donald Hettinga, who was a very young English professor when I was an undergrad at Calvin. ProfDad might do a history study of Napoleonic Europe to complement this.

We also learned about some homeschool drama classes starting up in September, so we'll sign D up for a couple of those, and maybe an art class too. When it gets less hot outside, I'm hoping to take another stab at getting D on the dreaded bicycle. This should count as P.E.!

This should keep us quite busy, I think. The next thing we have to address is recruiting college students to look after D while I'm at work and ProfDad is teaching. Homeschooling with two working parents is apparently a very unusual concept. When I tell people we're homeschooling next year, most of them immediately ask if I'm quitting my job! But I think it will work out, and will even be beneficial to D, if he gets to spend time with some interesting people.

Why are we doing this?

Dagfari (no, not his real name; it's from a Viking Name Generator) is nine years old. Instead of going off to fourth grade next month, he's going to be homeschooled.

Why are we doing this?

The short answer is, because it's what Dagfari wants and needs. School -- even his lovely and progressive private school -- does not fit the way he learns. He's intense, an introvert who likes to think things through before speaking. He needs quiet, solitude, and time to pursue a subject in depth. He's not antisocial, but he prefers to socialize with people who share his interests, regardless of age or gender. School is not conducive to any of this, and it was making him frustrated, depressed, and physically ill.

By the end of third grade, it was clear that we needed to try something different. So Stratford Grammar School was born (in NC you have to give your homeschool an official name, which is not as easy as it sounds-- and there are no Homeschool Name Generators on the Internet!). We're taking an eclectic and unschooly approach, with no particular curriculum as of yet. ProfessorDad will be as fully involved in instruction as I will, since I'm planning to continue working full time. We have no religious agenda, and our politics lean toward the left, so I don't think we'll be participating much in the conservative Christian local homeschool association. We will be oddballs even among homeschoolers, I'm afraid.

But it should be an interesting ride!