I am just not very consistent with the whole blogging thing, I guess. But looking back through old posts, and coming across things I don't remember until I read about them, I'm realizing that I need to work on that. New Year's resolution, perhaps? The thing with me and journaling is this: In retrospect, I have a lot of difficulty tolerating personal things that I write. I've never kept a diary. I've written in diaries for years at a time, but it always ends the same way. I tear out the pages and rip them to shreds, or burn them cathartically. They never last. Blogging was sort of an antidote for that. I've had many blogs, and they're still all floating out there in the interwebs where I don't have to reread them, or even look at them, unless I seek them out. But I think my pattern is the same. I blog for a while, then feel terribly self-conscious, and fade into the wallpaper. Anyway, my point is, I'm trying again. So, updates. New city, new digs (upstairs, even, and oh, is that an adventure with four), and a slightly more structured homeschooling year ahead of us. And the children (I'll be using clever little nicknames from here on out, as they get older an less inclined to be okay with me sharing too much). The little Wild Thing is two-and-a-half now. And is he ever. It's become clear to me now that I've never had that typical two year-old. The boy is utterly and completely fearless. He's an independent, "Mama, let go of me!" in the pool kind of fearless, but still so very, very attached. He's been a real challenge to my convictions surrounding extended nursing. He is wonderful and clever and intense and loud. He loves to shout out lines from Sendak books. (Honestly? That kind of makes me feel like my work here is done.)

Her Royal Highness is seven-and-a-half. Second grade. I'm hoping that the transition from those dreamy fairy tales that she loved so very much to fables and hero/saints stories will be a smooth one. She's writing and reading on her own again, after a year of refusing to do either in her post-public kindergarten burn out. I am an incredibly relieved mama on that account. This morning there was even talk of "if I ever go back to school", which gives me hope that her experience wasn't entirely negative.

The Evil Genius will be ten in less than a month. Fourth grade. The year of bravery. And he's embraced it whole-heartedly. Walking out into Lake Ontario up to his neck, climbing, stretching himself socially. I'm immensely impressed by him. We're starting the year with a local geography and mapping lesson block, and looking forward to the Norse myths. We need to work on handwriting, and the list of assigned reading for this boy keeps expanding (he's started with My Father's Dragon). He's met a group of local kids who share his interest in Magic and are open to helping him learn D&D and is thrilled to death about it. As am I.

Hufflepuff is nearing twelve and in sixth grade this year. What a lot of work this will be. We're moving on from Greek (Ancient, which I had a bit of background in) to Latin (which I have no background in) and the study of the Roman Empire through Medieval times. The goal is to end the year with Chaucer (my favorite, favorite, favorite). We're starting the year with a Geology and Mineralogy block. I had originally planned on an Astronomy block here, but after going to teacher training at Taproot again this summer, I decided to swap with this block, that I'd intended for seventh grade. For math, I'm using Life of Fred again (we've had great success so far), Biology and Pre-Algebra, and a couple of lesson blocks drawn from the Making Math Meaningful series. And we've started geometric drawing. Our science blocks this year in addition to Geology, will be Physics-based. I'd be lying to say I'm not a little intimidated by that. But setting up the experiments should be lots of fun.

And then there's the Art History. That's my area of expertise and we're really getting into it now as we move through Roman history. I can't wait. I've been a bit excessive with the texts I've ordered, but man, this is what I know.

We're still (after an entire year) looking for a ukulele teacher here, but in the meantime, she's learning what she can on her own. I think we're going to make some time for her to sit down and peruse youtube for lessons.

So that's our fairly parenthetical update. Our curriculum is very strictly Waldorf-based. The more trainings I go to, and the more reading I do, I realize that Waldorf just fits our family so well in most regards (although I do diverge on the standard Waldorf stance on media, but that's a topic for another post). I've started listening to Steiner's lectures to teachers online. It's a great wind-down at the end of the day, and helps me get my focus on for the following day's lessons. Heh, I just said "lessons". My former radical unschooling self is boggling right now.

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