They call it “Orkin.” I hear them speaking it when they think I’m not listening (or is it when they think I am listening and they have secrets from me? That’s what my parents did with Spanish when I was a child). I never quite believed those parents who claimed their children had a special private language. I guess I have to believe them now. I happened to be reading the Lord of the Rings to Axa and Dominique at naptime when we got to Florence. And we were just at the part in The Two Towers where Merry and Pippin are captured by orcs, so there was a lot of the language of Mordor floating around.… Read more
homeschooling
Credi solo a quello che ti dice il cuore
Axa no longer goes to asilo (preschool), as of today. Too bad the only person to whom I can say, “I told you so,” is myself. I knew it was a long shot, considering what I know about school and her personality. As long as it wasn’t doing any harm, I was O.K. with her going, as long as it actually did help her to learn Italian. There’s nothing else I could see that she could learn better at asilo than at home. And now we’ve seen that it’s not even a good place for her to learn Italian. Surprise! Things were just not working out.… Read more
First Day of School
So. School. Axa’s first day at asilo (preschool/kindergarten) was yesterday. I had very mixed feelings about it. I never went to school myself, nor did I ever anticipate or picture sending my child to school. Yet, here it is. She enjoyed it, although she was quite nervous, and obviously didn’t understand much, since the entire reason we’re sending her is to learn Italian. The school itself is quite impressive. I never went school-shopping in La Jolla or Carmel Valley, but I imagine that an upscale preschool in one of those neighborhoods would probably look a lot like this, although admittedly without that extra Italian flair for style and detail.… Read more
Casteluzzo Acadamy 2010 Term 3
I thought I had put up this term’s curriculum before. We’re already halfway through it. I like to wait a few weeks into it, though, before I post, so that I can note any adjustments I’ve made.
… Read more Note: This schedule is readings for Axa, who is five. She narrates after each reading. Raj Dominique, who is three, does not have a schedule, and is not required to narrate. However, he was dying for stories of his own, so he is reading from The Rainbow Book of Fairy Tales for Five-Year-Olds (he already finished the one for four-year-olds).
Bible – I’ve added a New Testament and Old Testament component to our studies.
Plaid skirts and Rubber Boots
I have one great regret about homeschooling. School uniforms. I would love to dress up Axa in plaid skirts and sweaters and Raj in ties and knee socks. And they would love it too. (Really, they would. In fact, for her school the other day, Axa dressed both herself and Raj up in dresses, crowns and veils. My fantasies are much tamer.) I have considered dressing them up in school uniforms even though they don’t go to school. But the way we do school is so messy. It involves bread dough, mud, snails, and other things incompatible with starched white collars and shiny black shoes.… Read more
Diary of a Neo-Edwardian Lady
We were at Lough (Lake) Ennell yesterday, and it was beautiful. It barely rained on us at all. And, I discovered the macro button on our camera (actually, Tony showed it to me). What joy and delight! I snuck up on every bug in sight, not to mention dozens of very obliging flowers. Maybe I really could do a nature journal. I’ve been stuck on that point for some time, as my repertoire of feminine accomplishments does not include brush drawing. I was just about to capture a slug when the camera battery finally died. From above, the slug looked as sedentary and blobby as slugs are wont to look.… Read more
We’ll make Rome before six o’clock
We walked down the canal again today. It’s my favourite walk here in Mullingar. Although it’s over two hundred years old and no longer serves as a conduit for goods and passengers coming up and down from Dublin, they still keep it cleared for the occasional motorboat. I was very pleased the first time we walked down it to demonstrate my extensive knowledge of canals and those who work on them (derived entirely from the verses of The Eyrie Canal, which my mother taught me). Just a couple of weeks ago I read some more about bargees in The Railway Children, which is our current daytime readaloud.… Read more
Primavera
I washed the towels and hung them out last night. It rained. Oh well.
I didn’t tell you, but two days ago when we went to Boboli Gardens, we had actually intended to visit the Uffici. However, we arrived at ten in the morning to what we were informed was a six-hour wait. I didn’t think the children would think much of any museum after six hours in line, so we opted for the Gardens, which we guessed (rightly) wouldn’t be as crowded.
But last night we just happened to be walking by the Uffici on our way to the grocery store.… Read more
Casteluzzo Academy 2010 Term 2
I spend a lot of time working on my curriculum. And a lot of time in between unschooling. Axa has begun to do a fair amount of reading and writing lately. Two days ago she discovered that the small rocks in the park (which they use instead of sand here) can write on the sidewalk (“sidewalk” in Florence actually consists of tastefully arranged flagstones). She knows how to write quite a lot of letters. She’s been writing her name for years, but around Christmas, she asked Daddy to help her write people’s names on her gifts to them, so she added more letters to her repertoire than just “A” and “X,” and now spends some time each day writing, whether it’s in her notebook or on the ground.… Read more
Homeschool Update
It’s been a little while since I did a homeschooling update. The schedule wasn’t working for us. Tony changed jobs again at the beginning of January, and just last week began to work from home. We just haven’t had enough stability lately to keep a schedule. However, now that he’s home and things have settled down a little, I brought out the daily schedule I’d been working on. We looked over it together and refined it, and it’s been working quite nicely, at least for the past two days. We fit in everything, including eight hours of work for Tony.
Since Axa and Raj are 5 and 2, and Charlotte Mason doesn’t recommend formal academics before age 6, we do other things.… Read more