If you twist and turn away
If you tear yourself in two again
If I could, you know, I would
If I could, I would
Let it go

Surrender
Dislocate

If I could throw thisLifeless lifeline to the wind
I'd leave this heart of clay
See you walk, walk away
Into the night
Through the rain
Into the half-light
hrough the flame

If I could through myself
Set your spirit free
I'd lead your heart away
See you break, break away
Into the light
And to the day

So let it go
And so fade away

So let it go
And so fade away

I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
I'm not sleeping

Oh, no, no, no
I'm not sleeping
Oh, no
If they should ask well maybe they'd
Tell me what I should say
True colors fly in blue and black
Bruised silken sky and burning flag

Colours crash, collide in bloodshot eyes
If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would
Let it go

This desperation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Isolation

Let it go, aha
And so fade away
So let it go, aha
And so fade, fade, fade away

So let it go
And so to fade away

I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
Wide awake

I'm not sleeping
Oh, no, no, no

u2

A Bit of Catch Up

I will soon be summoned to go play a game of Monopoly on this rainy day -- but I thought I should get this down before time escapes once again.

The month of October is quickly coming to an end. I wanted to jot down some of the fun activities we have been doing in school this past month. This will be short and sweet.

Standards:

1. Writing Class: Every Tuesday morning, Simon goes to a writing class. It is an hour long class. The teacher is exceptional.

2. Every Tuesday afternoon, the kids go to a homeschool parent led art class. So far, the kids have made Leaf Bowls out of cement and have painted water color leaves. I will be teaching a class on the art of Henri Matisse in a couple of weeks.

3. On alternating Fridays, the kids have a couple of options.

A: On one Friday, they take off at 7:45am and head out the door with their dad who heads of a chess club at the local elementary school. At 9:00, i pick them up and off we go to "Homeschool Gym." This is held at a nearby church and the place is full of kids running in and out of an hour long gym class.

B: On the other Friday's, they go to Academy: a Friday gathering of homeschool students where a variety of interesting classes are being taught by the parents.

4. Also, once a month, they have book club. Today, I will be hosting this month's book club for the boys 3 -5 grade.

SPECKLED TRIPS THIS MONTH

1. We have been to the Minnesota Arboretum for a class on "Mother Earth" where we learned about the Native American uses of plants.

2. Playoff games: Twins and Royals as well as Twins and Yankees

3.

Orchestra Hall : We do this almost monthly. The Minnesota Orchestra puts on Kinder Konzerts and we go to as many as we can. The coolest part of all of this is we always sit in Tier 1 and on many occasions, have been able to sit in the seats reserved for special guests and or family members. Our seats are prime!

4. Ordway Theater: This is new to us this year. The Ordway is having many "Kid" dance performances and we will be going to all of them. The first one is next Thursday. I am a true lover of the arts and incredibly thankful that we live in such a rich and talented state. Next week, we will be going to the "Bad Boys of Dance" as shown above.

5. Raptor Center: The kids and I had a scheduled field trip at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center http://www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu/. We had a brief and excellent lecture on the variety of raptors the center becomes responsible for, as well as took a beautiful tour of the outside atrium style cages where the birds take refuge. We ended our trip with dissection of Owl Pellets.

EXTRA:

Art Projects:

example of what we are doing (not ours)

1. We are working on a Tessellation Art project -- to mimic some of the mosaic tiling during the Byzantine Empire. It has been really fun.

2. Building Medieval Castles: This has to be one for Dad to partake in as it is a lot of "connect a to b" and "cut z and paste it to t" I can't do that stuff.

3. Catapult Construction: Today we were slotted to build catapults (again, to mimic our studies of the Medieval time period)-- but currently, it is a nice rainy day and we are in the middle of a mean game of Monopoly. Soon we will be leaving for piano lessons.

4. We did a nice study on the European Monks. In September, we made 'Monk' crosses out of sculpi clay and this month, we made paper. Next month, when walnuts are available in stores, we will be making fresh ink from the shell of a walnut - and then will do calligraphy on our paper...just as the monks did.

This month of October has been fun and full.

Outside of School

Lucy:

1. every other Monday, she has American Heritage Girls (parallels Girl Scouts - but within Christian organization)

2. Every Wednesday, She has choir at church

3. Every Wednesday afternoon, she has piano lessons

4. Currently, she is at the end of her soccer season..playoff games.

Simon:

1. Piano lessons, choir and soccer (playoffs). More or less, Simon has the most relaxed lifestyle with plenty of good books to keep his mind busy.

And not to mention:The Jr. High boy has a very involved life of his own and the 7 month old is accustomed to the daily routine of snapping him into his car seat :)

(A) Week

Each week, I am having the kids do an (A) week and a (B) week. The (B) week is a little more relaxed and unstructured. This allows me to catch up from the week before as well as to observe where the 'holes' are in their curriculum....only to be filled in during the (A) week. (B) weeks usually allow for more playdates and field trips as well. This is our third week trying this - so essentially, our second (A) week.

Here is today's schedule for Lucy - the third grader

MONDAY:
o Brain Breakfast: variety of puzzles to 'wake up the brain'
o Devotion
o Book Adventure
o Awalla

Question of the Week - due on Friday

Read Aloud

Writing Strands

SOTW – Paper Making - this is our Social Studies Curriclum - Story of the World

Emperor Maximillian – ask mom about this

Daily Math – purple

Lang. Arts: Table of Contents

Math U See

DAYBOOK – with mom when Sidney is asleep

State Capital Practice

Spelling –pre test

Weekly Reader

Piano Practice
LIBRARY – get book for book report

Just Me and da Boy

Lucy has been sticken with Scarlett Fever! She is in Ma and Pa's bed, a restin'

Actually, she is sitting to the left of me, staring me down as she finishes her pastrami and cheese sandwich. However, she has had a fever off and on since Monday evening. Currently, she is at 101.7 and laying low for the day...which means, it's just me and da boy.

It's been fun. Having him jump through my hoops, sitting next to me at the table - watching him do his work in a timely fashion - but trying to tell me that he needs to do research on the computer for almost every subject matter.

We began our day with Brain Breakfast. This morning, I read out loud to him a couple of mini-mysteries. Sidney kept himself intrigued with empty plastic boxes (the baby toy industry has nothing on this chick). We moved from our "Quick Solve" book to math. He continues to work on fractions - alternating his weeks between fractions, percentages, geometry and decimals. He also has what is called, "Daily Math Warm Ups" and these are a plethora of various mathematical concepts: numeration, operations, graphs, data interpretation, patterns, etc. Essentially, he is getting the whole kit and kaboodle in math.

He then played a geography game online and did quite well. he worked himself through expert levels of states, capitals, and national lakes. he played this for quite some time; but when you are immersed in geography and you want to play again and again, how can you go wrong?

Presently, he is working in his Civics book. He is FINALLY on the computer looking up the reasons as to why the state of Minnesota has chosen each of their symbols (bird, flower, tree). This is also his handwriting for the day.

I have appreciated this time with him.

he is in need of my computer.
adios.

Rest Well - for Tomorrow.....

everybody has had a different kind of day today. From people to people, long sighs of relief, grumblings from tasks, "Queen of the Day" stories shared amongst peers. I am not sure what brought it on, but today has been funky.

Today, I tried something new. I have been unable to sit down and plan out our week, so this morning (while taking Sidney into the doctor for further allergy testing), i called home and told both Simon and Lucy that today was all about them. They were to write down their own school schedule and figure out how to get from point A to point B competely on thier time.

Lucy took this on as a great independent challenge. She got out a clean piece of lined paper, she wrote out her schedule with 'cross off' boxes and even had a couple of responsibilities for me. It was interesting to see what she had left out of her day and as well as the items that she put in the forefront. She did quite well for herself and continued on wiih her day even upon my arrival home.

Simon, on the other hand (funny, that Simon typically follows with something like..'on the other hand'), Simon conducted his day within the easiest of frame works. He blogged www.simonscoolthoughts@blogspot.com and he read. By the time I got home, he was closing off the computer and running up to me to ask if I wanted to duel him in Yi-Gi-Oh. By the way - on his blog, he writes that he will be partaking in 'Strageic Games,' this is Yu-Gi-Oh. It is more strategic, but the boy knows it backwards and forwards and I haven't a clue...so what is the strategy in that?

I reminded him of his writing assignment due the next day. I reminded him of his math page that needed to be completed. I reminded him of his box of books that needed his attention. With minor hesitancy, he gets to his writing assignment - pays his dues, puts the laptop aside and approaches me for the awaited Yu-Gi-Oh game. The effort was half baked - at best. There were tears on his part for all he really wanted to do was play Yu-Gi-Oh. The child has yet to learn that a job well done comes with great benefits. I am having fun with this one. he is my personal challenge. next week, we will once again, revisit his GOAL sheet and as I edit it to tailor to his persona - there will be much personal accountability. I can't wait.

ADD IN
Tomorrow will be much to write about as well as showcase it's activity through visual representation.
10:00 Writing Class
12:00 Native Plants Class at the Arboretum
2:00 Art Class - Parent lead
4:00 Twins playoff baseball game
8:00 home and in bed. Two soccer games will be sacrificed.