A lot of "Firsts"

I love the first time I get to experience something new. The first time I tasted a fig plucked right off the tree or the first time I coaxed a tomato plant out of a seed and ate a tomato out of my very own garden. I loved the first ride on a truly scary roller coaster, my first trip to Paris (am I really looking at the Eiffel Tower in person?!?!), the first time I crossed the finish line of a 5k or a triathlon, and of course, the first time I held my very own baby.

Firsts are so special because they are accompanied by a sense of wonder and maybe even a little fear. Will I like this? Will it taste good? Will I be any good at this? Will I get hurt? And the endorphin rush that accompanies so many of these first experiences can rarely ever be repeated. So over the years, I have learned to a) stop and appreciate the first moment of a new experience and b) lay aside some of my fear and try any new thing that interests me.

This year has been so full of firsts for the girls and I. Homeschool? Really? I never thought I'd be doing this? And I also get the thrill of seeing the girls experience so many firsts. First international trip, first dance class, first public speaking experience, so many firsts!

And one first we all got to share together: skiing.

Most people know, I am a Florida girl by birth and there's not a winter day that goes by that I don't long for a palm tree and my flip-flops. Even though I have lived most of my life in the North East, I never got around to the whole skiing thing. My Floridian parents had no interest and it all just sounded so...COLD!

This year, it was just time. I had never skied. The girls had never skied. And with a whole school year stretching out before us, I knew there would never be a better time. We joined the Snowflake Club, a small group that negotiates inexpensive rentals, lift tickets and lessons for homeschooled kids who are uniquely suited for taking up all those empty weekday mornings on the slopes. You know...when the rest of the world is either at work or in school.

Every Tuesday during January and February, we drove two hours into the Poconos to the Shawnee Mountain Ski Resort. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous at first. I wasn't afraid to ski nor was I concerned about my ability to learn. It was more about all those stories you hear about people breaking a leg on the slopes. Who would do the laundry, cook, clean, carpool, etc...if I were in a caste? I really don't want to find out.

The girls and I suited up in all our gear and met our instructor for our first lesson. We learned how to make "pizza": angling your skis so you can control your speed, and how to make "french fries": holding your skis parallel so you can go faster. (Fast food terminology for pre teens: perfect!) The girls picked this up all in no time flat and after an hour we were off to another first...The ski lift!

My girls loved the ski lift. And then at the top of the mountain, I reminded them of our lesson. Remember to angle your skis, and lean forward a bit, and bend your knees, relax your arms, blah, blah, blah. You know what happened next, right? They both blitzed down the hill at top speed leaving dear old mom behind and at the bottom exclaimed, "that was AWESOME!"

Ah, who cares if they learn anything. At least we had fun. Hmmmm...that might be the theme for this whole year ; )

Art 101 - Back to Basics

There are lots of good reasons to homeschool your kids. Lots of them. Hundreds, maybe. But today I'm only talking about this one: passion. When you keep your kids at home, they have time to explore the things they are truly interested in, and spend less time on an arbitrary schedule that often suits the lowest common denominator.

My girls love art. They can, and often do, spend hours drawing, coloring, painting, kneading clay, and making "stuff." I loved to do that too when I was a kid, but as I got older, I spent more time doing homework and less time on my art.

At home, I am giving the girls lots of time to experiment on their own, but I also want to give them a framework to take their own projects to the next level. In this particular art lesson, we focussed on blending colors with a traditional color wheel. The purpose of a color wheel is to lay a foundation for mixing colors. Some people possess this skill innately, while others have to learn it, and a color wheel is a good starting place. Not everyone understands that to get lavender, you need one part red, two parts blue and three parts white or to get lime green you need four parts yellow, one part blue and one part white. A color wheel is a starting point for understanding how primary colors create

secondary and tertiary colors and beyond. We meant to finish our project with a lesson on pastel colors, but the day got away from us.

Next up, still life. I'd rather be painting landscapes outside, but it's below freezing this week, so indoor still life it is!

We don't have Science down to a Science.

I don't know about other homeschool families, but I find it really hard to fit science into our day. Perhaps it's just not my favorite subject, and other families excel at it. Perhaps other families struggle to teach the things I love and we all just gravitate to teaching the subjects that come easy to us. What I know for sure is, I can't skip it. My mother wouldn't let me!

My mother (a.k.a. Gramma Peg) is a former elementary school teacher and she looooooooves science. She loved teaching it before she retired and made it clear that if I didn't immerse my daughters in an in depth science curriculum, then she would do it for me. Take it away, Mom!

She came up to visit in October and we started our visit with a trip to see theBody Worlds Exhibit at the Franklin Institute. It's an exhibition that adults find fascinating and controversial and most kids find "gross!" Perfect.

Body Worlds is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a process called plastination to reveal their inner anatomical structures. This process was developed in Germany and has been used for this type of exhibition since 1995. It is controversial because even though the bodies have been donated to science willingly, some religious groups consider the plastination treatment and the display of skinless human bodies to be irreverent. In other cases, there is concern that proof of express consent to use the bodies for display was not easily obtained or provided, raising the question, "where, actually, did these bodies come from?"

To me, a dead body is a dead body, and in this case, a dead body is a very educational opportunity. So controversy aside, my mother and I took the girls to the exhibit. It was truly amazing! If you get the chance to visit a show in your area, definitely go. These aren't plastic models; these are the real thing. The pregnant woman and the smoker's lung were outstanding, but the whole exhibit was a stunning example of how complex the human body is. They don't allow photography in the exhibit, so in order to see more, either go to the show, or visit the website: www.bodyworlds.com/

After the exhibit, we took the girls to the IMAX production of The Body and like every IMAX film I

have seen at the Franklin Institute, it was fantastic. It was a great way to kick off our month of 6th grade science, specifically anatomy.

Later in the week, Gramma Peg started the girls on their first hands-on science experiment and instructed them on the process of testing a hypothesis. They hypothesized, tested, retested, recorded, discussed, plotted and graphed for the better part of a

day. Gramma Peg is an excellent teacher and the girls were exhausted at the end. (In these pictures, the girls are testing the impact of tinfoil on water temperature over time.)

We plan to pick up the hypothesis discussion in the spring when we do a unit on botany and experiment with hydroponics and vegetable gardening. In an effort to win the war against the groundhogs in our yard, we will pick up a short lesson on solar power when I invest in a solar electric fence. Can't wait to zap those little buggers who steal my tomatoes every year! Mwaah Ha Ha!

Hmmm...I may not love science, but I seem to have a little "mad scientist" in me ; )

Greece - The Final Installment (Mom's Version)

Journey to the Center of the World!

For our final day in Greece, we decided to take a guided tour to Delphi, several hours outside Athens. It was truly difficult to choose a tour, as there are so many amazing places as well as dozens of beautiful islands you can visit in a day trip. I was seriously tempted to choose the tour to Philipi, where St. Paul visited and preached during his missionary journeys. The New Testament book, Philippians, is a letter from Paul to the Philippian people and their young church after he left, encouraging them to keep their Christian faith strong. Very hard to pass up an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Paul!

In the end, we chose Delphi, based on the recommendations of just about everyone we spoke to.

Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Pytho, a deity who lived there

and protected the navel of the Earth. The ancient Greeks believed that Delphi was the birthplace and center of the known world. Our tour guide pointed out a particular rock that is believed to be the symbolic sculpture of the "navel." It is considered good luck to rub it, so of course we did! (It does kinda look like a belly-button!)

The following passage is borrowed from Wiki:

Delphi is perhaps best-known for the oracle at the sanctuary that was dedicated to Apollo during the classical period. Apollo spoke through his oracle: the sibyl or priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia; she had to be an older woman

of blameless life chosen from among the peasants of the area. She sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth. When Apollo slew Python, its body fell into this fissure, according to legend, and fumes arose from its decomposing body. Intoxicated by the vapors, the sibyl would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied.

It has been postulated that a gas high in ethylene, known to produce violent trances, came out of this opening, though this theory

remains debatable. While in a trance the Pythia "raved" - probably a form of ecstatic speech - and her ravings were "translated" by the priests of the temple. People consulted

the Delphic oracle on everything from important matters of public policy to personal affairs."

Fascinating! People made pilgrimages from all over Greece and the surrounding area to ask the oracle for guidance. And in reality, the oracle was an old woman hallucinating from the toxic fumes rising up from the ground.

Delphi was also host to early athletic competition, precursor to the Olympic games. Due to recent earthquake activity, we were not able to climb to the highest level to look down into the stone amphitheater but we were still awed by the ruins left behind and the stunning Greek countryside.

The tour included admission to the Museum at Delphi, which again, was filled with more amazing artifacts and history than one could absorb in a day. But the girls were done. Done with

old marble statues. Done with appreciating ancient fluted columns. Done! And since I was so very grateful for their great attitude during the trip, I let them go back outside to play with the 400 stray cats and kittens begging for food near the museums outdoor snack shop. They fell in love with one particular kitten, named him Apollo, and begged me to smuggle him home in our suitcases.

After the tour, we ate lunch at a beautiful, rustic restaurant and shared a table with several other tourists, all from Canada. The weather was warm and the dining room was "open-air," which you

don't often see in NJ! We ate more pita bread, cheese pie, lamb, and rice. The girls played outside and used the last of our film to take pictures of the lonely horse wandering around the fenced in yard next to the restaurant.

By the time we returned to the hotel, it was late. We had just enough time to eat dinner and pack for our long journey home.

Thank you Greece. Thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for your wonderful food and balmy weather. Thank you for letting us see and touch your amazing history. Thank you for your friendly people. We can't wait to visit again some day!