Fall Festival or Trick or Treat?

Okay...so I am old fashioned.  I love to hang out my laundry on a sunny day.  I love to bake bread and cut my own grass and think children should be seen and not heard.  (Just kidding on the last one!)

Can I just vent a little about the ever growing trend of "Fall Festivals"?  Or Trunk or Treat, or what ever you want to call it. 

Fall Festivals are ruining trick or treating for the rest of us.  I fail to see the logic of  "Oh, well, we will have this Fall Festival for a Christian alternative to trick or treating!"  I mean...let's face it.  Trick or treating ain't about nothing except the candy.  And the fun of running around your neighborhood in the dark while dressed like someone else.  Unless you routinely run around your neighborhood dressed like someone else, in the dark....but hey, more power to ya. ;) 

Fall Festivals are taking the kids out of their community on a night that usually brings a community together.  It takes the moms and dads that usually hand out the candy out of the community.

And trunk or treat has NO appeal to me what so ever.  Really-I could walk my kids down the candy aisle at Wal Mart and have the same experience.  There's no heart in it.  No excitement.  I mean, yeah, lots of candy, but....it's not the same.

It's kind of like the way houses have changed...used to be every house had a front porch.  That was the 'social media' back in the day.  You saw your neighbors, your neighbors kids, the mailman, all while sitting on the front porch.  You waved to people you saw on the street.  They would stop to chat.  You got to know the people that lived and worked and played around you.

Then houses started losing the front porch in favor of the back patio. Where you don't have to look at or wave at anyone.  You can be cocooned  away from your neighbors and community.  Why did we do that? 

As for me and my crew....we will trick or treat.  Even if only five families are home that night.  Even if we get ten pieces of candy.

Because I think I had it all wrong when I said trick or treating is all about the candy.

Halloween Menu: Monster Eyes and Witch Fingers

Monster Eyes:

Jumbo shell pasta, boiled according to package
ricotta cheese
meatballs
marinara
sliced black olives

Pour 1/4 c sauce into bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Arrange the shell pasta in the pan.  Fill each with 1tsp ricotta, then stuff with 1 meatball in each, topping each meatball with an olive slice.  Pour marinara over all, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until heated through.

Witch Fingers

Canned breadstick dough
sliced almonds
green food color
parmesan cheese and garlic salt

Cut each strip of dough into 'finger' sized strips.  Twist until knobby and lay on prepared sheet pan.  Press one almond slice on the tip of each 'finger', then brush the almond with green food color mixed with a tad bit of water.  Sprinkle with garlic and cheese and bake according to directions on breadstick package.

Great for sopping up the monster blood.  :P

Poe Unit Study 2: The Tell Tale Heart

We have started on the "Raven" unit study today and I was given a two thumbs up from the kiddos!  We will continue it tomorrow and carry it through the week.

The video biography was excellent.  If you have a chance, I recommend you watch it.  I never knew all of the hardships Mr. Poe faced in his short life. Really gives perspective on his writing.

Next week we will be using "The Tell-Tale Heart"  as our topic of study!

First, we will read the Great Illustrated Classics version of the story-mainly because it is so much easier to read than the original. 

Then I have vocab words from here :  http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/decasperd/class%20work%20worksheets.htm#The    This site also has comprehension questions for this story.  We will also discuss irony, as it is so obvious in this tale.

And then it's all about the heart, blood and circulatory system, with blood typing information here: http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-types

Heart info here: http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-241.html

We will read about the heart and circulatory system from our Usbourne Science Encyclopedia,
and for the finale...

http://www.ehow.com/how_7813129_make-heart-out-pop-bottles.html
make a heart model out of soda bottles !

I may go to the supermarket and see if the butcher has a beef heart I can buy to dissect. Yes-I am that kind of mom.  :)

Halloween Inspiration: Edgar Allan Poe Unit Studies

I love Halloween!  It's my favorite holiday of them all.

As of late I feel like I have not made school as fun as it could be.  But after hearing of a fellow homeschooling mom's "Dracula" unit study she concocted for her kids...I had sudden inspiration.

Hence, the Edgar Allan Poe Unit Study.

First up-"The Raven".

We will watch this video biography online:

http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160/videos/biography-edgar-allan-poe-full-episode-2104513528

Then we will read the poem the Raven...both the origional and the version that I translated into Modern English.  I am thinking this will be done by candle light!  As tomorrow will be a rainy, dreary day...it will nice and mildly spooky.

We will fill out a poetry response worksheet from here:
http://www.eclectichomeschool.org/pdf/poemeval.pdf

We will discuss the instances of alliteration, rhyme, asonance, etc.

For science we will do a lapbook on crows and ravens, compare/contrast the two, study habitats as well as study instances or ravens in mythology.

I have a list of interesting facts about crows and ravens from National Geographics website as well as from here:
http://www.angelfire.com/id/ravensknowledge/ravensvscrows.html

At the end, I will narrate the poem while the children act out the action of the poem.

Tomorrow I will post part two of the Poe Unit Study...The Tell-Tale Heart!

I'm Not That Kind of Girl!

You  know...the one who likes to stay out late, until wee hours of the morning? Nope. Not that kind of girl.

The one who will go into a 'haunted house' and come out on the other side, laughing and having a great time with it?  Oh no. No. Never.

The one who goes camping in a tent for three days with no running water? Nope.  Not that kind of girl.

The one who loves to host big slumber parties for her kids? Not even close.  One kid at a time, please.

The one who is away from home every day of the week? Uh-uh.  I am a homebody.  One or two days a week is all I can handle.

The one who can organize this event and research that event and keep it all organized?  I'm not even pretending to be that girl.

The one who can 'just say no' to any one asking a favor?  Can't do it.

The one who goes on huge shopping sprees?  Nope.  The mall gives me hives.  As does Wal Mart.  As does spending large amounts of money.

The one who signs her kid up for every club, sport, field trip, class...I just can't.  I would LOVE to be that mom.  Really.  It's just not *me*.

The mom who will sit and play Barbies with her daughter for hours on end?  Oh goodness.  Soooo not me.  I'd rather go out and play ball.

You know...admitting your short-comings is actually pretty cathartic. 

Now you all know-I'm not that kind of girl.

High School Culture

I watched an episode of Dr Phil last evening that discussed education choices: traditional, homeschooling, unschooling.  Okay-I confess...I watched the last 20 minutes of the show.  But the last guest was a young lady (26 years old) who was a former homeschooler who has made it her life's mission to speak out against homeschooling and to tell her story of why she hated it and wished she never had been homeschooled.  She said she felt like a 'social retard' and attributed it to homeschooling.

When asked what she felt like she missed out on, her reply (paraphrased) was something like this:

"I hear people talking about football games, the prom, cheerleading tryouts.   I feel like I don't have anything to talk about in these conversations.  I don't 'fit in'. I wish I would have had the opportunity to do those things."

Okay...first of all, if you are 26, and you are hanging out with people still talking about prom and football games, either your friends are way too young or you hang out with a bunch of high school has-beens.  I went to 3 proms...no offense to any of my dates, but they were not that spectacular.  Football games were fun. But when I was 26, I don't believe I reminisced about them to that extent.  Never tried out for cheerleading in high school. 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for this young lady and her friends, but if high school was the BEST time of your life...that means everything that happens after is chopped liver.  Did I have some fun times in high school?  Absolutely!  Was it the BEST time of my life?  Absolutely not.

Seems today there is this huge culture centered around high school...High School Musical, iCarly...every where you turn, youth are being whammied with how much Fun and how Exciting high school is.  You hang out with your Cool Friends and Goof Off everyday.  You get into Hijinks and Adventures with your Cool Friends, so much so you may even break into a song and dance in the middle of PE class.

Really?

Are the youth of America really supposed to believe that?  Heck, I *went* to public high school, I  feel gypped because I wasn't experiencing all the glitter and hype!

The young lady who feels like she was missing out, when asked what activities she participated in, mentioned that she was very active in her church.

While I love church activities, I do see where she missed out if that is the only social outlet she had.  There are so many options for homeschoolers to get out and mingle with others. 

But through this whole discussion, I keep thinking back to the 'Old Days'.  Did George Washington feel left out because he didn't go to football games?  Did Thomas Jefferson pine away because he didn't go to the prom?

What Say You About Music Lessons?

My kids have been taking piano lessons for about 5 years now.  The first years the teachers were 'so-so'...but now they have a fabulous teacher (who also was my music teacher when I was an elemetary student, a century ago).  She really is a fabulous teacher-my kids now can really play 'music'-not just peck out the notes, but they know the subtlety and nuance of real music.  She teaches a well rounded music education as well...some days when she sees they need work on rhythm, she will bring out the drums and tambourines and triangles and lets them use those. 

Honestly, my daughter has amazing musical talent.  My son...well, it really helps with his fine motor skills.  And he plays rather nicely.

However, every year I develop a Love-Hate relationship with piano lessons.

LOVE-  That the kids are getting a well rounded music education.

HATE-  That the lessons are 1 hour each kid and that's 2 hours out of our scheduled day.  2 hours!  I can teach 3 subjects in two hours!

LOVE-  That my kids have the opportunity to have private music instruction.

HATE-  What it costs.  Especially on days when they say they don't feel like practicing.  I'm all like "I am not paying this money if you don't want to do this!"  But then I do.  And the next day they act like they love it again.

And getting them to practice the allotted time.  Oh. My.  This year it is 45 minutes a day.   45 minutes is not a long time when you are doing something you want to do...but it feels like 45 DAYS when it is something as monotonous as playing the same 3 songs over and over.

So I argue with myself...

Should I keep them in piano lessons?  If they were in public school, they would have music lessons whether they wanted to or not.  So, should I even give them an option?

Then I hear adults who took music lessons as children who rue the day their parents got tired of dealing with it and ended the lessons.  They have regret to this day that they didn't continue.  I regret that I never learned an instrument as a child.  Will my kids regret it if we end piano lessons?

And let me just say...they love the lessons.  They just whine about practice.  So part of me (the German-military part of me) thinks that enduring practice will be a character building experience and that to cave in to their whining is the last thing I should do.

What say you?  Did you have music lessons as a child?  Do you regret not continuing?  Should I stop whining?  Chime in, please!