My Long Hiatus

I have been gone so long from blogging that it feels weird to write...just kidding!

I thought I'd write something since I haven't written in the past TWO weeks.  I've had some family stuff to attend to and I'm finally coming up for air.  My mother had to go back in for surgery a few weeks ago to have more of her foot amputated.  My two sisters, Aunt Gwen, brother-in-law, and eldest niece, drove in from Michigan to visit and help me with making arrangements for my mother.  Their trip had all kinds of unexpected twists and turns... so that was lively (and very, very stressful).

And as if that wasn't enough drama last week, I was scheduled to move and could not change my plans. Soooo...we moved.  We began moving the morning my youngest sister flew out.

Four days of packing and hauling to our new-to-us house.  

I've been unpacking and organizing since. All with my clingy toddler on my hip (which is a new thing for him).

Yeah, writing my blog was waaaay at the end of my to-do list.

But I've missed it so much!  I'm happy to have a few moments to myself tonight just so I can type up this little note and send it out into the blogosphere just to let y'all know that I'm still here and can't wait to get back into the swing of things!

~Blessings~

Claudea B.

 

The Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ 3

 

In my life this week...

I've been anxiously awaiting my sister's arrival.  Both of my sisters, my brother-in-law, my niece, and my aunt are driving in from Michigan (to Texas) to visit my mother and my family.

I haven't seen them in about 2 years and I'm very excited.  They have been stranded in Arkansas for two days now and my life has just been an emotional roller coaster.  Coupled with the fact that I'm moving this weekend, it's amazing that I'm still sane enough to even write this post:)

In our homeschool this week...

We decided to give Times Tales a try since Sunshyne continues to struggle with memorizing her upper times tables.  So far so good with the Times Tales program.  She liked the story and seems to get the concept.  I'm just wondering if she will retain the information.  I taught her times tables using a bead system like in the  Montessori method, so she gets how it works.  She can figure them out but she just hasn't memorized them.  I'm hoping this program works.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Sunshyne goes to a free PE class for homeschoolers at a local community center.  She loves going and getting a chance let off some steam with her friends.  Also, she has her Girl Scouts meeting every other Tuesday and this week was the cookie meeting week.  She's been excited about her sales so this was a fun meeting.

My favorite thing this week was...

All the smiles.  It seemed like everything we did this week was fun and exciting, I really enjoyed that.

What's working/not working for us...

One of the things that truly works for our homeschool is reading presentations.  I was blessed to get my hands on the Scott Foresman "Seeing is Believing" reader that 4th graders use in the public schools in my area... for Free!  Saved me from buying a gazillion single novels and exposed her to some literature that I probably wouldn't have had the insight to purchase this year.  

I have both of the kids do independent reading in the morning and then do a verbal presentation of what they read, what they think about it, and answer questions about their reading.  This way there's two less papers added to my grading pile everyday, they get immediate feedback about their work, and I don't get behind with their grades.  Not to mention it increases their oral presentation skills and exposes them to other literature from hearing the other persons presentation. Win-win situation.  

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I'm excited about the slew of homeschool conventions that are coming up and trying to decide what I'm going to continue for next year and what I will change.  I love going to my local convention and just being around other homeschoolers.  I also love the workshops and speakers to help keep me motivated.  All of the hustle and bustle of preparing for the upcoming year...exciting!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

I'd been in the mood for some professional development and was surfing around the Internet looking for something free to refresh my creativity and spark for teaching.  I found the Annenberg Learner List, which is more so for public school teachers but many of the same principles apply to any teacher.  The Videos On Demand (VoD) are completely free, I watched several helpful clips.

Thanks for stopping by, please visit The Homeschool Chick to read other Mother's Journals.

~Blessings~

Claudea B.

 

Civil Rights Advocate: W.E.B Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B) Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington Massachusetts.  He was born to Alfred and Mary DuBois. 

Have you ever heard this famous passage from the Forethought of his book The Souls Of Black Folk "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line."  This was one of the most profound statements of the entire book.   The Souls Of Black Folk is a collection of essays written by Debois in 1903, discussing and analysing a variety of subjects on the topic of black life.  Du Bois also challenged one of the most notable black thinkers of the time in this book, Booker T. Washington.

W.E.B DuBois was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard University in 1895, which I find to be amazing.  He graduated with a PH. D. in history and went on to teach sociology at Atlanta University.  Being in the south during the years of 1898-1910, Du Bois could see first hand the effects of the Jim Crow laws and felt compelled to do something about it.  He founded a organization called the Niagara Movement to advocate for the rights of blacks.  Even though this organization was short-lived, it was the precursor to a famous organization that I'm sure you've heard of, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was founded in 1909.  As a founding member of the NAACP, DeBois also took the lead as the lead researcher and editor of the NAACP journal "The Crisis."
He continued his work with the NAACP until 1934 when he left the organization.

After being accused of being a communist, brought before a judge and the case being dismissed, Du Bois officially joined the communist party in 1961 and left the U.S.  A year later he gave up his U.S. citizenship and became a citizen of Ghana (that's in Africa).  He died in 1963. 

You can find out more about W.E.B. Du Bois at Biography dot com.  There is also a pretty cool interactive NAACP timeline at Thinkfinity that would be useful to tie into a lesson plan.  It even has lesson plans built into it.

~Blessings~

Claudea B.



   

Black History: Test Your Knowledge

Okay, I thought it might be fun to have a little trivia today, even though it's not Fun Friday.  This is a great opportunity for me to plan out the questions that I will be using on Fun Friday for the kiddos.  Thanks for volunteering to let me practice on you...hehehe:)

Okay I'm only going to ask you five questions, that's not bad right???  All of the questions are taken from the Brain Quest Black History Revised Edition.  This one targets kids ages 9 and up so it shouldn't be too hard (yeah right).  I won't be grading you so don't Google the answers or look them up in your own copy of Brain Quest, just for fun let's see if you can know (or can guess) the answers.

Here we go:

1.  To whom did Martin Luther King, Jr., address his Letter from Birmingham City Jail?

2.  In what mid-western city did Dr. Daniel Hale Williams establish the first African-American hospital?

3.  Name the athlete who defied Hitler's theory of black inferiority by winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.

4.  Name the jazz legend whose signature tune was "Take the 'A' Train."

5.  What great 19th-century speaker declared that education means "light and liberty?"

Well that's it for now, simple enough huh?  I'll give the answers to the quiz on Friday 2/18/2011 (My nephew's birthday...yes, I remembered this time sir).

Good luck, I hope you do well on the quiz...remember NO CHEATING, this is just for fun:)

~Blessings~

Claudea B.



  



Monday Blog Hop 2/14/2011

Today is Valentine's Day and that's great but I think I'm going to kick the day off with a blog hop. 

Join me to check out some new blogs and make new friends.

As always...I FOLLOW BACK!

Here's were I'm going today:



 

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

~Blessings~

Claudea B.



The Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ 2

 

In my life this week...

My mother is currently in the hospital after having her foot amputated.  She has struggled with diabetes most of her life.  I've found it difficult to focus this week thinking about the quality of life she has to look forward to now.  I worry that some of the things that she still wanted to do in life will not happen.  My mother enjoys her independence and I'm concerned about how this will effect that.  I live far enough away from her that it's difficult to visit as often as I'd like, and I fear that she will no longer be able to live alone.

In our homeschool this week...

We continued with our Black History Month theme this week.  Sunshyne has also been extremely focused on her Girl Scout cookie sales.  I'm proud of her because she's a very playful child and doesn't take much seriously, but she has put a lot of effort into this venture.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

With my mother being in the hospital, that's pretty much where we have been.  It's such a blessing to enjoy the flexibility of homeschooling.  Sunshyne LOVES her grandmother and was able to go with me to visit her before her surgery.  It's times like that when I am so grateful to our decision to homeschool.  My mother was so happy to see Sunshyne and vice versa, it just really made those bleak circumstances feel like everything was going to be okay.

Also, a friend of mine is now the director of a branch of Classical Conversations and invited Sunshyne to visit one of the classes this week.  I'd never heard of CC until my friend started up a location nearby.  It was nice to visit and I really liked the history curriculum that the program utilizes.  I've never been a person that uses one single curriculum for everything so it doesn't appeal to me from that aspect but I like that the class meets just once per week and that I am still able to homeschool my child the rest of the week. 

I'll probably do a review of our visit in more detail for folks that are not familiar with CC, in the near future.

My favorite thing this week was...

Sunshyne sung Swing Low, Sweet Chariot as a part of our Black History activities.  Her little voice singing that song was just the cutest thing.  I love to hear her sing anyway, but that song touches me so deeply because it has meaning.  It was a memorable moment...my favorite thing this week.

What's working/not working for us...

I've just wanted to add more liveliness to our homeschool and that has yet to happen.  I continue to tell myself that I'm going to sit down on the weekend and prepare some new and fun activities for certain subjects but I still haven't found the time.  Also, I struggle with distractions of all types during my classroom time.  My phone ringing, changes with schedules, last minute stuff that seems to pop-up all the time...it seems never ending.  Lastly, I'd also like to point out that I haven't given Sunshyne any new spelling words in two weeks, so I guess that is officially not working for us now.  I've got to pull it back together.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

This week I have just wanted to focus more on our classroom, unfortunately that hasn't really happened but I'm hopeful for next week. 

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

RJ visiting with a neighbors adorable little puppy...cute!

Thanks for stopping by, please visit The Homeschool Chick to read other mother's journals.

~Blessings~

Claudea B.

Black History: Follow The Drinking Gourd

During slavery, music and song was as important to African-Americans as any other necessity of life.  Folks used song to ease the burden of long, hard days of working from dusk til dawn, and to hope for better days to come.  Song was also used for practical reasons as well like to communicate something to others in the field, or more importantly, to tell each other how to escape to freedom.

Follow The Drinking Gourd was exactly that, a map to freedom disguised in a song.  Although a drinking gourd is a hollowed out gourd that was used for passing around drinking water to slaves, it's meaning in the song was the Big Dipper.  This group of stars would guide slaves to freedom in the north.

Here are the words to this famous slave song:

Follow The Drinking Gourd

When the sun comes back and the first quail calls,

Follow the drinking gourd.

For the old man is a-waiting for to 

carry you to freedom

If you follow the drinking gourd.

Follow the drinking gourd,

Follow the drinking gourd,

For the old man is a-waiting for to

carry you to freedom

If you follow the drinking gourd.

The river ends between two hills,

Follow the drinking gourd.

There's another river on the other side,

Follow the drinking gourd.

Follow the drinking gourd, 

Follow the drinking gourd, 

For the old man is a-waiting for to

carry you to freedom

If you follow the drinking gourd. 

I was looking around on You Tube and found this awesome rendition of the song by the Ishmel Sisters, it's a little long, but well worth six minutes of your time.  These girls are amazing!

Have an outstanding Thursday and thanks for stopping by!