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Rockin’ in the Holidays, Homeschool Style

December 19, 2011 by Gwyn Ridenhour 10 Comments

Today marks the official first day of Christmas break for the kids. Yea!!! When I told them on Friday that break started today, they were ecstatic. Which is hilarious. Because really, with the exception of daily math class, the kids will still be doing a lot of what we’ve been doing all month. And they’ll do it because they want to, not because I assign them anything. I love this stuff.

So what is it that we’ve been doing that is and isn’t “school” at the same time? I said in an earlier post that we keep a looser schedule in December, but that doesn’t mean we’ve just thrown everything to the wind. Ian still gets up and goes jazz band practice at 7:20 every morning. That gives me about 45 minutes to infuse my veins with a pot of coffee and Eva a chance to roll out of bed and find some fresh clothes. Some mornings at around 8:15, we go up to the university and play racquetball with Jamie and walk the track. Other mornings, we jump right into math.

Once we’ve done about 45 minutes of math, we’ve been moving into science. The specific activities have altered each day. Some days we’ve watched youtube videos, and I’ve had the kids take notes, sketching different ideas of Rube Goldberg components they’d like to incorporate into their own machine. Some days we’ve just built stuff – you saw the one complete contraption, but I’ve had them build smaller components too, mainly out of legos. We tried and failed at an experiment with pulleys (I bought the wrong kind of spring scale; the correct one arrived in the mail just this week). And Eva’s been finishing the last few robotics models in her Lego WeDo Education kit. We’re having such a good time. The video below is a little carousel that Ian created; my assignment was simply to build some kind of machine that he didn’t have instructions for.

Ian’s not really doing anything specific for literature this month, but Eva is reading The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. They both had book club about a week ago; Ian read The Season of Gifts by Richard Peck, and Eva read From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

Cooking class… yummmmm

We have had our weekly cooking class – the kids have made peanut butter cookies and pumpkin bread. This week we’ll be doing a lot a meal pre-prep, as my parents are coming to visit on Thursday. I’ll give the kids various casserole and pie assignments. We’ll of course play lots of Dean Martin and Bing Crosby whilst we cook.

Music practice happens most days, but not all; Ian is still composing, still practicing drums. Eva is learning to play her trumpet. And the kids have worked on Spanish a couple of times. But not much, to be honest.

Eva’s donation treasure chest

This month we’ve also been focusing on giving back. The kids each receive a weekly allowance of $2; they are required to put 50 cents in a spending jar, 50 cents in a savings jar, and 50 cents in a sharing jar. The destination of the remaining 50 cents is up to them. Over time, their sharing jar has accumulated quite a bit – they each have about $30. So, this month, I assigned them the task of identifying and researching an organization they’d like to support. Ian felt compelled to help people with basic needs, such as food, housing, and medical care. We landed on Doctors Without Borders; he explored their website and was impressed with the quality and scope of their work. Eva, our animal lover, wanted to support conservation efforts, especially as they related to koalas. She’s found a couple of koala refuges in Australia that she would like to support; she’s still narrowing her choices down.

As a part of this project, Eva announced that she wanted to volunteer at our local humane society. I have a friend who works there, so one afternoon last week while Ian was in his earth science and band classes at the middle school, we drove out and took the tour. One of the things they need volunteers to do is to simply play with the animals, keeping them happy and socialized. We spent about a half hour covered in a litter of kittens. They jumped and tugged and pawed and were generally adorable, and I’m not even a cat person. We met other animals too – HIV cats, puppy mill rescue dogs, animals that came with various injuries and disease. There’s a lot of love to be given around there.

While we were there, my friend Chris told Eva that she had been mulling over an idea for a fundraiser for the Humane Society for some time. A particular dog  that had come through the shelter had captured Chris’ heart and imagination; Chris asked Eva if she would write a book about it, and offer the proceeds back to the Humane Society. Eva has accepted the challenge, and she hopes to have a story outline ready by mid-January. I’m so excited about this opportunity for her; this is a gift that will support the shelter for years to come.

Merlin, exploring a winter melt, 2 years ago

For those of you who don’t know, we lost our sweet dog Merlin last Thursday. He was 16 and a loyal and loving companion through many of my and Jamie’s life transitions. I had Merlin before I even started dating my now husband. So it’s happy and sad time around the Ridenhour household. We’re giving our other aged dog (Dakota, 15) tons of extra love – she is now officially Spoiled Rotten. We laugh with our sweet memories of Merlin, and then cry over them too. That’s the way it goes.

Happy holidays everyone, no matter where you spend them or what you celebrate. May your family be loving, your gifts meaningful, your food nurturing, and your gift-wrap recyclable. 🙂 See you next week-

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Filed Under: Citizenship, Kitchen Science, Physics/Engineering, Robotics Tagged With: education, homeschooling, Project-Based Learning

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Comments

  1. Amy says

    December 19, 2011 at 7:59 am

    I like your idea about the three jars with money. We’re struggling to teach the kids about sharing-especially during the holidays when their Christmas lists seem to get longer and longer. *sigh*

    Reply
    • gwynridenhour says

      December 19, 2011 at 9:11 am

      Some people have four jars – one for investing. The definition of savings is different for everybody; some folks let their kids save up for larger toys, and others treat their savings as investing. It’s a personal decision.

      The kids find the sharing jar to be pretty empowering; if you choose to use one, it will become increasingly meaningful to your kiddos as they get older. A couple of years ago Ian and Eva decided to spend their sharings jars on energy efficient lightbulbs; they delivered a lightbulb to each of our neighbors along with a note. It felt good to them to be tangibly involved in the gift. After Katrina, Ian made a donation to the Red Cross, but I brought him to their local office so that he could at least have some sort of personal connection. Making the donations this time will be a bit trickier, because you just mail off a check. I’m sure we’ll alternate methods in the future to make sure the kids continue to feel personally invested in (and emotionally rewarded by) the gift.

      Reply
  2. Sue Brown says

    December 19, 2011 at 9:29 am

    For more ideas, our local Humane Society has a wish list of items that they need: food, toys, old blankets/towels, cleaning supplies, etc. Both of my kids have had birthday parties where they asked their friends to bring wish list items instead of toys. His friends seem to like the idea as well; recently we took in a big pile of supplies. Ditto for the Nature Center next door and even the zoo (who knew that bears like pickle juice?)

    Locally, an anonymous donor paid off several layaway bills at KMart for orders that included toys or diapers, etc. It has gone viral with many others joining in. Also people here are paying the grocery bill for disabled people in supermarkets, giving $100 to be used for the next 10 customers, paying for the drive through customer behind them at McDonald’s – it seems like “pay it forward” has taken root year round, as well as in the holiday season, with so many families struggling here in Michigan. Giving to others is a great habit for children to learn early 🙂

    Reply
    • gwynridenhour says

      December 19, 2011 at 11:30 am

      Fantastic ideas Sue! Thanks for sharing. I’ll keep these in mind for future “donation events.” I like the idea of letting kids 1) get to come up with unique ideas about how to share, and 2) get that wonderful feeling of seeing how their gift matters. I’ll definitely share your brainstorms with the kids!

      Reply
  3. Jenni Field (@onlinepastrychf) says

    December 20, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?! One of my favorites as a kid–how cool to live in a museum!!! 🙂 How cool that she’ll be writing about a dog at the Humane Society–she is a Commissioned Author!

    I know it will be a bittersweet Christmas without Merlin, but I know that you will take the bitter with the sweet and end up having a Joyous Christmas! 🙂

    Reply
    • gwynridenhour says

      December 20, 2011 at 10:21 pm

      I need to finish that book – I read about a third of it over Ian’s shoulder when he read it. It was pretty awesome.

      Today we picked up a photo book of the Humane Society dog that Eva will be writing about. We’ve been brainstorming ideas. She’s taking Merlin’s loss the hardest; I think writing this book will be good for her. And don’t worry – Christmas will be wonderful, even with the bittersweet! I hope you have a wonderful holiday too. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Alli says

    December 21, 2011 at 7:48 am

    Wow! Great blog, Gwyn! 🙂

    Reply
    • gwynridenhour says

      December 21, 2011 at 3:01 pm

      Thanks!

      Reply
  5. Alli says

    December 26, 2011 at 9:23 am

    I love that Eva is into helping with the Humane Society! Had has some friends who have a regular program to help with spaying/neutering animals, and Had is lucky, as her school has a partner program with a local organization for animal socialization! She’d like to take it further! Kids volunteering is always a wonderful thing, and I’m so glad so many of us see that! 🙂 Cheers!

    Reply
    • gwynridenhour says

      December 27, 2011 at 1:10 pm

      How lucky for Had! Sounds like a great school opportunity. I’ll be interested to see where this takes Eva. Still looking for a good fit for Ian, but I think it will be something out of the ordinary.

      Reply

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