Stephanie Pina

We just returned from the Renaissance festival.  And we be tired maidens and squires!

Spring is perhaps my favorite season.  I love to garden and so do my kids.

Over the Christmas holidays, my daughter bought a book at Barnes & Noble (our FAVORITE place!)   it was a book of poetry called the Flower Fairies, written in the early 1900’s by Ciceley Mary Barker.  Basically there is a poem for each flower and each flower has a “fairy”.  SO now that we’ve started spring gardening, my daughter came up with the creative idea of planning her own flower bed based on the book.

First of all, what a great mother/daughter project!  Incorporating literature with yard work?  SO UP MY ALLEY!  Yes, I know you can feel my excitement with all those capitals.

SInce the book was written in England, many of the flowers just won’t grow well here and it’s difficult to , say, pop into WalMart and pick up a packet of seeds.  So we narrowed it down to her favorites.  And by favorites, I mean the flowers/poems that mean so much to her in such an intense way that Mama-we-have-to-do-THIS-ONE-OR-I’ll-JUST-DIE.  No pressure, or anything.

So, she’s chosen Thyme, Basil, Chamomile, Forget-me-nots, and her absolute favorites:  Foxglove and Poppies.  We purchased the Jiffy greenhouse  at WalMart.  I have to say, I am impressed with the product.  I am not new to planting seeds, by any means.  But to plant seeds and have spouts in 2 days?  Amazing.

I’ll keep you posted on her Flower Fairy Garden progress.  Here’s a few pics of our seedlings and a fairy my mother in law purchased that is just perfect for the finishing touch. (If you have a daughter interested in fairies or gardens, scroll down after the pics for some cool links!)

Oh, I shouldn’t leave the boys out!  Donovan has planted watermelon and blue bonnets (my Texan boy!) and Devin has planted morning glories and blanket flowers.  Green thumbs abound here!!

How to make a fairy house 

FamilyFun.com Craft: make a fairy house 

Create a fairy house for your child’s room 

Gardening with fairies 

Brittany was a female pirate/adventuress

Donovan was Spider Man

And Devin refused to even look at new costumes, preferring to reprise his role from last year’s Halloween: Thomas the Tank Engine

More at flickr:

You may or may not be familiar with one of my other websites, LizzieSiddal.com. I was excited and honored to interview Lucinda Hawksley for my site. Hawksley is the author of Lizzie Siddal: Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel (she is also the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens). You can read the interview here.

Her book is one of my favorites. And if you know me, then you know that when I love a book I love it passionately and forever. So to be able to converse in this way with an author whose work I so admire is a huge deal for me. I feel grateful for the age we live in, that we have the technology to easily communicate and connect with people with similar interest and passions. With the click of a mouse I can find other homeschooling moms, parents of other children who have Spina Bifida, or other Pre-Raphaelite art enthusiasts. Our age is fascinating and scary at the same time, for the same technology that connects us can also be used by those whose intentions are less than honorable. I suppose it is the proverbial double edged sword.

33,653 Vegetarian Recipes

Carrots and Nothing Else Cake at vegweb.com

Perfect for Autumn: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Vegetarian recipes at toptastes

VegSource.com

And my favorite vegetarian blog: VeggieChic.com

Last week, my kids and I walked outside to lay down in the grass and look at the full moon. We were surprised by one of the largest spiders I’ve ever seen. It was building a large web that attached from my car to a tree. I was struck by how quickly and diligent the spider worked. It was oblivious to us as we sat and watched it. I had my husband take the pictures. I didn’t want to get too close. I’m all for admiring nature, but from a safe distance! Isn’t it sad that the spider worked most of the night and the web was gone the next day?

Dr. Dorian: Well, who taught the spider? A young spider knows how to spin a web without any instructions from anybody. Don’t you regard that as a miracle?
Mrs. Arable: I suppose so. I never looked at it that way before. Still, I don’t understand how those words got into the web. I don’t understand it, and I don’t like what I can’t understand.
Dr. Dorian: None of us do. I’m a doctor. Doctors are supposed to understand everything. But I don’t understand everything, and I don’t intend to let it worry me.
—-Charlotte’s Web

Charlotte: I’m versatile.
Wilbur: Does versatile mean full of eggs?
Charlotte: No it means I can change with ease from one thing to the next.

Wilbur: Are you writers?
Charlotte’s daughters: No, but we will be when we grow up.
Wilbur: Then write this in your webs, when you learn: This hallowed doorway was once the home of Charlotte. She was brilliant, beautiful, and loyal to the end. Her memory will be treasured forever.
Charlotte’s daughters: Ooh, that would take us a lifetime.
Wilbur: A lifetime. That’s what we have.

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

–Theodore Roethke

We all seem to do it. Somehow in relationships we hit upon a song that is ‘ours’, that sums up our relationship and somehow becomes a symbol for us of our love. But I noticed when pregnant with our first child ( and consumed with love for her) that many songs we consider ‘love songs’ that apply to romantic male-female relationships can also apply to mother-child relationships.

Music is ultra-important in my life. I can not function with out it. It supports me when I fall. It helps me clear my head when I need to. And it inspires my creativity like nothing else. It gives me hope. And exposes raw emotion. So how can I not share that with my children?

Music is at its best when you can lose yourself in it. Just don’t over think it…choose that which resonates with you. Allow yourself to turn it on full blast. Let the music envelope you, creating a cocoon where you are the center and the music, the tune, the lyrics surround you. There. That’s it. That is what has sustained me through most of my life and that is what I want to impart to my children. Just find yourself. To thine own self be true. And through music and art you can find what reflects you. Not what defines you. What reflects you. Surround yourself with that and you will not lose your way. You will make your own way.

The song that really sums up how I feel as a mother is I Will, by the Beatles. I play this song at home or in the car, and my kids know it’s my message to them:

Love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart. (hear the song at youtube)

There is one lyric in the song that is especially important to me. Obviously, it’s about a guy singing to a girl and may not know her name, but for me it takes on a different meaning. My grandmother suffered from Alzheimers and for a time did not know the names of the people she had spent a lifetime loving. I can not ignore the possibility that this could one day happen to me. And if it does, I want my children to know that even if I don’t remember their names, that a true and deep love will always be there, even if it’s underneath my dementia:

For if I ever saw you
I didn’t catch your name
But it never really mattered
I will always feel the same.

My homeschooling method is pretty eclectic. I love the classical education method, as outlined in The Well Trained Mind, and I also embrace the philosophies of Charlotte Mason (1842-1923). Throw in a mixture of Aristotle and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and you have a pretty good glimpse of my household.

I haven’t written much about homeschooling in this blog. I should, I know. When people ask why we homeschool, it is very hard for me to narrow it down to just one reason. It’s a lifestyle choice. It’s the way I want my children to see the world. View the world as your classroom, as your adventure, knowing that all possibilities exist for you…I’ve discovered that to view the world this way is both bold and empowering. To think of yourself as a small sponge existing in this bright and powerful universe, willing to soak up everything that can add to you and still hold high enough standards to resist all the twaddle and dumbing down that seems to go on in our society is a beautiful way to live.

I was not a good student in every subject. In fact, I had a bit of a reputation for being horrible in math. But after I became a parent, I simply decided one day that just because that was true about me before didn’t mean that it had to be true about me forever. So I read as much as I could. I did what I failed to do in Algebra I. I learned. I learned not only the fundamentals of algebra, but the chronological history of it. Did you know it began in Egypt and Babylon? That the ancient Babylonians solved arbitrary quadratic equations by essentially the same procedures taught today? I’ve always loved history, and if my high school algebra teacher would have cared enough to actually get up from behind his desk and discover the problems I was having, he could have used the historical approach to get me interested in what I was studying. But, let’s face it. That’s hard to do with twenty-something students. To make a personal connection with each of them, to discover their learning styles or how you can inspire them may be too much to ask.

But the point is, I was lacking certain knowledge. But I do have excellent study skills, so I successfully learned something that I failed to do in my teens. Why do so many adults behave that when school is over, learning stops? Read. Learn. Discover new activities. Challenge yourself. Study something new. Embrace the concept of learning for the sake of learning. And you will eventually discover what has been lurking silently in your soul all along: a passion.

Children are curious. They have a desire to learn. And, sadly, for some children this desire gets buried. Don’t let that happen! When your child asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, don’t just sit there on the couch! Search for the answer together! Read books, or google it for goodness sakes! Talk about what you discover.  Ponder ideas together.  Ask you child what he thinks.  Seize the moment and learn something together. It’s such a wonderful feeling that you will do it again and again.

People often ask about homeschool and socialization. This is a valid concern. But I truly believe that in a public school setting, what our kids really learn is how to label others and be labeled in return. Nerd, jocks, cheerleaders, preppies, outcasts. There’s a group for everyone and we neatly label them all, boxing them into submission. There’s such a need to fit in. Are they really focused on learning in school, or on who’s doing what with whom …or what everyone else is wearing? You get the picture. Are homeschoolers properly socialized? I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that we go out to restaurants quite a bit and strangers on many occasions have come up to me to tell me how well behaved my children are. When we go to the grocery store, my children always behave well while standing in line. The kids from school should know how to stand in line right? They do it all day. Yet, they are usually the ones I see misbehaving. So maybe as parents, we shouldn’t assume that just because they sit in a room with twenty peers all day, they’re going to have better social or coping skills than homeschooled children. How many times have you heard an adult tell a student “when you get out in the real world…” as if school is some sort of vacuum and they can’t possibly participate in the real world until they’ve received their diploma. My kids are in the real world now. They spend their days with me. After we finish our lessons for the day, they go to the bank, run errands, go to work with me at our shop and actually see the day to day mechanics of running a business. And in doing these things, they learn new lessons every day.

Granted, they may be a little sheltered. Last year, McDonald’s had American Idol toys in the Happy Meals and all my kids were like “What’s American Idol?” A customer was in our shop when they said it and he was curious as to why I wouldn’t let them watch it. I quickly told him the truth. It’s not that I ‘Don’t let them’. I’ve never stopped them from watching it. But they are so busy with their favorite shows on the History channel and the Discovery channel or (gasp!) reading instead of watching TV that they’ve just never seen it. And I’m proud of that.
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http://www.skrewtips.com/2007/09/13/is-meat-really-nutritious-or-does-is-make-you-sick/
and

http://vegancampus.com/2007/09/13/veganism-the-way-towards-a-healthier-life/ 

Pure emotion. Surpassing language barriers. Filling my home with passion and beauty, lighting the spark in my children’s souls. Yes, I’m a bit melodramatic. But I’m an opera lover! What did you expect!

See a stunning panorama of the Eiffel tower:

http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen32.html

Click the drop down menu in the top right corner to see panoramas of the new seven wonders.

Then go to this site and see beautiful photos of Versailles..