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Our cat, Mrs. Buttercup, is showing early signs of spring fever. Here she is venturing outside

for a few minutes yesterday, to sniff at the boxwoods for any sign of chipmunks out of

hibernation. Finding none, she quickly ran back in to the warm house...

So much to post about today, so little time!

This morning we had our 3rd annual Lake George Neighborhood Annual Meeting. Among other things, we voted on a neighborhood motto to go with our neighborhood logo and our neighborhood mission statement. The new motto?

The Lake George Neighborhood: It's a Great Neighborhood, by George

Clever, isn't it? It was submitted by a neighborhood resident and voted number one by the group at the meeting today. If you missed it, too bad!

Oh, and I have to update you on the neighborhood art scene. Our local Salvation Dolly himself has decided to auction off his now-infamous art on ebay. Here's the announcement email I received yesterday...

The art installation as it stood yesterday. Today it has been blown to bits by the

nasty arctic wind that's come up all across the prairies of Minnesota.

But what does that matter? It's been captured on film and here's the latest...

ARTISTIC ANNOUNCEMENT:

Now that I have received some well deserved press in the local rag http://www.zahnzone.blogspot.com:80/

I decided to ride the wave of fame. I have posted my art work on e-bay

and plan to retire after the auction is over. I would like to thank all

my devoted fans and fellow artists. You’re (sic) the best

I could not have done it with out you and your never ending praise.

You inspire me. Don’t (sic) give up on your own dreams

even though they pale in comparison to my artist (sic) endeavors.
Sincerely
G. Salvador Dali K.

(I have abbreviated his real name due to privacy issues. We do not want the papparazzi parked across the street for crying out loud!)

As you can see, our artist-in-residence doesn't use the best grammar, but his art is out of this world. Please do place your bids early as this auction is heating up fast! The current winning bid is a whole dollar (plus five bucks shipping). And note, what you receive for your winning bid is NOT the collection of very useful recycling bins, hat, beer cans and cardboard that have popped up across the street from us, but is instead a photo reprint of the whole scene. You decide if it's worth it...

This morning we found on our doorstep the latest shipment of pecans from our Eastern Virginia loved ones. We are most grateful. We're not yet halfway through the first box, but we were dreading the day we ran out. Now we have no worries. Many more bowls of oatmeal will be graced with four pecans each. And heck, we might even sit down one afternoon and crack a whole bunch of them to make a pie or something. Yumm-o! Um, anyone know how to make a pie crust around here? These are the freshest pecans ever

Finally, we're looking forward to a new start to homeschooling on Monday. The kids will be home in the morning and then go to school most afternoons to keep up with their friends and have a little time on their favorite subjects at school (music, art and phy. ed. for Rose; lunch, recess and reading for Eli. Luckily these are afternoon subjects.) I will be now working at the co-op in the afternoons, so this part-time schedule will work very well for the rest of this school year. Next year, who knows!?

For now I plan to do lots of reading for fun with Rose. She hates reading with a passion, and it's no wonder when 8-year olds are forced to sit and read for two hours straight in school. This is not developmentally apporpriate at all, and even the teachers know that but their hands are absolutely tied due to the current testing environment, grant monies being used to structure class time, etc. It pains me so much that Rose hates to read, since it has been a huge love of mine starting when I was her age.

I still remember 3rd grade, finding my first Encyclopedia Brown books, reading Judy Blume's works which felt so secretive, and all the thrills this new fantasy-land brought me. I hope to do lots and lots of reading to Rose for now, just wanting her to get into the thrill of the stories. Even if she'll only sit for it 10-15 minutes a day, I'll be happy. I also plan to read to the kids while they do art and other things with their hands. Rose is a kinesthetic learner meaning her mind will pay more attention when her hands are busy. I hope this works!

With Eli, who hates to write but loves to read and think, we're going to do some other creative things. I'm going to have him start a blog (will update on that when we get it going). He can do drawings and photos and at least a little writing. I'll be interested to see who he imagines his target audience to be. That is one of my favorite things about my own blogging, imagining each time who might be reading and often writing to a particular person or persons, or sometimes no one in particular at all.

Elijah also takes an inordinately long time to complete math worksheets, but meanwhile he's reading books about math concepts all the time (Murderous Maths, More Murderous Maths, Algebra Unplugged, to name a few), and he spends hours thinking about "what is Pi?" "How do I plug numbers into Algebra equations?" and "How do I get maximum drop out of my army guy/plastic parachute concoction?" I think it's time to find a more creative, concept-driven approach to math for him. We're tired of him feeling like a math failure while at the same time being a master of the concepts and testing with straight "A"s. I know I wasn't contemplating Pi at his age! Come to think of it, I've never contemplated Pi.

The other area we're just going to spend lots of time on and have lots of fun with (mom too) is art and creativity. There will be more time for music practice, too. We've always emphasized creativity in our house, hanging their art work on the walls in frames, posting their poems on the fridge, supplying the house with artist-quality colored pencils, drawing and painting paper, watercolors, etc. You're going to see a lot more "creating at the dining room table" photos on my blog in the near future, I hope.

Please, wish us the best in our homeschooling journey! It all makes me a bit nervous, but I'm really trying to think of the fun, the positive, the joy in learning that we can experience together. I love being with my kids. As long as I can hold on to that, not worry too much about not doing enough, and be okay with being part of the small part of the population (1-2%) who are homeschoolers in the US, we'll do just great.

I would love your support!

Lisa