In mid-March we decided to bring Miles home for the remainder of the school year. He's in 7th grade and was failing 4 out of 6 of his classes. He just had constant struggles with organization, focus, communication with teachers. School was consuming 8 hours a day of his life, and he was still failing it. The plan is to keep him home through next year and give him a chance to improve his grades, gain self-confidence, decide what he wants to do about high school.

Things have been going surprisingly smoothly... my usually tired, cranky, argumentative Miles has been delightful and calm and easy to have around. He sleeps later and we give each other our space, but we also spend a good part of the day working together. He has time to sit on his bedroom floor & play with Godzilla figures, hang out on the computer, read, and even started writing a short story. He very quickly let down his posturing and attitude after leaving the social pressure of school. I'm not saying he won't get bored, or miss his friends... but this past month already there have been plenty of opportunities to meet up with friends - they go skateboarding, they text & talk online, a friend is having a birthday party next weekend, he even takes my Friday class at Lilli's school (ancient Egypt and, starting this next week, a novel-writing course), and plays ping pong & board games, etc. with some of the 5th/6th graders there when we're there on Fridays. And he plays with his sister, of course ;) One of his best friends, who he sees regularly, goes to a different school anyway, so they weren't school friends. It's a real lesson for ME not to try to micromanage his social life - to help facilitate things he wants to do - but to let him take the lead. He is the kind of kid who was enjoying the social life of school, but is also happy with a lot of down time and stay-at-home time. Always has been.


One day we went downtown to the bookstores together and he collected a few more in the series he's reading, plus he bought his first Stephen King book, The Mist. He's always loved horror and the macabre and has graduated from Goosebumps to Cirque du Freak, to now he's currently reading a series called Demonata (by the same Cirque du Freak author), and now King. yikes. He's already written his own horror short story. Another day he spent an afternoon at his dad's office at the skateboard R&D shop & warehouse (where dad's office-mates were positive about homeschooling and gave him a reject skateboard deck to use for wall art).

As for formal curricululm, he asked if he could continue with his Science program (still have textbook & workbook from school, which I'll just keep until the end of the year unless they ask for it back) and I suggested we do a chapter or unit of science per week and alternate two days of science with two days of History (don't worry - I've got that covered ;).
He does Math and his Chinese language program on a daily basis. We search out a lot of online resources for Geography, Science, educational games, the NYTimes lesson plans & vocabulary word of the day, a billion library books... he also started a family tree project, contacting relatives by phone or email to fill in gaps. So much to do, so little time.

At one of the last meetings of my ancient Egypt class at Lilli's school, we talked about Egyptian toys and games (dolls, stone toss, variations on jacks, chess, and mancala), and then I sent the kids out to forage for natural objects to create their own games - it didn't have to be an Egyptian game, that was just our inspiration. It could be a physical activity, a game for two or for many, items to create dolls or instruments, or a board or strategy game.

I broke them up into groups of 2 or 3 so they could work together as a team, and so that everyone would have a part. Here's Lilli (orange shirt, looking at camera), with a couple of friends and the many items they collected - sandstone, large pieces of bark, foxtails, etc. They created an obstacle course of sorts ;)



At first Miles resisted going to my class - wanted to stay home alone - but I bribed him with the offer to take him to do some things afterwards (go to the skate shop, sushi for lunch, etc. ;)

Well, as is often the case with Miles, he had a great time *in spite of* himself. He decided to participate and he paired himself up with one of the older boys in the class (age 10 or so). They know each other already, since Lilli's school is a very family-oriented family-involved school and we have spent a lot of time there. And I think the other boy was glad to have Miles there! They created their own intricate Stratego-inspired board game using found objects:

The class is only an hour long, but they didn't want to leave their game -so Miles and I stayed for hot lunch (Mexican food day) and then the boys went back to their game through lunch recess. We've been doing that every Friday now. Over spring break, some of these friends also visited the Egyptian museum again with us.

I'm just so glad to have this community and for Miles to nurture these friendships. When you're in junior high, the difference between 5th or 6th grade & 7th grade seems like a generation. But when you're just enjoying yourself and making friends, the difference between age 10 and age 12 is not so great.

During the foraging for game pieces and objects, Lilli found this.....


An emu egg! Yes, they have an emu at school, so it's not a mystery to find an eggshell, but it's rare.
Can you see the pretty blue tint at all?

I was happy to overhear Miles on the phone the other night telling his uncle, "Yeah, I decided to homeschool for a while."
I'm glad he is taking ownership of the decision. His attitude continues to be great. He seems very happy and relaxed and positive about his schoolwork.

I'm feeling that it was the right decision for him. Not every child will learn best in (or succeed according to the expectations of) the traditional school environment. School is just one way to learn and I'm feeling empowered that he can get a better academic education at home. I always knew that, but if he was going with the program and succeeding according to school's terms, we would have stayed on that path. For now, there is NO reason for him to fail in school when he's an interested and engaged and capable student who just needs a different environment and needs a lot more time to explore and benefits from more individual attention. Others will disagree with us - that he should be learning to get by in school - but we've always believed that "school" is less important than learning, and wanting to learn, and succeeding on your own terms.

So this is our time to learn together. It's a good feeling.

A foggy morning in the coastal hills...

I was taking the trash out this a.m. (very romantic) and stopped to appreciate how beautiful our little rolling hillside/valley really is... especially when it's foggy and misty outside.

If you were coming to visit me, this is what you'd see as you pulled into the driveway:

David's finished barn (it's not lop-sided, I am) -














Our little blue Smurf house tucked into the hillside:














(why, yes, the barn DOES seem bigger than the house! You need to talk to David about getting his priorities straight...)

Although we have other neighbors who are physically closer to us, they are obscured by trees & hills, so that this is the only other house we can actually SEE from our property:














Hello, neighbor! (Lived here 6 years and have no idea who they are or how one gets to their house...)

Some of that property beyond the white fence is ours, but we are non-productive "farmers" - haha. No domesticated animals, no crops, just overgrown brush & random fences for deer to jump.

Once a week, both kids take an afterschool art class held at Lilli's school campus. It is a mixed media class and they learn various techniques in painting, drawing, and clay, primarily. This is the second year we've done the classes in the fall and both kids really enjoy it.

Lilli has a lot of art instruction through her regular school, but the small class size (6 kids) really allows them to go in-depth and focus and get a lot of individual instruction time with the teacher. And since Miles does *not* get a lot of art instruction at school - and since he has a very positive attitude about and ASKED to do this class again - it's definitely worth it for both of them.

Also, here's a cute thing: a few weeks ago when we had our 2 days of rainstorm, Miles said to me, "I love going to art class when it rains. It's just so relaxing to be working in the barn when it's gloomy and raining outside."



You just don't always know what they are getting out of it or what the experience as a whole means to them...

As for the art itself... Well, I know I am their mother, but I am definitely IMPRESSED with the following creations:

Sushi Platter, by Miles

(love the texture, the use of a shell to make the imprint for the fin, etc.)

Frog on Lily Pad, by Lillian



removable frog on lily pad, that is...

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of amazed that an 8yo produced this. The teacher said Lilli used a photograph to model this frog & lily pad, and I can't believe the detail on the frog with the toes and the back legs, etc. Pretty cool.

If anyone is local, we highly recommend art classes with Claudia Stevens. She teaches both in Aptos and on the West Side.

Yesterday I took Lilli around for the final weekend of our county's Open Studio Art Tour. Her own art teacher gave them an assignment to visit 3 artist's studios and to write up something about the medium(s) used, what you learned about the artist's process, what you liked/disliked or what inspired you...
We did not have our map of artists to visit, so we went into it blind and just looked for Open Studio signs and stopped into random places. Turns out, we met some interesting new people!

1. The first studio we stumbled upon belonged to a well-known local artist who does watercolors, teaches local classes, leads painting tours in Italy, and has written /illustrated a children's book. She had about 200 paintings displayed throughout her house & studio & yard, a staff of 5 running around, a cash register set-up, works in progress, refreshments, and sign-up info for her Italy tour next summer. *I* was inspired by her organization and business sense! (Should I write that on my homework assignment??) Lilli asked if she could go to Italy with her. Yeah, take Lilli to Italy with you and see how much painting you get done, lady!

2. At the second studio we met a woman who did etched metal plates and a variety of other mediums, mostly images of animals, dogs, horses, cows, pigs, inspired by a visit to the county fair. I couldn't explain it well, but she showed us her process from simple sketch/outline, to detailed drawing, to the plate process and I thought it was very interesting. She also did this amazing painting based on fragments of a golden bull idol she saw at Delphi - she sketched the fragments and then reconstructed the golden bull for her painting - I was impressed with the inspiration, the story behind the painting, and with her style. Italy, Greece... I need to get in on some of this art action...
But I was mostly impressed when she told me that she had only recently begun pursuing art, in her late 60s! She had been a mom and involved in local politics, and only after she retired did she decide to take an art class and found she liked it AND was good at it.

At this studio, however, Lilli was mostly impressed with the lady's friendly dog and with her yard full of mushrooms:






3. The third studio we found involved walking up this winding path, under this tree full of the NOISIEST birds I have ever heard - but look at this amazing photo I got of them!

That's the studio up on the left and, unfortunately, I got pooped on as we walked under that tree. Oh well.

This artist does watercolors on this slick paper called "yupo" (?) - she explained that the paper does not absorb the paints, but rather the paint moves around the paper until it dries by evaporating, creating different patterns and textural effects. After the paint dries, she THEN finds inspiration in the various patterns and takes a pen and starts outlining shapes based on what she "sees" in the paint - usually different animals, creatures, etc. She calls the paintings "morphs" because one image morphs into the next - you can see them here, which is good because I probably just ruined it with my description!

Maybe it's because I got pooped on by the birds, but I thought the finished pieces were less interesting than the description of her paint/paper process. I liked the colors and paint effects *before* she added her black outlines to the images. Lilli says, "I liked the mixed up animals." She also liked chasing an orange cat around the property.

Lilli also told the artist, "I like this music you have." Turns out it is music inspired by and incorporating sounds of elephants in Africa (by Jamie Sieber), and it inspired the artist to find images of elephants in her running watercolors.

On the way up to this studio we stopped & took this photo of the strawberry fields with Monterey Bay in the background. I thought it was such a beautiful scene, perhaps not entirely captured by this photo, but Lilli makes up for what is lost in my photo translation of the landscape :)

We got back in the car and Lilli said, "I feel like we're inside a painting right here."

Exactly! We got your inspiration for art right here...mushrooms, farm animals, music, birds, elephants, the ocean, strawberry fields. That's what it's all about.