My Big Fat Cuban Family: A Cuban-American Blog

The Star-Spangled Banner

Today's History Lesson for Your Edification:

There was a young and deeply religious lawyer by the name of Francis Scott Key, who had a well-established law practice in Georgetown, near Washington, D.C.

Although he was opposed to the War of 1812, he had a deep love for his country and served in the Georgetown Field Artillery in 1813. He devoted himself to helping many people, some even British soldiers when they were sick or wounded. The British had captured his friend, Dr. William Beanes.

On September 13th of 1814, the British prepared to attack Baltimore. The British agreed to release Dr. Beanes to Mr. Key and another friend John Skinner, but required that they stay on board a British ship until they had finished their attack.

The three Americans could do nothing but watch and wait as the British navy fired huge 200-pound bombs and rockets at Fort McHenry. There were so many ships sunk in Baltimore Harbor that the British could not get closer to land.

The British warships continued to fire upon Fort McHenry. They fired all night. They fired continuously for twenty-five hours.

After witnessing this horrendous bombing from their place on the British ship, the Americans were afraid that Baltimore would be conquered. There was no way to see what was happening because of all the smoke and the very dark night.

Finally at dawn, on September 14, 1814, Mr. Key looked through the telescope.  There in the early morning light, he saw that huge (30 feet by 42 feet) flag waiving proudly over Fort McHenry.

The Americans won the battle and he was overcome with joy. In his celebratory inspiration he wrote the following:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

When we visited Washington D.C. in May, we had the privilege of seeing the original Star-Spangled Banner.
Thirty feet by forty-two feet, made of wool and linen. It has been preserved and is on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

The National Anthem always makes me tear up some. Especially at baseball games. (I know. Shut up.)

When we rounded the corner of that exhibit and saw the actual flag that was flying over Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814, as the Star-Spangled Banner played in the background, the tears started flowing.

This time I stood with Francis Scott Key, who felt defeated until the smoke cleared and he asked with awe and wonder:

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

I stood before the original star-spangled banner and just wept as I asked that same (now more intensely poignant) question and answered with a resounding YES!

Yes, I am Cuban-born.
And yes, I'm proud to be a Naturalized American Citizen.
I'm fiercely patriotic.
I love this great country.
I love the American flag, as it is the symbol of freedom to the rest of the world.

Today I'm in awe of those who pledged their lives and their fortunes to secure the freedoms we enjoy.
I'm grateful that my kids have known nothing but freedom because we live here in America.

Happy Independence Day!

There are so many countries on this earth who wish they could say exactly that.
I'll never, ever take that for granted.

Lucy and Jonathan in front of the flag exhibit on Ellis Island. May 2009.

SmART Cuban

I have times when I feel inadequate to homeschool my kids.
Not that I can't do stuff, I totally know I can.
It's just that I've never been much of an academic.
I'm more of the right brain, emotionally driven, wow-what-a-great-color artistic type.

And I can do a lot of stuff, except maybe algebra and seriously, name five people that you personally know who use algebra in their every day life. (*crickets chirping* "Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?") I thought so.

So my poor homeschooled kids are saddled with a teacher who has something much more akin to hair-brained schemes as opposed to actual lesson plans. (Okay, shut up. I do make lesson plans, they just happen to be a little loosey-goosey. =D)

But when it's time for field trips.... Look out. I am queen of the unusual-yet-interesting-to-young-minds field trip. (Someone fetch me my tiara!)

I take my kids to live theater, to concerts, to art shows, to museums. We scour flea markets and take the train somewhere. Silly, fun, off-beat stuff. That's what I do best.

For summer "school" we are busy making and designing lots of craft-type projects. From making Adirondack chairs to knitting berets.  I figured that in our "school" my mentoring is worth something. ;-)

So yesterday was a beautiful day in So Cal. The sun came out, the temperature hovered in the low 70's with a slight breeze that sang to us...."come and be a part of this!"

And so obediently we followed the siren song and found ourselves in the cradle of our creative coast: The Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival.

 

My niece Natalie is working at the festival this year which secured our free entry. Thanks, Nat! You know, I have quite the large family scattered all over So Cal - we may never have to pay admission to anything ever again! (sorry, digressed into fantasy there for a moment...)  ;-)

Nat works in the ceramic booth, teaching kids how to make pottery on a wheel. Isn't that amazingly cool? She met us outside still sporting her dirty I'm-a-total-working-artist apron.
 

The Sawdust Festival is made up of local Laguna Beach artists and crafts-people so there's a little bit of just about everything and most prices are pretty reasonable, especially for the jewelry.

Of course, we bought stuff!

And we walked around, and took in the live music, and ate food, and clowned around. Actually, we brought Adam, which is the same as bringing our own personal clown. (He totally thought he looked piratey with that elaborate earring. Umm... wrong, son. You just look fashion-challenged. (It was a very cool design that just hung inside your ear, no piercing necessary, but that's not important right now.)

The kids and I felt totally inspired. I think that's what art does to you. At least that's what it does to me. It gets me a little more connected with my true heart. And I like that.

Look at all the fun stuff we saw:

By the time we left, with all our fun purchases, we were all in receptive and creative moods. Lucy immediately started working on another creative project and begging for a trip to our local craft store. Jonathan started asking if welding torches were simple to come by. (uh-oh)

I take my parenting and educating job pretty seriously. My goal is to get them to love to learn, to think, to appreciate hard work and embrace their own gifts. I counted this day successful in moving towards that goal.

Having said that, I also know that there are other life-lessons to be learned that I, as their mom, can't possibly teach them, and I know that.

See what I mean?  =D

Misspellers of the World: UNTIE!

When I started the first grade here in the U.S. I had only been in this country for six months.

We were still trying to get used to life in America and spoke only Spanish at home. (That rule carried on for as long as I can remember.) 

My English at that point was only what I had gleaned from watching Captain Kangaroo ("El Capitán Kanguro") in the mornings. His sidekick, Mister Greenjeans (MEES-TERR GREEEN-YEENS) was particularly fun to attempt to pronounce, but that's not important right now. =D


Newly arrived Cuban refugee, Martica

But I persevered and worked hard on learning not just English pronunciation, but spelling also. I'm a living example that immersion works, but that's not important right now, either.

To teach myself to spell words, I often resorted to using mnemonic devices. (You know, like using Roy G. Biv to remember the order of the colors in a rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet - that's still completely genius, isn't it?)

The upshot was that I really mastered spelling. It was crucial for me to learn to speak English in order to fit in to my new country and so I studied hard and learned not just to read, but to understand and to spell.

Fast forward to today. I homeschool my kids. And can you guess what my one pet peeve is in our academic world?

That's right. Spelling.

I don't care if they fumble grammar, but please, please, please! take that extra moment to look up a word and learn to spell it. (I'm on the verge of a rant here, but I'll refrain...)

I was delighted when reader Melek sent me the following:
The 25 Most Commonly Misspelled Words

I jumped in and immediately took the quiz. To my great disappointment, my score was 24 correct out of 27.  I should have gotten them all right! (*said the perfectionist!*)

Okay, so the truth is that there are still words that I totally space on when I am trying to remember how to spell them. I don't know if it's a problem of infrequency of use or that I just never learned them correctly in the first place.

There are two words in particular that I always seem to get wrong:

1) Vacuum
2) Exercise

I always want to add extra c's to both and make them more complicated than they really are.

Hmmm... I think my Freudian-slip is showing!  ;-)

If you like, go take the quiz and let me know how you did by leaving your score in the comment section.

Either that, or just tell me why you hate spelling (or vacuuming...or exercise...).  =D

Capturing their imaginations

Education at home is not me filling my children's heads with facts as much as it is me "teaching" them how to learn. My educational goals for them have more to do with getting them to love learning as opposed to filling their heads with facts they can parrot back to me immediately but not retain in the long run. Today we visited the battlefield at Gettysburg. Before we got here we had attempted Civil War studies without much real interest. (In fact, I was starting to despair a little, but that's not important right now.) However, walking the battlefield, seeing the battle markers, hearing the stories and then looking over the hills and valleys where one of the most intense battles of the Civil War took place changed EVERYTHING. Suddenly they are fascinated by those 3 intense days of fighting in July and are hungry to learn more. It's in moments like these that I have to remind myself about something I know to be true: REAL learning is more "caught" than "taught." =D

Best of Both Worlds

WARNING: A little bit of a homeschool rant coming up....

I'm always a surprised that when people discover that we homeschool our children they ask two primary questions.
You would think the questions would have to do with the actual mechanics of doing school at home, but they don't. (I know. It's shocking to me, too.)

If you homeschool your kids, you know what's coming next:

1. "What about socialization?"
2. "What about the prom??"

The first question (with the dreaded "S" word) really shows a certain amount of ignorance. (I know. But I had to say it.)  The Cultural Dictionary definition is as follows:

socialization
Learning the customs, attitudes, and values of a social group, community, or culture. Socialization is essential for the development of individuals who can participate and function within their societies, as well as for ensuring that a society's cultural features will be carried on through new generations.

If you've ever been to school (public or private) you know that their primary goal is to educate and that any kind of  social interaction or talking (in classrooms, hallways, or assemblies) is discouraged. So kids are left to be "socialized" during unsupervised free periods with mostly immature peers.  They are not "learning the customs and attitudes of ... culture" they are usually learning how the pecking order of popularity works. 

Ah, but that's a rant for another day..... (For other posts on homeschooling and how exactly my kids are socialized - read my homeschooling archives - in which you'll read about and see them interacting with lots of people of all different ages and able to properly "... function within their societies..." - but that's not important right now.)

The second question is just as mind-boggling to me. "What about the prom?" Really?? Umm...what about prom?

I seriously hate to think that one high school dance (albeit with fabulous formal wear!) is the high water mark of anyone's high school experience, but let me go ahead and address that today...

... with photos of Lucy and her friends going to their prom....  ;-)

Held at the beautiful Disneyland Hotel, this is their one big dance of the year and because of the limited student body (who all know one another), the dance is open to both under and upperclassmen.  There were about 100 kids in attendance and easily chaperoned.

They didn't go in couples (which I thought was great and age-appropriate. =D), so they skipped over the insecure, uncomfortable, dressed-up-and-trying-to-act-grown-up-and-impress-each-other part of the ritual.

Instead they went in groups and all danced together and laughed together and overall had a wonderful time.

The girls arrive early to do hair and make up.

Mrs. R set out a fine spread for them to munch on while prepping.

Aren't they just lovely? They also just happen to be whip-smart (homeschooled, remember?) and amazingly witty.

Dad was a little reluctant to let her out of the house. Can you blame him?

So, yes. My daughter is homeschooled, appropriately socialized, and she got to go to prom.

Any other questions??  ;-)

How to Cha-Cha

You know those uber-dorky people who have a dictionary and an atlas sitting near the dinner table so that they can look stuff up when they start arguing during dinner about ways to pronounce words, or the capital of someplace, or what exactly a rhombus is?

We are those people.

By the way... In geometry a rhombus or rhomb is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards.

Yes. Us uber-dorks argue about this kind of stuff. And I'm Cuban, so arguing is like breathing to me. ;-)

When I was growing up it was that same way. The dictionary and the atlas were staples of our meals much like black beans and rice. We eat this stuff up!

But now that we are post-modernists living in the 21st century, we've added the cell phone, which is usually off-limits during meals, but that's not important right now, because now there is Cha-Cha.

And Cha-Cha knows EVERYTHING.

How it works: You text 242242 and ask your question. ChaCha texts back the answer super quickly.

In the past couple of days Cha-Cha has given us the following information:

(I was having a disagreement on the costuming for our upcoming Bye, Bye Birdie show with someone when they suggested the girls wear poodle skirts and I argued <there I go again!> that poodle skirts were pretty much gone by the time the Ed Sullivan show was happening. I was right. =D)
The Ed Sullivan Show aired from 1959 to 1967. Ed Sullivan died in October of 1974. Thanks for ChaCha'ing!

And we also learned this fun fact as I argued (of course I did!) that Alice Cooper was not his real name...
Alice Cooper had his name legallly changed from Vincent Damon Furnier in 1975. ChaCha!

So, we're arguing and ChaCha'ing and arguing and ChaCha'ing and I'm thinking..

"What could be more Cuban? Arguing and ChaCha-ing!" .... My dad would have LOVED this! =D

Learning to do advanced geometry

One of the beautiful things about home education is that I get to learn stuff alongside my kids. 

Seriously, I think back to when I was in high school and learning Algebra and Geometry.  Well, "learning" might be a bit of an exaggeration. 

I showed up. I kind of did what I was told to do. I parroted answers that I had stored for the moment when I'd have to regurgitate them and quickly forgot what I had been "taught."  Besides, I was busy learning the things I wanted to learn.  I read voraciously. I taught myself to write.

It wasn't until I started researching homeschooling that I began to see where my own education had broken down. I was never taught how to think.

In fact, although I did well in Geometry (because I was a visual learner, a term which I'm sure my teachers back in the late 60's and 70's had never even heard of) I never quite understood Algebra.  It wasn't until I had to teach my own kids that I learned how to even do Algebra. 

Painful Flashback Memory:  I got a "D" in Algebra my freshman year of high school from Mrs. Gremmer, bless her heart.  It was a gift, really, because I think she felt sorry for me because I was trying so hard and maybe because I kissed up to her just a little, but that's not important right now. All that to say this: I just didn't get it and nobody cared.

So now I'm learning right along with them. And I couldn't be more delighted. I feel like I can learn anything. (Italian is next on my list. =D)

We're the type of family that has a dictionary at the dinner table at all times to contest a word or a spelling or a meaning of something.  (It's a lot more fun in real life than what I'm making it sound like here....) 

I once mentioned that one of the church worship leaders had a quavery voice and Eric challenged, so out came the dictionary which of course proved me correct.  =D

qua•ver (noun)
A shake or tremble in a person's voice.
Derivative: qua•ver•y (adjective)

So this week when I had some leftover picadillo and was going to make a combination emapanada/samosa, I looked to geometry to help me solve the problem.  (I know. Shut up. Go figure!)

I call them Empanadosas.

Just to prove that yes, you can use the things I'm teaching in real life. =D

I'm challenging you to do some Advanced Geometry to make these Empanadosas. 
Following this chart (which I created with Amy 's help):

Thanks Amy Kikita for your invaluable help.  The recipe is over at Babalú blog today. (I hope you're impressed.)

The truth is that this is really more my speed:  =D

Pure Imagination

This was a magical weekend for my son, Jonathan (the 13 year old).  He actually became Willy Wonka.

Our homeschool drama group put on the play/musical Willy Wonka Jr.

No, seriously. He wore the purple coat and the trademark top hat in a remarkably comfortable manner.  He wielded the glass-top cane as if he had been doing it all his young life.  He totally became Willy Wonka.

And to mom and dad's everlasting relief, he even sang pretty well, too.  (*insert a heavy sigh of great parental relief here*)

The show had many delightful moments. You (obviously) had to use your imagination, but it was easy to do.

Of course, there was the chocolate river that Augustus (the appropriately stuffed gluttonous kid) fell into:

And we managed to turn a lovely (if bratty) young lady...

into a big, fat, gum-chewing blueberry... (this still cracks me up. =D)

Not to mention the army of Oompa-Loompas which I have been stressing about dressing, but who look just adorable and appropriately fussy - don't you agree?

(They glowed in the dark, too.) =D

The sets turned out wonderful. The costumes inspired. The audience was delighted.

And when he declared, "I am Willy Wonka, the greatest candy-maker of all time," it didn't take much of a stretch of the imagination for us to believe him.  ;-)

(Oh, yeah....I cried every single time he sang it. Shut up. I know. *blush, blush*)

The view from the cheap seats

While he's on stage rehearsing, I'm still painting and touching-up sets and helping to transform a rented hall into a "world of pure imagination."

 
I am completely content to sit back here and do what I do to make all of them look good. 

To pull off this (or any) production it takes an amazing group of people. 

And if you were to look up "amazing group of people" in the dictionary, surely you would find our particular group of Homeschooling Parents right up there on the first page.

Set painters and seamstresses. Lighting directors and song coaches. Stage managers and prop masters.

In between these jobs we also do times tables drills, check spelling, review geography facts and instill a love of learning into our young actors.

I am so lucky to call them friends and co-workers in this extreme labor of love.

And now we get to sit back and enjoy the fruit of our long labors.

We'll continue to work tirelessly until the curtain goes up.  We'll be the ones with the tears of pride (and relief) streaming down our cheeks and the ones who applaud the loudest.

Because putting on a production like this is a bit like giving birth. It's quite a miracle to see these self-conscious (and frankly, quite goofy) junior highers become unforgettably delightful characters.

Which, when you stop and think about it, is also the payoff we're looking forward to by educating them at home. =D

My mother said to me, "If you are a soldier, you will become a general.
If you are a monk, you will become the Pope."
Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso."
                                                                  ~ Pablo Picasso

ADDENDUM by way of explanation (added 2/5/09):
Yes we homeschool.

We belong to what is called the Community Home Education Program (CHEP for short). It would be considered the public school for homeschoolers.  We have access to books, libraries, and any other educational resources available to the average kid in public school.

They have optional classes available at each one of their four Orange County sites.  Each homeschooling family reports to a credentialed teacher who helps keep us on track. 

The Drama program is just one of the many activities available to our kids.  They begin in September with auditions and casting and rehearse once a week at the site (which happens to be minutes from us) in a large classroom. 

All the kids in the production are homeschooled and their parents pitch in to make it happen. We have two moms who are trained voice coaches, a dad who is a contractor, and of course, the rest of us parents who just know how to "do stuff."  =D

You look MAHVELOUS!

I have spent the last few months in drama. (And I'm not even talking about my real life here.)
I've been in high school, working with the Midsummer Night's Dream set crew.

Lucy's classes are all online, except for drama, which requires she be on campus for 3 hours a week. 

And okay, so my daughter was playing a lead, people, which was a pretty compelling reason for me to volunteer to help, but that's not important right now.   ;-)

Which is how I ended up I coordinating and dressing 24 budding teenage thespians and helping them with sets and props and all that stuff that happens behind the scenes to bring a production to life. (I also wove flower headpieces for 8 fairies, which was completely out of my personal realm of experience, but they turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself. =D)

So this is where I've been and what I've been up to:

Giving orders to my tech crew (in this case, Adam) on where to hang the moon.

Letting fairies express their personalities, yet making them look uniform by giving them crowns and wings, and saving them from themselves so they wouldn't look skanky (yes, I actually had to use the word "skanky.")

And I got to costume the Royal Boy-mortals appropriately so that they would look halfway decent when pitted against those gorgeous Royal Girl-mortals.

I was delighted with the challenge of dressing The Wall:

Of course, the Fairy Royals had to look wonderful because, well, (ahem) my Lucy played the Fairy Jester, Puck. ;-)

And I'm still from the old school of thinking. I believe that when you look good, you feel better.  And I knew from experience that once they were all on stage and in costume and make-up, they would turn in a wonderful performance, which is exactly what happened.

I really do think that's how it works in real life.

Yes, I know this isn't anything like real life....it's High School.  =D

"It is better to look good than to feel good, and you look MAHVELOUS!"
                                                                 ~ Billy Crystal as Fernando Lamas

(Isn't she just absolutely adorable?? I'm right, aren't I?  sigh)

Ay me! for aught that I could ever read - or - How Shakespeare is affecting my life today

Okay, boys and girls, for today's Lesson in Theatre Arts, I offer you a synopsis of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare:

Lysander loves Hermia, and Hermia loves Lysander.

Helena loves Demetrius; Demetrius used to love Helena but now loves Hermia.

Egeus, Hermia's father, prefers Demetrius as a suitor, and enlists the aid of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to enforce his wishes upon his daughter.

According to Athenian law, Hermia is given four days to choose between Demetrius, life in a nunnery, or a death sentence.

Hermia, ever defiant, chooses to escape with Lysander into the surrounding forest.

Complications arise in the forest.

Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of Fairies, are locked in a dispute over a boy whom Titania has adopted.

Oberon instructs his servant Puck to bring him magic love drops, which Oberon will sprinkle on the Queen's eyelids as she sleeps, whereupon Titania will fall in love with the first creature she sees upon awakening.

Meanwhile, Helena and Demetrius have also fled into the woods after Lysander and Hermia.

Oberon, overhearing Demetrius's denouncement of Helena, takes pity upon her and tells Puck to place the magic drops upon the eyelids of Demetrius as well, so that Demetrius may fall in love with Helena.

Puck, however, makes the mistake of putting the drops on the eyelids of Lysander instead. Helena stumbles over Lysander in the forest, and the spell is cast; Lysander now desires Helena and renounces a stunned Hermia.

In the midst of this chaos, a group of craftsmen are rehearsing for a production of "Pyramus and Thisbe," to be played for the Duke at his wedding.

Puck impishly casts a spell on Bottom to give him the head of a donkey.

Bottom, as luck would have it, is the first thing Titania sees when she awakens; hence, Bottom ends up being lavishly kept by the Queen.

Oberon enjoys this sport, but is less amused when it becomes apparent that Puck has botched up the attempt to unite Demetrius and Helena.

Oberon himself anoints Demetrius with the love potion and ensures that Helena is the first person he sees; however, Helena understandably feels that she is now being mocked by both Demetrius and Lysander (who is still magically enamored of her).

Finally, Oberon decides that all good sports must come to an end. He puts the four lovers to sleep and gives Lysander the antidote for the love potion so that he will love Hermia again when they all wake up.

Next, Oberon gives Titania the antidote, and the King and Queen reconcile.

Theseus and Hippolyta then discover Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius asleep in the forest. All return to Athens to make sense of what they think is a strange dream.

Likewise, Bottom returns to his players, and they perform "Pyramus and Thisbe" at the wedding feast (which has since become a wedding of three couples).

As everyone retires, fairies perform their blessings and Puck* delivers a tender epilogue soliloquy.

*Puck, of course, will be played by the lovely and talented Miss Lucy Darby which is why her mother volunteered to do costumes and sets, which is why Lucy's mother has not been blogging as frequently (or cooking any great Cuban meals, or doing laundry and dishes, for that matter, but that's not important right now).  ;-)

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

What I have in common with royalty

Background for the following:
My mom's been reading a book on French, English, and Spanish monarchs.

The other day she gave me this card with some apparently random information that she had painstakingly copied:

Written inside in her own curly scroll is the following:

It reads:

"Kings who were sincerely loved by their people:
Luis IX - educated by his mother, Blanca de Castilla.
Luis XII - educated by his mother, Maria de Cleves.
Enrique IV - educated by his mother, Juana de Albret."

She didn't sign it or anything. But she did take the time to write it out and hand it to me.

I think it's her way of saying that she approves of me homeschooling my kids and that maybe she's proud of me and thinks I'm doing a good job?

It still chokes me up.

Marta Darby's Day Off

Can you guess where we were today?

You know, just because we homeschool, doesn't mean we don't ditch sometimes.  ;-)

Okay, the truth is that Lucy had PSAT Testing and Jonathan had his Literature and American History classes. They've both been working really hard and they both were through at noon and well, it's Halloweentime at Disneyland and all the pumpkin decorations are SO STINKING CUTE. 

And no. I don't "do" guilt. =D

I'm fine.

I'm fine.
Really I am.

My 15 year-old-sophomore-in-high-school daughter is taking two courses at our local community college.

No, she wouldn't agree to wear a turtleneck or a burqa. 

And even though she doesn't mind me walking her to her classes (like she'd be able to stop me!), she made me swear on a stack of bibles that I wouldn't be bringing my camera anywhere near the perimeter of where her instruction takes place.

Okay, so I didn't swear I wouldn't use my phone... ;-)

That's my little girl in the rust-colored shirt, with her ponytail hanging down her back, sitting in one of her COLLEGE classes waiting for instruction. (heavy sigh)

I'm fine. Really I am.

FINE.

"You know what FINE stands for don't you?"
"Unfortunately, yes...
Freaked out. Insecure. Neurotic. And Emotional."
                                                       ~The Italian Job

"What did you learn in school today, kids?"

I know some people still think that homeschooling is a little unconventional.

But today, our first day of the school year, was an absolutely normal school day for us.

Here are the subjects we covered:

Statistics:
 

Probability:

Sociology:

Color Theory:

Critical Thinking:

(And thanks to Tactical Talent in the 3rd and Tripped the Light in the 6th, we were up $48, but that's not important right now.)

Geography: "Where the surf meets the turf at Del Mar."

Go on. You can admit it.
You wish you were educated like this.  ;-)

Grounded

I'm grounded on Fridays.

It's not really a bad thing. I just like that it sounds dramatic. =D

It's not that I've done anything wrong or that I'm being punished in any way. It's just that on Fridays we have a group of young people in our home. That's right. Our house. Every Friday.

This started well over a year ago when all the junior high kids would get together at our house once a week to play improv games (like the tv show - "Who's Line is it Anyway?").  Well, last year's 8th graders went on to high school, but Jonathan decided to continue the tradition with his friends.

So, here we are again.  Every week since the beginning of the year, they've been meeting together, with Adam as their fearless leader.  Week after week they get to practice thinking on their feet, communicating ideas to each other, and getting comfortable in their own skin as they practice physical comedy. 

Here's a group of "unsocialized" homeschool kids who have found that they've grown together and learned from one another in a non-threatening atmosphere.  They've grown pretty confident in their abilities and they've learned that they are FUNNY.  They've gained skills that maybe they could have picked up in a formal drama class setting, only in this case, they get to try out their comedy muscles in a pretty well-controlled environment. (umm... is this a bad thing?)  Unless, of course,  you count those kids who eventually become the Class Clown, but gratefully, Adam graduated from high school four years ago and now he's got a great outlet to channel all that creative energy. ;-)

They've grown into a lovely troupe and all of them look forward to Improv at the Darbys every week.

From left to right:
Jonathan K., Aaron, Jonah, Jonathan D., Shoshana, Lucy, Tori, and Tessia. And yes, that's my Adam (Merrymaker in Chief) in the background. (sigh)

My job is to keep the snack table loaded and to throw out ideas.  A job that I do willingly and that, as a Cuban mother (and all-around smart-aleck), I'm very well suited for.  I love our time together every week, and so do they.

Maybe I should re-phrase my opening line...

It's not that I'm grounded on Fridays.  It's what happens here on Fridays that keeps me grounded.

Rebel without a cause

It's the third week in August.
We're supposed to be starting school next week. (I know!)

Did I mention that it's still AUGUST???

In fact, this coming Friday (which will still be in AUGUST, but that's not important right now), we're scheduled for 10th grade registration and picture taking and all of the accompanying busyness that marks the beginning of a new school year.

That's right. SCHOOL year.

10th grade and 7th grade.

Even though we homeschool, we still follow a classic academic year and yes, we are technically ready with everything from notebooks to pencils to computers.

My biggest problem right now is that I'm still wondering.....

What the heck happened to JULY???

Anyone....? Anyone....? Bueller....? Bueller....??

CREATIVE SIDE NOTE:
Instructions on making this calendar can be found here.
Christmas Advent Calendar instructions here.

Tuesdays with the Millers

We have a standing beach date on Tuesdays.

Our friends, the Millers have two delightful young men, Josh and Chase, that happen to be the same ages as Lucy and Jonathan.

If you're a parent you know that one of the trickiest things about having your kids have friends over, is that you are not sure you will really get along with the parents. I mean, you'd like to, because you already have the our-kids-are-friends thing in common, but it can be.... well...tricky. (If you're not married with children, it's like meeting the boyfriend of an old friend and not being able to find what they see in them. See? Tricky, but that's not important right now.)

Back to my original story and the standing beach date.  It's the very best of all possible worlds. The kids love being in the water. Which gives us moms HOURS of uninterrupted gabbing time. Something we'd probably NEVER do in real life, but at the beach, what else is there to do?? See. Perfect.

The best part is catching them being themselves:

While this very serious building work was going on we moms (Jana and I) did some time traveling. Yes, it wasn't that long ago our kids were doing this very thing. But weren't they about half their sizes then?

It never gets old. I could watch this Miller Building Circus all day long. Or at least every TUESDAY.

Thanks, Guys!
 

I love my Summer Tuesdays! I know. Charmed.

No more pencils. No more books. No more.....Oh, wait...

Our school year is officially over. (Yay!!) As the teacher around here it's a huge relief for me to have all paperwork done and not have to think about lesson plans and inspiring young minds and all of that for the next few months.

And at least for the next few months I also don't have to hear the questions from "concerned" strangers about the social damage I'm inflicting upon my children by educating them at home.

Here they are commiserating with other poor unsocialized, homeschooled kids.....
Someone should let these kids know how miserable their existence really is.

I even had to pay these guys to "pose" as Jonathan's friends. Can you imagine?

Okay, sorry.
Rant over.

(That felt really good, though.... =D)

I only have eyes for you

It's the end of the school year and that means finals and high school musical productions. The past few days have been a blur of rehearsals, costumes and cast parties.

In this case, Lucy's High School Theater Arts class put on a really fun show with musical scene selections from various Broadway musicals which they called Broadway Rocks! directed by our good friend, Barry Koff.

They did numbers from:

Grease - Summer Nights

 

The Jersey Boys - Big Girls Don't Cry

 

Little Shop of Horrors - Little Shop of Horrors

Hairspray - Welcome to the 60's

Hair - Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In

Tommy - Pinball Wizard

Jesus Christ Superstar - Superstar

Godspell - Day by Day

Mamma Mia! - Dancing Queen

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - The Time Warp

I think there were about 40 kids in the entire ensemble... but I could only see one.

Is that a bad thing? ;-)

 

Okay, except maybe when Eric and Amy jumped on stage to do The Time Warp with the cast, but that's not important right now...... =D