by Charlene Teglia | Jun 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
When I was a kid, we had an encyclopedia set that included the volume, “Things to Make and Do”. It was magical. You could open it up and find instructions on anything and everything a kid might possibly be able to tackle. Today, of course, we have
Instructables, the website that gives instructions on anything you might possibly want to tackle at any age.
We’ve been discussing vacation plans and realized that what we really want is a make and do break. The husband wants to build adirondack chairs. I want to paint a mandala and make a hammock. We need to build the kids’ playset. So we’re going to take some time off for creative projects, the kind of thing we don’t usually have time to do between work and chores.
What do you want to make or do?
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 15, 2010 | Uncategorized
1. Mixing cayenne pepper with hot water really does get rid of ants. Win!
2. Likewise, spraying 5 parts water/1 part baby shampoo/10 drops of eucalyptus oil does make wasps bug off. Power-washing gets rid of nests and keeps wasps and yellow jackets from establishing themselves, and following up with the spray in problem areas keeps them from coming back.
3. A nice natural alternative to bug spray; dilute Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Castille Soap (liquid) and coat exposed skin to protect against ticks and mosquitoes. Careful not to get it into your eyes.
4. Comet watch: Comet McNaught is visible early in the morning. If you’re away from city lights and don’t have cloud cover, see if you can spot it!
5. Watching lightning bugs is a lovely way to spend an evening. Watching the sun rise or set or the birds, you name it. I may not go back inside until the snow falls again. (Laptop plus outdoor power source means I might get away with it, too)
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 13, 2010 | Uncategorized
The school year is over and thus ends our experimental year of kid in public school. Technically last year was a hybrid as she did virtual public school at home.
School at home: She could work at her own pace, the younger kid worked with her and learned more than I thought possible, she could take advantage of good days and take it easy on bad ones, and we could modify lessons to suit her learning style, such as the game of kinetic math where she jumped up and down a chalk number line to add or subtract and land on the right answer. At the end of the year she’d finished all her courses so she got to do extra studies on whatever she wanted to. We did dinosaurs and marine biology, with accompanying field trips. It was fun, and she learned a lot. She was able to do her best academically with an environment that suited her and with the work slanted to suit her style.
Public school: She didn’t advance academically at all, and we’re doing refresher study to get her back up to where she used to be. The environment was overwhelming, which is probably why she didn’t learn anything, and with public school classes it’s really not possible to individualize the studies for learning style or to take advantage of good days to get ahead. She did, however, come home with marker tattooes drawn on her, the idea that she should be thinner and stopped eating, and one of her friends taught her to make devil horns and draw skulls. While I understand the appeal of goth and she’s always going to have a flare for the dramatic, I think age 6 is too young for makeup, tattooes or anorexia. And we saw her lose the social skills she’d built.
This is the thing people always scream about with home schooling; “they won’t get any socializing”. Not true; our home school experience included monthly group field trips and live lessons with the other students in her grade once a week. But beyond that, it’s not like home school students never leave the house. They interact with neighbors, extended family, church, go along on errands and shopping, visit the library, etc. All of which is real-world social experience. The big difference is that they do their school work at home, in quiet, uninterrupted, which is why they can learn more and get it done faster and then have more time to explore areas of interest.
So for academics and social skills, homeschooling wins. There’s the added factor of special needs, and here is where I think homeschooling is really the best choice for autism spectrum for the ability to work in a supportive environment and work at their own pace. Advanced learners aren’t held back and the home school environment can be structured to support their needs in ways public schools simply can’t match.
What are we doing next year? Calvert school, which has terrific curriculum and provides everything you need, including teacher support if you want to sign up for it. (I think that’s worthwhile for older students, but probably not essential for elementary grades.) We’re also doing outside classes once a week to provide elective courses beyond Calvert. (You can sign your kid up for dance, gymnastics, art or music lessons, whatever suits the interest level, and is available in your local area. That provides extra social time and gets specialized instruction in areas you maybe can’t match. For instance, I can’t teach gymnastics but my kids are interested.)
Cost: Public school is free, but Calvert is reasonably priced. You can also do a virtual public school for free for the hybrid option. Check your state availability for K12 or Connections Academy as a public school option (K12 and Connections are both available as a private option for a reasonable cost, also.) For local classes to add on, prices will vary wildly but you can often find lessons in everything from painting to karate through Community Education at a very reduced cost. You might also be able to team up with other homeschoolers to teach your specialities. For instance, I’m highly qualified to teach creative writing. Experts exist in every community.
Why Calvert; it’s what the public virtual school used and we couldn’t find anything better. The curriculum is integrated so that you reinforce the lessons in one course in another. We saw how rapidly our kids learned with Calvert and we’re sticking with what works.
Posting this now, because now is when decisions need to be made and enrollment is open. In September your choices may be a lot more limited. Also I’ve spent the last month going over pros and cons and comparing programs so I might as well get a blog post out of it.
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 12, 2010 | Uncategorized
1. The lawn mower choked again, causing the husband to say “You have failed me for the last time.” (If this happens to you, Home Depot delivers. Although you may have to wait a couple of days.)
2. Visited the farmer’s market and acquired hand-made soap, Amish baked goods and jam, local lettuce. Winter is a wasteland without farmer’s markets.
3. Introduced kids to joys of picking strawberries in a field. Child A was very serious about filling her basket. Child B ran all over enthusing about everything and also managed to fill her basket. There are now many pounds of strawberries in the kitchen. How many will end up in freezer and how many will end up in kids first is anybody’s guess.
4. Went to see the new Karate Kid. Kids loved it, and so did we. Very well done, from the story to the martial arts to the performances. The world may never see Jackie Chan that serious again.
5. I’m reading War for the Oaks. My brain can’t help noting all the things Emma Bull would undoubtedly be told to change if she submitted the story today as a new author. Urban fantasy has grown up but I think it’s lost some substance in the process. War for the Oaks has substance and the magic of the story stands the test of time. It will be interesting to see how many of the follow-ons that proves true of.
by Charlene Teglia | Jun 11, 2010 | Uncategorized
TGIF! Here’s a snippet from Wolf at the Door. Unedited, subject to change.
Wolf at the Door
copyright 2010 Charlene Teglia
Mammoth Book of Hot Romance, Spring 2011
All Rights Reserved
Karen parked by her cabin overlooking Lake Crescent and nearly ran from her car to the front porch. Once she had the heavy wooden door bolted behind her, she did a quick visual check of the cabin’s interior. The woodstove sat at the center of the open floor plan. Her living space circled it, beginning with the kitchen area that gave way to a trestle style table with two benches on either side, then a faded couch next to two tall and overstuffed bookcases.
Nothing looked out of place. She checked the bathroom that was pretty much a closet on the far side of the kitchen, the only room with a door. It, too, was empty except for a small sink, toilet and shower stall.
She climbed the ladder up to the half-loft that served as her bedroom. The big log bed covered with a bright quilt, night stand and dresser all looked just the way she’d left them before she’d headed out for a hike in an effort to find some peace or at least wear herself out. On impulse, she opened the deacon’s bench at the foot of the bed. Tucked under neatly stacked clean sheets and an extra quilt, an antique dagger rested. She covered it back up and closed the bench, exhaling relief.
The cabin and its contents had been left to her when her employer, an eccentric collector and historian, passed away. Jobless and bereft at the loss of the man who had been more like a grandfather than a boss, Karen had left Seattle for the rustic location to mourn and regroup.
When she’d taken possession, the post office had delivered the package they’d been holding for her. A package addressed by the man she’d just buried. She’d found the dagger inside, along with some notes about its history that read like the wildest fantasy.
Maybe Cyril Foster had started to suffer some insidious erosion of his brilliant mind towards the end of his life. Or maybe he really had left a genuine bone-handled Damascus dagger from the 1500s that contained the soul of a mad German werewolf in her keeping.
Since he’d also promised her that she’d be protected by a wolf guardian and warned her of dark forces that had hunted the dagger through the centuries, Alzheimer’s seemed more likely. Except that she’d just been saved by a guardian wolf.
Coincidence? Maybe. But the odd phone calls with nobody on the end of the line that ended with a disconnection, the men who had been waiting by her car and the frequent sensation of being watched that had dogged her since shortly after she’d arrived at the cabin meant something was going on, and that dagger was probably in the middle of it.
Cyril’s collection had been accounted for in his will. As his personal assistant, she’d helped catalog it. This piece hadn’t been included. She’d seen the dagger for the first time when she’d opened the package Cyril had mailed to the cabin the week he died. If nobody knew he’d had it, who would come looking for it? Somebody who knew it was in his possession, somehow. A piece that old, with a history that colorful, somebody must have known something about it. Maybe somebody suspected Cyril had kept it hidden even after his death.
“If you’d bothered to explain any of this while you were alive, it would make my life so much easier,” Karen said out loud.
But he hadn’t, and now he was beyond reach. She couldn’t ask him to explain, couldn’t demand that he tell her what was really going on. All she could do was carry out his final instructions to her and keep the dagger hidden.
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