Get-Out-Of-God Free

Madison's first Brownie event is tomorrow, a hike in the park that is right across the street from our house!

I got the registration information yesterday, and saw to my chagrin that we both have to sign the Girl Scout Promise:

The Girl Scout Promise

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God* and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

You see the asterisk next to God. On the Girl Scout web site, that asterisk refers to this:

* The word "God" can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on one's spiritual beliefs. When reciting the Girl Scout Promise, it is okay to replace the word "God" with whatever word your spiritual beliefs dictate.

This is a good thing, because the info they sent us didn't give us this little Get-Out-Of-God-Free option, and David and I got a bit nervous about whether anyone was going to make a fuss about this. That's the last thing we wanted for Madison to have to experience. But given what the web site said, I didn't have the least problem signing off on it.

A new spelling program, going to give it a shot

We've not been able to be at all systematic about spelling with Madison this year. I saw a post from another blogger about a program called AVKO (avko.org). It supposedly teaches using related word families rather the spelling lists. No memorization...you just have the child spell the word and immediately correct them if it is wrong. It relies strongly on seeing patterns, which is one of Madison's strengths. They have a seven-day tryout page, so we'll probably do that and see if it works.

Running out of Jesus

The St. Paul's ceremony last night was lovely, if a little long. The church was indeed beautiful, the priest actually made some engaging points in the sermon and delivered it well (probably the best we've heard in our quest for historic churches -- although almost all sermons we have heard are dismal, so that's really not saying much). The woman behind me sang alto, which helped me remember the alto parts to the various carols, which was fun.

We also went to the Episcopalians last year in Virginia. It was interesting that that service was much closer to Protestantism, while the one at St. Paul's was almost identical to Catholicism's. (Almost too close for the comfort of my psyche, actually.)

So of course, we had more theology discussion in the car on the way home. I explained that although the ceremony was extremely close to Catholicism, one of the differences is in their views on transubstantiation: The Episcopalians regard the breaking of the bread as a symbolic act by the priest, whereas the Catholics believe the priest has magic powers and ACTUALLY turns the communion wafer into the body of Jesus.

My little logician in the back seat said, "But that doesn't make any sense. After just a little while, wouldn't they run out of Jesus?"

Why not just hate the person they marry?

Each year, on Christmas Eve, we visit a different historic church and go to the family service to sing Christmas carols. This year, we're going to St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

We were explaining at dinner what it meant to be an Episcopalian, how they straddle the Catholics and the Protestants in terms of both theology and services. I was explaining that one dimension on which Episcopalians are different from Catholics is that their priests are allowed to marry, whereas Catholic priests aren't. Madison was interested in why the Catholics have this rule, and David said that the logic is that they're supposed to devote themselves completely to God, rather than to a wife.

She replied, "Well, how about if they just hate the person they marry, that would be ok, wouldn't it?"

Lightbulb Day

We had our Lightbulb Day celebration last night. It was a kind of modified Lightbulb Day, because I decided we needed to do the zoo for school instead of create our inventions game. So we didn't do games, just the usual gathering around the fire, lighting candles, talking about human inventiveness, and celebrating our favorite inventions. A little discussion about the invention of fire gave Madison the opportunity to give a little lecture about hominid development (she's been reading about human evolution lately) and then she remembered a Cherokee legend, Turquoise Boy, which talked about the invention of horses as transportation for American Indians. (We studied American Indians last month.) She regaled us for 10 minutes with the story, and remembered far more details than I had.

It was all fun, but perhaps not as much fun as in years past because I didn't really have my act together. And so, Madison, my little glass-half-empty-phase girl, designated it as "the worst holiday we've ever celebrated." Was it bad? No, it was good, it was just "the worst." I had to explain that we only use "worst" in cases in which something really is bad. Otherwise, it's "lowest ranked." She decided to continue on the negative track, though, and pronounced it "worst." She really liked the little hand-held computer game we gave her, though.

Anyway, we really did have a good time. Here is a photo of Ella whacking at the Lightbulb pinata. Yes, she's on a stool, yes, she's wearing a blindfold, yes, she's using a bat, yes, she's right in front of our brick fireplace. Yes, we're probably bad parents, especially after the brick-diving incident from earlier this year.

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo -- how about you, you you?

Yesterday, we went to the Seneca Park Zoo for school. The Rochester Zoo in December, you ask? Sure! It was almost 50 degrees and sunny, but you can even go in the cold and it's still fun. Our real estate agent gave us a one-year membership to the zoo, and we decided to take advantage of it. Both girls brought notebooks, and Madison sketched some animals with the names upder them. But Ella really went to down, writing down the name of every single animal we visited. While I read about the animals, she wrote, very proudly and as neatly as she could. Really great, especially for 5 1/2. Here is a photo of the notebook page:

Grammar

I'm going to start Madison with the rules of grammar. I plan to use the Montessori method of assigning certain colored shapes to parts of speech, unless one of the four people who read this blog has another suggestion.

I wouldn't mind using a good book, too, I never mind shortcuts.

But I know grammar, I figure I'll do this by the seat of my pants for now.

(David, the comma and period go INSIDE the double-quotes except in very very special circumstances. Under the imaginary middle of the line, inside. Two marks or over the imaginary middle of the line (; : ! ? ), outside.)

Homeschooling, again, finally

From Deb:

We started homeschooling again today, for the first time in two weeks. I say TWO weeks, in the sense of, well, ok, THREE weeks, if you want to be picky.

Homeschooling in the dentist's office!

It was a day of completely on-the-go, as in two haircuts, three dental cleanings, four notarized documents, zero new driver's licenses (despite aborted attempt), and a partridge in a pear tree.

While each girl was in the chair getting checked, her sister was learning all about the structure of teeth in one of our human body books, and I made Dr. Parnes give them lectures about dentin and enamel. Then, while I was in the chair, they worked. Really did, out in the reception area on math and handwriting, and the receptionist comment on how well-behaved and sweet they were! I love this age. Possibly it was the carrot of a trip to McDonald's that made them that way, though.

(Madison will need rather immediate orthodonture work as a six-year molar is slamming diagonally into a baby tooth and consequently not growing. Sigh.)

By the way, concerning physiology, they both had checkups at their pediatrician on Monday. The P.A., who has known them since birth, pronounced them "perfect." Height, weight, spine, you name it. And, believe it or not, Ella decided she wasn't going to cry during her three 5-year-old vaccination shots, and SHE DIDN'T. Really. You should have seen the triumphant look on her face. She says they didn't really hurt all that much, especially not compared with the brick-diving nose injury back in February. Ouch.

Madison finished the multiplication tables!

Because of the moving chaos, I was not able to post that Madison finished memorizing her multiplication tables! She had about six to go in the week before we left, which sent her into a panic, because her big prize that she'd eyed for months was at the Toys R Us there, a stuffed-animal horse, and she couldn't stand the idea of having to move without it.

So she asked for a hand with the last six problems.

I came up with YET ANOTHER strategy for memorizing them, and it worked, she did those in one day. I am sure that it was more the motivation than my strategy, but here is what I did.

We have a whole bunch of stickers in a sticker box. I decided to use those, with a different type of sticker for each equation.

We took note cards and made flash cards, with the equations on one side, and the answers on the other, and put a certain kind of stickers on each card, on both sides, with a little story to go with both the numbers and the stickers. And lo and behold, it worked!

She got this horse at Toys R Us. An enormous stuffed horse which is almost as big as she is. She named it Rosebud, and it sleeps with her. The child adores that horse.