homeschooling and Dave Letterman's mom

I love all the new technology--emails, texts, and blogs...but I DO miss some old-fashioned things: like non-refereed backyard football games, car trips where the license plate alphabet game was the highlight of many miles and you played TOGETHER, being bored in the summer...and home-canned foods. I only know a COUPLE of women who can vegetables from their garden...and teach this to the next generation. I say this because this week, Luke and his hs'ed friend picked and harvested two gallons of ripe persimmons on our property. I make several desserts from these delicious sweet fruits, but they are practically unknown these days. Persimmon pudding is one of our favorites--and the only other place I have seen it was in an old cookbook of David Letterman's mom called "Indiana Persimmon Dessert". Sometimes we need to reach back into the past..and grab some GOODNESS!

Last week, we were so thankful to be able to take all the kids and grandkiddoes to the beach for our annual vaca. There is probably no greater feeling than to have all my chicks in the nest (for a while anyway) and see them SO enjoy being together! Luke certainly got his share of studying "marine biology"--he caught crabs, geckos,skinks,--and touched a baby shark,a squid, many fish, and several frogs. He participated in putting on a pirate birthday party on the beach, played golf,babysat,collected all manner of shells, read, drew,watched endless episodes of "Cash Cab"(sort of like Jeopardy in a car?), and boogie-boarded for HOURS a day. My point is that learning never stops--especially in a large family setting interacting with all ages, interests, and sensibilities. The freedom we have as homeschoolers should be EXPERIENCED sometimes!! I still remember years ago one of my brothers offered to give my then 10 and 8 year old boys their first "trip of a lifetime": he wanted to take them to Washington DC, show them all the sights and then take them by train to Boston where they would continue to see all the historical sights. He said,"But what about their school?"...and I realized that I had failed to tell him what we were actually doing,because of course all of it WAS SCHOOL!!! Curricula cannot be our master...but we need to keep a balance of texts and real-life learning...have fun...kc

Wow!! My website is UP!! Please go to www.karencostello.com and read an excerpt from my book about ten surprising strategies for homeschool success. I also have topics listed that I have given to large and small homeschool groups. Sixth grade is going strong for us---I love having an inquisitive, kinesthetic learner! Today, we studied some random history of the Chinese people involving the abusive treatment of binding feet of the women many years ago. We did some Latin, some Saxon math (I love Saxon so much I want to marry it)...and of course, MUCH outdoor science time. More later!