Staring Ahead: A Classical School Year for 6th Grade

   I will post pictures of rover excursions. But first, I must wrap my mind around the vast expanse of pictures from our trip. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.  That's its own mountain to climb!

   Meanwhile, planning for school seems much easier! Below is the school year plan for sister and I. The year ahead is finally starting to gel. There will be some give and take, and we won't get it all done, but we'll work hard and have fun. The goal is for rest. Yep, rest. Lively and engaged rest. 

6th Grade Curricula

To Do
Notify State.
Buy Saxon Math book.
Determine Grammar.
Buy Philosophy books.
Buy Singapore Practice Books 6.
Buy bigger white board.


Art
2 hours a week at art class (Someone else teaches.)*
Work on Beautiful to Me graphic design
More sewing / quilting classes?
Fall theatre camp - one week

Bible
History Lives fiction series on church history
Daily devotions

Field Trips
The Hult for ballet and music
OBT education shows
Oregon Symphony education shows
Corban Theatre/Plays
PAM
Oregon History Museum
Teen Pact
See Science Classes

Math
Saxon Math 8/7*
Singapore 6 Practice Books*
Khan Academy Online 

Writing
IEW Continuation  (someone else teaches), one paper every 3 weeks.*
Submissions to Pockets and/or Stone Soup, Readers Digest, Letters for Literature
One essay a week from 642 Things to Write About.*
One book report a month.*
One piece at the end of the year on a subject from history. Three pages?
One written piece on Jane Austen. Two pages?
Classical Composition, Writing Fables from Memoria Press (Just for fun, when we have time or need a break from other writing. Keep in mind this kid likes to write!)

Grammar
Rod and Staff 5 or 6*

Science
First Lego League Robotics 2 hours each week*
Outdoor School
OSU science classes
Evergreen Aviation classes
Immune system, cells, neurons
Diagram and outline pond life with microscope.
GF Science classes
OMSI classes
She'd like to do 3-D design
Maker Faire
Life of Fred Physics*
Life of Fred Biology*
Visit Energy Lab
Volcanoes study
Hatfield Marine Biology Classes

Language
First Form Latin (someone else teaches)*
Mango Languages or Rosetta Stone at home or library?
Meet and Greet Spanish Group (once or twice a month)?

Spelling
10 words a week. She teaches us. Material: English 1 Vocabulary Cards*

History Readings and Discussion
A Little History of the World by Grombrich*
Hillyer's History of the World for Children*
Middle Ages review (We've previously done Story of the World Middle Ages)
Begin Story of the World Early Modern Times, will listen to the CD's.*

Geography
Begin with review of states, continents, oceans, latitude, longitude
Mapping and tracing of Europe and locations of books we are reading onto smaller maps, then putting on a large world map that hangs in the school room.*

Philosophy
Philosophy for Kids*
The Art of the Argument*

Phys. Education
Irish dance drop-ins
Swim lessons continued
Rock climbing class
One hike a week, when weather good.
Birding

Student Reading Lists
Veritas School*
SonLight Core F Books*
Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Books

   We will aim for 1-3 chapter books a week, family reading time in history, and 3-5 picture books a week, all from the various lists. Some we'll discuss such as history or philosophy, but many books will simply be for focused pleasure reading. They know I'm intentional about keeping good books in the house for them, and that I've a bit of an agenda for their reading. They don't care. They just like access to good books! Sometimes they will not pick up a book I want them to read. We let it go at that.

   You might be tempted to believe I'm type A and just a tad detail oriented. No kidding! For us, I've found it's better to aim high rather than low in education. It creates more stress for me not to plan, than to plan and have goals that we intentionally work to achieve. We won't get through it all, but the goal is to complete the main curricula packages and then everything else is a perk! Because life is for learning, and learning is for life.

* Main Curricula to be completed

   Brother will be pulled from school for various excursions, but the plan is for him to be in a chair elsewhere this year. We are excited for him. He's going to have a great teacher and he will be working hard and playing hard. Soccer has begun and school is just around the corner!

"Now Lord, we ask that you bless this year. Because the plans of man amount to nothing without your grace and goodness blessing it all. Your world is intricate and beautiful and we desire to learn more about you and your children through our studies this year. We desire to think about, what it is we think about. We seek to honor you with our studies. Please bless this year. We can do nothing apart from you, but through you we can do all things."

Rovering Home

    Rover adventure stories and pics soon. We're busy washing the dirt off!

Soaking up Summer

First time using a skim board...he loved it.

The Oregon Regency Society Pittock Mansion Party, an afternoon of loveliness.

Taking a turn...

Blind Man's Bluff

Smoke bomb protection.

Master Consumer of Frosting

 

 

   I've been pondering Psalm 78 with a renewed awareness that if I do not learn to praise God in the gloaming, I will never know the spirit of gratitude when things are going great. I will only wake to a world filled with the wonder of gratitude, if I've intentionally created the habit of gratitude. There's a Light that shines the way through dark places and it's accessed with a spirit of gratitude through the sufficiency of His grace. This I am learning. This I am trying to live.

Birthday Girl!

In her new dress for a special party! More pictures to come...

At Sylvia Beach Hotel

Reading the book/card her dad made for her.

Guided in the Dark

    A final reflection on Learning to Walk in the Dark.

   We are birthed in the darkness and brought forth into an even harsher darkness, but one day the darkness will give way to the Light. 

   I set my feet in a dark world, often not of my choosing. I was born here, but without a choice of my landing pad. Yet the direction I embark upon, is entirely of my own choosing. Or is it? Search and Rescue Coordinators inform me, that years ago people always headed down when lost. They descended in search of water. But today, when lost, we are likely to scramble up, seeking a cell signal. When I'm lost, what direction do I point my compass? I'm an up kind of girl, when I'm not down, that is. When lost, many questions are posed: should I look inward, outward, or upward? What's my bearing: men, me, or the Messiah? What do I listen and look for, when lost in the woods? It's tempting to sit and scream into a dark wood. But maybe, being lost is the way to finding found.

    They will not hunger or thirst, neither will mirage [mislead] or scorching wind or sun smite them; for He Who has mercy on them will lead them, and by springs of water will He guide them. Isaiah 49:10 (AMP)

   Maybe the paths I wander, searching for (living) water, remind me of other yearnings within that require filling. I am thirsty for connection with God and others. Maybe the thirst, if I listen, will point to a spring in the wilderness. A wild spring, hidden and discovered, only when I am thirsty enough to stumble down paths not normally taken. Desperate thirst causes me to look and listen for the Light in the woods that shows the way through, and desperate thirst enables deep filling. Be still. But, there's always something rattling around in the woods that scares me stiff. Maybe what threatens is simply an illusion or an impostor?

   I meander up to the house, lost in thought. The call of a hawk, down low and near, startles me. Is he there, in the fir? Looking through the dim light, reveals a pesky and mischievous blue jay. He is a threat to no one: not mouse, kitten, chicken, and of course not men. But for one moment, I'm sure the sound of this presence is ominous for a beloved pet; it's simply an illusion. Much of what is spoken over you and I in this life feels like a curse, or even worse, is a curse. Words. They rattle us in the dark. But, these words will not alight. What rests upon us will be words of Life. Breathing and living. Creating and caring. Safe in the woods.

    You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow. Proverbs 26:2 (MSG)

Prayers muttered in the darkness of procedure rooms and answers...

   I abide in the darkness. You can too. Peace is possible in the unknown, which is pregnant with possibilities. You know fear in the darkness, but I know only light. In the darkness, let my light lead you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. My plans are perfect for you – you are being perfected in my plans for you. Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil, for I am with you. Your darkness is not dark to me, it is an opening into the ways of Life. Reality is not as it always seems. Sometimes there is more to darkness than meets the eye. You have to look with the eyes of your heart in order to see what is Real. My paths of darkness lead to ever greater Light. I am healing inner places. They are not dark to me. I will do exceedingly beyond all that you ask or imagine if you will trust me. Walk confidently into the darkness. I AM there.

   Thankful...a young girl on the eve of her 11th birthday who handled an MRI with IV and barium and contrast well. For the dove that met us on the wire at the car shop before the MRI, for the loaner Rover to take up to the hospital, for the gal in the waiting area who taught C another crochet stitch as she waited for procedures, for the dove that flew right in front of us three times in the cafeteria window, for a finished and ready Rover upon return to the shop, for being able to stop at almost 70 mph when the guy in front of me slammed on his brakes (For who knows what, I wasn't tailgating.), for the sky that opened up and gave us a glimpse of divine light and shining blue on an otherwise pouring day, for a watered garden, so I didn't have to water or think of plants, for the rainbow over the line of firs last night, for the deer in the yard, and for a birthday. So very blessed.

They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength. Isaiah 45:24

The Darkness Within a Harsh Light

   Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33: 2,3

Until the dawn arises...

    Just now in the darkness, what am I afraid of? The light of day shines full, but the darkness hangs around. She's hard to banish, and doesn't obey like the moon succumbing to the sun. She lingers and lurks, and this darkness speaks to me.

    Occasionally, in the dark, the whippoorwill calls. He's not native, but we hear him nonetheless. I think him a dastardly bird, an omen, not a song. But I can't escape it: he sings in the dark. His eyes gleam, as does his song. Does he sing of the darkness, or in spite of it? What am I compelled or inspired to sing in the dark? Will I sing, no matter what?

   Saturday night, I hear the owls. Once in awhile I hear one, but two is unusual. They call to each other. Responsively, their soft hooos echo through the window into our room, and I hear Him saying, "I am here. Call on me." Will I? Converse in the dark? Surely, the darkness is alive. Calling.

   Near midnight, on another evening, I close up forgotten chickens. It's pitch dark, but for the beam of my flashlight, and I'm startled by white petals caught in the light. Daisies open in the dark, their petals in full bloom. Who knew? And I wonder: Do I bloom full in the darkness? Do I remain open?

   There's treasure obtained by venturing into the darkness, for treasure of worth is not stored in day light spaces.

   I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. Isaiah 45:3

     A solitary raven pokes for worms and hops like a robin. I hold out fists. No. Open hands. I think like Elijah. Fill me. Give me. Manna for the dry riverbed of my soul. I receive like the hunted, a wild manna, given and known, only in dark barren places. The darkness delivers a special manna that day does not.

    Walking the dark path is a gift few possess. I know only a few who have navigated the dark path daily, praising in the darkness. Like the whippoorwill, their songs remind me that the darkness is not nearly as dark as I imagine it to be. There is life in the night. Alive, there is One who calls into the darkness, our darkness. Walking in the dark with God, these darkness docents have accessed a light many of us have never beheld. They have learned. I am learning, that there's life in the darkness. We are not alone. I am not alone. God is in the shroud, but I must go up the mountain, in the dark, to meet Him.

Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor

Adjusting to the Dark by Pastor Susan Garlinger from the Night Vision Series, Seeing God in the Dark

Coveting prayers for Doernbecher procedures this week. 

Pondering

I am not a photographer.

I am a watcher. 

I gather memories.

I scoop up moments.

I look to remain thankful.

Loveliness flees my mind far to quickly.

Lately, the lens is angled and soft. 

All is blurry, but one: the moment in the middle.

The soft lens makes more palatable the hard days we face. 

I drill down.

The essence in front of me. 

Find joy in curve of cheek and bend of eye.

Simple and small, made large. 

I see the world really there, not just the trial. 

A world that is soft and luminous with light. 

Blessing me...

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