Transforming Homework Sessions into Home Memories

Wind chimes clang in the ten degree weather, and students everywhere unload textbooks and notebooks across kitchen tables, or toss heavy backpacks onto worn couches.

Artist Hilda Robinson, "Studying at the Table"

What transforms homework sessions into home memories? 

It's the x-factor, that unknown variable that finagles its way into each afternoon. Whether its mixed formulas in Algebra or seismology from Physical Science, there is always a potential for life to be shaken right up, huh?

Class homework seems to be an afterschool event in most families. How do we create happy family environments and memories while flipping pages, erasing problems gone wrong, and keeping everyone on task?

Cutting into gooey caramel-chocolate cupcakes, my teen daughter and I wrote out algebra problems side-by-side on the sunny kitchen table today. I sipped hot coffee and we looked together at the problems she had misunderstood earlier.

"Oh, I see it. I know what I did wrong," she exclaimed, circling a forgotten negative sign. We moved on to other problems, cracking jokes, getting drinks of water, and talking with others in the room.

After one too many interruptions, I became agitated and brusquely brought us back on track. "Okay, let's focus now," I said, sterner than I needed to.

"Mom, we're fine. It's okay. I'm working," assured Morgan.

I paused and remembered. Laughter, calm, and intentionality make the difference. We both visibly relaxed, sinking deeper into our chairs in the sunlight, working quietly on math problems together. Quiet saxophone music played from a corner of the kitchen.

Later Daniel and I read books together, noticing rhyming sounds, commenting on watercolor illustrations, and learning about bats and shadows. We made paper cut outs for shadows, and cast long pictures across the living room floor, before ducking into the bathroom with a flashlight too. Shadow bats, cats, and snowmen wavered in the light, dancing in his hands.

"See how any shadow picture needs the light?" I taught Daniel. "Without light there is no shadow. Where is the light source to make this shadow?"  

Those phrases suddenly seemed much deeper than simple preschool science. To cast a picture, there is always a light. There is always a light. Where is the light source? Without the light there is no image.

Hmm, I snapped off the red flashlight, and headed back to the kitchen. Peaceful saxophone music still played, Morgan gathered up her heavy science books, and I sought out children's videos about bats.

(Also linking up with Emily at Imperfect Prose.)

Confessions of a HomeSchooling Mom

It didn't seem fair to wake them up early for school on Labor Day, after a late night, so I poured myself another cup of coffee, and relaxed my expectations for the day. This was really more of a school introduction today.

As a homeschooling mom to a ninth grader and a kindergartener, with my eldest off in his first year of college, school looks different this year. It is splashy cellophane-wrapped kindergarten kits of calenders and continents, with colorful alphabet banners, twenty-four-piece People Color crayons, and beautiful multicultural faces from around the world. Kindergarten still sits wrapped in cellophane on the table, though, while my ninth grader and I read Physical Science about atoms and molecules, and my kindergartener plays Wii games downstairs.

Confession 1.) Some days, school doesn't start at 9 am. And I haven't taken a shower yet.
Confession 2.) I am as excited as the students are -- often more so-- at the prospect of new books to read and things to learn.

As more people stream in and out of the kitchen and living room where we are reading, Morgan and I sneak away to a quiet bedroom to continue our science.

Confession 3.) I don't always have all items on hand to do the experiments before we read about it.

"Okay, I'm going to need to find two copper wires for this experiment," I admit sheepishly to my Morgan. "Let's read about it now, and then we'll do it later, okay?... Wow, look! We're actually ripping water molecules apart here! That's cool."

Confession 4.) I love learning along with them.

Lunch comes and goes, with family members fending for themselves in between subjects. The scent of grilling cheese and turkey simmer out from the panini-maker, and chunky apple wedges dot the table. Strawberries and chips are a mid-morning snack.

Dirty dishes line one side of my sink, while clean dishes from last night fill two counters to the left of the sink.

Mammoth zucchini boats were shredded down to towering wet mounds of grated green-striped pulp, and folded into muffins last night. The last of those sweet muffins was gobbled up this morning by the earliest risers.

School supplies adorn my kitchen table in glory, while photographic books of India, China, Mongolia and Japan stack in glossy piles according to country on my floor. Legos and plastic army warriors huddle as toys from the night before, scattered between school piles, and I still haven't started kindergarten yet. I think it will be afternoons, three times a week.

Daughter disappears downstairs, clicking into her internet links on Chinese History and Culture, and writing summaries about Chinese school systems, pagodas, the Hidden City, and more.

My husband and college-age son are out playing tennis today on their day off, while I introduce high school and kindergarten to the ones at home. I text both men, asking them to stop and pick up bread, ice cream and maybe some snacks on the way home.

Confession 5.) We're out of "good" food, my kids say, and lunch requires their creativity, or heating up leftovers.

Silence descends on my home as brains are being stretched and used. And that sound of learning? It's beautiful!

Excuse me as I grab some books, open some cellophaned maps and start kindergarten. I can't wait...

Linking with Ann at A Holy Experience.

Autumn is Here: Children's Homework and Pumpkin Pies

Are your windows flung wide open too? Crisp autumn air streams through my windows, almost making us cold. Navy storm clouds hover in the horizon teasing with their threat of storm.

My two teens lean over the kitchen table, working on a history project together, speaking of the Mayflower, William Bradford and the New Plymouth colony. My toddler son plays on the deck, splashing toys into a small pot of warm water.

Pumpkin pie sounds perfect right now, doesn't it? I can't resist and so pull the ingredients out of the cupboard, whirling, whisking and whipping the frothy cinnamon-specked pumpkin puree. Looking for pie pans, I am confronted with the fact that I packed all my pie glassware to stage our cupboards for this move. Drat! After some crashing and clanging into the far corners of my cupboard, I resurface with a cheesecake pan and a small round skillet. Experiments in the kitchen. (What does that say about me if I pack my pie pans yet save my cheesecake pan?)

The pies are baking now, the heat from the oven nicely offsetting the chill from the open windows and deck. My toddler talks from his bed, as he struggles to fall asleep for nap-time, and my children have moved onto more school.

Care to join me for pumpkin pie? Those who live close are welcome to stop by for a slice in forty-five minutes, otherwise whip out your appropriate glassware and join me. Here is an adapted recipe from one of the basic pumpkin pie cans that I used today.


Easy Pumpkin Pie
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (I was out so I omitted this today.)
3/4 tsp ground cloves
4 large eggs, whipped
1  29 oz can pumpkin pie puree
1  12 oz can evaporated milk
1  12 oz can full of normal milk from your fridge (use above can to measure)
2 refrigerated pie crusts

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for about 45 more minutes. The pie is ready when a knife inserted at center comes out cleanly.

There is still time to put your name in the hat for the free gift card to get your first rate inexpensive dates started! Simply stop by here and leave a comment for me. Winners will be announced tomorrow on Friday, September 23.

What about you? What do you like best about fall? What foods have you enjoyed making lately?