When we all arrived at the convention, it turned out that Dr. Auerbacher had had an accident and could not give her talk. That was a huge disappointment, but we did have a nice second day at the conference. We first all walked over to the Center for Lit table so that Jonathan could finally meet his teacher, Mr. Andrews. Mr. Andrews was so thrilled to see Jonathan. He called him their ever-favorite student. He was also happy to meet Charlotte and is looking forward to having Miriam in one of his classes. He even remembered that Jonathan ended up having a roommate from one of his Center for Lit classes for his first year of college life.
Als wir wieder bei der Tagung ankamen, stellte es sich heraus, daß Dr. Auerbacher einen Unfall gehabt hatte und ihren Vortrag nicht halten konnte. Das war eine große Enttäuschung, aber wir haben trotzdem einen schönen Tag gehabt. Zuerst sind wir zum Tisch der Literaturschule Center for Lit gegangen. Jonathan hat mit dieser "Schule" viele Literaturkurse gemacht, die online waren. Die Schüler haben können den Lehrer und die anderen Schüler online hören und diskutieren zwei Stunden lang jeden Monat ein anderes literarisches Werk. Herr Andrews, einer der Leiter der Schule, war dort und war so glücklich, Jonathan, den er "ihren Lieblingsschüler" nannte, endlich kennenzulernen. Herr Andrews und sein Sohn, waren sehr herzliche und nette Menschen. Sie haben sich auch über Charlotte gefreut, die einen Kurs mit Herrn Andrews gemacht hat. Miriam soll im Herbst auch einen Kurs dort belegen. Herr Andrews hat sich sogar daran erinnert, daß Jonathans Mitbewohner in seinem ersten Studentenjahr auch ein Schüler in einem dieser Kurse gewesen war und die beiden sich dort schon kennengelernt hatten, bevor sie sich zufälligerweise im gleichen Zimmer im College wiedergefunden hatten.
At the convention
Bei der Tagung
Peter and the children all walked around or read while I decided to attend two lectures: The first one was on memory and memorization skills by Andrew Pudewa and was simply marvelous. We own Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization by him and like it a lot. We only have the book (first edition). The second one was by Janice Campbell. She had a talk on homeschool in high school and provided many good insights. Her book Transcripts Made Easy is a goldmine and I bought it after the talk. Jonathan bought himself a book by Lloyd Alexander and read it right there. He also bought himself a philosophy book from Royal Fireworks Press.
Peter und die Kinder sind herumgegangen oder haben gelesen. Ich bin zu zwei Vorträgen gegangen. Der erste war über das Auswendiglernen von Gedichten bei Kinden und war ein ganz toller Vortrag. Wir haben ein Buch des Autors, das Gedichte, die man gut auswendig lernen kann, enthält und auch beschreibt, wie man am besten auswendig lernt, damit man es auch nicht vergißt. Der zweite Vortrag war von Janice Campbell, die über das Unterrichten von Kindern in der Oberstufe gesprochen hat. Sie hat ein ganz tolles Buch, was einem hilft, die erforderlichen Unterlagen für Kinder, die zu Hause unterrichtet worden sind, für Collegebewerbungen zusammenzustellen. Das habe ich mir nach dem Vortrag gekauft (obwohl ich ja auch ohne das Buch bisher gute Bewerbungsunterlagen für meine Kinder zusammengestellt habe). Jonathan hat sich ein Jugendbuch von Lloyd Alexander gekauft und noch dort gelesen und auch ein Philosophiebuch.
For supper,we ate at Wegmans in Chili.
Zum Abendbrot sind wir wieder zu einem Wegmansladen gefahren, dieses Mal in Chili.
You can finally find Quark in the U.S.!
Man kann endlich Quark auch in Amerika finden!
After supper, we still had to drive on to Buffalo. Miriam was coming back that evening and we were all anxious to see her again. Charlotte used the long car rides to work on her knitting.
Nach dem Abendbrot mußten wir dann noch nach Buffalo fahren, weil Miriam an diesem Abend zurückfliegen mußte. Wir waren ganz aufgeregt, daß wir wir wiedersehen würden! Charlotte hat die langen Autofahrten zum Stricken benutzt.
It is getting darker: We are driving where the old Erie Canal used to be.
Es wird dunkler: Wir fahren, wo früher der Eriekanal war.
Advertisement for beautiful NYS
Werbung für den schönen Staat New York
And here we are at the airport.
Und hier sind wir beim Flughafen.
The Famous Five
Fünf Freunde
Miriam had a wonderful, wonderful time at Northeast Catholic College. She loved every minute of it and got good grades in her classes. We are so happy for her!
Miriam hat zwei wunderschöne Wochen bei Northeast Catholic College verbracht. Alles hat ihr gefallen und sie hat gute Noten in ihren Seminaren bekommen. Wir freuen uns ganz viel mit ihr!
Miriam hat zwei wunderschöne Wochen bei Northeast Catholic College verbracht. Alles hat ihr gefallen und sie hat gute Noten in ihren Seminaren bekommen. Wir freuen uns ganz viel mit ihr!
It was quite late, by the time we got back home.
Es war ziemlich spät, als wir wieder zu Hause waren.
Ach wie schade!! Hatte sie einen schweren Unfall? Hoffentlich nicht. Trotzdem habt Ihr das Beste draus gemacht und Miriam ist auch wieder heil zurück, das ist schön.
ReplyDeleteSie muß sich den Kopf verletzt haben, mehr ist nicht bekannt geworden. Ja, wir hatten einen schönen Tag und wir haben uns sehr über Miriams Heimkehr gefreut.
DeleteHello! I have been reading your blog for years and felt compelled to comment for the first time.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I have two children (ages 6 and 4) and my daughter's first year of homeschooling began this year. While we are obviously at very different stages in our homeschooling journey, we have found your blog quite inspirational, as it provides another example of a happy, well-rounded homeschooling family.
Like your husband, I work as a professor at a liberal arts college in the Northeast, although I work in the business school rather than in the humanities. My wife manages a small side business and is primary caregiver to the children during the day. The occasional flexibility of academia allows us to both be heavily involved in our children's education.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for all of your posts and let you know who one of your readers is.
Cheers,
Steve
Hello Steve,
DeleteThank you so much for your kind words! They mean a lot to me. It is exciting to get to know my readers and I am so glad that my little posts here do make a difference and can be inspirational too.
It is wonderful to hear that you have chosen to homeschool your children. I still remember when we started this journey in 2004. It seems like yesterday. And what a coincidence that you are a also a professor! There are not many people in academia that do homeschool their children, at least not around us. I am wishing you a wonderful homeschool journey with lots of happy memories and educational adventures.
Thanks again for commenting and introducing yourself.
Warmly,
Eva
We are lucky because the school that I teach at (Providence College) has a handful of homeschooling families on its faculty. Not too many, but more than most places!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words and I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer.
All the best,
Steve
It must be really helpful to have some like-minded families at the college. We know two other families at the college that homeschool. One is in the science department (physics) and one works in the library. We do have quite a few homeschooled students at the college, though, but they are not from this area. Most families around here are not academics and their children don't end up going to college.
DeleteYou must know Anthony Esolen then! My oldest had applied at Thomas More College and got a wonderful scholarship there, but decided to go to St. Vincent College instead. He thought he could not pursue dance in addition to his regular studies if going to Thomas More College. But now Professor Esolen went to Magdalen College anyway.
So nice you wrote back :). Summer is almost over: Our daughter is moving into her college dorm this week. They are starting early.
It is indeed nice. I find academic life, in general, to be very conducive to homeschooling. Simply being present on campus exposes children to so many varied types of artistic, cultural, and scholarly events. It is a wonderful thing.
DeleteI did meet Anthony a few times and we chatted briefly about his books. He was not on campus very much so our paths did not cross often and I did not know him well. I'm not exactly sure what happened regarding his resignation (there seem to be many conflicting stories on campus) but his leaving was a great loss for the school. I was not aware he was no longer at TMC. Hopefully he is happy at Magdelan and feels well supported.
I hope your son is enjoying his time at St. Vincent - it is a great school. The very small Catholic liberal arts colleges (e.g., Thomas More, Wyoming, etc.) are wonderful schools but I agree that they can sometimes feel limiting if one has interests outside the classics. Choosing a school is a very tough decision for any young person to make.
Best of luck moving your daughter into her dorm next week. You and your husband must be very proud! We start the Fall semester on the 26th. It is hard to believe the summer is almost over. It feels as if it only just started!
Yes, that is so true! A college atmosphere has lots to offer and they soak it right in. It also provides you with a good library (ours has a great children's section as well). And when they get older, they can take classes for dual credit. That looks good on college applications and saves them some work later. We have found that a college chemistry class is especially helpful because there is no way you can offer your child a full lab experience like you find on a campus.
DeleteI think Anthony Esolen had some health problems that made it hard for him to commute every day from Warren (where he lives) to Nashua, where Thomas More College is. Magdalen College is in Warren and that makes it much easier to get to work.
My son likes St. Vincent fine, although he wishes the students were more interested in their studies. He has not found so many like-minded students there. The college selection process has been quite difficult for our children so far. Our second child is at Mercyhurst now because she wanted to pursue dance. I am not sure what our other children will do when the time comes. I kind of thought after looking at colleges with our son we would be done with traveling around visiting colleges, but each child is different and unique and interested in different paths. I had hoped the Newman Colleges were the way to go, but I was mistaken.
I think we started our semester in late August last year also, but this year they gave us one more week, which is a relief. I am not done with all my planning and we also had to move offices during the summer. My new office is not quite in order yet. Good luck with your new semester!