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The Alhambra in Daylight

The Alhambra in Daylight When you buy tickets for the Alhambra you have to choose between the morning or afternoon. We chose afternoon because the morning session started at 8 a.m.  We had yet to even be awake once that early in the morning. The problem with that is the temperature. It had been warm in the afternoons all week. Still we were glad we chose the afternoon. We were all enjoying waking late every morning. Over the past few months in the States there have been many news stories about African refugees trying to come to Europe. We had …

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Seeing Seville on an Electric Bike and Flamencoa

Seeing Seville on an Electric Bike and Flamencoa The Flying Dutchmen told us what a blast they had riding around Seville on a Segway. We called every Segway rental company we could find on the Internet and they were all booked. I looked on TripAdvisor to make sure we had not missed any Segway companies and what came up as the number one outdoor activity in Seville was the Electric Bicycle not the Segway. I called Elecmove Electric Bikes (If you are wondering, I use TripAdvisor a lot when we travel.) and they were able to fit us in. We …

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Leaving Girona for the Abbaye de Capservy, South of France

Leaving Girona for the Abbaye de Capservy, South of France Before we left Girona we had to take one more walk on the wall. Again there was no one on it.               I am sitting on an old fashioned toilet. It would be an interesting feel to bare it all and go to the bathroom like this, LOL!  Did I remember to post the link to Casa Cundaro? Here it is in case I didn’t. http://www.casacundaro.com/english.html Casa Cundaro is attached to the Historic Hotel. Where we had to have one last superb breakfast.    Look how narrow the streets …

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The Dali Museum, The Mediterranean, and Vegan Tapas!

The Dali Museum, The Mediterranean, and Vegan Tapas! The town of Figueres, Spain is about a 35 minute drive from Girona. There is a lot of history there, but we only went for the Dali Museum. We did not want to spend the day in Figures, because we also wanted to visit Costa Brava. Costa Brava is what the coastline of northeast Spain is called. Salvadore Dali is a genius! He worked in almost every medium you can think of. The museum is a bit crowded but not too crowded. When we were standing in line Sean said, “What is …

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Handcrafting 10th grade: The Plan for 2015/2016

Eclectic? Absolutely! Academic? Of Course! Innovative? You Know It! It’s Organic, Too! (I am a chemist, after all! ;-)) History: American government & politics with writing History and the upcoming election will be the main focus this year. The Homeschool History Project – This is a name I came up with. Sean is designing a website to go with it. I posted about the Homeschool History Project in a separate blog piece, https://blairleeblog.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/the-homeschool-history-project-handcrafting-high-school-year-2-american-government/ If James, Sean’s 30 year old brother, gets his campaign finance reform NGO started, volunteer once a week for him. Big History with online group – https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home – Sean will be …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 8

Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 8 What a crazy month April was. We moved for the third time since the summer of 2012, and we aren’t in the military. First we moved from the mountains to San Diego where there is a larger homeschool community. That house was too far inland, so we moved closer to the coast. That house was too far from rowing and our adult kids, so we moved closer to both. As you can imagine our friends and family think we’re crazy, or that we really like to move. I feel the feather in Forrest …

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Time to Focus: Week 2 through 4, Grade School Writing

A Handcrafted Education: It’s Innovative, It's Eclectic, It's Academic, It's Homeschooling The next three weeks Sean worked on narrowing the focus of his writing. I like to call writing with a narrow focus “tight writing”. This skill is particularly important in non-fiction writing. Writing that is too loose plagues even experienced adult writers ;-) Sometimes when I am having trouble with a chapter I have to vomit everything I know about the topic onto the page. It is as if I cannot focus down without getting it all out. Even when it is clear and cohesive though, it doesn’t make …

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Moray and Maras, Cusco, Peru, Day 5 of Our Trip

One of the recommendations for people who are hiking into Machu Picchu is that they acclimate in Cusco for 2 to 3 days first. All of the preparation just to walk 37 miles over several days might seem overkill. It isn’t. Those of us that fared best out of the group we hiked with were the ones who wore the most comfortable hiking boots, trained with an intense hiking regimen before going, and were the most comfortable hiking at altitude. We had yet to meet our group. Some of the people from the group finished the trek, and others didn’t. …

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Cusco, Peru, Day 4 of our trip to Machu Picchu

Cusco, Peru, Day 4 of our trip to Machu Picchu When my husband Jim told me he had booked a trip for us where we would hike into Machu Picchu over several days, I was not pleased. In fact, I was irritated about it. It is embarrassing to admit now, but I had no desire to go on vacation and hike and stay in remote lodges along the way. He was surprised. He had booked the trip as a surprise for me and thought I was going to be delighted when I found out. It turns out he was right. …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 7

Some months a handcrafted education looks like a carefully detailed pattern has been followed as if I bought something from Butterwick, cut it out carefully, pinned everything meticulously, and sewed all the pieces exactly to Butterwick’s specifications. Other times a handcrafted education looks like a crazy quilt. It has a little of this and a little of that. It looks like I ran out of the fabric that I was planning on using and began to wildly improvise. This month looked and felt like a crazy quilt. It was productive, satisfying, and dizzying. We crammed in everything that we could, …

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Physics for Middle School and High School

For the past few months, I have been receiving emails asking for my help figuring out science for next year. The emails are from parents who are hoping RSO Astronomy and Earth Science 2 will be out for the start of the 2015/2016 school year. It won’t. I even get emails from people hoping RSO Chemistry 2 will be out. I only have 1 chapter of that book written, so it definitely will not be out next year. I will start writing it in time for Sean to use it for chemistry during the next school year, but that course …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 6

Oh my goodness! What a busy month February was for both Sean and me. There were times this month when I felt like I barely had time to breathe. I actually realized TWICE! that I had showered and forgotten to shave. I remember being super busy close to the end with biology too. There is a point when writing a book where I can see the finish line, and I am ready to be there, so I work as hard as I can even at night. I did not finish it this month, in case you are wondering. (The book has yet …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, Month 5

If you have read my previous handcrafting high school posts, it might sound to you like I have it all together. I admit I am proud of how we’re doing. But I have been working hard for nine years to figure it out. And any time a homeschooling parent says to you, as I did last month, that they started out using the classical method and it didn’t work for their child, there is a lot of pain and some tears associated with that statement. We have hiccups and issues even now. Sean just turned 15, and I deal with …

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Secular Academics for Homeschoolers Webinar

Secular Academics for Homeschoolers Webinar I was so busy moderating the session Secular Academics, I did not really listen to it until just now. What a great talk! What an amazing group of homeschooling parents! WOW! You can click on this link All About Secular Curricula to listen to this as a podcast. I will apologize ahead of time for the audio on my end. It could be better; I am sorry. Everyone else sounded great though! We have it in both the auditory version and the written version, because we are homeschoolers, so you know we are all about making sure …

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Handcrafting High School: Year 1, The First Four Months: Language Arts

Language Arts: How We Came to Be Homeschoolers My son Sean was an early reader; I was an early reader; my father was an early reader; my paternal grandfather was an early reader. We all started reading at about the same age, between three and four years old. I’ve been told by someone who seemed to know what they were talking about that early reading, just like early walking and early talking, is a trait that runs in families. In addition to coming from a long line of early readers, I love to read. When people remember me as a …

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