Study Plan :: Fall 2008

That's the scene at Emmett's primitive skills camp on the first day back after the summer break.

Last fall, around the time Em's camp started up, I decided to write myself a Study Plan.

Back in the day when I went to school, we had to write Study Plans at the beginning of each semester to map out our course of study. We could sign up for group studies or we could create independent studies of our own choosing so long as we could convince the faculty of it and find someone to be a facilitator. Great stuff.

Only a couple of years ago, we were required to write a Study Plan for Emmett to satisfy the homeschooling requirements in Vermont. Since then, they've changed the law so that you don't have to do that any longer after you have completed a couple of years of homeschooling successfully. (You still have to be reviewed at the "end of the year" but you don't need to say ahead of time what you plan to cover and how.)

I love Study Plans. Heading in to winter is rough for me and I found last year that it helped a lot to set myself some goals and to have a list of things to work on.

And I didn't manage to finish them all so one of those items will roll over to this year.

Now. I'm going to write out my Study Plan below to keep me honest. Don't feel like you have to read it all... maybe you want to go make one of your own...

Sewing
Lulu & Bea inventory for next year :: Emmett and I will be the marketeers next year (provided we are given a permanent spot, mind you.) Jessica and I need to get ALL the sewing done we possibly can before the first of April. That's the goal.

Finish the blue velvet coat from last year. It was based on one I saw in the Boden catalogue but it's now a year old and so certainly out of fashion so I can't link to it. Think blue velvet with a peter pan collar, three button closure, and red and white polka dot lining. That's it.

Master knits. Or at least work on them. We now have a Cover Stitch machine to make knits for market and it is sorely trying us. Really. So I want to get the upper hand on this machine and make t's for the whole family. And get this: underwear. This is the winter I learn to make underwear, folks.

A tea dress for me, and one for Bea, and shoes for Em's medieval costumes.

Knit
I will, come heck or high water, complete the sweater I have started. And it will fit. Or I will start over. I will not find someone that it will fit, I will work on this sweater until I get it right. Dangit.

Pair of lace socks for me. I'm taking a workshop on this pattern shortly, that should help. I hope.

Holidays: Another handmade Christmas -- all handmade, no exceptions. This means more sewing and knitting projects that will remain secret. Or, as Bea used to say, "sneakret."

Kitchen
I aim to bake all of our bread this winter. Every last loaf.

I aim to incorporate more living foods into our diet -- sourdough bread, kombucha, lacto-fermented foods...

Writing
I once took a writing workshop with Scott Russell Sanders. I love his writing. He's way into having a sense of place -- knowing where you live, noticing what's around you, being rooted to where you are. I have a four page list of exercises that he handed out. This was years ago -- Emmett was maybe a year old? Yeah. Time to get to those exercises, I think. I'm going to complete his four pages of exercises -- maybe in the form of blog posts, maybe just in a notebook.

Books to go with the Sense of Place
Barnhill, David Landis "At Home on the Earth: Becoming Native to Our Place"
Hogan, Linda "Dwellings: A spiritual History of the Living World"
Sanders, Scott Russell "Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World"
Cooper, Susan Fenimore "Rural Hours"
Brox, Jane "Late Seasons of a Farm and Its Family"
Nabhan, Gary Paul "The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places"
Vitek, William and Wes Jackson, editors, "Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place"

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