Odds and Ends

We wrapped up another unit in the HOD Creation to Christ study.  So far, so good-the boy seems to like it.

We have done a few projects covering poetry (which I am sadly not real keen on-I dunno why poetry is not my thing but it isn't).  Thankfully, HOD's C to C covers Robert Frost who is one of my favorite poets (well just about only poet I truly like) so I am glad we're covering him. We have done a couple copywork lessons from some of his poems, to which my son is required to paint a page to paste it one.  The boy has done this without complaint and that makes me happy b/cuz he is not really my artsy child. Now personally, I would like to see some variance on the techniques and mediums used for these projects (but seeing how we've only done 2 of these I can guess I have to wait and see if other ones change up a bit) because too many similar styles will lead to boredom and I don't want that for my son...so I will get back to you on that...but here are the two we did...

The glare from the flash makes it hard to read...but the goal was accomplished.  Those are suppose to be sticks in a stream (blue one) b/cuz the poem talks about cleaning one out.

Maybe we should have glued a bunch of sticks on it instead to give it a more realistic feel...maybe we will still do that. :)

In the history section, we have had a project involving salt dough.  Now thankfully, this recipe didn't require baking it (you can read my salt dough fiasco post here) so that was good. What we failed to do is read ahead and clarify the directions because we messed up a bit.  But hey-that is what makes it truly our project!  LOL...

So we were suppose to make a cylinder shaped thing that had our names on it in Cuneiform. What we misread/misunderstood was that it was suppose to be in reverse relief. That means that whatever we wanted to have impress images onto something else, we had to cut away from to make those images stand out-we did the opposite instead. Our cylinders are marked into and cannot leave an impression. 

these are kind of blurry but I tried to get close so you can see the Cuneiform writing on them.

Son's on left, mine on right.   

The Cuneiform cylinders on left, building on right

We also had extra dough (yes, there is a story for this too). Now I should have read ahead to see what we'd be doing with it, but the boy was enamored with brick building parts of the stories we were reading and begged to make his own. So we did.  We got quite a few and then once they were dry, he created a small foundation of a building (like we'd find in an area of ruins)...we glued them together with flour/water paste and he happily built an old house.  What we were suppose to make was a clay tablet with writing and then use our cylinders to impress our name stamp on (like they would have done back then). So again-we proved ourselves to be rebels.  

View from the side, you can see the "mortar" that was used to hold these together. It is kind of fragile but I have a picture of it now, so if it collapses or ends up in the trash [which it will], I still have a photographic record of it. Helpful tip: taking pictures of all those projects your kids make is easier to store and keep than actually holding on to every single thing they create. Save the best ones and take a pic of the rest.

That said [that we're rebels], it also is my point. We took something and made it more personal to us (my son had much more fun and learned more by creating his project than if he had done the one assigned)...and since the brick making/building went hand in hand with what we had been reading about (tower of Babel, jobs of some people, etc.) I let him do it. That is the beauty of homeschooling-the project fit him, not the other way around. Years ago I would not have dared to overstep the guide's assignment. I am so over that now because life has taught me to adjust, personalize and focus on the child's learning style/interest, not what any particular lesson/program says they should/must complete. We learned, we laughed and we didn't burn any projects. Life is good.

Dinosaurs study for HOD Creation to Christ study

So as a part of the Creation to Christ curriculum, dinosaurs are studied. But not as in depth [of a study] as I want-so I am adding in some goodies for the boy and we'll just mosey along at our speed covering a bit here and there from the resources and activities I have, as well as the study in the guide.

I was looking through my shelves and found most of what I was searching for.  I have to hit the stash in the basement for a couple books (including the dinosaur joke book my hubby had as a kid) but for the most part,  I will use what is shown in this picture.  I am sure I will add a few more notebooking/lapbook components as we go through the unit but this is a good start.

I was just drifting off to sleep the other nite when my brain snapped on and reminded me that I had a set of dinosaur pictures [bulletin board set] that I bought eons ago when the two older kids were very young.  I have not covered the dinos like I have had wanted to with the boy, so I am excited for this unit.  He has always enjoyed dinosaurs (those Jurassic Park movies are on his top 10 list-even tho they are gross) so this should be fun!

We have very, very limited wall space in the education room, so I had to put these puppies up on the entrance walls [which is kind of angled, hence the two pictures to show all of them].  This spot is actually good b/cuz the boy sits so he can look up at them, at any time.  I DID NOT put the evolutionist time line up-what I want to do is put up a couple note cards highlighting a few Bible verses that mention the leviathan.  The little people are to show the scale (although this is far from being accurate) of the dinosaurs to humans.

Resources:

Answers in Genesis Magazine (love this site)

(you can get the Answers books there too)

Dinosaur notebooking pages

Lapbook components from Homeschool Share

the other books I probably got from Amazon

I have no idea where I got the dino bulletin board set-

it would have been from a teacher's store/catalog

The Adventures in Science: Dinosaurs booklet is 

probably out of print-it came in a group of activity books

 that I also bought years ago.  It has a bunch 

of activity pages and such...so I will just pick and choose

 what we want to do.

OH YEAH!  I just remembered I have the 

Dinosaur and Things Game by Aristoplay!

I bought this when my oldest was about 4/5 yrs old!  By the looks of the box, you can tell it's been played with a lot!  :)  Even tho the boy is on the outer age limit noted on the box, we'll still play but be sure to add those question cards to make it a bit more difficult. And yes, we know this shows millions of years as the dates-we simply ignore them.  

Heart of Dakota: Creation to Christ curriculum for the boy

So after much deliberation, examination, ponder-ation, and prayer-ation:  I took the leap and bought the guide to use with the boy.  We have been skimming along with history this year because we simply didn't have the cashola before the start of this school year to purchase much material.  So we made do. Which is totally acceptable, esp. when I have a boat load of books on the shelves. We wrapped up a few snippets of American history from our previous study...but it didn't last long.  So we've been lacking in that subject for him for the most part! Ouch!  That is not acceptable for this history loving mama!  So I debated. I am was sadly devoid of early/beginning times to ancient civilizations for my elementary age kids (well now it is just one kid) and so I wanted to find something-something that would hit that era with good coverage but not be so in depth or overwhelming that he'd run in fear every time we did our history lessons.

image from Heart of Dakota

So after reading my good friend Lynn's 4 posts on the Heart of Dakota curriculum....and after all those "ation" thoughts noted above...I felt good about purchasing the guide which covers creation to Christ.  I already have most of the books needed on my shelves or in my 'puter (as eBooks) so it wasn't hard to make the final decision.

Anyway-I received the guide today and I will start to get a handle on what I need to do [read thru it to figure it all out], wait for a couple books I had to order and get him started in another week or so.  We'll just keep on with it until it is done (probably sometime next spring).

I do love how the Charlotte Mason style is integrated into the whole enchilada.  With HOD (Heart of Dakota) the plans cover Bible, History, Science, Lang. Arts, Narration, Copywork, and she has math (Singapore) scheduled in it too.  I use Abeka math for the younger years, so (as noted in the guide) we'll do our own thing.  I will also throw in a bit of my own ideas/plans for lang. art stuff (I am not using their Reading Program) and am changing the science up a tad (he doesn't want to cover the human body so I will do a more in depth study of dinosaurs since we haven't really had the time to do that. I may be able to toss in a bit of the human body stuff later).

What is missing is the study of great artists/musicians and nature study.  So maybe when I get some time I will write a complimentary guide to go with it on those very things :) But that is OK, I do my own thing with those anyway and I enjoy coming up with my plans for it. Actually, I have decided to continue on with the Impressionist artists and plan on adding in a bit of a mini-study on Egyptian art and poss. Roman/Greek art too. The musician has yet to be determined, and nature study is always a breeze to include.

So there you have it-our new way of doing things for the boy this year and next.  I will try to post some updates as we move through it but until then, take a look see at what my pal Lynn wrote (some great, thorough posts) about HOD.

(about the Preparing Hearts for His Glory but the layout is the same for the other guides and it gives you a good glimpse of what the goal/layout is)

From my pal, Lynn's blog:  Ladybug Chronicles

Post 1: Lang. Arts

Post 2: Science

Part 3: History

Part 4: Poetry and Bible

Medieval History

So we are doing a condensed version of Beautiful Feet Book's Medieval History (but I have the older teacher guide that has the younger guide section [grade 6-8] and the high school combined in it-they now sell them separately).

image from Beautiful Feet Books

Anyhoo, we're just picking and choosing the books we want to cover so we can wrap this up asap.  My teen sort of did the Medieval era a couple years ago but didn't finish it-so since she had no other history program she was working on...we decided to pull this off the shelf and do a quick wrap up of it.

We chose to just watch the A and E version (2 disks, at about 2.5 hours each) of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.  It was not too shabby.  We simply didn't have the time to read it all and we kinda touched on it prior, so it was just an intro to the study and a mini-refresher.

Then we moved right into Marco Polo (completed just yesterday) and are working through the huge The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter.  I am reading this aloud (so even the 10 yr old is hearing this story) and all I ask is that she listen (and pay attention) whilst I do so.  My dd will simply narrate back a bit of it so I am sure she gets it (and believe you me...uh, this woman [Jane Porter] was long-winded in some of her sentences so it is easy to start drifting off).  Fun fact: the Braveheart movie was spawned from her book/story line.

Anyhoo-it is taking some time to read through but I must say that the way this was written only confirms my feelings about having good literature for our kids to read-it is a must.  I wish I would have marked some of the lines that just jumped out at me because they were so eloquent and lively. We were able to imagine ourselves there with the characters and could "see" what she was describing.  Most of the junk on the market is completely devoid of such things...but alas-I digress.....

Scottish Cheifs*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate link

It is easy with the BFB study guides to pick and choose and still walk away with a decent understanding of the era you are studying.  Even when in a pinch like we are. :)  So if you are looking for a different history program, I have always touted and will continue to do so, the Beautiful Feet Books line.  I have used them pretty much since we started homeschooling and have thoroughly enjoyed them with the kiddos.  It fits the literature/CM way to educate. The emphasis is mostly on American history but there are the Medieval and Ancient study guides too.  Lots to look at on their site-I recommend heading there to see for yourself. :) 

Before you think I am a total devotee-let me just say-I have also used Bright Ideas Press (All Am. History, which was a review item and my teen loved), and Sonlight (Eastern Hemisphere and 20th Century World).  We will be venturing into the Heart of Dakota (Creation to Christ) for my 10 yr old as soon as I order it and have a chance to go through the guide to get acquainted with it.  

It is all about using what fits our needs, the era we want to cover, and changing it up a bit to stave off boredom.  :)  

Hope this gives you some history program ideas!  Feel free to ask questions about the above curriculum (except HOD b/cuz we haven't started using it so I am new to it)....I will do my best to answer them before you make a purchase for your family :).

It's all about Emma

Emma by Jane Austen that is.  So my teen is mid-way through the book (which I love) and I have discovered some interesting things and thought I would share them with you.

Emma (Fourth Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate link

1. When a teen balks at a reading assignment-say because it is not an era nor anything they thought would be "interesting"-persevere.  I wasn't expecting my teen to go all Jane Austen nutty on me, but I had hoped she would at least walk away with a broader sense of what good literature is, and perhaps a wee bit of "love" for Jane's writing style.  I wouldn't back down when the initial complaints started and I very glad I didn't. [I will get back to this in a moment]

2.  Austen's writing is still touching her audience generations later.

3.  There is something to be said about well-structured sentences, and delightful circumstances in one's writing that instantly draws you into the story and the time period. [and no I do not pen my blog posts like I would if I were writing a paper, etc.]

LLATL-Gold Brit Lit*
attached to my Amazon Affiliate Link

 Our oldest daughter loves, loves Jane Austen. In fact (this may sound odd to many) but she requested all the novels for her birthday last year (and she is 23)...she also read Emma in her literature class (I used the Gold Learning Language Arts Through Literature series) which I am betting started her love for Austen's writings.  Well that and the Wishbone episode where they did Pride and Prejudice (which is adorable-I miss that show. We watched it regularly and the kids were first exposed to Austen way back then)....anyway,  my heart is overjoyed to see my children actually want and request these "antiquities" because it points out the fruit of feeding our children good literature during their school years.

I am against giving children junky, poorly written, twaddle-type books (mind you I am not talking children's books that delight, or having a few fluffy pieces here and there. I mean for their main diet in their education, I am not a super purest but I do feel care should be taken in keeping the main course to good literature).

What is alarming to me is the destructive thought of "who cares what they read, as long as they are reading" which plagues the educational realm so much today. It does matter! The decline of our nation's children in regard to the exposure and knowledge of excellent literature is alarming and has great consequences-some of which are already rearing their ugly heads (have you looked over the national test scores lately?). I am speaking generally, as there are always exceptions within the PS/PS setting. Sadly too, even some homeschool families fall victim to this thought.  But if students are [continually] reading the hastily penned books that contain nothing more than "dumbed-down" sentence structure, poor grammar, weak plots [or no plot] and so forth-then more likely, that is how they will write and express themselves. They will be devoid of the skill because they have not had a solid foundation laid for them.  Charlotte Mason has a lot to say about this very subject-and I strongly urge folks to take the time to read her thoughts, and books from others who have studied Charlotte and her methods.  Even if you choose to not incorporate much of her style into your educational plan-this is one area that you should strongly consider adopting.

image from Wikipedia.com

That said-and back to what I mentioned in #1-my dear daughter has now been drawn into the world of Miss Austen. She delights in narrating to me the happenings of Emma and has even picked up a couple lines to toss around in every day life ("Badly done Emma." is one of them. When someone does something in error she'll [or actually any of us] will throw that line out but replace Emma with their name...it is funny). The key to my post here is that she has a new appreciation for this writing and has discovered a liking for this era and for the author. What a loss it would have been if I had caved and not asked her to stretch herself to discover Austen (and even if she walks away not totally enthralled-she still has been exposed-and that is important). I don't think she'll be quite as enamored with Miss Austen as our oldest, but she definitely has a new love for her and her writing.  Actually, this daughter loves The Great Gatsby [she likes this time period better] and has requested to read other books by Fitzgerald.  That again is testimony to my point here-"feed" them great literature and you will reap a harvest of a love for the well-written word.

Emma (2009 BBC Version)*
attached to my Amazon link-
but this is spendy. Check your local library!

And for an extra boost-we have watched 3 versions of Emma now on DVD.  We have found the BBC [2009] version to be the best.  It stayed the closest to the story line, and had the most believable actors.  I love it when she can say, "Hey, that isn't in the book." or "They skipped a lot here." and so forth too.

Also-a visual way to help out:

One of the difficulties in reading the "literature of old" is the complexities of them.  Lots of characters and situations abound in Miss Austen's stories-so we decided to use the white board as a diagram station to note the different (main) characters and situations in the story line.  If you need a way to help your student figure out the plot or to just simply follow the intricate craziness of it all...this is a good visual option for you and your student.

You can see how we put Emma in the center and branched out the family members and suitors, while adding little symbols to highlight the love triangles or should I say none love triangles?  LOL.  It is definitely helping in keeping everyone straight.  The pictures are for our Renoir study.  :)


Ah yes, "Well done Emma, well done."

Cross post from my CM blog-Our little art section

So I took down the poster above the white board and taped up these 5 pics the kids have done.  These are my favorites ones from their projects so far.  I will hopefully find some white frames to really draw attention to them and also, as ya know-we have to be matching with the room decor-LOL...

Oh, the writing on the board is for my teen's study of Emma.  We have so many characters and crazy love triangles that we figured it best to plot out the story characters and some interesting facts on the board to make sense of it. :)

Left to right:  the two Renoir mixed media paintings (DD decided not to add lettering to the can), the Pointillism project my DD did a couple years ago and the two 6 step paintings the kids did with our CM co-op. 

I love how the kids art makes our room so cozy and personalized.  I love being able to look back at what they have done too.

Art project-Renoir inspired

To go along with our Renoir study, we did a Mixed Media Still-Life art project found on page 45 in the book: Discovering Great Artists.

For those of you who do not have access to this book, I will give you the directions for completing it. :)

Gather your materials:

for each artist you will need-

*cardboard or matte board 

(size up to you-I used the cardboard backings from some

yellow note pad pages-those were pretty good-altho, having something

 slightly thicker would have been best-

but look at those cardboard backings under

your paper pads-good way to recycle them!)

*white tempera paint (I found white poster paint and it worked)

*painters tape 

(get FROGTAPE by Shurtape (green), if you can-it works better than

the blue painters tape-I found mine at Home Depot which seemed

to be the cheapest I could find. It was about $4 which is the same price
 as the blue tape. THIS IS THE BEST tape for painting-

it does not leave those little boo-boos like 

the blue will-let me tell ya...

and yes, we have used both-will not use blue again)

*pencil/eraser (altho try to not erase if possible)

*paint brushes, water container 

*water colors

*real or fake flowers/twigs/etc. for your still life 

(be creative-look around your home for fun things to use)

*type of vase

(again be creative-I used a tea pot and a container for coffee)

Process:

1.  Tape the cardboard to something-painter's board, drawing board, etc. I used two pieces of white board. I had extra from when we cut down the large piece we bought/used for the classroom. Maybe even a clipboard will work-anything to secure it to so the cardboard doesn't slip.  Yes, you can just place on protective cover/paper, paint it and then just do this, but I find that you'll get a better result when the paper/board is secured to something larger and hopefully, waterproof or not so absorbent as the paper. 

2. I like to create about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch trim-depending on how big your project is.  Will this show when I frame it? Probably not on this one because it is an ugly brown cardboard, so I will try to cover it with a matte...but with a white board/paper it looks very pretty when you have an edging.

3.  Paint the cardboard white (tempera/poster paint).  I did this twice to be sure the cardboard was covered nicely.  The poster paint may not have given us the result the lesson wanted (for it to bleed with the watercolors) but I wasn't about to drive to the mall area to just buy one bottle of paint...so we used what the local Meijer store had and it was just fine.  Let dry before you begin the drawing/watercolor part.

4.  Set up your arrangement, and have student lightly sketch the image.

The boy was more focused on creating a background, and I think that jetting out image on the right side is a window sill, I think. :)  This just goes to show how everyone sees/does things a bit differently. :)

5.  Use a light color to wash color into the background coming close to the image.

6. Use watercolors and paint-try to let it bleed/blend together.

  

7.  When dry, have the artist sign their name and frame it.  

The teen still needs to put the writing on, but we had to let it dry first and then she had to leave to babysit, so once I have these framed, I will post them (and obviously, there will be their signatures and the writing on the can in this picture).

And there you have a Renoir inspired art project-and hey-you don't need to be studying him to do this.  It is just a great, fairly easy project to do with your kids.

Candy Cane Deer project

I just posted the instructions and supplies for these cute reindeer candy canes, on my What's in the Box? blog.  Thought I would let ya know in case you are looking for a simple, fun project to do this season.

Our annual pumpkin catapult project

A couple years back, we purchased a catapult kit (from Rainbow Resources) for our boy, since we were covering Medieval history that year.  It also happened to be the time of year when those little candy corn pumpkins were flooding the stores with their sweet goodness, and so one particular day the boy decided he wanted to see how far a candy pumpkin would go.  It was then that our annual pumpkin catapult was born.  So each year we now make an effort to see how far the pumpkins will go, and then add in a variety of other items to test their fly-ability too. The winner is noted to see what can break it the following year.

Mind you, this is not just play time.  The boy must mark out with a tape measure, the distances and mark them (math)-then once we have the distances marked, we will (do this next week) average out each item's distance traveled (math again).  We also are seeing physics and aerodynamics in play. We make predictions on which item will go the furthest (so we're calculating mass to figure this out)...and so on.  Plus, it is just plain fun.  We had a gorgeous day and our results were fun.

not sure where the ball was-but these were the main contenders

Results:

Pumpkin did the worst-but was consistent
Frog was quite the flyer actually, beating pumpkin by at least 4 ft each time
Rock, well it did pretty good-it was all over the place
Ball went fairly far but wasn't giving us the results we expected
Die was the champion hands down!  It rocked the competition and the winning catapult was at 29 ft. 6 in.!

Facts:

We didn't touch the tension at first-so pumpkin could have gone farther after we tightened it right? Nope. Didn't go but an inch or so farther after-interesting heh?

Once tightening the tension-things did go further.

The catapult we have cannot withstand our grueling tests-we needed to tape the bar that the catapult arm slams against-so hopefully, next year we can do this with a new one.  This baby needs to retire.

 I pointed out the pumpkin-I actually caught it just before it landed-cool!

And there you have it-our annual pumpkin catapult results.

Salt Dough Projects that really burned an impression on us

Working thru the Considering God's Creation-unit 4, we came upon this activity for the Sedimentary/Metamorphic rock lesson.  I have not done salt dough projects in a long time-so after making the dough-I had to research to see how long we needed to bake these babies [this info was sadly missing from the guide].  Well, after a small fire (a hot pad fell down outta my pile I had used to pull the parchment paper/dough off the cookie sheet to cook the underside. I didn't see it when I closed the door-luckily the hubby spotted a small flame rising from the bottom of the oven) and then forgetting about it b/cuz it takes oh, 4-5 ish hours on about 212 degrees to bake it right [yes, it is easy to forget,  and then hubby jacked up the oven to get ready for dinner]-we ended up with a decent (albeit slightly toasted looking) project.  [sheesh!]  Let's just say this is one project we won't soon forget! LOL....it is a great way to illustrate the idea of what happens with sedimentary rocks and fossils.

We did shell impressions, Bud's hand print (sentimental value) and used a big plastic dino to make tracks and then used a rubbery dino to make a skeleton impression.

In case you want to try this yourself, you will need

1 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
and water to make it pliable
a cookie sheet and parchment paper if you don't want it sticking to the pan
items to make impressions

spread out to use, bake at 212-220 degrees for 4-5 hours until baked thru. Flip at least once 1/2 way thru to bake underside. I pulled the parchment paper with the goodies on it off the cookie sheet after it had baked for about 2-3 hours-it is safe to sit on the rack. Note to self: check for dropped hot pads. Cool-use for demos.  :)

Convention Post 3: Ludy's When God Writes Your Love Story

All the information I note is available in their books.  I have been using the Ludy materials for years with my kids and I can honestly say, they are some of the best. I will list (at the end of the post) the ones I have personally read and own.  I must say, they are doing a great job with our youth!  They are causing them to really think about what they are doing (not just in the dating arena, but what they are doing-or not-for God).  Now after so many years, I have had the pleasure of hearing them speak, and am convinced that the Lord has one powerful call on their lives!

Session: When God Writes Your Love Story
Ludy's Website 

Eric spoke about how we, as Christians, [usually] will pitch our tent just past the line of demarcation [barely past the desert line] over on the Promised Land side-to then simply set up camp, and call it quits He stressed we should not quit, or settle just past that Promise Land entry.  Due to the expanse being so great, we shortchange ourselves by being content with stopping there.  Keep moving inside of it, toward the other side to see what God brings.  Great concept actually. This would make for a great convo with your teens for sure.

He also pointed out that we should never measure ourselves with everyone around us (worldly view on things) but rather compare and measure ourselves to Christ (to go deeper into our faith and walk with him).

Now I must say, if you have never heard Eric speak-well, he has the gift of preachering (new word there) like those old timers who would set up a tent and fire up the town with their message.  He is the "Love Brother Love Traveling Show" [Neil Diamond song there, in case you are wondering] kinda preacher!  Seriously!  He has that kind of anointing on him and it suits his personality well.  He definitely is passionate about what he lectures on and teaches, and it is a nice, refreshing change.  Then his lovely wife, Leslie is much more subdued and gentle.  It is nice to hear them both speak during the session so you can get a change up in presentation, as well as a male and female point of view.

Leslie got into the 4 points that allow God to write your love story (and again-all of this is noted in their book with the same title).  Ok, here is where it gets a bit muddled...they spoke so fast to cover the points, that I am not entirely sure which is which and if I have em right exactly.  Suffice it to say, I am slightly guessing but it sounds right (if my ole brain can recollect right).

Point 1:  Give God your pen.  IF you try to write your love story-it will come out a mess and can lead to well-nothing good.  (my words not hers) [Eric popped back into the chat with this ditty]...When God comes knocking we only let him in the front hall and a few rooms.  We need to allow him in all of our rooms, even the locked ones-so that He can lead our lives-not the other way around.  He noted that most of us cannot trust God because we cannot see His heart but by doing so-He can get into all the areas of our heart to make them ready.

Point 2:  Build your life around Jesus Christ.  I think that goes without saying.

Point 3:  Live in an Act of Faithfulness.  Be single in your mindset-that yes you are taken but not with a dude or chick-but with Christ himself. Live as you should-with a pure heart and mind.  Not to be a "somebody" or attract attention of the opposite sex.  I will save my opinion and preachering on this for another post someday (I am totally agreeing with them on this, in case you are wondering-and have brought our kiddos up to follow this point).

Point 4:  Draft a Winning Team.  Use your mom and dad to help you along in your story.  Have a good relationship with them. See their assistance not as a pain but rather as a blessing-esp. since mom and dad may have some inside info/feelings that you the prospective bride/groom doesn't.   You know you are in a Godly story when your relationship pulls you closer to God/Jesus Christ instead of farther away.  Use your mentors and such too-but (I don't recall if they said this exactly but it is a good way to live) always check your spirit (not your heart b/cuz it can be deceived) against the Word. This is one that you will have to work on (mom and dad) to help build that bridge of trust and respect.  Being overly involved to the other spectrum of taking a vacation to the moon, in regard to your child's life/love story, will not work-find the middle ground.  Pray for clarity and wisdom.

Also-they touched on the fact that -we (mom and dad) need to be praying not only for our children, but our children's future spouses!  How awesome is that!?  God is so amazing and wants nothing but the very best for our kiddos-including our children's spouses!  :)

Ludy Books we use/have read and recommend:

When God Writes Your Love Story
When Dreams Come True
When God Writes Your Life Story
When Dreams Come True
Authentic Beauty
Set Apart Femininity
God's Gift to Women
Teaching True Love to a Sex at 13 Generation (this one is for the folks more than teens)
Bravehearted Gospel (new-still reading)
Wrestling Prayer (new-still reading)

Convention Post 3: Generations Past, Present and Future by James Muffett

**Please keep in mind that I am going by my notes and may not have it all 100% correct as stated, altho I am pretty sure I have the gist of it correctly.  You will need to decide if what is penned here agrees to your family's beliefs or not.

This session focused on how we need to be aware of future generations as we are focusing on every day life.  How our actions will directly change (for the better or worse) the lives of our children, their children and their children (and so on).

Mr. Muffett is the founder and president of the Student Statesmanship Institute, which is a wonderful program meant to teach our children all about government, how bills become a law and so forth. How it is vital that they become, and stay involved to help make changes in our laws, for the betterment of our state and country.  My two oldest did the summer program a few years back and truly learned a lot (not to mention they had fun and made a lot of new friends).  If you are in Michigan or one of the surrounding states, this is a worth while program to look into.


As the session progressed, Mr. Muffett stressed how God requires us to be story tellers, to teach our children about Him and his Word and our very history [lest we fall away..sounds like today's world doesn't it?] by using Deuteronomy 32:7 as confirmation of this-

 Remember the days of old; 

   consider the generations long past. 

Ask your father and he will tell you, 

   your elders, and they will explain to you.

But what kind of legacy are we leaving our children?  Are we teaching them the foundational basis of our country's beginning-based on God not man?  We should be raising a generation that is not afraid to shine and be the light of the world.  We have forgotten to look at our past with gratitude [well not all of it is worthy of that but most is-was until corruption set in and God became a passing fancy].  The genealogical, spiritual and cultural heritages we have been given all have molded and set precedence to where we (our country) are today.  

The most thought provoking moment was when he highlighted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's* statement....

"To destroy a people you must first sever them from their roots."

Which is exactly what the undercurrent is in our country right now-the removal of God in our laws and the very fiber of our nation as we once knew it to be.  

All is not lost though, if we forge through the wilderness and teach our children the truth of our past (that many have attempted, and unfotunately succeeded at removing from our children's history lessons, or as Mr. Muffett noted-"huge chunks" of it) by using primary source documents as resources and other books which acknowledge the Truth.

Suggested texts:   

  

The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall

The Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan

America's Providential History 

by Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell

*I do not believe Mr. Muffett agrees with or would care to promote much of what this man had to say about things. He simply found this statement to be most appropriate for his lecture.  Now, I know not of this Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn except what I quickly scanned off of Wikipedia. I can say from what I did read about him, I honestly don't agree with much of what he touted.  But I do agree-as Mr. Sozhenitsyn correctly reconfirmed, (after studying and researching why Russia had so many great disasters and hearing the old timers explanation for this) that "Men have forgotten God, that is why all this has happened." [resource:  Wikipedia.com] 

I wonder too, if that is why America has seen such a downward trend in all that is good and right.  I suspect it to be so.  You simply cannot remove the Lord from the very essence of a country without disastrous results.  

Obviously, this session gave my daughter and I some food for thought!  I hope these bullet points also cause you to research this some more as it certainly worthy of pursuing.  If you ever have the opportunity to hear Mr. Muffett speak-do so, as you will learn a lot!

I suggest the following

 history programs that do teach the truth:

Beautiful Feet Books Early American, US and World History Guides,  All American History I and II from Bright Ideas Press . I haven't used Sonlight [younger grades-we have the 20th Century World one that does touch on some AM. history, but it's been a while since I have gone thru it and I am not so sure how well it highlights the beginning of our nation as following God first...] or My Father's World histories for American studies, but am sure they follow suit and do teach it as HIStory.  If you have used those and can comment regarding them-please do so.  If I missed some, also leave a comment so others can find those curriculum programs that do stress GOD as our foundation.  Thanks.

Convention Post 2: Help for the Distractible Child: Birth thru Primary Grades Session

I purchased this book from their vendor set up.  I am about 2/3 thru.  

This is an insight behind the beginning of their mission/company 

and discusses the challenges of having a distractible child, 

and ways to help minimize the behaviors. And after hearing her speak, 

I am not surprised that this is punctuated throughout with Melinda's humor.

 Helpful insight for anyone dealing with these issues.

The Distractible Child-part I

birth - elementary age

Speaker: Melinda Boring 

(degree in Education, and Masters in Speech Language Pathology)

I actually was able to talk with Melinda and her hubby, Scott prior to this session.  I wanted to be sure to introduce myself because I had reviewed some items of theirs for the TOS review crew  (love the Heads Up! Frames they sent).  I am thankful for those because they help my son stay on the line he is reading [and not skip around] as well as help target areas I want him to focus on.  For more info on them, you can read that review here. These folks are wonderful.  It was clear that they truly want to help other families and it shows thru their kindness.  If you ever have the opportunity to hear them speak or visit their vendor booth at a convention-do so.  I also know that Melinda wrote an article for the Special Needs Planner for TOS-which is especially designed to address SN issues.  

I knew the minute she started this lecture that it was going to be a fun and informative one.  Melinda spent some time highlighting life at the Boring homestead (which is far from boring) and then dove into some ways to help eliminate or at the very least, minimize the distractions that cause the child to not focus or putz thru their work-making the school day drag on and on.  I am considering applying some of these techniques to my lovely hubby because if he were in school today-he'd definitely be labeled as unable to sit and focus without being distracted.  I noticed a few things I also do-so I guess we now know the apples did not fall far from the tree.  :)

I will highlight some of the lecture for you, but it certainly isn't all of it. Her book is a great source for ideas and their website has the goodies she suggests.

Tips for the learning environment:

• Keep everything off the work area (this is for those that seem to find anything and everything grabbing their attention)
• Allow for controlled movements (I am thinking this is where the little do-dads come into play-they can select one to a couple items that they can manipulate while working. Such as a squeeze ball or wind up critter [like the frog I bought] or a stetchy man or the Wikki-Stix) something that allows for a release of their energy without them bouncing off the walls themselves.
• Avoid cluttered worksheets or reading assignments (she blocked off areas with paper that was not written on and left only open the area she wanted her son/daughter to read. Clever.  It meant he read only that little area and his eyes were not overwhelmed with the other business on the page)
• Use contrast (so put the worksheet/assignment on top of a colored piece of paper [folders, larger paper that is colored] to outline or frame the worksheet.  I should think at least a 1/2" border or more would suffice in getting their attention. Kinda like a frame for a picture except the frame is bright and the picture is the paper they working on).
• Have a reminder weight on them (for her daughter, they made a kitty that was filled with sand [now gravel] that weighed enough to help "hold her down". I am thinking this is a good idea for those kids that "fall out of their chairs" or get up constantly and may not even know why-esp. when they are not done working on their assignment/project.  She said to have it on their lap about 20 mins. and then take it off for 20 then if need be put back on and so forth. That way they don't get too accustomed to the weight which would make it ineffective).  Visit their site and take a look at their weighted kitty and turtles.  I picked one up at the vendor booth and they do weigh more than I thought-so these are serious stay in your seat critters.  We have a real kitty that does take over one's lap so I think we have this covered in our home.  But if I see we need one-well I now know a good solution to fixing it.

Tips for Structuring Time:

• Predict time needed (this is done with a timer. If your child gets distracted by the noise of the ticking, then use a timer that is silent [which they sell])
• Give assignments one at a time
• Provide feedback in a timely manner
• check with the child frequently during tasks (this may not always be possible tho)
• Reward attention (this is the positive approach-mention how well they are working and whatnot instead of always noticing what they are not doing)

HERE IS WHERE WORKBOXES will be a HUGE blessing to you.  They met just about everything she mentioned as a help.  They have all the stuff they need in the box so the child won't get distracted and become "lost" looking for a pencil or a glue stick b/cuz it will be right there for them.  The assignments are in small slices and they only do one box at a time-so they know how much they need to do and what it is they are to do.  They can see where they are at in their day of assignments and know that when they finish the last box, they are done.  These have changed the way we do school and I even have an entire blog dedicated to ideas/helps and how to use them.  You can visit my What's in the Box? blog to get more insight regarding this awesome method of organizing and streamlining your schooling.  

General Tips:

• Use auditory signals to get their attention (I do this and never even realized I was-LOL.  Use a sound of a bell or whistle or clap to get them to get back on track)
• For fidgeters: using the little toys that keep their hands busy will help redirect their attention. She mentioned something that I have noticed a lot in my life-that many adults will jingle their keys (or snap the pen or the like) and that is because they are in need of fidgeting to focus (my words not hers but you get the idea). Wouldn't cha know-just the other day at the doctor's office  a guy came in and was constantly jingling his pocket change/keys (I wanted so badly to go to the guy and give him a busy item like a flour balloon**).  LOL  Maybe I should carry around several of those goodies to give adults, so they will have a less noisy item to fuss with! 
• Use novelty, props or storytelling to help promote their focus and attention (her daughter enjoyed getting her stuffed critters together to re-enact a story or lesson, which I am sure she would then remember much better than if she was staring at some words on a page).
• Allow child to draw or be busy whilst the teacher is speaking/reading (I HAVE to use this technique with my kids all the time-always.  My dd draws and my son will color, play with something or build with legos/toys or literally be rolling on the floor or walking around the coffee table whilst I read/instruct.  They DO retain better when they are moving/fidgeting and I stand by this recommendation whole heartedly!)
• Take a picture of say the toy area all cleaned up proper like. Then have that picture handy and say to the child that you want them to clean up and make the area look "like the picture" (this is a Waldorf method idea and is effective-esp. for visual learners).

**flour balloon is a high quality balloon filled with flour and then tied off. The child can squeeze and squash this to release their energy.  I made one at home using a funnel and flour. Altho it isn't as big as theirs, it works. There are those squeeze balls that do the same job too.

And that wraps up this lecture.  There are so many easy, little ways you can help your child-so don't despair.  It is possible and it can help all of you have a smoother, less stressful day. 

Oh, I wanted to mention that they have this hall pass timer thing I am seriously considering.  It has two parts-one for the child (or husband who disappears whilst on a mission for ya) and the base.  You program in the allotted time (up to 5 mins) and then it starts timing them when you turn it on.  The base keeps track of the time too and supposedly, it will keep going [until the removable part is put back in] so you know just how much past the 5 mins. they are "late". This is a visual reminder that they have to move it to get the errand done to then quickly get back to "headquarters" to finish their work.  Thinking of all the times I see my kids disappear to "go find something" or "check on something" during our mini breaks-which then becomes a lengthy vacation for them- I am so thinking this would help us out a lot.  You may need one for your family too. :0)