Maps of War - great resource for Social Studies

I love this site! - Maps of War I almost didn't check it out because the name didn't appeal to me, but luckily the blog where I discovered it had a map from the site embedded into their blog so I actually saw how neat it was. What made me love it even more is when I read their Sharing Policy. They actually want you to copy, paste, and share their maps, as long as you link back to them.

Here are my favorite from the site:











I can so see using these maps as a base for unit studies. I want to incorporate at least one, if not more, of them into my plans for next year. I will show DD the map and then we will dissect it bit by bit and do more research inspired by the map bits.

Thanks to Phyllis for posting about it!

Gardening

Cloudsome hosts a Sunday Garden Tour on her blog every Sunday during the summer. This year she explained the tour and started it in May. I love the idea! I discovered it thanks to Becky at Farm School. Today Becky posted pictures of her blooming lilacs and I'm so jealous! I love lilacs but every time I've tried to grow one my DH has mowed it down. I'm thinking maybe he doesn't like lilacs. :)

I'm a gardener wanna-be. I've been one for years. You'd think I would have learned something by now but I'm still struggling. A few years back I wrote a gardening column, called Green Thumbs and Greenhorns, for our local newspaper hoping that I would learn something from other gardeners. It was fun and I did learn a lot. We even started a gardening club for a little while, but it dwindled out, much like my garden.

I even have a blog called Green Thumb Wanna be. I started it way back in 2004. It dwindled out too. Every spring I get the gardening bug and I think this will be the year, but it doesn't happen. Same thing happened this year. Back in February I had big plans, and they were good plans too. I was really looking forward to fulfilling the plans, but then life got in the way. I guess I should probably go back to that blog and explain what happened. Maybe it's not too late to do something with it.

I do have a small corner garden in my back yard where I have some lovely perenials donated by family and friends. They have managed to survive over the years. I was actually out weeding them a little yesterday and dreaming of doing more. I'd love to be able to take pictures of each of the plants that I have back there and make a little book about them, naming and describing their growth. Some day.

For now, however, I content myself with virtual garden strolls such as the one Cloudsome allows me to enjoy. Maybe some day I'll be able to participate rather than just watch. :)

Teachable Moments

Today little one and I had some fun making letters and shapes with hair clips. It wasn't a planned activity - it just happened.

She was sitting on my knee as I was checking my email. I had some hair clips on my desk. She started playing with them and I got the idea to make a letter A for her with them, as that is the first letter in her name. She was thrilled. Then I moved the clips and made a tringle, which she also liked, and she proceeded to ask me to make a square.

I was hoping she was going to attempt to make some of these things herself but she was more content to tell me what to make and watch me make it. We didn't stay at it long but that's okay. I'm sure we'll do it again soon and one day she will be making attempts to make things on her own and tell me what she made.

I love to look for teachable moments in the day. You don't have to have a big lesson plan or certain supplies. Learning can be a natural part of ordinary moments in the day.

Check out Melissa Wiley's post

Today Melissa Wiley has an excellent post, that is actually a repost of something she wrote a while back - "Home Education: Delicious and Nutritious". In the post she addresses a lot of the questions and comments homeschoolers often encounter. It really is worth reading.

Speaking about resources...

...the June Edition of The Heart of the Matter is now posted. You can download the whole edition as a PDF or you can read it online. Lots of good stuff there.

Two great resources - the internet and the library

My two favorite resources for homeschooling, and everything else, are the internet and the library. I find both invaluable.

We have always made great use of the library. We made it a point to visit regularly. The kids would pick out books that they were interested in and I'd pick out books that I hoped they would be interested in. :) We would get books to read purely for pleasure and books that would hopefully be pleasureable as well as educational.

Unfortunately for us our small local public library became a part of the high school library and we were not comfortable in going to it during school hours. Instead we took advantage of a library in a bigger community about an hour away. We all looked forward to library day when we would pack up the van and take off for the day. We'd spend an hour or two at the library and then we'd head out to eat somewhere and then hit the stores for a little while before we'd head home. Usually the kids were busy checking out their books during the ride home.

As the children got older I discovered more and more what a great resource we had on hand in our own house with the computer and an internet connection. Through this resource we could connect with people from all over the world. We also discovered that there were lots of great learning related sites for all different subjects available through the internet and we've taken advantage of a lot of them over the years.

In my mind a library card and an internet connection are two very important and very useful resources.

Licking beaters

I made cookies today and I was reminded about a funny that happened here a nice while back.

Around my house it's a normal thing that whenever I use my mixer, which is often, someone comes running to lick the beaters when I'm done. I think that's why the Dairy Queen Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard commercial - the one where the guy talks about getting his tongue stuck in the beater - struck me so funny.

A few months back I was looking after a couple of little guys, ages almost 1 and 3. I made cookies one day while they were here and my Little One, 2, came running to get a beater. I gave one to the 3 year old and he looked like he wasn't sure what to do with it. He watched my little one and soon started in to licking and making "mmmmm" sounds of joy. I asked him, "Doesn't your mommy let you lick the beaters when she makes cookies?" His reply to me was, "No, she washes them."

My older kids were aghast at the thought that there were little kids in the world that didn't know the pleasure of licking a beater! DD, 15yo, wasn't impressed that I gave what normally would have been her beater to the little guy. I had to get another beater out of the drawer, dip it in the batter, and give it to her. :)

In his mom's defense I have to say that I mentioned it to her, hoping I hadn't taught them something she didn't approve of, but she assured me she was fine with it but she hardly ever baked so that was why licking the beaters was foreign to him.

His response cracked me up because he apparently thought that I didn't wash my beaters, but let people lick them clean instead. I assure you that isn't so. The beaters do get washed once they've been licked clean. :)

I've had the same little guys here the last few days and today when I used the beater I had three little ones running to get a beater. Last time the 1 year old wasn't quite old enough to get the pleasure but this time he came running too. I had made cookies the day before when they were here and I had taken an extra beater and dipped it in the dough for him. He loved it! Today he came looking for his as soon as he saw the others with theirs.

And yes, I did wash them once they had licked them clean. :)

Little One Makes Her First Letter...

...quite by mistake, but that's okay. :)




Quite some time ago I read about Tot School on this post at Love's School and meant to join in the fun, but I didn't get around to it until now. Carissa started and hosts a Tot School meme. I love the idea of posting about Little One's growth and learning. I wish I had started it long ago.

Little One loves to join us at the kitchen table when DD and I are worked on school work. I give Little One a piece of paper to scribble on and provide her with one writing instrument at a time from a big assortment of markers, crayons, and leads. She happily scribbles while we work. - at least for a while. Some days she'll sit there a long time, other's not so long.

Friday she was happily scribbling when she decided she wanted me to scribble with her and she started asking me to make different people's names. This is a game we have played many, many times. She actually learned to recognize the first letters of our family members when she was quite young through playing this game. She didn't know the letter names, and still doesn't, but she knew who they stood for. Anyway, I wrote the names as she asked me, in between helping DD with her math, and Little One continued scribbling away. Suddenly she exclaimed, "I made me!" and pointed at a spot on her paper. I was shocked to see that, sure enough, she had made a scribble that looked very much like the first letter in her name. I know she didn't try to do it but it is still exciting to think that she recognized what the scribble looked like.

I don't know why I never thought about it before, but that day I decided I'm going to start saving her daily scribble sheets and using them as records of her learning. I'll date them and write little notes on the back and put them all together into a little booklet for her. It will make a great record of her growth and learning and will be so much fun to look back on.

A cleaning fit at our house means...

...company's coming

...mom's cranky

...mom has something she should be doing but she's avoiding it

...we've just come back from visiting someone else and Mom realizes what a state our house is

...mom's been reading blog posts about other people working on cleaning and she's feeling guilty


Got this idea from Dana's post, and she got the idea from Sylvia's post, who was inspired by Dawn's post. I changed it up a bit though because I wanted to ask like one of the commentors on Dana's post "What is this clean of which you speak?". Loved that comment! I sometimes go into short cleaning fits but seldom, if ever, does one last long even to actually end up with a clean house. :0)

Dawn's post is a wonderful, inspiring post and I really wish I could have her great attitude, but when I read her statement "We don't clean up messes to have a clean house. We clean up messes so there is room for more mess!" I just can't seem to take the next step with her and "think of cleaning up after my kids as replacing a canvas". I wish I could, but I can't. My response is, "Why clean it up if it's only going to get messy again." Sad, I know. I was really, really inspired by Dawn's post, until Dana's and Sylvia's post revived the real me.

I have to share a funny that happened while I was typing this post. I originally titled it "A cleaning frenzy at our house means..." until I looked in the dictionary to double check the spelling of "frenzy" and I discovered that it means "wild excitement", and I just couldn't bring myself to use it because cleaning does not excite me at all. I decided to try "spree" as a replacement, until I discovered that it means "a noisy frolic", and decided that wasn't right either. It may get noisy when I clean, but it's not fun and I associate frolic with fun. So I decided to try "fit" as a replacement. "any sudden, uncontrollable attack; an outburst, as of anger; in an irregular way". Yep, that's the right word. :)

"Whereever you are, be all there"

Anne included the quote "Whereever you are, be all there", by Jim Elliot in her amazing post today, How to Practice Being Present to the Presence of God, and it jumped at me. You need to go read her post because it goes in a different direction than I'm going here and it is so inspiring. Don't miss it.

Anyway, the quote itself reminded me of the two blog posts that I referred to in my Become involved with the kids and have fun post from yesterday. I kind of get the idea that God is sending me many differently worded, but same meaning, messages.

This year has been different. DD, almost 16, is my only "official student" and, while I started the year all excited about the fun we were going to have together, it hasn't been as much fun as I thought it would be. I'm realizing, however, that I'm probably to blame for this. I was not as present with her in her studies as I could have been. Instead of my dream of us enjoying our time together she ended up spending much of her time holed up in her room working on her own, with me checking in once in a while to see how things were going.

Off and on throughout the year I would realize that I needed to be more present for her and I would work on doing that for a while, but I soon forgot as I got caught up with other things. The posts the last couple of days have been a great reminder for me and the last two days have been some of the most fun of the year. We worked, talked, and laughed together. It was great. I hope I don't forget again soon.

Cool Mom Song!

You have to check this out!

Go Fish - The Mom Song

Become involved with the kids and have fun

In Melissa Wiley's post Drawing Together she tells about some "family drawing time" they've been enjoying as she "strewed herself" by becoming involved in the activity and instantly became a" child magnet".

I read Melissa's post right after reading Dawn's post Letting Go and Having Fun where she shares about "one of the most plugged in and conscious days" she's had with her kids in a long time.

The two posts just seemed to go together so well that I couldn't not point it out.

I really wanted to title this post "strew yourself and have fun" but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it because of how it might be misread. Sad, because it would have made a great title.

It's Carnival Time!

The 5th edition of the Canadian Home Educators Carnival is up with visits with homeschoolers in 5 of our provinces. Sure would be nice if we could get visits into each of the provinces. The Carnival blog has a new feature in the side bar - blogs featured in past editions are now listed in drop down menus according to their provinces. Right now some provinces don't have any blogs listed but hopefully it won't take long for that to change. There's a call posted for the next edition, which is to be posted May 27th. Sure would be great to see every province represented in it. Help spread the word about it to increase the chances of that happening.

The 125th Carnival of Homeschooling is also up. Sure hope the Canadian Carnival reaches that mark at some point and that it has grown as big as the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Some people may wonder about the need for a Canadian Carnival of Homeschooling when there is already a general carnival of homeschooling. I don't know about you, but much as I like to read about people from all over the world that have the same interests as I do, there's always something special about reading about people closer to home that share your interests. I think both Carnivals are important.

We all need somebody to lean on

Let's face it, there are times when we all need someone to lean on. In this day and age it is great that when we don't have people near us to turn to we can still get the help and support we need through the internet. For the 5th Home Educating Blog Carnival, in order to learn about different support systems that are available for Canadian Home Educators, it was suggested that we write about our local support groups, or online support groups, that we enjoy.

Homeschooling in Newfoundland and Labrador is not always easy, because our geography has us so spread apart. There is a fairly large group of homeschoolers in the St. John's area, but the rest of us are spread out all across the province.

CHENL, Christian Home Educators of Newfoundland and Labrador, is a provincial homeschool association that was formed in 2003 and is still active today. They offer an annual conference, I attended this year's conference just this month, and also have an email discussion group for members.

In our area this year we have five families that are homeschooling and we have made an attempt to get together regularly. Every second week the moms have attempted to get together one night just to relax and chat. In between these weeks the mom's and children have attempted to get together one afternoon a week for some learning and fun. I say attempted because it didn't always happen, but it sure was great when it did.

These are my only two "in real life" support groups and I am grateful that I have them, but I truly don't find that they completely meet my need for support. For that reason I am so thankful for the online support group that I have been privileged to participate in.

My greatest form of support has come from a private email list that I have been a part of since 1999. It was started by a lady that was at one time living and homeschooling in Newfoundland and knew the need for homeschooling support in Newfoundland. She and one of her friends moved away from Newfoundland but wanted to continue supporting Newfoundland Homeschoolers, so she started the email list. The list, however, has evolved over the years and is no longer specifically for Newfoundland Homeschoolers. New members can be invited to join by present members and members have come and gone over the years. We are presently a group of approximately 20 ladies all across Canada in different stages of homeschooling. The founder just graduated her last child this year. Though there are many miles, or kilometers :), between us we have grown quite close and we support each other through all of the different aspects of our lives, not just the homeschooling. I am so thankful for this group of ladies.

My newest form of support has been checking out homeschooling blogs - both personal blogs and blogs of different homeschooling organizations and resource people. I love getting a glimpse of the lives of homeschoolers around the world, but I especially like checking in on Canadian homeschoolers.

I think it is important to connect with someone, somewhere, somehow, to help you along the homeschool journey. It's not an easy road to travel on your own.

Learning to Appreciate

Life has been really crazy around here lately. Just the past two weeks we have traveled from one side of the island to the other. We spent a week with DH's family in a small community near Lance Aux Meadows. We came home for a day before repacking to go to St. John's for a weekend. Our provincial Home Education Association held it's annual conference in St. John's. It was very tiring for us with all the travel, but it was so good to connect with other homeschoolers. DH is gone to his parents again but I opted to stay home this time.

I was inspired by Ann's post, Dandelion Wine, today at Holy Experience. So often I find her posts refreshing, challenging, and encouraging. Today's post really struck me. We've been struggling with what could be considered the weeds of FIL's cancer. Ann's post reminds me that God allowed it, so He must have intended it for good, and we definitely have seen good in it. It doesn't mean we don't struggle, but we will get through it.

At times like this you learn to appreciate the everyday normal things and to pay attention to the beauty around you that you so often over look. You make the most of every day. Other things fade in the background and you reassess your priorities. You learn to overlook things that are not important. You're more aware of the importance of relationships and understanding. I hope they are lessons we won't soon forget.

My Home Schooling Mentors

When I think back on my homeschooling journey there are two ladies that stand out to me as invaluable mentors. They each inspired and encouraged me in different ways.

I learned about the concept of Homeschooling in a parent's magazine article. It was a totally foreign concept to me, but one that immediately caught my interest. Shortly after reading this article I was told that a new family that had moved into our community, and had children in the same classes as two of my children, had been homeschooling before they moved here. I was intriqued and determined to find out more about it by getting to know the mother. Little did I know how important this lady would become to me.

Kathleen became my first homeschooling mentor. I asked her about her homeschooling experience before she moved here and told her about my interest in it. I think that my interest may have resparked her interest and before long we were both homeschooling our children and looking to each other for support and encouragement. We became very close friends and confidants, and remain friends even though Kathleen ended up moving many, many miles away.

Shortly after I started homeschooling I somehow heard about a number of families that were homeschooling in a community about 2 hours away from my community. I wish I remembered how contact was made but I don't, all I know is that I ended up getting an invitation to join their families for a Valentine's Party.

Kelly stood out to me at that party because her family was like an older version of my family - two boys, one girl. I was so impressed with her children and seeing them gave me confidence that I could do this. Kelly ended up moving away a year or so after this but she had the foresight to do something which I am so thankful for. She felt for those of us that would be left behind and she started an email list for us to keep in contact so that we could continue to support and encourage one another. I have continued to be encouraged by Kelly's family as I have watched her children complete their studies at home and grow into young adults taking their place in the world.

Thank-you, Kathleen and Kelly, for the part that you played in this incredible journey I've been on.

3rd Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival is up

...you can check it out here. Be sure to visit all the contributors and to leave them a comment.

We're having a nice visit with the inlaws. One of the advantages of homeschooling is that we can do this without worrying about missed schooling - we just take our school work with us and take advantage of learning topics and activities that come our way wherever we are. DD was checking out some history and geography information about this part of the island this morning and she was having a grand time learning things she wasn't aware of before.

Little one has been keeping everyone entertained. She's a little out of sorts sometimes. I think that's partially from missing her toys and not having the channels to watch some of her favorite TV shows. She told her grandfather this morning that he had to go to bed because she wanted to watch TV and she was afraid he was going to change the channel. How do you teach a very vocal 2 year old about respecting her elders? Especially when everyone laughs at her when she does stuff like that!

I managed to do a bit of scrapping the last couple of days. I made a card and envelope set each day and I'm really pleased with both. I'm hoping to post some pictures on my scrappin blog when we get home again.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Some of you may not be aware but today is National Scrapbooking Day. I was introduced to Scrapping as a hobby about two years ago and it's something I greatly enjoy. I've been in a bit of a scrapping slump for quite a while now and haven't done much scrapping but I still keep on eye on what other people are doing and every once in a while I get out of my slump for a little while and enjoy creating again.

Carla, one of my local homeschooling friends is also a scrapbooker. Actually, she's the one that got me interested in it. The last time she was the host of our bi-weekly homeschooling mom's get together she had us all making cards. It was great fun! Shortly after that session we all gathered at another homeschoolers home and scrapped again and this time the teen girls joined us. We had a great time.

Carla helped plan an all day National Scrapbooking Day party in our community for today. I'd love to be there but I'm 6 hours away visiting with the inlaws.

The second edition of the Canadian Scrapbookers Blog Carnival was posted yesterday. It was a special edition with people sharing their plans for celebrating National Scrapbooking Day. Drop by and check it out.

Fun Get Together

Last Friday was my turn to host our local homeschoolers for our bi-weekly get together. Because I thought it was National Wildlife Week I decided to plan some activities based on that theme.

I wrote about National Wildlife Week on the Newfoundland and Labrador Homeschool Nations Blog that I am co-ordinator for at the moment after I had heard about it on another homeschoolers blog. I really liked the "Tell Your Wildlife Watch Story" that I found on the National Wildlife Federation website while researching for that post. We have a local homeschool family that is very into watching nature and I knew they would like that idea and I thought others might too.

The day before our get together I went searching the internet for other ideas and possible materials that I could work into the get together and I discovered something that threw me right off for a little while. I don't know why I didn't discover this information when I was doing the research for my post about National Wildlife Week, but for whatever reason I didn't come across that information then but I did come across it that day.

Through this website I discovered that Canada actually celebrates National Wildlife Week the week that April 10 falls on, in honor of Jack Miner's birthday "to create a perpetual memorial to honour him for his pioneer work in wildlife conservation". There's lots of interesting information about Jack Miner on that site - like the fact that the outdoors was his classroom because he was not suited for school and only attended 3 months, and the fact that he included scripture verses on the bands that he put on the birds he banded.

Then I found this site all about National Wildlife Week in Canada and how the theme for this year's National Wildlife Week was "Pollinators – from flowers to food to our future". I tried printing off the Pollinator Puzzle cards from the learning center part of the site but my printer was out of ink.

I decided to go ahead and still use National Wildlife Week as the theme for our get together and to share some of what I had learned. DD and I brainstormed about possible ways to do this, and I'm pleased to say we came up with a plan that worked out really well.

When the homeschoolers arrived we all sat around and chatted for a while before I told them how I thought this was National Wildlife week and I found a neat site where they could report nature findings. We all took turns sharing our recent experiences in spotting different animals in the outdoors. There were some great stories - like the one about the mom that was playing tug of war with a weasel in their cupboard recently!

After that I told them about my mistake in thinking it was National Wildlife Week and I shared with them some of what I had learned about Jack Miner and Canada's National Wildlife Week. I had also printed of Jack Miner's Testimony from the homepage of the site for them to take home.

Then came the fun part! The night before DD and I had brainstormed a list of creatures that are common to our province. We had cut this list into strips of individual creatures and put them in a hat. We had each homeschooler pick out one, which they were to keep totally to themselves and not tell anyone else what they had. Then we gave each of them a clump of white homemade playdoh, which we had made the night before, to make their creatures. We also supplied them with markers to use to color their creatures once they were made. What fun we had! Some even decided to pick a second creature to make while they were waiting for others to finish their first ones. They did a great job and of course they ended up chatting while working and everyone pretty well knew what everyone was making before they were finished. One of the mom's took pictures of the creations which I will post when I get them.

I need your help

The next edition of the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival is supposed to be posted May 5th and so far I only have one submission. I would love for you to help me get the word out about the carnival so that hopefully I will get more submissions. Also, I've made some changes to the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival Blog and added a couple of polls to the side bar. I'd love it if you would take the time to check this out, participate in the polls, and leave a comment letting me know what you think of the changes, and encourage others to do the same.

Thanks. Hopefully I'll soon be able to stop begging people to help me out with this thing. :) I'm really looking forward to getting back to using my blog to post about my life instead.

Thanks for your help.

Hope in bad times

Our family received some sad news this week. FIL's tumor is back already and the doctor says there's nothing they can do. They say that time is short for him.

It's at times like this that I am especially thankful for my faith in God. I was reminded of that again this week as I read the Death is Not a Threat post at the Desiring God blog. Philippians 1:21 says that "to live is Christ, and to die is gain". When a life is dedicated to God dying is not a threat, it is a promotion. Sure it still hurts when you get news such as we did this week, but you have an ultimate hope and peace that lessens the sting inspite of the sorrow.

We are still praying for healing for FIL, that he would get to live whatever days he has left in praise and honor to God, but, because he has let us know that he has made his peace with God, we have a peace that when his days are finally over we will see him again in eternity.

Canadian Home Educators Carnival now has it's own blog

I decided to make a blog especially for the Carnival of Canadian Home Educators. From now on the Carnival calls for submissions and different editions will be posted at the Canadian Home Educators Carnival.

My purpose in creating the carnival was to unite Canadian home educating bloggers, not to increase traffic to my blog, and I just thought it would be better for the carnival to have it's own blog space. I also created an email account just for the carnival. It just seemed like a better idea than using my own personal email. From now on any email about the Carnival can be sent to canadianhomeeducatorscarnival@gmail.com .

I have posted a call for submissions to the Third carnival of Canadian Home Educators here. The deadline for submissions is May 2nd.

Please help spread the news about the new site and also about the new call.

Menus Moved to New Blog

I've decided to post my menu plan posts and recipes at a blog I had orginally started for my family to share recipes on. As nobody else seemed interested in it, I have now taken it over. :) If you're interested you can check out my menu plan for this week here.

Second Carnival of Canadian Home Educators

Thank you to those of you that took the time to submit a post to this edition of the Carnival of Canadian Home Educators. We have one return participant and three new participants.

Jackie's been around the block in education and she talks about a "life long love for learning" and Why Homeschooling is a Wise Educational Alternative. Her blog is a new venture. Be sure to visit and encourage her.

In her post Osmosis School, Audrey shows how her son is exhibiting that love for learning as he asks for an opportunity to "suck up" his schooling while he is having a sick day.

Dawn confesses to a problem that I think most of us experience when it comes to planning - going overboard, and then having nothing come of it. She's decided to combine some Restraint and Scheduling

On her family's nature blog, Jessica, a homeschooling preteen, shares some great pictures of a squirrel that visited their yard recently. I love the idea of a family nature blog where everyone has a turn to post.

Carla asks us to Look at these two as she catches a rare moment of peace and togetherness between two or her crew that are usually at odds with one another.

And there you have the second edition of the Carnival of Canadian Home Educators. While the submissions are few, they give you a small glimpse into the varied lives of homeschooling families across Canada. That's what I was hoping to accomplish with this Carnival - a chance to see similarities and differences in home educating families across our country.

It looks like the Carnival of Canadian Home Educators is going to be as hard a sell as the Dominion of Canada. :) Though I searched my sp*m folder diligently I didn't find any extra submissions this time around. I'm not ready to give up yet though, even if I am a little discouraged.

I'd love your thoughts on this venture, and any suggestions you might have on how to improve it. You can leave a comment below or you can email canadianhomeeducatorscarnival@gmail.com .

DD's poem

Earlier this week I mentioned to DD that this is National Poetry Month and I'd like her to do something special for it - write a poem, read some poems, etc. She told me she wanted to write a poem. She disappeared into her room and came out shortly afterwards to present me with her poem. Here it is:

There is one thing I hate more than onions - it's math!
I'd rather go a month without a bath
Than do five questions of horrid math

I'd read a book with thus, shalt, hath,
If I could get away from awful math
With its multiplication, division, subtraction, addition
I'd rather do the most dangerous 007 mission!

But I guess in the end it can be a good thing
Even if right now it causes me brain sting.

Carnival of Canadian Home Educators

Quick reminder that the deadline for submissions for the second Carnival of Home Educators is tomorrow. I only have one submission yet!! Come on, Canadian Home educators. I know lots of you have written great posts since the last Carnival. Send in your submissions! Pass the word!

Challenging and Inspiring Posts

I had saved these posts to possibly blog about, or to at least share, as I found them challenging and inspiring.

Christian Women Online's "Teach Us to Pray" devotional from a while back struck a chord with me, as did the more recent "Feathers Plucked for a Nest" devotional.

Kysha particiapted in an "In Other Words Meme" that started with this quote: "We must assess our thoughts and beliefs and reckon whether they are moving us closer to conformity to Christ or farther away from it."~ by John Ortberg Her post is worth reading. I'm thinking the "In Other Words Meme" is also looking pretty interesting.

I really liked the two simple, but not always easy things that Willa suggested in her post Keeping Intentionality - an evening reflection of and a morning list of things to do. I've been trying to incorporate those into my days and they do help. She also pointed to a couple of posts by Elizabeth at In the Heart of my Home that made me go "Ouch". I could identify with the messy friend she talked about in Why Bother. She has great suggestions in On Being Intentional. I need to work on that.


The Two Shall Become One "Our Calling" posts are hitting close to home, too. I was especially struck by part two and the fact that being my husband's helper and loving my children are tied together. I've always thought I tried my best to love my children, but I haven't always tried my best to be my husband's helper, so I have failed to love my children as I should. Need to work on that too.

Let's try this again...

I missed Menu Plan Monday last week because I was so busy the first part of the week. I really enjoyed participating the week before, however, so I've decided to try it again this week. Following Stephanie's example, I'm also going to give a little review of the meals we had the last two weeks.

Two weeks ago I posted my menu plans for the week. While I really want to try the Taco Salad Bowl I didn't get to because I sent DH shopping. :) He bought kits and the shells were too small. Also, he bought Fajita kits instead of taco kits so I didn't have the spices to make the tacos! I wasn't impressed, as I had started cooking the meat for the tacos while he was at the store. Sooo...I went searching on the internet for a recipe for Taco spice and I found one! I made just plain tacos rather than the salad bowl. They didn't turn out too bad. The Lazy Chicken Enchiladas and the Meaty Chili are always a big hit in our house. The Pulled Chicken Sandwiches were a big hit! So easy to make. It ended up being a great week meal wise.

The first part of last week was crazy because we were out of town so we ate out. Wednesday, however, I cooked a big turkey dinner - roasted turkey and dressing, potatoes, carrot, turnip, cabbage, onion pudding, peas pudding, all smothered in gravy. Yummy! Thursday I used left over turkey and gravy to make clubhouse sandwiches with poutine on the side. Once again, yummy! Friday I once again used left over turkey and gravy and made hot turkey sandwiches with fries. Umm, ummm, good! Saturday we had chicken nachos and wings. Yesterday I cooked a big cooked dinner again, much like Wednesday, but we had chicken and livers with it instead of turkey.

This week rather than give a day by day plan I've decided to just make a list of things I am thinking about having sometime in the week.

- Lasagna, from a recipe for Company's Coming Lunches.
- Slow Cooker Pot Roast - found this one a week or so ago at Weighing in on Life
- corn casserole
- Chicken and rice
- Burgers and fries


Looks like Weighing in on Life has some yummy sounding stuff posted again today.

Found a couple of sites to check out for recipes. Thanks to Mama Squirrel for pointing me to A year of Crock Potting and telling me about the Carnival of Recipes Southwestern Edition.

The Organizing Junkie has started a list of recipe sites where you can enter in your ingredients and they'll tell you possible dishes you can make with them.

Recent findings in cyberworld

April is Poetry month. At Farm School I found out about SemiColon, a blog that is featuring a poem and a poetry activity a day for the month. Love the poem, I had a Reading Mother, that was posted by hiddenart recently. Adapting the poets.org idea of a Poem in my Pocket, this lady is emphasizing the Biblical poetry book and posting "A psalm in my Pocket".

Here are a couple of Carnivals that I've been meaning to check out - Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and Carnival of Homeschooling #119.

Jacci's taking a slightly new direction with her blog and will be posting more about CM in the preschool years. She recently did a series of posts on Charlotte Mason style copywork that is really worth checking out. Her latest post pointed to this post by Lindafay "dictation and Copywrok are not one and the same". Great post!

At Dewey's Treehouse I found out about the New Look at Ambleside. Great job!

Dana informed us that the April issue of Heart of the Matter is up.

Music Festival time!

It's been a crazy few of days at our house. DD participated in a Musical Festival in a community an hour away from us, so that meant we were out of the house and out of town for most of the days, though we didn't stay overnight.

This was DD's first year participating and I am so proud of her! She did great!

Her very first performance was Monday morning at 11, at least it was scheduled for 11 but I think it was a little closer to 11:30 before they actually started the session. She was very, very nervous, and it showed, but she did a great job. The adjudicator told her she did a great job and she didn't understand her being nervous because she sure didn't need to be. She mentioned how DD looked especially nervous when the music changed to a higher key and the adjudicator was nervous for her because she thought that the key must be too high for her and then she was shocked when DD hit the key changes perfectly! Then came the time for the marks and awards. There were only five people in the class and everyone but DD got an award. There were only first, second and third awards but there was a tie for third. DD was devastated! All the words of praise were forgotten. I think even the adjudicator was shocked that she had awarded two third place awards, meaning there was only one person that didn't get anything. I think she even felt bad. I tried to console DD by reminding her of the encouraging words and pointing out that the first place person's score was 85.5 and her score was 83.5 so there really wasn't that much difference, but there was no consoling her. She said she was finished with singing and begged me to take her home.

Her next performance was scheduled for 1:30 that same day. We didn't get out of her first performance until after 12. There wasn't much time. She was in tears and begging me to take her home and I just couldn't do it. I knew in my heart that she needed to make that next performance, but I honestly didn't know how she was going to pull herself together and do it. I knew she could do it but she needed to want to do it and she didn't want to. Anyway, I proceeded to the next venue with her still begging me to take her home. We parked and I told her she needed to do this. She got out of the van, slammed the door and went in to sing - and she did amazing! She wasn't nervous this time because she was too mad at me. :) Once again the adjudicator sang her praises. She didn't get a place but there were 8 people in this group so she wasn't the only one that didn't get placed, and she felt good about her performance. I was so proud of her! I gladly took her home for a night's rest before her next performance.

There were 10 people in the group for her next performance the next day. She was scheduled to be one of the first performers but there were some changes made and she ended up being in the middle somewhere. I'm glad she was because she got to see some of the others struggle and keep going. A couple of them had to start over. Finally it was her turn and she hit every note dead on! Man, was I proud of her! Honestly, she was the only one of the group that hit every note dead on and didn't stumble over the words. She received second place award in the class and I know she would have received first place if she had been a little more animated. It was a broadway/movie class and the others dressed the parts and really acted out their songs, but DD just stood there and sung her heart out. She had no idea before hand that people actually acted out their songs.

Inspite of a terribly beginning, DD's first experience with a music festival was a good one, and she's even talking about what she might like to do "if" she does it again.

Last night we took in the family concert that was a part of the festival. What a fun night! It was so neat to watch so many different families do so many different acts. We really enjoyed it.

So, that's where I've been the last few days. They've been busy, but great days.

First Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers!

Welcome to the first Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers. Though we are off to a very meager beginning, it is a dream of mine that this Carnival will grow quickly over time. I know there are many, many Canadian Home Educating Bloggers out there and I'm hoping they will come together much faster than the 82 years it took for everyone to come together to form the nation of Canada. :)

Just like the confederation of Canada started off with representation from 4 provinces, so the Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers is starting off with representation from 4 provinces, but the represented provinces are a little more spread out in the Carnival than they were in the confederation. Also, though Newfoundland was the last province to join confederation, it is a representative of Newfoundland ( me :0) )that was the instigator of the Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers.

As my submission to this carnival I point you to a very short post of mine from a while back, where I shared a link to a post that resonated in my heart as I reflected on the fact that Motherhood is My Chosen Career.

Michelle, in Nova Scotia, was the first one to respond to my request for submissions. She shares some devotional thoughts about the important jobs of mothers and how our most important job is to work on having a right relationship with God so that we can help our children have a right relationship with God.

Julie in Saskatchewan, encourages us not to be fooled by bow ties as she shares how she discovered another side of Pierre Berton as she read his book The Secret World of Og with her children. I love the comment she made about his children knowing that side of him and it got me thinking about whether my children see a side of me that nobody else does.

Though not a homeschooling parent, Sarah, now residing in Alberta, has devoted much time to helping homeschooling students and parents, so for that reason I agreed to accept her submission to the carnival. She has put together some wonderful information for homeschoolers applying to university. Be prepared to spend much time on her site.

And there we have the first edition of the Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers. Spread the word and help us grow. Hopefully next time we will have more representations from other provinces and also more representations from the provinces already represented.

I will host the next Carnival in two weeks time so that will give everyone lots of time to submit a post. It can be a new post or an old one, doesn't matter. It can be short or long.

If you need inspiration on what to post, check out the lyrics of My Way, a song written by Canadian Paul Anka. State your case. Tell about your full life. Tell about your travels. Share your regrets. Tell about your planned, charted course, your careful steps. Tell about the times you bit off more than you could chew. Share about when you loved, laughed and cried. Tell about home educating your way.

The deadline for submissions will be April 18 and the next edition will be posted April 21. Send submission to jacqueline hillier AT gmail DOT com, but leave out the spaces and use the proper symbols for the capitalized words.


Edited at 11:45

Before closing my email program for the night I noticed that the sp*m folder was getting pretty full so I decided to delete it. Then I remembered that the last time I went to delete it I discovered that there was a message from my sister in there, so I decided I should check the messages before deleting them. Boy am I glad I did! There were 4 more submissions for the Carnival in there! Here they are:

Linda, in Newfoundland, tells about her son unschooling himself cartooning and shares some of his cartoons.

Penelope, in Nova Scotia, has a great post to remind us about the frustrations that are often experienced when we try to learn something new, and how important it is remember that in teaching our children and to teach them how to deal with frustrations.

Dawn, also in Nova Scotia, tells about how the lovely weather had her picking up butterfly nets for her children and how it reminds her of how she often picks up stuff with intentions that never get followed through. I think we can all relate to that.

Mama Squirrel, in Ontario, shares a funny from her squirrelings.

Thank-you each and everyone that participated in the first Carnival of Canadian Home Educators. I hope you will all join in again in the next one, and help spread the news.

Speaking of Writing Opportunities....

...here's one...



Sponsored by Art Bookbindery

In Ann's Christian Women Online Honors Mothers post I found out about the "Her Life Reflected" Writing Contest put on by Christian Women Online Magazine. This is an online magazine who's purpose is "to unite women of faith, regardless of our differing ages, our roles as women, or the signs that mark our church doors." Getting ready for the Mother's Day edition of the magazine they, along with Art Bookbindery, are putting off this writing contest. The winner will receive a a great prize package that includes a book, a mug, a CD, a DVD, etc. To enter you must submit an essay of less than 1000 words telling "how your mother, or a mother that you know has reflected the heart of our Heavenly Father in her life". The contest is open to women age 18 and up who reside in Canada or the United States. The deadline for submission April 21st. All entries must be made through their online submission form, which is at the bottom of the page about the contest.

and here's another one...




I discovered this one in the Homeschool Share's Annual Blast post at One Child Homeschool . Homeschool Share is an "on-line cooperative effort of several homeschooling moms to provide free but quality literature-based unit studies and resources". They are having a "curriculum drive in the form of a contest", the Back to School Blast. They are inviting people to create and submit literature-based unit studies that they will make available to the public through their site for the next school year. They will start accepting submissions Thursday, May 1, and the deadline for submissions is Tuesday, July 1. Their guidelines for submissions should be read before starting to plan the unit and can be found here. They already have a number of unit studies on the site that you can check out.

Where did the week go?? Forget that, where did last month go?!?

I really meant to participate in Dana's Home Education Week activities this week but I never did get around to it. I have enjoyed reading Dana's posts, and some others that are on my blog reader, but I want to find the time to read more. She sure had a lot of people participate. If you're interested in checking it out click on the link to Dana's original post above. She has made the daily topics into links to her post for each day and at the bottom of her post is the Mr. Linkies with links to all the participants. I'm hoping to find the time to read more of them, and I still haven't given up hope of maybe posting on a couple of them myself.

Speaking of not giving up. I had signed up for Nancy's Book in a Month Club for last month, but life was too crazy and I had to give up on it. That doesn't mean, however, that I've stopped thinking about it. I have lots of ideas in my head. I really learned a lot from following Nancy's posts all month, too. I am hoping to actually do this some month.

I did have an accomplishment or two the past month. I was put on the blogroll at Let's Play Math! I thought that was pretty exciting. I just love her website! I've been working with her getting some of her posts published in Homeschooling Horizons Magazine. That's another thing I've been doing, and enjoying this month, working on the magazine. Love it! I've also enjoyed working as the co-ordinator for the Newfoundland and Labrador blog at The Old Schoolhouse's Homeschool Nations network.

Recent Findings

In this post Anne gives a great review of Beowulf, "the oldest Epic in the English Languages", that makes me almost want to read it. I've read much about it before but nothing has tempted me to it like this review. Anne quotes Doug Phillip as describing it as "one of the ten most important works of Christian literature in history." This got me wondering what the other 9 are but I couldn't find a list. If anyone can point me to one I sure would appreciate it.

A couple of things at Lifestyle Homeschool caught my eye this week. Here is a great article on Reading Journals. I have tried many times over the years to get my kids to keep reading journals, and even to keep one myself. We would succeed for a while but then it would fall by the wayside. I wish it was something I had been more diligent about. In "Tweaking Homechool Methods for Highschool Students" and "Scope and Sequence The Discipleship Way" she shares how she gradually moves her children into taking more responsibilities for their learning. I loved these two quotes from these pages:

"If we don’t have a heart to heart relationship with our children by this stage this needs to be our priority - no school work comes close to the importance of our relationship with our children and their inner heart."
"By the time the children are getting towards their teens the discipline that previously was seen as “boundaries” set and monitored by the parents begins to become the young adults responsibility. Setting goals, monitoring progress, asking for help etc becomes their responsibility (and depends on their self discipline)"

Menu Plan Monday

I learned about Menu Plan Monday at Stephanie's and Christina's blogs. I had to go check it out. It was started by Laura and in her post today she had pictures of the things she planned on cooking this week. I just couldn't resist checking out the Taco Salad Bowls and the Pulled Chicken Sandwiches. They definitely sounded like something my family would enjoy and thus I was inspired to plan my menu for the week.

My youngest son, 18, who recently moved 6 hours away from home to work and live with his aunt, is home with us this week so I decided to cook some of his favorite meals for him while he's here.

At my house I only actually plan for one meal a day. Breakfast and lunch, or dinner as we call it, everyone is pretty much responsible for themselves. Mind you, it's often only myself and my two daugthers (2 and 15) that are at home for lunch so we just grab whatever whenever we're hungry. Supper, which is otherwise known to others as dinner, is the meal I try to have something good planned for.

We may all be heading out of town for the weekend so this week my plans are only for Monday - Friday. Here are my plans for this week:

Monday - Tacos/Taco Salad Bowl
Tuesday - Lazy Chicken Enchildas - from Company's Coming Lunches
Wednesday - Meaty Chili - from Company's Coming Lunches
Thursday - Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

Participate in a Research Study

At the end of Ann's post "Interested in Easing Parental Stress" she invites people to "Feel free to repost this post in its entirety." so that's just what I did.

A university student (and mother) who reads here contacted me, inquiring if any parent who passes through this out of the way place might be interested in participating in a research study to reduce parental stress--- through practising gratitude... Yes! Care to join me?

She writes:

WANTED: Parents who desire to reduce child-related stress.

COST: A little bit of your time.

PERKS: Improved outlook and better parenting relationships! HOW? Introducing an exciting study in the works with an outcome that will benefit you! We are happy to present you with the chance to participate and hope that you will find this helpful to your daily life. Read on for more information ~

The Purpose of the Study:

- To consider gratitude as a method for reducing stress in parenting
- To measure instances of parenting stress using the method below
- To measure the potential benefits (and maintenance) of gratitude as a means of stress reduction in parenting

The Method of the Study:

The 2 Simple Steps:

[Prior to beginning, compile a list of 10 specifics for which you are grateful. This should make the required expressions of gratitude easier.]

#1: When you experience a moment of stress related to one or more of your children, “reset” your thinking by verbally expressing gratitude, either in reaction to the current stressor, or by reading/saying something from your list.

#2: Add a mark to your daily tally (so that we have a record of how many times this happens each day).

That’s it.

This exercise will be carried out for seven days, beginning on Tuesday, April 1st, followed by a seven day break, and then repeated for a second seven day period.

If you want to participate, please e-mail gratitude.study@gmail.com by Tuesday so we can have an idea of the size of the study. Give your name, age, and gender—although you are welcome to participate anonymously, if you like. Feel free to spread the word to as many adults that you know that wish to participate. (This would make a fun project to do with friends and/or a spouse—men being specifically encouraged to participate as most studies tend to neglect the impact of gratitude from a male perspective.)


What’s in this for you?

Multiple studies have shown that people who feel more gratitude are much more likely to have higher levels of happiness, lower levels of depression and stress. They are seen as more empathetic, agreeable, and extraverted. Grateful people should be more likely to notice they have been helped, to respond appropriately, and to return the help at some future point.

You mean, you’ll get all that, just by adding some gratitude to your life? YES!

Definitions, for the purpose of this study:

Gratitude: Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen; taking time to express thanks.

Parenting Stress is defined as those moments when life as a parent seems overwhelmingly unpredictable and uncontrollable (based on the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale). Within the context of parenting,

- you become upset because of something that happens unexpectedly.
- you feel you are unable to control the important things in your life.
- you feel nervous and “stressed.”
- you feel you cannot cope with all the things you have to do.
- you become angry because things are outside of your control.
- you feel difficulties are piling up so high that you cannot overcome them.

Obviously, this will be a largely subjective assessment—that is the difficulty in measuring an emotional state. Just try to be as aware as possible.

Thank you! We look forward to sharing the results of the study.

Join us at gratitude.study@gmail.com by Tuesday.
(Feel free to repost this post in its entirety. Let's give thanks in all things!)

I'd love to hear from you if you decide to take part. Just leave me a comment telling me so.

more starred items

Great Spring devotional here.

This article by a Homeschool Senior (as in highschool senior, not senior citizen) is an interesting read. He reflects on the benefits homeschooling brought to his life. Learned about this article here.

Lysa TerKeurst posted a post a while ago called The Muffin Top Diaries that cracked me up. I have to admit that I, too, suffer with the same condition that she does. Check out the post and take the test to see if you suffer with it too. This week she posted Muffin Top Diaries, Part 2 and it is hilarious. She writes a letter to her bathroom scale outlining why it is no longer her friend.

In Becky's Uh-oh Canada post she shares about Pierre Berton's History for Young Canadians series and also points us to the Extraordinary Canadians site where you can learn about a set of 18 biographies geared for adults and older children that the Penquin groups is releasing over the next three years. Her post was prompted by a literary salute to Canada on another blog. Lots of links to check out there.

Today's Google Reader Starred Items

At Home Where They Belong I learned about edgezonegames.com. She shared the site because of the great free printable Bible lessons - , and they are great, but I also like it for the kid safe internet games grouped by age appropriateness. Little one (2yo) and I had great fun there today.

From Robin and a discussion, that I'm thinking was brought on by a Journey North Mystery Class activity, she had with some friends I learned how to make an egg stand on it's end. I haven't actually tried it yet but I plan to.

Loved this post by Ann about how the small stuff is the big stuff, which also inspired a post from Headmistress along the same lines.

Also from Ann I discovered a great site, called The Tongue Untied, for teaching upper level grammar. I hope to use it with DD if not this year then definitely next.

Barb had an excellent post today on how to make your own field guide. This is number 7 in a series of Green Hour Activities she's been posting lately. I confess I haven't done any of the activities yet but I really am hoping to do some of them soon.

Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers

I love reading blogs written by fellow Canadian Home Educators so I decided to start a Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers.

If you are a Home Educator living in Canada I invite you to submit a post to the first Carnival of Canadian Home Educating Bloggers. I have decided not to assign a particular topic for this first Carnival. You can submit a post in the topic of your choosing.

The deadline for submissions is April 4 and the Carnival will be posted here on April 7.

Submit your posts to me at jacquelinehillieratgmaildotcom. Please indicate in your email what part of Canada you are in as I am thinking about using a "Home Educating Across Canada" theme in organizing the links.

Please pass the word along.

Edited to answer the "What is a Carnival?" question in comments

Wikipedia explains it this way:

A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks links to other blog articles on the particular topic....

There are many variations, but typically, someone who wants to organize a carnival posts details of the theme or topic to their blog, and asks readers to submit relevant articles for inclusion in an upcoming edition. The host then collects links to these submissions, edits and annotates them (often in very creative ways), and publishes the resulting round-up to his or her blog....

Communities of blog readers, writers, and edition hosts form around specific carnivals. The carnivals provide an aggregation of recent posts by the community on a given topic, and the host provides a level of editing and annotation that helps readers find posts they are interested in. Writers who submit their articles to blog carnivals are rewarded with traffic...

Edited to answer size limit question:
No, there is no size limit for submissions. The post you submit doesn't get posted in the Blog Carnival, just a short write-up of some sort about it and a link to the post so that people can visit your blog to read it.

Chance to win new Rosetta Stone Language Program

I found out about this contest here. As you will read below, apparently Rosetta Stone, a well known foreign language program, has a new homeschool version and they are giving this lady, who will be representing them at conferences, a copy of it to award to someone through her blog. I have read about this program many, many times and I'd love to have a chance to get my hands on it, so I figured I'd give it a try. To have a chance to win you had to copy and paste the following paragraphs from her blog into your own blog and then post a link to your post in her blog post comments.

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!

Note: in her post all the text that is indented here was blue, so that was what needed to be copied about pasted. Oh how I hate doing that!

Life Has Been Crazy

It's been a little over a month since my father-in-law was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Our life has been crazy since then. DH, of course, wanted to be with him and help out as much as possible while they awaited news on treatment and as he went through treatment. That meant lots of travel and away from home time for us over the last month. It also meant that I was away from my computer. I did have access to other computers but I was having all kinds of trouble, especially with blogging, on them so I gave up until I got home.

We finally got home a couple of days ago. FIL is doing good. He's had surgery and has had his first round of treatment without any difficulties. DH felt confident enough to leave him for a while and come home, though he's ready to run again in a minute if need be. I've been trying to get back on track with things at home but last night threw another monkey wrench my way.

Little One is sick. I don't think it's anything serious but I was scared for a bit. She was complaining of a headache, her temperature was rising and then she started throwing up. It's been almost 24 hours now and she's still fighting a temperature and hasn't eaten anything but is throwing up whatever she drinks. She's spent most of the day in my arms. I'm hoping it's just a 24 hour bug and she'll be on the mend tomorrow.

Life will settle down again some day, won't it? Thank goodness I can find some solice in prayer.

Still Enjoying the Iditarod

I can't believe I didn't know about it before this year. It is so much fun and so interesting. It's amazing to read about all the different elements that these racers have to battle and figure out. And it's so much fun to watch as different ones take the lead at different times. I still haven't spent much time learning the history behind the race yet because there's so much interesting stuff to learn about this present race.

Today I enjoyed learning more about the racers, called mushers. There were 114 mushers that signed up for the race but only 96 started it. Of the 96 that started, 22 were females. Most of the mushers are from Alaska and other parts of the US, but there are 6 Canadians, 2 Germans, 2 Norwegians, 2 Belgians, 1 Italian, 1 Englishman (who is actually an English lady) and 1 Frenchman. I found it interesting to note that some of the mushers are racing against relatives - Blake and Jennifer Freking are husband and wife, Cim and Ramey Smyth, and Lance and Jason Mackey, and Darin and Robert Nelson are brothers. Darin's and Robert's father Louis is also racing. Martin and John Busers are another set of father-son rivals.

Another interesting couple of mushers is Rachel Sedoris and Joe Runyan. Rachel is legally blind and veteran Joe Runyan is running the race as her guide. He drives his team ahead of her and by two-way radio lets her know of any hazards, such as hanging branches, etc., that she might not see.

There have already been stories of broken sleds, run away dogs, spills, etc. Lots of excitement.

Writing Contest for Homeschooled Students

I just wrote a post on the Newfoundland blog about a writing contest for homeschooled students. You can read my post here if you're interested or you can go right to the Sylvan Dell Publishing site that is offering the contest here. Although it would be kind of rushy to participate now it would be a good experience. I will definitely be watching to see if this publishing company offers this contest again next year.

Following the Iditarod

Have you been following it? Do you have any idea what it is? I didn't, until I read a news article about 4 Canadians participating in it and it caught my curiosity so I went searching, and now I'm hooked.

The Iditarod is often referred to as "The Last Great Race on Earth". It is an annual dogsled race that takes place in Alaska and draws participants from North America and Europe. This is the 36th edition of the race. It started Sunday and runs for about 14 days. You can read all about it and follow along at the official website which I've linked above. I have their newsletter coming into my email and I've also been following the two official blogs of the race - Eye on the Trail and Zuma's Paw Prints, a blog for children written from the perspective of a dog. There are some great stories coming through all ready.

Right now the 6 Canadians are standing at 9th (Gerry Williamitzer), 12th (Hans Gatt), 16th (Sebastian Schnuelle), 30th (Warren Palfrey), 47th (Karen Ramstead), and 52nd (William Kleedehn). It is so much fun to watch as the positions change. The results are updated about every 15 minutes.

The latest news report said that weather may start interferring with the race. I found that interesting because in my research I had discovered that the Canadian Challenge - who know there was any such thing before! - had been called because of weather in February this year.

Real Math

Here's a post that everyone needs to read before they start trying to teach their children math, and then they should read it again, and again, probably every month, at least every year, so that they don't forget what real math is and so that they can instill in their children, and themselves, "The 'Aha!' Factor" of real math.

Here are some quotes to whet your appetite and esure you can't resist checking it out:

"For young children, mathematical concepts are part of life’s daily adventure....Most children enter school with a natural feel for mathematical ideas.... And then comes school."

"School ruins mathematics for most people, distorting a discipline that is half art and half sport by turning it into boring lecture and drill.... And then there are the modern “reform math” programs, which avoid lecture and drill, keeping the children busy with hands-on group activities while teaching neither the how nor the why of math." Here she gives perfect word pictures to show how terrible both methods are.

"As every coach knows, skill grows through practice, practice, practice. But practice is meaningless unless the team has a real game to play. And the best practice takes advantage of the benefits of cross-training by emphasizing variety rather than repetitive drill....Mathematical cross-training is games, puzzles, story problems, and the challenge of thinking things through."

"As a homeschool mom who loves math, I want to help other homeschoolers see the variety and richness of the subject. I encourage parents to look beyond their textbook — a useful tool, but such a limited one — and explore the adventure of learning real mathematics, math as mental play, the essence of creative problem solving. This is what we need to teach our children."

Take some time to explore Denise's blog and you will find a great number of ways to help you, and your children, discover the "Aha!" factor in learning real math.

World Math Day - March 5 2008

Did you know there was any such thing? I didn't, but I learned about it, and the cool website, from Denise at Let's Play Math.

Apparently World Math Day takes place on the first Wednesday in March - this year that is March 5. WorldMathDay.com invites people from around the world to join them in a "celebration of numbers". Individual students and/or classes of students can register, free of charge, at the World Math Day site to participate in a "quest to set a world record in answering mental arithmetic questions" on March 5, 2008. You can register now and practice at the site until the big day. Registration is fast and easy.

If you register as a school you can create accounts for each of your children/student ages 5-18. You get a sheet of sign-in cards to print and cut and distribute to your students. After World Math Day the site will forward the teacher a snapshot of how your students performed, as well as a full report of the event. Teachers can also access their accounts for student results at any time and can print out certificates for the students after the event.

The first thing students get to do is to create an avatar for themselves. Once that is done they can start to play. The computer searches the globe, and shows it on a world map, to find real life people for them to play against in mental arithmetic games. They get 60 seconds to answer as many questions as possible. The program has a ranking system that tracks how the student performs and matches them against students with similiar abilities. As you play you can gain points - the more you play the more points you get. Students can use these points to add special details to their avatars.

Besides opportunities for practicing basic math facts there is also the chance to learn about time zones and different places around the world as you take notice of where the people are that you are playing against at different times.

I hope you take the time to check it out. I think it's going to be fun. Let me know what you think.

Two Homeschooling Magazines

Homeschooling Horizons is founded, owned and produced in Canada. Published 10 times per year, Homeschooling Horizons Magazine is Canada's only homeschooling publication to reach out to home educators of all philosophies. Check here for subscription rates or to request a free sample copy.

I have recently been asked to be a "Blog Editor" for the magazine. My role is to find and follow blogs by Canadian Homeschoolers and to make the content editor aware of posts that could possibly be the basis of articles for the magazine. The content editor then contacts the blog owner advising them of their interest and working out the details of permission to use. If you know of blogs by Canadian homeschoolers please leave a comment telling me about them and how I can find them.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is a quarterly publication that boasts it can be found "across North America and on almost every other continent too". You can learn more about this magazine here.

The Old Schoohouse Magazine has started an online worldwide homeschooling network called Homeschool Nations. I have recently volunteered to be the co-ordinator for the Newfoundland and Labrador blog in the Homeschool Nations. If you are homeschooling in Newfoundland and Labrador I'd love for you to drop by and leave me a note.

Nan Gert's Button Box

Nancy at The King's Kreation has posted Blogger Friend School Assignment #15. She says, "For this assignment I wanted to see who's got the funniest, craziest, saddest, most creative or just best story about the family button box, button can or button jar." This is one I just had to do.

I have many memories of my Nanny Gert's button box. I think for a while she may have kept her buttons in a jar because niggling in the back of my mind is a memory of playing with buttons kept in a jar. I remember being fascinated with all the buttons - counting them, sorting them, stringing them on thread or wool. There were so many different styles, colors, and sizes. When my grandmother died I was blessed to recieve her sewing basket and to my surprise tucked in the bottom of the basket was her button box! I still have the sewing basket, button box and some of those buttons. A while ago I used some of Nan's buttons on a scrapbooking layout I did about her.



Also tucked away in the sewing basket was a promise from a promise box of scriptures. I just went looking for it only to discover that it is gone! I remember that it was a scripture about forgiveness, which is something I know my grandmother struggled with. Her parent's divorced when she was quite young and she struggled with that, as well as other things that came up in her live. I found it interesting that this was the promise she kept in her sewing basket. I imagine that she kept it there to constantly remind her of the importance of forgiveness. I know God's word was important to her because she is the grandmother that gave me my Bibles.

Part of the Blogger Friend School Assignment is to share your favorite verse. I have many favorites but these two passages are among my top favorites as they help me get through the days:

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You."

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - mediate on these things."

Another part of the assignment is to invite friends to join the assignments, so consider yourself invited. :)

The Uncertainties of Life

A week ago this past Sunday we received a call that my father-in-law was in hospital. Our life has been pretty much put on hold since then as we await tests to tell us what is wrong and what will happen next. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some answers.

Our Homeschool History (Part 1)

Jessica, at Trivium Academy, has an excellent post which shows the twists and turns that we often go through as we develop Our History & Philosophy of Homeschooling. I can relate so well to so much of what she has written. She inspired me to write about our homeschool history. Our philosophy, and really our history too, is still a work in process and I'm not ready to put it in print yet, but I'll try to present our history up to the present time. :)

I was a public school teacher before I got married and had my own children. When the children were little I was a substitute, or supply, teacher, called in to fill in for teachers that were sick or had leave of some sort for a day or so. I hated leaving my children! It was during this time that I read an article in a magazine about homeschooling. I'd never heard of the concept before and I was intriqued. I took a year to research it before taking the plunge.

Being familiar with the school curriculum, I decided to use it as the basis for our schooling. Though it took some adjustments to suit it for home/individual use, instead of class/group use, it worked out pretty good.

The next year I discovered ABeka and gave it a try. For the most part I really liked it, but it, too, was geared more to class/group use. The cost was also a major factor in my researching other options.

It was sometime in this period that I first heard about Charlotte Mason and the living books philosophy of education. As a book lover myself, I loved the idea of using real books, instead of text books. I didn't really learn much about Charlotte Mason's methods at this time because I got carried away with the living books philosophy, especially when I discovered the idea of unit studies. This philosophy resonanted with some of my teacher training and I set out to create my own unit studies for our learning. Though it was a lot of work, we had a lot of fun learning together.

While I enjoyed this time of learning I was starting to feel the need for more guidance to ensure that I covered everything my children needed. It was at this time that I discovered The Well Trained Mind. It seemed to be what I was looking for, but I found the process of trying to gather all the resources really overwhelming. I decided to just take some ideas from the book and incorporate them into our schooling as best I could.

Well, this has become quite a long post for me and my time for computer is up so I'm going to have continue with our homeschool history later.