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.

Meet My Bible

Nancy, over at The King's Kreation, has posted Assignment #13: Meet My Bible for Blogger Friend School. I've never done any of their assignments before but I thought I'd give this one a try.

Assignment Questions and my answers

1. How old is your Bible?
Which one? :) I have a number of different Bibles. My main Bible that I take to church and use most often for personal devotions I've had for almost 25 years. It is very dear to me. My maternal grandmother prided herself on giving me my Bibles as I was growing up. She'd give me a new one as each old one wore out or got lost. She gave me the money to buy this particular Bible for myself the year I graduated from Bible College. It is the last Bible she bought for me.

2. Why did you chose this Bible?
I liked the nice, soft, black leather, and the fact that Jesus words were in red.

3. Do you highlight/mark passages in your Bible?
Yes, I do. My Bible is quite marked up.

4. If so, what is your system for marking passages?
I don't have a system. I mark verses that strike me and sometimes note in the margins verses that have similar wording or themes.

5. Do you have notebooks to record things?
Not at the present time, though I often do. Lately I've just been noting things on loose note paper.

6. If so, how many and what do you record?
I have many old notebooks around that I have used over the years for different purposes - to record notes from messages I heard preached, to record my own thoughts as I studied the Bible, to record scriptures I wanted to study further, etc.

7. Where is your favourite spot to read your Bible?
It varies. Right now I like to read at my kitchen table as I eat my breakfast. A short while ago I liked reading in a rocking chair by our fireplace. I also like to read in the car while someone else is driving.

8. Are there any special thoughts about your Bible you want to share?
My Bible is my most treasured possession. A while back I did a scrapbooking layout featuring my Bible. The title is "Nothing is as valuable as a well worn Bible". The little diamonds at the bottom say "Read it", "Learn it", Live it". Here it is:

Canadian Homeschool Bloggers

I'd like to create a list of Canadian Homeschool Bloggers. If you are either a homeschool/home educating parent or student blogger living in Canada I invite you to add your blog to my Mr. Linkie. Your blog need not necessarily be about homeschooling. If I get enough I may eventually take the blogs listed and categorize them according to writer and/or topic.

Would you like to help me build this list? Tell others about it. Post about it on your blog. Link to this post. Let's see how many Canadian Homeschool Bloggers we can find.



Edit: To add your blog, or to see the links already, added you have to click on the Mr. Linky. I wish I knew how to make the Mr. Linky show up with the links in the post like I've seen in other blogs but I don't know how to do that so instead I'll do something else. I will make a list of the added links at the bottom of this post and every time I notice new links I will edit the post to add the new links. Also, if you have more than one blog I'd love for you to add each one.

Blogs listed on Mr. Linky
1. Jac's Scrappin' - my scrapbooking blog
2. Our Nature Study - a family's nature blog
3. Sombra
4. Birdy's Blog
5. Cornings at Home

A Wonderful Plan for Lent

I don't know about you but I have never done anything at all with Lent. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I know next to nothing about it, but the blog post I just read has me thinking I might want to do some research into it. By Sun and Candlelight has posted what she calls A Little Plan for Lent but I think it is a remarkable plan. I love the visual this lady is creating for her kids during the lent season. It's well worth checking out.

Motherhood - My Chosen Career

I just read a wonderful post called A Career Woman at The Well Drained Mind. Motherhood is my chosen career. Before I was married I was a public school teacher but I traded that job in when I had my first child and motherhood become my career of choice. I wouldn't trade it for anything, though there are times when I can't seem to quite kick the world's thinking that it is not a real career I know deep in my heart that it is and in my mind it is the most important career of all. I guess that's why I so enjoyed the post.

Working on Morning Routine

Inspired by this post by Crystal at Biblical Womanhood, I have been trying to get a morning routine in place. Years ago I discovered FlyLady and developed a morning routine, along with other routines, and it was really helpful, but I somewhere along the way I let it all slip. I've decided I need to start working on it again, and I will be taking baby steps, just like FlyLady suggests.

Crystal suggests to make a morning routine of 5 things, only 5, you want to every morning in the same order. Here's my Morning routine as it stands right now:

1. Pick out clothes for Anna.
2. Check the laundry and put a load on if needed
3. Fill water bottle
4. Get Breakfast and do devotions
5. Check email and google reader

Mystery + Learning = Enjoyable Learning

A nice while back I read about The Journey North Mystery Class in a blog post. I checked it out, even talked to DD about it, but soon forgot about it. This week Melissa, at Here in the Bonny Glen wrote a post about it again and I'm so glad she did.

This year's Journey North Mystery Class started this week, but it's not to late to join in. It is a great way to have some fun trying to solve a mystery and learn some things along the way. The FAQ's state that "The Mystery Class investigation is an 11-week hunt in which students try to find 10 secret "Mystery Classes" hiding around the globe." Every week clues are given to help solve the mystery.

DD and I started our investigation today. We were a little late starting because we needed to have the sunrise and sunset times for this past Monday for our location. After some searching we did find it. Then we got this past Monday's sunrise and sunset information for the 10 mystery classes for the Journey North Website. Starting a Journey North Data Sheet for each mystery class, and also one for our location, we recorded this past Monday's sunrise and sunset times and then figured out and recorded the photo period for each place. Then, using a different colored pencil lead for each place, we marked the photoperiods on the Mystery Class graph. While we were doing all this we were discussing how the clues so far seem to already give some indication as to the general area of some of the classes. We can't wait for next Friday to get more clues!

What are you talking about?

Just read Kim's post and this jumped out at me:

"Spirit-led understanding of God's Word is the standard for how we are to live. We are to rejoice in His commandments (Psalm 119:111). How can we rejoice in what we never think about?"

Kim's post talks most about teenagers and their need to be spending more time thinking about God's word and allowing it to shape their lives. Another statement she makes is "I have a hard time understanding why a young Christian person would rather sit around and talk about Britney Spears' latest idiocy." The sad thing is that we adults are often just as guilty as the teens about having our talk filled with the unimportant. Kim addresses this in her statement "It is a process to direct our thinking from those things to our God. Even for us older folks."

I am challenged by this today. I want to make a more conscious effort to think on God's word and allow it to permeate my conversations and actions today...and everyday.

Finished reading...

...Northanger Abbey this afternoon. I read most of it online but we finally got a copy of it from the library on Thursday so I finished it with the actual book in hand. I have to say, though, that I am kind of enjoying reading online and being able to quickly make notes in a notepad document while doing so. I didn't bother to do notes for the last chapters that I read with book in hand.

DD once again only got about half way through the book. I'm disappointed by that. She started out so well, but she fizzled. I was not pleased, though part of me could sort of understand.

I have mixed feeling about this book. I had trouble getting into it and there was something about it that took away from the story, at least for me. Throughout the book at different times Austen actually talks to the reader as an author. I found these interruptions in the story frustrating.

I am looking forward to watching the movie tonight on Masterpeice Theatre. Once again I wish DD had read the whole thing so we could better discuss the differences between the book and the movie.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday. Yesterday he left to go very far away from me for a few months. Mom and Dad are part of the group of people often referred to as Snowbirds. They leave the cold of winter in our home province to bask in the warmth of the sun in Florida. I understand them doing it, but boy do I miss them! For some reason or another I had a really hard time with them leaving this time.

Tonight the people that love him in Florida are throwing a big surprise birthday party for him. He's probably in the middle of it right now. I wish I could be there too. My dad is not one that especially likes crowds so I wonder how he's making out.

Dad always has been, and always will be, my hero. Years ago I wrote him a note telling him how much I appreciated the fact that he was such a great father because I believe his example helped me to have a better relationship with my Heavenly Father.

I love you, Dad, and I hope you had a super day!

Recent Starred Items

I like Kim's post today on questions to ask ourselves while reading scriptures. It was inspired by her reading of the book Let the Reader Understand by McCartney and Clayton. I'm thinking I would like to read this book. I find I want to read many of the books that Kim reviews. Her post yesterday about the ladies' Bible Study she's leading, which I really wish I could attend. They are using the book The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace, another one I want to read. Reading Kim's post yesterday I was convicted that I am guilty of rotting my husbands bones.

I really enjoyed Laura's post today on the Christian Women Online blog. It's all about being honest and open with God, because He knows it all already anyway. There's something very freeing about that.

I also liked this blog post which started with the quote "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." So often I, like the author of the post, am guilty of wasting too much time trying to get together the perfect plan.

I think I may try to implement something like Cindy's walking goals that she talks about in the beginning of this post. She talks about two ideas that I like - going for consecutive days or numbering her days. I'm not going to make walking goals right now as we are in to winter and snow storms that make walking outdoors quite hazardeous to your health, but I may implement something like it for some kind of fitness activity. We got a wii for Christmas and I have been making it a point of doing the fitness test on that everyday. It's not all that great of a fitness test but it is better than nothing, but maybe I'll have to work on adding something else to that.

I really, really, really like Karen's Real Resolutions for Real Mom's on the Proverbs31 Ministries Blog today. There's a number there that I need to think on.

And here's something that I think is just pain old silly. Even though I don't use the feature, because I hate all the extra doodads available on Facebook, it bothers me that they are being asked by the makers of Scrabble to remove the Scrabulous feature. Why can't they just let people enjoy the game and thereby probably grow to enjoy scrabble more? Why must they have control of it all? Stuff like that drives me crazy!

Neat Geography Quiz!

Just found this thanks to a friend. I didn't do so hot on my first try but I shall be trying it again. YOu can check it out on the bottom of my page or by checking here: TravelPod: Traveler IQ Challenge

Economics in One Lesson - Week Two

I'm still keeping up with the reading of Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt, but it was more of a struggle this week. Following the reading schedule I read chapters 7-12 this week. I found myself having to reread more and still not quite getting some. I am so enjoying the discussion, though. I had almost decided not to bother to post on it myself because I really have nothing to add to the discussion because I know so little about this stuff, but I decided to continue to post just so that I will have a reference to the great discusion on my blog so that others can check out it if they like and so that I can come back to it if I want. Because I add nothing more to the discussion, however, I will not put a link to my post in Mr Linky.

The discussion on this week's readings can be found by following the links in Mr Linky here. I am learning just as much, actually think I'm learning more, from everyone's posts than I am from the book, though having read the book makes everyone's comments make more sense.

Baking on a Snow Day

We're having a snow day here today. I absolutely love how Jessica described it on their Nature Blog. Jessica's mom, Carla, started a new Cooking With Carla blog where she is sharing some of her recipes and pictures of cakes she's decorated. Carla is a great cook and cake decorator, as well as being a great scrapper and a great mom.

I was in the mood to bake today so I decided to try out some of Carla's recipes. Thanks to her we now have some yummy homemade brownies with chocolate icing and some delicious peanut butter cookies. You can be assured they won't last long in our house.

It worked! It worked!

Though she did some complaining before the movie started, and even while it was happening, by the end of it she was totally involved in it and asked right away what book we were reading next. Earlier in the day I had printed off the first few chapters of the book so she took them happily to bed with her and asked for more today.

Throughout the movie I kept telling DD that I wish she had actually read the whole book so that we could properly discuss the differences between the movie and the book, because there were many. When the movie was over she asked me to tell her some of the differences so we did have some discussion about it but it would have been so much better if she had read the whole thing.

This week we are busy reading Northanger Abbey in preparation for watching the movie this coming Sunday night. We need to read approximately 5 chapters a day in order to complete the book in time. So far today we've both read up to and including chapter 4 so that's not too bad. DD just about always spends some time reading before bed so must likely she will get even further before the day is through.

Jane Austen's Persuasion

Thanks to the HeadGirl's post at The Common Room a while back, I learned about PBS's Masterpeice Theatre's Series based on Jane Austen's books. It caught my attention because I've seen some of her books on lists of books to read and I have some online friends that have mentioned their love of some of Jane Austen's books in the past. I can't quite recall if I have ever read one of her books or not, though I think I may have read one for a university course at some point.

One thing I have enjoyed doing with my children over the years is finding a book that has been made into a movie and reading it before watching the movie. When I heard about this series I decided to mention it to DD#1, who is 15, and ask her if she would be interested in us attempting to read the books and then watch the movies as they are aired. She agreed to give it a try so I went off in search of a schedule and the books. I found the schedule easy enough but getting my hands on actual copies of the books wasn't so easy. I do have some ordered from our library through interlibrary loan but until we can get our hands on them we are having to take advantage of online copies of the books, and I am so thankful that they are available.

This week we attempted to read Persuasion in preparation for watching the movie tonight. I managed to read the whole book and quite enjoyed it. DD only managed to struggle her way through about half of the book, but we did have a great discussion on the part that she has read. She's not really enjoying reading it online and thinks she would have done better with it if she had had an actual book to read. I'm hoping that watching the movie tonight will help her be more interested in putting more effort into reading the next book.

I'm really looking forward to watching the movie tonight. It will be interesting to see how it compares with the book. If you decide to read the book or watch the movie I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Today's thoughts

The title of the post at Homeschool Blog Awards today is The Right Perspective. When I read the post earlier today the first question stood out to me - "What is your perspective on “school” time with your children?" It sent my mind wandering in a whole different direction than what the post was about. Every since I started homeschooling I've been trying to get us all out of the idea of there actually being a "school" time so that we would realize, and utilize, the learning potential in every single minute of every single day. I'm afraid I haven't succeed, but I'm still trying. Because my mind went there, I missed what the post was really about and would have missed a message I needed to hear if I hadn't gone back to reread the post just now. The post is actually about viewing our homeschooling time as a calling from God and seeing things from His perspective. This is the sentence that stood out to me in this reading - "That calling is of much greater eternal value than anything I can come up with to fill my time." I really needed to hear that. I've been having some struggles with one of my almost adult children and I was questioning whether I had wasted my time by devoting my life to raising my children. I even asked my dad that over the Christmas holidays. I would have loved for him to have answered me with the statement above. That was what I needed to hear. I'm so glad I didn't miss it this time. I've made plenty of mistakes and I haven't always fulfilled this important calling as I should, but it is a very important calling, and I'm thankful for it.

When I saved Ann's post, Seven Daily Rungs, this morning I had no idea how well it went with the post above. The post above reminded me of how important what I'm attempting to do is and this post gives me some suggestions on how to make the most of the time to better fulfill the calling. Ann has such a way with words! She draws you in with this sentence "The way in which we live our moments, our choices for the gift of the next 24 hours, are rungs on a ladder." and then goes on to beautifully describe 7 things that are important to include in each day - Listening (to God), Loving one another, Laboring together, seeing the Loveliness around us, broadening our minds with Literature, using Language to share what we learn, and using Logic to draw it all together and grow and learn more. She's given me lots to think about.

Another Reading Challenge

This one is a year long challenge. I heard about it from Juanita. It is a challenge from Timmy Brister to read a Puritan book each month. I don't think I've ever read any Puritan books and I was fairly certain that I didn't have any Puritan books but I couldn't resist checking out the list and seeing what might be available on line. I found a few available to read on line in different places and decided to give it a try and maybe even see if I can get some through our library system. My DH already complains about all the books I have so I dare not buy more. :) I'm not sure that I'll actually fulfill the whole challenge or reading a Puritan book a month but I'm going to do what I can. Today I started reading The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes.

Timmy Brister gives an overview of who Richard Sibbes is. He promises to give an overview of the books' authors at the beginning of each month.

At the end of each month Brister is offering a give away. To have a chance at this give away you merely have to post how the book has impacted you.

Blog Posts of Interest so far today

To stop from having an overloaded starred items list in my google reader, and to also help me become a more consistent blogger, I've decided that I will grab a few minutes when I can and attempt to make at least one post a day highlighting blog posts of interest that I have discovered each day. Some days it will mean more than one post a day as I grab time at different times of the day. Anyway, I have a few minutes right now so I'm going to share my thoughts on some posts I saved to my starred items list earlier today.

Over at Birdy's Blog today she posted about her Theme for the Year, which was also her theme for last year - "“I choose to live Small in a Big, Big World.”". She says "By this I mean that I will focus on my neighbourhood, I will focus on my home, and on my church. I will try to grow relationships here. I will try to serve my neighbours, my family and my church with my time, money and efforts." I really like that. I just might have to join her.

Ann, at Holy Experience, posted photos of January's Nature Calendar pages from Natural Science Through the Seasons: 100 Teaching Units, by J.A. (James Arthur) Partridge. Mamma Squirrel shares about this book in her post, from August of last year, Natural History Treasure. It looks and sounds like a truly wonderful book.

Speaking of Ann, she is featured at the Winner Wednesday post at Homeschool Blog Awards. If you have never checked out her blog you have no idea what you are missing. She is an amazing writer and her blog often features wonderful pictures. I'm not sure if she's the photographer for the pictures or not. Her blog really is a pleasure and inspiration to visit.

The Importance of Having Fun

Julie, at A Brave Writer's Life In Brief, had a very interesting, challenging post this morning. Here's a quote from it:

What life are you leading that is the exciting, expanded, enticing life of an adult that your children will look forward to attaining sheerly based on observing your varied and stimulating experiences? When your kids see you, do they see someone who has found her groove, who has outlets and hobbies, interests of her own?
In other words, are you having any fun?

I really need to think on this one. I have to admit that I need to work on this, and it's kind of freeing to realize how important it is to my children. I've often put my own enjoyment aside thinking that was what I had to do, and there are times when it is important, but it is just as important to culitivate an enjoyable, contented life, and I'm afraid I haven't been so good at that.

Economics in One Lesson - Week One

I stole the title for my post from Cindy. I discovered Cindy's blog a while ago and enjoyed reading as her and her friends read and discussed books together. When they mentioned that they were reading Economics in One Lesson in January and that the book was available to be read on-line for anyone that might not have the book, I had to check it out.

I have to say that the topic - Economics - almost kept me from giving it a second thought. Economics was the one course in High School that I failed tests in. Aside from that course I was mostly an A or B student, but I just could not get economics at all, and that one course in High school turned me off from all things economic related for the rest of my life. I'm glad, however, that I decided to push that aside for now and check it out, because so far I am pleasantly surprised at how much I am enjoying it.

Cindy has posted a schedule for the readings and discussions over the next 4 weeks. Today we are to discuss the first 6 chapters. I have been recording notes and quotes as I'm reading and will share some of that here.

From the Preface to the First Edition:

"I have tried to write this book as simply and with as much freedom from
technicalities as is consistent with reasonable accuracy, so that it can be
fully understood by a reader with no previous acquaintance with economics."

I was so pleased to read this and I am doubly pleased to have discovered that he accomplished what he set out to do.

This sentence sums up the most important point of the whole book:

"The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the
longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

Unfortunately my blogging time has been interrupted by my little one awaking from her nap. I'm not sure if I'll get back to sharing more about this portion of the book or not. We shall see. Suffice it to say that I am learning much, and actually finding it enjoyable.

"write these things down"

Jeannie Fulbright's post Keep the Testimony resonated in my heart. The title for this post is taken from her post. Here are a couple of my favorite paragraphs from her post:

Our own children are in danger of having misconceptions about God if we don't oft repeat the testimonies of His work in our lives. Those stories are the testimony which gives our children something to stand on, something to ground their beliefs and faith on, something tangible - their family history, their own personal knowledge of God's ways and stories they can hand down to their own children.

Not only does keeping the testimony give our children a heritage, it also gives them weapons against the enemy and keeps them free from spiritual bondage...

So much of our children's heritage, especially their spiritual heritage, is lost because it's not recorded, and/or passed down intentionally. We run the risk of repeating the mistake of the Israelites in Judges 2:10 when a new generation grew up "who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done". I don't want that for my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. so I must get serious about intentionally passing on to them the knowledge of God and what He has done and continues to do in our family. I have had a plan for years to interview the generation before me about their spiritual journey and create a written account. It's time for me to put that plan into action.

Have you done anything to intentionally record your families spiritual heritage?

Wonderful Tags!

Just discovered this brand new site and the wonderful tags they have available for people to use on their blogs and sites. I nabbed one for my blog. I had a hard time picking just one and may end up added more yet. If you are interested in topics to blog about check out their meme.

Time Well Spent

As the Christmas song says "Spending time together with the family Sharing lots of Love a Happiness". That's how I've been spending my time, though I managed to sneak in quite a bit of reading time too.

I am loving Lynn Austin's Series Chronicles of the Kings. I've finished book one, God's and Kings, book two, Song of Redemption, and I'm almost done book three, The Strength of His Hands. I started keeping a reading journaling with short outlines of each chapter and quotes that spoke to me in some way or another, but I gave up with the chapter outlines in the third book. I may share some of my thoughts later when my notes are near me.

I've also started Economics in One Lesson. The first couple of chapters are really short so I whizzed through them and I have to say that I am enjoying it so far. I'm also taking notes on that that I may share later.

Most of my time, however, has been spent with the family. My parents and my sister and her husband were all here for Christmas with us and we so enjoyed having them all here. Thanks to their generousity we were able to purchase a wii system for the children and we've all been having so much fun with it.

As the new year looms closer my thoughts are starting to turn towards planning for it. I've been working on personal plans, housekeeping plans, and homeschooling plans. Most of the planning is happening in my head right now but hopefully it will makes it's way out onto paper soon. :)

A Christmas Promise

Thanks to the Teaching Mom's Advent calendar, I recently discovered the painter, Thomas Kinkade. Shortly there after, I was browsing the shelves of our library and noticed the name Thomas Kinkade as an author on the spine of a book. Upon closer inspection I discovered that this was the very same Thomas Kinkade! I was amazed! I liked what I saw of him as an artist and I decided to see what I thought of him as an author, so I checked the book, A Christmas Promise, out.

When I discover a new author I like to do some research about the author before, or while, reading the book. I googled Thomas Kinkade and I was shocked to discover that there was a big controversy surrounding Thomas Kinkade. I didn't save the sites and I can't find them now. I didn't know whether to believe them or not but they definitely colored my thoughts on reading the book. I wasn't sure if I wanted to or not, but decided to anyway.

A Christmas Promise is one book in a series of books co-authored with Katherine Spencer. It is a nice light holiday read. I particularly liked a portion in the last chapter of the book. The minister, Ben is speaking, in the Christmas service, about the spirit of Christmas. I'm going to quote a good portion of that section.

"But what is the spirit of Christmas, really? Anticipation...and disappointment? Expensive, jaw-dropping gifts that overwhelm us? Disillusionment when we don't find that pony and plain blindness to the pile of gifts we do receive? Fretting over our endless to-do lists and gifts, wondering if we've gotten the right size and color, if we've spent too little or too much? Feeling tired and empty before the party has even begun? That's the prevailing spirit for some of us, I know."..."we each received a gift that never disappoins, a gift that always fits, a gift that embodies the true spirit of Christmas - the very essence of the first Christmas. 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in HIm should not perish, but have everlasting life.'...And through His love, we are connected to the world and given power to love and forgive other. That, to me, is the true spirit of this season, the spirit we need to draw upon and put into action the whole year through. Think of the shepherds, guarding their flocks in the fields that dark night Jesus was born. And the sixe men, how they heard of the birth and followed the star, believing the Scriptures had finally been realized. THat is the spirit of Christmas, too. Great expectations that God's pormise would be fulfilled. In the middle of the dark night, they went forward on faith, following a star, trusting and believing they would be led to the right place. THat is the true spirit of Christmas, too, I think. To look up at thte stars and see God's love and to keep moving forward on fiath. That's what it means to me to keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts every day."

Winter Reading Challenge

A while back Kathleen posted a Winter Reading Challenge on her blog. She says "There aren't many rules: just list the books you plan (or would like) to read during the months of December, January, and February." I've been eyeing this for a while and I finally decided to take the challenge.

I love to read, but I haven't read an actual whole book for quite a while - since litte one was born probably, and she turned 2 last month. Isn't that terrible! I just haven't found the time to read, but lately I've been feeling the need to read again. Part of the reason for that is reading about all the great books different people have been talking about on their blogs. I love reading about what they are reading but I'm feeling the need to do some of my own reading now. :)

I read through the lists that other people in the challenge have posted and wondered if I should actually join it or not. Some people plan on doing an awful lot of reading, and some pretty heavy reading at that. I'm not going to be nearly as ambitious. Here's my humble list so far, though it may grow as time goes by.

A Christmas Promise by Thomas Kinkade - I actually finished reading this one yesterday. :)
God's and Kings by Lynn Austin - I have this one and I'm hoping to do more in this series
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt - heard about this one from this post
Volume 1: Home Education by Charlotte Mason
Volume 6: A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason

You'll notice those last three are actually online reading, not in-hand book reading.

There are more I'd like to add but I don't want to be too ambitious. This may end up being more than I can handle, but it's what I'm going to aim for. Thanks for the challenge, Kathleen.

Ack!!! I can't get control of it!!

I have to find a way to tame the beast of my starred items list in my google reader. It continues to grow longer faster than it grows shorter. Did that make any sense? Let me explain. I'm trying to shorten my list of starred items by dealing with them and getting them off the list, but while I'm doing that I'm also keeping up with reading the blogs in my google reader and I keep adding more items to my starred items list, and I seem to be adding more than I am taking away!

A major factor in this problem is that my computer time has greatly reduced recently. I've taken the additional responsibility of babysitting 2 little ones so computer time in the day time is all but gone, then my little one is so happy to have me to herself once the two little ones go home that I can't bear to push her aside for the computer, and at night I'm so bushed from my busy days that I often end up just going to bed with her, leaving me with little to no computer time in the day.

Of course, it also doesn't help that I keep finding and adding new blogs to my google reader. I'm going to have to get a handle on that soon or I'm not going to have time to read everything, let alone respond to anything.

Okay, here goes another attempt to shorten my starred items list. Rather than just unstar the items I like to comment on them here on my blog so that I can always find them again without too much trouble.

I love this poem that Cindy posted in her post "Little Grains of Sand":
"Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean,
And the beauteous land."
The last paragraph of her post sums up the whole thing quite nicely and I plan on taking her advice.
"If you have something that you want your children to assimilate like poetry or scripture or music or Shakespeare, forget the grand schemes, forget what the Konos mom is doing down the street, start giving that thing one or two minutes of your time daily and watch the years roll by."
It reminds me of a little saying that we learned in our early days of homeschooling and is often repeated to this day:
"Work by the yard is hard,
But work by the inch is a cinch."

JacciM's post "Injured Eyeballs and Cheering for our Children" is another post I want to be able to come back to. There's so much in this post that challenges me and makes me say ouch. Here are some quotes:
"Miss Mason is saying that we harm the child's sense of right and wrong when we let him get by with sloppy and half-hearted work. I would say that, at best, we lose an opportunity to train the child to value hard work carefully done."
"The line is drawn with these words: "No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly".... You need to know your children and their abilities as individuals. Regardless of whether a child tends to be a slow learner or is leaps and bounds beyond her peers, the standard is in relation to that particular child's own abilities. This does not mean that we keep things easy for our children so that they are guaranteed success. No, we are to challenge our child with the highest level of work that he can still do perfectly."
"We are on their team, on the same side. We ought to be cheering for them!...She says if the day's work is less than perfect have him do it again. Matter-of-factly, not with a sigh and a reproving look of disappointment, just matter-of-factly."
I'm afraid I am much too good at sighing and giving reproving looks. Be sure to go read her whole post - it's very challenging.

Cleaning Starred Items again

JacciM is another one that often makes it to my starred items list in my Google Reader. I was particularly challenge by her post "Encouraging Excellence Without Making Little Perfectionists". I used to be a perfectionist and in my attemept to avoid my children carrying the burden of being perfectionists I went too far and failed to encourage them in excellence. I wish I had read Jacci's post many, many years ago.

Here are some quotes from her posts that outline the main points of her post. I post them here as a reminder to me. Be sure the check out her whole post to really get all that she says about this - it's well worth the read.

"How, then, can we communicate high goals to our children without setting them (and ourselves) up to be completely high-strung perfectionists? I think a great deal of the success lies in understanding at least four things."

"Firstly, it's important to understand that we are completely fallible creatures with finite resources and abilities. In other words, we can't do it all as perfectly as it can be done, we can only do it as perfectly as we can do it. We can't do more than we can do."

"The second helpful thing to understand is that when we react negatively to doing something imperfectly, it is usually stemming from a heart of pride."

"Thirdly, I would think that a great deal of perfectionism in children is directly linked to their parent's emotional reactions to imperfection...You can effectively encourage a child to do better without pressuring him to do so. It requires patience, time, and restraint, but it can be done."

"Lastly, (and this one is especially pertinent to our relationships with our children) we need to see our actions as separate from our intrinsic worth...Children must, from the first, learn that our love for them is because of who they are as our children, not because of what they do...When they produce faulty or careless work, they must know that we are dissatisfied with the work, not with them. And we must leave them with the hope that they can do that work better."

The Myth of the Unsocialized Home Schooler

Some days I wish that the myth of the unsocialized home schooler wasn't a myth. Today was one of those days. The myth says that homeschooled students are social misfits that have no friends and struggle with relationships, especially peer relationships. Today I lost my DD to her schooled friends. They had a snow day and she was drove crazy with calls from them to come out and enjoy the day with her. After negotiating with me that she would still get her school work for today done I finally let her go. It would have been so much easier if the myth were true and she had no friends and would have happily spent the day in educational endeavors. But alas, she is a social butterful with so many friends it's ridiculous. She finds the myth quite hilarious.

After she spent the morning with her friends we quickly took some time to check out the info for today on the advent calendar. We found the history behind the Christmas Carol "O Holy Night" to be quite intriquing. Did you know that is was the first song to make it's way over the airwaves? That's just one fascinating fact we learned about it. We also were quite intriqued with checking out microscopic photos of snowflakes and learning more about how snowflakes were made. DD couldn't wait to get back out with her friends and share with them the interesting things she had learned.

Cleaning up my starred items

Every since I discovered it, I have been thoroughly enjoying google reader. Only problem is that I've come across so many great blog posts that I want to refer back to or take more time to think about that my starred items lists is way too long. I need to get a handle on it or it's going to drive me crazy, so tonight I am going through the list in hopes of dealing with some and thus making the list shorter.

I am loving Jeannie Fulbright's blog. I have a lot of her posts on my starred items list. One of these is her post Steps to Self Learning. It is packed full of wonderful stuff and well worth the read. Here are some quotes from it that stood out to me.

"The first step to moving toward self learning is to carefully select curricula that is especially suited for self education. This means that the course can be used by the student alone once they have grasped how it should be done. You see, once your child has learned to read (a teacher is often needed full time for this accomplishment) they are ready to read to learn."

"When you are first starting the process of self learning, you will gradually ease your children into the material."

"Much is accomplished by reading. I use narration to ensure their retention of the material they have read. If they complain that they don't know what to do or don't understand, I ask for a narration of the text they read. If they don't know...they were not reading attentively and I have them reread it. Usually, this fixes the problem"

"There are some subjects that need more oversight than others during different phases of a child's academic development."

"When you are teaching new skills and new concepts, you want to oversee the process and make sure there is a level of mastery before you leave the child on their own. Leaving a child on their own too early will result in frustration for the child and a lack of progress, as well overseeing subjects that don't need a lot of oversight."

"There are three exceptions to this progression from learning to read to reading to learn." This paragraph goes on to explain what those exceptions are.

As I said, the whole post is well worth the read. These quotes just give a small indication of what it is all about.

I need to water and fertilize

I am deeply challenged by a quote from a post I just read. Lysa TerKeurst's post for today has this quote in it "The Grass isn't greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water and fertilize it."

The post reminds me how important it is for me to put a conscious effort into making my marriage all it can be. I'm afraid I fail at that all too often and I start thinking that there may be greener pastures. I need to start taking better care of the pasture I am in so that it is the greenest pasture and I have no need to look elsewhere.

Change of plans

I found a site that I like even better than the one I posted about in my first plans for December post. This site has an advent calendar loaded with information and activities for every day. One of the features they have is a song of the day, which was one of the things I wanted to do. At first I wasn't planning on using their actual calendar. I was just going to use their list of songs and maybe their around the world feature. We started yesterday doing that but then today I decided to check out the features on the calendar for today, and we're hooked. :)

Yesterday we learned about the Christmas carol "Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel". I didn't realize it but that song is one of the ones DD is singing with the choir in the canata this year. We also read and discussed some Russian folk tales about their Snow Maiden. From this site we learned that it's not too early to go Christmas tree hunting. We like to have a real tree and I've been putting DD off saying it's too early to get it yet, but according to this site it's okay if the tree is properly taken care of so the next nice day we are going tree hunting.

Today we enjoyed reading and discussing the scripture passages and we reminisced about the year we did a Jesse tree. We tried to check out the devotional by Elizabeth Eliot but couldn't get the link to work. We did have a little discussion of who Elizabeth Elliot was. We also spent some time admiring the beautiful artwork of Thomas Kinkade. We also learned some history of the carol "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and also the history of Christmas tree lights.

Along with the learning and fun from following the online advent calendar, we have our own little advent activites that we came up with on our own and are implementing this year for the first time. One of them we planned and prepared after Christmas last year but I had forgotten all about it until DD reminded me on Sunday.

I am a jigsaw puzzle fanatic and one of my favortie Christmas presents is a new jigsaw puzzle to work on. Last year I came up with the idea of using a jigsaw puzzle for an advent activity. After Christmas DD and I found a Christmas themed puzzle to use for it. We put it together and then took it apart one section at a time and bagged the peices of each section in separate bags. We had a 500 peice puzzle and we wanted 25 bags so we put about 20 peices in each bag. We stored the bags in the puzzle box and packed it away for this year. Every day we take out a bag and put together the peices that are in it. We store our puzzle on a Roll-o-puzz and pack it away every day. We are really enjoying doing it and wishing we had a bigger puzzle so we may try to find a bigger one to prepare for next year.

Another thing we've decided to do is to make some kind of cookie or food item every day. Monday we made gingerbread cookies. They were a big hit and were gone before today ws through. We're going to have to make them again and try to store some away this time. Today we made Nan H's special snowballs which are made with a german chocolate cake mix, coconut, and graham wafer crumbs. They're yummy! We got two ice cream containers from the batch and I have one ice cream container of them store away hoping nobody finds them for a while. Today we discussed possibly taking pictures of the cookies and making special recipe cards of them to be used as an advent idea for next year.

Though...yet...

While reading today's devotional, "Is My Jesus Enough?", at Proverbs 31 Ministries I was reminded of a couple of Bible verses that resounded in my heart today. Habakkuk 3:17 and 18 says "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." This is one of those passages that I want to take some time to chew on. I may even try using it as a guide to write my own declaration of my faith in God, but I wanted to take a minute to share it now in case I forget to dig deeper into it. Maybe writing it here will help me remember to do it.

Ouch!....

...That's about all I can say about this post by Kim. Kim is doing a Bible study, based on Martha Peace's "The Excellent Wife", with some ladies at her church and on her blog she sometimes shares some of what they are covering. In this post she lists some of the signs of bitterness and talks about how harboring bitterness can affect our marriage. I really need to spend some time pondering and praying about this. I could say "That's me" to most of the list. Ouch.

Plans for December

Found this site: http://www.carols.org.uk/ and plan on using it in December. It has a list of Christmas songs, carols, and poems. I had already told DD that we were going to have some fun in December. One of the things I was thinking about doing ws picking a Christmas/Winter song a day. We would search the web for different versions of the song and discuss them and choose a favortie to keep. I've also been thinking about doing some Christmas/Winter Poems. This is a start to my planning for the month.

Reading Adventures

Just came across the is post about reading and had to share it. It's long, but well worth the read. One of my reasons for wanting to homeschool was so that the kids would learn to love reading and would see that reading wasn't just for school. I'm afraid I didn't do a very good job with that though. How I wish I could turn time back and start again. Hopefully, however, they will each remember the great times we had reading and discussing books together, because we really did have some great times doing that.