Thursday, February 10, 2011
Rod and Staff Comfort
On my list for the homeschooler with preschoolers: THIS from Rod and Staff Publishers. A set of 4 books from Rod and Staff Books, for only $9.00, looks like one of the sweetest introductions to official learning I've seen in a long time. Capturing the lightbulb moments shouldn't be missed and won't be with Rod and Staff's thoughtful curriculum. Because I know where Rod and Staff is heading with their instruction methods, because they are a tried and true Publisher of Christian Curriculum, because I wish I had a little one to bless with their methods, I don't hesitate to recommend this set of books. Take a peak. I'd love about a dozen more little people so I could take a running start at the preschool years again. Curriculum doesn't have to be expensive to be good. This is written proof!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Rear-View Mirror
"One day this week when I was having a horrible no good very bad day (Monday) Bethany wanted to read me Proverbs 31. I passed. Daniel wanted to read me Lamentations. I almost took him up on it!"
So, walk with me. With my hopes set higher than you can imagine I began the week in school. We dove headlong into math. However, right behind the math book was the transluscent mile-high will of a 10 year-old girl in response to the reality that she would not, after all, get to spend the entire morning, stretched out in comfort of her own bed with the Princess and the Pea mile-high mattress, reading. My very own offspring! The apple that didn't fall far from her father's tree (and I chuckle, of course!). A daughter with an iron-clad will. While I know it will serve her well throughout her life, it IS a force to be reckoned with, and wreck, we did! (Why is it that some days resistance feels like failure? What a tricky disguise!)
After I took my heap of a body and threw it on my bed and boo-hooed (not proud of it, but it's true), I called my sweet heart, the one who just'd traveled cross-country to Georgia to paint, vacuum, fix windows, and work with sheet rock on a rental. Oh, and I'll spare the details but suffice it to say, he was overjoyed. Not really. "How hard can it be?" he asked. Worse than hard. Try near impossible. With my head in my hands, truly, and in tears but able to text friends for prayer, wisdom came knocking at the bedroom door. "Mom, we didn't start our day in the Word and in prayer." Oh. She's done it again. I can't tell you how many times I've been flattened by the wisdom of these innocent children of mine. Lord, don't you know how humbling this is? Again? I righted my ship and went out to the living room, except that now it's ME in a bit of a sulk. My children go for their Bibles. I have mine, and we proceed to Scene 2: (see my quote at the top of the page.)
Tonight, when I was replying to Gina, of Journaling Gina, I kind of replayed the scene from Monday in my mind's eye. Gina was writing about Proverbs 31, and I couldn't help but recall the lack of desire I had to read that passage. Bethany had suggested it as a way to get us back on course. I just wasn't up for it. Oh, there are times when the Word is almost like rocks in my shoe, or fingers on the chalkboard of my own weak soul, or...the faithful wounds of truth spoken from my own child, perhaps. I am learning. Ever learning. I am humbled. I look back in the rear-view mirror of this week now, and I am thankful that Christ has not left me to myself. His mercies are new every morning. He sees me as what I'll become though He sees right through who I am in my worst of moments. Proverbs 31? In His time. In His time.
This morning, about ten minutes before 9:00, my son, still in early morning slumber called out to me from his bed, "Mom, would you please play the piano?" "Yes," I said. I had signed up for a prayer time from nine until ten this morning for our church's monthly day of 24 hour prayer- a first Thursday of the month assignment. Knowing that time was coming, I sat down at the piano and begin to sing something that began while I was taking a shower. "Let everything that has breath-praise the Lord, praise the Lord..." and it continued, and I played and played and played.
Then Daniel came to me and said, "Mom, it is impossible for anyone to do what you do." The voice of my Lord was coming through my child in that moment. Each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made. My song to the Lord is Christ expressing Himself through me in a way that no one else can. Or should. A seemingly silent snowflake falls. A song is lifted up to Heaven. Each one is unique and carries the thumbprint of it's Creator. Let everything, everything....that has breath praise the Lord.
Then Daniel came to me and said, "Mom, it is impossible for anyone to do what you do." The voice of my Lord was coming through my child in that moment. Each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made. My song to the Lord is Christ expressing Himself through me in a way that no one else can. Or should. A seemingly silent snowflake falls. A song is lifted up to Heaven. Each one is unique and carries the thumbprint of it's Creator. Let everything, everything....that has breath praise the Lord.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Happy Saxon Math Teacher
A happy math teacher may seem to be an oxymoron to all of the unhappy math teachers out there. Math not being my strong point, I was, for a long time, just struggling with being a math teacher, happy or not. The happy adjective has been added to my job description because I am/we are realizing the fruit of a faith-choice in our math curriculum. We're using Saxon Math specifically Math 5/4 for Bethany, our 5th grader. Most know about Saxon's grade designations. Math 5/4 is for the average fourth grader or a 5th grader needing remediation.
I sat down today and made a list of how many different math curriculums we've used for Bethany. Between figuring out one that she could learn from and one that I could teach, it took awhile to find a good fit. Even after we found Saxon it still took awhile. She had gotten a bit spoiled from Horizons colorful approach to its workbooks. (Our son is happily using Horizons, I might add.) The problem I have with Horizons is that it doesn't really teach the why's of math. It teaches the how's. But if math doesn't come naturally to you....all the more reason to know the why's. It doesn't come naturally to Bethany, but interestingly, she says it's her favorite subject. The fun part of that is that she knows she will need math in farming, and truth be told, that's her present motivation. My Dad is a farmer/rancher, and so I find her love for math downright charming.
Saxon is not only giving Bethany a good foundation in math (early geometry and algebra) by teaching the hows and whys of math, it is also teaching her how to learn. It's teaching her to exhaust all avenues for understanding the concept before asking the teacher. In every question of the mixed practice section is a number that refers the student back to the lesson or lessons where the concept used was introduced. Bethany looks at the number, for example, lesson #21, turns back to that lesson to understand the problem that involves the terms perpendicular, right angles, intersecting, etc. When she came to me today, she had already on her own taken that important step of trying to read and research what she had already learned about the concept.
Another plus to Saxon is something I consider an important transition in education, a.k.a. a necessary evil, and that is, you don't work out of a workbook. All of the math problems are to be written out on paper (graph paper is best), and you have to show your work. Try explaining that to someone who knows the answer and doesn't think you should have to show your work. High school math requires it of you, so the student benefits by starting now! It's been an important tool in understanding accuracy in writing, transcribing problems etc. In summary, nothing but benefits in choosing Saxon math.
I am so thrilled to see these steps of maturity in Bethany's study skills and learning habits. Thanking the Lord for how He has led us in this triumphant procession across miles and miles of other math curriculum pages. Progress. Satisfaction. Foundation strengthening. Saxon. Peace at last for a math teacher in the works!
I sat down today and made a list of how many different math curriculums we've used for Bethany. Between figuring out one that she could learn from and one that I could teach, it took awhile to find a good fit. Even after we found Saxon it still took awhile. She had gotten a bit spoiled from Horizons colorful approach to its workbooks. (Our son is happily using Horizons, I might add.) The problem I have with Horizons is that it doesn't really teach the why's of math. It teaches the how's. But if math doesn't come naturally to you....all the more reason to know the why's. It doesn't come naturally to Bethany, but interestingly, she says it's her favorite subject. The fun part of that is that she knows she will need math in farming, and truth be told, that's her present motivation. My Dad is a farmer/rancher, and so I find her love for math downright charming.
Saxon is not only giving Bethany a good foundation in math (early geometry and algebra) by teaching the hows and whys of math, it is also teaching her how to learn. It's teaching her to exhaust all avenues for understanding the concept before asking the teacher. In every question of the mixed practice section is a number that refers the student back to the lesson or lessons where the concept used was introduced. Bethany looks at the number, for example, lesson #21, turns back to that lesson to understand the problem that involves the terms perpendicular, right angles, intersecting, etc. When she came to me today, she had already on her own taken that important step of trying to read and research what she had already learned about the concept.
Another plus to Saxon is something I consider an important transition in education, a.k.a. a necessary evil, and that is, you don't work out of a workbook. All of the math problems are to be written out on paper (graph paper is best), and you have to show your work. Try explaining that to someone who knows the answer and doesn't think you should have to show your work. High school math requires it of you, so the student benefits by starting now! It's been an important tool in understanding accuracy in writing, transcribing problems etc. In summary, nothing but benefits in choosing Saxon math.
I am so thrilled to see these steps of maturity in Bethany's study skills and learning habits. Thanking the Lord for how He has led us in this triumphant procession across miles and miles of other math curriculum pages. Progress. Satisfaction. Foundation strengthening. Saxon. Peace at last for a math teacher in the works!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Stone Soup Cleaning 101
Stone soup. You know the story. The soldiers come into town hungry and tired. They ask for something to eat, but no one has anything. So the soldiers find a big pot, add some stones and water, and it begins to boil. They wait. One by one, the town peasants bring onions, then potatoes, carrots, and you can see where this is going. Eventually their hunger is satisfied. I LOVED the story of stone soup when I was growing up. I could just see it, and, I think I could smell it too!
It all began on Saturday morning when I spotted my bargain bag of 3lb/$1 oranges. They were looking slightly shriveled as they lay in their netted bag, a bit dimpled. While on the official hunt for the official fruit bowl (which I find), I discover its contents to be a handful of much older clementines, two sweet potatoes, and one still nice and firm red onion. Knowing that my onions and potatoes are supposed to go in my orchard basket in the pantry, I open the pantry door. I spot my orchard basket, pull it out, and proceed to empty it of one bad onion, dried onion peel, a handful of Ritz crackers (cracker, anyone?), and oh, I think a twisty-tie or two. Now, not only is this becoming personal, (I just wanted to put away my oranges!), I conclude that this haphazard method of organization (oxymoron!) isn't doing anyone any favors. I can do better. And so begins the clean. One clean shelf begets another clean shelf, and that clean shelf begets another, and then another, and the next thing I know, contents of honey containers are combined, all snacks are happily packed away in the official snack box, and I could go on and on.
There's just something about things being in their place. We are a busy family in our own way. Though we don't have as many outside activities as most families, we have a lot going on that can contribute to a much needed dose of stone soup cleaning: homeschooling, worship leading, homeschool support group leadership, fun with friends, more fun with friends, Danny's ever-changing flight schedule, the mandatory doctor's appointments: it can get disorderly p r e t t y fast around here. Today just seemed to be the day to do something about it, and I couldn't be happier with the results. And to think this story began because I wanted to put away a bag of oranges!
It all began on Saturday morning when I spotted my bargain bag of 3lb/$1 oranges. They were looking slightly shriveled as they lay in their netted bag, a bit dimpled. While on the official hunt for the official fruit bowl (which I find), I discover its contents to be a handful of much older clementines, two sweet potatoes, and one still nice and firm red onion. Knowing that my onions and potatoes are supposed to go in my orchard basket in the pantry, I open the pantry door. I spot my orchard basket, pull it out, and proceed to empty it of one bad onion, dried onion peel, a handful of Ritz crackers (cracker, anyone?), and oh, I think a twisty-tie or two. Now, not only is this becoming personal, (I just wanted to put away my oranges!), I conclude that this haphazard method of organization (oxymoron!) isn't doing anyone any favors. I can do better. And so begins the clean. One clean shelf begets another clean shelf, and that clean shelf begets another, and then another, and the next thing I know, contents of honey containers are combined, all snacks are happily packed away in the official snack box, and I could go on and on.
There's just something about things being in their place. We are a busy family in our own way. Though we don't have as many outside activities as most families, we have a lot going on that can contribute to a much needed dose of stone soup cleaning: homeschooling, worship leading, homeschool support group leadership, fun with friends, more fun with friends, Danny's ever-changing flight schedule, the mandatory doctor's appointments: it can get disorderly p r e t t y fast around here. Today just seemed to be the day to do something about it, and I couldn't be happier with the results. And to think this story began because I wanted to put away a bag of oranges!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Socks Blessed Off
"Dear Jesus,Brunch-time prayer of Thanksgiving by son as he and his sister play toys in her room. I love the heavy emphasis on being thankful for the food! Brunch was served atop a cardboard box table while they played. My own personal socks have been blessed right off. Blessing one: this prayer. Blessing two: having a family to serve. Blessing three: knowing it will count for eternity. At this rate, my socks may not go back on for some time. I would love to hear about your top three for today!
Thank you for this food, thank you for my Mommy, thank you that she's homeschooling me, thank you that she is a Christian, thank you that she's raising me in the Lord, thank you for this food, and help Daddy to get back safe from work when he has to go, and thank you for this food. In Jesus name, Amen."
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Making Curriculum Work for You
I'm posting a link from Chris at Wierd, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. This is one of the most clear-cut pieces on How to use your curriculum, and not let your curriculum use you that I've read in a while.
It's almost nine in the morning, I'm still in my jammies, and we haven't started our homeschooling yet. Yesterday, Bethany and I cracked the first book at 7 in the morning. Today, it will probably be 9 a.m. Hubby had to get up at 3:30 to fly, and honestly, I feel like I used to feel when the children were infants and I was doing that middle of the night feeding, and attempting to function, and....I'm sure you know the feeling. So, as I sit in my red and white striped jammies and a cup of very good coffee in hand, I am at rest in my homeschooling mama's heart. A Saxon math book awaits, and behind it First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, and shall we not forget as well, Apologia Biblical Worldview Curriculum. And about that copywork! On the heels of reading this inspiring post, I'll enjoy X'ing out every other math problem, and doing a 20 minute language lesson instead of a 30 minute lesson. I plan on starting with the fun "experiements" that are in our Bible Curriculum today. (You wouldn't believe how quiet it is in my house right now!) Now, click on the link and hop on board a really inspiring article. I'm due for a coffee warm-up!
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers: Making Curriculum Work for You
It's almost nine in the morning, I'm still in my jammies, and we haven't started our homeschooling yet. Yesterday, Bethany and I cracked the first book at 7 in the morning. Today, it will probably be 9 a.m. Hubby had to get up at 3:30 to fly, and honestly, I feel like I used to feel when the children were infants and I was doing that middle of the night feeding, and attempting to function, and....I'm sure you know the feeling. So, as I sit in my red and white striped jammies and a cup of very good coffee in hand, I am at rest in my homeschooling mama's heart. A Saxon math book awaits, and behind it First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, and shall we not forget as well, Apologia Biblical Worldview Curriculum. And about that copywork! On the heels of reading this inspiring post, I'll enjoy X'ing out every other math problem, and doing a 20 minute language lesson instead of a 30 minute lesson. I plan on starting with the fun "experiements" that are in our Bible Curriculum today. (You wouldn't believe how quiet it is in my house right now!) Now, click on the link and hop on board a really inspiring article. I'm due for a coffee warm-up!
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers: Making Curriculum Work for You
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