Psalm One School

Encouragement

2012-01-03T16:42:00.004-06:00

Last Sunday, our pastor's message was on Encouragement. He shared several scriptures about encouragement, and mentioned that old song, "Home on the Range," which talks about living in a place "...where never is heard a discouraging word..." How lovely would that be? Think of how many times we hear discouraging words! I was the recipient of some discouraging words the other day from another mom. Now, knowing her, she most likely didn't mean what she said, and I tried to keep that in mind. But still, all day long, her words rang out in my head, bringing dimness to my outlook.

I pray that I can be an encouragement to my fellow sisters in Christ. I pray that I can be an encouragement to my family and friends. We all hear enough discouraging words, I want my words to have the right spirit and build others up.

In the past few months, I have felt God might be asking me to encourage some other moms. I need to be doing that, and I feel like I've taken some of the right steps. I don't feel that I have the gift of encouragement, but Hebrews 10:24-25 commands us all to be in the encouraging business.

Joni Eareckson Tada should be role model for all of us that are seeking to be an encouragement. I stumbled across this video this morning, and it was truly a blessing to me.

Encouragement

2012-01-03T16:42:00.000-06:00

...where never is heard a discouraging word...

Weeks four through eight

2010-10-12T11:06:00.001-05:00

I have been so lax in posting; this will be a quick summary of what we have done the past five weeks.

Geography: both kids are now into their mapwork. Here is what we do: First, we read the section of the book that is assigned. On a different day, they get two outline maps. One is a map with the places marked and the names written neatly on the map. (I usually choose the places that will be marked, and I try to use something that has some significance in the story, or if I know it will be important later on.) They also have a blank map, and their job is to copy those marks and names neatly onto the blank map. Then the third day (not always three consectutive days) they are given the original map to study. They have to pay attention to location and spelling, and when they feel like they are ready, we put away the marked map, and they have to fill in a blank map. Afterward, they can get the original map back out and correct their work. The next week, we will add one or two places on the map.

Composer/Music Study: We have changed this up. We used to do it near the beginning of the school day, but the other day our musical selection was over 30 minutes long! This caused a lot of grief, because the kids were anxious to get their day started. I don't allow multi-tasking (reading, drawing, chores, etc.) during our weekly "music study" time. I don't mind repeating the music in the background, but the music deserves to be really listened to a couple of times. After all, that is what the composer had in mind. It was not written to be background music.

So I was trying to figure out a way to make this fun for the kids, but still encourage active listening. I came up with the "Drink Party." The kids can order special drinks that we would not get to have on a daily basis. I made up some recipes and gave them fancy names. For instance, "Cowboy Roy" is root beer served in a frosty mug. (Apparently there is an alcoholic drink by this same name, but I wasn't aware of that at the time. oops!) I also have a couple of fruit juice drinks that are made with frozen concentrate and lemon-lime soda. I have a little electric ice crusher that I hardly ever use because it is so loud, but I do use this to crush ice for our party, to make it a more special occasion. :) The rules are that you remain seated until the music is over and no refills. I don't want it to be me in the kitchen making more drinks the whole time! I do allow a bit of talking at the table, but I do encourage them to mostly be quiet and listen.

The drink party has been very popular and the kids really love it.They even requested that we do this on a different day of the week while we listen to Shakespeare, so we are doing it then also.

Shakespeare: We are listening to a dramatized version that we bought on Audible.com. At first, I didn't want to do this because I thought it was a cop-out and my kids should read it themselves. But I did think of this: Shakespeare wrote those plays to be performed, and most people in Shakespeare's day only experienced them in that way. So while we are not watching a performance, we are hearing it acted out by excellent performers. After we are finished, we will watch a video performance.

Outdoor Hour: We have enjoyed some park days, but the past two weeks two kids have been ill. They seem to be on the mend now, so we will get back into our weekly nature study this week.

Fall Break: We are taking our Fall Break a week earlier than the school kids. We are going back to good old Branson, Mo. for some family fun. We leave tomorrow. Everyone is so excited!

Taking care of our workboxes (envelopes)

2010-09-07T13:31:00.002-05:00

Previously, I have posted about the workbox system that we use, and that we actually use clear poly envelopes instead of boxes. The envelopes are expensive, and I feel like they need to last us over a year, or else the system would be too costly.

Here are some rules we try to follow to keep our envelopes in good shape so they can be reused longer:

1. If possible, we keep the book in the envelope on days when it is not used. We have more books and notebooks than envelopes, so this doesn't always work. With bigger books, I've found it is better to not take them out and put them back in the envelope extra times.

2. When replacing the books in the box, we return them to the envelope first. We tried just putting the book back in the box separately from the envelope, but soon found that the envelopes always ended up being folded or awkwardly crushed.

3. We only wrap the string around the button one time. Sometimes the envelope doesn't even need the string to remain closed, but when it does, it doesn't help to wind the string around several times. This seems to save the string, and also helps mom. I might have 12-14 envelopes to prepare for school the next day. It's time-consuming to have to unwind all the strings.

4. Mom is the only one who takes the Velcro numbers off the envelopes. This keeps them from getting lost, and Mom seems to be able to best handle that Velcro. Even though I used sandpaper to prep the area for the sticky dots, they still have trouble staying on, and you can't just rip the number off. You have to hold both pieces of the Velcro and pull them apart gently. This is another reason we chose not to use the number strips called for in the workbox book.

5. The biggest books are the hardest for the envelopes to handle. If a book completely fills your envelope, you can bet that the envelope won't last the year out. You just have to decide if it's worth it to continue sticking it in an envelope, or figure out another method.

Week Three Recap

2010-09-07T07:54:00.007-05:00

I had enough "demo-skipping" when I was in school.

We are using AmblesideOnline curriculum, Years 4 and 6.

Dad brought home a super-fancy little scale home from work that would measure in grams so that Peanut could do one of her science demonstrations. The demonstration did not work out as planned, I think maybe the scale was too sensitive. She actually has had a few demonstrations this year. We try to always do anything mentioned in our book. I had enough "demonstration skipping" when I was in school. I am sure we did less than 10 hands-on projects in science, and that counts watching something the teacher did, at least up until high school.

We got an audiobook of Robinson Crusoe. It is better that way, I don't have to stumble over words, etc.

We did some nature study at the local park. Each kid picked a tree. We took samples of the leaves home for identification, then by the time we all got time to look ours up, the samples had deteriorated quite a bit. Ooops. Guess we'll repeat next week. We did see a ground squirrel sticking his head up out of his little hole, so that was fun. I am not a fan of ground squirrels and moles, but this one was at the park, so I can live with that.

This is not the one we saw, it's just a picture off the ol' Internets. We couldn't get to our camera quickly.

First two weeks of school

2010-08-28T09:22:00.008-05:00

The first two weeks are behind us! It happened so quickly, I didn't even get a chance to post the first week recap. Here are some highlights and things I learned:

1. Robinson Crusoe is going to be a hard read. Not that it is not a good book. It is so interesting, and we are going to like it. But it is just hard to read. I am reading aloud, because that is what Ambleside recommends with this book. It is difficult reading. The spelling, grammar, and capitalizations are crazy. At least, not what we are used to in this century, and you are supposed to use the unabridged version. However, I wish I had searched longer for a more corrected copy. I find myself stopping and stumbling over the words. I've already printed out this copy, so it will have to do, and maybe it will end up being good for me.

2. I am already tweaking the schedule to allow for shorter readings on almost all of our books. I felt like I had split things up adequately, but it helps morale around here if the reading from one book is less than four pages. That seems to be the magic number, no matter the size of the book and type. So I'm happy to oblige. They get a few more assignments per day, but no one has complained about that.

3. Junior is reading from It Couldn't Just Happen. He has specifically requested that this book be assigned every day, no matter what. Wow! So that is a good endorsement for that book, from the boy who wants to cut every extraneous second from the schoolday.

4. Peanut is reading The Hobbit. She didn't want to like it, it is a long book and she is not a fast reader yet. However, she really loves it now. I wish I had been "forced" to read it as a child! :)

5. We had a zoo picnic with our homeschool group. This is a fun way to see our friends, but not the greatest way to see the zoo. We did not see a great deal, but we had a great time, and there were a lot of animals out early in the day because of the cool morning weather.

6. Our other Outdoor Hour was spent visiting our local nature park. Much of the water has dried up, but little Bubby was still able to feed some catfish and carp, so he was very happy about this. We met friends for this excursion too, but it was a smaller crowd. :) We did a color scavenger hunt, looking for various colors in nature.

More about our workbox system

2010-08-24T17:13:00.002-05:00

My kids end up having about 8 envelopes each day. These are for things they do individually; we have other things we work on as a group.

I mentioned yesterday that we do not use a Schedule Strip which is recommended in the eBook. We found we didn't really need this as all our school books can be contained in the envelopes, and there is no need to go to centers, etc. A note on the book will tell them if it is something they need to do with me.

I did like the idea of putting each box, when finished, in another container. In practice, this was a bit confusing, and I felt like it also took up too much space. We have found that for both children, just the knowledge that they have completed one workbox and are moving up to the next number has been enough. My son in particular likes to see how many envelopes he has at the beginning of the day.

The kids do their work at our dining room table, if it is desk work such as handwriting. I make an effort to schedule so that they are not having to share the table. If it so happens that they are sharing the table, we have a handy solution. We purchased some cardboard display folders (like you would use at a science fair) and cut them down to make little dividers. Each child has their own, and we can affix things like a handwriting chart or math chart to our folders. This blocks out a lot of distractions, as well as helping them with some reminders they might need. Much of our work is reading, and they can choose where they want to do that, whether in their own room, the living room, Mom's room, just anywhere that is comfortable and quiet.

The last thing: once in a while I put a small treat in one of the envelopes. Not often enough that they expect it, but it is fun to get a Hershey's Miniature or a Starburst at the bottom of the envelope!

How I use the workbox method with Charlotte Mason

2010-08-23T11:02:00.007-05:00

Last year I read about Sue Patrick's Workbox System and was eager to try it. I could understand how it would help my children to become more independent with their school day, but when I investigated the Internet for people who used the method, much of what I read was speaking of children that were a little younger than mine (3rd and 5th grades last year.)

This post will tell how we adapted the system to work for us, and to work with the Charlotte Mason approach that we try to follow.

First, let me just recommend that you not look at my instructions as a basis of the system. I do several things differently. If you are really interested in this approach, please purchase the eBook and read it. (It's not too long.) It is available instantly through a download, so you can get started quickly. Then you can adapt to your own needs. Sometimes I will mention items that are in the book without explaining, but if you search for other bloggers who are doing workboxes, you will probably see pictures of what I'm talking about.

After reading the eBook, I began to realize that some of the concepts, such as repetition, would not exactly mesh with Miss Mason's philosophy. I also do not put "fun" things in my workboxes, as I want to allow my children the pleasure of getting their work done so that they can choose afterward what will be done for fun. I don't think Ms. Patrick's way is wrong, but I just want to do things differently than that.

Our workboxes are really not boxes at all. We use clear poly envelopes which are found at office supply stores. They take up less space and are more suited for our books than a plastic shoebox. They are more than $1.00 a piece, but that was the most expensive part of our system. The envelopes are durable, and though once in a while one will be destroyed, most of ours lasted through last year and are being used again. They can be repaired fairly well with clear packing tape. This year, we have rules for taking better care of our envelopes!

Each child has a milkcrate-like container. I already had a couple of these that I have used for years for other purposes, so those were free for me.

I use calendar numbers (use link or Google it) to number the envelopes. These are attached with Velcro dots so they can be removed. I laminated mine to make them more durable. Each envelope has a loopy dot of Velcro and the numbers have the hook side. I used self-adhesive dots and scratched the plastic a bit with sandpaper in one spot to try to get the adhesive to stick better. I will call them box numbers after this, but use the term "calendar numbers" when you search.

Each day, I slip the books for the day into the envelopes. If we are using the same book two days in a row, I leave it in the folder, and change the number if needed. I add anything needed to complete the assignment, such as pencil and paper, or math items. Usually science equipment doesn't fit, so that will be laid out where the demonstration will be performed (i.e. kitchen or bathroom.)

I use small Post-its attached to the book to write the specific assignment for the day. Usually it will be page numbers to read. If needed, I will add notes such as, "Read this with Mom," and so on. I put this either on the cover of the book or use it for a bookmark.

I arrange both boxes at the same time, hoping to prevent a bottleneck situation where both kids need my help at the same time. I also space assignments out so that items that require handwriting are not back-to-back. Once they are in the box the way they need to be, I use the box numbers to label them. The kids pick each envelope up in order and return it to the back of the box when they are finished. (The workbox book suggests that the child have a separate box in which to place the completed work, but my kids found it confusing and it cluttered up our space. That may be because they are older, and they find it motivating just to see the numbers climb higher and higher towards the end.)

Our family does not do a number strip on which to place the box numbers. I will add more on that later.

We do have a bit of time at the beginning of the school day to do any of our work that is done together, such as reading the Bible, composer and art study, Spanish, and Shakespeare . The workboxes are for individual work, and they come after our group work. Handicrafts, music practice, free reading, playing, and nature study happen mostly in the afternoon, and are not scheduled in workboxes.

This post is getting a bit long, so I will close it and add more tomorrow about how we take better care of our envelopes, and more detail about how we use these.

Back to School Day

2010-08-16T15:32:00.005-05:00

Today was our first day of scheduled school for the year. It went pretty well. Mostly because I scheduled a very light day for getting started. We started at 8:30 and everything was done by 11:00!

We are following AmblesideOnline.com again this year. Junior is doing Year 4 and Peanut is doing Year 6. Bible, Spanish, Latin, Art, Music, Nature Study and Shakespeare/Plutarch are all done together, then we split up for History, Geography, Science, Math, Writing/Grammar, and Literature.

The big kids did really well getting back into the swing of things, but little Bubby didn't like it much. He did enjoy watching the DVD that we watched for Spanish. He will probably pick up some of that, since it is repetitive.

This year I did something a bit different. I took pictures of the books each kid is using for the first term (12 weeks) of the year.

Here is Peanut's:

and Junior's:

Another tradition we do is to fill out an info sheet on what everyone is interested it, how tall, how old, favorite subject, and we add a picture to that.

Well, that's it for the first 12 weeks. I left out Plutarch's Lives, because I haven't gotten it printed out yet. Julius Caesar is our first guy to study. Also, I haven't figured out what Peanut will do for Latin. The Prima Latina is a little too young for her, and she has already done the first six lessons or so, but it will be good to review that, and if she hates it too much, I will find something else.

Printing Public Domain E-books at a Low Cost

2010-07-29T09:45:00.004-05:00

Since we follow a Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum, many of our books can be found online as downloadable public domain e-books. This saves quite a bit of money, but reading the texts can cause a problem. The books can be read off the computer screen, but this isn't always convenient, and usually involves some special set-up by mom to get the margins at a convenient width and get the brightness adjusted to it is comfortable to read for a longer period. Another problem is that the computer will be tied up sometimes because our math curriculum (Teaching Textbooks) requires computer use.

We don't own a Kindle or other electronic reader, and that is not in the budget for our school.

Last year, I printed off a couple of texts with our ink jet printer, and that worked pretty well. I finally calculated the cost of that, and found that I would have been better off buying a used book!

This summer, I came across some good directions* for printing e-books at a low cost. This website is focused on the Robinson Curriculum, which also uses many public domain books. A black and white laser printer will print these books for a much lower cost, so I researched and found a printer on sale this summer for $60. I calculated the cost according to their method, and found that in almost every case, I could print a book for less than I could buy it used. I make my books half-size, as they recommend.

A tip that I have learned is to format all your printing on MS Word (or your similar software) and do not change any printer settings except for asking it to duplex, either manually or automatically. Print small samples of just a few pages to make sure your printer is going to do what you want.

I am currently experimenting with different binding methods to find what works best for my family. More on that later.

*I have found that these directions work for almost everything, except poetry and Shakespeare's plays. For that, you are better off printing as-is on half-sized paper. If poetry is included in the text, you will have to manually format it.

Preparing for the Fall

2010-07-28T09:14:00.006-05:00

I have spent the past few days getting my schedule ready for next year. Last year we used AmblesideOnline for our core, and we are doing the same this year. We really enjoyed getting into a more Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum, and I feel like this is where we will stay.

To plan our year, I started out by choosing which years we will be using from the AmblesideOnline site. This year my daughter will follow Year 6, and my son will follow Year 4. There are different reasons why we chose not to combine both kids in one year, and I will go into that on another post.

To get everything lined out, I made tables in MS Word with five days across the top, and each subject down the left side of the page. I made separate tables for both children, although some areas are the same for both of them. This way, they will be able to see their weekly chart and tell how much they need to do for the day.

Here is a small shot of what they look like:

AmblesideOnline gives you the suggestion of work that should be completed each week of the program. I spaced things out so that Mondays and Fridays are light days, and Tuesday - Thursday are our heavy days. This will work out best with the schedule of outside activities we are planning. I also added a tweak based on my experiences last year. Instead of 12-week terms as AmblesideOnline suggests, I fit everything into 11-week terms. This gives us a catch-up week if we need it, or a field-trip week.

A New Birthday Tradition

2010-05-30T20:55:00.003-05:00

This year for Junior's birthday, we started a new tradition. I think, anyway. Junior asked for a pie-in-the-face, so we gave it to him.

For the pie, I used a graham cracker crust filled with Cool Whip. I think next time I will just use the Cool Whip in a foil pan, as the graham cracker crust was slightly harder to clean up. We threw the pie at him in the driveway, so all we had to do was hose off the driveway, then hose him off and everything was cleaned up!

This was very funny, and made his day more special. He invited three little boys from the neighborhood over to watch, and now they want pies thrown at them on their birthday. Peanut does too! We have decided that the pie-in-the-face will be voluntary, of course. If you want it, you get it.

Kindergarten graduation

2010-05-17T10:56:00.002-05:00

Several people I know have kindergarteners in traditional school (public and private.) They are having little graduation ceremonies complete with caps and gowns.

I have never done anything for my kids when they were done with their first "real year" of school. It seems very silly to me, but maybe I am strange. To me, it is an extra "thing" to put kids through, as well as the expense of a cap and gown for a quick photo opportunity.

I have a fifth grader, and her friends are also "graduating" from fifth grade. I don't understand why you would do something like this. I mean, no one is going to stop at fifth grade (I hope.) You have seven more years of school! And that is just for someone who is not continuing their education.

Maybe this year we will go to the park or some other pretty outdoor spot and have a photo session, and maybe some ice cream to celebrate the beginning of summer. But that is all that is "beginning" right now. She still has a long way to go.

Tot School - Pizza Game

2010-01-31T12:20:00.003-06:00

"Bubby" is 39 months old.

Bubby got a game called "Noodleboro Learning to Listen Pizza Palace Game" for Christmas. He has really liked to play this game, and we've made it a part of Tot School. It has a couple of little pizzas in little delivery boxes, and two boxes of "toppings." The object is to listen to the other player's order, and then make a pizza according to directions.

We don't always end up playing by the rules, but it is fun to take turns ordering and making pizzas. The game came with a music/story CD and a storybook, and those have been a lot of fun too.

I have searched it out, and this game is not being produced anymore, but it is not hard to find available for purchase online.

I can't get a good picture of this, but we have been using a balloon to work on a lot of gross motor skills. We play basic balloon volleyball, balloon catch, etc. Basic easy stuff, but I can't get a picture of course, since I'm one of the players.

My daughter taught me a new trick. Before you blow up a balloon, drop one marble inside. Then blow up and tie as usual. The marble will bounce around inside and generally cause the balloon to act haywire. It is good for a laugh, and it does give us a case of the giggles. It makes the balloon's life a lot shorter, though.

We've needed to play a lot inside because the weather has been so cold. Here in Oklahoma, we do know what snow is. It snows pretty much every year...a little. We rarely get a nice snowfall like the one this week. It has been so much fun to do all the usual "snow things" like make snowmen, snow forts, snow angels, and snow ice cream. It hasn't been all wonderful. The ice that came before the snow wreaked havoc, but still we are thankful for such a pretty snow!
For more Tot School, visit 1+1+1=1 blog!

Tot School - Color matching and sorting

2009-10-24T09:50:00.005-05:00

Bubby is 35 months old.

Sorry I am behind on Tot School. These pics are from a few weeks ago, but representative of what we have been doing this past week.

I made Bubby some color matching cards. I got them from the ChildCareLand website. This was originally meant to be an emergent reader book, but I made the pages into cards to better suit this activity. Each card has a different colored car, and I painted a clothespin to match the color of the car. He clips each clothespin to it's matching card.
This is an activity in which I get him started, and then he can work on it while I'm helping the older kids with their schoolwork. Tot School works better if I will sit with him, and let the big kids come to me for help. The way he sees it, Mom's presence is the same as Mom's attention.

Bubby has also been helping me with laundry chores. I've found that for sorting, it is better to give him one color and have him pull everything that is that color to put in a pile. His favorite is to sort out all the jeans. It is challenging for him to lift some of that stuff out of the deep hamper, but he likes to show off his strength.

He also loads the washer and pours the detergent in after I have measured it out for him. He loves helping with this chore, and I'm not allowed to load the washer without him.

One funny thing: On the inside rim of the washer, there is a little sign with a picture showing that you should make sure all the items are all the way in the washer before closing the door. He has taken this to heart, and very meticulously will arrange each item until it is completely inside to his satisfaction. Great attention to detail!

Check 1+1+1=1 blog for more Tot School posts!

Burgess Books Online

2009-10-13T13:37:00.004-05:00

Here is a list I have compiled of all the Thornton Burgess books I could find that are available for free online.

If you have read any of the Burgess stories, I know you have fallen in love with the little characters. We always look forward to hearing about nosy Peter Cottontail, mischievous Sammy Jay, and wise Grandfather Frog. For me, the best thing about them is reading them aloud. The dialog is charming, and I love doing the different voices.

I know that Ambleside Online curriculum recommends some of them, as do other homeschool curricula. They are wonderful stories which teach morals and values while exploring the world of wildlife.

The majority of the Burgess books that you can find online are at Gutenberg.org. There are a few more out there, however, that are not included on Gutenberg. Most of these are not available in text format, because they are scanned images. They do include the color illustrations by Harrison Cady.

Burgess books on Gutenberg.org
Burgess Bedtime Stories from an old calendar.
The Adventures of Peter Rabbit
Bobby Coon’s Mistake
A Great Joke on Jimmy Skunk
The Neatness of Bobby Coon
A Merry Coasting Pary
Paddy’s Surprise Visitor
The Three Bears
Reddy Fox’s Sudden Engagement
Grandfather Frog Stays in the Smiling Pool
A Robber Meets His Match
Peter Rabbit Proves a Friend
Young Flash the Deer

Additional Link: Podcast of Old Mother West Wind by Lori K. Brooke. There are audio versions of some of the Burgess books available at Gutenberg.org and Librivox.org, but I wanted to share these because they are different, and not as easy to find. The woman reading them has a grandmotherly, sweet voice, and there is background music added which gaves them a relaxing, bedtime feel.

Please comment if you know of any other Burgess stories available online, and I will add them.

Tot School - Wonders of the Bathroom

2009-08-23T13:58:00.005-05:00

(Bubby is 33 months old)

This is the most interesting thing Bubby has picked out on his own. He loves to have me open the lid to the toilet tank and tell him about how it works!
He has a book called What's Inside? Great Inventions which has an illustration of the inside of an old-fashioned toilet tank, and it explains how it works. I don't know how much he understands about it, but he certainly does like to see all the parts and compare them to the picture. You can see the book lying open in the photo above.

His older brother, now eight, loved the very same thing when he was two. In fact, that is how I potty trained him. His reward for "good work" was that I would lift the lid to the tank and tell him about everything inside before he flushed. I couldn't get little Bubby interested in the same thing while we were potty training, but now that we are almost to the end of that road, he is very interested.

Usually he will ask twice a day if he can look inside the tank. We go in the bathroom and I stay with him until he has seen enough. He asks for the names of the different parts (I don't know what everything in there is called, but I do my best) and we talk about what happens when you push the handle. Then at least once he needs to get down on the floor so he can see the water pipe coming from the floor and entering the tank.

I have never heard anyone else say that their kid was this interested in the workings of a toilet tank, although since both my boys have been so big on it, I am assuming there are other kids out there that like to see what is going on in that tank. One of the hidden mysteries of life!

Frugal Friday: Organizer boxes

2009-02-12T20:51:00.000-06:00

When I was organizing my over-the-dryer cabinet a few months ago, I needed a little box in which to store some cleaning pads. I didn't have time to run to the store, and I wasn't sure they would have one as small as I needed anyway.

So I took an empty cardboard box and made one. I covered it with some decorative Con-tact® paper to make it look nicer and make it stronger. It turned out very nice, and I saved the money and time I would have had to spend finding the perfect box.

The other day, I decided that it would be better if the sides of the box were a bit taller. As I used and re-used the pads, they didn't want to stand up anymore, so I needed the box to support them so they wouldn't fall out and mess up my system! So I made a new one and took pictures this time. Here is what I did:

First, I cut one side off the box for my opening.

Then I taped the original opening closed. I'm just using a small piece of tape, because my box is getting very light duty.

I cut a piece of Con-tact® paper the size to wrap the box on two sides and the bottom, and overlap the edges a bit.

Then I peeled the backing away little by little, adhering it to the box. It's not perfect, but this isn't going to the State Fair. *grin* I also cut a second piece of paper to wrap around four sides of the box, this time missing the box bottom.

Here is the finished box, now holding my cleaning pads. (These are microfiber cleaning pads from FullerBrush, a gift from my mom.)

A couple of helpful hints: The sticky paper is not necessary, but it does help the boxes look nicer and keeps them sturdy. I could have instead used wrapping paper for looks, and reinforced the edges with packing tape. I have tried an off-brand of sticky paper that is supposed to act like Con-tact® paper, but it is more difficult to use, so I don't mind investing in a bit of the real thing. *smile*

The great thing about this project is that when I found that I needed a different box a few months later, I didn't have to go far to find a new one. It is really versatile, and if I re-organize later on, I just need to save a few boxes and I will have my own nearly free system ready!

Call Menus and Listening Skills

2009-02-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

As a teaching mom, I get tired of explaining things to my kids and seeing their eyes glaze over. I know they are not with me. I will redirect them and say, "Are you listening?"

The answer is always something like, "Yeah. What'd you say?"

Or when I asked them to narrate back to me, a la Charotte Mason, I get a blank look, and if I hear anything, it is not related to what we just read. It is usually related to the picture on the front of the book.

It's aggravating, I know. But if you are in the same predicament, you might want to be a little easier on them. You might be doing the same thing yourself, but in an acceptable, adult manner.

Have you ever thought about this: How many times have you called a customer service line and had to listen to the computerized menu twice? Or thrice? I have to do that all the time. As soon as I press "one" for English, my focus slips down the drain like spaghetti. Somewhere between "three" and "four," I get hopelessly lost.

Now, what did they say? Was it "three" for account information? If I push "three", will I get a recording of my balance, or will they let me talk to someone? I really need to talk to someone. ..Oh, no! Now they are on "five"! What was "four"? Oh no, I think "four" was what I needed! Do I push "0" or "*" to make this thing repeat?

I wonder if you can still buy a rotary phone?

After thinking about this issue, I am resolved to be a little easier on my kids for their listening skills. I'm going let them push "*" to hear the menu again, and repeat with all the coolness of the computerized lady. I might even say, "Your call is valuable to me. Thank you for being a customer!"

And I really am going to look into getting a rotary phone.

Bible in a Year

2009-02-03T22:19:00.001-06:00

Last year, I used a site similar to this one for my daily Bible reading. My goal was to read through the Bible in one year, and I accomplished that goal!

I found it hard to make a habit. I wanted to do it first thing in the morning, but after I had my coffee so I would be a more active reader, and perhaps remember what I had read, rather than just go through the motions! So I made a quick folder of bookmarks that encompassed everything I like to do online each day. The list included my email, Google Reader, some blogs that I can't read through Google Reader, and a freebie site I like to check daily. I put the Bible reading link at the top and my rule was that I could not move on to the rest of the links until I had my Bible reading finished. This really worked for me.

For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Tot School: Gross Motor and etc.

2009-01-19T14:13:00.008-06:00

Here are a couple of things we did this week to challenge those big muscles...

I decided to share some picture of the gross motor stuff we do with Bubby as we go through the day. So often, I think we moms picture "school" with our little ones as some table time. They need to work on gross motor skills, too! Here are a couple of things we did this week to challenge those big muscles:

We called this one "Magic Carpet Ride." We used to do something similar in the laundry basket, which you can see in the picture. The blanket makes it a little more challenging, and it also makes mom worry less about possibly scratching the hardwood flooring! If you try this at home, use gentle starts and stops, but it can really work a little one's trunk muscles trying to balance. No standing up!

If this looks a bit chilly, sorry. We had a warm day, and the house was pretty warm, too. He had an afternoon bath, and he likes to have his "nekky" time!

I saw this next one in a book as a recommendation for a before-bed activity. I can see why they would say that; I'm sure it's supposed to be calming to a toddler, having that sensory input. Alas, Bubby loved it so much that he wanted to be a "papoosie" again and again, and went a bit crazy. So I don't think it would work for us for bedtime...but, hey, maybe someone else can use it. As it turned out, it is still a fun game! We laid the blanket out on the bed, put him on one side, and helped him roll up and unroll himself. The first couple of times, we unrolled immediately after rolling up, so he wouldn't get scared of being rolled up. I think he will get to the point where he can unroll himself. I remember that my brother and I had fun with this game as older kids!

Now for some other learning. Peanut has a book called Spot What. It is like the I Spy series of books. It seems a little busy for a toddler, but Bubby really loves this book and when Peanut will let him, he likes to sit with her and look at the pictures. Here they are getting in a little book time together. Bubby is in a verbal stage and he is learning new words all the time, and Peanut is so good to spend time with him naming things. In about five years, she is going to be a great babysitter!

I'm not really sure how I can make this educational, but Bubby loves my little sewing box that goes with my sewing machine. He loves taking the little feet out and putting them back. He doesn't put them back in the right spot; that is a little too difficult right now. This is something I need to explore further, because this little box can keep him busy for 30 minutes at a time!

Math Monday: Division with Place Value Blocks

2009-01-19T13:57:00.003-06:00

Peanut is getting bogged down in division. She often has this problem with a new concept in math, or when using an old concept in a new way. I have learned that she needs to go into it gently, with me alongside, and then she will eventually get it. She does not do well with the "sink or swim" approach. It probably works with some kids, but not her.

We got out the old place value blocks this past week, and we are doing the beginning steps of long division with the blocks. This was tricky for me to figure out but we've got it for now. We use the dry erase board and work the problem out as we use the blocks for a concrete example of the problem. Currently, we are dividing by 2's, 3's, 4's, and 5's. It might get trickier this week as we step up to the larger single digits.

I am going to try to get up a "how-to" post about this during the week.

Bigger Library

2009-01-16T09:04:00.005-06:00

I live in a medium-sized town near a metropolitan area. Our library is a nice place, very kid-friendly, has good programs, and they really try to be a help to all ages. But since they are small, they are not the greatest for homeschoolers, meaning that they do not have a huge selection of books, and what they do have is highly-utilized.

So every year, I invest in a paid library card to the large metro library system. The reason I am charged is because I do not live in the same county as the library, and my property taxes are not supporting the library. In my case, I pay $40 a year, which sounds pricy, but when you consider that if I can avoid buying just two $20 books each year, the card has paid for itself.

The library system has lots of great homeschooling books, and they are getting more all the time. They also have multiple copies of good quality children's literature, which means I usually don't have to wait longer than a week for the books I need for school. As with many libraries, they have an online catalog where I can request books from any library in the system, and go pick them up at the nearest branch. I don't have to go in and browse if I don't want to, and with a two-year-old to bring along, that is worth a great deal!

For more frugal tips, visit Biblical Womanhood's Frugal Fridays.

Dollhouse on a Budget

2009-01-10T19:14:00.000-06:00

Here is something my daughter is just going to love. She and her dad are building a real dollhouse, but that is going to take a while to get up and running, because she is on a kid budget, and the furnishings are a little expensive. Here is something she wants to do in the meantime.

The Perfect Dollhouse- a cardboard dollhouse that can fit under the bed, filled with recycled creations. This site has directions on how to make many of the accessories, and although they are heavy on the tea boxes, they look very simple to make. (I'm mostly kidding, I know you can use other boxes. It's just funny to me that everything starts with a tea box!)

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Old Gift Bags

2009-01-06T17:59:00.006-06:00

I always to save and reuse the pretty gift bags from Christmas, birthdays, and other holidays. Sometimes the bags become a little wrinkled and banged up from use, and they are not really gift-worthy anymore. When that happens, there are other uses for them.

The smaller ones make great lunch bags. Or use a larger one for a picnic lunch for the family.
Tote bag for a crochet or knitting project to take along with you.
Keep in the car as a semi-permanent trash bag.
Lay a larger bag flat for slipping a covered dish inside to bring to a potluck. Slip the serving utensil inside the bag too.
Organizer bag for a kids' toy with small pieces, such as a puzzle.
Emergency diaper bag, just to hold a diaper, wipes, and a juice cup.
Organizer for student "center" for kids. Keep scissors, staples, pencils, glue and markers all together in one place for daily use.
Hang a bag over the hook of a coathanger to hold the scarf, hat and mittens to go with each coat.
Keep one in the laundry room for mismatched socks while they wait for the next round of laundry to get done.

If you have any more uses, I'd love to read them in my comments section. For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Get a Grip Kit for Math

2009-01-06T13:24:00.002-06:00

This week, we decided to try something new. We bought a "Get a Grip Kit" some time ago. Peanut has started doing this as part of her math assignment each day. It does not go along with any certain curriculum, it is just an enrichment activity. Junior (7) has not expressed much interest in it, and I haven't required him to work on it, beyond showing him how to use it. It is just an additional activity.

The kit comes to you ready to go. You do not have to collect anything for it, but we did opt to provide our own lentils. It has small self-directed activity books, and the student writes the answers on separate paper. The problems get harder as you go along, the first book is very simple (working on greater than/less than problems.) The final book deal with decimals, percentages, fractions, and making a bar graph.

We are really liking this kit. The lentils also feel really nice, better than sand or something larger like pinto beans. It is designed for K - 6th grade.

Classical Music on the Web

2008-11-19T08:35:00.005-06:00

Here are some great sites you can use when you are studying classical music, or you just want some music for your mp3 player!

One of the best is Classic Cat. It is a frequently updated database with links to other websites where the MP3's are stored. Look up a composers name, and you will find all the works that are available for download. Then there is free music from the US Air Force Bands here. They have a lot of great marches and patriotic songs, classical, jazz, and ceremonial music.

If you need some help teaching your classical music units, turn to Classics for Kids. You can read and listen to stories about the composers, and hear streaming audio of some of their great works. Dallas Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony have good websites with games and activities for kids.

Bubby's Birthday Cake

2008-11-14T19:14:00.003-06:00

Here is little Bubby's cake for his second birthday. He loves Thomas. I don't know if he has ever watched the entire show, but he loves the songs and dances to them. He always recognizes Thomas and gets excited if he sees pictures at the store, so I knew we needed a Thomas the Tank Engine cake.

I used a 13 x 9 cake for the base, and the Wilton Choo Choo Train pan for Thomas. This train is not really meant to be Thomas, so I had to modify it a bit. I was happy with the way it turned out. I decorated the train separately, and it was on it's own cake board, which was larger than the base of the train. I covered the cake board up with stars, and it ended up looking nice, sort of like the train was up on a little platform.

If I was doing it over again, I would make the face first. I did it last on this cake, and it was much harder, because I was so afraid I was going to mess up the rest of the cake.

Writing Assignment Ideas

2008-11-11T20:01:00.004-06:00

Here are some writing prompts that I came up with for those days when the kids need a break from the ordinary copywork, dictation, penmanship workbooks, etc. I tried to come up with things that were fun, matched their interests, and would inspire them, rather than just being another assignment.

Feel free to use this list for your own school, but you'll probably want to tweak it for your own kids and their interests:

Writing List

A letter to Grandma
A letter to ________(favorite relative's name)
A letter to Grandpa
A letter to ________(a friend)
A letter to Mama
A letter to Daddy
Something you dreamed
Write about a movie you like
Write about a TV show you like
What would be a good TV show
Write a Bible story that you heard
Tell about somewhere you went
Tell about somewhere you want to go
Story in which someone learns something important
Story in which someone learns something silly
Story in which someone helps a friend
Story about finding a surprise
Story about planning a party
Story about doing something kind
Story about kids making something
Story about a pony
Story about a stuffed animal that comes to life
Story about a TV character
Story about _______(name of sibling)

I also had to write a second little list. Sometimes kids want to write a letter, then they don't know what to say.

Things that can go in a letter

Tell something you like about the person
Tell a story that happened this week
What is ________ (your sibling) doing right now?
Tell about something you had for a snack or dinner
Tell about something that is outside
Draw a picture and tell what it is
Tell about something that is your favorite _____ (book, food, tv show, etc)

Week 11 - Review

2008-11-11T19:35:00.002-06:00

Our week has been very similar to last week.

Bible: We are still in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah.
History: We are reading our George Washington biography.
Readers: Peanut finished the book A Llama in the Family, and began A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla. She really enjoyed the first book, but the second has not grown on her yet. Our strategy is that I read the first chapter to her, which helps her to get a feel for the book. Then she's on her own for the most part.
Junior read The 18 Penny Goose. This was a good book. It had a girl as the main character, and sometimes he does not like a "girl" book. However, this one was not really girly. And it was based on a true story.
For an extra read-aloud, Peanut and I are reading Black Beauty. Junior and Dad are reading an old Hardy Boys book. I don't really keep up with which one they are on, but this is an enjoyable part of the day. We usually do it before bed, and that feels like you are getting to stay up a bit later!

Tot School: Bath

2008-11-10T14:00:00.004-06:00

Go here for my Weblink Wednesday post.

This was birthday week for Bubby, who turned two, and I guess I won't call him Baby Bubby anymore. He IS my baby, but he's getting to be such a little kid, I know he doesn't think of himself as a baby. *sniff, sniff*

I was busy, and didn't get a lot of school-y pictures, but I caught a couple, so I will share them. He gets a kick out of playing with this water toy. We got it from Discovery Toys, but that was years ago for the older kids, so I think they must not have it anymore. It is really fun, and we have gotten a lot of play out of it.

I'm finding that the hour that the big kids are in band is a great time for Bubby and I to hit the library. Here, he has found a puzzle to play with. It is fun to watch him as he figures out a new puzzle, you can just see the little wheels turning in there!

If you want to see his cake that I made, see this post.

For more Tot School, visit 1+1+1=1, and say a little prayer for them, as their family is needing a special touch from God.

Podcasts for teachers

2008-11-05T08:35:00.004-06:00

As a homeschooling mom and a Sunday School teacher, Karyn Henley resources have been very helpful to me.

The other day I visited her website, and she is offering free podcasts of her ChildTalk seminars. Each podcast is about 25 minutes long, and they are divided into categories. The original seminar handouts are included on the website.

I have listened to four of them so far. They are very helpful, and full of practical information that you can use this week. She goes developmentally through the different ages, and includes faith development. I believe they are geared toward teachers, but they would be very helpful for parents as well.

For more Web-link Wednesday, visit Homeschooling With Encouragement.

Week 10 - Review

2008-10-30T17:39:00.002-05:00

We took the week after vacation as a catch-up week. We got our closets cleaned out and our winter clothes out of storage.

Bible: We read out of 2 Kings, 2 Chron., and Isaiah in the Day-by-Day Kids' Bible

History: We are reading George Washington: Our First Leader and we read Can't You Make Them Behave, King George? That was a very good book. It was a quick read and gave some details from the other side of the ocean that you don't always hear much about when studying the Revolutionary War.

We also did the taxation activity I mentioned the other day.

Reading: Peanut is reading A Llama in the Family. Junior is reading The Long Way to a New Land.

Language Arts: Peanut - LLATL Orange Book and HWT. Junior - HWT.

Science: Peanut - Human Anatomy, using Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body. Junior - Water experiments from library books.

Week 9 - Review and Field Trip

2008-10-29T22:11:00.003-05:00

For week nine, we did an extended field trip. Well, honestly it was a vacation with hubby's dad to Branson, MO., specifically Silver Dollar City.

There was a good deal of educational value to this trip, so I am putting it down as an extended field trip. Here are some of the educational highlights:
This is a old-fashioned sorghum mill, being powered by a mule, as you see. I failed to get a good picture of this, so I have to rely on my nice sister-in-law's picture. However, she is an animal lover, and got a better picture of the mule than the actual mill.

This was quite fascinating to me. The mule is guided around and around in a circle and turns the mill. A person stood there and fed stalks of sorghum through the mill, and the juice was drained into a bucket. The syrup is made similarly to maple syrup. The juice is boiled until it condenses down into a thick syrup. Samples of syrup were available. Apparently, syrup is an acquired taste, because everyone around was not lovin' the sorghum syrup. Including my daughter. Oh well, more sorghum for me, I guess. I grew up loving the stuff. It is similar to molasses, but it just has a nicer taste. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the taste is strong like molasses.

Here we have a butter sculpture. I have seen this phenomenon on TV, but never in person. It was in a large refrigerated trailer, and you could look in the glass window and watch the artist at work. Well, I do like to watch a work of art in progress, and this was definitely a work of art...but something about butter as a medium is surreal. Oh well, it is along the same lines as pumpkin sculpture, and we are big fans of that.

Here, Peanut (pink shirt) is getting to help with a demonstration of Border Collie training. This was another fascinating thing! Sorry I couldn't get a dog picture, too. I was being pestered by a bored one-year-old. Anyway, the trainer demonstrated how the dog is trained to go clockwise and counter-clockwise. That is the basis for all of her herding. She herded sheep, and then geese. They had the volunteers come up during geese herding.

We had a wonderful time. Learning opportunities abound, and those were some of the highlights for which I found pictures.

Tot School: Piano Guy

2008-10-28T09:41:00.002-05:00

I sat Bubby on the piano bench the other day to see what would happen. He had fun. We talked about high and low, loud and soft, and he tried to sing high and low. When I brought out the camera, he was pretty much done. He just wanted to get his picture made. What a ham! But I did catch him in action just a bit:

And yes, it was very necessary to hold that sippy cup the whole time.

He does spend some time at the piano whenever I want to play. He sits in my lap and bangs while I try to play from my Sheet Music Magazines. He is finally learning that Mama gets to turn the pages and he is not welcome to do that! Otherwise, he is welcome to help Mama play and if the melody line is not very distinct, that's probably my fault anyway.

He also helped me in the kitchen. The dinner-fixing time at our house continues to be the time of day when he is grouchy, not satisfied and gets restless. I put him up in his high chair and let him mash the avocado for mama. He was very glad to help with this. He used a potato masher, and he did a very good job. The avocado in the center of the bowl was perfectly pureed!

For more Tot School, visit 1+1+1=1.

Taxation Activity

2008-10-21T14:49:00.003-05:00

Just a quick activity we did today:

We are starting to talk about some of the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. I found this activity, and we did it this morning with chocolate chips.

It was quick and very effective. The kids were outraged that they lost their chocolate chips to Parliament, the King, and the tax collector! The tax collector (me) quickly redistributed the chocolate chips so that she wouldn't be tarred and feathered!

Week 8 - Review

2008-10-19T13:01:00.003-05:00

I have not been able to get onto Blogger all week. I tried a lot of things, but the thing that finally worked is uninstalling BSafeOnline from my computer. That program has been quite a hassle for us, does anyone have any suggestions for good blocking software for computers that children use from time to time? I like the format of BSafe, but it definitely uses a lot of resources, and slows our computer down.

We were on vacation last week, so that is why I didn't post my update for week 8. Here are the highlights:

Bible: Day-by-Day Kids' Bible - We have been in 2Kings, Isaiah, and Micah. We have memorized Joel 2:13, and ready to move on to something else.

History: We did a lesson on music in the colonies. We used Popular Songs in American History to listen to some midi files of folk music that would have come over from the British Isles. Then the Bay Psalm Book has text and midi files that would have been used in the Church in colonial days. Then, the kids learned a simplified version of the minuet. Here they are in all their anonymous glory!

Reading: Peanut finished The Boxcar Children. She tried to begin another Boxcar Children book, called The Pilgrim Village Mystery. She didn't like it as well, I think it may be a more modern version of the books. Junior finished Clara and the Bookwagon, and we had trouble finding something appropriate to read after that. Most of our kid books are a little too hard for him still, and we are waiting on a couple of readers from the library that go along with our history period. We finally chose The Kitten Who Thought He Was a Mouse from our bookshelf.

For week 9, we did our field trip to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo. We'll share a few pictures soon.

PumpkinGutter.com is updated!

2008-10-14T23:21:00.003-05:00

My brother's website that I mentioned here has the first of the new pumpkins for the year. Bookmark it and check it often during the next month, because he usually puts up several throughout the month.

Tot School: Vacation

2008-10-14T09:36:00.005-05:00

This past week we had a some fun as a family. We all went on a trip with my father-in-law to Branson, MO. This was a very special trip for us, and it went very well. My FIL really loves to go to Branson, specifically to Silver Dollar City.

Silver Dollar City has a lot of fun stuff for kids, and the older kids had a ball. For little Bubby, who is not quite two, it was interesting in other ways. He just happened to be tall enough to ride some of the kiddie rides, but he is too young still and he was nervous about them. So he sat out and found other things to occupy his time.

He did like riding the train with the whole group of us. He could sit snuggled up on Mama's lap and the train did not go too fast for him. I also let him sit in one of the nice "picture areas" and play in the mulch. It was damp and cool, and he had a good time. At home, he is happy playing in the dirt under the trees, so I guess this was close to that. I had to watch to make sure he didn't throw the mulch, but once he realized I wasn't going to let him throw, he had fun just picking it up and dropping it.

In the gift shop, they had one of those bins full of polished rocks. He absolutely loved that. I would highly recommend that to anyone next time they are at a museum or other souvenir shop. The rocks are cold and smooth and they usually have enough in a bin for a little kid to bury their hands in. He really liked all the colors as well.

Here are a couple of pictures from early in the week, when we hadn't started vacation yet. I took him to the library while the older kids were in band, and he had a good time. Our local library has a rather large children's area with a few play centers.

One last thing that is interesting, but you can't see it in the pictures: When he is really involved in something, his face just goes so serious. He looks very concerned, LOL. He is such a silly any other time, he is always smiling. I guess a lot of kids are like that, but it is interesting to me.

For more ideas, go visit Tot School at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School: Pots and Pans

2008-10-05T16:05:00.003-05:00

This is our first week to participate in Tot School at 1+1+1=1. It is just a way to document the stuff we do with little Bubby in our day-to-day life that is focused on him. Bubby will be 23 months old in a few days.

This week we have just one picture. We played pots and pans this week. He had a great time. The activity came from the book, Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready. The goal was to have him put lids on the right size pans, and take them off again. He did that a few times, but he quickly learned that these pans make a lot of noise, especially when hit with plasitc hammer. It turned out to be a loud activity, but a lot of fun!

Pumpkin Carving Contest at ThisOldHouse.com

2008-10-03T15:09:00.003-05:00

I just found out my brother has been featured on the new Halloween portion of the This Old House website!

They are having a pumpkin-carving contest where people can send in photos of their pumpkins. He is not in the contest, but there is a link next to it that says Best Pumpkin Carvers on the Web. He is one of the featured pumpkin carvers there. His name is Scott Cummins.

His pumpkins really are the best ones on there, you can see if you agree with me, however. More of his carvings are on his webpage, Pumpkingutter. So far, he does not have any new ones up this year, but I think he will soon. But you can check out everything from the past few years on there, and read his FAQs while you are at it!

Buying for your school at "other" stores

2008-10-02T14:35:00.002-05:00

I was thinking today of some of the "off-the-beaten-path" places for homeschoolers to buy school supplies. There are always Target, Walmart, office supply stores, educator supply stores...the basics. But we end up getting school supplies at many other stores. Here is a quick list I jotted down. Maybe you can think of more.

Discount furniture - for little bookshelves, desks, computer desks, chairs, for setting up your environment.

Museum Gift Store - this is a great place for buying books, science kits, art kits, and even gifts for homeschoolers.

Pet Store - if you have a "live biology project" like we do, you might be in and out of a pet store from time to time.

Craft Store - we find ourselves at the craft store quite often to get supplies for projects, experiments, costumes, displays, and other things. The fabric store will also have many of these things.

Garden and Hardware Store - more materials and tools for projects, and the all-important summer garden (no matter what size it is!)

Thrift Store - odds and ends. I found my daughter's colonial costume here this year. I have found lots of school supplies (the traditional paper-and-pencil-type) at garage sales around town.

Week 7 - Review

2008-10-01T23:32:00.003-05:00

Here is a quick update on our homeschool.

Bible: We are continuing with the Day-by-Day Kids' Bible. We are still memorizing Joel 2:13

History: We did a Wampanoag Villiage model from Easy Make & Learn Projects: Pilgrims, Mayflower and More. This was going to be our last activity from this book, but the kids had so much fun, we might do some on into our Rev. War unit. Picture coming soon!

We watched a DVD on the settling of New Amsterdam. It is from the Colonial Life for Kids series from Schlessinger Media. These are all really good videos that the kids enjoy. They are from our library.

Reading: The kids worked on their reading. Peanut is reading The Boxcar Children. Junior finished Greg's Microscope and began Clara and the Bookwagon. We took a break from read-alouds, mostly because I'm waiting on a book from the library. *sigh* It happens.

Language Arts: Peanut - LLATL Orange Book. She does not like it, but I think it is just more writing than she wants to do. And it is not that much writing, she just complains. I remember being like that too. We would ask, "Do we have to write the whole sentence? How about just the words that are supposed to be capitalized?" Junior is just working on his new HWT book, Printing Power.

Science: We have not done anything formal this week. Again, *sigh*...

On the music front, Peanut is playing flute in band. Her flute was supposed to be in good shape per a flute teacher. Well, it was not in good shape per Mama (who doesn't know anything about flutes, but figured you shouldn't have to white-knuckle it to get a sound out.) Took two weeks to get fixed, but it is fine now. Peanut actually gets a really good sound out of the thing! And she is doing decent with fingering after not having it to practice for two weeks. Junior is playing the drums. He is Todd's son, so those of you that know Todd will not be surprised, Junior gets bragged on every week for how well he plays. I really don't know that he practices for more than five minutes a day. Figures.

Update: Dishwasher

2008-10-01T09:32:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted about my dishwasher and the problems I was having. Well, I have good news! After a month, it is fixed! Well, so far, so good.

Here is what happened: I was really leaning toward not replacing it, then I started getting mad. Why buy a dishwasher and use it for only three years? Isn't that their fault? So I called them. I tried to patiently explain the problem...at least I think I did it patiently. The guy at the phone actually listened to me. But they weren't going to do anything about it.

He gave me the name of two repair places I could call. I thought I might as well call and see how much they charge just for a service call. The first place told me they would charge $80. To be fair, I called the second number. This guy immediately asked me what kind of dishwasher and the model number. Long story short, my particular model has a "service alert." In a couple of weeks, LG had extended my warranty so that what was wrong could be fixed.

So yesterday they came out and fixed the dishwasher. It seems to be working fine. Hubby is more critical and heard a slurpy noise which to him is not so good. But after a month of no dishwasher, I'm happy!

A cruise

2008-09-24T22:01:00.003-05:00

I don't think it's really going to happen, but hubby's family is wanting to take a cruise in the spring!

It seems that one cousin has been on a short cruise and he says it would be a great family reunion. Now that would be a lot more fun than going to a lake, which is what Todd has been wanting to do for a while. I think no one gets that excited about going to a lake, because you can do that about any weekend. So at least this would motivate people to come along.

The cousin that has been on the cruise says it is not expensive at all. I've done a little looking, and I do not agree with him. Maybe for two, but for a family of five? Hmm.

Regardless, Todd says we should go ahead and get a passport for each of us, so hey! Will do, but we better find something cheap!

Week 6 - Review

2008-09-24T18:43:00.001-05:00

We are taking about 8 weeks for our Colonial unit. The original unit study from Homeschool in the Woods took about 5 weeks. We are tagging on some extra weeks to read some extra material and do a couple of projects that didn't get done. We are taking break the first full week of October, so our break will be at the same time we switch units. Next we will do a unit on the Revolutionary War.

Bible Lessons - One of our lessons was the book of Jonah. Then we started the book of Hosea. We began memorizing Joel 2:13.

Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.

History: We read The Story of the Pilgrims by Katharine Ross, and made paper models of the Mayflower from Easy Make & Learn Projects: The Pilgrims, the Mayflower & More. The kids enjoyed this activity. The Mayflower model was not hard, and we are thinking about making some for Thanksgiving for table decorations. We will definitely save the two we did for that purpose. The Story of the Pilgrims would be a good book to use if you were doing a short Thanksgiving unit.

Language Arts: We used Bible verses for copywork. Peanut started on Learning Language Arts through Literature, the Orange Book (LLATL). It seems a bit easy for her, but maybe that is only the beginning of the book. I am not worried though. It seems to be a good book, and not a lot of repetition.

Read-aloud: We finished The Matchlock Gun. The kids turned out to really like the book, and the chapters were pretty short. The did not want to be left hanging, so we ended up reading a few chapters a day instead of just one. We finished sooner than I had planned, but that's okay. I read some reviews on Amazon.com which complained that this book was racist. Hmm. I don't really think it was. It was based on a true story about an Indian attack on a woman and two children. The little boy defended the family with a gun. It didn't say all Indians were savages, but these three obviously were. The Warrior's Challenge showed a very different type of Indian, not bent on killing others, and they were definitely shown as being mistreated. I think kids need some balance in these things, but The Matchlock Gun is too good to be missed.

Reading: Peanut began The Boxcar Children. It goes along with LLATL. At first she balked, she thought it would be boring, and we read it a long time ago as a read-aloud. After the first couple of chapters, she realized that it was her kind of book. She and her friends love to play that kind of pretend game, like they are having to survive and make things for their houses out of what they can find. So she will finish it early, most likely. Junior finished Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie and started on Greg's Microscope.

We also went on a trip to the State Fair this week. That was great!

Book Review of Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

2008-09-23T22:28:00.001-05:00

Stepping Heavenward: One Woman's Journey to Godliness by Elizabeth Prentiss

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a very inspirational book. I would highly recommend it to any young lady who is wondering how her life could make a difference. It is a story, written as the diary of a young girl growing to be a young wife and mother.

In the story, you see a great picture of spiritual growth, and what it can look like. The girl starts out kind of silly, focusing on the things most young girls like to focus on. Gradually, through her mother and her pastor, she realizes that there is more to life than clothes and friends and boys.

The book was written a long time ago, but is relevant for today in the area of spiritual growth. That part is really still the same. The story is sad, too. It made me actually glad to be alive today and not back then. Sometimes we think of those days as "the good old days." This books brings us down to earth. This is a great time to be alive, and I would not like to have to deal with the the things this lady dealt with, though they were commonplace back then.

View all my reviews.

Super Supplements etc.

2008-09-23T08:30:00.004-05:00

I am starting Junior on some Omega-3 supplements. We are not big fish-eaters at my house, one person doesn't even like to smell fish being cooked! He has extremely dry skin in the winter as well as trouble concentrating. The supplements seemed to help previously, so we are trying them again.

Does anyone use super supplements like Juice Plus and orovo? I used to think these were a waste of time, but I'm not as skeptical anymore. Do you think they really help? Now I really understand about not always having everything in your diet you might need.

TV and Stereo Stuff

2008-09-23T08:11:00.002-05:00

I really depend on hubby for all things related to hooking up TVs, stereos, DVD players...he knows all that stuff about cords, etc. and how to hook up everything, especially when you do not want to follow the instructions that came with the equipment.

He must really be good at it because he has been asked by other guys to help them hook up their surround sound!

So I was proud the other day when I got my mom's TV hooked up to her DVD player. It was really not that hard. I just kept plugging stuff in to different places and it finally worked! The only problem was that I had to steal a cable from her stereo. She doesn't use her stereo much, but she will have to replace it. The new thing to use is an HDMI cable, and they do make things easier. More expensive, but it is an all-in-one option.

Homeschool Memoirs #5: My Favourite Things

2008-09-17T08:22:00.002-05:00

Todays Homeschool Memoirs from The Homeschool Post (formerly Homeschool Blog Awards) is about My Favourite Things. We are supposed to list our favorite homeschooling things, specifically, online or print magazines, websites, etc.

My first site I want to share is a topical Bible reference which I have been using. This year, I made the commitment to try to open the Bible more as I teach each subject. Instead of trying to read a little portion each day and closing it first thing, I want to see what the Bible says about each topic we are studying. This reference has been very handy. For example, the other day I was preparing a lesson on Big Cats, and I knew that lions were mentioned in the Bible (aside from the story in Daniel 6.) This topical index has over 70 entries under "Lion"! I just had no idea. So go there and look up a few words, you will be surprised!

Then, I'll share just a few more. A good homemaking blog is Home Living by Lady Lydia. A good cooking website is All Recipes. If you are trying to impress people, use the highest rated recipes.

Half.com is my favorite site for used books. They usually have kids' paperbacks, and the shipping is better than Amazon Used Books.

A good blogging help site is Blog University.

Week 5 - Review

2008-09-16T08:55:00.002-05:00

This week was our first week going to co-op. It really made me scramble, as there is not a lot of time between co-op and band rehearsal. We have 3 hours including travel time, and I have to spend part of that time lying down with Baby Bubby so he can get a short nap.

We may need to split one school day between Monday and Friday. Currently, we just do our errands and dance classes on Friday.

So here's a rundown of this week:

Bible Time: We read 2 Kings chapter 6 and 7. Part of this deals with a story about cannibalism, which was kind of disturbing. My kids are kind of young to deal with something like that, so I did explain that there was a conflict between two women because their sons had died and they were talking about eating their bodies because they were so hungry. This showed how bad the starvation in the city really was. We also talked about how the enemy strategy to block off the city so no one could get food.

Another chapter from Joel told about a plague of locusts. Peanut and I had read On the Banks of Plum Creek last year, which had a story about a grasshopper swarm that destroyed their crops, so we related back to that story and how awful it was.

History: We watched a video called What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? It explained a little more about colonial trades and apprenticeships, and a little about sea travel as well. Even though this video went on into the Revolutionary War and the founding of the nation, it had a lot of information about Colonial life, so I'm glad we went ahead and watched it in this unit.

Language Arts: We ran out of copywork with our unit study, so we have started copying some Bible verses.

Reading: We finished The Warrior's Challenge, and it did end up being sad, but the book was very positive and showed a great father/son relationship. The son and his father both made mistakes, and had a strained relationship because of this, but everything was resolved nicely in the end. We began The Matchlock Gun at the end of the week.

Peanut is still reading The Courage of Sarah Noble. Junior finished Prairie School and began Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie.

Speed Reading

2008-09-13T15:38:00.003-05:00

I have a long list of books to read. Some I really want to read, some I think I need to read. Many are homeschooling books. One of those that is sitting on my end table in the living room is Dr. Ruth Beechick's You Can Teach Your Child Successfully. Good, but very thick. Then I have two or three chapters a week in a book that we are reading in a Bible Study at church. That one has some homework with it. That is in addition to my daily Bible reading. I had also started another book by Dr. Beechick, Heart and Mind, when we were away for the weekend a few weeks ago and I haven't had time to pick it back up. I also have been enjoying the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'brian, but that is just for fun reading, so it gets put on the back burner pretty often.

That is a lot of reading, so the other day I checked out yet another book, this time on speed reading. I think it would help to increase my speed, since I don't have a lot of extra time. Right now, my best speed is 400 words per minute. That is when I'm distraction-free. I'm sure that I'm quite a bit slower than that most of the time, when I have a baby to worry about and frequent interruptions.

I'm already noticing that these books do not address the problem of multiple distractions. They keep saying things about quiet rooms, reading lamps, etc. Nothing about proper lighting for the bathroom!

Family computers

2008-09-11T08:27:00.003-05:00

The kids have been asking if they could have their own computer. This would not really be a problem, as we have an old one that would be fine for most of their activities. I guess all we would need is something like a Linksys router and a place to put the computer. We could get by without the router, as they don't need Internet access, and they already use the printer too much.

But I'm leaning towards the "No" side of this issue. We have had so many problems with the kids putting computer games too high on the list of priorities. I have given a mini-lecture in the past couple of weeks that ended with the words, "People are more important than computers!"

Ah, well. I don't think the computer is the center of the problem. The selfish attitudes would be there even without a computer at all. Still, for now the kids do not have their own computer, though they can use ours for educational stuff and a bit of fun too.

Something new Meme

2008-09-10T09:15:00.002-05:00

Todays memoirs topic is something new. "Share something new you are using, why you are using it, and how you like it.."

One new thing we are using is the Time Travelers Colonial Life unit study from Homeschool in the Woods. We decided to use it because we haven't done a lot of unit studies, and this year we've decided on a unit study approach. I look forward to preparing my own unit studies, but I wanted a pre-packaged study for our first big one. This unit study hasn't disappointed at all! Of course, as with most curricula, there are too many activities to get it all done, but we have really enjoyed everything we have done with this study. My favorite thing is that the study builds in time to get projects done! That is a life-saver. We don't feel like we are always scrambling to catch up.

There are a couple of cons to the program. For one thing, there are text lessons each day to be read. I have been reading some of them to my kids, but often we skip them because they are a little dry, and we prefer a Charlotte Mason, living-books approach. The unit study does have recommended additional reading, but I have relied on some other book lists to get our good living books that we have used.

Now that our study is winding down, I think the copywork assignments could be changed a bit. They use "Rules of Civility." I will try to post later about that topic.

For more "Something New" posts, see Homeschool Memoirs at HSBA.

Week 4 - Review

2008-09-09T09:35:00.003-05:00

This week was a bit shorter. Dad was home for Labor Day, so we didn't do school on Monday. We had also noticed Baby Bubby rubbing his ear, and just being generally cranky. So Tuesday we had to take him to the doctor. So we abandoned our regular schedule and just got our music practice and chores done.

We still had a nice week, though more relaxed.

Bible: One of our Bible readings was on the story of Naaman. The kids put on a puppet show to tell the story.

Here is Naaman.

In this picture, Naaman thanks Elisha and says he will now serve the true God.

This was special to me, because this kind of thing is what I had in mind even before we started homeschooling as kind of a mental picture of homeschooling. It doesn't happen all that often, and I enjoy a lot of other things about homeschooling, but I love it when my kids will put on a puppet show or otherwise act out a story that we are learning about!

They did the same reading books as last week.

For science, Peanut got a new book about the moon from the library, called What the Moon is Like. Junior did an demonstration of how hot water moves in cold water, which was in one of his library books.

Week 3 - review

2008-09-03T15:46:00.003-05:00

Bible Time: We read from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles this week. The most important story in our opinion as parents is the story from 2 Chronicles 19-20, where Jehoshaphat led his people into battle with praises. However, even though I really talked this story up and reviewed it with the kids each day, two days later no one really knew anything at all about Jehoshaphat. Junior wasn't even sure if he was a good king or a bad king. *Sigh* I want to go back to this story later on in the year and see if I have any fresh ideas for it.

History: We are doing Colonial Life from Homeschool in the Woods. This week we made fortune catchers and silhouettes. The kids love, love, love the fortune catchers. Junior ended up making one for his grandpa and Peanut made one for a little friend who was coming over.

The silhouettes were more difficult. I will put up a post with silhouette tips later. Dad will take them to work and shrink them on the large copy machine there, and they will make a nice framed piece, I believe.

Our read-aloud is still The Warrior's Challenge by Dave and Neta Jackson. I like it. There are some themes that I feel my kids would better relate to if they were older, but it is not a big deal. The subject of cruelty to Native Americans is dealt with without being disturbing to young kids.
In the evenings, I do read-alouds with Peanut by herself. We love reading the Burgess Animal stories, but we just started on Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Clearly, and we are enjoying it. Somehow I missed it growing up.

For language arts, we are still doing copywork using the Rules of Civility from our unit study.

Reading: Junior finished up Nate the Great and started on Prairie School. Peanut finished The Skippack School, and she really liked it. After the first few chapters, I did not have to share the reading with her. She got into it on her own, and didn't want to wait on me to finish what I was doing.

For science, we got a lot of books at the library, but we haven't gotten started on them yet. Junior is wanting to study buoyant forces. Before I got to the library, I found some directions online for making a Cartesian Diver, so we did that. It was a bit tricky, but we got it to work. The cartesian diver doesn't exactly demonstrate buoyant forces, but it is close enough. My opinion is that when he says "buoyant forces," he means that he wants to do water experiments, and he did enjoy the Cartesian Diver.

Sale going on this week only

2008-09-03T14:46:00.006-05:00

This week only, you can get the Organized Mom Super Set from Cindy Rushton for 1/2 price!

Start out this Mom-Year* on the right track! This has tons of help for getting organized, both in your home, and in your homeschool!

To promote the Organized Mom Super Set, Cindy let me know that she is giving away some resources. You might not be familiar with what she offers, so here are some products that you can have for FREE!

Gearing up for a New School Year - Part 1 - this is an e-book (.pdf file).

Gearing up for a New School Year - Part 2 - the second part of the e-book (.pdf file).

Gearing Up Audio - an mp3 file, which is a companion to the the e-book.

Enjoy!

*The Mom-Year starts in September, you know!!

Routines (Homeschool Memoirs #3)

2008-09-03T09:13:00.004-05:00

We keep a Mon. - Thurs. routine at Psalm One School. Friday is our errand/dance day, so we are out most of the day. We used to work library time into our errand day, but the almost-two-year-old brother throws a damper on that. He is not much fun at the library. So we save the library for an evening or weekend where Daddy can watch him at home. That will get better eventually.

Our routine is basically this:
9:30 am: Prayer/Bible Time - we take prayer requests, read our selection from the Day-by-Day Kids' Bible, and discuss the lessons in it. Sometimes we do an activity.

10:00 am: History - we work on projects from our unit study and I read the kids from our read-aloud book.

11:00 am: They have all their other assignments which do not require 100% of my time. I go back and forth as they need help with math, language arts, reading, piano, instrument practice, etc. They can also use this extra time for finishing up any history projects that are still open.

Junior(7) usually finishes around 12:00 or 12:30. Peanut (9) takes about an hour longer.

In the afternoon, we work on science projects (on certain days of the week.)

When they finish school work, they have a list of chores and things that have to be done each day. This list has everything from special chores to brushing teeth. We used to have a short list that had to be completed before we started school. That doesn't work for our family, because we start the school day with prayer and Bible reading. If one person is slow about getting their bed made, it puts us all behind. So now we start school no matter where people are on their list of chores.

The list of chores has to be completed before any fun stuff. No computer time, TV time or playing with friends until everything is done. If we are saving science for later in the day, we don't count it toward the "school work" that has to be done. Sometimes it has to be saved for later because of the little one's naptime, etc.

The chore list is in effect almost every day, even if we are not doing formal school. It gets done on Fridays, Saturdays, holidays, every day but Sunday.

Prayer Request: Our prayer and goal for the year is to have God's peace over us all, and limit the fighting and contention between my older two. "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" Psalm 133:1

Dishwasher Decision

2008-09-02T22:45:00.004-05:00

My dishwasher, which I have only had for three years, has broken down once again. This time it is out of warranty, and I think the repair bill would be huge. (By the way, it is an LG and has been a lemon all the way. Bad job, LG.)

We can get a new dishwasher, but I would have to dip into my little savings fund where I have been saving for a new dining room table. I'm actually considering not replacing this dishwasher.

Hubby says it would not be hard to fix up a couple of storage drawers in place of the dishwasher, but in a way that it could be easily removed if we decided to stick a dishwasher back in that space. And in my small kitchen, the extra storage would be an asset.

We have two able-bodied kids that could help share the load of handwashing dishes. They are nine and seven. There is also a two-year-old who is no help, of course.

So give me any input on what we should do. I sure hate to put my table off for another year! I also don't want to be constantly behind on dishes.

Porch plans

2008-09-01T10:31:00.003-05:00

I got to sleep in a tiny bit this morning, and started thinking about our back porch we might do sometime in the next year.

Currently, we have a very small concrete area for a back porch. It is the bare minimum, just to keep from having a muddy place outside the back door.

It needs to be bigger. I can't picture anything like a deck, because of the way our backyard slopes down to the house. And a roof over it would be great. Those two elements might allow a small area to the side to store the riding lawn mower, which doesn't have a home right now.

Then just a small table and chairs would be perfect. I am not going to get too excited about a lot of furniture back there. We always say we are going to eat outdoors, but the bugs make it impossible.

I am researching whether we really need patio furniture covers on a covered porch. Of course, you see it in all the pictures, I'm just wondering if it is really necessary.

Smart Kid

2008-08-28T23:26:00.003-05:00

Bubby (1yo) has learned to turn the TV in my bedroom on and off. He thinks he is smart when he does it. Tonight it was off and he turned it on. Obama was making a speech. He took a couple of steps back and said, "Uh-oh."

My 2008-09 School Schedule

2008-08-27T21:01:00.005-05:00

Psalm One School's Eclectic Plan

This is my second year of making up my own curriculum. I try to stay a week or two ahead of the kids in my specific planning. Any more than that, and I end up making so many changes it's not worth it.

I will try to update every week or two, so be sure and check that out to see how it's going.

We have two children that are school-aged: "Peanut" is a 9yo girl and "Junior" is a 7yo boy. "Bubby" is our little one who will turn two in November. He is homeschooled too, but of course none of that is written down on paper. Sometimes we use Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready for him.

Bible	Day-By-Day Kids' Bible. Read one day's reading each day of school.We are using various references as needed. For activities, we often use the book, 1001 Ways to Introduce Your Child to the Bible.We include hymns and choruses during Bible time as appropriate.
Memory Work	Usually a Bible passage. We try to use entire chapters as we are able, but do add some shorter passages, 1-2 verses at a time. We use the Simply Charlotte Mason system to keep up with what we're doing.
History	We are following Heart of Wisdom's Year 3 schedule. We did Ancient History and Middle Ages with Sonlight 1&2, and were ready to move on. We are not doing "Explorers" as that was part of our last year's study. Heart of Wisdom doesn't really have a planned out "Year 3" to sell, but in their e-book, The Heart of Wisdom Approach, they give guidelines for planning your own lessons, so we are doing that.For the Colonial Era, we are using the unit study called "Colonial Times" from Homeschool in the Woods. We are considering using their Revolutionary War study.
Read-alouds	We are using some Read-alouds recommended by Heart of Wisdom. I don't use Sonlight anymore, but I love the idea of doing read-alouds that go along with the era of history we are studying. Sometimes our read-alouds don't match up, but it's great when they do.
Readers	Junior (7) is using readers that we already had when we did Sonlight with his older sister. Peanut (9) is using various books that are on her reading level. Bonus points (for me!) when they correlate with the era of history we are studying. I got a good list from the Heart of Wisdom e-book I mentioned above, and I have also used some books recomended by Sonlight.
Science	Delight-directed. The kids choose their own topics for study. Heart of Wisdom has a set of topics laid out for each year, but we've decided that at this young age, we do not need to check off a list of topics that have been studied.First, Peanut wants to do a project about growing plants on the moon, available from the NASA website. Second, Peanut wants to learn about the human body. Junior want to learn about the forces of buoyancy. We will use library books and do demonstrations.
Math	We use Singapore Math.
Language Arts	Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL)Junior (7) The Red Book (old version)Peanut (9) The Orange Book (new version)
Spelling	Junior (7) He was working in Sequential Spelling 1 last year, we will continue this year.Peanut (9) We are going to try a Charlotte Mason approach to spelling (copywork, dictation) this year.
Music	We are planning 12 week composer studies per Charlotte Mason. Last year we did Bach, Handel, and Mozart. We will start that again in September. I am not sure which composer will be next.I am teaching the kids piano. We are going through as many primer books as we can find, as advised by my mother and another piano teacher. They say to stay in the primer levels to get really grounded in the fundamentals.The kids are also in beginner homeschool band. Daily practice on piano and band instruments is a part of our school schedule.
Art	Currently, we are not doing anything formal
Home Arts	We have a simple chore list and we are practicing being diligent with that.

WFMW: Storytime Bears

2008-08-26T14:49:00.001-05:00

A couple of years ago, I did something in my preschool Sunday School class that helped little ones settle down for a few minutes for storytime. The idea is not mine, it came from a taped seminar from Karyn Henley.

When it is time for storytime, give a little child a small stuffed animal to hold onto. Ours were specific bears that only came out for storytime. This gave little hands something to do for the few minutes that they were required to sit still to hear a story. Young children really do need something to "do" instead of being required only to sit. We told them to keep the bears on their laps and help them listen to the story.

I found that this worked best for ages three and four. The two-year-olds did not quite understand what they were supposed to do, and the five-year-olds were a bit too old for it. They had more fun being silly with the bears.

If you have a little one that has trouble sitting quietly for a quick story, this might help you, too! For more ideas, go to Works For Me Wednesday.

The first two weeks - Part II

2008-08-26T08:51:00.003-05:00

Thanks for bearing with me on the continued post.

History - We are using Homeschool in the Woods' Time Travelers Colonial Life unit study. The kids pick the activities that they want to do. We made some notebook pages and projects to go along with what we are learning. For one project, Peanut and I dyed cotton, wool, and linen samples using raspberries, blueberries, and red cabbage. She still wants to try mustard greens, so that is waiting for us this week. I am pretty sure the color will disappoint, though I haven't said anything. The other colors turned out pretty, however.

Language Arts - Right now, all we are doing is the copywork assignments from our unit study. They use Washington's Rules of Civility. For Junior (7), I just have him copy some of the words, as the assignments are a little heavy for a kid his age still working on mechanics. I try to have him do most of the punctuation, and write the words that I feel like he can learn to spell on his own soon.

Math - My kids use Singapore Math. This has been working well for us.

Read-Alouds: The first week, we read Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad. This is a book about Columbus, but we missed this book last year when we studied Columbus, so this is a catch-up book. It was interesting to me, but the kids just tolerated it.

After that, we started The Warrior's Challenge by Dave and Neta Jackson. This started out slow, but it is picking up excitement. I am getting the feeling that it is going to be a sad book.

Reading: Junior read Hill of Fire, and started Nate the Great. He always reads them aloud to me. Peanut read Our Strange New Land from the My America series, and started on The Skippack School by Marguerite d'Angeli. Peanut enjoyed the My America book, it is similar to the American Girl books. The Skippack School is a higher-quality book. She did not like it at first, she said it was too hard. I don't think it is a difficult book, but it uses some dialect like German immigrants would use, and that may be what she was talking about. About three chapters in, she started liking it. I took turns reading outloud with her on this book, until she got more interested. She usually does her reading on her own.

We will start science in the coming week. We are delight-directed in science, so I let the kids pick their own topics.

First two weeks - Part I

2008-08-25T23:25:00.006-05:00

We have completed the first two weeks of our new school year. Thought I would blog about how it's going. I need to split this post up into two parts, since it was getting rather long.

The home is not falling apart. There are moving boxes in the dining room, which I wish were not there, but other than that, things are staying decent. (We are not moving, nor have we recently moved. The boxes are for some things that will have to go up to the attic, but they just haven't moved yet. I guess I'm anticipating putting up summer clothes, but I think we are about a month away from that, so I should get them out of the way.)

We will be adding a few things in the next two or three weeks, such as science. I started with the "bare bones," to keep it simple while we started, so we will have to add some things as we go.

Bible Time: We are starting out with Bible time and allowing more time to really get into the Word. Last year we did more of a devotional or character trait each day. Now we are reading from The Day by Day Kids Bible. We read one day's reading per day, but we won't get through it in one year since we do not school 7 days a week. I read the selection aloud, usually pausing after each paragraph or two and alternate asking the kids to narrate back that portion. Peanut (9) is doing well with that, Junior (7) is not doing as well.

From my reading of other homeschoolers' experiences, I believe that is typical for his age. I try not to make a big deal about it when he is not able to. There is the natural competition between the two of them, however. My new plan is to read a longer passage when it is Peanut's turn, so she will be more challenged, and the differences between them will not be so obvious.

We have been using the book, 1001 Ways to Teach Your Child About the Bible by Kathy Reimer. This book was recommended by Heart of Wisdom. I am really liking it. One day we talked about how King Ahab prayed to Baal for rain. Elijah told King Ahab that he had made God angry by doing this, and that it would not rain for three years. After reading that story, we did a science experiment about how rain clouds form. Another day, we talked about how through Elijah, God helped a widow to never run out of oil and flour. We made a cake from a cake mix that called for oil. Not Biblically accurate, but fun!

Tomorrow I will finish posting about the rest of our first two weeks.

Gift of the month clubs

2008-08-21T22:34:00.003-05:00

When you're looking for gifts, there are always those monthly gift clubs. You know, fruit of the month club, wine of the month club, coffee of the month club. I thought there were several of those. I just did a search online and there are more than I thought!

These are usually a bit expensive, but when you think of it as not really one gift, but twelve gifts, they are not that bad.

Has anyone out there ever done your own? I have seen that idea several times as a sort of "make-your-own" gift idea. For example, you could make a different kind of cookie or brownie each month. Or you could make a craft or get something to add to their collection, whatever that might be, each month.

It would take a lot of committment, that is why I am wondering if anyone really has done it. A six-month committment sounds more practical.

Double-sheeting: reposted

2008-08-18T22:38:00.003-05:00

Double-sheeting my kids’ beds has made life a lot easier for me. I have talked to some moms who don’t know how to do this, so here is how:

You will need the following to double-sheet the bed: Two waterproof mattress pads and two fitted sheets. Put a waterproof mattress pad over the mattress, and top with a fitted sheet. If you are not working with baby bedding, go ahead and add a flat sheet and a folded pillowcase. That way you have a complete set underneath.

Now top with the second mattress pad, and finish making the bed as usual.

Now, whenever you need to, you can quickly remove the fitted sheet and top mattress pad to reveal clean sheets! This has helped me on so many levels. When my babies were small, I sometimes found myself standing at the crib with a sleeping baby in my arms. I would look down and see a drool ring on the sheet (or a worse ring!) In that case, the crib sheet and pad could be taken off with one hand before putting the baby down. It worked so well that I kept it up when they got older. It worked during night-time potty training, but it has been most helpful when a child gets sick in the night. I won’t be graphic, but you know what kind of “sick” I mean. This is usually accompanied by crying and chills. By double-sheeting, you can quickly remove the mess, and the sick child can crawl back into a nice, clean bed.

Another bonus: We use Peanut’s bed for a guest bed when we have overnight company. Since I double-sheet her bed, there are always clean sheets ready for the guests. I just take hers off to wash and put the blankets and bedspread back on.

This concept has worked so well for me that I often use it for a baby shower gift. I type the directions up on a nice card and attach it to my gift of a waterproof crib mattress pad and fitted sheet.

Beginning Hard Drive Organization.

2008-08-12T23:15:00.003-05:00

We started school this week. This will be our fifth year homeschooling.

I have noticed that with four years under my belt, my computer's hard drive is getting a bit congested. I heavily rely on my computer for homeschooling, as I suppose many others do. I have many, many free files that I have downloaded, as well as some ebooks that I have purchased.

Now I am finding it necessary to organize some of this stuff into a more usable system. For me, group of folders for each different topic is going to be the easiest. I can start with some general areas and use sub-folders to organize into more specific categories.

My basic subjects will be: History, Math, Phonics, Literature, Music, Grammar, Handwriting, and Art. I am sure I will have to add some as I go.

I am going to put .pdf documents in the same folders as my MS Word documents, and sometimes I might even have .mp3 files along with them. That should work best for us.

Handprint Frame Tutorial

2008-08-07T20:00:00.002-05:00

One of the things I wanted to do last year for Christmas gifts is to make handprint frames, using my one-year-old's handprint.

I got sticker shock when looking at the kits. They were approximately $17 for a brushed aluminum hinged frame, with space on one side for a picture, and the other side for a handprint.

It took me a while to figure out how to do this. Even though I wasted a package of clay by making a mistake, I was able to finish two of these for less than one kit would have cost me.

To make a frame, you will need:
1 hinged frame, at least 5x7 for a one-year-old. For older children, you might like a larger size.
(Hinged frames were difficult to find last year before Christmas. I ended up buying matching 5x7 frames instead.)
1 package of air-drying clay
(The pic shows a large package, but one small package should be plenty for a 5x7 size. You can find different colors. I recommend white or ecru color, but a pale pink would be sweet for a baby girl.)
Rolling pin
Waxed paper
Marking pen
Acid-free pen
Exact-O knife, or craft knife (not shown)
Cutting surface (not shown)

1. You will need a guide to show you how big to make the clay tablet. The backing part of the frame is a great choice. First, you want to use this to mark a rectangular area on a piece of waxed paper. The area should be an inch bigger than your guide on all sides.

2. Turn the waxed paper over so the marking is on the bottom. You do not want to get ink on the clay. Make sure your waxed paper surface is very clean. You don't want little dust pieces and lint anywhere.

3. Take a lump of air-dry clay and roll out on the waxed paper to about 1/4 inch thickness. You do not have to make a perfect rectangle, but make sure all corners are covered. You are going to trim this later.

4. This is the time to put the child's hand on for the handprint. I do not have any tricks here. This may take two or three tries with a little one, so be patient. It helps have someone help you distract the child. You will want to gently press on their hand to make sure you get good contact with all the fingers. Try to keep your pressure over a large area, rather than each finger individually. Small children have flexible joints, you won't be hurting them, but if you hyperextend their finger joints, the print will look funny.

(In this picture, I have trimmed the edges of the clay. That is not necessary, this clay shrinks a bit and it is also very easy to trim when dry.)

5. Wash the child's hands first, then let him go play, while you touch up the clay. You might need to lightly rub to erase stray fingerprints and knicks from the little struggle you just had. I even had to rub out the area where his shirt cuff pressed into the clay. My non-imprinted surface did not end up being paper-smooth. It was slightly bumpy-textured, but this looked fine.

6. Set the clay aside to dry. The clay will shrink a bit, this is why you rolled it out bigger than necessary. The clay also will want to curl up. About every eight hours, I would flip the clay over, so that it wouldn't curl too far one way. It might take two days for the clay to completely dry.

7. When the clay is completely dry, lay it face-up on a cutting surface. Take the guide that you used in the first step, and use it to tell you where to trim the edges of the clay. The Exact-O knife is a good tool here, and you might want to use a straight-edge to make it easier.

8. Use that acid-free pen to mark the child's name and age on the back of the clay. Don't forget to do this, this is a keepsake that will last.

9. Remove the glass from one side of the hinged frame if you haven't done that already. Repurpose it, you won't need it for this project. Place the clay tablet in the frame and replace the backing to hold it in. Put a recent photo of the child in the other frame. You are done!

Dermatologists again

2008-08-02T12:07:00.002-05:00

I currently don't have teenagers, but I remember all to well those years in my life. One think I remember is my acne problems. I never had terrible problems, but I can find a couple of scars on my face that are little reminders of the skin problems I once had.

I tried many acne treatments, and I ended up going to a dermatologist where I was given a very expensive antibiotic, which cured the worst of the problems. From time to time, I still have a few adult acne spots, which are actually very different than the spots I used to have. I clear them up with Clean & Clear Persa-Gel. I have had the same small tube for five years, so you can see that my blemishes are not much of a problem.

One thing I have found, just keeping your face clean is not a deterrent for acne. I knew that in high-school, but there are still cosmetic salespeople who will tell you that if you will just clean your face with their products, your acne will magically disappear. This is hardly ever true. In fact, some of their products can make the problem worse if you happen to be allergic to the "all natural" botanicals and fragrances they use.

Simple Appliance Repair

2008-08-02T11:23:00.005-05:00

A few years ago, the clock on my stove stopped working. I could have gotten by without it, I think, by using a kitchen timer. It was just a simple LED clock, it didn't have any connection to turn the oven on and off. However, I had gotten spoiled to having that clock in my kitchen. The best part was that it could be seen in the dark, and it was the only clock in that part of the house that could be seen at night.

Changing the electronics on your kitchen appliances is not as hard as you might think. I was nervous about it at first, but I wanted to see if it was simple to repair, as we didn't want to pay for a service call for something that didn't affect the function of the stove. I was able to remove the old clock by lifting the lid and removing a couple of screws. To find a new clock, I visited RepairClinic.com. They have a very nice search function on their website that helps you find the parts you need, including pictures of each part so that you can make sure it matches.

When I received the part in the mail a few days later, it was easy to install. It just had a little plastic plug, I did not have to rewire anything.

I don't know how much a service call costs these days, but I am sure I saved about $75 dollars by doing the job myself.

Making Gifts and Learning

2008-08-01T15:49:00.003-05:00

The kids will be making gifts again this year for family members.

Since our first unit this year will be Colonial America, we are going to incorporate some gift-making while we are learning. I think the colonial crafts we are looking at might make a good gifts.

One thing we are going to do is to make punched tin candleholders similar to these.

Another idea might be these framed silhouettes. I think a grandparent would love to have them, and I might need to have the kids make two a piece, so that I won't be envious!

Inline Comments

2008-07-29T21:00:00.000-05:00

Having inline comments does one thing for you: it tells people to comment!

Blogger will now allow you to have inline comments. Inline comments are basically the little comment box that is open at the bottom of this post, if you are viewing it alone and not on a page with several of my latest posts. If you came here from Rocks in My Dryer, you should be able to see it. If not, just click the title of the post and it will take you to a page with just this post.

Having inline comments does one thing for you: it tells people to comment! It is just one less step they have to take when they are already landing on the individual post, and it works!

You can find out all about how to make your Blogger blog have inline comments at BlogU, on this post. She explains it all much better than I could. If you use Blogger, you might want to go ahead and bookmark BlogU, because she always has great tips but doesn't intimidate us non-techie bloggers. I also found out how to do the little pullquote up at the top of this post by reading her tutorial. For more great tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Funday Joke - Shrinking

2008-07-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

A man rushed into the doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."

Dermatologists

2008-07-26T12:31:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, my mom saw a weird-looking freckle on my face, and recommended I get a doctor to look at it. I had seen what she was talking about, I think it is just an "age spot." I was putting a fade cream on it to see if I could get rid of it, but she is probably right. I need to ask a professional.

I decided to go straight to a dermatologist, since I thought my family doctor would just send me on to one anyway. I found our list of providers on our health insurance and called the first one on the list. I guess it is still good to have a last name that starts with "A."

I made an appointment with him for next month. Since then, someone said they knew of him and he was supposed to be really good. My method for finding a dermatologist was probably not the best. How do you find a good one? Do you need to find one that is good at your particular problem, like skin spots or acne problems?

Fetus Friday: The Dirty Truth

2008-07-25T09:28:00.000-05:00

I started reading this cool girl's blog and she and her roommate are wanting baby advice since roomie is expecting a baby soon. I know can give advice on baby stuff!

In answer to the question, "Is is okay to stock up on diapers?" Yes, most definitely. I don't think it is that common to be allergic. It is common for people to be super picky. "Oh, we only get Huggie$ $upreme, becau$e they fit $o well!" You will go through so many, just get the cheapest and be happy! If you plan to breastfeed, the diapers are going to leak anyway. Always have a change of clothes with you, and you'll be fine.

And I mean clothes for the baby, and clothes for you. Try to imagine why I would say that!

Here is my free advice: Since you are near the end of the pregnancy and it is the hot summertime, you may find that you have a craving for ice. Most likely, this is just because you can't really get cool, but it can possibly mean that you are low on iron. So make sure they have checked your iron levels lately, and take the supplement if they recommend it, no matter how inconvenient the side-effects are!

With my first, I was anemic and taking a supplement, but it wasn't building me back up fast enough. I would stop on my way home from work and buy two plain snowcones with no syrup. I would eat one snowcone immediately, and put the other in the freezer for after dinner! I later found out that the ice craving was a symptom of anemia.

It doesn't hurt to eat ice, though. Get the crushed kind instead of the hard kind, because chewing it is bad for your teeth.

Get the fly, everytime!

2008-07-22T21:45:00.003-05:00

Three years ago, I went to a conference. For part of the conference, I was seated at a table with a mild-mannered, middle-aged, male social worker and a couple of ladies. We were all strangers, trying to engage in polite conversation. Suddenly, the social worker stirred things up by swatting and killing a bothersome fly with his BARE HAND! We were astounded! He politely excused himself to go and wash his hands, and when he came back, we were full of questions. Did he have special training? Was he born with this ability? How could this be accomplished?

He quietly explained that he had heard that flies have to take-off backward, so when you swat them, you must aim behind them. Since he had learned this, he was able to almost always get them on the first try.

I am not brave enough to swat one with my bare hand, but now I do aim the flyswatter behind them. I have to say that I have rarely missed one by doing this. It is so much quicker to get them on the first try!

Freezer Alarm

2008-07-15T21:58:00.002-05:00

Last year after I lost my freezer contents when the door was left slightly ajar, I purchased a freezer alarm. It saved us last night by letting us know that the door had been left open a small crack. Nothing had happened to the food, except for a tiny layer of condensation that had frozen over a few things on the top shelf.

There is a little sensor that attaches inside the freezer near the back. A little wire runs out and the alarm unit sticks to the outside of the freezer. This unit is preset so that when the temperature inside the freezer rises above 15 degrees, the alarm goes off. It is battery-operated, so it would work in a power-failure.

This type of alarm works best for a separate freezer unit. I don't think most freezers that are attached to a refrigerator get cold enough for it to work. It can be switched off during the times when you are defrosting.

Our freezer is in the garage, and we could easily hear the alarm inside the house. The wire is small, but it does leave a tiny gap in the seal of the freezer. We think it is worth the small loss of energy.

Burgess Books Online

2008-07-15T21:00:00.001-05:00

Here is a list I have compiled of all the Thornton Burgess books I could find that are available for free online.

If you have read any of the Burgess stories, I know you have fallen in love with the little characters. We always look forward to hearing about nosy Peter Cottontail, mischievous Sammy Jay, and wise Grandfather Frog. For me, the best thing about them is reading them aloud. The dialog is charming, and I love doing the different voices.

I know that Ambleside Online curriculum recommends some of them, as do other homeschool curricula. They are wonderful stories which teach morals and values while exploring the world of wildlife.

The majority of the Burgess books that you can find online are at Gutenberg.org. There are a few more out there, however, that are not included on Gutenberg. Most of these are not available in text format, because they are scanned images. They do include the color illustrations by Harrison Cady.

Burgess books on Gutenberg.org
Bugess Bedtime Stories from an old calendar.
The Adventures of Peter Rabbit
Bobby Coon’s Mistake
A Great Joke on Jimmy Skunk
The Neatness of Bobby Coon
A Merry Coasting Pary
Paddy’s Surprise Visitor
The Three Bears
Reddy Fox’s Sudden Engagement
Grandfather Frog Stays in the Smiling Pool
A Robber Meets His Match
Peter Rabbit Proves a Friend
Young Flash the Deer

Additional Link: Podcast of Old Mother West Wind by Lori K. Brooke. There are audio versions of some of the Burgess books available at Gutenberg.org and Librivox.org, but I wanted to share these because they are different, and not as easy to find. The woman reading them has a grandmotherly, sweet voice, and there is background music added which gaves them a relaxing, bedtime feel.

Memory Work Idea

2008-07-13T13:39:00.003-05:00

A friend shared this idea for memory work with me: When memorizing a passage, start with the last phrase first. This actually works very well. I have not tried it when memorizing a very long passage, such as a chapter in the Bible, or an entire poem, but if you are learning two or three Bible verses at a time, it makes it easier.

For instance, look at this passage:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Start out saying, "Jeremiah twenty-nine eleven through thirteen," to yourself. When you have that, you can add, "Seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13." That is pretty easy, so add, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Keep going back, phrase by phrase, until you have the whole thing.

My friend explained a couple of reasons why this works. The first thing she told me is that you will know the end of the verse better than the first, so when you repeat the verse from the beginning, you will grow more confident as you go along. This helps with anxiety and stress. I believe this is true whether or not you are saying the passage to another person or not. The anxiety is a more internal anxiety rather than just a "performance" anxiety.

Another reason is that often the main point or the most important point is contained in the end. It helps to know the point that you are working towards. In the example I gave, you could probably argue against that, so here is a better example:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 4:29

Here, "that it may benefit those who listen" is the point of the verse, it is the logical conlusion. If you have the last phrase secure in your mind, the first part makes more sense.

Please share any ideas you know that help when memorizing short or long passages.

Funday Joke - Vultures

2008-07-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Two vultures board an airplane; each is carrying two dead raccoons ...

... The stewardess looks at them and says, "I'm sorry, gentlemen, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

Nutrition Unit Study Question

2008-07-10T09:32:00.002-05:00

This is another post where I am questioning something. Any opinions are welcome.

When putting together a unit study on nutrition, would you include information on methods that people use for weightloss? I am talking about crash dieting, counting calories, exercise, and even diet pills such as Phentermine?

My kids are too young for this, really. I guess I am just thinking of the future, when they are older. My thought is just that you would be able to explore those topics more scientifically, instead of them being exposed to them in the real world through a friend or an advertisement. I suppose it would be something like drug education.

Wart Treatment

2008-07-08T23:01:00.002-05:00

Dr. Scholl's Freeze Away works great for us! My 9-year-old daughter had a wart on her finger. We saw this at the store and decided to give it a try before going to the doctor. It was very easy to use, did not hurt much, (per her report, and she is a weenie about pain!) we only had to do it once, and in less than two weeks, the wart was gone! 'Nuff said.

Living Math Monday: Anno's Magic Seeds

2008-07-07T12:43:00.004-05:00

We read a second book by Mitsumasa Anno, called Anno's Magic Seeds. It is another good living book, and I recommend it. Mr. Anno has written several more books, and we are going to check into them soon. I might have to just give them a blanket recommendation if they are all as good as the two we have read.

In Anno's Magic Seeds, a man named Jack is given two seeds. One seed, he is told, will feed him for a year. He is to plant the other seed, and he will grow a plant with two more seeds on it. This way, he can be self-sustaining.

He soon figures out that he can improve things if he saves both seeds one year, and plants two seeds. So he finds some other way to eat for a year, so that in the spring he can plant two seeds. The following year, he has three seeds to plant (after eating one of course.)

This book very simply explores the concept of planting and harvest, showing the geometric pattern of increase each year. The watercolor pictures are beautifully simple. Again, this appears to be a simple picture book, but the concepts are much deeper. It would be appropriate for any elementary-aged child.

Cold coffee

2008-07-05T15:00:00.000-05:00

I put this up a few weeks ago, but I'm reposting because it is so hot. Who wants real coffee? This is fun for those of us who have espresso machines.

Basic recipe:
½ cup of fresh espresso
2 ½ cups of milk (reconstituted powdered milk works fine)
¼ cup sugar (adjust to taste. This is pretty sweet.)

Place in refrigerator to chill. Adding hot espresso to 2 ½ cups of cold milk just doesn’t cut it. You really need to chill it. If you are in a hurry, you could serve it over ice, but it gets watered down a bit.

For a mocha cappucino: add a pinch of cocoa.
For a vanilla cappucino: add a few drops of vanilla.
For a mint cappucino: add a drop or two of peppermint extract, and a drop or two of vanilla.

Funday Joke - Pet

2008-07-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

This guy was lonely and so he decided life would be more fun if he had a pet.

He went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. After some discussion, he finally bought a centipede, which came in a little white box to use for his house.

He took the box back home, found a good location for the box, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to the bar to have a drink. Then he asked the centipede in the box, "Would you like to go to Frank's with me and have a beer?" But there was no answer from his new pet.

This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again, "How about going to the bar and having a drink with me?" But again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet. So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation. He decided to ask him one more time; this time putting his face up against the centipede's house and shouting, "Hey, in there! Would you like to go to Frank's place and have a drink with me?

A little voice came out of the box "I heard you the first time! I'm putting on my shoes."

Creative writing of the silly kind.

2008-07-04T15:00:00.001-05:00

I sometimes wonder why they named an online store Amazon books?

The company was not founded in South America. Is there a stream of thought there? I am not willing to brook disappointment in my quest! Water they thinking?

Canoe think of why they would do it? It sounds fishy to me. I seem to have a flood of questions today. It is giving me a creek in my neck.

Sorry. We now return you to our regular programming. :)

Credit Card Juggling

2008-07-03T23:32:00.003-05:00

Has anyone been hearing that it is getting harder to find a credit card with no balance transfer fee?

From my research, it may be easier if you have excellent credit. Chances are, if you are looking for these deals, you might not have excellent credit.

But it does serve to show us that debt is not the way to go.

You are always going to run into those who swear by it. By juggling things around, they are actually making money off these credit card companies. I am not sure that is going to last.

But if you need to transfer a balance, you might try to get it done as soon as possible.

Taking surveys

2008-07-03T23:19:00.003-05:00

I keep getting calls from a market research firm. I signed up for it a long time ago, thinking it would be interesting. They mentioned that I might be asked to test products and give my opinion.

But everytime they call, they want to talk to my husband.

What am I, chopped liver? He doesn't want to talk to them. So now I just don't answer.

There are some good market research firms. I sometimes get products from Pinecone Research. It is so much nicer to try products, rather than just tell the company, "Yes, I think this product would be good." How do you know?

Extremely Cool Singer

2008-07-03T22:42:00.002-05:00

Esperanza Spalding was on David Letterman the other night. I actually don't even watch Letterman that much, but I'm glad I was watching that time, because I would have missed this:

Ahh! I am downloading this from iTunes right now. This song is called "Precious."

Hey, I looked at her MySpace page, and it turns out she "was home-schooled for a significant portion of her elementary school years."

Cool Whip Fruit Salad

2008-07-01T23:42:00.003-05:00

Cottage Cheese Salad

2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1 small box Jello
1 8 oz. container Cool Whip
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1 sliced banana

Stir powdered Jello into cottage cheese. Add fruit, then add Cool Whip. Any flavor of Jello may be used. Strawberry Jello is a good one to start. Different fruits may be substituted. Mandarin oranges, grapes, strawberries, and fruit cocktail are all good options. Drain any canned fruit.

This is an old standby that we always loved when we were kids. I made some the other day, and it is still wonderful!!

Furniture or not

2008-07-01T23:32:00.002-05:00

We went to visit my brother and his wife recently because they have a new baby. My little neice is so sweet!

They have a small, two-bedroom house. I noticed a couple of things that they have done to save space.

The baby has a little closet in her room. They took the folding doors off the closet, and are using a pretty curtain over the closet. The curtain is a piece of pretty fabric that has been hemmed, and they used curtain clips to make it into a curtain. Her dresser is in the closet, along with some hanging clothes.

Then they also have their bedroom TV on the wall using a tv mount. This way, they do not have to use an extra piece of furniture.

Inside Cat

2008-07-01T23:20:00.002-05:00

When I was growing up, all our cats were outdoor cats. You don't need to spend a great deal of money on outdoor cats. We bought their catfood, and that was about it.

My sister now has an indoor-only cat. It is more of an expense to have an indoor cat. There is the food, and then the additional cat supplies. The coolest thing my sis bought her cat is a heated bed. It is a nice, warm place for the little guy to sleep. That is important because he is a Sphinx, a hairless cat.

I think that one of the purposes of the extra supplies is to mimic the outdoor environment. The most creative thing she has is a set of shelves that they nailed to the wall in one of their bedrooms. The kitty can jump from shelf to shelf up three shelves to the top corner of the room, where there is a place for him to lie down and take a nap.

Funday Joke - Moth

2008-06-29T00:00:00.002-05:00

Sundays are Fundays!!

A man goes to see his doctor. The doctor asks what is wrong and the man says, "Doctor, I think I'm a moth."

To this the doctor responds, "You think you're a moth? Well I don't think you need a doctor. Sounds like what you need is a therapist."

"Yeah I know," replies the patient. "I was on my way to see a therapist, but I came in here because I saw your light was on."

Dining Room Light

2008-06-26T15:39:00.002-05:00

My husband is a fan of the compact fluorescent bulbs that they have now. He has almost converted me, but I have two chandeliers with exposed bulbs, and I am not willing to use those bulbs in it, because they are ugly.

Wow, that makes me kind of sound spoiled and pouty, doesn't it? But I don't know another way to say it and come out looking righteous.

I think someday they are going to develop bulbs that look nicer, but so far I haven't seen anything. So I'm thinking that a compromise would be new lighting fixtures. I could still have chandeliers, but with the bulbs facing up and not down. That way the bulbs couldn't be seen, and we'd both be happy.

Here is one from the site I linked. Pretty!

Vegas Vacation

2008-06-26T15:13:00.003-05:00

My dear sister-in-law has always wanted to go to Las Vegas. This is not number one on my list of vacation spots, but I feel like sometime in the next couple of years, hubby and I ought to take her for a long weekend.

I would not mind going to see Bette Midler, however. I don't know how long she will be there. I think sis wants to see some of the other shows. I doubt we will gamble very much.

Should we go the discount route like Las Vegas Hotels? I used a site like that when my mom and sister and I visted NYC for a wedding a few years ago. We were not disappointed. We did not stay in the most luxurious place, but we saved enough that we felt like we could splurge on things like a Broadway show.

Web-link Wednesday - BBC History for Kids

2008-06-25T09:14:00.000-05:00

BBC History for Kids has some really interesting games and animations for elementary ages, if you are studying any history from that part of the world, such as the Vikings, Celts, or Anglo-Saxons.

If American History is on your menu for the next year, Our Los Banos provides a free curriculum for grades 2-6.

For more great links, visit Web Link Wednesday.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Convenient Toddler Food

2008-06-24T22:00:00.001-05:00

When my youngest got ready for table foods, it was tempting to get him the little jars of chunky toddler food. They didn't seem very cost effective, however, and the selection was pretty sparse, but the convenience would have come in handy many times, especially when traveling.

I discovered that he really liked the chunky canned soups they have at the store. They have so many different varieties with lots of veggies. There are some reduced-sodium varieties, to cut down on the salt.

Now that he wants to feed himself, I just drain off the broth, and the pieces are the perfect size for him to pick up. I keep these on hand for the times when the rest of us are eating something that he doesn't care for, or that I am not sure he can handle yet.

The other cool thing is that they taste great to the rest of us. There is very little waste, because someone is always willing to eat the leftovers.

Funny Gifts

2008-06-24T16:04:00.003-05:00

We have been trying to come up with fun gifts for those birthdays that end in zero. Appropriate gifts, not things like wheelchairs and adult diapers. Those can be in poor taste because they are related to seriously unpleasant things that happen to some people. Funny gifts would be related to things that happen to many people as they get older, but aren't devastating.

Here are some things we came up with:

Jelly beans labled "Anti grouchy pills" or something like that.
Hair restoring cream
Hair dye
Toupee
Anti wrinkle cream
Senior vitamins
Pain relievers

I can't think of many more. What can you come up with?

Living Math Monday: The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat

2008-06-23T09:52:00.003-05:00

We had a week off this week, as the older kids were at Grandma’s. Today I will review another book recommended on the Living Math site.

The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas is a book of math activities that children will enjoy. Penrose is a cat that belongs to a mathematician. The mathematician is always working on lesson plans and mathematical drawings, and Penrose becomes interested in these papers. He dreams that the drawings and numbers come to life and talk to him. This part of the book seems awkward to me. My daughter was enchanted at first, she loves anything with talking animals, but it soon got old, and she didn’t end up finishing the book.

The book introduces higher math concepts, and each chapter is rather short, with activities at the end of each chapter. When needed, answers can be found in the back of the book. The activities are designed to be fun and to get kids thinking about the math concepts that are introduced. Sometimes I had to help my daughter to grasp the concept by paraphrasing what had happened before she knew how to get started on the activity. I didn’t mind having to re-explain the math concepts, but I think that part was a weakness of the book, where it could have been a strength.

We liked this book for the activities, but we found the part about Penrose the cat to be tiresome after a few chapters. We have found another book with some of the same concepts in a more fun, kid-friendly format. I will review that book next week.

Be sure to read my other Living Math posts.