What Kind of Soil are you Working With?

What kind of soil are you working with? No, this is not a post about gardening techniques but rather teaching techniques. I have always used the parable of the hard clay and soft clay of the potter as I taught my children. However, that parable focuses more on the students we are working with and not on the instructor.

However, after reading Hebrews 6: 7-8 I am reminded of what type of land are we working on. What are we starting from? Are we beginning our homeschool morning frazzled..or are we beginning our morning in the word of God? There have been days that I have sheepishly done both (just in this past week). I've started the day in the word of God alone and/or with my children and other days not at all. There is a BIG difference between the two. My behavior between the two is the difference between night and day as well as in my children.

If we begin our mornings with the Lord we will "produce a crop useful to those whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God." Who doesn't want to be this farmer? This can also apply to your homeschooling. We can produce children that will please and honor our heavenly father. As we take in the word of God it prepares and sets the path for our day.

If we foolishly don't begin our day in the word of God...and believe me I have had a few if not many of these with my children the "land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned." Have you ever had a day where you just want to go back to bed and begin it again all over? I know I have. Or throw the towel in and give up on homeschooling? Or thought there must be something wrong with your kids??? There isn't anything wrong with your kids...it's YOU! What did you place at the top of your To Do List today?

Try beginning your day with God's word. I tell you it will make a world of difference.....

Halloween 2009

A Fall Hike and a Whole Lot More..

I decided last Wednesday afternoon to take my kids outside for a hike to do some nature learning. Their task was to find anything to show that autumn had begun. This indeed would be a challenging scavenger hunt. Living in southern California we miss out on having four complete seasons.

We headed up for a local hiking trail about five miles away from our home. It was a pleasant day to escape the books and just get some cool fresh air with the kids. What I hadn't realized or expected we were in for much deeper learning than I had thought would happen. You see, what I didn't realize is that we would be hiking on the same trail that a young man in that neighborhood went missing. Sadly, it had a tragic ending the young man had committed suicide just over a month ago. Had I known this prior to the hike I would have hiked a different trail location altogether but the Lord used this moment for something else.

It says in the word that we as parents are to instruct our children when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up. We are to use every opportunity at any given time as a learning tool. Pressing His truths into their hearts. This trail opened up a flood gate of discussion about suicide. My oldest Sport wanted to know what would make a high school senior want to do this sort of thing. I explained that they believe that their life is so miserable that it is simply not worth living anymore. Sport replied is it then better to take your own life to spend an eternity in hell? I replied that they fail to see the big picture they are caught up in the here and now. More questions followed from all three of my children. I proceeded to answer each one of their questions and fears.

As we continued to hike and find different things on the trail, Sport suddenly bursts out "Mom, thank you for giving birth to me." I had tears in my eyes. "You are welcome..and I would do all over again in a heartbeat!"



Take advantage of those hidden opportunities. You never know how the Lord is going to use those Divine appointments with your kids. I know I will.

A Game to Remember

Last Thursday we took the two boys to a Dodger playoff game. It was memorable event for all of us. Three out of four of us had never been to a playoff game before. It was quite an experience. It is like a regular game on an adrenaline rush. The atmosphere and energy from the crowd is amazing to witness.

What made it more excited is that we witnessed a potential losing game get turned around in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. In a playoff game some fans believe that they are the reason for getting the scores to change in their teams favor. They will yell louder and from what I witnessed turn their baseball caps completely inside out. Some even turned their glasses upside down and their t-shirts inside out.

A funny story to share about this is I discovered near the end of the game that our youngest son, Racer's shoes were on the wrong feet. I corrected them and went back to watching the game. Shortly after the Dodgers tied the game up, a man seated two rows behind us told me that I was responsible for getting the Dodgers to win because I switched my sons shoes. Now to have that kind of power or influence over a game I do not claim to have.

It was an awesome game to be at. Truly a priceless moment to witness. Here is a short video that I took during the event. Sadly, I missed the winning run in. I had my camera in hand to capture my family's expressions. Just to catch the expressions on my boy's faces was so worth it.

LA Fair photos

Artist Tea featuring Giotto

This week our featured artist was Giotto. Giotto was a student of Cimabue. Giotto was a shepherd boy painting on rocks in the fields. Story has it that Cimabue was traveling through an saw Giotto drawing. He was quite impressed with Giotto's work for his young age and decided to ask him to be his apprentice. Giotto was later to take art during this time in a new direction. Not only painting were filled with people and icons but with backgrounds and with rich emotion and dimension. To better understand this look at the angels in this picture there is strong emotions displayed here.

Next week I hope to share some more of Giotto's art work and about our tea.

Baptism

Rejoicing today...our youngest son was baptised today. He just turned six last month. He had been asking about getting baptised for quite some time. We waited wanting to make sure he understand what he was doing and that it was his decision and not ours.

Well today he surprised us. Our church held a big event outdoors today at a local high school football stadium. There was a call for those that wanted to receive Jesus and those that had already done so but have not been baptised yet to profess their faith. During the pastors speech our youngest one stood up and announced boldly that he was going to be baptised today. We asked if he was sure and quickly asked him all the questions. He said he was going to get baptised....and then marched down the stadium steps. Tears filled his Dad's and my eyes as we quickly followed him. Luckily a friend in the audience loaned me her camera. Once I get the pictures I will post them. There were over two dozen others young and old demonstrating their act of obedience to the Lord in baptism.

What a special day is was today. Totally unexpected but isn't that how the Lord works at times!

Latin Update...

On my last post about Latin I vented about my frustrations with Latin. If I had trouble understanding it, how was I going to be able to teach it. This time I share with you an update on how we are doing.

Well....I haven't thrown the towel in yet. We're just about to finish four weeks of school. Hard to believe this... We have been averaging just two days a week of Latin. We are keeping the lessons short just 20 to 30 minutes. Small chunks of information at one time. They are understanding it and I AM TOO! Yeah!!

So far my kids have learned about why learning Latin is useful, different types of nouns, masculine and feminine nouns and over 10 vocabulary words and words that derive from them. In addition to all of this the kids have been learning the history of Rome too.

My biggest prayer is that we can maintain this momentum and enthusiasm about Latin. That we can recall things we have learned and to put it to use.

I will keep you posted again soon.

Our first Field Trip this School Year

This past Labor Day holiday weekend our family went on our first field trip, to the Getty Villa in Malibu, Ca. If you have never been there it is an absolute must. The museum is modeled after an Ancient Greek/Roman villa. The grounds, art and architecture transport you back in to an ancient Greco Roman world. The location of the museum's ocean views give the perfect ambiance of the Mediterranean sea in the distance.

With the holiday weekend they had plenty of family friendly activities for the kids to participate in. These were just perfect for our Ancient Rome unit that we are currently finishing up.

Here are some of the fun things my kids got to do there...

In a hands on kids room the kids had fun drawing on plastic jars that were modeled after Greek ceramic jars.

Other sections of the room had Greek tracing shapes for the kids to use and a "behind the silk" screen for acting out Greek Olympic Warrior scenes.

My kids had fun participating in a trading game. They were merchants in the Mediterranean area buying an exchanging supplies. Here the kids traded a piece of cloth for some olive oil that they were able to make.
I didn't know that cheesecloth is used to separate the olive pulp from the oil.

Crushing olives is hard work especially since they have pits.

Here is the finished olive oil. The oil at the top is what is referred to as virgin, it is without pulp. The oil at the bottom would be used for fuel for oil lamps at the time.

Next the kids got to grind spices. The spices were then added to the olive oil to be made into perfume.

The last trading station was designing a Roman coin. They had fun using a stylus to trace their creations onto a foil type coin.

Please keep in mind the kid exhibits change periodically but I am sure whatever it happens to be it will be an added bonus to any Ancient Mediterranean unit.

Another Tea with Cimabue

We had our artist tea today. The artist that we focused on was Cimabue. If you are interested in reading more about him please read my previous artist tea post found in the blog archives.

Cimabue's artworks would have a profound influence for other artists during the Early Renaissance. He helped raise the status bar that society had placed for artists at that time. Artists no longer came from low-income families but now higher incomes as well.

The crucifix as an icon dates back to the fourth century and has been used in art mediums for centuries. The Crucifix by Cimabue can still be seen today in the church of San Domenico located in Arezzo, Italy.

The resources that I used for this study of Cimabue were:

A Child's History of Art by: V.M. Hillyer

God and the History of Art by: Barry Stebbing

Charlotte Mason Geography Lesson

This year I decided to add Geography to our lessons. Yes, the kids get plenty of Geography from their history studies but I was looking for something a little more relevant for today especially since our time period we will be studying this year is from 30AD to 1799.

With my younger two students I chose to use Ambelside online's Charlotte Mason geography. It is available directly from their website and for Free! Can't beat this. It is a great introduction to Geography and so simple to use. Charlotte Mason breaks it down earth as a planet, days/nights, seasons, hemispheres, etc.

The lesson I will share with you today was from the section about how the earth revolves and rotates. I combined it with the next lesson on poles, axes and hemispheres too.

After reading this section with the kids and demonstrating the concept of rotating and revolving with the kids. I had each one role play the earth and the sun. Spinning around each other slowly.

Next I had them color a picture of our earth. By doing a google search I found a coloring page of the earth.

After they colored their earth pages I had them fold it in half and cut it along the fold. Once that was done. They pasted them onto a piece of construction paper.

From here Dancer who is in fourth grade this year needed to label north and south pole, equator and both hemispheres from her memory. Great way to practice her narration/memory skills. My youngest, Racer told me verbally and pointed while I wrote it for him.


Here is the finished example.


I hope you are able to use this for your homeschooling lessons. Enjoy!

Trouble with Latin

Over the past couple of years I have attempted each year to teach my kids Latin. Each year always facing the same struggle. Our main frustration was trying to find the right Latin curriculum to fit each child and for myself.

This year we set out again with high hopes with a new Latin curriculum....


You ask why teach Latin? You don't need to learn a dead language. Yes, Latin is not a language openly used today but it has roots in many languages used today. It is also found that those that study Latin improve their language proficiency scores and helps them learn other related languages. If your kids love Science or Charlotte Mason styled Nature Studies like mine than Latin becomes quite useful.

Fortunately, the past two curriculums didn't scare my kids away from wanting to. They still have the desire and motivation to learn Latin. I just pray that I can keep up with it and make it an enjoyable subject for them the best I can. Praying that our third try at this will be a charm.

Will keep you updated on our Latin study progress.

Camping in Lake Arrowhead

We had fun this past weekend camping with friends up in our local mountains. Our joining campsites with two other families was a huge child paradise this weekend. The kids had fun building forts, watching birds, grinding nuts for wild animals and using old trees as their playground. There was also plenty of food, laughter and campfire smores.

Charlotte Mason: Artist Tea

Over the past few years I have made a real effort to implement more Charlotte Mason style learning in our home. Here is just one I would like to share with you....

Every Tuesday in our home I host an artist tea. It is very simple and the kids look forward to this every week.

It can be as simple as cookies and tea or a full tea with fancy tea sandwiches, fruit, cookies and tea. I just use what food I have on hand here at home. This time it was taquitos that I cut in half, diced mangoes, carrots and apple juice. It was too warm for tea.

Yesterday, the artist that we discussed was Cimabue (Chee-ma-boo'ay). Cimabue lived in Florence, Italy. He had lived between (1240?-1302). He is considered an artist that helped shape the world. Cimabue is credited with resurrecting the art of painting by using live models, something that was unheard of at the time. He is most noted for having Giotto as his pupil.

This week we studied Madonna Enthroned (1285?).

They shared about the colors and lines. We discussed how painters used halos and why they did.

This painting is over 12 feet high. This was quite a stretch at the time since most were just painted on small canvases. This painting here followed the Byzantine style at the time but he was able to give his paintings a life like feel something that traditional Byzantine styles did not.

Next week we will continue to study Cimabue. I hope you will try to implement an artist tea into your homeschooling day. It is a real treat to any given day.

First Day of School Traditions 09-10 School year

Summer went way too fast again this year. Last week my kids were begging to start school again. Yes... I did say begging. Let me just say this is not always the case. Last week we were pretty much house bound out of choice. I just needed the free time to get things together for school to begin. Summer has been busy days filled with swimming, play dates, VBS, vacation and just leisure days. By God's grace I was able to accomplish all what I needed to finally begin our year.

Here is a brief description of our first day back to school and some traditions to share with all of you.....

We have a few back to school traditions that we do around here. Breakfast is one of them. Usually I make them a fancy breakfast. This year I opted for something different...new. I took them out to a local restaurant. They specialize in breakfast. In fact they serve just about any style of omelet, waffle, pancake or crepe. Absolute yummy! Definitely not a place to go if one is on a diet. The kids loved it and it was a great way to get them back into the routine of waking up early.

Once we got home from breakfast another tradition we have around here is that I take pictures of them with a sign of their current grade level.

I also make a point to measure their height and the kids love to jump on the scale to check how much they weigh. (They are still young...mind you. LOL).

Another neat tradition that we do in our home is to write an welcome letter to the new school year written especially for them. They get a big kick out of this and Daddy usually throws in a small gift.

I hope you had fun reading about our first day. May God bless you with a special school year.

Blessings,

Amy

Homemade Lollipops

Do your kids suffer from the boredom syndrome in the summer? My kids do on occasion. This week I was prepared with a few tricks up my sleeve to elevate their boredom blues.

We made lollipops. I know what your thinking, why on earth would you be using your oven in the summer. It is in the triple digits outside as I type this but after you read on you will see I only had to use it for a total of 10 to 16 minutes.

I found the recipe from the blog titled The Crafty Crow. The craft was titled Homemade Lollipops and can be found directly by going to The Decorated Cookie blog. If you are in a hurry here is the simple version with a few photos to share....

Here is the list of ingredients you will need to have on hand:

lollipop sticks ( found mine at Michael's-I cut them in half)

Bag of Jolly Rancher Candies

Baking tray

Aluminum foil

parchment paper

Step 1: Have your kids unwrap all the individual Jolly Rancher candies. This is a big temptation teaser for kids.

Step 2: Line a baking tray with one sheet of aluminum foil and on top of that place a sheet of parchment paper.

Step 3: Assemble your candies in stacks of three as shown. They had fun coming up with their own patterns and designs. Please be sure to leave room (2") on either side of the candy patterns for room for melting.

Step 4: While the kids are busy making their lollipop patterns preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Once the oven has reached this temperature slide your trays in for just 6minutes.

Step 5: Once the pops have been pulled out of the oven act quickly to press the sticks into the candy creations. Be sure to try to coat the stick completely. Cool.

Enjoy some summer fun to beat the boredom blues.

New School Year Plans for 09-10

I am just about finished planning and have been spending time in prayer for the new school year. Curriculum choices have all been made except for one additional subject I am still pondering. All the boxes have arrived and excitingly opened. New books for a homeschool Mom is an exciting day.

This year my kids will be in sixth, fourth and first grade! My where did all those years go. It seems just like yesterday I was just venturing out into the homeschool world. Hard to believe this will be our seventh year.

Just like every year I tend to tweek a few things. This year my main goal with my sixth grader is to transition him into more independent learning. After much research I have found a free program for homeschoolers that is basically an online planner. The teacher records all the required courses and assignments on given days and all the student does is log in and their daily plan is laid out for them. The program is called Skedtrack. Feel free to google it.

I would also like to keep with our Charlotte Mason learning style approach. Short lessons from living books which also include art and music appreciation. The artist teas from last year were a big hit. I am hoping to include them for next year as well.

I am looking forward to our new history curriculum for the new school year too. After reading through it it seems to fit my learning style like a glove and it leaves plenty of room for the different learning styles of my kids.

Here is an overall view what we will be covering.
For Math the older two will be using Teaching Textbooks. We will pick up from where we left off in Math 7 for my oldest finish that in the first semester and jump into Pre Algebra the second semester. My fourth grader will be using their Math 4. My first grader, Racer will be using Horizons Math 1. Sadly, he complained with Saxon. He wanted something with more color. It never was a problem for the older two but what works for one may not work for another.....this is the freedom in homeschooling.

We will begin a more formal grammar with the older two. I decided to use Growing with Grammar. Short lessons with a practice page to complete.

Spelling will stay the same with Sport (Spelling Power) and I have been working over the summer with Dancer with Sequential Spelling. It appears to be a good fit for her.

Our historical period of time will be studying this year is form 30AD to 1799. After much prayer God directed me to Romans, Reformers and Revolutions from Diana Waring. I am looking forward to this.

Science will be the year of animals. The kids have been wanting to study Ocean animals more in depth so we are taking the dive into Zoology 2 and will finish our school year with Zoology 3 (kids choice too!)

I found a long list of Renaissance artists and composer studies to add to our school year. Please check back at what we are doing with these.

It is shaping out to be a full year. I still need to purchase our writing program and I am considering a Latin program. We shall see.

Amy

Victory!!!

Just when I thought baseball season was over for my two young boys, something exciting happens. Allow me to explain; last year I shared with all of you on my blog what a rough baseball season our oldest, Sport, was having. He had a really hard coach that made baseball seem like it just wasn't fun anymore. His whole coaching approach was negative, which affected not just Sport but many other young boys on the team as well. As the protective Mother bear that I am towards my cubs, all I wanted to do was yank my son off the team. Luckily, my husband spoke some sense into me and we decided we would use that year as a valuable life lesson. We simply explained that coaches are just like kids; they are not all molded the same. Some may be encouraging while teaching the fundamentals of baseball and others can be like drill sergeants getting their team ready for battle out on the ball field.

We also explained to him that this is a great opportunity to learn some valuable coping skills in life because others in the workplace (in the future) may be just like these two styles or a combination of the two.

We then asked him what type of coach he would someday like to be and right away he chimed in that he would want to be an encourager. He had his chance to see this played out this year on the field in two ways. The first was being blessed with a Great coach this year. He is an encourager, but is never shy to point out what skills the kids to hone in on and he encourages them to do just that. The second, Sport was able to help my hubby with our youngest sons' T-ball team. It was great to see him warming up the kids with stretching, fielding balls for them, teaching them how to hold a bat and how to hold their glove when catching a ball. He made sure to encourage them too! During the season of being a coach for T-ball, he shared with me that when he gets a little older he wants to coach his own team at our church.

Baseball continues in our family for now as Sport's team made it through two playoff games. Last night they were pronounced National league champs for their division. (Sadly no trophy will be awarded for this) They were the underdogs. No one had expected them to come this far. I believe in my heart that it is due to the coaches style. It is far superior than the rest. The big championship game is this Saturday and my prayer is a two-fold one in that the boys go out and just have fun and that the encouraging coaching style shall be victorious both on the field and off.

Let's PLAY BALL!!!!!!!!!!!

There is Light at the end of the Tunnel....

I sincerely apologize for the long stretch in between posts. Life just has been too busy with homeschooling, home, T-ball, baseball and my daughters upcoming play at the end of next month.

There is finally light at the end. T-ball has now come to a close, school wraps up in nine days, and baseball should end soon.

Even through all of this I have managed to sort through curriculum for next school year. I finally picked a history curriculum for next year that God kept leading me to. I will share about this soon.

Pictures will come soon too once I download them from my camera...LOL.

God's blessings to you.....