No? Here, let me open the door for you. How about now?
Look closer.....
So far, NOTHING, but at least they tried. 
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Something Awesome
I'm in love. My sister shared with me something she uses in her classroom and I have found it to be a wonderful fit for Sweetheart.
See, I haven't really taught Grammar or Language or English since she did some of her Abeka Language book in 2nd grade. I found it to be really easy for her and didn't see the point of making her do all those pages when she already knew the material. I figured I would begin more formal grammar when she was in 6th or 7th grade. I think after a child has read for a number of years, grammar and usage comes more easily. I know when I was a teacher we taught the same things every single year from 1st grade on and the kids still didn't really seem to know it. Why not wait until they are ready and then they can learn it quickly?
So I wasn't planning on teaching this subject this year, but I love what I've found. It's called Drops in the Bucket and it provides very short, daily practice on a huge variety of skills. Here is a sample sheet, and the one we are working on this week. We've been using it like my sister uses it with her 6th grade dyslexic students--by doing 2 boxes a day. On Monday we covered homonyms and ending punctuation. No problem. Tuesday was commas and verb tense. These were both new to Sweetheart but she picked them up very easily. She's since pointed out a list of commas in a book we were reading. We've also covered fact/opinion (new to her) and possessives (also new to her). Even though she hasn't really seen these things in a formal way before, "teaching it" takes about 2 minutes. The whole Drops in the Bucket sheet probably has not used up 10 minutes of our week and yet I think it's very powerful.
Every week she will repeat these skills. A little bit at a time. We are using Level D (4.0-5.5) and it seems to be a perfect level. They also offer Math, but I wouldn't dare mess up what we've got going on in Math right now. Although I'm sure it would be helpful to many. Probably it would be really good to use on summer break!
Just thought I'd share!
See, I haven't really taught Grammar or Language or English since she did some of her Abeka Language book in 2nd grade. I found it to be really easy for her and didn't see the point of making her do all those pages when she already knew the material. I figured I would begin more formal grammar when she was in 6th or 7th grade. I think after a child has read for a number of years, grammar and usage comes more easily. I know when I was a teacher we taught the same things every single year from 1st grade on and the kids still didn't really seem to know it. Why not wait until they are ready and then they can learn it quickly?
So I wasn't planning on teaching this subject this year, but I love what I've found. It's called Drops in the Bucket and it provides very short, daily practice on a huge variety of skills. Here is a sample sheet, and the one we are working on this week. We've been using it like my sister uses it with her 6th grade dyslexic students--by doing 2 boxes a day. On Monday we covered homonyms and ending punctuation. No problem. Tuesday was commas and verb tense. These were both new to Sweetheart but she picked them up very easily. She's since pointed out a list of commas in a book we were reading. We've also covered fact/opinion (new to her) and possessives (also new to her). Even though she hasn't really seen these things in a formal way before, "teaching it" takes about 2 minutes. The whole Drops in the Bucket sheet probably has not used up 10 minutes of our week and yet I think it's very powerful.
Every week she will repeat these skills. A little bit at a time. We are using Level D (4.0-5.5) and it seems to be a perfect level. They also offer Math, but I wouldn't dare mess up what we've got going on in Math right now. Although I'm sure it would be helpful to many. Probably it would be really good to use on summer break!
Just thought I'd share!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
If You Say You Trust Him...
Today I read 2 Samuel chapter 24. I don't remember ever reading this story before in the life of King David. I have been thinking about it all day.
King David told his men to go and take a census of all the fighting men in his kingdom. They acted a bit shocked that he would want to do such a thing, but they obeyed. After they had counted all the men, David felt guilty and admitted he had sinned. It wasn't readily understandable to me why....but apparently he was not trusting in the strength of God but taking matters into his own hands and taking inventory of what he had at his disposal. You know, God never was interested in his army having more fighting men than the enemy!
I thought about this story all day as I mulled over our finances. I say I trust God to provide....but then when things are tight I sit and scheme how we can make more money. If I'm not down-right worrying about finances (which I don't do NEARLY as much as I used to) then I'm thinking, thinking, thinking about how I can solve the problem.
Look, I'm not saying that I should just sit here on my rump and not work and wait for God to provide. We must be good stewards. We must do our part. In that light, S and I set up a craft booth last month at a local craft mall. We haven't made any money to speak of on this endeavor. I keep wondering if God really wanted us to spend our time working on things for that booth, or if He just wanted us to trust Him to provide so that we might spend our time serving Him in some way. Did we miss an opportunity? Are we spinning wheels He never intended for us to spin?
Where is the line? Did I move from worrying about finances, to scheming about them?
Either I trust Him to provide or I don't.
I'm not saying no one should do things for extra money! I'm saying that taking matters into my own hands (even just mentally) and planning all the ways I can take care of things just in case God doesn't come through for me is wrong. It's sin.
Either I trust Him or I don't.
King David told his men to go and take a census of all the fighting men in his kingdom. They acted a bit shocked that he would want to do such a thing, but they obeyed. After they had counted all the men, David felt guilty and admitted he had sinned. It wasn't readily understandable to me why....but apparently he was not trusting in the strength of God but taking matters into his own hands and taking inventory of what he had at his disposal. You know, God never was interested in his army having more fighting men than the enemy!
I thought about this story all day as I mulled over our finances. I say I trust God to provide....but then when things are tight I sit and scheme how we can make more money. If I'm not down-right worrying about finances (which I don't do NEARLY as much as I used to) then I'm thinking, thinking, thinking about how I can solve the problem.
Look, I'm not saying that I should just sit here on my rump and not work and wait for God to provide. We must be good stewards. We must do our part. In that light, S and I set up a craft booth last month at a local craft mall. We haven't made any money to speak of on this endeavor. I keep wondering if God really wanted us to spend our time working on things for that booth, or if He just wanted us to trust Him to provide so that we might spend our time serving Him in some way. Did we miss an opportunity? Are we spinning wheels He never intended for us to spin?
Where is the line? Did I move from worrying about finances, to scheming about them?
Either I trust Him to provide or I don't.
I'm not saying no one should do things for extra money! I'm saying that taking matters into my own hands (even just mentally) and planning all the ways I can take care of things just in case God doesn't come through for me is wrong. It's sin.
Either I trust Him or I don't.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Teaching What You Want to See
If you aren't happy with some behavior your kids are (or are not) displaying.....it might help to teach the behavior that you do want to see.
Not a hard concept, huh?
Lately I've been a bit disappointed in lack of responsibility, lack of manners, etc. in our girls. I stumbled on a list of character qualities with definitions and Bible verses and printed it out. I've been thinking all evening how I'm going to fit this into our homeschool day.
I guess it's not surprising that they are not displaying the character I want them to unless they have been explicitly taught how to behave in that way and seen it, um, modeled. Ahem. There are 49 character qualities on this list. That is a LOT of character traits to learn.
Character and morals are things that anyone can teach their children, but I want to teach them from a Biblical point of view. I'm not sure how much schools are teaching and reinforcing character traits these days, but I know the best teaching comes from home.
Sweetheart learns best by drawing and reading so I think we will make a notebook for these character traits. Some of the things I'm thinking of are:
--copywork on the definition of the character quality
--look up and copy the Bible verse that goes along with it
--illustrate the character trait
--read a book that goes along with the trait we are studying. Most likely it will be The Children's Book of Virtues but there are others
I'm still thinking about all of this. How do you teach "character ed" in a formal way?
Not a hard concept, huh?
Lately I've been a bit disappointed in lack of responsibility, lack of manners, etc. in our girls. I stumbled on a list of character qualities with definitions and Bible verses and printed it out. I've been thinking all evening how I'm going to fit this into our homeschool day.
I guess it's not surprising that they are not displaying the character I want them to unless they have been explicitly taught how to behave in that way and seen it, um, modeled. Ahem. There are 49 character qualities on this list. That is a LOT of character traits to learn.
Character and morals are things that anyone can teach their children, but I want to teach them from a Biblical point of view. I'm not sure how much schools are teaching and reinforcing character traits these days, but I know the best teaching comes from home.
Sweetheart learns best by drawing and reading so I think we will make a notebook for these character traits. Some of the things I'm thinking of are:
--copywork on the definition of the character quality
--look up and copy the Bible verse that goes along with it
--illustrate the character trait
--read a book that goes along with the trait we are studying. Most likely it will be The Children's Book of Virtues but there are others
I'm still thinking about all of this. How do you teach "character ed" in a formal way?
Saturday, October 17, 2009
A Journey of Octobers
A few years ago we began to change the way we did things. As a newlywed, I decorated a really cute Halloween wreath to hang on the front door of our apartment. S told me he didn't like it and he didn't really think we should be celebrating Halloween. I, of course, thought that was the silliest thing I'd ever heard. I ended up throwing the wreath away, but when our kids were born, we started them off celebrating Halloween just like everyone else. Oh don't get me wrong....we didn't do "scary" Halloween. So it was okay, right?
I thought I would post some of my older posts about this. It's interesting to see how our family has been transformed these last few years.
2007--Changing is Hard
2008--A New Tradition
2008--The Tea Party
I have found our new tradition to be very satisfying. The kids get a costume. We make sure there is some candy involved in the activities (but I can control how much!). They get a day of fun. And it has nothing to do with Halloween. There are no Halloween decorations--nothing scary, nothing evil, nothing gross. AND they learn too!
This year's theme is Pioneers. All the girls will have a pioneer dress, provided we finish sewing them in time and they will do pioneer era activities that day. I can't wait!
Anyway, two years later I no longer find it hard to do this. Halloween is NOT something we participate in. The kids are used to it. We have no desire to celebrate Halloween any more. The thing they really liked about it (the costumes) have been preserved. It works.
Sometimes I guess you just have to practice a bit.
I thought I would post some of my older posts about this. It's interesting to see how our family has been transformed these last few years.
2007--Changing is Hard
2008--A New Tradition
2008--The Tea Party
I have found our new tradition to be very satisfying. The kids get a costume. We make sure there is some candy involved in the activities (but I can control how much!). They get a day of fun. And it has nothing to do with Halloween. There are no Halloween decorations--nothing scary, nothing evil, nothing gross. AND they learn too!
This year's theme is Pioneers. All the girls will have a pioneer dress, provided we finish sewing them in time and they will do pioneer era activities that day. I can't wait!
Anyway, two years later I no longer find it hard to do this. Halloween is NOT something we participate in. The kids are used to it. We have no desire to celebrate Halloween any more. The thing they really liked about it (the costumes) have been preserved. It works.
Sometimes I guess you just have to practice a bit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)