Why are Unicorns mentioned in the Bible?

This is one of those things that speaks better for itself.  It is an awesome, logical, thorough, and surprising answer to the question above.  It is more than worth eight minutes of your time.  How great is our God!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BNsjsbJLaM

For more information on Unicorns and the Bible:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v6/n1/unicorn-controversy 

Almost Nirvana

I put Titus in "Mommy & Me" swim lessons M-W-F of this week and next.  The lessons are at a friends house about 45 min away.  My older two boys spend the time playing with the older siblings of the kids in Titus' class.  Lessons are going great and all boys are having fun.  Lessons are at 10am, so that means we leave around 9:15am and get home around 11:45am, which takes a good chunk out of our day.  I didn't take into account the total time this would take out of our day when I signed up.

In addition to the total time away from home, apparently playing with Legos and watching their little brother swim has my older boys too wiped out to be productive in their school work.  Add a doctors appointment for me and Amber on Tuesday, and you have what could have been one unproductive week.

I could have tried to force productivity on the boys (like that would have worked) but instead I decided to make lemonade.  Not literally but figuratively.  We have had a Spanish intensive week, i.e. they've watched their Spanish Lessons videos much more than normal and we've managed only two days of Math.  The rest of the time I've had the boys help with chores or play.  I on the other hand, have been in a get things sorted/organized rampage, along with a "to do" slashing marathon!  As I type you can currently see all my kitchen counters for the first time in seven years, and not because I hid things.  You can see the floor in my bedroom.  There are NO laundry baskets full of laundry to be put away anywhere (Generally we live out of the laundry baskets because things never seem to get put away).  I cleaned out my email, paid bills, filed papers, etc.  I almost feel caught up on life (as long as I ignore what's left on my "To-do" list).  However, based on the noise the boys are making downstairs, I'm sure things are already out of order, but for a moment I had a quick glimpse of organizational Nirvana :-)

American History Reading List

UPDATE:  On the "Booklist" page above I have put the books we have read and enjoyed.  The "Booklist" list is organized by historical time period and is constantly being updated.

I'm listing these book/selections by Cycle 3 week, for the Classical Conversation crowd.  However, for everyone else this is just my list of age appropriate  (1st - 4th grade) books to supplement a study of American History.  The first is/are actual book(s), the ones in parentheses is/are a selection(s) found in the "Children's Treasury of Virtues" by William Bennett.  This is the expanded version of the one I mentioned in my History Plan.  Which resources I will actually use will probably be a matter of time, circumstances and what I can find at used curriculum sales this summer.

Week 1: 

• Columbus by d'Aulaire
• or Pedro's Journal by Conrad
• "Sail On! Sail On!" by Joaquin Miller (pg 148)
• "America the Beautiful" by Katherine Lee Bates (pg. 233)

Week 2:

• Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness
• Samuel Eaton's Day by Waters
• My First Book of Indians by Brewster (older living book)
• or Squanto: Friend of Pilgrims by Bulla
• "The Legend of the Grand Canyon" (pg. 235)

Week 3:

• Sign of the Beaver by Speare or
• Minute Boys of Lexington by Stratemeyer
• Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (J 811.3 LON)
• "The Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving" (pg. 240)

Week 4: 

• If you were in 1776 by Brenner or
• The Hatmakers Sign: A Story by Benjamin Franklin by Fleming
• Memorize the Preamble to the Constitution - Original **
• "Father Junipero Serra" (pg. 246)

Week 5: 

• Phoebe the Spy by Griffin or
• The Cabin Faced West by Fritz
• "George Washington and the Cherry Tree" (pg. 84)
• "A Prayer at Valley Forge" (pg. 128)
• "Bravery of Abagail Adams" (pg. 252)

Week 6:

• You Wouldn't Want to be with Lewis & Clark
• DVD - Technology of Lewis and Clark
• "Westward with Lewis & Clark" (pg. 260)

Week 7:

• A Picture Book of Davy Crockett by Adler
• Once on This Island by Whelan
• "Yankee Doodle" (pg. 258)
• "Margaret of New Orleans" (pg. 302)

Week 8:

• Susanna of the Alamo by Jovanovich or
• The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal by  Harness
• "Paul Bunyan" (pg. 268)
• "The Erie Canal" (pg. 290)
• "Remember the Alamo" (pg. 291)

Week 9:

• If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon by Levine or
• Trail of Tears by Bruchac
• "The Story of "The Star Spangled Banner"" (pg. 278)
• "Home on the Range" (pg. 306)

Week 10:

• "Home on the Range (pg. 306)
• "Johnny Appleseed" (pg. 282)

Week 11:

• Just a Few Words Mr. Lincoln by Fritz
• "Honest Abe" (pg. 158)
• "Abe Lincoln's School Days" (pg. 286)

Week 12:

• An Apple for Harriet Tubman by Turner
• A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman by Adler
• Red Legs by Lewin
• "Robert E. Lee and the Wounded Soldier" (pg. 300)

Week 13:

• If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Levine
• "Henry and the Steam Drill" (pg. 308)
• "Martin Luther's Dream" (pg. 320)

Week 14:

• The Glorious Flight by Provensen
• Eureka!  It's an Airplane! by Bendick
• "I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman" (pg. 296)

Week 15:

• Theodore Roosevelt by Venezia
• The Bully Pulpit  by Jeffers (selections for copywork)
• "The Tale of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (pg. 297)

Week 16:

• If Your Name Was changed at Ellis Island by Levine
• You Wouldn't want to be a Worker on Statue of Liberty by Malam
• "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (pg. 314)
• "The New Colossus" (pg. 313)

Week 17:

• October ' 45 by Benson
• The Butterfly by Polacco
• "Father Flanagan" (pg. 203)

Week 18:

• Franklin and Winston: A Christmas the changed the World by Wood
• Passage to Freedom by Mochizuki
• "America" (pg. 334)

Week 19:

• Count the Stars by Lowry
• "Mother Teresa" (pg. 174)

Week 20:

• Home Run by Burleigh
• "Jackie Robinson" (pg. 141)

Week 21:

• Team Moon by Catherine Thimmesh
• The Man Who Went to the Other Side of the Moon (Mike Collins Bio) 
• Godspeed, John Glen! by Hillard
  
• "The Eagle Has Landed" (pg. 326)

Weeks 22-24:

• Our Constitution Rocks!  by Turner
• Dubs goes to Washington by Morris

In many cases I have not read these books, they have come recommended by other sources.  I will try to post reviews as I go along. 

In addition, I am not a lapbooker (someday I'll get the nerve to try, looks like fun), nor am I big into turning a book reading into a 6-12 week courses (though I know I should), I just don't have the bandwidth for that right now.  However, I do know someone who is and does.  Here's the link to her American History book list with all the neat links to lapbooking and book unit studies:  Halfhundredacrewoods  Enjoy!  :-)

**Be careful of rewords of the Preamble, Gettysburg Address and other historical documents.  The trend is to remove some or all references to God in the re-words.  Worst part is they usually do not mention they are re-words and not the original text (including Yale Law and other sites you'd expect to be credible).  I was forced as a child to memorize the original and noticed the discrepancies when trying to create some copy work for the boys.  My thought was it would be easier to copy the works into Word than to type them to create copywork, but I was wrong.

Keeping it real....

My kids seem to take turns making me feel like a complete failure as a parent.  I guess I should be thankful that they don't gang up all at once.  As I look back on the year to issues with a different son, I know this challenging period with another son will also pass but it's hard see sometimes from the middle of it all.  

I've read so MANY books on different theories of child training since my oldest was born, I'm saturated in their theories.  Half the theories lack implementation details and others don't seem to work with my kids or with me, not sure which.  Only thing that rings true is from a devotional that I've been reading which simply states the purpose of life is "receiving God's love, and then channeling that love into the lives of those around us....God wants me to be a caring person".  Not as grandiose a purpose as can be found in many other popular sellers but I believe it might just be that humble and simple.  To me caring means putting the needs of others before my own, and then doing something about their needs.  I wasn't taught to be this kind of caring person but I need to be that person.  I think as a mother it starts with caring first for my family, they are the most important people God has put in my life and they need to take priority.  

I have great kids, compared to many others they are angels but its not my personality to settle or compare.  I hold myself and my boys to a higher standard, to be men of great character, that don't miss out on God's purpose and blessings for their life.  It's a tall order for someone who's missed out on so much and missed the purpose for so long, to lead those precious gifts down a road I've never traveled.  I think this is when homeschooling is really hard.  Your kids are with you 24/7, no break.  I'm not just their mother, house keeper, cook and chauffeur, I'm their teacher too.  However, on the flip side I don't think if they were in school I'd have any hope of helping mold them into the men they were meant to be.  There simply wouldn't be enough time.  

My husband recently told me of a different definition of complaining.  He said complaining isn't stating that things are wrong, that's just fact.  Complaining is wishing life was different, or in my words, not being content in the here and now.  So I guess I will go back downstairs, put a smile on my face and just love on my boys today in the here and now, try to leave the past in the past, and as Matthew writes "let tomorrow take care of itself". 

Yea! Yeah! Yay!.....Ya! Ya!

Ever get confused on which of these to use for what?  Me too.  A friend recently challenged me to write a quick post clarifying the three but first I needed to find out for myself.  Here's what I found:

Yea!   In its adverb form simply means "Yes (used in the affirmative)".  It is an extension of middle English (c. 900) "ye" commonly found in the King James Version of the Bible which means "you" not "yes" but I guess that's how language evolves.  It is also used in voting i.e. How many Yeas do we have?

Yeah!  Is simply an informal use of the word "yes".  According to sources, it is more commonly used in the south but I think they should add New Jersey and Long Island ie. Yeah?  You talkin' about me?

Yay!  This is the interjection most of us mean when we type any of the above.  Yay is "an exclamation indicating approval, congratulation, or triumph".

On an aside, while living in Germany I also learned the "Degrees of Ya" (at least in Bavaria).  

• "Ya" means "Yes, I understand you, or I heard you"
• "Ya, Ya" means "Okay, but lets move on to another subject"
• "Ya, Ya, Ya" means "enough already be quiet"

 So there you have it, the story of Y----!  Maybe I'll just stick with "woohoo" in the future.

Homeschooling Boosts the Economy

Here's just a small glimpse to another benefit to home schooling I mused with on our drive home today...

It's great for the economy!

Item #1.  The annual Florida Parent Educator Association (FPEA) Homeschool Convention occurred this week.  It's hosted in Orlando, FL at the Gaylord Palms.  Gaylord Palms has 400,000 sq ft of meeting place, 178,000 sq ft exhibit hall and 1,500 rooms and that were all filled for the convention.  Plus all the surrounding hotels where people stayed. 

Item #2.  All those people have to eat, even the ones that just come in for the day so there's a nice boost to the local restaurant business.  

Item #3.  If we go inside the convention you now have to look to the huge exhibit hall full of hundreds of corporate and family run businesses selling their wares.  The greatest temptation at the convention hall is the "Free Shipping" incentive.  It's like a drug, even if you're not sure you want the curriculum/product you might buy it there because well there's "Free Shipping" at the convention and you'd hate to pay shipping when you got home.  Everyone I know has bought a curriculum/product they've ended up not needing or not using.  It's impulse buying at its finest.  My husband and I have bought things (especially in the early years of going) just because we thought they were cool, not taking into account our children's preferences are a little different from ours.  This is why there are "Used Curriculum Sales" periodically throughout the year :-)

Item #4.  Now we couldn't make it this year because it was Jared's birthday weekend.  However, for his birthday we did a mini-vacation at on Orlando resort and got to see the aftermath.  Since it is Memorial Day weekend many people make a mini vacation of the convention by hitting the theme parks Sunday and Monday (convention was Thursday to Saturday).  It was only 9:45am when we drove by Sea World today and it looked like people would be we waiting 45min to an hour just to get in (not a normal Sunday morning).

Therefore, not only is homeschooling a great "class reduction" program, as our county calls it because they get the dollars for our kids even though there not in the classrooms, we are a boost to the economy!  What private or public school can claim that!  So there you have it, more reasons to like homeschooling even if you don't home school :-)

"The Plan" - Part 3: Science is Spontaneous

I have not actually followed any particular Science curriculum in the past.  I follow the curiosity of my boys.  I have a lot of reference books and, of course, there is the internet.  For instance, here's a picture of breakfast Saturday morning.  The pencil sharpener had broken and grandpa was taking it apart and explaining what each part is suppose to do.

Other times we find bugs and animals in our yard that lend themselves to lessons; such as the frequent Cuban Tree Frog hatchings in our fountain. Which, by the way, is why I don't clean the fountain, otherwise where would they live? :-)

For "Life Science" opportunities such as this, my favorite resource is a group of books called "Florida's Fabulous".  The books are huge, they are filled with awesome big close up pictures, perfect for identification, and have neat tidbits for simple explanation.  If you live in Florida I suggest collecting them all.

Other times, we go off to the local public garden and wander, exploring the plants and animals, stopping to identify, sketch or photograph what we see.

There's Legos, trips to zoological parks, wood craft classes, cub scouts, and just experimenting to figure out how things work.

Then, of course, there is Classical Conversations (CC).  One of my favorite parts of CC is that THEY do the the messy science experiments for me each week :-). This has previously erased my guilt over not having a specific science curriculum.

Like icky owl pellet (ie. poop) dissections, in Cycle 1  :-)

 

However, this year I am going to be a bit more conventional.  I have decided to do a science curriculum over the summer that ties in with CC Cycle 3.  CC Cycle 3 Science covers Anatomy and Chemistry.

I had already purchased the "God's Design for Science" as a reference collection for CC.  This year I'm just taking the time to use it as a curriculum.

I like that it is nicely laid out to use for different ages at the same time, but I feel sometimes it is still lacking in reinforcing detail work.  Therefore, I am supplementing the "The Human Body" as follows:

General Anatomy & Cells

• "The Functions of the Human Body", this is a felt board system and a book.
• "Human Anatomy in full color" by John Green
• "In Siders - Human Body" by Linda Calabresi. Two pages of evolution to be ignored but the cool 3D pictures make up for it.
• "Newtons Workshop" DVDs - They are pretty corny but very informative in an entertaining way.
• "Body of Evidence" DVDs - These are geared more for middle school and above but like "Drive Thru History" I think kids can gleam more than people think.

Skeletal System 

• "Make and Move My Skeleton", this is a cool pop-up book available used.
•  Free coloring/ID Page from Crayola.  Use to introduce at the beginning and again to quiz at the end. 

Muscular System

• Made my own stuff for this because I couldn't find what I wanted.  It is a pdf document you can download.

Nerves & Senses

• "Understanding Your Senses" by Rebecca Treays, good visuals, explanations and some unique examples.

Digestive System

• "Quest to Digest" by Mary Corcoran. Follow an apple through the digestive system, both entertaining and informative.

Heart & Lungs

•  "The Story of Your Blood", by Edith Lucie Weart.  This is an old Living book.
•  "The Circulatory Story", by Mary K. Corcoran.

One of the activities from their curriculum we had fun with today was to put on their swim suits and use a washable marker to label their body parts. 

Titus just wanted to be labeled "Titus"

As I go through the curriculum in detail, I might make some more worksheets myself, so check back to this post for updates over the summer. 

Diaper Boys!

I realize that most of pictures I've posted of my two year old have involved him wearing little more than a diaper.  So I thought I should explain.  This is one of my favorite pictures of my two oldest boys.  Lance is about 30 months and Jared is about 6 months.  It was not posed, it just was... well... precious.

I'm a very practical person, not fussy.  My boys spend most of their young lives just wearing diapers.  We live in Florida so they don't need clothes for warmth.  They graze all day long, and are age appropriately not very neat eaters.  I just can't justify having them dirty ten outfits a day, especially since I don't like doing laundry.  So there you have it, I confess why most of Titus' pictures have included him bare chested.  Just thought I'd clear that up.  However, for the record they look really cute dressed up too.

I realize I'll have to revise this policy when Rylee* or Amber ** arrives, but for the next 6 months (or so) let the diaper boy reign his kingdom with pride!

 

*BTW We haven't decided on a name, I was just testing them in type.  Our two oldest boys literally laughed at Rylee the first time they heard it, so Chris and I are still searching.

**Chris prayed for clarity on what to name our little girl the other night and in a dream the name that came to him was "Amber", doesn't have any meaning beyond the color.  Only biblical reference is in Ezekiel 1 & 8 where it refers to the color of a supernatural cloud.  Rylee on the other hand means "courageous" or "virtuous".  Hmmmm.

"The Plan" - Part 2: Math

I love math, I'm a retired CPA, remember EXCEL is where I find my solace but teaching math is different.  I finally think I have "how to teach math" figured out... well at least for now.  It wasn't easy, it may change again, heck if you had asked me about our math program a couple months ago I might have cried.  Anyway, that disclaimer aside here's what we are doing today.

For introducing math and new math concepts I use "Math-U-See".  In the beginning, I used to use this exclusively with my oldest son.  In First grade he was already in Gamma doing multi-digit multiplication and scoring well on his tests.  Then I noticed a problem, he was getting the muliplication but missing the addition.  He hadn't mastered addition.  He also didn't like doing the work, and I was getting more push back every day.  I think mastery is paramount in math.  For us "Math-U-See" didn't provide mastery, the work was either too little for mastery or so much it was drudgery.  And I'm sure it had nothing to do with me being a bit over zealous having a First Grader doing multiplication.  I have a way of messing with poor Lance that way.  However, there is no other curriculum I've found better for teaching/introducing a concept.  So what we do is watch the appropriate episodes from their teaching DVDs, print out a couple pages of from their Free Worksheet generator to learn the concept.  Then we move back to our core math curriculum, the one we use for mastery.

A trick I learned recently, is that math should be done twice a day a couple hours apart for mastery.  This theory has to do with brain research on how the brain moves information from short-term to long-term memory.  I also believe in the value of flashcards and timed speed drills each day, and I've seen the results.  That said, this is how we accomplish all that.

Our core curriculum comes from Christian Light Education (CLE) (You can see sample pages by going to the "teacher manual" detail link).  God led me to this curriculum at the first Homeschool Convention I ever went to but I turned it aside for a while.  I tried out some of the "prettier" and more expensive alternatives but a couple years later I was back (someday I'll listen the first time).  This curriculum is more complete than anything else I've seen.  I like the variety of work each day that keeps things interesting, the word problems are awesome, the constant review imperative, speed drills are part of each days lessons and so is flashcard review.  The flashcard review is very unique and each day is done in a specific order for each grade (don't worry they make it easy you just have to set up the box and follow the directions).  Most importantly, my boys enjoy doing it!  I compared the program to "Teaching Textbooks" this year.  Lance was half-way through CLE 3 Math, and tested to start "Teaching Textbooks 5".  This reinforced my faith in the depth of CLE.  In CLE 1 Jared does need a teacher's help but by CLE 3 Lance works on his own, like the teaching textbooks.  CLE also has the option of Answer Key books instead of Teacher Manuals so they can correct their own work.  I allow Lance to do this some days but I like to see what he's missing so I correct it most days.

We use CLE in two sessions during the day.  In the first session, I have them do the "new work", to include part of the review to total the "first two pages" of a lesson and the "Fact Focus" at the back of each lesson.  Then we do their flash card review, speed drill and take a break till later.  In the second session, we do the rest of the lesson and another speed drill.  This time the speed drill is from "Calculadder".  If you choose to incorporate this component also, I highly suggest buying the CD version not the printed version.  The CD has neat reporting and software extras.  Plus if you have multiple kids its saves money in the long run. 

I try to keep the each session to 20 minutes a day but I must admit I don't time them, it stresses us all out.  And of all the subjects we do, I'm sure this is where we go a little over the time Miss Charlotte Mason would like but I believe if you break it up much further its too disjointed to really learn.  Finally, I believe that whenever possible math should be practiced five days a week for mastery and I don't feel that way about any other subject. 

I feel like Columbus....

Since it looks like we'll be heading into uncharted territory this fall.  We had our first sonogram today and got a few surprises.  

Love the cute nose!

Good new is the baby is healthy (Yeah!), which is most important.  However, they think our due date is now three weeks earlier than before (10/18 vs. 11/3) which messes a little bit with "The Plan" :-)  But I'm not going to sweat it since all my boys have been late (some as much as 10 days), and like I said before my "plans" are seldom as dependable as Excel but I like to have them anyway.

Sucking thumb and moving and grooving the whole time.

Biggest news is......It's a GIRL!  That's a BIG surprise and will require some serious planning; like finding clothes, though I've always liked blue maybe she'll look good in it.  I have tubs and tubs of blue boy stuff.  Oh and Chris reminded me, one wedding gown I've been saving for years.  So that will have to be a start :-)  Long term it will mean loosing our playroom back to a bedroom but considering my two year old still sleeps in our room, that's years in the future.  Hardest part will be finding a name, we've never really spent a lot of time looking at girl names and we had a boy name picked out (Henry) but I just don't have the heart to call the poor girl "Henrietta", so we'll have to start from scratch. 

Let the ADVENTURE begin!

UPDATE 6/20/11:  We have a name!  Amber Elizabeth