| the ultrasound tech circled a picture of the boy parts. Our precious number four, who is well on the way, is certainly a boy. He's also healthy - growing perfectly with all organs and systems apparently intact - and he's busy and big, so there is no fear that he has cytochrome c oxidase deficiency or any other mitochondrial disease. Since our oldest son died in 2005 from COX deficiency, that is a relief. I'm off to change |
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
It's official....
Monday, January 8, 2007
About socialization.....
I had a friend ask me about the big S word, and I thought I'd record my answer here for all posterity. :) At least that way if I need it again, I can just come grab it. I'm sure I'll need it again.
As for socialization - if she can teach her kid how he/she how to behave in public and how to treat people properly and she takes him/her to the grocery store, the park, the library, McDonald's, the ice cream store - if she keeps her kid with her and teaches/trains behavior in all those areas, then the kid will be BETTER socialized than the herd (yes, I said herd) of school kids who learned how to behave in public from each other instead of from responsible adults. Her child will know that teasing is cruel, making fun of other's differences is unacceptable, physical violence is wrong, and that everything goes better if one is courteous and polite BECAUSE he learned all those things from his parents. If you think about it, elementary school kids - and especially middle school kids - tease, torture, hurt, and are generally rude because the herd follows the most powerful leader, and that leader has usually seized control - think back to those who made fun of us at Carver because we weren't the most beautiful :) They definately weren't the cream of the crop. What good does it do to have the herd mentality when you grow up to work and live with people of all ages?
As for socialization - if she can teach her kid how he/she how to behave in public and how to treat people properly and she takes him/her to the grocery store, the park, the library, McDonald's, the ice cream store - if she keeps her kid with her and teaches/trains behavior in all those areas, then the kid will be BETTER socialized than the herd (yes, I said herd) of school kids who learned how to behave in public from each other instead of from responsible adults. Her child will know that teasing is cruel, making fun of other's differences is unacceptable, physical violence is wrong, and that everything goes better if one is courteous and polite BECAUSE he learned all those things from his parents. If you think about it, elementary school kids - and especially middle school kids - tease, torture, hurt, and are generally rude because the herd follows the most powerful leader, and that leader has usually seized control - think back to those who made fun of us at Carver because we weren't the most beautiful :) They definately weren't the cream of the crop. What good does it do to have the herd mentality when you grow up to work and live with people of all ages?
Monday, January 1, 2007
First blog of 2007
I wanted to take a minute today to post some Not-Quite-Resolutions and wish you all a Happy New Year! I say Not Quite Resolutions because I've never made a resolution that I didn't wind up breaking by the third week of January. I'm going to think of these differently - God gives us all so much grace in everything we do, I'm going to give myself plenty of grace in these resolutions. I want to keep these goals in mind and refer back to them often. And if I don't meet my mark, I'll just keep trying.
Anyway - here are my plans:
1. Spend more time in prayer and Bible study. I've failed to make time for this over the last year, and I'm hurting for it.
2. Spend less time on the computer and more time doing my job - after all, my family is MUCH more important to me than my blog. Though, I won’t quit blogging because it is such a good way to chronicle our adventures, and it doesn’t get as backed up as scrapbooking does (I’m currently cropping January 2005 - I have much work to do there, too.)
3. Stick to the budget, which I need to rearrange in order to make it even feasible - but sticking to it and paying down debt is important to both me and my husband.
4. Read more and kill brain cells while watching TV less. This is actually a goal for my whole family. We all watch more than we need to, and while I don’t want to go to the extreme of getting rid of the darn thing (which does have its appropriate uses), I do need to curb its usage and turn it off more often.
5. Declutter and CLEAN. After all, we do have another baby coming in short order. We have to make room for him or her. If I’m not playing with the computer or watching TV, it should be a whole lot easier to get things cleaned up, huh?
So, those are my plans - things I’d like to change in 2007. There are a few things I’d like to learn:
1. How to shut off the mind and go to sleep when tired.
2. How to swim laps for exercise (would involve improving my skills)
3. How to care for a newborn, a 15 mo. old, and nearly 5 year old with grace and without losing my mind .
I have a list of things I’d like to read, too, but I’ll leave that post for another day. Right now, I’m trying to conquer Fagles’ translation of Iliad, and it is VERY slow going. I’m never going to meet the schedule at the Great Books Partnership.
Happy New Year, my friends, and many many blessing in 2007!
Anyway - here are my plans:
1. Spend more time in prayer and Bible study. I've failed to make time for this over the last year, and I'm hurting for it.
2. Spend less time on the computer and more time doing my job - after all, my family is MUCH more important to me than my blog. Though, I won’t quit blogging because it is such a good way to chronicle our adventures, and it doesn’t get as backed up as scrapbooking does (I’m currently cropping January 2005 - I have much work to do there, too.)
3. Stick to the budget, which I need to rearrange in order to make it even feasible - but sticking to it and paying down debt is important to both me and my husband.
4. Read more and kill brain cells while watching TV less. This is actually a goal for my whole family. We all watch more than we need to, and while I don’t want to go to the extreme of getting rid of the darn thing (which does have its appropriate uses), I do need to curb its usage and turn it off more often.
5. Declutter and CLEAN. After all, we do have another baby coming in short order. We have to make room for him or her. If I’m not playing with the computer or watching TV, it should be a whole lot easier to get things cleaned up, huh?
So, those are my plans - things I’d like to change in 2007. There are a few things I’d like to learn:
1. How to shut off the mind and go to sleep when tired.
2. How to swim laps for exercise (would involve improving my skills)
3. How to care for a newborn, a 15 mo. old, and nearly 5 year old with grace and without losing my mind .
I have a list of things I’d like to read, too, but I’ll leave that post for another day. Right now, I’m trying to conquer Fagles’ translation of Iliad, and it is VERY slow going. I’m never going to meet the schedule at the Great Books Partnership.
Happy New Year, my friends, and many many blessing in 2007!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
A Review: Five Little Pumpkins from Hands of a Child
I purchased the Five Little Pumpkin project pack from Hands of a Child last month because I wanted to add something for the season to our little homeschool. This pack is for children between preschool and 1st grade, and it was pretty well suited for my four-year-old kindergartener. It was simple to order the ebook and print it out - no waiting for shipping!
There were many activities to complete or choose from. The project pack is set up in a five day format, with the student learning one verse of the Five Little Pumpkins rhyme every day during a "circle time" with the parent-teacher. Several of the activities are centered around the letter P, and some are centered around counting to and adding numbers to five, while others center around the color orange and pumpkin botany. The graphics for all of those activities are included in the ebook with the lesson plans. There is an art project or a craft listed for each day, too, though the materials for those are not included in the download. The materials are, however, simple to find - we had most of them in the house, and the one that we didn't have we were able to substitute for with a little creativity.
Here's what our pages looked like when they were completed. We left out a few activities that didn't pertain particularly to pumpkins. That's because we were putting the projects on the second P page of the alphabet book that we are building as part of My Father's World Kindergarten. So, this picture isn't of the traditional lapbook format, but of what worked for us for the moment. (That's another blessing of a project pack - you can follow the diagrams for assembly or you can put it together any way you want!)
A sample of the project pack in lapbook format can be seen here at In the Hands of a Child. This is the third or fourth HOAC product that we have used in our school, and we have been very pleased with the quality of their products and exceptionally impressed with their customer service.
There were many activities to complete or choose from. The project pack is set up in a five day format, with the student learning one verse of the Five Little Pumpkins rhyme every day during a "circle time" with the parent-teacher. Several of the activities are centered around the letter P, and some are centered around counting to and adding numbers to five, while others center around the color orange and pumpkin botany. The graphics for all of those activities are included in the ebook with the lesson plans. There is an art project or a craft listed for each day, too, though the materials for those are not included in the download. The materials are, however, simple to find - we had most of them in the house, and the one that we didn't have we were able to substitute for with a little creativity.
Here's what our pages looked like when they were completed. We left out a few activities that didn't pertain particularly to pumpkins. That's because we were putting the projects on the second P page of the alphabet book that we are building as part of My Father's World Kindergarten. So, this picture isn't of the traditional lapbook format, but of what worked for us for the moment. (That's another blessing of a project pack - you can follow the diagrams for assembly or you can put it together any way you want!)
A sample of the project pack in lapbook format can be seen here at In the Hands of a Child. This is the third or fourth HOAC product that we have used in our school, and we have been very pleased with the quality of their products and exceptionally impressed with their customer service.
Monday, September 4, 2006
All about Bookworm#2
Okay here are the answers to the questions from DandelionSeeds All About me page
Today is Bookworm#2's first day of MFW K.
He is 4 yrs old.
He likes ALL of the Bible stories.
Bookworm #2's favorite food is "some foods that I do like and some foods that I don't like. If I don't like the foods, I get up and throw them away." (I'll add, he throws them away when the meal is over.)
His Favorite Color is "the whole box of 'em."
His favorite animal is "The Whole Zoo."
His favorite song is: "all of the songs - almost."
Something I really like to do is: "I like to color things and draw things and I like to play in the rain and I like to go on the Lazy River and I like to...I like to...I just like to...do things that I like to do. I like to play in the backyard and read the notebook and type."
Sunday, June 25, 2006
A very brief review of Catherine Levison's A Charlotte Mason Education and More Charlotte Mason Education
I've been trying to get these review written all week. Now the books are due back at the library tomorrow, and I still haven't gotten this finished. I'm going to have to be far more brief than I'd like to be - these books deserve more attention than I have time this evening to give them.
In A Charlotte Mason Education, Catherine Levison used Charlotte's methods to present her reader with the condensed version of Charlotte's intentions for an entire course of study. After a short chapter presents Charlotte herself and another short chapter tells the very basics of the Charlotte Mason method, Ms. Levison presents a very brief chapter on each "class" to be taught (Literature, Poetry, Com position, Handwriting, Spelling, Foreign Language, Grammar, Science, Math, Art Appreciation, Music Appreciation, Handicrafts, Bible, History, Geography, Citizenship and Morals and Habits). Each chapter is only about four pages long, and each focuses in on its topic carefully. There are no extra words in this book. This arrangement serves to give the reader small and memorible chunks of information - small bites to chew slowly and contemplate.
I read the book through quickly while walking on the treadmill - and I read it again more slowly over a couple more sessions of walking in place. I found myself automatically putting the book down at the end of a section to narrate back to myself while I had read. This is a very useful synopsis because of both the arrangement and the very clear, simple language Levison uses.
In More Charlotte Mason Education, Levison dives further into the hows and whys of Charlotte Mason's plans for educating England's children. She details how to keep a century book - which was rather enlightening because I hadn't seen such an in-depth treatment of that subject yet. She also writes at some length about choosing curriculum and living books and avoiding twaddle. The most useful feature of this book for me is the list of living books in the appendix. This (and the information at Simply Charlotte Mason and at Ambleside Online) will give me a starting point for creating a term. Other topics covered include short lessons, high school, using the CM method in a classroom, drilling, and support groups. Levison has also included sample schedules for terms and extensive supply and resources lists. The 24-page appendix is quite useful and is in itself probably worth the purchase price of the book.
I have, as I mentioned earlier, not purchased these books yet, but they are very shortly going onto my "to purchase" list at amazon.
In A Charlotte Mason Education, Catherine Levison used Charlotte's methods to present her reader with the condensed version of Charlotte's intentions for an entire course of study. After a short chapter presents Charlotte herself and another short chapter tells the very basics of the Charlotte Mason method, Ms. Levison presents a very brief chapter on each "class" to be taught (Literature, Poetry, Com position, Handwriting, Spelling, Foreign Language, Grammar, Science, Math, Art Appreciation, Music Appreciation, Handicrafts, Bible, History, Geography, Citizenship and Morals and Habits). Each chapter is only about four pages long, and each focuses in on its topic carefully. There are no extra words in this book. This arrangement serves to give the reader small and memorible chunks of information - small bites to chew slowly and contemplate.
I read the book through quickly while walking on the treadmill - and I read it again more slowly over a couple more sessions of walking in place. I found myself automatically putting the book down at the end of a section to narrate back to myself while I had read. This is a very useful synopsis because of both the arrangement and the very clear, simple language Levison uses.
In More Charlotte Mason Education, Levison dives further into the hows and whys of Charlotte Mason's plans for educating England's children. She details how to keep a century book - which was rather enlightening because I hadn't seen such an in-depth treatment of that subject yet. She also writes at some length about choosing curriculum and living books and avoiding twaddle. The most useful feature of this book for me is the list of living books in the appendix. This (and the information at Simply Charlotte Mason and at Ambleside Online) will give me a starting point for creating a term. Other topics covered include short lessons, high school, using the CM method in a classroom, drilling, and support groups. Levison has also included sample schedules for terms and extensive supply and resources lists. The 24-page appendix is quite useful and is in itself probably worth the purchase price of the book.
I have, as I mentioned earlier, not purchased these books yet, but they are very shortly going onto my "to purchase" list at amazon.
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